Year-long stir planned against Adani-Ambani 'company raj' exploiting farmers, workers

By A Representative
India's civil rights network, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) will hold a year-long nation-wide campaign called Jan Azadi 75: Pathways to Freedom, starting August 9 and ending August 15, 2022. Announcing this, Sanjay MG, one of the NAPM convenors, said that the campaign will be simultaneous held at regular intervals and will consist of "on-ground actions at more than 150 places across the country."
To be held in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthan, "Veteran freedom fighters will inaugurate or be part of the actions", he said, adding, the idea is to "reach out to diverse sections -- farmers, workers, women, youth, students, marginalized sections -- to propagate the values and dreams of our freedom struggle."
Aimed at "strengthening democracy and resisting attempts to divide and destroy the plural ethos of India", Dr Sunilam, a socialist activist, told an online media meet, held to announce the campaign, that the launching date, August 9, has "historical significance", as on this date in 1942, "Our ancestors in British India gave the call of Quit India."
He added, "Today, while the constitutional framework is being dislodged brick by brick, we are faced with yet another Company Raj of Adanis and Ambanis that is exploiting the farming and working class. It is, therefore, about time the people of this nation gave a united call, challenging the political-business nexus that is looting the country."
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar called the farmers movement as the "freedom movement of today’s times." She said, "Lakhs of farmers have been protesting since eight months, demanding repeal of farm laws, seeking legal guarantee for all crops. Trade unions have been agitating against the anti-worker labour codes."
Claiming that 93% of the unorganized sector workforce has faced "the worst health and livelihood crisis during the pandemic", Patkar said, "The past seven years of BJP have destroyed the economy and ecology in numerous ways, while dissenters are being jailed, even killed, like Fr Stan Swamy."
Pointing out that August 9 is also International Indigenous People’s Day, Prafulla Samantara, top tribal rights leader from Odisha, said that the Schedule-V Adivasi areas of the country are facing "non-stop corporate attacks and increased militarization." He stressed on the need to "intensify the efforts to assert the rights of adivasis, fisher people, forest dwellers and workers."
Faisal Khan of the Khudai Khidmatgar stated that the campaign aims at opposing economic inequality, even as demanding education, health, employment and social security for all. "Our collective resolve will defeat the hate politics of the ruling party and challenge them on the ground", he said.
Gender rights leader Meera Sanghamitra said, "Alongside intense repression, use of draconian laws like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and jailing of activists, the last seven years have also been testimony to powerful democratic assertions, newer consciousness and mass movements of women, farmers, Muslims, workers, dalits, Adivasis, students, transgender persons, public sector employees and other sections."
"Popular mandate for BJP, whose failures and callousness have been fully exposed during the pandemic, has waned as witnessed in multiple state elections", she added. Representatives from state units of NAPM including Kusumam Joseph (Kerala), Richa Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Parasaul Alam (West Bengal), Suniti SR (Maharashtra), Trilochan Punji (Odisha) shared details of upcoming actions in their states.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog