Counterview

By Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury* While the second surge of Covid is ravaging India, it is important to dwell upon the reasons of its lethality, for posterity and delineate good governance in public health, hopefully in future. Carrying forward from the first part on this theme, we look into the other issues compounding the crisis.

By Kingshuk Sarkar*  India’s labour market is characterized by incidences of very high level of informalization and precariousness. A study has revealed that the pandemic-induced lockdown led to further deterioration in quality of works and earnings.

By Haider Abbas*  It has always been found that whenever there is a government of brute majority, the executive succumbs and the tremors very often reach the judiciary. There have been countless examples of this over the last 70 years, notwithstanding the Keshavananda Bharti case . But, with the outbreak of Covid-19, the Modi government as also several State governments, mainly those under BJP, have had a share of a ‘rap-on-the-knuckles’ by their respective courts.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Narendra Modi and his RSS brethren can qualify as masters of fake claims. There is a long lists of lies spread by RSS, BJP and their IT cell workers. It is not a personality disorder or lying with fear. They are trained to defend Modi and his government’s decisions in whatever possible way. They defended demonetisation by arguing that it is “an important step” in his fight against black money and corruption.

By Anhad Team*  A webinar, attended by close to 300 people on Zoom and Facebook, organized by  Anhad  to observe May 9, the day Hitler’s forces surrendered, focused on the current state of the country, which is quite worrisome and tragic. The atmosphere is filled with rage, despair and loss, and yet in these difficult times, it was felt, critical conversations must be had to remember the context within which we are living. The webinar was chaired by Prof Mridula Mukherjee, the former chairperson of the Centre of Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and panelists included Prof Prabhat Patnaik, eminent economist and political commentator; Charanjit Singh, retired professor at the Centre of Russian Studies, JNU; Prof Ram Puniyani, formerly from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and an ardent social activist; Vani Subramaniam, a documentary filmmaker and a member of the Saheli Trust; and Gauhar Raza, scientist by profession but also a poet and socia...

By Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury*  When the ongoing Covid mayhem in India hopefully ends, the questions that will remain: Was it largely a manmade disaster? Could this be avoided or impact lessened? On May 7, India's coronavirus cases hit a grim global record with 4,12,262 fresh infections in the last 24 hours. And 3,919 deaths were reported. India recorded over 4 lakh cases for the first time on May 1, after reporting 3 lakh daily infection for nine straight days. The country -- hit by a deadly second wave -- logged 1 lakh cases in a day for the first time about three weeks ago. While the total case-load has crossed 2.1 crores, the active cases are above 35 lacs, and deaths have crossed 2.3 lacs in total, as per government figures.

By Birendra Ram Mishra, Ramprashan Singh, Santosh Kumar Pradhan, Sonu Khan, Gatha G Namboothiri* Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK), anchored by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, is the revamped and restructured version of the Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP). A Centrally Sponsored Infrastructure Support Scheme, PMJVK aims to provide the minority communities with socio-economic infrastructure facilities in the field of education, health and skill development. It is one of the several schemes covered under the Prime Minister’s New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities, launched in 2005. It was launched in 90 Minority Concentrated Districts. However, since the size of the districts were too big, the benefits seldom reached the grassroots. Thus, in 2012-14, the focus was shifted to Minority Concentration Blocks (MCB), Minority Concentration Towns (MCT) and Clusters of Minority Concentration Villages (Cluster) to ensure that the grassroots level communities ar...

Stone carved from Pindwara, Rajasthan, for US temple A senior trade union activist based Ahmedabad, Ashim Roy, forwarded an explosive article published in the New York Times , titled “Hindu Sect Is Accused of Using Forced Labor to Build N.J. Temple”, claiming he has been behind the support to the workers who have charged the temple authorities in New Jersey of exploitation. The workers, who have filed a lawsuit, have charged that they are being forcibly confined in the temple grounds as if they were bonded labourers, and are being paid just about $1 an hour as against the US federal law, which permits a minimum of $7.25 per hour. Roy phoned up immediately after putting up his tall claim, even as forwarding a photograph showing stone carved from Pindwara in Rajasthan stacked for temple building in New Jersey and links to stories in Indian media quoting the New York Times. He also forwarded another photograph showing federal agents descending on the massive temple in Robbinsville, New J...

By A Representative  Several Gujarat-based NGOs, including Janvikas, Navsarjan Trust and the Centre for Social Justice, are in the midst of a successful experiment in 1,000 villages of Gujarat, providing health-related education to the rural folk on how to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, even as pointing towards a simmering atmosphere of fear among the people.

Counterview Desk  The All India Network of NGOs and individuals working with National and State Human Rights Institutions (AiNNI)) has sought to draw the attention of President Ram Nath Kovind on the reported Government of India move to fill up vacancies among the first rung of leadership in National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) without following legal provisions and international norms.