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Showing posts from January, 2020

More than 5,200 Gujarat schools to be closed down, merged, says govt document

RTE Forum, Gujarat, releasing fact-sheet on education A Gujarat government  document  has revealed that it is planning to close down 5,223 schools in the name of school merger. The document, dated July 20, 201 was released by the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, Gujarat. It shows that the worst-affected districts because of this merger are those which are populated by marginalized communities – especially tribals, Dalits and minorities, said RTE Forum’s Gujarat convener Mujahid Nafees.

Top Congress leader Mistry suggests solution to end 'impasse' by amending CAA

A senior Congress leader, considered close to interim party president Sonia Gandhi, has suggested a way out of the current impasse on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is being opposed across India for making religion as the basis for providing citizenship to the persecuted minorities from three neighbouring countries -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Nirbhaya case: Death penalty being used to 'distract' public from state accountability

Even as the date for the execution of Nirbhaya rape case convicts -- Akshay Kumar Singh, Mukesh, Pawan Kumar and Vinay Sharma -- draws nearer (February 1, 2020), the Coalition Against Sexual Violence and Death Penalty has said that "execution is not the solution to the problem of sexual crimes. It is only a spectacle created to distract us."

India's 30% girls from poorest families have never set foot inside a classroom: RTE Forum

A fact-sheet released by the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, a network of 10,000 civil society organizations across 19 states, has revealed that girls are twice less likely as boys to receive 4 years of schooling. It further said, 30% of girls from the poorest families have never set foot inside a classroom, and 40% of adolescent girls between ages 15-18 years are not attending any educational institution.

Right-wing ideologues' new assertion: There's 'nothing Indian' about Constitution

There was a time when we used to reject the Indian Constitution as "bourgeois". Those were the student days of early 1970s. Vigorous, youthful, though controversial. At that time, I used to be part of the Students Federation of India (SFI), CPI-M's student wing. We were told to believe by Delhi University party ideologues that the Constitution served the bourgeois-landlord state, led by the big bourgeoisie, which was in alliance with the imperialists.

China justifies Modi's whopping 4,200 hrs internet shutdown: Economic loss $1.3 billion

  India appears to be competing with terrorist-stricken north-central African nation, Chad, in the number of internet shutdowns. In 2019, says a recent report, released by the UK-based top10vpn.com, which provides services meant to protect online privacy, India experienced 4,196 hours of internet shutdown, next only to Chad, with 4,728 hours of internet shutdown.

Just 7% poor Gujarat kids 'admitted' in private schools under RTE: Who all are left out?

The other day, I went to attend an NGO event in Ahmedabad. It was called "Policies of Inclusion: Education and Wealth". Organised at the Ahmedabad Management Association by an NGO which claims to be working with governments in 22 states, including that of Gujarat, I attended the event during the second half, and my job seemed limited to answering a couple of queries on the role of media in helping usher in inclusive policies though development journalism. I don't know how far I satisfied those who attended the event. My argument was straight: While the corporate-controlled media would oblige you if you do proper media advocacy, you cannot expect much from it, as its interests lie somewhere else. I recalled how a top media baron struck a big cross after jotting down "liberal social agenda" on the board, stating, "We are in the business of news." So the way out, I suggested, was to look for alternative media for propagating inclusiveness, offered by seve...

Gujarat Congress MLA 'siding with attackers' of Dalit RTI activist: Fact-finding team

A fact-finding team member with Amit Parmar A civil society fact-finding team has taken strong exception to a Dalit MLA belonging to the Congress, Pravin Maru, for pressurizing the local administration in Botad district to take back the police complaint concerning brutal attack on Dalit rights and Right to Information (RTI) activist Amit Parmar, belonging to Khopala village. Instead of helping Parmar, the Congress MLA is siding of the attackers, Parmar’s family members alleged while talking with the team.

Supreme Court's 'interim' order: Children shouldn't be sent to Assam detention centres

In what is considered a big win for the human rights organization, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), the Supreme Court has asked the Assam government to ensure that no children of parents, whose names have been included in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list, be sent to detention centres or be separated from their parents.

Repression on anti-CAA, NRC protesters: Are 'notable figures' silent? Not any more

In an amusing opinion piece in “Washington Post” (WP), former "Tehelka" journalist Rana Ayyub  – whose book on Gujarat riots, “Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up”, based on her undercover operations with government officials as a documentary filmmaker, made her famous – has blamed three Bollywood Khans, but most notably Saif Ali Khan, for playing an “off-screen role, enabling the worst impulses of the government.” The WP opinion piece seemed amusing to me, because, it is doubtful if highly well-informed journalist Ayub wasn’t in know of what was happening in Bollywood, though she lives in Mumbai. There is reason to wonder: When the WP piece appeared, there were no ripples of unease in the Bollywood over the police clampdown. Referring to “police vandalism and brutality” on anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters, especially in Uttar Pradesh, which led to several deaths, Ayub said in the opinion piece,  titled  “As repression in India gets worse, notable figures ...

Modi told: Reach out to Muslims, dispel fear they won't be sent to detention camps

Firoz Bakht Ahmed, chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that "Muslims of India need a reassurance from you that they are  not going to be deposed or stuffed into detention camps with the deprivation of their assets. "In his letter to Modi, Ahmed, who is grandnephew of Maulana Azad and is known to be at loggerheads with the mainstream administration of MANUU, said, he should "lead" a team with his "trusted guards to have a word with the community that they should not worry" about their "safe future in India".

Central Gujarat industrial units discharge polluted wastewater, harming farms: CPCB

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Government of India's anti-pollution watchdog, has taken strong exception to the Vadodara Enviro Channel Ltd (VECL), responsible for disposal of treated waste water of hundreds of industrial units in and around Vadodara, for virtually discharging  effluents into the estuarine zone of Mahi river, Gulf of Khambhat.

Gandhi's grandson, Khudai Khidmatgar chief among advisers to US Hindu rights group

Rajmohan Gandhi The Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), a US-wide advocacy organization claiming to be committed to the "ideals of multi-religious pluralism in the United States, India and beyond", advocate peace, justice and human rights of all communities from a Hindu perspective, has declared it has appointed a group of advisors, including Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Rajmohan Gandhi.