Counterview

By Nava Thakuria* It would seem that the people of northeast (NE) India have become more conscious about India’s constitution, rule of law and its secular image abroad. Indeed, groups of people, including politicians, civil society group representatives, media personnel etc. recently hit the streets raising strong voices against the Union government’s proposed citizenship amendment initiatives.

By  A  Representative Khoj, a forest rights organization working in the Melghat region of Maharashtra, has said that villages in the Melghat Tiger Reserve, Amravati, Maharashtra, have been relocated without resettling either their individual rights or their collective community forest rights (CFR). In a letter to the Minister of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, Khoj's Purnima Upadhyay has said, this is a violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), adding, the affected Villages are Barukheda, Nagartas, Amona, Churni and Vairaat. "In fact the people of Vairat had made their CFR application, however, it was rejected at the Gram Sabha of the Gram Panchayat and the appeal to the SDO was not heard appropriately", Upadhayay said, adding, "There are further more villages to be resettled and hence your urgent intervention is needed". Pointing out that "people are not only adequately informed by the authorities", the letter states, "It is the r...

Suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar Counterview Desk  A statement issued "on behalf of" Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD), a civil society organization seeking to promote peace between the two neighbouring countries, commenting on the Pulawana terror attack, has wondered, "how many deaths will it take till we know that too many people have died?"

Counterview Desk The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), India's well-known civil rights network, even as condemning the "fatal attack" on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy at Pulwama, killing 44 jawans, has insisted that "military and militant violence must end and give way to democratic aspirations of people of Kashmir". 

The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), Gujarat, has demanded that the state government should allocate Rs 5,940 crore for the development of minorities, regretting, unlike Government of India, Gujarat has no separate budget for them. In a letter sent to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani ahead of the interim budget session of the state assembly, MCC convener Mujahid Nafees said, this situation is there despite the fact that Gujarat has 11% population of minorities, of which 9.7% are Muslims, and the total budget for 2018-19 was Rs 1,825,000 crore. Insisting that the minorities are "very backward" and need "protection", Nafees said, a new department of minority affairs on lines of the Centre should be created and it should be allocated Rs 1,000 crore. Other major demands are: A State Commission for Minorities which should be allocated Rs 250 crore; Rs 1,100 crore for the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP) for Minorities; an allocation Rs 500 crore for e...

By LtGen (Ret) Clarence McKnight, MajGen (Ret) Kulwant Singh, and Dr David Leffler* In a speech regarding the Pulwama terror attack; India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “India will give a befitting reply to this incident. The security forces have been given full freedom to decide.” We salute the Prime Minister for granting India’s security forces a free hand to decide the best response to this incident.

By  A  Representative The Supreme Court bench of Justices AK Sikiri and S Abdul Nazeer, deliverint the judgment in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regarding non-appointment of information commissioners by the central and state governments and the lack of transparency in the appointment process, has observed that appeals/complaints should be decided by information commissions within the shortest time possible, which should normally be within a few months.

By Law Kumar Mishra* The deadliest-ever attack on the security forces in Kashmir martyred 42 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on National Highway (NH) 44 (Jammu-Srinagar) near Awantipura, 20 kms from Srinagar on Thursday noon. Unprecedented, it was the act of a coward newly recruited militant from an adjoining village on the convoy of the CRPF.

By Syed Mujtaba Hussian* The 11th General elections in Bangladesh were held on December 30, 2018. The result was an overwhelming victory for the Awami League-led by Sheikh Hasina. For the first time in a general election Bangladesh made use of electronic voting machines but only in a limited scale. The elections were marred by violence and claims of vote rigging, in response of which the Bangladesh Election Commission said it would investigate reported vote-rigging allegations from across the country.

Noam Chomsky Counterview Desk Renowned world scholars, including Noam Chomsky, James Petras, Angela Davis, Fredric Jameson, Bruno Latour, Ilan Pappe, Judith Butler, among others, have issued a statement castigating the Narendra Modi government for allegedly creating an environment of fear through arrests, intimidation and violence.