Counterview

Counterview Desk Taking strong exception to the “continued incarceration” of Assam’s top civil rights leader Akhil Gogoi for more than 400 days and denial of bail by the Guwahati High Court, India’s civil society network National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has said, it is “disquieting” that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a Central agency which is supposed to investigate terror cases, is being used to “bulldoze” democratic and mass peaceful movements and their leadership.

By Sanjib Pohit* It seems that that there is a complete breakdown of trust between the Union government and farmers. The multiple rounds of negotiations, offer to negotiate clause by clause of the farms’ bills fail to convince the farmers. As a result, there is no sign that the sit-in by the farmers around Delhi’s border would go up in the near future. It appears to have tuned into a question of ego on both sides.

At least 16 RTI activists have been killed in Maharashtra since 2010. Their fault — they used RTI to unearth corruption, misuse of public funds and exposed horsetrading of elected representatives among other things. How did the criminal justice system respond to this phenomenon? Veteran journalists, Vinita Deshmukh and Prasanna Kumar Keskar investigated the lives and deaths of 13 RTI activists who paid the price for transparency with their lives. Excerpts from the report “Life and Death in the Time of RTI: Case Studies from Maharashtra”*, a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) publication: Maharashtra has the dubious distinction of reporting the highest number of attacks on citizens and activists who use RTI to make government agencies more transparent and accountable. At least 36 instances of assaults and attacks on and 41 cases of harassment of or threats to citizens using RTI have been reported by the media. At least 16 alleged murders have been linked to RTI activism of the ...

By Shamsul Islam* The 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose fell on January 23, 2021. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a senior RSS cadre who identifies himself as Hindu nationalist was in Kolkata to inaugurate the celebrations given the nomenclature, 'Parakram Diwas' (Valour Day).

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose would have been truly proud of India and its military might”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a programme organised to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary, which falls next year, 2022. But then the current regime is 'expert' in political profit and loss. Leaders acquire importance in accordance with their 'public image value'.

By A Representative In a unique protest move, the Socialist Kisan Sabha (SKS), an Uttar Pradesh based farmers’ rights group, has decided has decided that on January 26, 2021, when the farmers will be entering Delhi on tractors, its cadres will show solidarity support by taking stray cattle to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence to take care of them.

London diaspora protest  By A Representative In a memorandum submitted to Indian embassies, mainly across Europe, several Indian diaspora groups have demanded repeal of the three farm laws, calling them “unjust.” In their statement, they said, the Indian farmers have been protesting since the three laws as these were passed “hurriedly in August 2020 without holding consultations with the farmers’ groups.”

Excerpts from the Policy Brief on Girls’ Education by Right to Education (RTE) Forum: The Right to Education Act in India was a major turning point for school education, it made education a fundamental right for children in the age group 6 to 14. The Act brought positive changes in the school education system which also benefitted girls. Through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the umbrella scheme for implementation of RTE Act, critical barriers like access and inclusion were addressed to a large extent, this led to increase in enrolment at both the primary and upper primary level. Along with this, schemes like Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education emphasized secondary education of girls through scholarships, subsidies and incentives. With the introduction of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in 2014 a renewed emphasis was given to education of girls. However, girls’ participation in secondary and higher secondary education, stark regional a...

By NS Venkataraman* In 1991, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was murdered at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, while he was there to address a public meeting. He was killed by a woman suicide bomber, who belonged to the terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and she was also killed. Along with Rajiv Gandhi, another fourteen innocent persons were killed in the explosion and more than 40 people were injured.

By Dr Gurinder Kaur* According to the data released on January 14, 2021 by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2016 was the hottest year on record since 1880, with an average temperature rise of 1.00 degree Celsius. With an average temperature rise of 0.98 degree Celsius; 2020 got the second place pushing 2019 to third place.