The Gujarat government is learnt to have turned down a right to information (RTI) plea seeking proof of Prime Minister Narendra Mod’s and chief minister Anandiben Patel’s educational qualifications, saying this information cannot be made available because it does not concern “public interest.”

Gujarat ranks tenth among 21 major Indian states in top consultants McKinsey Global Institute’s (MGI’s) new Female Empowerment Index (Femdex), released recently. A decade ago, a United National Development Programme (UNDP)-sponsored  report , released by the Ministry of Woman and Child, Government of India, came up with an almost ranking, putting Gujarat as an average state in what it called Gender Development Index (GDI).

  By Our Representative In a sharp critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policies, America’s powerful business newspaper, “Wall Street Journal” (WSJ), has  said  in an opinion piece that “free-market liberals” in India are fast “losing faith that Modi will deliver on his promise to launch India on a path of prosperity.”

Mangroves overlooking Bhim Chhaya slum of Kammanwar Nagar Taking advantage of a High Court order, the Mangroves Cell of Maharashtra Forest Department, formed in 2012 to “conserve and replenish” mangroves, is allegedly seeking to demolish even slum dwellings, which are “protected” by the cut-off date – January 1, 2000 – set by the state government.

  Gujarat farmers of the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), a proposed Greenfield smart city towards the south of Ahmedabad, have strongly protested against the DSIR Authority, which has asked the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) to withdraw Narmada waters for agriculture to DSIR’s 28,203 hectares (ha) area.

Survivors pay homage to those killed at Naroda Patiya Although 32 accused – including a minister in the Modi government – were in 2012 found guilty of “murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, spreading enmity and communal hatred” during the 2002 Gujarat communal violence in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area, so far, just in one case there has been conviction for gruesome acts of sexual violence there, regrets a new  American study .

Back cover photograph on HRW report The Human Rights Watch (HRW), of the world’s most influential advocacy groups, has said that India was “a weak proponent of human rights at the UN in 2015.” Quoting examples, it says, “In March, India voted in support of a Russian-backed resolution to remove benefits for same-sex partners of UN staff” and “abstained on Human Rights Council resolutions on Syria, North Korea, and Ukraine, and voted against resolutions on Iran and Belarus.”

Hardik Patel The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has taken strong exception to the Gujarat government using “overbroad and vaguely worded sedition, criminal defamation, and hate speech laws” for “arresting Hardik Patel, who is spearheading protests to demand quotas in education and government jobs for his community, and charged him with sedition in two separate cases.”

Alpesh Thakore About two lakh people, manly OBCs, gathered at Ahmedabad’s sprawling GMDC grounds – the same spot where the Patels held their massive show four months ago – in a rare display of unity under the banner of Other Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (OSS) Ekta Manch, telling the BJP government in Gujarat that it could not ignore them.

  Yet another attempt is underway by circles close to the Narendra Modi government for “rewriting” the history of India’s freedom struggle, and this time the target is Mahatma Gandhi. The question has already been posed: Who brought independence, Mahatma Gandhi or Subhas Chandra Bose?

 One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

The fake letter which triggered controversy Amidst raging controversy over whether Jawaharlal Nehru considered Subhas Chandra Bose a war criminal, a fresh document from the Netaji files released by the Government of India has come to light, which shows that Nehru rejected any such attempt which may have been made after Netaji’s death.

  A recent reply to a Right to Information (RTI) plea suggests that the Gujarat government has refused to comply by a Supreme Court direction of 2011 which asks all state governments to “restore” common grazing and government lands -- handed over in the past for activities other than what it they are meant -- to the villages to which they actually belonged.

  Alleging official apathy, a follow-up of the independent investigation by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Narmada Bachao Andolan and Swasthya Adhikar Manch into the patients losing their sights at the eye-surgery camp in Barwani in November 2015 has revealed that 19 patients have been mysteriously refused compensation announced by the Madhya Pradesh government.

  A recent interview-based policy paper says that, not just Indian laws, but even international laws, as also Islamic jurisdiction, fail to address the plight of an estimate 4,000 to 8,000 half-widows of Kashmir. They are called half-widows because their husbands have “disappeared” in strife-torn Kashmir Valley, never to return.

Rohith during an ASA students' campaign Allegations are flying high that Rohith Vemula, one of the five rusticated Dalit students of the University of Hyedabad, who committed suicide on Sunday, was the direct victim of powerful forces attached with the Sangh Parivar, including a minister of the Narendra Modi government, to suppress them for holding their strong political views.

The Gujarat government’s controversial, indeed costly, Deep Discount Bonds, floated way back in 1993 in order to raise money for building the Narmada dam after the World Bank put stringent environmental conditions for providing loan, are back in news.

  In a ruling of far-reaching significance, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Pune, has set aside environmental clearance (EC) to the Adani Hazira Port Pvt Ltd (AHPPL) dated May 3, 2013, granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the further development of port activities at Hazira, South Gujarat.

  In a significant development that has gone unnoticed, the USA’s prestigious University of California, Irvine's (UCI's) History Graduate Student Association has floated an online  petition  objecting to the formation of two chairs in South Asian studies, being instituted by the Dharma Civilization Foundation, declaring the organization has “ties to rightwing Hindu nationalist groups in India.”

Medha Patkar addressing a village meeting Villagers of Madhya Pradesh affected by top industrial house Welspun going ahead with acquisition of 1,600 acres for a thermal power plant are showing signs of restiveness. A high-level team led by well-known social activist Medha Patkar, which visited the area, has found that, already, two farmers have committed suicide to show opposition to “land grab”, and many are openly declaring that they would self-immolate.

  In a shocking revelation that is likely to create a major ripple among India’s top Dalit rights activists, the Government of India has published Collected Works of Bhimrao Ambedkar (CWBA) in Hindi without 11 of Ambedkar’s books, including two which are considered his ideologically significant works, “Annihilation of Caste” and “Riddles of Hinduism.”

  The newly published Right to Information (RTI)  Rules  by the Government of Uttar Pradesh (UP), where one of the highest percentage of poor of the country live, do not allow Below Poverty Line (BPL) individuals to file RTI without any fees. A recent analysis has found that the UP RTI Rules 4(4) & 5(1) “do not differentiate between APL and BPL RTI applicants.”

In an important judgment, India’s environmental watchdog, National Green Tribunal (NGT), has struck down Environment Clearance (EC) procedure adopted during 1998-2003 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest (MoEF), Government of India, for granting what was called “ex-post-facto environmental clearance” several defaulting industrial units of Gujarat.

Several Dalit rights activists have made the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary, January 12, to controversially highlight how the Swami was in favour of the caste system, believed that “Brahminhood” was the ideal of humanity in India, and thought that the so-called lower castes were lazy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security adviser Ajit Doval, widely publicized as  007 James Bond of India , has run into yet another controversy following the Pathankot terror attack: After giving an  interview  to a top Indian media house, where he attacked the media once again, he has sought to deny he ever gave the interview.

  Even as predicting that India might experience one of the highest rates of growth in the world over the next three years – 7.8 per cent in 2016, 7.9 per cent in 2017 and 7.9 per cent in 2018 – the World Bank believes that to maintain this rate of growth, the Government of India would do well to avoid “mainly domestic risks.”

Top 10 countries attracting Internet porn traffic  Adult website Pornhub, one of the many pornographic sites, which were sought to be banned by the Government of India in August 2015 through an order of the Department of Telecom, has claimed that India has the world’s third largest population viewing pornography, next only to the United States and the United Kingdom.

  A group of prominent citizens, including environmentalists, wildlife experts, lawyers, engineers, town planners and architects of Gujarat’s cultural capital, Vadodara, have alleged that the state authorities have begun the work of “developing” the riverfront Vishamitri, which meanders through the city, without any environmental clearance (EC), despite an earlier assurance.

  Even as the ruling NDA government has been charging the opposition, especially Congress, for seeking to roadblock implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) across India, facts suggest, Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister, and later his successor, Anandiben Patel, have taken strong exception GST till December 2014.

Well-known Gandhian academic, educationist, social activist Sandeep Pandey has accused RSS hardliners for forcing the decision of the Banaras Hindu University’s Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for prematurely ending his contract of working as visiting faculty after teaching there for two-and-a-half years.

Farmers of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat have begun showing signs of frustration over lack of irrigation water to save the winter crop. Information trickling from remote parts of the area say, the farmers of Talaja and Mahuva of Bhavnagar district have gone restive, going so far as to block the highway connecting between the two towns.

  In an unusual move, the left-wing All-India Save Education Committee (AISEC), in its  comprehensive critique  of the Government of India’s proposed New Education Policy (NEP), has strongly opposed the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, declaring that it “straightaway paves the path for private investors” to get into the education of children and “legalizes” commercialization of education.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has rejected a Right to Information (RTI) plea of senior human rights activist Venkatesh Nayak for a copy of FIR, on the basis of which notorious underworld don Chhota Rajan. The rejection came after 49 days of receiving the request claiming that the RTI Act “does not apply” to the CBI because it is an exempt organisation under Section 24 of the Act.

  A high-profile study, “India Health Report: Nutrition 2015”, released last month, has found that “developed” Gujarat lags behind most major Indian states in child nutrition status. Quoting latest Government of India figures, the study says that 33.5 per cent of under-five children are underweight, which is the seventh worst among 20 major Indian states.

  A new study on risk factors for chronic undernutrition among children says that India’s policy makers have disproportionately focused on “what can be termed ‘nutrition-specific’ interventions targeted at addressing the immediate causes of undernutrition”, and considerably less emphasis on “social and structural factors, including poverty reduction, improvements to socioeconomic status and maternal education.”

Vandana Shiva Top environmentalist Vandana Shiva, one of the world’s leading campaigners against genetically modified organisms (GMOs), has alleged that what Monsanto, the chief promoter of GMO in the world, has “done by pushing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws and patents on seeds, Facebook founder mark Zuckerberg is attempting to do to Internet freedom in India.”