Counterview

Kirit Rathod with Ambekdar's portrait By Mahesh Trivedi*   Gujarat’s Dalit rights leaders have come together to form Dr Ambedkar Swabhimaan Sangharsh Samiti to organise awareness campaigns as part of their state-wide agitation following the Gujarat government reportedly rejected a proposal to include their Dalit messiah in the list of national leaders.

By Mujahid Nafees*  On March 3, Gujarat Finance Minister Nitinbhai Patel presented the budget for the financial year 2021-22 in the Vidhan Sabha. The budget for the outgoing year was Rs 2,17,287 crore, while for FY 2021-22, Rs 2,27,029 crore has been proposed. Compared to the last year’s proposal, in FY 2021-22, there is an increase of Rs 9,742 crore.

Nodeep Kaur By Our Representative  Young labour rights leader Nodeep Kaur, who shot into prominence after the police controversially arrested her on the Delh-Haryana borders where she was organising workers’ support for the protesting farmers, has said that one of the most pressing issues today is how state is branding anti-national any one who struggles for the marginalised castes, communities and nationalities.

Counterview Desk  A recent public hearing on waste workers, organized by the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) with the help of several other civil rights groups, highlighting multiple layers of harassment faced by them from the police and municipal officials, has regretted they do not have any identity, hence are unable to access any government benefit which may benefit them or their family.

Kumar Kumra, Tapsee Pannu  By Shamsul Islam*  “Hear nothing see nothing say nothing Lied to, threatened, cheated and deceived Led up garden paths and into blind alleys Hear nothing see nothing say nothing” (The 1982 song of the English band Discharge ) The Indian rulers appear to be drunk with power, like their counterparts in the world, in their ruthless  suppression of any opposition to their "misdeeds". This has not been the fate of the mass movements against the former only, but even literary expressions of dissent, which is known as satire. 

By Simi Mehta, Amita Bhaduri* Aftermath of the Chamoli disaster 2021, it has become essential to not to alter the environment. The environmental change is taking lives and livelihoods of people which is compensated with the meager amount of financial aid. Headlines reported that 70 people have been dead and 139 are missing. State government promised to provide financial aid of Rs 4 lakh to family of deceased. The disasters in Uttarakhand dates back to 1990s and the series continues. Thirty years have not been enough for economic developers to prevent such massacres.

Prof Gurinder Kaur*  On February 15, 2021, a three-judge green bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde allowed the Himachal Pradesh government to clear 614 hectares of forest and move ahead with 138 currently existing infrastructure projects. Apart from this, the bench also approved 289 other projects involving the diversion of 122 hectares of forest land subjected to certain conditions. Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur welcomed the Supreme Court's decision. These projects were previously suspended from March 11, 2019 as the Supreme Court barred them under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 1980 and the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006.

Counterview Desk  Even as the International Women’s Day approaches, more than 4,000 eminent and concerned citizens, women’s rights and other civil society groups, raising strong voice against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde’s remark, asking a rape accused whether he was willing to marry the victim, have said that the statement is not only regressive but legitimises any kind of sexual, physical and mental violence.

A JIH-supported rehabilitation colony By Mahesh Trivedi*  The 19th anniversary of the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots that tarnished the image of Gujarat passed off almost unnoticed on February 28. No mention of the bloody anti-Muslim pogrom was made even in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state’s mainstream media. Ironically, it was left to the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) to pay tributes in its own way to the riots victims and survivors.