Counterview

By Samara Ashrat*  The Akhaura-Agartala rail line will be going to be inaugurated soon. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate this rail line along with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September. This project is creating considerable excitement among the people of both of the countries. This connectivity initiative is expected to be a game changer for both India and Bangladesh. Goods can be transported from other sea ports of India to other states of the North-Eastern region via Agartala from Chittagong and Mongla ports of Bangladesh. As a result, trade in these states will increase as well as it will be possible to transport goods quickly and easily along with reducing the cost of goods transportation. The project The Agartala-Akhaura international railway connectivity project is one of India and Bangladesh's most prominent connectivity projects. Akhaura used to be the railway link for Agartala before Independence. Akhaura-Agartala railway line is finally ...

By Rosamma Thomas*  On November 8, 2016, when Prime Minister  Narendra Modi appeared on television to announce the demonetization of all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, it was unclear on whose advice he was acting. It later became apparent that the move was a disaster, wrecking the economy, causing needless death and livelihood loss while not achieving any of the aims initially listed as the purpose of the move . The plan to introduce tigers in the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary could have similar consequences, and the state government has been forewarned.

Dhaval Patel By Riya Jain, Sagar Sengar, Sandeep Pandey*  A Gujarat government Indian Administrative Service officer Dhaval Patel after visiting six primary schools in Chhota Udepur district among the tribal area made the following observation:  "These poor tribal children do not have any other source of education. It is my strong opinion that we are doing injustice to them by giving them this rotten education. We are ensuring that they continue doing labour work generation after generation and not move forward in life. This is the height of moral decadence where we are cheating students and their parents who trust us blindly."

Water conservation effort in Bahera village By Bharat Dogra*  Phoola Devi and Devidayal work hard on their small plot of less than two acres of farmland in Larvari village, in Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh. Despite their best efforts, things had been becoming quite difficult, but then some important changes they initiated in recent times have given them new hope.

By Atanu Roy*  Something has happened to me for the last couple of months. I stopped dreaming at night. Freud has a detailed treatment of dreams [dreams are the disguised fulfilments of repressed infantile wishes], but he has never taken up the phenomenon of any person not dreaming at all. Maybe my subconscious mind is not in place, It has stopped working, and hence no dreams get triggered at night, it flashes at day only. Yesterday night was an exception. It’s good to tell you all, I had a dream last night. It may not be splendid, but I enjoyed it out and out. It was Sunday, me and my friends were flying kites on the roof of 2 Lake Place, Ballygunge, where I grew up with a happy childhood. One English gentleman, who seemed to be in fifties , just stepped in and joined us. He introduced himself as a London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe famous [or infamous] for demarcating the boundary line between India and Pakistan. Though finalized a little before the independence day of 15th Augu...

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*   The video of a Muslim boy being beaten   up, slapped and humiliated in front of the entire class in a school in Uttar Pradesh, has only shown how much the hate propaganda against the Muslims in India has reached inside our hearts and minds. That a teacher in the primary school is sadistically enjoying when the poor boy is being humiliated in front of the entire class reflects the power of the poison that has been injected in our mind for years and has become the hallmark of the Noida channels. Remember, the teacher is not beating the boy herself but ordering each student of the class to beat him up. She encouraged and said that all Muslim children should be dealt with like this. The criminal and thuggish teacher identified as Tripta Tyagi is actually head of the Neha Public school of a village in Mujaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh. This clearly reflects how much poison has been spread in our heart across the nooks and corners of the country ...

By Jatin Sharma  Karwan-e-Mohabbat (Caravan of Love), a citizen initiative from 2017 which has strived to reach out to victims of hate violence to offer solace and solidarity to the survivors in far corners of the country, spent four days in violence-torn Manipur from July 25 to July 28. Team Karwan e Mohabbat undertook a journey to Manipur to attempt to understand the nature and scale of the conflict and to offer support to victims of hate violence and to assess relief efforts by the state and the central government. 

By Kirity Roy*  It has been widely reported in the media that at least 26 migrant workers from West Bengal were killed after an under-construction Railway bridge collapsed in Mizoram on 23rd August, 2023, all of them are from marginalised sections, either from Dalit or from religious minority group. 

By Kush Sharma*  Educate Girls, a non-profit organisation committed to working for girls' education in rural India, organised a Plantation Drive as part of its initiative 'Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha ke Liye' to mark International Youth Day on August 12. The event witnessed over 4,700 volunteers, from Team Balik come together to plant 6,000 tree saplings across 3 states. Undertaken by Educate Girl' devoted team of community volunteers, known as Team Balika, the theme of this impactful initiative was ‘Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha ke Liye’ translating to ‘A Tree for Girls’ Education’, aligning seamlessly with this year’s overarching theme of "Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World”. The plantation drive saw over 4,700 Team Balika members planting over 6000 tree saplings across the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. In addition to highlighting the importance of girls’ education, this initiative by Educate Girls also aimed at drawing focus toward...

Counterview Desk  A report on a virtual meeting organised by the civil rights organisation Kezekevi Thehou Ba has the said that the “bid to push oil palm cultivation in the North-East” has rung “alarm bells” in the ecologically fragile and biodiversity rich region. Attended by over 60 people that also included organisations and institutions from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, the meeting found community leaders eager to hear the hitherto “untold” facts associated with oil palm cultivation from several experts, the report claimed.