Activists at Vasant-Rajab memorial on July 1 Celebrated as Communal Harmony Day in Ahmedabad, July 1, 2021 is remembered for the sacrifice of two friends, Vasant Rao Hegishte and Rajab Ali Lakhani, laid down their lives for the cause of communal harmony on the July 1, 1946 in the city. A memorial stands in their memory in Khandni Sheri, Jamalpur, Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad is perhaps the most communally divided city. Segregated into Hindu and Muslim localities, what shocked me when I reached Ahmedabad to join the Times of India in 1993 was, you had to search with a microscope for a Muslim family living in the entire western area of the city, known for as the business capital of Gujarat. It's not very different in the Muslim area, called Juhapura, where virtually no Hindu family dares live!  Be that as it may, recalling the event, a Delhi-based human rights organisation, Anhad, which has decided to remember the the sacrifice on July 1 through an online event , says, “It was the day of Rat...

Is the backward Dang district of Gujarat deprived of Nal Se Jal scheme, a flagship programme of the Union government to provide potable water to all 18 lakh villages,  announced  by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day in 2019? Under the scheme villagers will themselves decide how much to pay for the water they consume, it seeks to provide a minimum of 55 litres of water per person per day.

  In a surprise development, a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) report titled ‘Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System’ has revealed that Gujarat is the worst performer insofar as Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) is concerned, raising concern whether female foeticide is rampant in a state touted as model by India’s top rulers.

  An email alert to Counterview from a top ex-IAS bureaucrat, termed as Gujarat’s turnaround man for revamping loss-making state public sector undertakings (PSUs), has sought to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s  remark  on the Yoga day – that the ancient Indian exercise provides an “infinite solutions” within ourselves, offering “the biggest source of energy in the universe.”

A senior West Bengal-based civil rights leader has drawn the attention of the Tamil Nadu government towards 13 “helpless conditions of migrant labourers” stuck in the midst of the current pandemic in far away Tamil Nadu, pointing out, Apurba Biswas (mobile number 8388982951) and 12 others of different bordering villages of North 24 Pargana, West Bengal, who are the sole bread winners of their family and employees of Nahi Construction Private Ltd, are “stuck" in a roadside in Madurai.

An Ahmedabad-based NGO, Society for Promoting Rationality (SPRAT) has taken strong exception to what it has called “saga of destruction” of “an innovative, much-admired and multipurpose park AUDA  Muskaan , devoted to promoting communal harmony, healthy low-cost adventure, scientific temper and cultural exchanges.”

  About 12.3 billion or 113,000 tonnes of used sanitary pads are dumped in landfills in India every year, adding to the already existing plastic pollution in the country, a new study titled 'Menstrual Products and their Disposal' released by the environmental group Toxics Link has said.

  Even as appreciating the Government of India (GoI) move to “offer” financial assistance to the families of Covid-19 victims among journalists to the tune of Rs 5 lakh each, Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a Switzerland-based media rights body has urged that there is an urgent need to vaccinate all journalists on a priority basis and offer aid to all the victim families so that they can play their roles as frontline corona warriors after the doctors, nurses, other health and sanitation workers.

Some time back, a human rights defender, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, who frequently writes for Counterview, forwarded to me a video interview with Guru Prabhakar Dhakade, calling him one of India's well known violinists. Somehow I missed the email alert. Scanning through my past emails, I found Rawat's youtube video and a short writeup. Dhakade is based in Nagpur and has devoted his life for the Hindustani classical music. A number of his disciples have now been part of Hindi cinema world in Mumbai, says Rawat. He has performed live in various parts of the country as well as abroad. What however attracted me was Dhakade's assertions in video about Dr BR Ambedkar, India's undisputed Dalit icon. Recorded several years back at his residence and music school in Nagpur, Dhakade not only speaks candidly about issues he faced, but that he is a believer in Dr Ambedkar's philosophy. It is in this context that Dhakade narrates his problems, even as stating that he is determined ...