2002 Gujarat riots: Didn't receive any grants, donations for welfare of victims in 2007-14, asserts Teesta Setalvad

By Our Representative
Top human rights activist, fighting the 2002 Gujarat riot victims' cases, Teesta Setavlad, has said the organizations she and her husband Javed Anand represent – Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) or Sabrang Trust – never applied or appealed for, or received grants or donations “intended for the financial assistance of any kind” for the welfare of the “victims-survivors of the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat” between 2007 and 2014.
In a statement issued by her and Anand, Setalvad says, this is evident from the “voluminous documentary evidence submitted to the Gujarat police and in the courts”, which include “copies of grant agreements with donor organizations.”
The only thing the CJP applied or appealed for grants and donations was “to provide free legal aid to the survivors and eye-witnesses in their search for justice and punishment to the perpetrators of the mass crimes in 2002”, the statement says.
She adds, CJP’s trustees are “fully satisfied” with the funds the NGO received, as it helped the in securing “unprecedented, even historic, verdicts in favour of the survivors in the trial courts in Mumbai (Best Bakery Case) and Gujarat, Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court.”
Setalvad's statement follows the reported claim of the Gujarat police before the Supreme Court that documentary evidence on Setalvad and her husband "siphoning off" Rs 3.85 crore for "personal use" from the Rs 9.75 crore donations received by the two NGOs for the “welfare” of the 2002 riot victims.
Running into 83-page affidavit, assistant commissioner of police, Gujarat, Rahul B Patel, accuses the Setalvad and Anand, as also other trusees of the two NGOs, of “non-cooperation” in providing documents needed to “investigate complaints” by riots victims of Gulbarg Society, which was one of the worst sites of massacre in 2002.
Gujarat police said, this became evident on “examining” the bank accounts of CJP and Sabrang Trust, adding, the couple also drew money for “personal use” from the Rs 1.40 crore grant given by the Union human resources development (HRD) ministry from February 2011 to July 2012.
Setalvad says, Gujarat police is “recycling spiced-up allegations without a shred of evidence”, adding, “the state police has chosen to completely ignore the over 20,000 pages of documentary evidence submitted to them.”
She agrees, in 2008, with the concurrence of members of the Gulberg Housing Society, Ahmedabad, Sabrang Trust did try to raise funds for building a Gulberg Resistance Memorial. But she adds, “The project had to be abandoned in 2012 due to insufficient funds” and the amount, Rs 4.6 lakh received as donation “is still reflected in the trust’s audited balance sheet as unutilized.”
Denying the allegation that the donation received by the Sabrang Trust from the HRD Ministry had also been embezzled, Setalvad says, there is a “new and equally baseless allegation”, adding, “To the best of our knowledge, the HRD ministry itself has made no such claim, at least till date.”

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Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

Counterview Desk
In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers.
Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’.
Pointing out that Evergreen Revol…

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
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By BN Navalawala*
This is with reference to Counterview Blog (December 5, 2018), "Modi govt 'shelves' water reforms report, shows 'no interest' in its recommendations", below mentioned are my comments/observations thereon:
A committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Mihir Shah, Former Member, Planning Commission, for restructuring of Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for optimal development of water resources in the country in the backdrop of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Some Hindu bodies in US defending BJP-RSS' divisive, violent activities: Agnivesh

Counterview Desk Last week, Washington DC saw speakers at a religious freedom roundtable, chaired by the US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, express concern over "eroding" space for religious freedom in India. Dr Mike Ghouse, executive director, of the Center for Pluralism in Washington DC, referring to the roundtable, said in an email alert that Indian-Americans have "a moral duty to prevent India from being labeled as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)".

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By Rajiv Shah
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India's rewritten textbooks talk of demerits of democracy, praise Hitler, underrate Mughals

Counterview Desk
A detailed, 3,800-word review of the books rewritten under directions of the BJP rulers across India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014 has suggested that one of aims of the books is to instill a sense of doubt about India’s democratic polity among the country’s young minds. Reviewed in the prestigious US journal, “The New York Review of Books”, in its latest issue (December 6, 2018) by Alex Traub, the scrutiny insists, the effort has also been to paint Indian history from the angle of “Hindu triumphalism”, even as creating “Islamophobia”.

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Counterview Desk
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60 ex-civil servants seek release of CAG reports on Rafale, demonetisation before 2019 polls

Counterview Desk
As many as 60 retired civil servants have asked President Ram Nath Kovind to expedite the release of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports on demonetisation and the Rafale deal. The letter, signed mainly by former Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service officers, regrets that the status of the audit is "unclear”. According to them, “An impression is gaining ground that CAG is deliberately delaying its audit reports on demonetisation and Rafale deal till after the May 2019 elections so as not to embarrass the present government”.

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Counterview Desk
Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) has said that the forest department police’s crackdown, allegedly without any prior notice, on Dalit and Muslim households in Dakhin Tola, Churk Bazaar, Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, beating up “children and old people, women, and men in an inhuman way”, has led to “forced displacement, starvation and discrimination”. This has reportedly affected about 350 people.

Murder of Tamil Nadu teenage Dalit girl: "Stoic silence" despite #MeToo movement

Counterview Desk
Brinelle D'souza, who is with the Centre for Health and Mental Health, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, has prepared a strong statement to protest the brutal murder of 13-year-old Rajalakshmi. "Other than a few media reports, this gruesome killing has not caught national attention despite a very vibrant #MeToo campaign currently underway", regrets D'souza.

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