By Rajiv Shah Gujarat ranks tenth among 21 major Indian states in top consultants McKinsey Global Institute’s (MGI’s) new Female Empowerment Index (Femdex), released recently. A decade ago, a United National Development Programme (UNDP)-sponsored report , released by the Ministry of Woman and Child, Government of India, came up with an almost ranking, putting Gujarat as an average state in what it called Gender Development Index (GDI).

By Our Representative The Gujarat government is learnt to have turned down a right to information (RTI) plea seeking proof of Prime Minister Narendra Mod’s and chief minister Anandiben Patel’s educational qualifications, saying this information cannot be made available because it does not concern “public interest.”

By Our Representative In a sharp critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policies, America’s powerful business newspaper, “Wall Street Journal” (WSJ), has said in an opinion piece that “free-market liberals” in India are fast “losing faith that Modi will deliver on his promise to launch India on a path of prosperity.”

By Our Representative The Government of India’s refusal to place the Governor's report to the President of India in public domain, citing reasons for imposition of President’s rule, has invited strong reaction from influential sections of Right to Information (RTI) activists, who insist, the disclosure cannot cause “any harm to public interest.”

Arunachal Pradesh Raj Bhavan By Venkatesh Nayak* The border State of Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern corner of India in the news again – for all the wrong reasons – again. For several weeks crisis had been brewing over the existence or the lack of majority support for the Indian National Congress-led Government in that State. Thanks to the electronic media, video clippings of some meetings between some of the legislators and the Governor of that State showed the extent of distrust that exists between them. On 26 January, 2016 after India celebrated its 67th Republic day, the President of India issued a Proclamation under Article 356 of the Constitution taking over the reins of the government of Arunachal Pradesh. Ostensibly this action was taken on the basis of report(s) received from the Governor and the subsequent recommendation of the Union Cabinet to the President of India about the “breakdown of the constitutional machinery” in that State. The President is reported to have s...

Mangroves overlooking Bhim Chhaya slum of Kammanwar Nagar By Our Representative Taking advantage of a High Court order, the Mangroves Cell of Maharashtra Forest Department, formed in 2012 to “conserve and replenish” mangroves, is allegedly seeking to demolish even slum dwellings, which are “protected” by the cut-off date – January 1, 2000 – set by the state government.

DSIR farmers protest against "refusal" to provide Narmada waters By Our Representative Gujarat farmers of the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), a proposed Greenfield smart city towards the south of Ahmedabad, have strongly protested against the DSIR Authority, which has asked the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) to withdraw Narmada waters for agriculture to DSIR’s 28,203 hectares (ha) area.

By RK Misra* The controversial Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime(GCTOC)Bill 2015, passed by the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha but twice rejected by the previous government, has been returned by President Pranab Mukherjee as well. The Union Home Ministry has withdrawn the Bill and will re-submit it after working on the provisions that require Presidential clarity.

Back cover photograph on HRW report By Our Representative The Human Rights Watch (HRW), of the world’s most influential advocacy groups, has said that India was “a weak proponent of human rights at the UN in 2015.” Quoting examples, it says, “In March, India voted in support of a Russian-backed resolution to remove benefits for same-sex partners of UN staff” and “abstained on Human Rights Council resolutions on Syria, North Korea, and Ukraine, and voted against resolutions on Iran and Belarus.”

Hardik Patel By Rajiv Shah The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has taken strong exception to the Gujarat government using “overbroad and vaguely worded sedition, criminal defamation, and hate speech laws” for “arresting Hardik Patel, who is spearheading protests to demand quotas in education and government jobs for his community, and charged him with sedition in two separate cases.”

Alpesh Thakore By Our Representative About two lakh people, manly OBCs, gathered at Ahmedabad’s sprawling GMDC grounds – the same spot where the Patels held their massive show four months ago – in a rare display of unity under the banner of Other Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (OSS) Ekta Manch, telling the BJP government in Gujarat that it could not ignore them.

By Rajiv Shah Yet another attempt is underway by circles close to the Narendra Modi government for “rewriting” the history of India’s freedom struggle, and this time the target is Mahatma Gandhi. The question has already been posed: Who brought independence, Mahatma Gandhi or Subhas Chandra Bose?

Survivors pay homage to those killed at Naroda Patiya By Rajiv Shah Although 32 accused – including a minister in the Modi government – were in 2012 found guilty of “murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, spreading enmity and communal hatred” during the 2002 Gujarat communal violence in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area, so far, just in one case there has been conviction for gruesome acts of sexual violence there, regrets a new American study .

Santosh Yadav and Somaru Nag By Our Representative In development, which is likely to further add to the eroding image of the Modi government vis-a-vis human rights and freedom of expression, some of the top world world bodies have thrown their weight behind the campaign to release two Chhattisgarh journalists, Santosh Yadav and Somaru Nag , arrested last year for their alleged Naxalite connections.

The fake letter which triggered controversy By Our Representative Amidst raging controversy over whether Jawaharlal Nehru considered Subhas Chandra Bose a war criminal, a fresh document from the Netaji files released by the Government of India has come to light, which shows that Nehru rejected any such attempt which may have been made after Netaji’s death.

By Our Representative One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

By Our Representative A recent reply to a Right to Information (RTI) plea suggests that the Gujarat government has refused to comply by a Supreme Court direction of 2011 which asks all state governments to “restore” common grazing and government lands -- handed over in the past for activities other than what it they are meant -- to the villages to which they actually belonged.

By Our Representative In an important relief to the Adani Group, which has taken up one of the world’s biggest coal-mining projects in the Queensland province of Australia, the top business house will not be facing any action for its Australian CEO’s alleged links to “polluting” a Zambian mine. The Adani Group is known to be closest to Prime Minister Narendra Modi compared to all other industrial houses.

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* January 17, 2016 was observed as the ‘World Day of Migrants and Refugees’; it’s an appropriate, I feel, to share with you a new chapter in my life! I am really not sure where to begin! What I want to share – has many different dimensions; it’s like a multi-coloured tapestry – delicately but exquisitely inter-woven into a unique design! The creativity and the dexterity involved can be appreciated and understood – only by those who can watch it’s unfolding from a distance! Somehow, I feel myself in that situation: looking into, about to leap into something I did not even think was possible – some months ago! Fr. Pedro Arrupe is for me and for several of my brother Jesuits and others one of the great Saints of the post-Vatican II period. He was the Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965, a time when the Church and the world at large was going through a historical transformation. I joined the novitiate in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 1974. About a year later, ...

By Our Representative Senior BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy, lately gone very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said, if it is proved that Rohith Vemula -- the 27-year-old University of Hyderabad Dalit scholar who committed suicide -- was a “converted Christian and Opus Dei”, then “it is a new dimension of Hindus under siege.”

By Our Representative The University of Hyderabad’s (UoH’s) “decision” to revoke the suspension of four Dalit students following country-wide protests against the suicide of their colleague and leader, Rohith Vemula, a 26-year-old research scholar, has been rejected -- because it allegedly comes with huge “ifs” and “buts”.

Protest in Hyderabad against Rohith's "suicide" By Our Representative India’s top apex body of tens of people’s organizations, National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), has termed the recent suicide of Rohith Vemula, an upcoming Dalit scholar of the University of Hyderdabad, a “systemic murder”, seeking “urgent intervention” from the judiciary and the President of India.

Narmada canal network: Progress in Gujarat By Our Representative Khedut Samaj – Gujarat (KSG), the upcoming farmers’ organization, has alleged “criminal conspiracy” of transferring Narmada waters to industry, instead of providing them to the state’s agricultural fields by developing Narmada canals. 

By Our Representative Alleging official apathy, a follow-up of the independent investigation by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Narmada Bachao Andolan and Swasthya Adhikar Manch into the patients losing their sights at the eye-surgery camp in Barwani in November 2015 has revealed that 19 patients have been mysteriously refused compensation announced by the Madhya Pradesh government.

By Our Representative A recent interview-based policy paper says that, not just Indian laws, but even international laws, as also Islamic jurisdiction, fail to address the plight of an estimate 4,000 to 8,000 half-widows of Kashmir. They are called half-widows because their husbands have “disappeared” in strife-torn Kashmir Valley, never to return.

Rohith during an ASA students' campaign By Our Representative Allegations are flying high that Rohith Vemula, one of the five rusticated Dalit students of the University of Hyedabad, who committed suicide on Sunday, was the direct victim of powerful forces attached with the Sangh Parivar, including a minister of the Narendra Modi government, to suppress them for holding their strong political views.

Atul, Radhika Ganesh, Anurag Singh and Mujeeb following the attack By Our Representative “BJP MLA slapped me when I asked him to stop attacking”, a social activist participating in the Soochna Evum Rozgar Adhikaar Abhiyaan, a Right to Information (RTI) and Employment campaign organization, which encompasses about 150 different organizations across Rajasthan. The incident, reported by Couterview, took place on Saturday evening.

By Our Representative The Gujarat government’s controversial, indeed costly, Deep Discount Bonds, floated way back in 1993 in order to raise money for building the Narmada dam after the World Bank put stringent environmental conditions for providing loan, are back in news.

By Pankti Jog* In an incident which has created a flutter among Right to Information (RTI) activists across India, goonda elements, said to be close to a BJP legislator in Rajasthan have brutally attacked the 100-day Accountability or Jawabdehi Yatra, begun by Magsaysay Award winner and pioneer of the RTI Act Aruna Roy. The incident took place in Aklera area of Zalawad district, which falls into Manoharthana constituency.

By Our Representative In a ruling of far-reaching significance, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Pune, has set aside environmental clearance (EC) to the Adani Hazira Port Pvt Ltd (AHPPL) dated May 3, 2013, granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the further development of port activities at Hazira, South Gujarat.

By Our Representative In an open letter to the board of trustees of India’s premier research journal, “Economic and Political Weekly” (EPW), some of India’s most well-known intellectuals have termed its decision accepting the resignation of EPW editor C Rammanohar Reddy as “unfortunate”,  praising him for “dedication, personal sacrifice” and “an extremely successful Editor”, and saying that he has had to part  “in an unhappy and ungracious ways”.

By RK Misra* There is a perversely delicious irony about politics. Overtime it shows the flaws, exposes the hypocrisies and displays the duplicitousness of its gods. After the BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014, constituents of the Sangh Parivar have been shrill in espousing the cause of homecoming or ‘ghar wapsi’.

By Our Representative In a significant development that has gone unnoticed, the USA’s prestigious University of California, Irvine's (UCI's) History Graduate Student Association has floated an online petition objecting to the formation of two chairs in South Asian studies, being instituted by the Dharma Civilization Foundation, declaring the organization has “ties to rightwing Hindu nationalist groups in India.”

By Rajiv Shah In a shocking revelation that is likely to create a major ripple among India’s top Dalit rights activists, the Government of India has published Collected Works of Bhimrao Ambedkar (CWBA) in Hindi without 11 of Ambedkar’s books, including two which are considered his ideologically significant works, “Annihilation of Caste” and “Riddles of Hinduism.”

By Our Representative The newly published Right to Information (RTI) Rules by the Government of Uttar Pradesh (UP), where one of the highest percentage of poor of the country live, do not allow Below Poverty Line (BPL) individuals to file RTI without any fees. A recent analysis has found that the UP RTI Rules 4(4) & 5(1) “do not differentiate between APL and BPL RTI applicants.”

By Venkatesh Nayak* In March 2015, the State Information Commission of Uttar Pradesh invited people’s comments on a set of Draft RTI Rules that were intended to replace the Rules notified in 2006. Commonwealth Human Rights Commission (CHRI) and several other civil society organisations and activists gave their views pointing out what required to be improved in the Draft in order to make the Rules regime conform with the letter and spirit of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). After eight months, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has notified a new set of RTI Rules that will become applicable in Uttar Pradesh (click HERE to download). Overall, it is encouraging to see the UP Government discard the minimalist approach to rule making under the RTI Act and go in for greater detailing of the procedures for implementing the provisions of the RTI Act. The new set of RTI Rules do create some convenience for citizens who seek information from public authorities in Uttar Pradesh. Howeve...

Medha Patkar addressing a village meeting By Our Representative Villagers of Madhya Pradesh affected by top industrial house Welspun’s going ahead with acquisition of 1,600 acres for a thermal power plant are showing signs of restiveness. A high-level team led by well-known social activist Medha Patkar, which visited the area, has found that, already, two farmers have committed suicide to show opposition to “land grab”, and many are openly declaring that they would self-immolate.

By Our Representative In an important judgment, India’s environmental watchdog, National Green Tribunal (NGT), has struck down Environment Clearance (EC) procedure adopted during 1998-2003 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest (MoEF), Government of India, for granting what was called “ex-post-facto environmental clearance” several defaulting industrial units of Gujarat.

In a communique, Rohit Prajapati, Krishnakant, Swati Desai and Trupti Shah of the Paryavaran Sukaksha Samiti, Vadodara, and Ziya Pathan of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, have said that the latest National Green Tribunal (NGT), Western Zone Bench, Pune, order striking down Environment Clearance procedure adopted during 1998-2003 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India for granting the “Ex-Post-Facto Environmental Clearances” to defaulting industries should lead to closing down of many known industries of Gujarat and across country that started production without prior environment clearance. Text: As per circular dated 13 March 2003 of then Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) there were 213 such defaulting industries. We still have to find out the names and number of such defaulting industries that operated as on 5 November 1998 while the MoEF of the day claimed that they learnt about the defaulting industries starting their production without prio...

By Our Representative In an opinion piece, whose contents Indian policy makers can ignore at their own peril, a leading Pakistani diplomat has pointed towards strong Pakistani military hold over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government, saying even the US and NATO countries believe the Pathankot terror attack was “planned and supervised” from Pakistan by elements associated with the intelligence establishment, directly or indirectly.

By Our Representative A senior Right to Information (RTI) activist has taken strong exception to the way RTI rules of state governments failing to clearly indicate in whose favour non-cash payment instruments for filing RTI applications must be drawn. “It varies from public authority to public authority”, says Venkatesh Nayak in a letter he has dashed to Sanjay Kothari, secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India.

In a letter to Sanjay Kothari, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Personnel and Training, Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, has insisted on the need to resolve the problems relating to the payment of various kinds of fees by citizens and their realisation by PIOs under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). Text of the letter: *** I am writing to draw your attention to a persistent problem relating to the payment and utilisation of fees under the RTI Act. The common complaint is that PIOs are required by the applicable financial rules to deposit all fees received from citizens in the bank accounts of their offices and make withdrawals from the funds allotted to meet contingency expenditure for paying the information reproduction charges. Several PIOs, across different states, have reported that they often end up paying the photocopying charges from their pockets as withdrawal fro...

By Our Representative Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security adviser Ajit Doval, widely publicized as 007 James Bond of India , has run into yet another controversy following the Pathankot terror attack: After giving an interview to a top Indian media house, where he attacked the media once again, he has sought to deny he ever gave the interview.

Top 10 countries attracting Internet porn traffic  By Our Representative Adult website Pornhub, one of the many pornographic sites, which were sought to be banned by the Government of India in August 2015 through an order of the Department of Telecom, has claimed that India has the world’s third largest population viewing pornography, next only to the United States and the United Kingdom.