Counterview

Counterview Desk In a statement, an international civil rights network, People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), has regretted that the new year has “kicked off with intensified repression targeting the rural sector”, citing how this is happening in several countries, including India. With offices in Philippines, Zambia, Bolivia and Jordan, and supporting land rights NGOs across the world, PCSF’s is pitted against “neoliberal globalization on food and agriculture policies.”

Counterview Desk In a rejoinder to the National Alliance Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM) claim  published in Counterview (“Assam land rights struggle: Corporate-state nexus behind arrests, violence, says NAPM”, January 21), Azure Power -- criticised for setting aside the farmers' rights under land acquisition laws -- has said that its conduct has been “environmentally-public friendly” and is purchasing land in a “lawful and fair manner.”

By Shamsul Islam* The photographs here show a Hindutva protagonist, Deep Sidhu, with his real masters. He is said to be the culprit who tried to derail the historic farmers' struggle by putting up a religious flag at Red Fort on January 26, with no Delhi police which works under the Indian home minister Amit Shah, a senior RSS cadre who is often described 'Iron Man' by Hindutva camp-followers. 

By Harsh Thakor* A historic peaceful march in the Capital of over 20 lakh peasants riding on eight lakh tractors is being foisted as a conspiracy against the nation. The sinister act of hoisting the Sikh flag at the Red Fort was undertaken by a person suspected to be a BJP agent, Deep Sidhu. He allegedly infiltrated the ranks, masquerading as a farmer activist.

By Shantanu Basu* The Red Fort 'assault' seems to be a premeditated one... Forty unions not part of Sanyukt Kisaan Morcha (SMK) refuse to follow the agreed pathways for the rally and say they would have their own rally. Next a BJP goon, with numerous pics with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah on the Internet, arrives and makes an inflammatory speech at one of the venues, suggesting that farmers had militant links and were acting at the latter's behest.

By NS Venkataraman* From time immemorial, people have been migrating from one country to another. When India was ruled by British, thousands of poor Indians were taken to African countries, Caribbean countries, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other places to work in plantations, construction activities etc.

Counterview Desk Regretting that there is “passivity” of world powers to resolve the Kashmir dispute, a Washington DC based Kashmiri diaspora organisation has wondered if new US President Joseph Biden will “get involved” in resolving allegedly one of the oldest unresolved international problems pending on the agenda of the UN Security Council.

Counterview Desk The virtual Kisan Sansad, a civil society initiative held on January 23 and 24, 2021 at the Guru Teg Bahadur Memorial at Singhu, Delhi, has demanded the repeal of the three central farm laws, legalisation of minimum support price (MSP), and condemned the government’s “repression” of the farmer protests.

Counterview Desk Taking strong exception to the “continued incarceration” of Assam’s top civil rights leader Akhil Gogoi for more than 400 days and denial of bail by the Guwahati High Court, India’s civil society network National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has said, it is “disquieting” that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a Central agency which is supposed to investigate terror cases, is being used to “bulldoze” democratic and mass peaceful movements and their leadership.

By Sanjib Pohit* It seems that that there is a complete breakdown of trust between the Union government and farmers. The multiple rounds of negotiations, offer to negotiate clause by clause of the farms’ bills fail to convince the farmers. As a result, there is no sign that the sit-in by the farmers around Delhi’s border would go up in the near future. It appears to have tuned into a question of ego on both sides.

By Shamsul Islam* The 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose fell on January 23, 2021. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a senior RSS cadre who identifies himself as Hindu nationalist was in Kolkata to inaugurate the celebrations given the nomenclature, 'Parakram Diwas' (Valour Day).

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose would have been truly proud of India and its military might”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a programme organised to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary, which falls next year, 2022. But then the current regime is 'expert' in political profit and loss. Leaders acquire importance in accordance with their 'public image value'.

By Our Representative In a unique protest move, the Socialist Kisan Sabha (SKS), an Uttar Pradesh based farmers’ rights group, has decided has decided that on January 26, 2021, when the farmers will be entering Delhi on tractors, its cadres will show solidarity support by taking stray cattle to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence to take care of them.

London diaspora protest  By Our Representative In a memorandum submitted to Indian embassies, mainly across Europe, several Indian diaspora groups have demanded repeal of the three farm laws, calling them “unjust.” In their statement, they said, the Indian farmers have been protesting since the three laws as these were passed “hurriedly in August 2020 without holding consultations with the farmers’ groups.”

By NS Venkataraman* In 1991, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was murdered at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, while he was there to address a public meeting. He was killed by a woman suicide bomber, who belonged to the terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and she was also killed. Along with Rajiv Gandhi, another fourteen innocent persons were killed in the explosion and more than 40 people were injured.

By Dr Gurinder Kaur* According to the data released on January 14, 2021 by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2016 was the hottest year on record since 1880, with an average temperature rise of 1.00 degree Celsius. With an average temperature rise of 0.98 degree Celsius; 2020 got the second place pushing 2019 to third place.

By Dr Arjun Kumar, Ritika Gupta* Delivering a Special Lecture organized by Centre for Work and Welfare (CWW) at the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI) on Labour, Employment and Pandemic: Policy Suggestions and Way Forward for Budget 2021, Prof Santosh Mehrotra, retired professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), observed that the fiscal stimulus provided by the Government of India (GoI) post-lockdown was severely inadequate. It was only a fraction of what was provided post the 2008 global financial meltdown where the effects on the economy were comparatively mediocre, he maintains.

By Our Representative A United Nations human rights official has called upon the Government of India (GoI) to “immediately release" 16 human rights defenders who have been imprisoned on charges of terrorism in the Bhima-Koregaon Case, insisting, “These people should not be in jail. They are our modern-day heroes and we should all be looking to them and supporting them and demanding their release.”  

By Sandeep Pandey, Simran Kaur, Harleen Sandhu* BJP and its ideological parent, RSS, have used religion in manipulating the sentiments of the masses to gain political mileage, strengthening its grassroots presence as well as skyrocketing its electoral mandate. A mosque was demolished a few decades ago to mobilize the Hindu votes in the name of building a temple at the same exact spot.

By NS Venkataraman* From time immemorial, agriculture has always remained as an important and one of the most respected subjects in India. In recent times, it is receiving much more attention and considerable technology inputs and management techniques. This is a welcome development.

By Our Representative In India, nearly 40% girls remain out of school in the age-group of 15-18 years, a new policy brief , prepared by the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, an education rights network, has said. The policy brief has been released to mark the International Day of Education and National Girl Child Day, falling on January 24.

By Dr Radhika Pandey* One of the biggest challenges facing India, since even before the pandemic, is the state of unemployment in the country. While the unemployment rate in the country has been gradually increasing since 2017, it came to the attention of the media and the public eye amidst the pandemic when countless migrants lost their jobs and were forced to walk back to their villages.

By Soumi Roy Chowdhury, Devendra B Gupta, Sanjib Pohit* In India, everybody regards water pollution is an externality, and an outcome of production and/or consumption process with laxity in environmental also standard in the society. There is a general agreement that it affects the society in a multitude of ways. For instance, takes the case of the Ganga basin with an area of around 1,080,000 square km spread across several states of India namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal running across a total length of 2,525 kms.

By Our Representative Senior activists from the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), along with around 100 organisations, which began a three day virtual consultation on human rights issues, have demanded repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, stating that these laws are being used as a tool to finish democracy and silence dissent.

Counterview Desk A letter to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, written “on behalf of” the civil rights organisation Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA)*, has expressed concern regarding the proposed scheme for home delivery of rations,, stating, the 'CM Ghar-Ghar Ration Scheme' is being pushed by the government without any public consultation, disclosure of relevant information, awareness creation and without any piloting of the delivery mechanism.

Affected villagers Counterview Desk Condemning alleged "police-state atrocities" against Karbi and Adivasi farmers of Mikir Bamuni Grant cluster of villages in Assam for protesting against the "questionable purchase" of their cultivable land in the name of Green Energy, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has sought immediate stop to all "arrests, police persecution and intimidation, violence against women and villagers".

Counterview Desk In a letter to the secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India, and copies to the Gujarat chief secretary, Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority CEO, and senior officials of the state industries and forests and environment department, Gujarat government, top environmentalists Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS), have asserted that the groundwater samples from the Badi-Hoidad mining area suggests water has gone just unfit for drinking as also agricultural use.

By Sanjeev Sirohi* The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on December 28, 2020 had expressed shock on arbitrary exercise of brute power by the police against lawyers, including the search conducted at the premises of an advocate representing some of the accused in the North-East Delhi riots cases.

Counterview Desk Condemning the demolition of settlements in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), India’s top civil rights network, has said that the loud talk about Smart City stands in sharp contrast to demolition of hundreds of houses in the area around Teliana railway in the city.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* Hindutva neoliberalism in India is a specific variant of capitalism that enforces economic and political oligarchy in the name of ethnic and majoritarian nationalism. It liberalises market for few to establish dominant corporate monopoly. It does not allow complete free market competition as a distributive mechanism. It allows few crony corporations to control the production processes, coordinate the distribution mechanisms, and determine the nature of demand and supply in Indian economy.

By Darpan Jain* “We are in an undeclared emergency”, were the words of one of my professors in a session where we talked about one of the darkest periods in India’s democratic history: The 1975 emergency. This was not the first time I heard this, especially during the past few years. For a long time, the Indian populace had been dealing with coalition governments, until Narendra Modi’s BJP ran home with 282 seats and stretched it to 302 in 2019!

London protest for release of Stan Swamy  By Rajiv Shah Will Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, especially the fact that he is a Christian and a priest, turn out to be major international embarrassment for the Government of India? It may well happen, if a recent debate on a resolution titled “India: Persecution of Minority Groups” in the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament is any indication. While Jesuits have protested Fr Stan's arrest in UK and US, the resolution, adopted in the Parliament, said, “This House has considered the matter of persecution of Muslims, Christians and minority groups in India”.

By Dr Simi Mehta* Agriculture being the heart of every civilization, the sector and the lifeline of the sectors -- the farmers -- deserve a much better attention. The new laws formed by the current government have created havoc in the country with farmers marching to the borders of capital city to show their repulsion against the laws.

By Our Representative Calling upon non-farmers to support the farmers’ struggle, who have been protesting along Delhi borders for more than 50 days, Magsaysay Award winning journalist and social activist P Sainath has said that the three laws which the Government of India passed is an infringement of India's federal structure and the Indian Constitution.

Haryana TU activists supporting farmers' protest Counterview Desk Condemning the arrest and alleged custodial sexual violence faced by Nodeep Kaur, a trade union activist, the civil rights network* Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) has demanded her “immediate release” and “strict action against the Haryana Police for targeting workers in the Kundli Industrial Area.”

By Tikender Singh Panwar* The protest at Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 was unequivocally condemned worldwide. Apart from the general feeling which many of us had to this protest/attack, I was also intrigued to know: “How old is the building?” The same building which was targeted by the Trump supporters. This Capitol building was made operational in 1800 after seven years of construction work and continues to stand tall and serve its purpose. So, it is almost 220 years old.

Counterview Desk In an open letter, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as many as 100 ex-civil servants, forming part of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), have wondered as to why the Government of India has refused to divulge details of why the PM-CARES Fund cannot be considered considered a Public Authority under the ambit of Section 2(h) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

By Dr Gurinder Kaur* On January 4, 2021, the Meteorological Department of India(IMD) released a report titled 'The Statement on Climate of India During 2020',which states that 2020 is the eighth hottest year in India since 1901. The country's average temperature has risen by 0.62 degree Celsius. Both the decades of this century, 2001-10 and 2011-20, have been recorded as the hottest decades ever.

By Moin Qazi* Public banks have played a historically stellar role in financial inclusion and the development of the social sector. They have been the backbone of the government’s socio-economic agenda and have made a transformative impact on the country’s development landscape. But sadly, the contribution of their employees has not been adequately recognised.

By Our Representative About 40 women’s rights activists were detained soon after they reached the Madhya Pradesh Bhawan in Delhi to protest against chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s proposal for "tracking" and "surveilling" women, purportedly for their safety. Those detained by the Delhi Police included Maimoona Mollah, Shabnam Hashmi, Anjali Bhardwaj, Poonam Kaushik , Deepti Bharti, Ritu Kaushik, Asha Sharma, Madhuri Varshney , Seema Joshi and Amrita Johri.

By Pankti Jog*  In a surprise move, Gujarat’s Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has superseded the Right to Information (RTI) Act, asking a public authority not to accept any RTI applications from three citizens for five years. CIC, Gujarat, DP Thakar, issued an order at a scheduled hearing regarding complaint filed by Chintanbhai, Bharatiben and Dilhariben, banning them from making RTI applications for seeking information for five years.

By Rajiv Shah  A recent study , jointly carried out by the UN World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration, seeking to explore the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown measures on migrant workers, remittance-dependent households and the forcibly displaced, has identified India as one of the major countries where Covid-19 has “exacerbated pre-existing grievances, stigmas and community divisions, resulting in increased discrimination against mobile and displaced population perceived as disease carriers.”

By Simi Mehta*  Constitutionalism and citizenship have emerged as an answer for growing majoritarian democracies. How adequate this response would be? Amidst contemporary political scenario when there has been a global rise of populist forces, it seems to be the quintessential moment to dwell upon this question. There is a need to engage with this issue through various dimensions ranging from political, constitutional, ethical and legal to the movements, protests and struggles taking place at the ground level.

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* On 15 January 2021, 83-year old Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy, completes one hundred days since he was taken into custody from his residence in Ranchi, by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on October 8, 2020; he has since been incarcerated in the Taloja jail, near Mumbai. Fr Stan has been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for his alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence which took place on 1 January 2018 and for participating in the Elgar Parishad, the previous day.

Counterview Desk In a letter to the Government of India (GoI), three senior United Nations (UN) officials – Elina Steinerte, vice-chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Fernand de Varennes, special rapporteur on minority issues – have said that the arrest of veteran activist Father Stan Swamy in October 2020 marks “the escalation of harassment the human rights defender has been subjected to since 2018.”

By Our Representative Close on the heels of the Supreme Court suspending the three farm laws and appointing a four-person committee to open dialogue with the Government of India and farmer leaders for finding a solution to the powerful resistance to them, 10 opposition parties came together on a civil society organisation (CSO) platform to  express unanimous solidarity with the farmers’ struggle for the repeal of the laws.

By Our Representative The Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an independent farmers’ organisation, in a petition to the Gujarat High Court, has challenged the refusal by the Police Commissioner, Surat, to hold a meeting of farmers to discuss issues related to the three farm laws in the compounds of the office a cooperative society, stating, it amounts to undermining fundamental right to “get together, associate, hold meetings and express opinion guaranteed under Article 19.”

Justice SA Bobde Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The Supreme Court of has been unusually aggressive with the government on the three farm bills, it would seem. Indeed, first SA Bobde, Chief Justice of India, talked tough and said that he is going to form an expert committee and will stay the implementation of the bills. Then, the court actually announced a four member panel to speak to the farmers and the government.

Counterview Desk Condemning the denial of timely rehabilitation to 700 residents whose homes at Dhobi House, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi were “forcibly” demolished by the Delhi Devopment Authority (DDA) almost four months back, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has reiterated its demand to stop all demolitions in the midst of Covid pandemic, which it made recently with regard to Chennai slumdwellers.

By Banavath Aravind* I was introduced to Kancha Ilaiah’s work when I was about 20 years old. He was then in the midst of a controversy for a chapter in his book "Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution", which termed the Baniya community as social smugglers. During many of his debates, I had come to notice his undeterred fighting spirit in trying to bring up certain fundamental social issues that were hitherto undiscussed. I eventually came across some of his works and started reading them silently. I’m deliberately stressing upon the word ‘silently’ here, as this was the kind of silence particularly associated with sensitive social issues like caste, religion, etc. But, as I write this essay, I feel silences on sensitive issues should be broken. Ilaiah opened up an entirely new debate that had the vigour and strength to counter the systemic Brahmanism. His methods of research were also novel in terms of going back to the roo