Ahmedabad convention on land rights begins amidst warning: "Enemy" is very strong, there's need for unity

By A Representative
A three-day national convention on land rights began on Saturday at Ahmedabad's Gujarat Vidyapeeth, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi, with its top speakers, politicians and activists, raising pitch in favour of “uniting” forces of different ideological persuasions in order to take the battle against “indiscriminate” land acquisition to Indian states and corporate "loot".
Held under the banner of Bhumi Bachao Andolan (BAA), the speakers – CPI-M politburo member Hannan Mollah, Anil Chaudhary of Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), Ashok Chaudhury of the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Kanu Kalsaria of the Aam Aadmi Party – agreed that under the new political dispensation it is “no more possible to fight alone.”
Held against the backdrop of aborted “efforts” of the Maharashtra government to brand the convention as a move of Naxalites to make inroads into Gujarat, Ashok Chaudhury of AIUFWP said, “This was a recognition of the strength acquired by the people's movements across India. So wary have the rulers become that they brand anyone raising voice for land rights as Naxalite.”
Warning people's movements against any effort to adopt Naxalites' tactics, Chaudhury said, “We have to fight for our rights through democratic means, because if one takes up arms, things become very for those in power to suppress any demands.
Chaudhury also called for conceptual clarity, stressing, when one talks of land rights, it is not just land but natural resources dependent on land – water, jungle and minerals – all those who are dependent on them. “We have still failed to take our fight forward, as desired”, he said.
Identifying the Narendra Modi government as “the enemy”, Mollah said, it is “very strong” and is trying to “not just become increasingly powerful in India, but also across the world by influencing the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.” He added, “Its policy is not kisan-based but corporate-based.”
Pointing towards how the overall atmosphere has changed as a result of the allegedly as a result economic reforms begun in 1991, Mollah said, “There was a time when at least court judgments used to be pro-poor. Now, this is changed. Strikes are declared illegal. Land acquisition for a national highway is allowed without consent of the affected farmers.”
Mollah said, following all-round opposition, the amendments to the Land Acquisition Act (LAA), 2013 – to drop the consent and social impact assessment clauses – may have been dropped. “But the amendments haven't been withdrawn from Parliament. States have been allowed to come up with their own laws on lines of the amendments proposed for LAA, 2013.”
Pointing out that several states – including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Odisha – have already come up with their own laws, Mollah said, it hasn't been possible for land rights organizations to take the fight to states. “We have failed”, he admitted.
Seeking a “broader unity” keeping aside ideological considerations, Mollah's view found an echo from civil rights organizations participants. “It's a long road, and the destination is far away”, said Anil Chaudhary of INSAF, a network of large number of of people's groups.
Suggesting that people's organizations would need to work out ways to unite and fight for land rights, Chaudhary said, “People are becoming restive, but India is very large. Every week people fighting for land rights are being killed, and there is a need to keep a pace the developing situation.”

Comments

Gujarat Information Commission issues warning against misinterpretation of RTI orders

By A Representative The Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has issued a press note clarifying that its orders limiting the number of Right to Information (RTI) applications for certain individuals apply only to those specific applicants. The GIC has warned that it will take disciplinary action against any public officials who misinterpret these orders to deny information to other citizens. The press note, signed by GIC Secretary Jaideep Dwivedi, states that the Right to Information Act, 2005, is a powerful tool for promoting transparency and accountability in public administration. However, the commission has observed that some applicants are misusing the act by filing an excessive number of applications, which disproportionately consumes the time and resources of Public Information Officers (PIOs), First Appellate Authorities (FAAs), and the commission itself. This misuse can cause delays for genuine applicants seeking justice. In response to this issue, and in acc...

'MGNREGA crisis deepening': NSM demands fair wages and end to digital exclusions

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a coalition of independent unions of MGNREGA workers, has warned that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is facing a “severe crisis” due to persistent neglect and restrictive measures imposed by the Union Government.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Gandhiji quoted as saying his anti-untouchability view has little space for inter-dining with "lower" castes

By A Representative A senior activist close to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has defended top Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy’s controversial utterance on Gandhiji that “his doctrine of nonviolence was based on an acceptance of the most brutal social hierarchy the world has ever known, the caste system.” Surprised at the police seeking video footage and transcript of Roy’s Mahatma Ayyankali memorial lecture at the Kerala University on July 17, Nandini K Oza in a recent blog quotes from available sources to “prove” that Gandhiji indeed believed in “removal of untouchability within the caste system.”

Targeted eviction of Bengali-speaking Muslims across Assam districts alleged

By A Representative A delegation led by prominent academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey visited three districts in Assam—Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur—between 2 and 4 September 2025 to meet families affected by recent demolitions and evictions. The delegation reported widespread displacement of Bengali-speaking Muslim communities, many of whom possess valid citizenship documents including Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, PAN cards, and NRC certification.

Subject to geological upheaval, the time to listen to the Himalayas has already passed

By Rajkumar Sinha* The people of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, who have somehow survived the onslaught of reckless development so far, are crying out in despair that within the next ten to fifteen years their very existence will vanish. If one carefully follows the news coming from these two Himalayan states these days, this painful cry does not appear exaggerated. How did these prosperous and peaceful states reach such a tragic condition? What feats of our policymakers and politicians pushed these states to the brink of destruction?

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

'Centre criminally negligent': SKM demands national disaster declaration in flood-hit states

By A Representative The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has urged the Centre to immediately declare the recent floods and landslides in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Haryana as a national disaster, warning that the delay in doing so has deepened the suffering of the affected population.

Rally in Patna: Non-farmer bodies to highlight plight of agriculture in Eastern India ahead of march to Parliament

P Sainath By A Representative Ahead of the march to Parliament on November 29-30, 2018, organized by over 210 farmer and agricultural worker organisations of the country demanding a 21-day special session of Parliament to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers, a mass rally been organized for November 23, Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Gandhi Museum), Gandhi Maidan, Patna. Say the organizers, the Eastern region merits special attention, because, while crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. To be addressed by P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a statement issued ahead of the rally says, the Eastern India was the most prosperous regi...

Counterview

Search This Blog