Counterview

By Shreshth Virmani* Sudhirbhai (name changed) is a tea vendor in Ahmedabad and since the time first curfew was imposed he has been struggling to survive. Now when the country has opened up, his earnings are nowhere near the pre-lockdown levels. Earlier he used to make about Rs 500 on daily basis but now it is less than Rs 200. People like Sudhirbhai are still struggling to meet their ends.

By Fareed Mohammad Ansari* The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been a politically controversial scheme ever since its inception in 2006. Some politicians have referred to fit as a means for menial jobs for poor, while others claim it as a symbol of the erstwhile UPA government’s failure. But the fact is, it is the only employment scheme that directly benefits the unemployed poor and downtrodden in the rural areas.

By Battini Rao* For nearly a month thousands of farmers are protesting at the Delhi border along with their wives and children in the coldest winters of Delhi against the anti- farmer laws and the electricity bill enacted by the BJP central government.

By Dr Gian Singh* The farmers’ struggle that started in Punjab, and has now spread across the country, is unique in many respects. There are few examples of such democratic and peaceful farmers’ struggles in the world. It has has attracted the attention of various sections of society and gained their sympathy and participation. It has turned into a people's struggle.

By Mahesh Trivedi   Dr AR Nakadar, the Gujarat-born United States-based cardiologist who founded Dr Nakadar Institute of Knowledge (DrNIK), in 2004, is happy to see spectacular progress made by the school. He has helped and guided communities in building hospitals, schools, and other social institutions in the USA and India.

Philanthropist Dr Abdul Rehman Nakadar with school kids By Mahesh Trivedi* There are countless Muslim-owned schools in Gujarat, infamous for the violent Hindu-Muslim clashes in 2002, but those offering higher secondary education are few and far between. But little-known Dr Nakadar Institute of Knowledge (DrNIK) situated in a small village stands out among them not only for its high standard of education but also for promoting communal harmony and many other unique special features.

Akash Singrodia* Are you an adult and thinking of getting married? Do you believe you have the freedom to marry the partner of your choice, even if he/she is from a different caste? If you think the answer to this question is ‘Yes’ on the premise of the fundamental rights granted by the Indian Constitution, then your beliefs are soon going to be shattered.

Banarasi's wife and son  By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* On May 24 morning, when villagers were went to the field to defecate in the open, they were shocked to see two bodies on the road. It was a brutal murder. The head of the one of them was severed from the body. The other man was lying unconscious on the other side of the road. There were some hockey sticks lying on the ground.

By A Representative  Even though Gujarat farmers may not have gone in for massive protests against the three farm laws passed by Parliament, there has been some sporadic movement in the state despite clampdown by the police, including detention and house arrest of those trying to “escape” to North India to join the huge protestation taking shape around Delhi. The clampdown appears to have led to dissenting voices resorting to different ways of protest, including going in for social media campaign to express their solidarity. Some of the farmers’ supporters have quietly painted walls in different parts of Ahmedabad. Social worker Hofeza Ujjaini in a WhatsApp alert to Counterview says, slogans on walls have appeared in about half-a-dozen areas of Ahmedabad, including several spots around the Gujarat University, Gujarat College, Lal Darwaja and the District Panchayat office. Insisting that these are all “anonymous”, he has sent some of the across photographs.

Writing on the one of the world’s topmost novelists, Albert Camus, author of “'The Plague'”,  Mugambi Jouet  calls him “a thinker for our age of pandemic and polarization.” Titled “Reading Camus in Time of Plague and Polarization”, published in the Boston Review, a political literary forum, Jouet's review says, “The French Algerian writer steadfastly defended democracy and humanity against dogmatic ideologies of all stripes. We need to read and reread him today.” Read on... ***  This year has not only seen revived interest in Albert Camus’s novel 'The Plague' (1947), it also marks a key anniversary: Camus’s death at the age of forty-six in a sudden car crash sixty years ago. The occasion has led to commemorations in France but it has been understandably overshadowed in the United States by COVID-19, the fateful presidential election, and beyond. Yet Camus is a thinker for our age of pandemic and polarization. He sought to transcend the divides of his own epoch by w...