Counterview

By Harsh Mander* Of all the major political parties seeking votes in the 2014 elections, the BJP, through its prime ministerial candidate, offered the Indian electorate perhaps the most cohesive, if troubling, vision for the country. Modi offered a combination of three fundamentalisms. First, a market orthodoxy which guarantees unprecedented levels of subsidies to big business in the form of long tax holidays, soft loans, cheap land and electricity, at the expense of public expenditure on education, health, social protection and public infrastructure. Next was communal fundamentalism, constituting barely disguised hostility towards religious minorities, especially Muslims, which was the main rallying agenda on the ground in electorally crucial states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And the third was a militarist fundamentalism, envisioning an aggressive foreign policy, including war with Pakistan. Modi's offer to the voters was a kind of 'buy one, get two free' political barg...

By A Representative A new report on one year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule, carrying a compilation of 1,618 incidents of different types of human rights violations across India, has alleged that the last 365 days characterize saffronisation of governance at the Centre, implementation of the Sangh's Parivar’s agenda of coercion, isolation of religious minority groups, and infiltration of administrative structures, police and education.

Sujatha Singh, former foreign secretary By Venkatesh Nayak* According to media reports, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is working on a fresh set of rules aimed at tightening the controls on foreign-funded NGOs. According to the news report, “NGOs would be mandated to have a website on which they will be required to put out the details of each foreign inflow for public viewing within 48 hours of receiving the funds. This will include the source of funds, the intended activity for which the funds are expected to be used and the details of its partner NGOs in that specific project, disclosed a senior government official. Annual audited reports for previous years should also be made public, the official said.” (Click HERE ) This move is said to be directed by the Prime Minister’s Office for putting in place a mechanism for monitoring foreign funding NGOs. This is said to be based on several recommendations received from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) earlier. Any move to bring in more tr...

By Rajiv Shah In an important research paper having major policy implications for India, International Monetary Organization (IMF) has declared that the “trickledown theory” -- which believes that economic growth would take care of poverty alleviation – is proving to be counter-productive. Top pro-Narendra Modi economist Arvind Panagariya, new vice-chairman of Planning Commission’s fresh avatar Niti Ayog (Policy Commission), and his Columbia University mentor, Prof Jagdish Bhagwati, are well known advocates of trickledown.

Sujatha Singh By A Representative Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, has refused to part with information sought under right to information (RTI) Act about the reasons behind sacking of ex-foreign secretary Sujatha Singh early this year. Revealing this, well-known RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak said, “After the unceremonious exit of Singh, I filed an RTI application asking for the Cabinet note, file notings and list of persons who attended the meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).”

By A Representative Dr Tushaar Shah, one of the most renowned water resources experts of India, has taken strong exception to the Narendra Modi government for “ignoring” the agricultural sector in the National Solar Mission, which aims at adding 100 gigawatts (GW) to the already existing power capacity of around 300 GW of the country, slated to be doubled by 2022.

By Rajiv Shah A recent study by an independent Delhi-based policy research institute has pointed to complete failure of Gujarat government’s coastal management authority to act against top corporates’ open violations of environmental norms in the coastal region. Giving instances of coastal projects undertaken by industrial groups of Adani, Reliance and Essar, the study says, though the Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) may take cognizance of some violations, it would generally “drop” the cases citing “various reasons.”

By Venkatesh Nayak* In April 2015 the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) High Court notified its Rules to implement the J&K Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009 within its jurisdiction and in all courts under its administrative control and supervision. Although they ought to have drafted these Rules alongside the State Government which notified RTI Rules in 2009 itself (amended later in 2012), they have done so after more than five years (The J&K High Court RTI Rules may be accessed HERE ) . The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) analysed the RTI Rules notified by the J&K High Court in detail and came up with several recommendations to ensure that the Rules are in tune with the letter and spirit of the J&K RTI Act. Last week, CHRI sent the analysis of the RTI Rules and the recommendations for improvement, to the Chief Justice, J&K High Court. Some of the major areas of concern in the J&K High Court’s RTI Rules are reproduced below: Although the J&K RTI Ac...

Swaraj Abhiyan volunteers By A Representative In a second attempt to “strangle” the fledgling Swaraj Abhiyan in less than a month, on June 15 the Gujarat police allegedly hounded a team of dozen-odd volunteers who were on their way to the villages surrounding the high-profile Tata Nano plant in Ahmedabad district, off Sanand town. The volunteers had planned to distribute a “Jai Kisan” leaflet in six odd villages, seeking farmers’ support to oppose the controversial amendments to the land acquisition Act (LAA).

By A Representative In a scathing attack on Gajendra Chauhan’s appointment as new chief of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), the protesting students of India’s one of the most prestigious institutes have drafted a petition telling him that he was chosen because he was “meant to be a puppet of the government”. Telling him that he lacks “capabilities” to lead the institute, the petition says, there is “a huge anomaly” in his body of work and “the very principles and aesthetic FTII stands for.”