Counterview

Vijay Rupani with Nitin Patel By Rajiv Shah Setting aside wild speculations running for the last two days that Nitin Patel, known for his rough-and-tough ways, would become chief minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen his well-known protege, Vijay Rupani, to succeed Anandiben Patel, who resigned on a Facebook post early this week.

By Sangeeta Rane* Amidst current imbroglio around the Una incident in which four Dalits were thrashed for skinning a dead cow, the Surendranagar district collector, seeking to address Dalits' issues, has decided to take steps to “investigate” the practice of employing manual scavengers, considered the lowest category in Dalit hierarchy.

By  A  Representative Top civil rights groups across the world have sharply criticized the World Bank’s new set of environmental and social safeguard policies, approved by its board of directors on August 4, saying they were “frustrated and disappointed” that the Bank “couldn't agree on stronger policies to fully guarantee the rights of communities affected by the projects they fund.”

Mica used to create shimmer in cosmetics By  A  Representative An explosive investigation into India’s illegal mica mines in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, which employ children as young as five, has revealed that that there have seven child deaths in the past two months, but these deaths have suffered a massive “cover-up”.

By A Representative In a major indication of setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effort to sell Gujarat model abroad as his "vision" for India, influential American daily “The New York Times” (NYT) has described the Prime Minister's silence on Gujarat's cow vigilantes as “shameful”, affecting his “political compass.”

Amreli advocates handing over protest letter By A Representative Even as the imbroglio around the July 11 Una incident, in which four Dalit youths were thrashed after tying them to an SUV, refuses to die down, a new wave of Dalit anger has begun to sweep in Saurashtra. This is around what is being claimed to be a false FIR against 16 Dalits youths charging them with the murder of a police constable on July 19.

Pankaj Kumar during roadshow in Australia By A Representative Social unrest, especially Dalit and Patel agitations, in Gujarat is beginning to find resonance abroad, with clear danger looming large over the powers-that-be that if the state government fails to handle them, these might vitiate the high-profile Vibrant Gujarat global investors' summit, planned for January 11-12, 2017.

Ramanlal Vora By A Representative The Gujarat government does not think that there any need to provide compensation to the three Dalit youths who died in the Thangadh police firing about four years ago on par with Patels, who died in police firing last year. Cabinet minister Ramanlal Vora is learnt to have rejected the demand, put up a group of Dalit activists, saying, “You cannot compare the two.”

By A Representative Emboldened by a major victory in the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha, where the Dongria Kondh tribals’ sustained campaign forced the multinational company Vedanta to withdraw its proposed plan to mine bauxite for its aluminium refinery, the forest dwellers of the state have begun rejecting the state government efforts to “impose” Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) with the help of compensatory afforestation funds, coming from Government of India.

By A Representative In a move which has surprised few political observers in Gujarat, chief minister Anandiben Patel on Monday declares her decision to quit the powerful post, which she suggested has not been easy to handle as she succeeded a "towering" Narendra Modi.