Gujarat PUCL chief Gautam Thaker By Our Representative At a top meeting, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) ignored any mention of top human rights activists Teesta Setalvad and Father Cedric Prakash, currently target of attack by BJP rulers and their saffron supporters. Setalvad, seeking court intervention to institute a case against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “involvement” in Gujarat riots, for quite some time has been target. Gujarat government has initiated an inquiry into “embezzlement” of funds of the NGO she runs. Prakash is the latest target of Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar for his meetings with Goa Christians questioning freedom of religion in Gujarat in March 2014.

Cedric Prakash By Our Representative A major controversy is all set to break out over verbal threats issued by Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar against Gujarat-based Jesuit human rights activist Father Cedric Prakash. Accusing Prakash of of “spreading religious discontent” during the elections, Parrikar justified police action against Facebooker Devu Chodankar following his anti-Narendra Modi posts, saying "similar action should have been taken against Prakash too." Prakash has called the Goa CM’s statement “extremely mischievous and very unfortunate”, saying, he enjoyed freedom of speech “both in Gujarat and in other parts of India”, as Parrikar, in airing his views on Modi's policies.

The temple priest with Dalit activists By Our Representative Under the “Gujarat model” of development, there is reason why Dalits being allowed entry into a public temple in a village dominated by high caste persons makes news. This is what happened in Kherpur village, barely 30 kiometres from the Gujarat capital, Gandhinagar. A few days ago, in May second week, Dalits, with 20 households in Kherpur in Kadi taluka of Mehsana district of North Gujarat, were finally allowed to enter into the local temple and pray, without any hindrance. It is the same village which saw high caste persons fatally attacking Dalit men, women and children as a “punishment” for forcing their way into the temple in 2008.

By Tathya Macwan*   A few days ago, I decided to visit the famous Gir forest, which is known as the only habitat of the Asiatic lion. Instead of adopting the usual “official” route to spot the big cat through a sponsored tourist operator, which is what most people do, I decided – along with a friend and a relative – to move into the forest on our own. We hired a bike at a town called Jetpur, where I got down early in the morning following a long and tedious night-long journey in a state transport bus. We began our 71-km-long trip on the bike at around 9.30 am to reach Satadhar, a village bordering the Gir forest, where we were to spend our night at a farmhouse belonging to the relative of my friend, who had accompanied me from all the way from Anand. Here, we could easily see the thick forest, just next to the farmhouse. I went around a little, reached a small dam in the neighbourhood, photographed a crocodile, which emerged from the water body, and returned. We were asked to sleep on

Rajindar Sachar By Our Representative Justice (retired) Rajindar Sachar, who headed high-powered committee, which came up with a much-debated report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India in 2006, has declared that the BJP is living in great delusion that Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which provides autonomous status to Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) , can be abrogated. In a commentary circulated on the social media by well-known social activist Teesta Setelvad, fighting a legal battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots, Sachar said, J&K became part of India on October 27, 1947 only because of the Instrument of Accession, dated October 27, 1947, signed by the Maharaja, allowing the J&K to acceded to the Dominion of India.

Rajagopalan (right) near his office in Gandhinagar By Our Representative In a major order, chief information commissioner (CIC), Gujarat, D Rajagopalan, has asked the Gujarat High Court to furnish all the necessary details sought by Kalpeshkumar L Gupta, under the right to information (RTI) Act, regarding “monitoring system” set up by the High Court on cases that are being fought in courts in Gujarat. The High Court’s public information officer (PIO), who is supposed to hear RTI cases, had rejected Gupta’s plea on July 2, 2012, saying, the information sought does not come “within the definition of information under the RTI Act.”

By Our Representative Former village head Mulabhai Hamirbhai Parmar, a Dalit from Mota Hadmatiya village, Jasdan taluka, Rajkot district in Gujarat, was furiously attacked with sticks and other lethal weapons by a group of high-caste persons near the local Ramdev Temple on May 24, 2014, while he was returning from the local milk dairy. Parmar is seen here taking treatment in the Rajkot Civil Hospital. According to Manjula Pradeep of the Navsarjan Trust, a Dalit rights group, “The reason for attack is, two years ago, Parmar’s niece lodged FIR against Jayraj, one of those who attacked Parmar, in the local police station. The Rajkot sessions court convicted Jayraj. Enraged by the judgment, the accused, accompanied by other relatives, attacked Parmar on the day of the judgment." The case was under investigation by deputy superintendent of police, SC/ST cell, Rajkot district.

"Policy on Nirma cement plant was victim of non-transparent ways"  By Our Representative Soon after the swearing in of the new Narendra Modi government at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday, the website of the Prime Minister's Office was re-launched. The message it sent out, interestingly, has already become controversial, both in Delhi and Gujarat. Launched on the very old address, under a new heading “Quest for Transparency” it says, the PM “firmly believes that transparency and accountability are the two cornerstones of any pro-people government. Transparency and accountability not only connect the people closer to the government but also make then equal and integral part of the decision making process.”

By Rajiv Shah There is a flutter among voluntary organisations in Gujarat, as elsewhere. With the change of guards at the Centre, there is a rising apprehension about what would be the government's new policy towards civil society, in Gujarat as well as in India. Would the NGOs’ space shrink? Would they have to make political compromises with the powers-that-be for the sake of survival? What kind of structural changes they might have to undergo in case they have to survive in the new atmosphere? What would happen to sources of foreign funding, on which many NGOs depend? These are some of the most common questions currently being asked by several leading members of civil society, which have involved themselves in different types of activities, developmental or rights-based, across Gujarat. Informal meetings have been held. Despite their differences in approach, all of them agree: That there is a need to find fresh ways to work in the new situation. Without any doubt, the situation i

By Our Representative In a major setback to Gujarat's powerful Adani group known to close to Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi, Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank AG, has declared it will not finance the “controversial” coal port expansion in Australia near the Great Barrier Reef. The bank said, it was responding to calls from environmental groups and tourism operators. The move comes nearly a fortnight after Australia’s provincial Queensland government approved a proposal to build Australia’s biggest coal mine – Adani’s Carmichael mine in the Galilee Basin.

Dalits meet in Lunasan village to decide on future action By Our Representative Following a glaring instance of discrimination against the Dalits in a North Gujarat village, a representation by the Dalits rural folk to the district collector, Mehsana, has said they are being forced to migrate from their village because the “non-Dalits” are prohibiting them to access water from the public bore. This is happening despite the fact that the village, which is dominated by the other backward caste (OBC) Thakore caste, has a Dalit sarpanch and a Dalit member in the village panchayat, the representation regretted.

By Our Representative Criticizing the BJP’s Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi for his “unapologetic allegiance to the Hindu political right”, in an unusual move, The New York Times (May 20) has editorially advised him “to offer a powerful balancing message by acting promptly to end the neglect of nearly 4,000 Muslim families displaced by the 2002 riots and now living in 86 settlements in Gujarat.” The influential newspaper has said this, quoting a U.S. State Department report, which states that “30 percent of these victims have yet to receive any aid at all.” The editorial is symbolically titled "Modi's Obligation to Justice".

An initial SNAM campaign for communal unity  By Rajiv Shah Gujarat's powerful officialdom is learnt to have encouraged Hindu-Muslim divide as a deliberate policy while resettling Ahmedabad’s around 10,000 slum-dwellers, affected by the Sabarmati riverfront project, begun being implemented in 2005 to “beautify” the city. Bringing this to light in her latest research paper, “Municipal Politics, Court Sympathy and Housing Rights: A Post-Mortem of Displacement and Resettlement under the Sabarmati Riverfront Project, Ahmedabad” (May 2014), Renu Desai of the CEPT University has said, the “policy” was instrumental in resettling Hindu and Muslim slum-dwellers in segregated localities, far from the city.

By Our Representative Following top multinational media chain, Huffington Post, questioning the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) for casting votes (click HERE) in India, well-known social activist Shabnam Hashmi has said she resigned from all UPA committees on December 27, 2012, demanding “the removal of EVM machines as they can be used for manipulations in the elections and undermining our democracy.” She added, she had also “blamed that someone within UPA has connived with right-wing forces to make it happen.” She claimed, with the victory of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls, her suspicion has only intensified.

By Our Representative An Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore survey, in coordination with magicbricks.com, India’s top property portal, has found that Kolkata’s and Ahmedabad’s younger generation is a relatively poor buyer of residential properties as compared to other comparable cities. Seeking to identify Housing Sentiment Index (HSI), the survey has found that Kolkata’s and Ahmedabad’s 25-40 age group form 61 per cent of the housing property purchasters, as against 64 per cent in Mumbai, 67 per cent in Gurgaon, 74 per cent in Hyderabad, 75 per cent in Bangalore and Noida, and 77 per cent in Pune.

By Rajiv Shah The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Delhi-based advocacy group, has insisted that one of the first steps that the new Government of India must take is to build confidence among the whistle blowers, a much-threatened community, by implementing the Whistle Blowers’ Protection (WBP) Act, 2011. The law provides for an institutionalised mechanism to protect, and thus encourage, those who disclose information on corrupt practices or abuse of power by government officials, using the right to information (RTI). The Act passed in Lok Sabha in 2011, and after a lapse of two years, it was passed in the Rajya Sabha in February 2014, ahead of announcement of the Lok Sabha polls. President Pranab Mukherjee gave assent to it on May 14. CHRI data, reported up to December 2013, show that Maharashtra and Gujarat have see maximum attacks on RTI activists. Maharashtra has seen 53 attacks on RTI activists, including nine cases of murder, over the last eight years, while Gujarat c

By Venkatesh Nayak* A friend has raised a question about selection committees for the appointment of statutory authorities under various laws that require the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha to be a member. With the Indian National Congress’s (INC) abysmal performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections some sections of the media are floating the theory of “the 10% rule”, i.e., only such leader will be recognised as LOP if his/her party has at least 10% of seats in the Lok Sabha. This is a canard for reasons given at the bottom of this article. But first, the query raised by my friend. Given below is a situation analysis of some laws regarding the appointment of crucial statutory bodies: Central Information Commission: There will not be any problem in the appointment of the Information Commissioners because in the absence of an LOP in the Lok Sabha, the leader of the single largest party in the Opposition will take that place on the selection committee. So the

By Our Representative One of world's leaders in online news and information delivery, Cable News Network (CNN), has described India’s Prime Minister in waiting Narendra Modi as “a deeply polarizing figure and an unproven commodity on the international stage.” In an analytical article for its CNN’s international edition, titled “Who is Narendra Modi? Meet India's pro-business, Hindu nationalist PM-in-waiting”, Tim Hume and Sumnima Udas quote analysts, experts, bloggers and journalists to predict that Modi’s “arrival in the country's top office will bring a marked change in direction for the world's most populous democracy.”

An EVM tag found by AAP candidate Medha Patkar's workers on roadside in Mumbai, about which she complained to the Election Commission By Our Representative World’s powerful online media chain “Huffington Post”, two days ahead of the Lok Sabha poll results, had said that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Indian polls could be easily manipulated. In an authoritative blog by Cleo Paskal, adjunct faculty, Manipal University, India, the HuffPost, as it is popularly called, said EVMs were unsuccessful in several countries of the world, including the Netherlands, Germany, and Ireland, after they were found to manipulate poll results. Interestingly, Paskal said, the exit polls had predicted Narendra Modi would win the polls, and “the only thing that might stand in his way is an electronic voting machine (EVM).”

By Our Representative Influential right-wing British journal, “The Economist”, which opposed Narendra Modi as India’s Prime Minister calling him divisive (click  HERE ), in its new commentary has "offered" certain neo-liberal recipes to the new government in India to take over under Modi for "repairing" the world’s third largest economy. Titled “Kick-starting India: India’s new government must get the economy working again. Here’s how”, the journal (May 17) has said that “investors are excited” with Modi in power, wanting him to take some tough measures. The steps me must take include abolition of “archaic labour laws”, and take steps to ensure that “contracts to let firms buy land” are strictly obeyed.

By Our Representative Taking strong exception to the high-level report by the committee formed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan to review governance of nationalized banks in India (click HERE ), which recommends that public sector banks should be out of the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005, a senior activist Venkatesh Nayak has said the committee's attitude towards RTI is “very disturbing” and “problematic”, as there is no evidence to suggest that RTI is in any way being misused against the nationalized banks.

By Our Representative Alarm bells have started to ring even before Narendra Modi has taken over as India’s Prime Minister. A high-level report of the committee formed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan to review governance of boards of banks in India has strongly recommended that public sector banks should be out of the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, considered a powerful tool in the hands of people and activists to seek justice. Already, top Modi supporters have begun saying the right to information is a waste of public money (click HERE ).

Dr PK Misra By Our Representative Dr PK Misra, controversial principal secretary of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi during the 2002 riots, is learnt to have been told that he should join the new team under Modi’s stewardship immediately after the new BJP-led government takes over in Delhi following the Lok Sabha poll results on May 16. A top Gujarat government bureaucrat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Counterview that Dr Misra has been telling his IAS colleagues in Gandhinagar Sachivalaya that he has been “sounded about this by Modi personally".

By Rajiv Shah Top UK-based consultants Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s Indian professionals’ report, “Survey on Business Regulatory Environment for Manufacturing – State Level Assessment”, prepared for the Planning Commission, may have rated Gujarat as No 2 state – next to Haryana – on important industry-related yardsticks which attract investment (read HERE ). However, a study of detailed inter-state comparison of the report suggests that Gujarat ranks 16th among 20 major states in obtaining environmental compliance for establishing enterprises, and 15th in getting environmental compliance to them to kick-start operation.

Dalit representatives with activist Kirit Rathod (right) at district collector's office By Our Representative In yet another glaring instance of social boycott in Gujarat, around 30 Dalits – men, women and children – currently living in makeshift shanties in Gitapur village in Detroj taluka of Ahmedabad district, are being denied all basic facilities, including water, electricity or needs of daily use in the village by members of the dominant caste, Patels. Situated just about 80 km from Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s business capital, Gitapur Dalits are facing the predicament because they allegedly dared demand physical possession of the plots of land they were entitled to for the last over two years now.

By Our Representative A high-level American report, “When Justice Becomes the Victim: The Quest for Justice After the 2002 Violence in Gujarat”, released on May 1, has taken strong exception to the “decisions” by a large section of the international community to normalize relationships with BJP’s prime minister candidate Narendra Modi,  even as viewing efforts to promote increased trade between Gujarat and the rest of the world “as signs that the rest of the world has forgotten about Gujarat’s riot victims.”

Counterview Desk Latest calculations have suggested that those who have been citing total debt figures to suggest Gujarat is not the highest indebted state are actually hiding an important fact. While Gujarat’s total debts – or “liabilities” in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) lexicon – were Rs 1.85 lakh crore as of March 2014, and the states with a higher debts than Gujarat were Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1.94 lakh crore), Maharashtra (Rs 2.94 lakh crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 2.85 lakh crore), and West Bengal (Rs 2.45 lakh crore), this hides the crucial factor: Gujarat’s per capita debt is higher than all these “more indebted” states.

By Abhishek Kapoor* Would it not make breaking news if Narendra Modi gave a sound bite saying he felt like an outsider in the RSS? That he failed to connect with them intellectually? That he had nothing to do with the Ram temple movement? Well, he did that in this campaign, and we missed it! As journalists and editors, many times our self-absorbed opinion making is self-serving too. So the only point that made news out of British author Andy Marino’s political biography of Modi was his sadness on 2002 riots. Political observers did not bother to look beyond that in the book.

Counterview Desk A new study has contradicted the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s claim that Muslims have voted for him in a very big way in Gujarat. Carried out by Raheel Dhattiwala, who was recently awarded PhD from the University of Oxford on her research on Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, her fresh “policy paper” for the Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy says, much against Modi’s claims of “over 30 per cent Muslims” having voted for the BJP Gujarat in 2012, an analysis of polling booth data suggest that “the maximum voting for the BJP by Muslims was 10 per cent”.

By Our Representative A book eulogizing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s “core governance” was launched in Ahmedabad amidst key speakers, while praising the Modi model, refusing to recall once how the man who ruled the state for the last 13 years has handled Gujarat riots or “fake” encounters. The speakers consisted of right-wing columnist Gunwant Shah, Times of India group’s Navgujarat Samay editor Ajay Umath, and author Uday Mahurkar, editor, India Today, Ahmedabad. They seemed not keen to recall why the riots continued for three long months in 2002, what all Modi did (or did not do) to “stop” them, and how he has confronted – effectively or ineffectively – the post-riots impact on Gujarat society.

Shaktisinh Gohil By Our Representative Did senior Gujarat Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil display his poor understanding of the caste system in Gujarat when he declared that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi does not belong to the other backward class (OBC) but to an upper caste? At least two top senior experts, known for their proficiency in sociology and history of Gujarat, have wondered “how could Gohil go so wrong” on Modi’s caste status. Gohil, who all-India Congress spokesperson, has created a ripple by “disclosing” that Modi included his caste, modh ghanchi, into the OBC list three months after he came to power through a government resolution dated January 1, 2002.

RK Jha, director, GIFT By Our Representative Is the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s top dream project – Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT) -- all set to be scaled down?  Proposed as India’s premier financial hub for more than Rs 78,000 crore, questions began asked about its viability ever since it was first announced in 2007. If earlier only bureaucrats in the state capital Gandhinagar doubted it would be anything more than a real estate hub, now it transpires that the man who promised to make GIFT a big success has questioned its viability.

By Rajiv Shah The All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), operating under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, in its recent report has suggested that Gujarat’s gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education, which was 21.3 per cent of the population in the age group 18-23 in 2010-11, went down to 17.6 per cent a year later – in 2011-12. Worse, Gujarat’s GER ranking fell from ninth among 20 major states in 2010-11 to 13th in 2011-12. The AISHE report also indicates that while Gujarat’s GER performance was above national average (19.4 per cent of the population in the 18-23 age group) in 2010-11, in 2011-12, the GER nationally improved to 20.4 per cent, which pushed Gujarat below the national average. In absolute terms, the AISHE data suggest, in Gujarat, in 2011-12, a total of 12,54,202 students in the age group 18-23 were enrolled in higher education, of which 7,31,241 were boys and 5,22,961 girls. Significantly, this was down from the enrollment in

By Venkatesh Nayak* The media has reported the latest judgment of the Supreme Court (Constitution bench of five judges) striking down a provision of the law that governs the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier anti-corruption investigation agency, regarding the procedure for inquiring into allegations of corruption against civil servants of the rank of joint secretary and above. In an Article 32 petition filed by Dr Subramaniam Swamy and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) led by Prashant Bhushan ( photo ), the Supreme Court has struck down the requirement of taking the approval of the Central Vigilance Commission before initiating even an inquiry into complaints of corruption against senior level civil servants. The Issue Several decades ago the Government of India in its wisdom had made it mandatory for the CBI to take the prior approval of the government to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations of corruption against officer