Ankush Vengurlekar By Our Representative In a hair-raising account of nuclear poisoning, Ankush Vengurlekar, a freelance communications trainer to non-profits, on a 900-kilometre solo cycling expedition to the tribal regions of Jharkhand, finds what he calls "cancer of denial, apathy and evading responsibility of the radiation pollution" in the tribal village of Bango.

By Our Representative The civil society-sponsored “campaign for prohibition and addiction free India”, Nashamukt Bharat Andolan, has asked the Government of India (GoI) to “incentivise” states for implementing prohibition and compensate any revenue loss, insisting, the demand is only a “natural extension of the fight against corporate loot of resources and labour.”

By Rajiv Shah Some of the world’s top institutes favouring free market have got together to declare that well-known UK-based NGO Oxfam’s latest report “An Economy for the 99%”, which claims that eight richest men in the world, between them, have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the world’s population, is “misleading”.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash sj* January 30th 1948 will remain etched forever in the conscience of the nation. On that fateful day at evening prayer, Mahatma Gandhi fell to the bullets of his assassin Nathuram Godse, in Delhi. Godse represented the fascist, fanatic, fundamentalist and ‘feku’ forces, which abhorred the values for which Gandhi, espoused all his life and particularly the idea of an inclusive, pluralistic and secular India. These forces unfortunately are still very alive in India and in several parts of the world today! There are certainly those who disagreed with Gandhi during his lifetime and there are many who disagree with his philosophy and his methodology even today. Nevertheless, few will be able to contest the fact that Gandhi was a man of principles who lived and died for a cause. His life was frugal and exemplary and unlike several politicians today, he did not care leave alone crave, for the privileges and the trappings of power. In his lifetime, he internalized and pr

Bela Bhatia By Our Representative A group of 35 well-known activists led by Narmada Bachao Andolan’s Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winning right to information campaigner Aruna Roy have said that Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s assurance of safety following the recent attack (click HERE to read) on top academic Bela Bhatia has not followed with "any strong action".

By Our Representative Speaking on “Shrinking Democratic Spaces and the Role of Civil Society”, doyen of rural journalism in India, P Sainath, has said that a major reason for dwindling democratic values is astonishing growth in inequalities in India. He was giving a public lecture at the Centre for Environmental Education (CEE), Ahmedabad, to mark the 30th anniversary of premier non-government organization (NGO), Janvikas.

A  Muslim resettlement colony in Ahmedabad By Our Representative A new book released on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Janvikas, one of the premier civil rights organizations of India, has estimated that around 50,000 Gujarat 2002 riot-affected Muslims should be qualified to be considered internally-displaced persons (IDPs) – a term coined by the United Nations to identify those ravaged by violent social conflicts.

The spot demanded by Kashmiri Pandits as homeland By Our Representative A deep rift appears to have occurred between the BJP-backed Mehbooba Mufti government of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Kashmiri Pandits. Panun Kashmir, the top organization representing internally displaced Pandits, has described the J&K government decision to offer them 100 acres land only an effort to “rub salt on the Hindu wound.”

Jadeja By Our Representative Failure of the Gujarat government to create an online portal to file right to information (RTI) applications online of Government of India for the last four years has started becoming a major issue with the state’s top activists, who have started a sustained campaign for it, citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong support to online payment following demonetization.

Prof Irfan Habib By Our Representative Veteran historian Prof S Irfan Habib has taken strong exception to what he calls efforts to drag into controversy one of India’s topmost nationalist icons – Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose – by those who have little to with him – or with his "politics during the freedom struggle.”

Women pay homage to four Dalits massacred on January 25, 1986 in Golana village of Central Gujarat By Our Representative Scores of poor people from several towns and villages gathered in Gujarat's Surendranagar town on Wednesday to protest against the cancellation of foreign funding license of Gujarat’s most well-spread-out Dalit rights NGO, Navsarjan Trust, taking strong exception to the reason for the Government of India order -- “undesirable activities of the association detrimental to national interest.”

By Our Representative In a major setback to the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government, which had been offering cash compensation against the land lost by the oustees of Gujarat’s Narmada dam, the High Court’s Indore bench has ruled that those who had received the first cash installment would be entitled to land compensation.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash sj* In the significant move, the Union Cabinet in 2011, under the stewardship of the then Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, decided to celebrate January 25th as ‘National Voters’ Day’, which is also the anniversary of the foundation of the Election Commission of India (ECI). The significance of the day is to encourage many more young voters to take part in the political process.

By Our Representative A new report by top UK-based multinational NGO Oxfam on dangers of global inequality has estimated that over the next 20 years, 500 people world over will hand over $2.1 trillion to their heirs – a sum larger than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The dust has not yet settled on the demonetisation drive though more than 75 days have lapsed since the Government announced the pathbreaking ‘notebandi’ decision in November, 2016. People continue to queue up before banks and ATMs for that elusive trickle of cash, though media reports say the queues are growing shorter. People’s hardship in rural areas is rarely getting much attention in the national media as most cameras and eyes are focused on bulls and how they are or must be treated. Thankfully, there is some gender balance now because more attention was showered on cows during the last couple of years. That is some progress! International financial institutions and rating agencies are downgrading the economy’s growth forecast. In between there was some clamour for transparency of the transactions of political parties. The Hon’ble Prime Minister seized the initiative and called upon the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lead by example and spoke in favour of revi

By Darshan Desai* [Gandhi] spins every day for 1 hr. beginning usually at 4. All members of his ashram must spin. He and his followers encourage everyone to spin. Even M. B-W was encouraged to lay [aside] her camera to spin. . . . When I remarked that both photography and spinning were handicrafts, they told me seriously, “The greater of the 2 is spinning.” Spinning is raised to the heights almost of a religion with Gandhi and his followers. The spinning wheel is sort of an Ikon to them. Spinning is a cure all, and is spoken of in terms of the highest poetry... These are the type-written notes that accompanied legendary photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White’s eternal picture of Mahatma Gandhi on his spinning wheel (mimicked now by Narendra Modi) that she sent to the LIFE magazine in 1946. Her few words speak of the depth of a journalist who could capture the soul of the Mahatma and his ideology in just one shot. Cut to 2017. Two poor journalists on a self-fashioned Times Now debate wer

Counterview Desk In an unusual exposure that is likely to create ripples among the Left supporters of Subhas Chandra Bose, a top right-wing journal has declared that Netaji considered Hinduism “as an essential part of Indianness”, insisting he was “thoroughly influenced by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the founder-president of Hindu Mahasabha.”

By Our Representative Well-known academic and social activist Bela Bhatia, who has been working for several years in the Maoist-infested area of Bastar in Chhattisagarh, has been threatened to leave her house, where she currently lives – Papra village outside Jagdalpur town – or face “severe” consequences.

State Election Commission chairman Varesh Sinha By Pankti Jog* Mehulbhai Rathod of Aniyali (Kasbati) of Botad district was one of the candidates for the village panchayat elections, held in Gujarat in December last week. He claims to have observed that some residents of his village had voted twice -- in Anilyali as well as in the neighbouring Ranpur. He meticulously worked to prepare a list of 14 such names, who allegedly voted at two different places.

By Our Representative Anti-nuclear protests against the proposed Kovvada nuclear plant in Andhra Pradesh are all set to acquire a new momentum in South India following the decision of the local people to join hand with national-level activists of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movement (NAAM), Human Rights Forum and Sanjeevini Paryavarana Seva Sangham.

By Our Representative The World Economic Forum, in its recently-released “The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017”, has ranked India No 60th in inclusive development index (IDI) out of 79 countries it has categorized as “developing economies”.

By Our Representative Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a “vulnerable position” vis-a-vis the powerful newspaper industry following his demonetization “misadventure”? It would seem so, if one believes in what a top trade unionist representing journalists' cause for higher pay for print media has to say.

Under threat: A Navsarjan school in Surendranagar district By Our Representative Following US’s powerful daily “The New York Times” objecting to the Modi government cancelling foreign funding license to Gujarat’s topmost Dalit rights organization (click HERE ), Navsarjan Trust, another influential daily, “Los Angeles Times” (LAT), has termed the action a part of the wider government “crackdown against civil society” and “dissent.”

By Rajiv Shah Data provided by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2016 not only suggest that girl child education remains a major hurdle in rural Gujarat (click HERE ), widely regarded by Government of India as a “model” state for other states to follow. Gujarat is found to be behind a large number of states even in learning levels at the primary level.

By Rajiv Shah The 11th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2016), released in Delhi, has revealed that Gujarat, a model state for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, remains one of the poorest performers in enrolling girls in rural schools, both at upper primary and secondary level.

Tribals protest in Ahmedabad for land rights By Our Representative A new compilation on providing cultivation rights to tribal farmers has revealed that in the backward Dahod district of Gujarat, out of a total of 20,150 claims submitted to the local forest rights committee, formed by the state government to verify and hand over land titles, just about 3,162 farmers -- just 15.68% as against the state average of 40% -- have been handed over cultivation rights over the last one decade.

By Our Representative India's authoritative data collection and analysis firm, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), has predicted that the consumption demand will drop by a whopping 4% in the second half of 2016-17, thanks to the “shock” of a sudden withdrawal of 86% of liquidity on November 8, 2016.

By Our Representative In a prediction which has stunned India's top policy makers, the powerful consulting firm, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), has said that India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth would slip to 6% in 2016-17, and would remain “about 6% per annum for the next five years.”

A Gujarat tribal village By Our Representative A well-entrenched Gujarat tribal rights group, Ekalavya Sangathan, has said that the state government has so far recognized just 40.42% of the tribal claims for land out of a total of 1.83 lakh applications okayed by tribal village councils for regularizing forest land. The rest of the 59.68% “stand rejected”.

Modi at Vibrant Gujarat summit, 2017 By Rajiv Shah Experts attached with Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL's) thinktank have strongly advocated “federalization of foreign policy” for India, insisting, globalization has “eroded traditional boundaries”, and “the Central government by itself is not well-equipped to meet the challenges posed by new political, economic and social forces.”

Panchmahals Dalit group which submitted memorandum By Our Representative Taking strong exception to cancellation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license to well-known Gujarat-based Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust, Dalit activists from several districts in Gujarat have sent memorandums to President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee terming the step an effort to “bully the organization into silence, motivated by an anti-Dalit agenda.”

By Rajiv Shah In one of the sharpest critiques of air pollution in the recent past, a fresh report has said that air quality levels in urban India between 2010 and 2015 deteriorated by 13% at a time when these improved by 17% in China. The pollution levels improved in the US by 15%, and 20% in European Union (EU), it reveals.

By Sadhan Mukherjee* There is clear indication that fascist forces, you may call them rightist forces, if you like, are growing world over. It is better to be forewarned than regret later. One may recall that in Europe, which has given both liberal and fascist ideas, the ascendancy to power of fascist forces became possible due to three main reasons. First, weak governments being in office; second, the economic disaster that followed the first world war; and third, lack of people’s vigilance who became unconcerned about who their rulers are or who comes to rule next; they wanted only respite from their daily agonies of survival. In Italy, Benito Mussolini captured premiership by marching on Rome with his 30,000 black shirts in 1922. BY 1925, he had announced he would be leader for life, and no one challenged him or could challenge him. Hitler followed suit in Germany. He had the additional advantage of having a well organised party – the NSDAP or the Nazi party, which using its muscles

By Our Representative In an unusual defence of the Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC) – better known as Khadi Gramodyog – “deleting” Mahatma Gandhi on the KVIC's 2017 calender, printing instead the photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has said that Modi alone has “followed” the Mahatma as no one else, “whether it is Gandhi's spectacles or thoughts.”

By Our Representative Bodakdev, a posh locality of Ahmedabad, Gujarat's business capital, has been witnessing an unusual protest since December 26, 2016. Any passer-by can see a temporary stage and tents erected and various posters installed containing slogans and other information.

By Our Representative In a major confirmation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly backs social media trolls who use abusive words against anyone criticizing him, BJP's top dissident leader Arun Shourie has said, Modi had “a reception for them” after they abused him for being critical of Modi in a TV interview with Karan Thapar .

Counterview Desk Blogger James Wilson, a consultant with the Government of Kerala, debunking the popular myth that Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) were 30-40% of the total currency in circulation, has said, quoting official sources, that, in value terms, they did not form more than 0.0018% of the total currency in circulation in 2015-16, with a declining trend over the last five years.

By Our Representative A day after he was stopped from protesting against the Vibrant Gujarat world business meet – which began in Gandhinagar's Mahatma Mandir on Tuesday – by detaining him for the whole day along with his supporters (click HERE ), Gujarat's top Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, with tens of his mainly rural Dalit supporters, reached Ahmedabad railway station to carry out “rail roko” (stop train) agitation.

By Our Representative The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), representing tens of mass organizations across India, has asked the National Human Rights Commission chairman to immediately intervene and inquire into “illegal” release of water from Gandikota reservoir, submerging six villages in of YSR Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.

Shantikanta Das By Our Representative Hardline BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy has directed his guns against Union economic affairs secretary Shantikanta Das, who has been one of the chief implementors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's November 8 demonetization move, calling him a "Chidambaram confidante", and asking Modi not to make Das new Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman.

Mevani supporters, who were detained at Adalaj By Our Representative Anti-Narendra Modi protest against the Vibrant Gujarat world business summit, planned by top Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani with last-hour help of Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat, a non-political farmers' organizations, fizzled out on Tuesday, with the detention of the two leaders. A dozen of their supporters were also detained at Adalaj, the spot "fixed" for starting the protest.  

Justice Shah By Our Representative Former Delhi High Court judge, Justice AP Shah, has in a letter to the chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), said that documents seized in the bribery and corruption in the by now well-known famous Sahara-Birla payoffs case are a “clear evidence" of systematic bribery of politicians, including several Chief Ministers and public servants by these business groups.

By Our Representative Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have declared recently that people have a right to know where BJP’s funds are coming from, with media reports indicating that the Government of India may be working on a legislation to make the source of funding of all political parties “more transparent.”

By Venkatesh Nayak* Addressing a meeting of the national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which concluded recently in New Delhi, the Hon’ble Prime Minister is reported to have declared: “ People have a right to know where our funds are coming from .” Media reports indicate that the Central Government may be working on a legislation to make the source of funding of all political parties more transparent. An economic resolution reportedly adopted at this meeting endorsed the Hon’ble PM’s appeal for transparency in political party funding , particularly election campaign financing. While this resolution itself is not available on the BJP’s official website, the salient features containing the Hon’ble PM’s transparency call to the party are uploaded there. Celebrating the 41st anniversary of the judicial recognition of people’s right to know These path breaking public statements have come less than 20 days before the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s finding about the p

By Our Representative In strongly-worded editorial   on demonetization, influential America daily, “The New York Times” (NYT), has said, there is “little evidence that the currency swap has succeeded in combating corruption or that it will forestall future bad behaviour once more cash becomes available.”

NBA campaign against "illegal" sand mining By Our Representative The Madhya Pradesh government has arrested two senior tribal rights activists, Rahul Yadav and Pavan Yadav, attached with the well-known anti-dam movement, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), as they reportedly tried to take objection to “illegalsand mining in Narmada riverbed in Badwani district.

Prashant Bhushan By Our Representative The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), led by top anti-corruption crusader, Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, has taken strong exception to the Government of India (GoI) rejecting 13 names recommended as judges for the Allahabad High Court by the Supreme Court collegiums.

Vladimir Putin with Modi By Our Representative “The New York Times” (NYT) has compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions of seeking to ban  foreign funding of several civil society organizations with actions of world’s two “illiberal strongmen” – Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose governments “regularly use imprisonment, threats and nationalist language to repress NGOs.”

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers may recollect my despatches from September and December 2016 describing my efforts to find out details about the sale and the efficacy of anti-riot weapons- particularly, pellet guns, which have caused severe injuries to hundreds of youth in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Both the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) and the First Appellate Authority (FAA) of the Khadki Ordnance Factory (OFK) rejected my request for information about the quantum of sale of anti-riot weapons such as pellet guns to security personnel on grounds of national security and commercial confidence. The FAA clearly stated in his order that OFK was not manufacturing the pellet guns being used by security agencies across the country but only the ammunition. He also held that OFK did not have any reports about the efficacy of such ammunition, especially, their impact on human beings. Now the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) which actually uses such weapons for dealing with