Indo-Pak peace campaign to hold Prayers for Peace on Sept 21, Kailash Satyarthi to participate in Hyderabad

By A Representative
The high-profile Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA), which began its Peace Now and Forever Campaign between India and Pakistan on July 1, 2017, has decided to hold prayers across the continent on September 21, the International Day for Peace, with Nobel laureates Kailash Satyarthi scheduled to join the prayers at Hyderabad.
Announcing this, a COVA note said, this has become particularly essential because one finds "that the situation in the world is deteriorating by the day and the relations between India and China and India and Pakistan have become a matter of grave concern during the past year and the future prospects look very grim".
The note comes up with interesting data on how the tension in the region is affecting the Indian and Pakistani economies: "The cost of violence to India’s economy in 2014 was $342 bn that is equivalent to 4.7 per cent of India’s GDP or USD 273 per person or Rs 1,458 per person per month and Pakistan suffered economic losses of USD 107 bn due to terrorism during the same period."
"In terms of effect of internal conflicts and terrorism, Pakistan is ranked 4th, India ranked 8th and China at 23rd among all countries in the world during 2016", the says the note quoting an authoritative report, adding, on September 21, faith leaders of different communities to come together in one single place of worship (mosque, temple, Church, gurudwara, synagogue, vihara etc.) or historical/ cultural places to pray for peace.

The prayer campaign, which will take place in major Indian and Pakistani cities, was preceded thousands of signatures collected online in the two countries, as also other countries where Indians and Pakistanis live. These signatures will be submitted to the Prime Ministers of the two countries demanding peace between the two peoples.
The signatories are claimed to include former generals and admirals and other ranking military officers of India and Pakistan, film and sports personalities, political leaders, academics, activists, journalists, professionals and eminent persons and thought leaders from all walks of life.
The signature campaign took place alongside other programmes were organized by different groups in different cities and towns of the two countries to provide platforms to artists, youth, children, activists and members of communities to express themselves for peace, including Art for Peace.
Other programmes include organizing community meetings to enable people from different communities and faiths to come together to pray and pledge for peace in order to "sensitise people to the scale and devastation from violence in the world today", and to "demonstrate unity across different faiths in challenging violence in all forms."
Pointing out that the prayers would help "use spirituality and religiosity to promote values of inclusion and peace and not to divide, promote hate and spread violence in the name of religions", the note says, COVA is hopeful of Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai also joining Prayers for Peace.
The note warns, "While only 72 countries were involved in Second World War, 87 countries experienced terrorist incidences in 2013 and 58 countries today have groups and communities engaged in active armed conflicts with each other or with the state. The end of Second World War saw 14.9 million (1.49 crore) soldiers killed and the ongoing armed conflicts in different countries have already claimed 10. 2 million (1.02 crore) lives -- mostly civilians -- and this seems to be just the beginning."
"There are more refugees due to conflicts in the world today than even during the Second World War. Around the world, someone is displaced every three seconds, forced from their homes by violence, war and persecution. Half of them are children and mostly unaccompanied. By 2016 the number of refugees and displaced persons had 16.3 million and is growing by the day," it adds.

Comments

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha demands rollback of NMMS App, restoration of workers’ rights

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM) has strongly demanded the immediate revocation of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App used for recording workers’ attendance under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Citing the Union Ministry of Rural Development’s (MoRD) July 8, 2025 directive acknowledging widespread misuse and discrepancies in the NMMS App, NSM accused the government of admitting to deep-rooted corruption while continuing to impose a failed digital system.

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...

Bangladesh alternative more vital for NE India than Kaladan project in Myanmar

By Mehjabin Bhanu* There has been a recent surge in the number of Chin refugees entering Mizoram from the adjacent nation as a result of airstrikes by the Myanmar Army on ethnic insurgents and intense fighting along the border between India and Myanmar. Uncertainty has surrounded India's Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project, which uses Sittwe port in Myanmar, due to the recent outbreak of hostilities along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. Construction on the road portion of the Kaladan project, which runs from Paletwa in Myanmar to Zorinpui in Mizoram, was resumed thanks to the time of relative calm during the intermittent period. However, recent unrest has increased concerns about missing the revised commissioning goal dates. The project's goal is to link northeastern states with the rest of India via an alternate route, using the Sittwe port in Myanmar. In addition to this route, India can also connect the region with the rest of India through Assam by using the Chittagon...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Search This Blog