Counterview

In an curious Facebook post "What happened to Netaji?", former editor of the Times of India, Ahmedabad, Kingshuk Nag, who later took over the Hyderabad edition of TOI as editor, has asserted that not only did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose didn't die in a plane crash, he went to the Soviet Union, where he served as adviser of the Soviet leaders during the post-Stalin phase. One who has authored a Netaji book , he makes another astonishing "revelation": that Netaji, it is believed, had undergone face surgery "to change his appearance", and is "supposed to have met Indian PM Lal Bahadur Shastri when he went to Tashkent in 1966." Was Netaji so meek? One doesn't know... Anyway, read the FB post : *** Today is purportedly the day that Netaji died in an air crash in Taiwan in 1945. An elaborate theory of his death and the fact that his ashes were stored in Renkoji temple was created. By all accounts this is fiction. Netaji disappeared into Soviet...

By A Representative  In a surprise move, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), considered the liberal face of Islamic political groups in India, lending its support to the the new change in Afghanistan, has hoped that they will end "years of unrest and bloodshed" in the country and "restore peace and order in the region and help to reinstate the rights of the Afghan people."

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  India is much older than 75 years. Hence our leaders need to speak the language of maturity and reasoning. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister and his government are least bothered about governance and more about elections. To declare August 14 as the 'partition horrors day’ is nothing but a deliberate effort to create an atmosphere of mistrust and disharmony. We all know the horrors of partition and there are issues which can be discussed.

By Nihir Gulati* On January 16, 2021, the first-ever dose of the Covid vaccine was administered in India. With the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare claiming to have administered both doses to a mere 10% of India's 94.5 crore adult population, I reached out to Bobby Ramakant, director, for policy and communications at Citizen News Service (CNS), to gain a deeper insight into the snail-like pace of covid vaccine administration in the country.

Counterview Desk  The Occupational Knowledge International ( OK International ), a US-based NGO that works to build capacity in developing countries to identify, monitor, and mitigate environmental and occupational exposures to hazardous materials in order to protect public health and the environment, has raised the alarm that the rise of a new export industry in India may lead to “significant health risks” in the country.

August 15, apparently, also happens to be Independence Day of Nagaland. In a message on that day, top NGO International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) global coordinator Beverly L Longid sent out the following message: *** Warmest greetings to all our Naga sisters and brothers. It is an honor to join you today in your celebration of the 75th year of Naga Independence. The first time I heard of Nagalim was 30 years ago when I joined in 1992 the secretariat of my local organization, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance. I met some of your leaders like Nengulo Krome of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights. Later, I had the opportunity to meet young leaders like Nengreichon and younger ones like Atina and others. I am happy to see you again and other indigenous activists, although online. Since then, we have maintained communications, but more importantly, we developed and strengthened our solidarity. On behalf of the International Indigenous Pe...

Counterview Desk Hannah Greep of the international BankTrack, an international tracking, campaigning and CSO support organisation targeting private sector commercial banks and the activities they finance, in a recent report has identified several banks and companies, including those from India, which have ties with the Myanmar junta.

By Gajanan Khergamker*  Perception, almost always, has a symbiotic relation with perspective. One shapes the other and only in a manner that one can. A person, whose perception is honed, over time and with experience, is perceived as one possessing an exhaustive perspective on the issue. That the perspective is subjective doesn’t matter in the least to a homogenous audience, with views similarly coloured, which conveniently considers it entirely objective.

By Prithvi R Bommaraboyina*  India as whole has more than 60 million people prone to disease, disability and death by consumption of arsenic and fluoride contaminated water. As of now the world is undergoing a critical Covid-19 health crisis , the risk is future elevated in Bihar and Assam, by the natural disaster, viz., flood and migrant labour movement.

Many Bangladeshis who return from India are suffering from deadly silicosis, the Dhaka-based “Daily Star” newspaper reports. Here is the story by Kongkon Karmaker: *** Many Bangladeshis are facing slow death from silicosis after their return from India following years of work at stone crushing fields in different states of the neighbouring country. Silicosis is a form of lung disease that is usually caused by many years of inhalation of silica dust. Most of these Bangladeshis, especially residents of bordering districts, had long been working illegally at various stone crushing sites in a number of Indian states including Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. The Bangladeshis entered the neighbouring country in search of jobs and none of them have any valid travel documents. The Daily Star recently interviewed several such returnee workers who are from Biral upazila in Dinajpur and Pirganj upazila in Thakurgaon. All of them said that they used to work at different stone crushing plants in Ind...