As people in central Madhya Pradesh reel under drought, migrate, govt mulling diamond mining project

By Ashok Shrimali*
People of the area, close to the spot where the Madhya Pradesh government is seeking to implement a high-profile Rs 20,520 crore diamond mining project, are in distress. Facing eviction under the pretext of "saving" the world’s most beautiful wild beasts and nearly 1,000 hectares of pristine forest, people of dozen-odd villagers have complained that, despite drought conditions, they are not being provided any relief.
Activists say, the project is being implemented despite a lot of opposition to public hearings to implement it. Sreedhar Ramamurthi, who is with the Environics Trust, has said the villagers believe, “the government seems to be favouring big corporates.”
In a written complaint to the district collector, the villagers have said, despite unprecedented famine conditions, the state government has refused to begin any drought-relief work for the people. “No work is being offered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)”, the written complaint, dated May 20, says.
Pointing out that the decision of representing to the district collector was taken at a meeting of village representatives of drought-affected areas, held at Dhatri Resource Centre, Andhra Pradesh, under the auspices of the civil rights network Mines, Minerals and People (MM&P) and the Prithvi Trust, the letter says, about 50 per cent of the people from many of the villages have migrated out in distress.
Demanding that relief work under NREGS should begin immediately, the letter says, there should be “immediate arrangement” for providing water to those people who have stayed back. “There is also an urgent need to provide primary health facilities in the region”, the letter – signed by people from Madaidyyan, Manaki, Manjha, Manavnagar, Kudar, Khajri, Darenra, Purana Panna, Pati, and Sunahra villages – says.
Meanwhile, top decision-makers in the country are reportedly weighing the pros and cons of letting Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, look for diamonds under the forests, situated in the vicinity.
Already, India’s forest advisory committee – a statutory body in charge of environmental clearance – has looked into the proposal to award the final clearance, and is about to give its final decision in the matter.
Apart from displacing tribals, activists assert, the project would destroy the tiger corridor, lead to the destruction of the 492,000 trees, and displace tribals. The project, say official sources, could yield over 34.2 million carats of diamond.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto has said, if implemented, the project would place India among the top 10 diamond producers in the world. It all began in 2004, when the company is said to have discovered a huge reserve. “In September 2006, it secured a prospecting licence, allowing it to continue exploration in the area. In July 2013, the Indian Bureau of Mines approved its mining plan”, a recent report said.
“So far, the company has invested $90 million in exploration, evaluation and pre-feasibility studies”, the report said, quoting its spokesperson as saying, the project is a “positive proof of India’s prospectivity and can showcase a new era of investment friendly governance.”
Located very close to the Panna Tiger Reserve and the Navardehi Wildlife Sanctuary, this area is home to species such as the monitor lizard, Indian pumped vulture, sloth bear, leopards and the Indian gazelle.
Even the government of Madhya Pradesh, in its report to the central government, has confirmed this. “Some rare and endangered species of wild animals (chausinga, leopard, cheetal, chinkara, peacock, etc.) are found in the area. The area is used by tigers as their migratory corridor,” the government said in the report.

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*General secretary, Mines, Minerals and People

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Girl child education: 20 major states 'score' better than Gujarat, says GoI report

By Rajiv Shah
A Government of India report, released last month, has suggested that “model” Gujarat has failed to make any progress vis-à-vis other states in ensuring that girls continue to remain enrolled after they leave primary schools. The report finds that, in the age group 14-17, Gujarat’s 71% girls are enrolled at the secondary and higher secondary level, which is worse than 20 out of 22 major states for which data have been made available.

Savarkar in Ahmedabad "declared support" to two-nation theory in 1937, followed by Jinnah three years later

By Our Representative
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.

Congress 'promises' cancellation of Adani power project: Jharkhand elections

Counterview Desk
Pointing out that people's issues take a backseat in Jharkhand's 2019 assembly elections, the state's civil rights organization, the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, a coalition of activists and people’s organisations, has said that political parties have largely ignored in their electoral manifestos the need to implement the fifth schedule of the Constitution in a predominantly tribal district.

Hindutva founders 'borrowed' Nazi, fascist idea of one flag, one leader, one ideology

By Shamsul Islam*
With the unleashing of the reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working-class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here...
*** Before sharing my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of fascism, let me briefly define fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as authoritarianism.
Whereas fascism, while retaining all these repressive characteristics, also believes in god-ordained superiority of race, cultur…

Ex-World Bank chief economist doubts spurt in India's ease of doing business rank

By Rajiv Shah
This is in continuation of my previous blog where I had quoted from a commentary which top economist Prof Kaushik Basu had written in the New York Times (NYT) a little less than a month ago, on November 6, to be exact. He recalled this article through a tweet on November 29, soon after it was made known that India's growth rate had slumped (officially!) to 4.5%.

With RSS around, does India need foreign enemy to undo its democratic-secular fabric?

By Shamsul Islam*
Many well-meaning liberal and secular political analysts are highly perturbed by sectarian policy decisions of RSS/BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially after starting his second inning. They are vocal in red-flagging lynching incidents, policies of the Modi government on Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the demand for 'Bharat Ratna' to Savarkar who submitted 6-7 mercy petitions to the British masters (getting remission of 40 years out of 50 years' sentence), and the murder of constitutional norms in Goa, Karnataka and now in Maharashtra.

Post-Balakot, danger that events might spiral out of control is 'greater, not less'

By Tapan Bose*
The fear of war in South Asia is increasing. Tensions are escalating between India and Pakistan after the Indian defence minister's announcement in August this year that India may revoke its current commitment to only use nuclear weapons in retaliation for a nuclear attack, known as ‘no first use’. According to some experts who are watching the situation the risk of a conflict between the two countries has never been greater since they both tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

Rushdie, Pamuk, 260 writers tell Modi: Aatish episode casts chill on public discourse

Counterview Desk
As many as 260 writers, journalists, artists, academics and activists across the world, including Salman Rushdie, British Indian novelist, Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature, and Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet and novelist, have called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the decision to strip British Indian writer Aatish Taseer of his overseas Indian citizenship.

Worrying signs in BJP: Modi, Shah begin 'cold-shouldering' Gujarat CM, party chief

By RK Misra*
The political developments in neighbouring Maharashtra where a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government assumed office has had a trickle down effect in Gujarat with both the ruling BJP and the Congress opposition going into revamp mode.

'Favouring' tribals and ignoring Adivasis? Behind coercion of India's aborigines

By Mohan Guruswamy*
Tribal people account for 8.2% of India’s population. They are spread over all of India’s States and Union Territories. Even so they can be broadly classified into three groupings. The first grouping consists of populations who predate the Indo-Aryan migrations. These are termed by many anthropologists as the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people.

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