Modi govt shouldn't "disrespect" farmers by saying land Act would sabotate national security

Delhi protest against land ordinance on February 24

By A Representative
Top human rights activist Medha Patkar has accused India’s BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “misleading” farmers by making “false interpretation and unjustifiable argument” by saying that if social impact assessment (SIA) and consent clauses are allowed for land acquisition, Pakistan would be able to “sabotage” the country’s proposed projects.
Saying that the real issue is “not any war between Bharat and Pakistan”, as finance minister Arun Jaitley has sought to interpret, and he should not have raised the bogey of “false threat to India’s security”, Patkar insisted, the statement is the outcome of “frustration in the ruling party led Modi.” She was talking with newspersons in Mumbai.
“How can seeking consent for a project developed by a private corporation be threat to the national security?”, she asked, suggesting the real threat has actually from the Government of India “allowing public private partnership (FDI) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence.”
Declaring that here the “real battle is between farmers and land grabbing corporates and the BJP, not between India and Pakistan”, Patkar said, if the Ordinance is allowed to be converted into an Act, it will “bringing back the colonial legacy.”
She added, “People’s movements were instrumental in getting the former UPA government to abolish the British Act of 1894 and to bring in the 2013 Act.”
Terming Jaitley’s view “disrespect to farmers”, Patkar said, “Forcible land acquisition has always been an issue of life and death for millions of people, including for farmers, agricultural laborers and fish workers. With the land Ordinance it has become a political hot-potato.”
Patkar claimed, More than 350 people’s organizations gathered at Parliament Street on February 24, with 25,000 people from Gujarat to Orissa to Assam, and from Himachal Pradesh to Tamil Nadu and Kerala”, which forced political parties “to take a stand on the issue and leading to heated debate and discussion on the floor of Parliament.”
She said, “The 2013 Act for the first time brought in the process of assessing SIA along with environmental impact assessment (EIA) in consultation with the affected people and the gram sabhas as well as appropriate urban units.”
She further said, “The consent of land losers was also an important clause at least for private and PPP projects to respect and give our farmers due role, space and primacy in development planning as against no level playing field situation between the monetary capitalists (the corporates) and the natural resource investors (farmers and others).”
Reiterating that the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is likely to “target” 3,90,000 hectares, Patkar said, “While thousands of hectares of Sardar Sarovar command area land in Gujarat is being diverted to companies, along with water, industrial corridors to mining, tourism, water and power projects profiting companies are now proposed to be granted land that can be forcibly acquired from farmers.”

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog