Corporate houses "officially" donated Rs 410 crore to BJP, Rs 128 crore to Congress in 2014-15: NGO report

By Our Representative
In an interesting revelation, a new report by two well-known NGOs, the National Election Watch (NEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), suggests a powerful hold of corporates over the two main political parties, BJP and Congress, in India.
Based on an analysis of the donation figures Rs 20,000 plus in financial year 2014-15, submitted by national political parties to the Election Commission of India, the report says, they received a total of Rs 622.38 crore, out of which Rs 576.37 crore was received from the corporate houses. The rest came mainly from individuals.
A further breakup provided in the report suggests that, while the BJP received Rs 409.94 crore from 794 corporates out of a total of Rs 437.35 crore it received as donations in 2014-15, while the Congress received Rs 127.96 crore from 121corporates out of a total of Rs 141.46 crore.
In fact, the donation details suggest that the clout of the Congress, whose government led the coalition till May 2014, was already down, presumably among corporate donors, in the financial year 2013-14 itself: During 2013-14 the total declared donations amount was Rs 247.77, of which the BJP’s amount was Rs 170.86 crore, as against the Congress’ Rs 59.58 crore.

The analysis said, there was “incomplete disclosure of information in the donations report”. Thus, “Rs 83.92 lakh was declared as received by the BJP from 20 such donors whose PAN details, address and mode of contribution (together) were unavailable. Only names of donors and the contributed amount were declared.”
Giving details of “top donors”, the report said, Bharti Group’s Satya Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 13 crore to the BJP, the Congress and the NCP. “The trust donated Rs 107.25 crore to BJP (25% of total funds received by the party), Rs 18.75 crore to INC (13% of total funds received by the party) and Rs 6 crore to NCP”, the report said.
Then, the report said, the Aditya Birla Group’s General Electoral Trust, which did not make any donations to national parties in 2013-14, “contributed a total of Rs 117.30 crore to BJP and Congress in 2014-15”, of which the “BJP received Rs 63.2 crore (14 per cent of total funds) and the Congress received Rs 54.10 crore (38 per cent of total funds received).”
A further segregation suggests, “Corporates from Maharashtra donated Rs 246.56 crores while those from Gujarat gave Rs 22.68 crore”, the report said, adding, “Rs 77.81 lakh could not be segregated into the corporate or individual donations due to incomplete donor details.”
The report said, “290 donations, amounting to Rs 142.23 crore and formed 23 per cent of the total donations received contained incomplete information of the mode of contribution”.
It added, “Cash donations formed the least preferred mode of contributions where only 27 donations (Rs 89 lakh) were made by cash which constituted 0.14 per cent of the total contributions.”

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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.

Modi model? "Refusal" to build Narmada's micro canals, keep Kutch dry; help industry

By Medha Patkar*
This is the latest photograph of the Kutch Branch Canal (KBC) of the Sardar Sarovar, as of April 8! What does it show, expose, and what memories do you recall? Is it dry or dead? Is it a canal or a carcass of the same?

Indian talc products contain "contaminated" asbestos structures, can cause cancer: Study

Counterview Desk
A recent study, using polarizing light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction, and X-ray analysis on multiple over-the-counter Indian talc products for the presence of asbestos, has concluded that large quantities of body talc products are likely to pose a public health risk for asbestos-related diseases, especially for the cancers related to asbestos exposure.

Why are you silent on discrimination against Dalit jawans? Macwan questions Modi

By Rajiv Shah
Close on the heels of releasing his book in Gujarati, "Bhed Bharat", which lists 319 cases of atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis across the country over the last five years, well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan has shot an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, telling him the reasons why he does not want vote for the BJP.

During Emergency, the ruler was extolled but Opposition wasn't punched around: Scribe

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released book, “India: The Wrong Transition”, by a top Delhi-based scribe Anand K Sahay, has quoted “journalistic circles” to say that the Indian mainstream media – with certain “honourable exceptions” – has virtually abandoned the “practice of journalism”, and this happened following a “sting operation” that showed that “the crème de la crème of Indian journalism were only too willing, for a suitable price, to let poisonous Hindutva propaganda prevail in their news columns.”

PepsiCo warned: Withdraw cases against Gujarat farmers or face dire consequences

By Our Representative
About 200 farmers’ leaders and activists, in a letter to Dr KV Prabhu, chairperson, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA), and Dr R C Agrawal, registrar general, PPVFRA, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, have demanded that PepsiCo immediately withdraw all the legal suits it has slapped on many potato farmers in different districts of Gujarat.

Jharkhand Adivasi lynched to death by mob "chanting" Jai Shri Ram: Fact-finding team

Counterview Desk
On April 10, 2019, Prakash Lakda, a 50-year old Adivasi of Jurmu village of Gumla’s Dumri block, was lynched to death by a mob of men from the Sahu community of neighbouring Jairagi village. Three other victims from Jurmu – Peter Kerketta, Belarius Minj and Janerius Minj – sustained severe injuries due to the beating by the mob. A fact-finding team of Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM), comprising of several activists and representatives of member organisations, conducted a fact-finding inquiry into the incident on April 14-15.

Bill Gates "promoting" GMO, Bt cotton, like cartels that have roots in Hitler's Germany

By Our Representative
World-renowned environmental leader and ecologist Dr Vandana Shiva has expressed concern that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation, has joined the bandwagon of “a poison cartel of three" – Monsanto and Bayer, Syngenta and ChemChina, Dow and DuPont – all of whom allegedly have “roots in Hitler’s Germany and finding chemicals to kill people”.

Investigation shows Narmada downstream "seriously" polluted. Reason: apathy, greed

By Rohit Prajapati, Krishnakant, Swati Desai*
Our investigation regarding quality of water flowing in the Narmada river downstream of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD), dated April 6, 2019, between 11.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. reiterates, what is commonly known now, that the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is planned without considering its impact on the downstream Narmada River stretch of 161 kilometres, its ecology, biodiversity and fishery, and lakhs of people living close to and dependent on the river directly or indirectly. This, in turn, has led to its present disastrous state.

Emergence of a rare Dalit teacher in IIT-Kanpur "disturbed" certain faculty members

By PS Krishnan, IAS (Retd)*
Dr Subrahmanyam Sadrela, a faculty member in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur since January 1, 2018, and one of the rare Dalit members of the faculty in IIT group of institutions, is facing the threat of revocation of his PhD thesis, and thereby also jeopardizing his job and career.

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