National meet in Ahmedabad to discuss corporate "loot": Gandhians, Marxists, environmentalists to participate

By Our Representative
A three-day national convention in “defence” of democracy, and to protect land, water, forest and livelihood” from alleged corporate “loot” will held on July 16-18 at Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi, amidst aborted Maharashtra home department "efforts" to identify well-known civil society bodies organizing it as Naxalite.
While Gujarat home department has reportedly denied it has received any intimation from the Maharashtra government that the organizers have Naxalite leaning, the organizers admit, their activities would be “closely watched”. Top organizer Ashok Shrimali of the Mines, Minerals and People (MMP) said, “One can very well gauge the character of the meet from the likely participants.”
To be held ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, starting on July 18, state officials, meanwhile, privately concede, any clampdown on the organizers at this juncture would turn into a big political issue, inviting adverse comments on “Gujarat model”.
Shrimali said, “We have nothing to hide. Those who will address the meet include Gandhian experts, on one hand, and representatives of Adivasi organizations, on the other.”
Participants include KC Maradi, one of the most prominent associates of Jay Prakash Nayaran who was a pioneer of the total revolution; CPI-M politburo member and farmers’ leader Hannan Mullah; top sociologist Prof Ghanshyam Shah; Gujarat-based Gandhian tribal leaders Amarsinh Chaudhary and Ashok Chaudhury; well-known environmentalist Rohit Prajapati; Environics Trust’s R Sreedhar, who is an expert with the National Green Tribunal; and Aam Aadmi Party’s Gujarat convener Kanu Kalsaria.
Top organizations which will be taking part at the convention include National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), a top civil rights apex body led by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Parkar; human rights NGO Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF); and and others.
Leaders of several farmers’ and agricultural workers’ such as Bharatiya Kisan Union and All-Indian Kisan Sabha, associated with the two Left parties, CPI and CPI-M, will also be participating in the meet, which will also be participating. Some senior members of Parliament, too, are likely to address the gathering.
Meanwhile, a note distributed to the proposed participants ahead of the meet accuses the Government of India of making it amply clear that “it is going to pursue the pro-corporate and anti-people policies of the previous dispensation with much more vigor, coercion, and rapid pace.” It adds, “The reality of ‘achchhe din’ stands exposed and the people’s aspiration for better life has been channelized to nefarious communal polarization.”
The note warns that the government is “allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) not only in multi-brand retail but also in the defense sector; amending the existing labor laws to suit the industry”; is “diluting environmental laws to turn clearances into mere formalities; and even to amend the much flawed Land Acquisition Act brought by the previous regime in order to do away with the minimum relief it provided to the people.”
It warns, “Threats of corporate loot of natural resources as well as communalism are greatly undermining our democracy. Resistances by people and movements against the economic offensive will be met by an aggressive repressive regime as well as by extra-constitutional violent outfits supporting the regime. Even the judiciary will be weakened through various means and the corporate-controlled media will turn a blind eye.”

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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.

"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.

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