Counterview

By Arjun Kumar, Prerna Mukharya, Rohit Mehta, Ritika Gupta, Anshula Mehta* The coronavirus pandemic has prevailed globally for close to a year, with India living in the throes of the crisis since March. To trace, isolate and treat cases of infection, the Aarogya Setu app was developed, and launched on April 2, 2020, by the National Informatics Centre at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.

By Nava Thakuria* Indian media fraternity sets to bid farewell to the Covid-19 pandemic year 2020 with the horrible statistics of journo-killings with some dangerous countries for working journalists in the world. The largest democracy in the globe witnessed killings of 15 scribes till the last week of December and the populous country also lost over 50 working journalists to novel coronavirus infection aggravated ailments.

Counterview Desk A Delhi-based Right to Information (RTI) NGO, Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), has taken strong exception to the appointment of Uday Mahurkar as an information commissioner in the Central Information Commission (CIC), stating, while the search committee had shortlisted seven persons for six posts in CIC out of 355 applications it had received in response to an advertisement, Mahurkar had not even applied for the post.

By Rajiv Shah  The likely appointment of Atanu Chakraborty as HDFC Bank chairman interested me for several reasons, but above all because I have interacted with him closely during my more than 15 year stint in Gandhinagar for the “Times of India”. One of the few decent Gujarat cadre bureaucrats, Chakraborty, belonging to the 1985 IAS batch, at least till I covered Sachivalaya was surely above controversies. He loved to remain faceless, never desired publicity, was professional to the core, and never indulged in loose talk. When he neared retirement, which happened in April 2020, first there were rumours in Sachivalaya that he would be appointed SEBI chairman, and then there was talk he would be chairman (or was it CEO?) of Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City (a dream project of Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister, which as Prime Minister Modi wants to promote, come what may). But, for some strange reasons, and I don’t know why, none of this happened, despite the fact tha

By Neeraj Kumar, Arup Mitra* The findings of the latest round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) conducted in 2019-20 covering 22 States/UTs under Phase-I  present a somewhat disappointing picture of children’s health in India. Majority of the experts, based on prima facie evidence, just highlighted the deteriorating sign of child health in terms of increase in proportion of stunted and underweight children in most of the phase-I states/UTs over last two rounds of NFHS (2015-16 to 2019-20).

By Our Representative As many as 29 activists, lawyers, students, artists, academicians and civilians appeared before the Esplanade court in Mumbai after being summoned in connection with an FIR filed by Colaba Police station under sections 143, 149 IPC and 37(3), 135 of the Mumbai Police Act for the protest at the Gateway of India in January earlier this year.

By NS Venkataraman* Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the much-discussed natural gas pipeline between Kerala and Karnataka on January 5,2021. The story of this gas pipeline is a case study that can enable one to learn and unlearn about the government machinery deals with cause and effect of environmental activism.

Counterview Desk In an open letter, as many as 104 former civil servants have asked Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to withdraw the ordinance on interfaith marriage, insisting, “The anti-conversion ordinance of your state is being used as a stick to victimise, especially those Indian men who are Muslim and women who dare to exercise their freedom of choice.”

By By Surabhi Agarwal, Sandeep Pandey, Kushagra Kumar* Writer, poet, artist, perennial protestor and Dalit leader Sudhir Dhawale, arrested and jailed in mid-2018, remains incarcerated under charges of the controversial Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and assorted Indian Penal Codes. He has been accused of instigating violence at Bhima Koregaon event on January 1, 2018.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Reminiscing the outrageous murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Ranjan Kumar Das a year ago without doubt signaled new wave of authoritarian onslaught on democratic movements in Odisha. It suggested how the Odisha government failed to protect the lives of RTI activists. Ranjan was murdered near his village Beruan in the Kendrapara district of Odisha on 31st January 2020. Indeed, like his friends, family, fellow RTI activists and acquittances, I am yet to recover from this shocking news. 

By Rajiv Shah Did the Government of India come up with the three farm laws, first rushed by promulgating ordinances in June 2020, to not just open the country’s agricultural sector to the corporate sector but also as a precursor to comply with the requirements of the United States for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as envisaged by the outgoing US president Donald Trump?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* When the focus of the country's intellectuals, activists and journalists should be on the immediate challenge before us, particularly on issues of agrarian sector and farming communities protesting against the three farm bills, 'liberals' and 'seculars' seems to be more obsessed with the Gandhi family. The fulmination of Ramchandra Guha against the Gandhi family will neither help secularism nor democracy. At best, it will help BJP and Hindutva, whom Guha claims to despise so much.

By Kishan Kashyap, Shubham Agarwal, Vaishak P*  The Government of India appears to be exceptionally good at two things – public relations and image management. On March 22, 2020, people gathered in their balconies and outside their houses across the country for the “thaali bajao”, a utensil banging even whose call was given by the Prime Minister in support of frontline workers. In his address, Narendra Modi called it a show of appreciation for “boosting” the morale of corona warriors.

By Mohan Guruswamy* The monthlong agitation by well provisioned and organised and mostly Jat farmers from Punjab and Haryana has gripped the attention of the nation. It is in many ways reminiscent of the agitation at Maruti’s Gurgaon plant where the permanent workers get among the highest wages paid to industrial workers in the country.

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

By Kashif Khan* Farmers and workers in India last month initiated a general strike that saw the participation of over 250 million people. Many have touted this as the biggest organized strike ever witnessed in human history. On November 26, millions of farmers and workers along with students, social organizations and opposition participated in "Bharat Bandh" against the Narendra Modi's contentious pro-corporate farm bills.

By Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant, Sandeep Pandey* Should a government come up with laws to protect a corporation against liability lawsuits, or should it come up with laws to regulate corporations and empower citizens so that corporations can be held to account for any kind of abuses or exploitation?

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.

By Arjun Kumar* The labour market has severely felt the brunt of the pandemic. While every nation has shared in the impact, responses to overcome the struggle have been varied. Elucidating on the state of employment in Brazil, Dr Ian Prates, researcher, Brazilian Centre of Analysis and Planning remarked, “The effect of pandemic on the labour market became a major reason for the impact on the lives of the people. 80% of the drop in per capita household income is the result of the drop in labour income.”

By Priyanka Preet, Sandeep Pandey, Kushagra Kumar* Gautam Navlakha is a famed author, civil rights activists, human rights activist, journalist, an Editorial Consultant at the “Economic and Political Weekly”, probably the most internationally well known social sciences journal published out of India, the convenor of the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and the Secretary of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights.

By Nilkantha Mandal, Sandeep Pandey, Kushagra Kumar* Surendra Gadling, now in jail in the Bhima-Koregoan violence case, is a human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist based in Nagpur. He is known for taking up cases of extra-judicial killings, police excesses and atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis in Gadchiroli and Gondia districts of Maharashtra. 

By Abhishek Daimari* Unlike the 1980s, the youth of Kashmir today reflect the Arab Spring movement where social media communication and reach take the forefront. This new generation uses these platforms to increase the movement's reach and organize their mobilizations. Stone-pelting has become much more prevalent than when the valley was sprawling with youths carrying guns.

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

By Dr Arjun Kumar, Ritika Gupta, Anshula Mehta* Covid-19 has impacted all our lives and livelihoods as restrictions have been imposed on mobility and movement to check the spread of the virus. International trade is one of the activities which has been deeply affected, especially for those countries that are deeply dependent on imported goods and services.

Former IPS officer Darapuri  By Siddharth Modi* The caste system in India is the oldest surviving social hierarchy. India is as much a caste-based country as it is an agriculture-based country. The whole societal structure is based on castes and class – dating back to the four varnas system, i.e. the Brahmins (priests), the Kshatriyas (soldiers), the Vaisyas (traders) and the Shudras (labourers). A fifth category that falls outside the varna system is that of the untouchables or the Dalits.

By Harsh Thakor The real Jesus Christ and what is professed today by the Church or Christianity at large today is like chalk and cheese. Today we celebrate Christmas, but we forget to give the day true respect. The Christian community immortalizes Jesus Christ for performing miracles like turning wine into water or resurrecting from the grave.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* The surge of wealth of Indian billionaires and the Modi-led BJP government’s onslaught on poor, marginalised and farmers continue to grow simultaneously as masses face annihilating pandemic of coronavirus. There is 90 % rise of Indian billionaire’s wealth over last one decade. It is not accidental.

By Sounak Bhadra* Tenzin Tsundue, a 42-year-old Tibetan artist, essayist and Rangzen (freedom) activist, first grabbed the eye of the worldwide media in 2002 for enrolling a surprising type of dissent against the Chinese control of Tibet. During Chinese leader Zhu Rongji's visit to Mumbai, Tsundue climbed the platform outside the lodging at which Rongji was staying and spread out a 20-foot pennant that read "Free Tibet: China, Get Out.”

By Shiv Dutt Barhat* Every country, has its share of minorities, whether linguistic, cultural or ethnic. For nearly all the countries, maintaining and securing their interests is a problem. And, for the biggest democracy in the world with largest spectrum of diversity it becomes a far more complex.

By Our Representative In a surprise move, Amnesty International, which shut down its India branch after a recent move by the Enforcement Directorate to freeze the organisation’s accounts charging it with “violation” of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and alleging money laundering, has sharply criticised the Australian government for “dangerously” downplaying human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in a recent report.

Counterview Desk In a call to workers organisations for solidarity action in support of the protesting farmers, more than 40 trade unions and labour associations have claimed that the Government of India’s sole aim is to “push big corporate control over all aspects of farming, especially to allow farm produce to be bought by big corporates at low prices”.

By Vikas Kumar* In an interview to three of us**, prominent Pakistani physicist and noted peace activist Dr Abdul Hameed Nayyar talks of the dynamics of nuclear disarmament between India and Pakistan. Dr Nayyar taught nuclear physics at Quaid-E-Azam University, Islamabad, for 30 years and was a visiting scholar at at the Princeton University. He is well known for voicing for education reforms and military arms control.

By Akash R Gedam* The discussion on what should happen with Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) has always been an interesting one, with no feasible, sustainable solution that can ensure peace in the valley on the table. While as an Indian, one might think of the J&K for its strategic location benefits for the military purpose, and the utter pride to say that such beautiful heaven is present in my country.

By Shamsul Islam* The Indian farm reforms laws of 2020 were rushed through Parliament on September 27, 2020. The BJP-led NDA government was in a hurry to impose these laws – these were promulgated by the President of India as ordinances on June 5, 2020 as part Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India campaign), a favourite aphorism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for imposing a series of measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*   In 1991, when I was 12 years old and in 8th class in my village high school, the Government of India led by the Congress Party launched new economic reform programmes. I vividly remember reading local newspapers, which carried news on the reduction of agricultural subsidies on seeds, fertilisers, electricity and irrigation. It also started dismantling the universal approach to food security and public distribution system in India. 

Counterview Desk The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a group of retired officers All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments, in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought comprehensive review the Central Vista project, insisting, the Government of India must engage in dialogue with citizens before implementing the high profile project.

Counterview Desk Supporters of farmers’ protest have begun publishing “Trolley Times”, a newsletter in Punjabi, Hindi and English . Not the official mouthpiece of the Sankyukt Kisan Morcha, or the Farmers’ Coordination Committee, the non-political body which is leading the struggle around Delhi, The “Trolley Times” is being brought out by writers, artists, activists in support of the Morcha.

By Utkarsh Bajpai*  The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.

By Vanita Pise* I am co-founder of the Mann Deshi Farmer Producer Company (MDFPC) which aims to organize 12,000 small and marginal farmers (70% will be women) to secure better prices for their farm produce. It was founded by Chetna Gala Sinha, the well-known social entrepreneur is stewarding a rural revolution in western Maharashtra. The epicenter of this movement is Mhaswad, a large village that nestles in Satara district, on the placid banks of Manganga River, some 300 km south-east of Mumbai.

By Shreshth Virmani* Sudhirbhai (name changed) is a tea vendor in Ahmedabad and since the time first curfew was imposed he has been struggling to survive. Now when the country has opened up, his earnings are nowhere near the pre-lockdown levels. Earlier he used to make about Rs 500 on daily basis but now it is less than Rs 200. People like Sudhirbhai are still struggling to meet their ends.

By Fareed Mohammad Ansari* The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been a politically controversial scheme ever since its inception in 2006. Some politicians have referred to fit as a means for menial jobs for poor, while others claim it as a symbol of the erstwhile UPA government’s failure. But the fact is, it is the only employment scheme that directly benefits the unemployed poor and downtrodden in the rural areas.

By Battini Rao* For nearly a month thousands of farmers are protesting at the Delhi border along with their wives and children in the coldest winters of Delhi against the anti- farmer laws and the electricity bill enacted by the BJP central government.

By Dr Gian Singh* The farmers’ struggle that started in Punjab, and has now spread across the country, is unique in many respects. There are few examples of such democratic and peaceful farmers’ struggles in the world. It has has attracted the attention of various sections of society and gained their sympathy and participation. It has turned into a people's struggle.

By Mahesh Trivedi   Dr AR Nakadar, the Gujarat-born United States-based cardiologist who founded Dr Nakadar Institute of Knowledge (DrNIK), in 2004, is happy to see spectacular progress made by the school. He has helped and guided communities in building hospitals, schools, and other social institutions in the USA and India.

Philanthropist Dr Abdul Rehman Nakadar with school kids By Mahesh Trivedi* There are countless Muslim-owned schools in Gujarat, infamous for the violent Hindu-Muslim clashes in 2002, but those offering higher secondary education are few and far between. But little-known Dr Nakadar Institute of Knowledge (DrNIK) situated in a small village stands out among them not only for its high standard of education but also for promoting communal harmony and many other unique special features.

Akash Singrodia* Are you an adult and thinking of getting married? Do you believe you have the freedom to marry the partner of your choice, even if he/she is from a different caste? If you think the answer to this question is ‘Yes’ on the premise of the fundamental rights granted by the Indian Constitution, then your beliefs are soon going to be shattered.

Banarasi's wife and son  By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* On May 24 morning, when villagers were went to the field to defecate in the open, they were shocked to see two bodies on the road. It was a brutal murder. The head of the one of them was severed from the body. The other man was lying unconscious on the other side of the road. There were some hockey sticks lying on the ground.

By Our Representative  Even though Gujarat farmers may not have gone in for massive protests against the three farm laws passed by Parliament, there has been some sporadic movement in the state despite clampdown by the police, including detention and house arrest of those trying to “escape” to North India to join the huge protestation taking shape around Delhi. The clampdown appears to have led to dissenting voices resorting to different ways of protest, including going in for social media campaign to express their solidarity. Some of the farmers’ supporters have quietly painted walls in different parts of Ahmedabad. Social worker Hofeza Ujjaini in a WhatsApp alert to Counterview says, slogans on walls have appeared in about half-a-dozen areas of Ahmedabad, including several spots around the Gujarat University, Gujarat College, Lal Darwaja and the District Panchayat office. Insisting that these are all “anonymous”, he has sent some of the across photographs.