Unite India, Save Constitution yatra seeks legal ban on cop firing on nonviolent protests

By A Representative
A Unite India, Save Constitution yatra, which was not allowed to commence from Delhi on January 30 by the police despite having necessary permissions, continued normally after it crossed Rajasthan border after it passed through Gurgaon. While in Rewari in Haryana, BJP workers protested against the yatra, on reaching Rajasthan, it was able to conduct programmes in Kotputli, Shuklawas and Chandwaji, before reaching Jaipur.
After conducting public assemblies at Jaipur's Albert Hall, Kumaranand Hall and Shaheed Smaarak, where people were told about adverse impact of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), the yatra reached Udaipur, where it addressed media.
To proceed to Madhya Pradesh via Dungarpur and Baswada, apart from making people aware of CAA-NRC-NPR, yatra leaders told people how the government was failing to create jobs in the rural areas, even as undermining the premiere rural guarantee scheme. Mahatma Gandhi National Employee Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Socialist leader Dr Sunilam, a yatra leader, told newspersons in Udaipur that the yatra was meant to observe 85 years of socialist movement. Those participating in the yatra include representatives of the Samajwadi Samagam, Rastra Seva Dal, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, National Association of People's Movements, Socialist Organizations, Yusuf Meher Ali Center and the Samajwadi Vichar Yatra.
The aim of the yatra, said a communique by its organisers, is to restore the values of the socialist movement of India, establish constitutional values and counter anti-constitutional measures like CAA-NRC and NPR, privatization of public sector, rising unemployment, rising inequality, mob lynching, conspiracy to destroy crores of tribals, increasing crimes on Dalits, women and minorities, and so on.
Dr Sunilam said, the 2020 budget presented by the Finance Minister was anti-people and favourable to corporates. Instead of allocating 65 percent of the budget for the 65 percent of the population living in rural India, the budget allocation for farmers was not even 2 percent of the total, he added.

65 percent of the population lives in rural India, but budget allocation for farmers is not even 2 percent of the total

Criticizing privatization of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) as it "will destroy the insurance industry", Dr Sunilam said, the country does not need trains like Tejas, rather the government needs to improve the conditions of existing trains and the quality of services and security offered to passengers.
He added, sufficient funds have not been apportioned for farmer debt-relief and Minimum Support Price (MSP). A co-convenor of the yatra, he said that the budget has made no provisions of unemployment grants for the 15 crore jobless people of India and that the government has completely failed in its promise to provide 100 day employment under MGNREGS.
Saying that the reduction of 9,500 crore in MGNREGS budget is against the interests of the unemployed, Dr Sunilam asserted that the allocation should have been at least 1 lakh crore. He added, even after having 14 different kinds of government-approved identity cards, the proposal of a 15th card through the new law, costing coffers Rs 70,000 crore, is a wastage of taxpayer’s resources.
Those leading the yatra included Doctor Javed of the Samajwadi Vichaar Yatra, Bal Bhai from Rajasthan, Rohan Gupta from Jharkhand, PJ Josey from Kerala, Lokesh Bhiwani from Haryana and Ganesh Gondare from Maharashtra.

The yatra put forward several demands from the Government of India, including cancellation CAA, NRC and NPR; legal restrictions on police firing on non-violent movements; prohibition of privatization of public sector units, education and health services; include the right to employment in fundamental rights; debt relief to farmers; and so on.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Academics urge Azim Premji University to drop FIR against Student Reading Circle

By A Representative A group of academics and civil society members has issued an open letter to the leadership of Azim Premji University expressing concern over the filing of a police complaint that led to an FIR against a student-run reading circle following a recent incident of violence on campus. The signatories state that they hold the university in high regard for its commitment to constitutional values, critical inquiry and ethical public engagement, and argue that it is precisely because of this reputation that the present development is troubling.

Search This Blog