Protest action against land ordinance: Call to end "corporate loot"

By Our Representative
More than 350 organizations and networks of farmers, workers, and tribals from all the states of the country, represented by the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), the All Indian Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), the All India Kisan Sabha, the Narmada Bachao Andolan NBA), the Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union, Delhi Solidarity Group and others, participated in a well-attended protest action in Delhi against the Land Acquisition Ordinance, introduced in Parliament for enactment.
Following the protest action, NAPM said in a statement, “Despite a roaring protest at the Parliament Street by thousands of farmers, the overnment has introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to legislate this Ordinance. This is condemnable and undemocratic.”
Veteran anti-corruption leader Anna Hazare, who sat all day along with the activists of different movements, said that farmers and workers will have to prepare for a long-term struggle and should be prepared to even go to jail. He called for a nation-wide movement against “corporate loot of the land, which feeds the whole country.”
NBA leader Medha Patkar said the NDA government was refusing to act in accordance with the its electoral promises. “Now in power it is seeking to sniff away the soul of the Act, by removing the key provisions of consent and social impact assessment, and manipulating the definitions of private entities and public purpose”, purely to promote business interests”, she added.
Communist leaders Hannan Mollah and Atul Anjan spoke about the need for united movement and said that the BJP-led NDA government had brought the “draconian” Ordinance to suit the interests of the corporate, builders’ lobby and land mafia.

The NAPM statement said, other speakers “condemned the unparliamentarily ‘Ordinance Raj’ in every sector, be it land, coal, mining, insurance, motor vehicles and derided the governance through Ordinance mechanism, by-passing both Parliament and people.”
A representation to the Presidnet following the rally said, “We the undersigned organisations working among the Kisans, agricultural workers, Dalits, Adivasis, fishing community, rural poor and toiling masses are of the firm opinion that the Land Acquisition Ordinance is draconian Ordinance and goes against the basic interest of the farming community and all dependent on land for their livelihood.”
Saying that the amendment made in the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 is to “cater to the financial interests of corporate houses, land mafia and the builders’ lobby”, it added, “The MNCs that want to capture land of the Indian farmers through FDI are also very much behind this change in the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.”
Saying that the the Act of 2013 was brought as “a result of struggles across the country in which many farmers lost their lives facing the police bullets”, the representation said, “The UPA Government had to change the British Colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and an Act with few positive features, although not fully to our satisfaction was passed in the Parliament.”

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Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

Counterview Desk
In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers.
Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’.
Pointing out that Evergreen Revol…

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By BN Navalawala*
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A committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Mihir Shah, Former Member, Planning Commission, for restructuring of Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for optimal development of water resources in the country in the backdrop of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Some Hindu bodies in US defending BJP-RSS' divisive, violent activities: Agnivesh

Counterview Desk Last week, Washington DC saw speakers at a religious freedom roundtable, chaired by the US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, express concern over "eroding" space for religious freedom in India. Dr Mike Ghouse, executive director, of the Center for Pluralism in Washington DC, referring to the roundtable, said in an email alert that Indian-Americans have "a moral duty to prevent India from being labeled as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)".

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By Our Representative
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By Rajiv Shah
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Counterview Desk
A detailed, 3,800-word review of the books rewritten under directions of the BJP rulers across India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014 has suggested that one of aims of the books is to instill a sense of doubt about India’s democratic polity among the country’s young minds. Reviewed in the prestigious US journal, “The New York Review of Books”, in its latest issue (December 6, 2018) by Alex Traub, the scrutiny insists, the effort has also been to paint Indian history from the angle of “Hindu triumphalism”, even as creating “Islamophobia”.

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Counterview Desk
Amnesty International India has said that a deliberate attempt is being made to tarnish its reputation by leaking a dossier, supposedly made by investigating agencies, to media without giving it access to any such information. The high profile NGO’s claim follows a Times Now report about proceedings launched by investigative agencies, including Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the rights body for “violations” of rules pertaining to overseas donations.

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Counterview Desk
Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) has said that the forest department police’s crackdown, allegedly without any prior notice, on Dalit and Muslim households in Dakhin Tola, Churk Bazaar, Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, beating up “children and old people, women, and men in an inhuman way”, has led to “forced displacement, starvation and discrimination”. This has reportedly affected about 350 people.

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By Nandini Oza*
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Vedanta is out but corporate loot continues in Odisha: Local activists tell NAPM yatra

By Our Representative
Lok Shakti Abhiyan leader Prafulla Samantara, winner of the Goldman Environmental (also known as Green Nobel) Prize in 2017, has regretted that though Sundergarh in Odisha, like other forest areas, is a fifth schedule area, where Forest Rights Act (FRA) and Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) is applicable, but these laws are being “outrightly violated to facilitate corporate loot.”

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