Counterview

By  A  Representative In a strongly-worded statement addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to visit Japan on November 11-12, Japanese women from Fukushima have asked him to “come and see Fukushima before signing India-Japan Nuclear Agreement.” Issued by Fukushima Women Against Nukes, the statement comes amidst news that the two countries have “completed the internal procedures for the much-awaited agreement on civil nuclear cooperation.”

By Fr. Cedric Prakash sj* The way Fatima, the mother of Najeeb Ahmed (#najeebahmed) the missing JNU student was treated on November 6, 2016 evening by the Delhi Police was just appalling. She was at a rally peacefully protesting with several others about the mysterious disappearance of her son. They were demanding that the Police and the Central Government need to do much more to trace Najeeb. The rally was disbanded by the police. There is enough of evidence (viral on social media) to show how Fatima was dragged, manhandled and detained by the police. Several other protestors (including students) were also detained. This is not the first incident happening this past week. Some opposition political leaders who were protesting the death of a retired soldier were also arrested and were made to stop their protests. The son of the soldier who had gone to meet these leaders was beaten up by the police. The popular TV Channel NDTV, will be taken off the air on November 9th for 24 hours becau...

By A Representative The Government of India has sought to to make out that the the 24 hour ban it imposed on the NDTV India news channel is “quite lenient” compared to what the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), which looked into the channel's “violation” of the Programming and Adverising Code, 1995, amended in 2015, while covering the January 2016 Pathankot terror attack.

By A Representative The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), condemning the decision of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to “punish” Hindi news channel, NDTV India, for allegedly revealing “strategically-sensitive” information while covering the Pathankot attack in January 2016, has said the order is “legally untenable, ethically unacceptable and factually fallacious.”

Port-led development next to Mundra impacts livelihood By  A  Representative Planning for the biennial Vibrant Gujarat world business summit, to be held in January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state suffers from complete failure to cope up with the adverse impact of industrial investment on the livelihood of local communities, suggests a new report prepared by a group of researchers.

By A Representative At least two human rights organizations, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and Amnesty International India, have strongly reacted to the the Madhya Pradesh government outright justification of the fatal encounter of the eight banned Students Islamic Students of India (SIMI) boys, who reportedly fled from the Bhopal prison.

A North Gujarat poster ahead of Kejriwal visit By RK Misra* Cats stalk quietly and wolves prey in packs but why is the behemoth of a BJP getting paranoid over antsy Aam Admi Party (AAP) and barking up all manner of trees? Quite simply, because it’s iron clasp grip on Gujarat is slipping and a queasy national party leadership is stuck for options to reverse the trend.

By  A  Representative The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), in its new report, “The State of the PC&PNDT Act: India’s losing battle against female foeticide”, which focuses on the on the status of implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act, 1994, has said that the Act has not been implementation in 23 States/UTs, even as 1.3 million girls are found to be “missing” every year.

Demonstration for forest rights in Himachal Pradesh By  A  Representative The Himalaya Niti Abhiyan (HNA) has sought the intervention of the National Commission for Schedule Tribes (NCST), New Delhi, for stopping illegal eviction of STs and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers from the forest areas of Himachal Pradesh, saying that the state forest and revenue departments have launched a big drive “to evict forest dwellers in the state starting on November 1, 2016.”

Outside ESI hospital in Naroda, Ahmedabad By A Representative Vyavsayik Svashthya Suraksha Mandal (VSSM), the apex body of NGOs working on occupational health issues in Gujarat, has taken strong objection to the Government of India seeking to raise the cut off salary for receiving Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) health facility from Rs.15,000 to Rs.21,000, saying this would put huge burden on ESI hospitals, which are already in poor state.