Tribal farmers' body in Gujarat put under surveillance, told it can't meet because of swine flu

Cops stop Sutariya to hold rally in Vyara

By A Representative
Fresh apprehensions of a campdown on South Gujarat's fast-growing tribal farmers' organization, Adivasi Kisan Sangharsh Morcha (AKSM), arose on Tuesday, with the Gujarat government putting on surveillance its leaders, who were in Ahmedabad to represent before Gujarat government officials over refusal to pay dues to tribal farmers by the powerful sugar mill lobby of the region.
The state government sent a police party at a spot off posh CG Road in Ahmedabad, where AKSM leader Romel Sutariya was holding discussions with his colleagues on what to represent before state officials. The cops told him "not to create any trouble" by going en masse to the state capital Gandhinagar.
"Why are you here? You know Section 144 (prohibition orders) in force in Ahmedabad because of the swine flu. You may go back", a police official told Sutariya, adding, "We wish to know if you going to hold a meeting." The cops' said this a week after Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel met large number of children brought to Gujarat Sachivalaya in a big group.
The police party reached up to Sutariya amidst a major relief to the tribal farmers, with the powerful sugar cooperative, Shri Ukai Pradesh Khand Udyog Mandli Ltd, representing 40 mills, admitting that it has failed to make huge payments to the tribal farmers of South Gujarat for sugarcane.
The cooperative's management has handed over a list of 1,300 tribal farmers, with names of those who have not been made the payments to the district collector, Tapi.
Sutariya reached Ahmedabad on Tuesday morning with his colleagues from Vyara, a South Gujarat town, where he was refused permission to hold a rally of on tribal farmers under the pretext of wine flu. "We received information from South Gujarat that there are plans for trouble, hence we decided to keep a watch", a cop told Sutariya who wished to inquire about why this apprehension.
A perusal of the list, in possession of the tribal farmers' body, Adivasi Kisan Sangharsh Manch (AKSM), by Counterview suggests that the cooperative has admitted it has not paid Rs 9.77 crore as dues for sugarcane supplied to the mills in 2013-14 alone. It has simultaneously handed over a list of farmers who have not been paid their dues for earlier years, which, taken together, reaches Rs 17 crore.
AKSM leader Romel Sutariya, in Ahmedabad on way to meet Gujarat government officials in Gandhinagar to represent tribal farmers' case, said, "We think this is a gross underestimation. We feel that the amount is much higher, and does not just involve 1,300 farmers. But we are happy that the officialdom has acted and got in its possession the list of 1,300 farmers."
Sutariya said, the cooperative, which had given in writing to the government officials that it would be paying all the dues by February-end, has not initiated the process. "We think that the cooperative is unable to make the payment. Directly under the ruling BJP politicians, it is under debt to the tune of Rs 80 crore. It has no money. Its premises are closed. Its power has been snapped", he said.
"This is the reason why we have decided to ask the Gujarat government to invest Rs 200 crore to revive the cooperative, so that its debts are cleared, and the farmers are paid their dues. Instead, the Gujarat government is considering to hand over the cooperative to some other organization. We believe that the tribal farmers are its real owners, they alone should decide its fate", Sutariya said.
"We want that the Gujarat government should organize elections to the cooperative, which has in all 24,000 tribal farmer shareholders", Sutariya said, adding, "The elections should have been held last year, but the cooperative leadership has refused to oblige. We want to the government about the need for triggering in the democratic process."

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

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.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog