Medha Patkar "rearrested", as protests break out across India; complaint filed with NHRC, UN Special Rapporteur

Patkar after her release from Indore hospital

By Our Representative
In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday afternoon, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader was "discharged” from Indore’s Bombay Hospital following a court order on the basis of a habeas corpus application, only to be "rearrested". On her way to Badwani, Patkar’s car was intercepted by nearly 35 police vehicles. In her 14th day of indefinite fast, the car’s driver was forced out, and she was taken to Dhar jail.
Meanwhile, NBA has released a list of 47 persons who were injured and are under treatment during the police lathicharge on August 7 in Chikhalda village, where Parkar is on indefinite hunger strike since July 27 for 40,000 oustee families of Narmada dam who have still not been rehabilitated.
After picking up fasting Patkar from Chikhalda village on August 7, the Madhya Pradesh cops took her to Indore, even as taking nine those who were on hunger strike to Dhar. The injured people were admitted in Badwani.

Dhar jail

Earlier in Indore, two senior NBA activists trying to meet Patkar, Chinmay Mishra and Bilal Khan, were detained by the police but released after they were interrogated at two separate spots.
An NBA communique said, the whole scenario shows that the Madhya Pradesh chief minister was "lying" about his concern for the health of Patkar. "The fasting people have been illegally detained and are not allowed access as normal patients", it added.
In a related development, NBA has submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), asking it to take strict action against "violent attack" by police officials and others involved in lathicharging NBA activists in Chikhalda.

NBA submitted a separate complaint to the UN Rapporteur on Housing about "forcible eviction" of thousands of Narmada dam oustees and effort to resettle them in poorly prepared resettlement sites.

Protest in Pune

Meanwhile, protests took place at several placed in the country against "the high handed" action of the Madhya Pradesh police, belonging to two different districts, Dhar and Badwani, which led to the detention of Patkar and other testing NBA activists and injury to 47 others, some of whom have been admitted in ICU in Badwani.
In Delhi, protestors marched to the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan and submitted memorandum demanding immediate release of all from the hospitals and allow them to discuss their next course of action. They also demanded action against the district magistrate, the superintendent of police and other officials "responsible" for the "high handedness" of the police, seeking dialogue with the NBA.

Protest in Delhi

A delegation of Hannan Mollah (former CPM MP), Yogendra Yadav (Swaraj Abhiyaan), Kavita Krishnan (All-India Progressive Women's Association), among others, submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Resident Commissioner and Joint Resident Commissioner, signed by 30 representatives of people’s organization.
Those signed also included social activist Shabnam Hashmi, Rajendra Ravi of the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM), Gandhian intellectual Sandeep Pandey, Faisal Khan of the Khudai Khidmatgar, Bhupendra Singh Rawat of the Jan Sangharsh Vahini, and Ramesh Sharma of the Socialist Unity Centre.
Madhuresh Kumar, national convener, NAPM, the apex body of tens of people's organizations, including NBA, and a Patkar associate, gave a brief account of the incident which led to the detention of Patkar and others. Kumar said, the government has used violent tactics, but "we will keep our fight on."

Protest in Tumkur

"Since August 7, Patkar and others have been admitted in Indore and Dhar hospitals, respectively, with limited access. The government has maintained that they are concerned about their health and they are only hospitalized. If they are hospitalized then shouldn’t they be treated like normal patients with visitation rights by their colleagues, friends and, family?", he wondered.
"The government claims that it is concerned about their health, which would have meant that all the 12 should have been kept in the same hospital. But this has not happened. Nine of them are n the Dhar district hospital and two, Rukmani Bahan and Bhagwati Bahan, have been left at the Chikhalda protest sit, where they continue to fast", he added.

Yogendra Yadav said, "The protesters are asking very basic things, rehabilitation of all the affected people and on the issues. The Madhya Pradesh government is lying all over and using forces on peaceful protestors. The movement has exposed the development model and given the protesters courage to ask what development means for to people."

Protest in Bhopal

Sandeep Pandey said that the government "is not acting for the benefit of the people, but just as the Gujarat government destroyed the Sabarmati River, the Madhya Pradesh and Central governments are doing the same with people of Narmada Valley."
Protest actions also took place in Bengaluru and Tumkur (Karnataka), Bhopal, Hyderabad, Pune, Bhopal, Varanasi, and Bhubneshwar. In Chikhalda, the village where Patkar and others were on fast, students of Salsabeel Green School raised slogsns against the arrest of Patkar and others.

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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…

Rejoinder: Inescapable to have Central Water Commission as strong technical body in India

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)".

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.

Preventing childhood deaths: India performs worse than Bangladesh, "equals" Pakistan

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released study, “The Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report 2018”, prepared by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has identified India among 15 other countries which are still far off the mark in achieving the targets of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD).

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”.

Govt of India "tarnishing" NGO reputation, dossier leaked selectively: Amnesty

Counterview Desk
Amnesty International India has said that a deliberate attempt is being made to tarnish its reputation by leaking a dossier, supposedly made by investigating agencies, to media without giving it access to any such information. The high profile NGO’s claim follows a Times Now report about proceedings launched by investigative agencies, including Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the rights body for “violations” of rules pertaining to overseas donations.

Four children die after poor UP Dalit, Muslim families forced to flee to forest area: PVCHR

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.

Social workers, architects, students, historians, common people come together, protest "politics" of renaming Ahmedabad

By Nandini Oza*
No sooner did the BJP leaders of Gujarat announce the intention of changing the name of Ahmedabad to Karnavati just before Diwali, on November 7, 2018, many people’s mood changed from festivity to heated debate and furor across the state. For many of us, an online petition, initiated by Bandish Soparkar, on change.org protesting name change came to immediate rescue.

Vedanta is out but corporate loot continues in Odisha: Local activists tell NAPM yatra

By Our Representative
Lok Shakti Abhiyan leader Prafulla Samantara, winner of the Goldman Environmental (also known as Green Nobel) Prize in 2017, has regretted that though Sundergarh in Odisha, like other forest areas, is a fifth schedule area, where Forest Rights Act (FRA) and Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) is applicable, but these laws are being “outrightly violated to facilitate corporate loot.”

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