Counterview

Part 1 of interaction with K Veeramani, a senior most of the leaders of revolutionary Periyar E.V. Ramasamy’s Dravidian movement, by Vidya Bhushan Rawat* *** Mr K. Veeramani, is perhaps the senior most of the leaders of revolutionary Periyar E.V. Ramasamy’s Dravidian movement. He was groomed by Periyar since childhood. Born on December 2nd, 1933, he was inducted in the Dravidian movement under the leadership of EVR Periyar since childhood and began addressing public meetings at the age of 10. He stood with Periyar throughout his life and dedicated himself completely for the cause of the oppressed and the marginalized. As a person dedicated to Periyar’s ideology, Dr Veeramani resisted the very idea of joining politics or getting political patronage and that is why the Dravidian movement has succeeded in Tamilnadu as it is his organizations like Dravida Kazgham which compelled political parties to follow the ideals of Periyar and bring them in law. He is the leader of Dravidar K...

By A Representative Odisha civil rights groups have launched a new project, which will cover 8,000 households under of Podia block in Odisha’s Malkangiri district in order to provide essential preventive medicine to the community through the trained village-based Swasthya Sathis (health workers) and fight malnutrition in the district’s rural areas.

By Aaron Gates-Lincoln*  It is no secret that the UK government’s current attitude towards issues in immigration are harsh and punitive based. Recently, Priti Patel has faced much criticism as Home Secretary for implementing a large range of policy that many argue is regressive and unnecessarily ruthless as she attempts to deter migrants from wishing to enter the UK. One method that has faced heavy criticism as of late is that of frequent immigration raids within local communities.

By Rajiv Shah Will the new report by well-known elite NGO Toxics Link create a ripple in the powerful corridors of Delhi? Titled “Quantitative analysis of microplastics along River Ganga”, forwarded to Counterview, doesn’t just say that Ganga is the second most polluted river in the world, next only to Yangtze (China). It goes ahead to do a comparison of microplastics pollution in three cities shows Varanasi – the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – is more  polluted compared to Kanpur and Haridwar.

By A Representative Taking serious note of the failure of the Maghalaya government's refusal for a year to ensure distribution of the Rs 52 crore promise by it in March 2020 under the Chief Minister’s Relief Against Wage Loss (CRAWL), intended to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on unorganized sector workers, India's civil rights network National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has said it supports social activist Angela Rangad who has been on a protest sit-in at the gates of the Secretariat in Shillong on this.

Counterview Desk  Civil rights leader Kirity Roy has strongly objected to the manner in which the Border Security Force (BSF) , the police and the judiciary in West Bengal have treated a 35 years old Bangladeshi woman victim of human trafficking, who was subjected to sexual exploitation for 15 long years, has been declared guilty of violating the Foreigners Act, violating all human rights norms.

Counterview Desk  A report prepared by the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), founded in 1951 as the national alliance of evangelical Christians of the Protestant denomination, in its just-released report, “Hate and Targeted Violence against Christians in India: Half Yearly Report 2021”, has said that an analysis of 145 cases of violence it has documented against Christians, mainly by non-state actors, “stems from an environment of targeted hate.”

By Mehak Banga, Jyotsna Yadav, Rashmi Yadav, Tina, Himanshi Godara, Nitya Kapoor* Whom can we think of when we hear about: The Dalit Buddhist movement; campaign against discrimination and untouchability; the Drafting Committee; Ministry of Law and Justice; chief architect of the Constitution of India, and Bharat Ratna recipient? None other than the once in a blue moon man, Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, often called Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and also known as Babasaheb Ambedkar. He was an Indian jurist, a phenomenal economist, a strong headed politician and a true social reformer, who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement and with full zeal campaigned against the evils of discrimination with primary intrigue from untouchability. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee and served in office from 29th August 1947 till 24th January 1950. He was independent India’s first Minister of Law and Justice and with pride was considered as the chief architect of the constitutio...

By Debarun Dutta*  Nearly two lakh tribal workers migrate every year from districts of Dang and Tapi in Gujarat and Nandurbar and Dhule in Maharashtra to harvest sugarcane in farms of South Gujarat. The workers are deployed by the Sugarcane Cooperative Factories promoted by sugarcane farmers who are a powerful political community. The workers are recruited by middlemen against advances that they have to pay back one and a half times after the six-month work season.

By A Representative A public hearing, sponsored by the civil rights group National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) to hear the affected citizens of Khorigaon, off Faridabad, Delhi NCR, has seen local people complaining how their houses are being demolished even as the entire area was converted into a prison through heavy police deployment.