Non-food credit sector-wise By Rajiv Shah  In an indirect admission that India's economy has been badly impacted by demonetisation and mismanagement, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that the growth in non-food credit -- extended by scheduled commercial banks to all other customers except the Food Corporation of India -- "reached a low of 5.8 per cent at end-March 2017, the lowest since 1994-95", even as underlining, the deceleration has continued thereafter.

By  A  Representative A fresh compilation, based on detailed right to information (RTI) replies on victims of caste violence in Gujarat, has revealed that Ahmedabad’s Dalits top the list of victims of caste violence compared to any other district. The data, which contain individual cases of those who have suffered caste violence, suggest that 38 Dalits were murdered in Ahmedabad district out of a total of 295 in Gujarat since 1991.

By Nandini Oza* ‘LaDha Narmadecha’, my book in Marathi , is based on the oral history of two senior Adivasi leaders of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), Keshavbhau Vasave and Kevalsingh Vasave. It has just been published by Rajhans Prakashan, Pune. This oral history consists of long interviews with the senior activists.

By Rajiv Shah A new Government of India report shows that Gujarat does not figure among the top 10 tourist destinations of India. Led by Maharashtra, other states which are major tourist destinations are Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana (taken as one state) Odisha, Rajasthan, Kerala and Karnataka, in that order.

By A Representative Around hundred writers, academics, artistes and professionals have taken strong exception to the Jharkhand government banning young adivasi writer Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s collection of short stories, "The Adivasi Will Not Dance", calling the decision "absurd", setting "a dangerous precedent."

By Rajiv Shah  A new Government of India report has regretted that just about 20% of enterprises that started operations after Narendra Modi took over as India’s Prime Minister in 2014 have used the “single window system”, set up by different states to get all types of clearances, ranging from land and environment, to labour and power, to set-up their business.

From Hemang Desai in Stockholm The World Water Week — 2017 kick-started on August 28 here with several senior political dignitaries attending the plenary session. The political leadership included Mayor of Stockholm, Karin Wanngard, the Swedish Minister of environment, Karolina Skog, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment, Melanie Schultz van Haegen and the Finance Minister of Ecuador, Carlos Torre.

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* The Indian Judiciary (at least a good section of it) seems to come of age: objective, faithful to the letter and spirit of the law and unmindful of the consequences, the threats and intimidations of their political bosses or the violent mobs! The last week in India has been a vibrant one in the history of India –with several landmark judgements being delivered. These judgements have come as a shot in the arm for democracy in India, for the pluralistic and secular fabric of the country and above all, they augur well for the future of India. On August 25th, CBI special court judge Jagdeep Singh, held Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda guilty of rape and criminal intimidation of the two female disciples in 2002. On August 28th, Gurmeet Singh was sentenced to ten years in prison (many, including his victims, feel that he should have been given a life term) by the same judge. Given his mass following and the fact that Gurmeet Singh has the su...

Counterview Desk Ram Rahim has been found guilty of raping two sadhvis at Dera. A sadhvi wrote an anonymous letter that led to CBI probe. It exposes the wrongdoings of Ram Rahim and his Dera. Fifteen years after the letter was written, addressed to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been convicted by a CBI court. Ram Rahim is currently lodged in the Rohtak jail in Haryana. Full text of the letter: I am a girl hailing from Punjab and I have been serving as a sadhvi at Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa (Haryana) for the last five years. There are hundreds of other girls, who serve for 16-18 hours a day at the Dera. We are being physically exploited here. Dera Maharaj Gurmeet Singh rapes girls at the Dera. I am a graduate girl. My family members are blind followers of Maharaj (Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh). I became a sadhvi at my family's bidding. Two years after I became a sadhvi, Maharaj Gurmeet Singh's close woman-disciple Gurjot told me one night arou...

By A Representative In an usual defence of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Arif Mohammad Khan, the UP politician who quit the Rajiv Cabinet in 1986 over its stance on the Shah Bano case, has said that he does not "believe that Rajiv Gandhi took the decision to overturn the Supreme Court verdict" on the case "on his own."

By  A  Representative In a scathing attack, veteran Supreme Court advocate Ram Jethmalani has shot a new letter saying he is totally disappointed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three years of performance, and each day more and more evidence is piling up "of your failure as a friend and as the leader of the unfortunate lndian nation that trusted its destiny in your undeserving hands."

By Moin Qazi* The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” – George Orwell Too much of the thinking about Muslim rulers is now being shaped along predictable, clichéd lines. This is true of all shades of opinion, perception and scholarship. There is evidence from a number of established scholarly discourses that the public perception about Muslim rulers is being increasingly manipulated to fit into a profile built by right wing historians. The negative images of Islam stem partly from a lack of understanding of Islam among non-Muslims and partly from the failure of Muslims to explain themselves. The results are predictable: hatred feeds on hatred. Ignorance of Islam exists among both Muslims and non-Muslims. Non-Muslims, ignorant and misunderstanding Islam, fear it. They believe it threatens their most basic values. Similarly, Muslims have their own misconceptions. They, reacting to the hate and fear of non-Muslims, creat...

Dr Tushaar Shah (left) with Gujarat official Sujit Gulati By Rajiv Shah A climate change experiment for promoting alternative sources of energy in Anand district, begun about two-and-a-half years ago by a world-renowned institute , meant for promoting groundwater solar pumps as a means for turning ordinary farmers into electricity producers, appears to have no takers in the Gujarat government.

By Anand Mazgaonkar* We should all be extremely grateful to Baba Ram Rahim and Dera Sachcha Sauda for not formally announcing a coup and official takeover of the State of Haryana yesterday. That would indeed have been the first coup within a country and without military, or “outside” support. Actually, they did not need outside support because, in line with swadeshi philosophy, they had enough “inside” support. For a start, Mr Manohar Lal Khattar and his Government were either asleep or on holiday. In any case, Mr Rajnath Singh was away in Kyrgystan and was forced to rush back. One would almost get the impression that the Home Minister matters in this Government. But rest assured, the situation will return to normal because not a single arsonist is reported to have been detained. May be, Mr. Khattar did not receive any clear instructions from Delhi or Nagpur or wherever else he draws inspiration from. May be he was awake but either Delhi, or Nagpur, or both were asleep or on holiday. ...

By Jag Jivan  Even as violence around the CBI court verdict in a 2002 rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh spreads to the National Capital Region of Delhi with several neighbouring states on high alert, facts have to come light about close links of the ruling BJP and the rock star sadhu.

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed* The ghost of the ex-Vice President, Hamid Ansari rant will follow the Muslim community for a long time. The biggest tragedy for Indian Muslims is that they have lost their faith in their leadership. At the time of leaving the Vice Presidential post, the way, Hamid Ansari let down not only the Muslim community but the entire Diaspora of Indian ecumenism and equanimity, it was appalling and awful for all those who cater to the voice of sanity. The way Ansari toed the tone of intolerance and the tenure of the rudderless Muslim leadership, he lost his credibility with all those toeing the voices of reason. Uttering such venomous views will be harmful for the already beleaguered Muslim community. Truth is that this kind of Muslim leadership has lost both its voice and utility. Indian Muslims have been victim to an irresponsible leadership which is bent on keeping the community in subjugation by concentrating on emotionally sensitive issues as was done by Ansari. Rudder...

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has rejected my information request for details of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) intended for use, by security forces, in areas where militant groups are active and use civilians as ‘human shields’. While the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) did not bother to send any reply, the First Appellate Authority (FAA) of the MHA has rejected my first appeal invoking security and strategic interests of the State as grounds for refusing disclosure. Background Readers may remember the video of a youth tied to a pilot vehicle being driven around by security forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). This incident occurred in the poll-bound Lok Sabha constituency of Srinagar. This video went viral in April, 2017 and soon after the Indian Army reportedly ordered a Court of Inquiry into the incident. The findings of the Court of Inquiry are yet to be made public. A few weeks ...

Calculating urbanization? Annual passenger flow since 2011-12 By Rajiv Shah One of India’s topmost urban experts, Prof Amitabh Kundu, has taken strong exception to the Government of India’s mid-term Economic Survey, released in early August, especially its suggestion that 63% of India could be urban. Prof Kundu believes, this kind of statement would “add confusion” among policy makers and researchers of urbanization.

By Rajiv Shah  The Government of India does not want to make public its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) intended for use, by security forces, in areas where militant groups are active and use civilians as 'human shields'. This has come to light in a right to information (RTI) reply by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Protest in a Madhya Pradesh village By A Representative In a major relief, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader  Medha Patkar was granted bail by Madhya Pradesh's Indore High Court on Wednesday. She was denied bail by the sessions court in a kidnapping case instituted against her by the state police.

Counterview Desk Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association statement on the Supreme Court granting bail to Lt Col Purohir: The Malegaon accused Lt. Colonel Shrikant Purohit has been granted bail by the Supreme Court. We know that bail in terror cases, especially those involving bomb blasts, is rare, if not altogether impossible to secure. Take for example, the following cases. Mohammad Aamir Khan’s bail application was repeatedly turned down even when his lawyer furnished medical certificates vouching that his old mother has suffered a paralytic stroke. This, when he had spent over 12 years in jail, and had been acquitted in over dozen of the 19 cases he was implicated in. The reason was that the case was too ‘sensitive’. Abdul Wahid Shaikh spent 11 years as an undertrial in the Mumbai suburban train blasts case, during which he developed an eye ailment following custodial torture but his bail application on medical grounds was rejected consistently. Even where absolutely NO violen...

By Moin Qazi* “Of all the lawful acts the most detestable to God is divorce”. –Prophet Muhammad (This an authentic saying recorded by Abdullah ibn Umar, a highly respected companion of the prophet in an authoritative treatise “Divorce (Kitab Al-Talaq)” of Sunan Abu-Dawud (Ref. 63-2173) The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down the practice of instant triple talaq, calling it unconstitutional and in violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which provides for equality before the law. The five-member bench was divided 3-2 on the matter, with the majority verdict striking the practice down. However, the expectations that a Supreme Court verdict will clear the clouds surrounding the whole issue have largely been belied. Apart from a fractured verdict the judgment shows the conflict in the judicial mind. In fact in his dissenting judgment CJI Khehar said that talaq-e-biddat or instant divorce is an integral part of the Sunni community and has been practiced for a 1000 years. The...

Sanjay Sahni leading NREGA workers' march, Muzaffarnagar By  A  Representative The arrest of Sanjay Sahni, a young social worker who has established a Muzaffarnagar-wide movement in Bihar in order to empower people to access public services under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), public distribution system (PDS) and pension, is all set to snowball into a major controversy.

By  A  Representative In what is being interpreted as a deliberate delaying tactic for postponing Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar's release from Dhar jail, the Madhya Pradesh did not produce the case diary regarding her arrest under section 365, kidnapping, on Monday.

By Bilal Khan* After almost 20 years of existence, Ambujwadi, an informal settlement in Malvani, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (popularly BMC) may have finally recognized the right of the people and conceded to allow water supply to the slum. The joint efforts of the organized slum dwellers through Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan (GBGBA) for over two years has, no doubt, finally resulted in the beginning of water supply in the slums of Ambujwadi.

By Rajiv Shah Efforts may have been stepped up across India to boycott Chinese goods against the backdrop of the current standoff with the giant neighbour – with Mumbai’s association of school principals calling for a boycott of Chinese goods, and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch listing out several reasons for the need for boycott, one of them being China “trying” to impose its hegemony over India.

Sugata Bose By A Representative A new book by the grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sugata Bose, has claimed that when top Bengali litterateur Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay first composed the national song “Vande Mataram”, his reference was to “Bangamata or Mother Bengal”. Even as pointing out that “there is no specific mention of Bangamata or Mother Goddess”, Bose, who is a politician and a scholar, says, the national song’s reference to the “magic number of seven crore refers” essentially “to Bengalis”.

By Sumit Kumar Ganguly*  A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Gujarat High Court on July 17, 2017 by Govindbhai Ramjibhai Jadav and the others for the establishment of Fishing Harbours and Fish Landing Centre (commonly known as “jetty”) in the villages of Sartanpar Bandar, Chanch Bandar and Sheriyaj Bara in the districts of Bhavnagar, Amreli and Junagadh respectively. In the matter, the High Court bench comprising of Chief Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice Vipul M Pancholi have issued notice to: (i) the Principal Secretary, Panchayat, Rural Housing and Rural Development Department and (ii) the Commissioner of Fisheries of the Government of Gujarat.

By Moin Qazi* Even as India celebrated its 70th year of independence, the number of suicides of beleaguered farmers in Marathwada, the drought prone belt of Maharashtra, touched a new high. In the last seven and half months ending with August 15, 580 cultivators have committed suicide. At the end of July, the toll stood at 531 and it has gone up to 580 in just 15 days.

Digvijay Singh outside Dhar jail By A Representative In a surprise move, senior Congress leader and ex-chief minister Digvijay Singh met Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar in Dhar jail, Madhya Pradesh, describing her as a "great social worker who has dedicated her entire life to fight for the cause of Narmada dam affected people of the state."

Counterview Desk The All-India Radio and Doordarshan have refused to broadcast the Independence Day speech of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who heads the Left Front government in the state. The speech was recorded on August 12, and was informed on August 14 that it would not be broadcast unless he agreed to “reshape the content making it suitable to the solemnity of the occasion and sentiment of the people”. An email from Akashbani Agartala said, “A collective decision taken at Delhi advises that the broadcast may not go with its existing content". The chief minister termed the advise "unprecedented, undemocratic, autocratic and intolerant step”. Meanwhile, CPI-M politbureau has asked the Prime Minister to take action against those responsible. Text of the speech: On the occasion of Independence Day, I convey my greetings and best wishes to you all. I pay my homage to the great memory of the martyrs of India’s freedom struggle. I would also like to offer my profo...

By Mohan Guruswamy* Kashmir is the northernmost geographical region of South Asia. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. The name Kashmir derives from the Sanskrit Kashyapmeru. The Greeks knew it as Kaspeiria. Herodotus called it Kaspatyros. Emperor Ashoka, who called it Shrinagari, founded the capital near present day Srinagar. The ruins of this Ashokan city still stand. Kashmir evolved with a strong Buddhist tradition, but Buddhism here like in the rest of India drowned in the wave of Hindu revivalism initiated by Adi Shankaracharya in the 9th century AD. Muslim rule was ushered in by Shamsuddin Shah Mir (1339-42), a courtier in the court of King Udayanadeva who seized the throne after his death. The Mughals took control in 1586 during the rule of Jalaluddin Akbar. The region came under the control of the Durrani Empire in Kabul from 1753 to 1819 when the Sikhs took over. In 1846...