Dangwimsai Pul with Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan By Our Representative Creating a major legal controversy, late Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul’s wife, Dangwimsai Pul, has asked India’s vice president Hamid Ansari to take cognizance of a 1991 Supreme Court judgment, consult apex court judges, and “permit” filing of FIR against Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and Justice Dipak Misra.

By Our Representative Several civil society organizations have, in a joint representation to the President of India, asked him not to give assent to the Telangana Land (Acquisition) Amendment Bill, 2016, which, according to them, is anti-farmer and anti-people, it because nullifies “progressive” provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation & Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013.

Clips from Gurmehar Kaur's video By Our Representative In an unusual investigation, Gujarat human rights activist Pratik Sinha has revealed that top cricketer Virendra Sehwag and actor Randeep Hooda have been unusually critical of Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur for a video she posted on social media, where she explains how she came off the impression as a six-year-old child that all Muslims are Pakistanis.

YB Chavan with Indira Gandhi By Prabhakar Kulkarni* Editors and journalists in the electronic and print media in India are enjoying press freedom. But this freedom is without any special provision in any law or the Indian Constitution. Individual freedom of expression is being used by editors and journalists and media organizations. But is this freedom used to suppress the truth? Can a book once published be dumped and made not available to readers who have right to know the truth? A Marathi book ‘Patra Samvad’ which was published but later disappeared and no copy is now available. The book relates to letters received by ex-Union defense minister and India’s deputy prime minister late YB Chavan. The letters were selected by veteran editor and history researcher SM Garge of Pune; ex-civil servant Ram Pradhan (ex-Governor of Arunachal Pradesh) was the executive editor.The book was published by the Yeshawantrao Chavan Pratishtan, formed in memory of the veteran national leader. The letter...

Counterview Desk The All-India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) statement against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP's) "assault" on university campuses: AIFRTE condemns in strongest terms the violent assault on the academic community by RSS student wing ABVP at Ramjas College (Delhi University) and Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur. What is even more disturbing in both the cases is abject surrender amounting to connivance of the university/college authorities to the rowdy tactics of ABVP as clearly visible in suspension of Dr Rajshree Ranawat by the Jodhpur University administration. Dr Ranawat, an assistant professor in English department of the university was reportedly the key organizer of a seminar earlier in February in which Prof Nivedita Menon of JNU was invited as a speaker. The ABVP, which has little stomach for independent and critical academic discourse, has since then carried a malicious propaganda against Prof Menon and Dr Ranawat. Unfor...

Prof Kodnandaram By Our Representative The recent Telangana government to refuse permission for holding a rally and a dharna in Hyderabad, even as resorting to mid-night arrest of senior leaders such as Prof N Kodandaram and hundreds others, who were central to the struggle for Telangana’s statehood, has attracted strong criticism from civil society activists across India.

Aam Admi Party protest against Naliya sex scandal By Our Representative A civil society-sponsored online petition has claimed that the Naliya sex racket, rocking Gujarat for about a fortnight now, is just a “tip of the iceberg”, insisting, “For last so many years sexual crime in Gujarat is increasing day by day” and “rape has become the epidemic in Gujarat.”

By Our Representative Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen has taken strong exception to the current “misunderstanding of what globalisation is”, insisting, “I don’t want to see countries withdraw into their shell and detach themselves from the rest of the world, and that applies to the world of ideas as well as the world of political practice, economic relations and social priorities.”

By Bhaskar Sur* Though Karl Marx was one of the founders of modern sociology, Marxists in general have been hostile to it. For ruling Marxists it was a bourgeois subject, decadent and subversive. It is only natural that a ruling elite which would like to perpetuate its rule to eternity in the name of 'historical necessity', find the critical method of sociology, casting doubts on such claims rather disturbing.

CR Patil By Pankti Jog* When a law maker become law breaker, democracy is in danger. But when a law maker instructs offices to break a law, the situation becomes even more dangerous. On February 3, 2017, BJP MP from Navsari (Gujarat) CR Patil, wrote a letter to the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) virtually instructing it not give information to citizens under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

By Our Representative "Clearing" the controversy surrounding Dangwimsai Pul's decision to withdraw her application from the Supreme Court (SC) to investigate the suicide note of her husband, ex-Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul, a foremost legal rights NGO, Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) has said, she did this because she felt it was not appropriate for the chief justice of India (CJI) to choose a particular bench for hearing.

Counterview Desk A signature campaign has taken place against the suspension of Dr. Rajashri Ranawat, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the Jay Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Text of the statement on which signatures have been sought: It is extremely disturbing that Dr. Rajashri Ranawat, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the Jay Narayan Vyas University, has been suspended by her university for having disobeyed the orders of the university. The suspension letter does not mention which orders she has not obeyed. It can therefore be concluded that Dr. Ranwat has been punished for having invited Prof. Nivedita Menon as a speaker in an academic conference which had academics and civil society workers from different disciplinary and ideological backgrounds participating in it. The conference was very successful with students and teachers interacting with scholars in a free atmosphere. After its conclusion, a nasty campaign was launche...

By Maryam Namazie* According to a recent report, more than nine in 10 UK universities are restrictive of free speech . This doesn’t surprise me at all. I continue to face restrictions of varying degrees, though this is changing due to the widespread push-back in defence of free expression. Nowadays, I find that universities don’t bar me outright as Warwick University initially did nor do Islamic Societies (ISocs) organise to cancel and threaten my talk as at Goldsmiths . Their efforts are often more covert though no less sinister. Take Westminster University where I will be debating Tariq Modood on Secularism and Diversity on 24 February. The Islamic Society didn’t call for an outright ban but issued a statement asking: “ How do you feel about Maryam Namazie speaking?” (with the word feel underlined) and telling students to contact the university secular adviser to “voice [their] concerns”. The Islamic Society getting in touch with its “feelings” is the same one that has members wh...

By Sadhan Mukherjee* Another report of a terrorist attack in Pakistan has come today (February 21). At least six people including a lawyer were killed and more than 20 injured at a sessions court in Charsadda near Islamabad by suicide bombings. Terror is not to be identified with any particular religion and terrorists do not believe in any religion as their acts violate all religious norms and tenets. When terrorists claiming allegiance to one religion kill people belonging to the same religion, what religion do they follow? No religion teaches killing and terrorism. The recent Islamic terror acts are in the focus of world’s peaceloving peoples and the terrorist acts in Pakistan are inexplicable. Derived from the Arabic root "Salema", Islam means peace, purity, submission and obedience. In the religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to His law. It believes in one God. We have seen school children wantonly murdered in Pakistan. On December 16,...

By Sadhan Mukherjee* The Scots are having a nightmare. Their Scotch seems to have lost its soothing effect on the politico-economic aliment that Scots survived on so far. They voted against leaving European Union (EU) during Brexit referendum hoping that Britain’s membership in the EU will be retained. But they were outvoted by the rest of Britain. They had even preferred three years ago to remain with Britain foregoing their own independence. They thought that independence from Britain may prevent their own independent membership in the EU due to firm opposition from Spain that is already fighting the Catalan bid for independence. Scotland now needs EU more than ever before though it’s major economy is integrated with Britain. However, it had developed relations with other EU members over the years and its foreign trade accounted for almost 25% with countries other than Britain. Now that Brexit is going to be a reality soon, the Scots are worried. They need to remain in the EU but tha...

Courtesy: Wall Street Journal By Prabhakar Kulkarni* India aspires to be a super power and competing with other countries in Asia. But a survey, carried out by Transparency International India (TII) – which is a leading non political, independent, non-governmental anti-corruption organization, with extensive expertise and understanding of issues of corruption – has found that Indian bureaucracy is the worst in Asia. However, why it is worst and whether it is duly sheltered by political wings of the government needs further analysis. It is not merely a matter of efficiency but also corruption. Because this bureaucracy turns quite efficient the moment it is bribed. The bribery is not duly checked by politicians as they are also directly or indirectly involved in grabbing wealth and assets. Thus, India seems to be the most corrupt in Asia and this is periodically exposed in both the television and print media. The exposure is indicative of the very system, which fails at whatever attempts...

Counterview Desk The Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 680 candidates from 98 political parties, including 6 national parties, 5 state parties, 87 unrecognized parties and 200 independent candidates, who are contesting in the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections to be held on 23Th February, 2017. A synopsis: Criminal Background · Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 680 candidates analyzed, 116 (17%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. · Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 95 (14%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc. · Candidates with cases related to murder: 7 candidates have declared cases related to murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302). · Candidates with cases related to Attempt to Murder: 18 candidates have declared cases related to atte...

By Our Representative Long-time political opponents Congress and the Left "converged" on Sunday to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial demonetisation move at a civil society-sponsored meet in Delhi, sharing platform to declare that that it has been a  big disaster, especially for the poorer sections of the people.

By Our Representative Virtually backing the banned exit polls carried out by the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran's online site as also other surveys, top scribe Rajdeep Sardesai has predicted in a blog , written by him at the end of the three rounds of polling for UP state assembly, it's “advantage BJP”, with Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance being “still in the hunt.”

Counterview Desk A note on newspaper employees' unions' protest in Mumbai on February 13 against "sacking" of working journalists: More than 150 journalists and non-journalist employees of several newspapers and a news agency held an hour-long spirited demonstration before the Hindustan Times (HT) office in the country's commercial capital Mumbai raising slogans against the mass termination of media employees. Apart from raising slogans, Media employees also waved placards that said 'Journalists-Media Workers unity Zindabad', 'Media barons: Honour SC order and Implement Majithia wage board' and 'Dont shoot the Messenger, Don't sack the Messenger'. The demonstration in front of HT office in India Bulls Towers, Senapati Bapat Marg, in Central Mumbai was part of a campaign to 'Fight undeclared Emergency in the Media', and oppose sacking of media employees, organised by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) to fight for the Impl...

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* “Preventing Conflict and Sustaining Peace through Decent Work” is the theme of the 2017 World Social Justice Day, which will be observed on February 20th. As a justification of the theme the UN lists the following objectives: (i) to highlight the importance of employment-centred strategies and programs and their contribution to international efforts to prevent conflicts, sustain peace, build resilient societies and promote social justice; (ii) to explore the intersectionality of employment, peace and social justice across the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development; and  (iii) to expand knowledge sharing and collaboration with the UN system and other key stakeholders on effective strategies for peace, social justice and development. Both the theme and the objectives are certainly laudable! Wars and conflicts have held centre-stage across the globe in the last few years. It has cost the world enormously in every sense of the word.  With over 65 million ...

Randej Dalits By Kaushik Parmar* The slogan “Gaay nu punchhdu tame rakho, amne amari jamin apo” (keep the tail of the cow with you, give us our land), which roared in Gujarat after the gruesome Una incident, appears to be playing a catalytic role in the Dalit rights movement in the state. Day by day, ever more villages are boycotting the traditional occupations imposed upon them through caste-based society systems. As expected, upper caste communities are trying to suppress Dalits' voice through violence and social boycott, with the state machinery remaining a silent spectator. Over the last one week, around 35 families faced social boycott by upper caste communities in Randej village of Bechraji block in Mehsana district of Gujarat. This happened following an afternoon feast was organised at a “sthapana pooja” in the newly built temple of the village. However, the upper caste community arranged for a separate sitting arrangement for the Dalits, thus discriminating against the...

Counterview Desk Statement by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms ( CJAR ) on the suicide note of former Arunachal Pradesh CM Kalikho Pul: Kalikho Pul was the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh who was unseated on account of a judgment of the Supreme Court, which quashed the imposition of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh and restored status quo ante. He committed suicide on 9th August 2016. Immediately after his suicide a 60 page suicide note/diary was discovered. This note was signed on every page by Kalikho Pul and the last page is dated 08th August 2016, the day on which he committed suicide. The contents of this 60 page note with redactions of some of the names contained in it, have been published by various media outlets in the country. They contain very serious allegations of corruption especially in the highest judiciary of India. Though it is not necessary that all the allegations contained in the note even those which are made from his personal knowle...

By Our Representative In her new book , “Foot Soldiers of the Constitution: A Memoir”, well-known human rights activist wonders as to why India's High Courts and the Supreme Court, who are vested with a unique power of the suo motu jurisdiction, have failed to use it with any communal riots across the country.

By Dr Chhagan Lal* A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was admitted in the Gujarat High Court against what it calls large-scale illegal appointments being made in the Central University of Gujarat (CUG), Gandhinagar, a public funded national institution. The PIL, filed by the Anamat Samarthan Samiti, has alleged that appointments of senior teachers in CUG were being made based on personal contact and consideration of the vice-chancellor rather than on issuance of advertisement and open selection based on merit through duly constituted selection committee, which is seriously compromising academic standards, diluting the quality of teachers and undermining excellence associated with central universities. It claims that Prof SA Bari, vice-chancellor, has illegally appointed his wife Dr Rachel K Bari as Professor of English Studies, Dr Tamishraha Bagchi as Professor of Nano Sciences, Dr JPN Mishra as Professor of Life Sciences, and Dr Muttayya Koganuramath as Professor of Library Science wi...

By Our Representative A top data analysis site has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and BJP chief Amit Shah’s claim during the Uttar Pradesh (UP) polls that that the state is “number one” in crime has no basis, insisting, “The facts – garnered from the Centre’s own crime database – did not support the assertions made by Modi and Shah”. Modi made the claim on February 5 and 10, 2017, while BJP chief Amit Shah said this on February 3, 2017.

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* Amman, the capital of Jordan, is a wonderful city complete with history, tradition and modernity. Amman, however, on a very cold (temperature less than 5 ℃) and rainy day is not the most exciting place to be in. Above all, since Amman is built on hills (jabal) and has several valleys (wadi), walking distances from one house to another, is certainly not something that one easily relishes. Nevertheless, walking today in the rain with Esraa and Mohamed, two volunteers with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) here in Jordan, was indeed a very special experience. ‘Camp Hussein’ not far from downtown, in north-west Amman, was set up in 1952 to house thousands of Palestinian refugees, after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Today, the winds of change have blown over this sprawling area. It however continues to be one of the poorer quarters of the city; the people who live here are not only Palestinians but also refugees from other countries like Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Somal...

Counterview Desk   The following letter by Biswajit Roy , a journalist with The Telegraph (TT), the flagship of the Amrit Bazar Patrika Group of Calcutta, has gone viral on the social media: Finally I resigned from The Telegraph, albeit under duress like 700 odd fired journalists and non-journalists in the ABP Group. Twenty journalists including 17 district correspondents in TT Bengal reporting have lost their jobs in this round. The ABP management did not allow me to write my resignation letter but got me signed on a one line format that had no mention of the company’s current culling of its workforce. Instead, it pretended that I left out of my free will. Neither had I received a written assurance on the details of the ‘special package’ and statutory dues when I had to sign another format about payments.  One of editorial bosses countersigned the latter as I asked for a promissory note from the management. My human relations (HR) handler told that the company would ...