Top Dalit rights leader Jignesh Mevani "picked up" from Ahmedabad airport ahead of Modi's birthday bash

By Our Representative
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Gandhinagar on Friday, the Gujarat capital, for “celebrating” his birthday, which falls on September 17, top Gujarat Dalit rights leader Jignesh Mevani, who spearheaded protests following the gruesome Una flogging incident of July 11, was "picked up" by the Gujarat police.
Mevani's cousin, Viral Mevani, is said to have seen Jignesh being picked up as he came out of the Ahmedabad airport. In a social media appearance, which has gone rival, he says, he “saw” Jignesh being taken away by the police, but with clue where.
According to sources, Mevani was taken to the Ahmedabad Crime Branch office at the Gaekwad Haveli. The cops told Mevani's supporters that he would set free "after taking his statement".
Jignesh Mevani returned from Delhi after attending the Dalit Swabhiman Sangharsh rally, which was addressed, among others, by Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, founder of the Indian constitution, and several Left leaders, including CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
At the rally, Mevani gave a call to Dalits to organize rail roko and mass chain pulling programme across the country, starting from the former constituency of Modi as Gujarat chief minister, Maninagar in Ahmedabad. The programme has been proposed for October 1, a day before the Gandhi Jayanti day.
Meanwhile, Mevani has declared, there would be a series of other mass meetings across Gujarat ahead of the “big” rail roko plan, including mass meetings and moholla sabhas.
The Gujarat police has acted against Mevani despite the fact that there was a distinct view that the rail roko and chain pulling programme across India had failed to find support among Dalit rights activists, who openly began saying they would "not be part of it."

Mevani's rail roko poster

Modi would be celebrating his 66th birthday on Saturday by distributing assistive aids and appliances in Navsari in South Gujarat to 11,000 differently-abled persons – considered by circles around him as the hibhest number in the world ever at one spot, which would become a Guinness Book records.
Other Guinness records being planned on the occasion include 1,000 oil lamps lit by differently-abled at one time, a formation by 1,000 wheelchair-bound persons and distribution of hearing aid to 1,000 beneficiaries.
A Mevani aide, Pratik Sinha says, Jignesh is “not the only person who has been detained. Others detained include Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Patidar leaders.”
Well-known CPI-ML leader Kavita Krishnan was the first to sound a note a protest against Mevani being picked up.
She said, “What is the BJP Government of Gujarat scared of? Arresting and jailing leaders of movements only displays your fear of those movements. Arresting the leader of the Una Gujarat Dalit movement proves it has scared the Gujarat government and the BJP nationally.
This is not for the first time that people were detained ahead of state-sponsored functions in Gujarat. Well-known human rights Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover says, the Gujarat police has “a long history of abducting people at the best of their political masters.”
Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil tweeted: "Dalits detained, Patidars under house arrest, Gaurakshaks beat up and kill a youth. Welcome Prime Minister Modi toGujarat on his birthday."
Modi's arrival in Gujarat for celebrating his birthday coincided with the death of a youth, Mohammad Ayub, in an Ahmedabad hospital after he was attacked by cow vigilantes. Modi recently called 80 per cent of cow vigilantes as fake and anti-social, asking state governments to prepare their complete list and act against them.
Meanwhile, Dalit rights activists have asked those who have already come across the news of Mevani's detention to call up Gujarat DGP PC Thakur on his mobile number 9978406255, Ahmedabad commissioner Shivanand Jha (9978406258 ) and Ahmedabad range DIG Dr KLN Rao (9978405089) to register their protest.

Comments

Amit Shah 'wrong': Lack of transparency characterized bank frauds, NPAs, jobs data

Counterview Desk
India's senior RTI activists Nikhil Dey, Anjali Bhardwaj, Venktesh Nayak, Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu, Dr. Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, Pankti Jog and Pradip Pradhan, who are attached with the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI), have said that Union home minister Amit Shah's claim that the Government of India is committed to transparency stands in sharp contrast to its actual actions.

Untold story of Jammu: Business 'down', students fear lynching, teachers can't speak

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released report, seeking to debunk the view that people in Jammu, the second biggest city of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) after Srinagar, people had gone “out celebrating” abrogation of Article 370 which took away the state’s special status, has reported what it calls “abominably high levels of fear” across all sections in the town.

Kashmiris in a civil disobedience mode, are going against 'diktat' to open shops

Counterview Desk
A team of concerned citizens, including Ludhiana-based psychiatrist and writer Anirudh Kala, Mumbai-based activist and public health professional Brinelle Dsouza, Delhi-based journalist and writer Revati Laul, and social activist Shabnam Hashmi, travelled to Kashmir and Jammu to understand the impact of the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent security clampdown and communication blockade on the lives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Gujarat's incomplete canals: Narmada dam filled up, yet benefits 'won't reach' farmers

By Our Representative
Even as the Gujarat government is making all out efforts to fill up the Sardar Sarovar dam on Narmada river up to the full reservoir level (FRL), a senior farmer rights leader has said the huge reservoir, as of today, remains a “mirage for the farmers of Gujarat”.
In a statement, Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Ekta Manch (KEM), has said that though the dam’s reservoir is being filled up, the canal network remains complete. Quoting latest government figures, he says, meanwhile, the command area of the dam has been reduced from 18,45,000 hectares (ha) to 17,92,000 ha.
“According to the website of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd, which was last updated on Friday, while the main canal, of 458 km long, has been completed, 144 km of ranch canals out of the proposed length of 2731 km remain incomplete.
Then, as against the targeted 4,569 km distributaries, 4,347 km have been constructed, suggesting work for 222 km is still pending. And of the 15,670 km of minor canal…

Ceramic worker dies: 20,000 workers in Thangadh, Gujarat, 'risk' deadly silicosis

By Our Representative
Even as the country was busy preparing for the Janmashtami festival on Saturday, Hareshbhai, a 46-year-old ceramic worker from suffering from the fatal lung disease silicosis, passed away. He worked in a ceramic unit in Thangadh in Surendranagar district of Gujarat from 2000 to 2016.
Hareshbhai was diagnosed with the disease by the GCS Medical College, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad in 2014. He was found to be suffering from progressive massive fibrosis. He is left behind by his wife Rekha sister and two sons Deepak (18) and Umesh (12),
The death of Hareshbhai, says Jagdish Patel of the health rights group Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC), suggests that silicosis, an occupational disease, can be prevented but not cured, and the Factory Act has sufficient provisions to prevent this.
According to Patel, the pottery industry in the industrial town of Thangadh has evolved for a long time and locals as well as migrant workers are employed here. There are abou…

Cess for Gujarat construction workers: Spending less than 10%; no 'direct help' to beneficiaries

By Our Representative
While the Gujarat government’s Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, set up in 2004, as of March 31, 2019, has collected a total cess of Rs 2,097.62 crore from the the builders, it has spent less than 10% -- Rs 197.17 crore. And, as on May 31, 2019, the total cess collection has reached Rs 2,583.16 crore, said a statement issued by Bandhkam Majur Sagathan general secretary Vipul Pandya.
Pointing out that just about 6.5 lakh out of 20 lakh workers have been registered under the board, Pandya said, vis-à-vis other states, Gujarat ranks No 13th in the amount spent on the welfare of the construction workers, while 11th in the amount collected.
And while the builders are obliged to pay just about 1% of the total cost of their project, the calculation of the cess is flawed: It is Rs 3,000 per square yard; accordingly, Rs 30 per square yard is collected. “Had the cess been collected on the real construction cost, it would have been at least Rs 7,000 cr…

Success of 'political' Hinduism: Kashmiris being depicted as antagonists of rest of India

By Anand K Sahay*
There are times in history when facts call attention to themselves; they assert their independence in all its amplitude and are in no need of the crutch of interpretation. Such a moment is visible in Kashmir now. Merely by being on the table, the facts there taunt the regime’s proclamations.

Gujarat CM aide 'doubts' authenticity of Gandhi article published in 'Harijan'

By Rajiv Shah
A top aide of Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani has doubted the authenticity of the article written by Mahatma on Gandhi January 27, 1948, three days before his death. Hitesh Pandya, who was assistant public relations officer (PRO) under Narendra Modi’s chief ministership in Gujarat, and is currently serving as PRO of Rupani, has said, there is “reason to doubt”, since the article appeared on February 1, 1948, two days after Gandhi’s assassination.

Why nobody objected to Gautam Gambhir, Sunny Deol in t-shirt, jean?: Activists

By Our Representative
Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan’s excitement on their first day as MPs was overshadowed by a barrage of sexism over their ‘non- sanskari’ outfits, a group of civil society activists have said in a statement. According to Aarushi Nigam, Divya Kaushik, Riya Sharma, Ruman Ganguly, and Anulekha Agarwal, both Bengali actors and first-time MPs "were certainly excited to take them on when they posted pictures from their new workplace on social media."
Hit by misogynistic comments, the activists say, "Their choice of workwear – jeans and a white button-down shirt for Mimi, a wine-coloured peplum suit for Nusrat – was the first and last word on their political competence for many."
“You’re not on vacation”, “they have mistaken Parliament for Kolkata’s Nicco Park or City Centre”, “this is not a photo studio, this is a place where you should fight for people’s rights and legislate”, “keep some respect towards your Bengali society” were some of the &quo…

Australian protesters picket, stop work of Adani contractors for Carmichael coalmine

By Our Representative
Australian protesters have stopped work at the Mackay office of piping company AC Whalan, demanding the company withdraws its tender from Adani’s controversial Carmichael coalmine mine.Twenty-year-old Lisa Amato locked herself to the gate of the facility, while a group of 30 people formed a picket line. Adani is a top Indian tycoon close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The group say they have information that AC Whalan have put in a tender for Adani’s polyethylene pipe contract, though the company have not publicly announced. Spokesperson Donna Smit said, “AC Whalan have not publicly declared their interest in Adani’s Carmichael mine, understandably because the majority of Australians do not want this climate destroying mine.”
“The message we are sending to AC Whalan and all other companies involved with Adani is that we have our eyes on Adani’s contractors. With the effects of climate breakdown being seen right now across this country, any company that hopes to…

Counterview

Search This Blog