Gujarati Sahitya Parishad building in Ahmedabad  I was surprised over what they say in the US, a “tempest in a teapot”: An article by Dankesh Oza , a Gujarat government official who took voluntary retirement about a decade ago, stated in an article in the site I manage, Counterview.in, that two “oldies” (both octogenarians) were fighting Gujarat Sahitya Parishad polls, which has over 3,000 life-time members as voters. He appeared to support a relatively younger, though retired, person who was a key government official “looking after” Gujarati literature.

 If you are a doting as well as a discerning parent with a baby or toddler this is for you! A new study, ‘What’s in the Diaper: Presence of Phthalates in Baby Diapers’ released by Delhi-based advocacy organisation, Toxics Link, has sought to raise concern over toxic phthalates which it says have been found in disposable baby nappies that are available in the Indian market.

A few days back, India’s home minister Amit Shah, currently “recuperating at his residence” (to quote a former Gujarat official, currently in Delhi) after he contracted novel coronavirus, once again raised controversy by pitching for Hindi as the only language that “can do the work of uniting the country”, because it is the “most spoken language”. He did this a year after he made a similar statement on Hindi Diwas, which falls on September 16.  Usually I don’t care for what politicians say about Hindi, as I think they usually talk from a commonsensical perspective, without taking into account any facts before them. They are more concerned with consolidating their constituency – in the case of Amit Shah it happens to be the Hindu majority in what is often described as Hindi mainland. A somewhat similar effort was made, I recall, way back in 1960s, when an attempt was made by north Indian politicians to impose Hindi, even Sansktritise it, setting off a reaction in the south, particu...

As farmers’ agitation gripped the country on September 25, a retired IAS bureaucrat, whom I have known for nearly two decades, phoned me us to get a feel of what I felt would be its impact. I said, I don’t know, as it is too early to assess, but I wondered whether the fact that it shook the entire country would mean that tables have begun turning against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  This bureaucrat, who has been a keen watcher of the Indian political scene and has been in direct touch with those in the top positions of power, said, “Indeed, this is what many of the bureaucrats across India have begun to discuss... After all, we in the administration have always had access to know what the mood of the political masters is...” This bureaucrat, who has mostly served in Gujarat, suggested that the agricultural bills, passed in Parliament, show that Modi was ill-advised, or “to be more precise, there is nobody left around whom to whom he would listen.” The bureaucrat agreed, there was...

Recently, there was some controversy (storm in a teacup?) around a photograph. A photo went viral on the social media following an unemployed youth demonstration in Lucknow, picked up by several Facebook and Twitter enthusiasts, including journalist Rohini Singh, who claimed in a tweet it was a clear case of sexual harassment of a female demonstrator at the hands of a UP cop.  I couldn’t find the tweet, which I believe she must have deleted following a UP police “ clarification ” that, “since the crowd was huge, it was difficult to distinguish between the genders on the basis of their attire”, hence, by mistake, “the female protestor was taken away by the police personnel, after mistaking her for a man.” It added, “Even the female protestor has acknowledged the misunderstanding caused over the attire.” A video simultaneously went viral where the female protestor is seen stating that she was indeed a protester near Gate No 1 of Lucknow University, but the cops mistook her “for a boy...

A rally felicitating new state BJP chief CR Patil This was scary: A very close friend, near and dear to me, phoned me and told me that he was in “frantic search” of a hospital bed for a relative in Ahmedabad, but to his utter surprise there is a “long queue” everywhere. The reason for the search, he said, was a relative from a neighbouring state had rung him up to inquire whether one could come over to Ahmedabad to get post-Covid treatment, as hospitals were “full” in the city where this relative lived.  “I inquired in all top Ahmedabad private hospitals taking in Covid patients, including Apollo, Zydus, CIMS, elsewhere. They took my contact number and told me that all beds were full, and there was a long waiting list, hence they couldn’t give a date”, this friend, who happens to move around in Ahmedabad’s established business circles, told me. “This made me approach an influential journalist I know who could talk over with hospital managements”, my friend noted, adding, “The reply...

An interesting story  in The Wire” on how the Sangh Parivar had “organized” the 1995 Ganesha milk miracle and why the plan flopped” a quarter of a century ago took my memory down the lane back to September 21, 1995, the day I began seeing long queues in Ahmedabad with people trying to “feed” Ganesha idols with milk in small and big temples, mysteriously wondering how the Lord was “drinking away” all the milk they were feeding. The queues must have continued for at least a week.  I didn’t stand in any of the queues, but surely I found that many of my relatives, inimical in standing in queues, buying up Ganesha idols from the market telling me how they were “surprised” by the mysterious disappearance of the milk. While I don’t want to endorse or deny whether it was a Sangh Parivar plot, or if it flopped, what I surely remember how the then chief minister of Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel, went on to endorse the “miracle”. He said, “Haa… Bhagwan Ganesh doodh pive chche” (of course, Lor...

The global civil society alliance, CIVICUS, in its new report: “Punished for speaking up: The ongoing use of restrictive laws to silence dissent in India”, has taken strong exception to the judicial harassment of activists, targeting of journalists and crackdown on protesters, even as pointing towards how rights violations have continued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term, including during the pandemic. 

A few days back I wrote a blog, giving the example of Facebook ads, on how advertisement could go to some length in deterring crucial news stories which may embarrass those in power – whether in the corporate or the political world. I had cited example of my experience as a “Times of India” man, first in Ahmedabad and then in Gandhinagar, on how this happens.  There appears some reaction to my blog, with some on social media particularly seeking to highlight the fact that ads do play a certain role in "blocking" certain types of news, as it would happen during biennial Vibrant Gujarat summits, involving top Indian businessmen. However, I just tried putting facts as these occurred to me, without seeking to comment on whether the corporate-owned media – which the “Times of India” was and is – blocks free expression, too. Let me put it things straight: Corporate media is owned by businessmen, who consider newspapers as a means to earn profit. This is as much true of the “Times o...

Justice AP Shah, former chief justice of the Delhi and Madras High Courts, has regretted that the start of the Supreme Court’s decline “coincided with the coming to power of the BJP-led NDA government in 2014”, adding, “Every institution, mechanism or tool that is designed to hold the executive accountable is being systematically destroyed.”

I was a little amused on reading Bhaskar Sur, a virulent Facebook commentator on Left, noting that “Bengali Marxists” have always hated Dr BR Ambedkar. A rather longish post, running into more than 1,000 words, While Sur observes that, to the “upper caste Marxists”, the “towering Dalit intellectual and lifelong fighter for social justice” was “a stooge of the British trying to divide the proletariat and the nationalist movement at the behest of his masters”.  This view, he says, was also taken by “Subhas Bose in the Congress and Shyamaprasad Mukherjee in the extreme rightist Hindu Mahasabha”, adding, “The Left were also vehemently against reservation in jobs for Dalits and tribals achieved through hard struggle by Ambedkar and the other leaders of the depressed classes.” In fact, “Marxists saw them not as entitlements but sops and a part of the imperialist conspiracy to drive a wedge through the working class movement.” Calling Brahminical Left “an extremely regressive force”, Sur...

Several senior human rights and environmental activists, protesting against the Gujarat government decision to order  externment  of Lakhan Musafir from five South Gujarat districts, have said the charges against the grassroots activist fighting for tribal and forest rights in the area around the Sardar Sarovar dam are “ridiculously false.”

A journalist-friend rang me up from Mumbai yesterday. A routine call, this friend wanted to know how the situation was with regard to Covid-19 pandemic in Gujarat, especially Ahmedabad. I told him that I don't have facts, as I am not in live touch with officials anymore, quite unlike earlier, when as a "Times of India", man was posted in Gandhinagar, there is reason to wonder whether the data released by the officialdom are correct. Take for instance Ahmedabad city, I said. Here, the number of Covid-infected cases, strangely, have been hovering around 150 every day for the last nearly one month. They rise to 155-156 on one day, then fall to 145-146 on another, and vice versa. They do not rise, nor do they fall. There is a popular view: The data are being manipulated, with local journalists claiming the disease is "spreading" and one should "take care".  I joked: We are being forced to live in a self-reliant manner, alluding to the Atmanirbhar Bharat ta...

For quite some time, sitting at home amidst coronavirus pandemic, I have been watching Facebook and WhatsApp advertisement on TV. I am bewildered: Why did Facebook, or for that matter WhatsApp, bought over by Facebook in 2014, need to propagate their business? They are, from all indications, No 1 on social media. So, why did they need to advertise? The ads tried to suggest how the two social media have helped "those in need" during these adverse times. One of the Facebook ads showed an elderly couple of our age telling us that their daughter, living in another city, organised for them vegetables and other daily necessities with the help Facebook friends so that they didn't need to go out.  Another ad showed a woman doctor stating that, thanks to Facebook, lots of "doctors, nurses, ward boys" have not been able to go back to their home, but none of them as homeless, as they to able to find house near the hospital, often without any rental, as they didn't want...

  The Gujarat government’s Flood Manual (FM) does not appear to think that the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), the powerful inter-state body with Central water resources secretary as its chairperson, has any role to play in the flood management and gate operation on a day-to-day basis of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) on Narmada river in Gujarat. 

  In a move that would cause consternation in India’s top policy makers in the Modi government, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, has singled out Pakistan among seven countries that have set “examples” in investing in a healthier and safer future in order to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

  A top Gujarat government insider, who has worked for umpteen number of years in the state’s huge Narmada and water resources establishment, believes that the recent controversy surrounding the “extraordinary” flooding of Bharuch district of South Gujarat from August 29 to September 2 Gujarat, fails to take into account a major factor.

  A new study 'Environmental illusion: The non-woven bag' by the Delhi-based advocacy organisation Toxics Link, has sought to bust the myth that non-woven (NW) bags are an eco-friendly alternative to plastic bags. The study reveals that they are nothing but polypropylene (a form of plastic).

Over  720 signatories , in a solidarity statement with Prof K Satyanarayana, who was summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on September 9 along with senior journalist KV Kurmanath, have said that this is a “fresh round of harassment” of academics and activists by NIA, which is trying to “falsely” implicate them in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Larissa Waters created history in 2017, breastfed her baby in Senate In a surprise move, the Australian Greens, the third largest party in the country, is up arms against the Government of India for alleged human rights violations amidst Covid-19 pandemic. Close on the heels of the Greens of the New South Wales senate  asking  the Australian government to include human rights clause in trade negotiations with India, Larissa Walters, leader of the Greens in the federal senate, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “rounding up critics in the shadow of the virus.” 

Senior environmentalist Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has  disputed  the  claim  by four top retired officials that the Sardar Sarovar Dam’s (SSD’s) “systematic operation” helped avert severe flood in Bharuch between August 29 and September 2, asserting, the flood disaster “happened entirely due to the sudden release of massive quantities of water from SSD.” 

The latest civil society-sponsored tracker of the Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), which seeks to focus on the state of implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Bihar, states that 34.3 lakh households were provided employment this year, which is the highest in the last three years, “Yet 18% of the households demanded but did not receive employment.”

 The Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (BASAM), a rights organization, has said that while on May 5, 2019, five people became victims of manual scavenging in an incident which left 3 injured and 2 dead in Bhagya Vihar, Delhi, one of the injured, Sher Singh, is currently battling for his life, yet, despite the Delhi Chief Minister’s statement, they have not been given the compensatory amount.