Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani "organizes" rail roko at Ahmedabad railway station to highlight land rights issue

By A Representative
A day after he was stopped from protesting against the Vibrant Gujarat world business meet – which began in Gandhinagar's Mahatma Mandir on Tuesday – by detaining him for the whole day along with his supporters (click HERE), Gujarat's top Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, with tens of his mainly rural Dalit supporters, reached Ahmedabad railway station to carry out “rail roko” (stop train) agitation.
Mevani was forced to withdraw his much publicized “rail roko” agitation, which was to be held at on October 1 at Maninagar railway station in former state assembly constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he had done this because of security concerns (click HERE).
He was to hold the rail roko in protest against the state government's alleged failure to look into his demand to provide physical possession of the land to the Dalits. Thousands of acres of land had been distributed to rural Dalits across Gujarat only on paper, though the actual possession remained in the hands of the rural ruling groups.

“We hope that the government will positively look into our just and reasonable demands”, he had said, adding, Gujarat home minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja, following talks with him, had “showed his readiness to hold talks regarding the demand”, hence he was “canceling the rail roko.”
Reviving his “rail roko” plan after a gap of three-and-a-half months, Mevani on Wednesday evening stopped Rajdhani Express. While Mevani and some of his supporters climbed up in front of the train's engine, others sat on the rail track to ensure that the train does not move. About 20 of them, including Mevani, were detained by the railway police. A case has been registered against them.
Appreciating the move, senior farmers' activist Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat (KSG), who was also detained on Tuesday for seeking to organize anti-Vibrant Gujarat summit protest, justified “rail roko”, saying that Mevani was forced to take the route because “numerous representations to the government” for land distribution to landless, especially Dalits, had failed.
Rabari, making a statement, said, “All democratic means of protest are being stymied by the government. In these circumstances, the landless persons, under the leadership of convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch Jignesh Mevani, reached the Kalupur railway station and carried out rail roko.”
Rabari added, “The consistent disregard of people’s demands has resulted in them losing patience. The Gujarat government ought to pay serious attention to the issues of the farmers and should take concrete steps to hand over possession of the santhni land to the landless people of Gujarat.”

Demanding that the Gujarat government should take back its “anti-farm and anti-farmer amendments” to several progressive laws, such as Land Acquisition Act, 2013, Rabari said, “The consistent and shameless disregard of the demands of the landless people of Gujarat to hand over possession of land to them is now testing the patience of the people.”
Rabari said, “The KSG appeals the government to immediately hand over the possession of the land to the beneficiaries. Also, it appeals to respect people’s democratic right to demonstrate and express grievances, instead of suppressing the dissent voice. ”
”Landless people in Gujarat have not been handed possession of the land which was allotted to them in the last 10 years”, he said, adding, “Hence they have not been able to carry out agriculture operations on it. Their demands are being consistently ignored by the government.”

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

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.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

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”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog