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Showing posts from September, 2022

Muslim intellectuals met Bhagwat, extra-constitutional authority 'like Sanjay Gandhi'

By Shamsul Islam*  In a significant development a delegation of five Muslim intellectuals namely former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi; former senior bureaucrat Najeeb Jung; former AMU vice-chancellor and Lt Gen (retd) Zameer U Shah; politician-cum-journalist Shahid Siddiqui (presently with RLD); and businessman Saeed Shervani [Samajvadi Party] met RSS Supremo Mohan Bhagwat at RSS Delhi headquarters. The meeting was kept secret for reasons known to the participants and was held in August. According to the Muslim intellectuals the meeting held in “a very cordial” atmosphere continued for 75 minutes whereas time allotted was 30 minutes! In a post-meeting justification of the parleys Quraishi stated that their main concern was “the insecurity being increasingly felt by the Muslim community in the wake of recurring incidents of lynching of innocents, calls by Hindutva hotheads for genocide and the marginalisation of the community in almost every sphere”. This delegation consistin

Move to 'intimidate, terrorize' entire Muslim community: PUCL on PFI ban, leaders' arrest

Counterview Desk  India’s premier human rights group, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), condemning the mass raids and arrests of the People’s Front of India (PFI) leadership and cadres, following the recent ban on PFI, has said that the whole idea behind night busloads of armed CRPF men “suddenly” setting up blockades in Muslim dominated residential localities of Jamia Nagar in Delhi, equipped with “weaponry and securith gear”, was “to intimidate and terrorize the entire Muslim community.” Citing the types of FIRs being filed against PFI, PUCL said, the effort was to accuse youth of “running an anti-India WhatsApp group”, with police claiming to find documents “claiming that India would become an Islamic nation by 2047.” However, the PUCL statement signed by V Suresh, general secretary, noted, “The fact finding conducted by the Bihar state PUCL branch found that prima facie no arms training, terror activities or radicalising youth. Text: The PUCL is deeply concerned about the

'True decolonisation move': Demand to name new Parliament building after Ambedkar

By Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd*  In recent weeks, there has been a demand for the new Parliament building being constructed on the revamped Central Vista in New Delhi to be named after the architect of the Constitution and anti-caste leader BR Ambedkar. On September 14, the Telangana Assembly passed a resolution urging the Centre to name the new Parliament building after Ambedkar. The Bharatiya Janata Party was absent during the debate about the resolution. The next day, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi-led government declared that the new secretariat in the centre of Hyderabad would be named after Ambedkar. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao added that he would write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to name the new Parliament building in Delhi “Ambedkar Parliament”. The demand is finding resonance among civil society groups too and has led to social media discussions as well as public mobilisation.  But two questions arise: Should a Parliament that makes laws for a nation over a

Why Bose's India Gate statue suggests RSS, BJP need violence-loving ‘Hindu’ Netaji

By Prem Singh*  In a TV channel debate, a BJP spokesperson and anchor shared and served a lie that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's daughter in her letter to the Prime Minister has alleged that the Congress kept devaluing Netaji to further Gandhi's non-violence; because Netaji had taken the path of liberating the country through violence mode by forming the Azad Hind Fauj (INA). They also praised the Bombay Royal Naval Mutiny of 1946 to confirm that the country got its independence through a violent route. I stated that I have read the letter of Netaji's daughter, and there is no such allegation in it. But a lie told in the intoxication of power is bound to be blatant. Netaji's daughter Anita Bose Pfaff, even in the past, has already requested some earlier prime ministers of the country to bring back the mortal remains of her father from Japan to India. In none of the letters she has spoken about devaluation of her father’s role in the freedom movement on the basis of Gandh

Utter confusion comes to stay in non-Hindi states around norms for teaching Hindi

By Rosamma Thomas*  Admission for the Bachelor of Education degree in Odisha was scheduled to be held on 22 and 23 September 2022. However, a brief note from the additional secretary to the higher education department of the state government on September 21, 2022 announced that this process had been put off, “due to some unavoidable circumstances”. The BEd degree was made compulsory for recruitment as a teacher after the Right to Free and Compulsory Education was enacted in 2009. In the years since this rule was implemented, however, teacher training colleges offering this qualifying degree for recruitment as teachers have sprung up across the country, many operating with scant regard for norms set by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). One course offered in Odisha – Bachelor in Hindi Education (BHEd) – is not governed by any norms at all, it appears. NCTE is the statutory body of the Union government that oversees standards, procedures and processes in the Indian educat

Is coal import dependence of more than 50% by 2047 of any relevance to India?

By Shankar Sharma*  I have read the article " Building Resilience in India’s Power Sector " by N Vedachalam, released by the Observer Research Foundation, with a lot of interest. I expected it to provide few useful recommendations to our authorities in charting out a sustainable pathway to green energy transition much before the climate catastrophe push our communities to the precipice. But I am sorry to say that the overall discussions or the message implied in the article disappointed me. I was expecting the article, coming from an engineer with past experience in the power sector, to discuss the much needed recommendations to put the power sector on a sustainable developmental pathway. But I could notice mostly technical jargon and a lot of statistical information, which may already be available in the public domain.   The article also seems to have simply accepted what some of the official agencies seem to have indicated as inevitable for the power sector in our country;

Tested for biosafety and toxicity, critics' stand on nano urea 'not logical, acceptable'

By NS Venkataraman*  Nano urea, a fertilizer patented and sold by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), has been approved by the Government of India for commercial use because of its various benefits. Unfortunately, a counter-productive media campaign has been levelled against nano urea, ignoring its merits. When extensive field trials have been carried out on more than 94 crops across 11,000 farmer fields in different parts of the country by several organisations , research institutions putting their efforts together and results have been proved as per the claims , it is counter productive that some controversial views appear in the media, which cause only sensation and nothing more than that.Product details:Nano urea is about a billionth of a metre in surface area and contains nitrogen particles of 20 -50 nanometres. The average thickness of conventional urea particle is 2.8 mm, which is equal to around 55,000 nano urea particles in size. Chemically, conventional

Fascism on prowl? Religious meet 'deeply pained' at silence of Church, bishops, priests

Counterview Desk  The ‘Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace’which held its 17th National Convention at the Montfort Social Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana from 22 to 24 September 2022 on the theme “Deepening our Identity as Religious: Responding to the Signs of the Times”, has expressed concern “at the deteriorating situation of our nation on every front”, especially stating, “Fascism seems to have come to stay” in India. At the same time, the convention, which took place with the participation of 60 persons from 16 states representing 20 religious congregations, in its unanimously-adopted statement added, “We have reached abysmal depths on every parameter: be it social, economic and political”, underlining, “The poor in India become poorer every day; the rich and powerful continue to profiteer at their expense and amass scandalous amounts of wealth.” Text: We, members (63 women and men Religious, from 16 states representing 20 Congregations) of the Forum of Religious for Justice

BSF personnel using pellet guns to control smuggling, villager goes blind: NHRC told

By Our Representative  In a gruesome incident, brought to light by a senior West Bengal activist, the Border Security force (BSF) appears to have begun using pellet guns to control cross-border smuggling. Binging this to light, Kirity Roy, secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said, BSF personnel attached with Karola border outpost under 90 Battalion fired pellets on a villager of Karola village under Dinhata-II Block and Sahebganj police station area of Cooch Behar district. Roy, who is also national convenor, Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity (PACTI), said, "The victim was severely injured and became completely blind in the sudden pellet firing by BSF", adding, "Our fact finding has revealed that the victim is associated with smuggling activities. The on-duty BSF personnel without any warning fired pellets from the pump gun which caused complete blindness to the victim." Stating that such use of pellet guns is against the t

Government 'fails to take up' Indian migrants' unpaid wages issue with other countries

By Rafeek Ravuther, Chandan Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar*  The migrant workers were one of the most vulnerable sections during the pandemic. India experiences large-scale movement of migrants internally and internationally. After the outbreak of the pandemic, migrant workers continued to face injustice especially in getting wages in expedited manner. In the international context, India, the home of 9 million cross-border temporary labour migrants, carried out the largest repatriation exercise ‘Vande Bharat Mission’. Even though the Indian government addressed the immediate requirement of repatriation, it failed to understand and recognise their post-arrival grievances, like back wages, social protection etc. Recently many workers were deported from the middle- east region. Amidst the establishment of grievance mechanisms such as Consular Services Management System (MADAD) and helplines in Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra (PBSK), the unresolved grievances remain high. The number of unresolv