Online campaign seeking support to anti-Modi protest at San Jose picks up, as PM leaves for Ireland, US

Online campaign slogan

By Our Representative
The US-based Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) has begun an online campaign to gather support for its proposed protest in the "safe permitted free speech areas" next to the SAP Center in San Jose, California where the Indian community has planned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public reception on September 27.
The campaign has gone viral on social media, which Modi's officials wanted to tap, a move aborted following outcry in India on the social media.
The AJA's online campaign comes as Modi left for his two nation tour, first going to Ireland, and then to the US, where he will go to the UN general assembly and then to the Silicon Valley for two days. He will be visiting Facebook headquarters and will meet its founder Mark Zuckerberg at Menlo Park. He will also be meeting with Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, apart from meeting top American CEOs.
Calling Modi's visit part of his “global public relations (PR) campaign”, the AJA has called upon non-resident Indians (NRI) in the US to signed up an #UnwelcomeModi petition on Facebook and on Google Docs. Interestingly, from available details, the Patel NRIs in the US have lined up their support to the AJA petition, which is aimed at “exposing” Modi's role in the 2002 riots.
AJA is a broad coalition of progressive organizations. The decision to go online to “unwelcome Modi” comes after Modi men decided to organize massive support following 125 top intellectuals gave an open statement against Modi's visit to Silicon Valley. The statement said, Modi has been wanting to intrude into individual privacy through online mechanisms.
The Patels in Gujarat are protesting for reservation status or no reservation at all, and have the backing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and a the anti-Modi faction in Gujarat BJP. Already, India's intelligence network has informed Government of India authorities that supporters of Modi's bete noire Keshubhai Patel are backing Hardik Patel, the main Patel leader.
The Facebook petition says, “Join us at the event, in safe permitted free speech areas, to tell the other side of the story. Join us to stand up for India's religious minorities, women, LGBTQ people, historically marginalized castes, Dalits and adivasis — as well as everyone who loves a safe and clean environment, free speech, a free Internet, and the right to openly debate and disagree.”
It adds, “Until 2014, Narendra Modi was banned from entering the United States and several other countries for his complicity in the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat in 2002 in which hundreds of Muslim men, women and children were brutally massacred by Hindu mobs.”
The petition asserts, “Since winning the election, Modi has used his diplomatic privileges to visit countries from which he was previously banned, trying to whitewash his global image. But Modi’s PR team can’t hide the facts”, calling upon NRIs to join in on September 27 to “demand real development and progress, to remember and honor those who have not received any justice, and protest the perpetrator of injustices.”
Google Docs' online signature campaign, with a banner, “Unwelcome Modi to Silicon Vally”, wants its signatories to answer the question as to why do they want to “unwelcome” Modi, wanting the respondents to respond to one of the several reasons to oppose him. It also asks the “opponents” to say whether they are part of a group that might attend or endorse the event.
The petition wants those “interested” in volunteering to help before the event by giving them several option, including “sharing” the event on social media, “inviting” friends to the event, “offering” rides to the event, “help by being a safety monitor on September 27, and so on.

Comments

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

Refugees as criminals? US govt report blames Amit Shah for calling Bangladeshis termites

Counterview Desk
The chapter “Freedom of Movement” of the US State Department’s “India 2018 Human Rights Report”, released recently, has criticized BJP chief Amit Shah for terming alleged Bangladeshis who may be in Assam as “termites”, because their names were struck down from the list of National Register of Citizens, under preparation in the state.
Pointing out that four million residents were excluded from Assam’s final draft list, leading to “uncertainty over the status of these individuals, many of whose families had lived in the state for several generations”, the report regrets, the Indian law does not even contain the term “refugee,” treating refugees like Rohingiyas as “any other foreigners.”
“Undocumented physical presence in the country is a criminal offense. Persons without documentation were vulnerable to forced returns and abuse”, the report says.
Text of the Freedom of Movement chapter: The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, a…

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

India, Pakistan told to eliminate nuclear weapons: N-war "would kill" 2 billion

Counterview Desk
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 64 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens, claiming to share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation, has warned that “an unprecedented global catastrophe” awaits the globe against the backdrop of warmongering in India and Pakistan.

Counterview

Search This Blog