Counterview Desk The Union Cabinet decision to amend the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 2010, to allow centrally-funded projects to be set up in the prohibited area of the nationally-protected monuments is likely to adversely impact historical structures of national importance.

By Manjot Singh Kohli I have seen roads turning, dawn breaking, mountains trimming, and opinions changing. A wanderer myself, however, I never wanted to return from this paradise! The black shade of the moon is so much blared about and condemned that its glow and charm is ignored like it never existed! Meeting people of every opinion for sure broadened my perspective of what they call hell streets, and what I call heaven lanes. There was a time when Kashmir was the last place I wanted to travel in the world. The image was of savagery and mortality. Not that everything thing is flowery now, but for sure it’s less thorny than it is portrayed. I had always believed it to be an exotic place that would reveal to me to horrors of humanity. But my views about Kashmir changed after my recent travel to the valley. Meeting a few people was all it took to make me see the actual picture of this blessed place. As I reached there I realized that I had carried a cocoon view of Kashmir for years. I c...

By Medha Patkar* The situation at one of the oldest sites of human civilizations – the Narmada valley of Madhya Pradesh – is today worse than a battlefield where the humble, hard working farmers, fisher folk, potters and labourers are struggling day in and day out to simply survive against the onslaught of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the Narmada river in Gujarat.

By Shaktisinh Gohil* The BJP government, which talks big on Make in India, is seeking to adopt a policy that would ruin Indian industry and murder ‘Make in India’! The Congress-led UPA government came up with the Anti-Dumping Notification No 34/2012 on July 3, 2012 for five years in order to protect the labour-intensive household soda ash industry from China, Pakistan, European Union, Kenya, Ukraine, Iran and USA which seek to dump the commodity in India. After the BJP-led government came to power in the Centre, the middlemen and agents seeking to lobby in favour of soda ash importers stepped up their campaign. On July 21, 2016, the BJP government declared its intention to drop the Anti-Dumping Duty notification by announcing mid-term review. Even though the situation with regard to the industry had not changed, without any valid reasons, the Government of India released its Disclosure Statement on September 14, 2016 in newspapers, giving just four days for comments. As part of i...

By Our Representative Well-known human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi has returned her National Minority Rights Award, which she received from the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in 2008, in protest the Modi government's “support” to violence against Muslims. Hashmi returned her award with a letter to TM Skaria, director, NCM.

By Sadhan Mukherjee* The pent-up demands for separate statehood by people in different parts of India are now bursting forth since the Gorkhaland demand has grown in dimension and effect. Last Saturday New Delhi was the venue where some of these new statehood demand protagonists met. This means that in the coming days, the demand is going to intensify, not die down. BJP as usual is indulging in double-talk. BJP West Bengal state President has come out with a laughable argument. He has declared that BJP was not against smaller states. But since the proposed name is Gorkhaland, it means it will be a state for Gorkhas. But since other tribes in Darjeeling hills area have no objection, who is the sate BJP chief to object to the name. Since that is not a tenable argument, the state BJP chief has adduced the economic viability argument as well. He does not take into account the proposed state’s income from tourism and royalty from tea gardens. Take a European country, Switzerland. Tourism gi...

Dutch PM Rutte Counterview Desk Open letter by Gerard Oonk, director, India Committee of the Netherlands, to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaches the country on his first official visit on June 27: On June 27, Prime Minister Modi of India will pay his first official visit to the Netherlands. Reasons for this visit are the 70 years diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands and the fact that the Netherlands is one of the largest investors in India. Silent support for violence of hindu extremists The close Dutch relationship with India is a good reason to address the deteriorating human rights situation in India during the discussion with the Indian Prime Minister. Under Modi's hindu-nationalist government, the marginalization of minority groups such as Dalits (‘untouchables’), Christians and Muslims has increased significantly. Especially these groups, together more than a third of the Indian population, are nowadays regula...

TUs protest against Junaid's lynching Counterview Desk  National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) associates Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan,  Aruna Roy of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Prafulla Samantara of the Lok Shakti Abhiyan; Binayak Sen of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties; and Sandeep Pandey of the Socialist Party, among others, have signed the following statement on lynching Junaid: *** National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) is shocked and horrified by the gruesome murder of sixteen year old Junaid Khan in running train enroute to Mathura from Delhi on 22nd June. This happened in public view inside a train where ordinary people were travelling to their respective destinations. Junaid and his three brothers were returning after shopping for Eid. The attackers were calling them ‘beef eaters’ and taunted for their appearance. The attack happened mainly due to their appearance as Muslim fellows. What is shocking is the involvement o...

Modi-Musharraf meet, Nov 2014: Wither dialogue? By Our Representative Organizers of the Peace Now Campaign, to be launched on July 1 to “counter” water hysteria in India and Pakistan, have asked its participants from both the countries to “come together to celebrate independence” of the both the countries – on August 14 (Pakistan) and August 15 (India), and “not on just one day i.e. 14th or 15th.”

By Rajiv Shah Six months after the Gujarat High Court judgment sharply criticizing the state government and the Gujarat Sarvodaya Mandal (GSM), also known as Bhoodan Samiti, for failing to oversee what happened to thousands of acres of land received during the Bhoodan movement of Vinoba Bhave, a top GSM insider has declared that as of today it has “no land.”

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* June 26th is designated by the UN General Assembly as the ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture’, with a view ‘to the total eradication of torture and for the effective functioning of the ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’(UNCAT).

Modi riding paper tiger: As seen by "The Economist" By Our Representative Top British weekly, “The Economist” has expressed that fear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “will try to maintain his popularity by stirring up communal tensions” in India as the economy begins to falter, recalling his role as as Gujarat chief minister, “when rioting there killed at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.”

Counterview Desk Mahesh Pandya of NGO Paryavaran Mitra, Ahmedabad, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to pursue President Donald Trump to reconsider America’s stand on Paris Agreement during his forthcoming visit to the US. Text: Paryavaran Mitra is a Gujarat-based voluntary organization working on socio-environmental issues since 1997. Our organization is active in bringing awareness in matter of environment and climate change issues and imparting education for the same. At the outset I wish to congratulate you and wish you a successful mission on your forthcoming tour of America. In particular I appreciate your bold decision to accept the invitation of President Donald Trump despite his severe criticism of India and China while pulling out of Climate Change commitments. The whole world has condemned the unwisely step of Mr. Trump. Your visit is seen beneficial to both the larger democracies of the world in solving many bilateral and internation...

By By Darshini Mahadevia, Renu Desai, Shachi Sanghvi, Suchita Vyas, Aisha Bakde, Mohamad Sharif Pathan, Rafi Malek* There is a growing recognition that large numbers of women in Indian cities experience violence inside and outside their homes and feel insecure about being in public spaces. Patriarchal norms and sexist attitudes towards women are the main underlying reasons for these experiences. However, outside the home, the nature of urban development and governance, such as housing location and type, provision of adequate infrastructure and services, provision of adequate and safe transport, and responsive policing also play an important role in creating safe and unsafe spaces for women in the city, which in turn expands or constrains their access to resources and opportunities. Gender also intersects with class and other social identities such as caste, ethnicity and religion, to shape women’s urban experiences. This study looks at gender insecurity and violence against women in Bo...

By Sadhan Mukherjee* As apprehended the joint meeting called by the West Bengal government in Siliguri has on Thursday become infructuous because of its truncated nature. The main players were absent. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and other Hill parties and groups had already announced they would boycott it.

Counterview Desk Renowned anti-nuclear and peace activist Dr. SP Udayakumar has filed a complaint with the Press Council of India against "harassment" meted out to him and his family by Republic TV, which is under attack for openly supporting Modi government. Text: Greetings! I write to bring your kind attention to the ongoing deceit and harassment of me and my family by Mr. Arnab Ranjan Goswami and a few of his colleagues such as Shweta and Sanjeev from the Republic TV. On April 8, 2017, one “Shweta Sharma” (I later found out that her real name was Shweta Kothari) came to my home at Nagercoil and introduced herself as a “research scholar” from the Cardiff University in the UK. She asked for my help with her dissertation research. She had been accompanied by her “local friend” Sanjeev. I gave her several books and answered her questions. On April 9, 2017 she requested me to stop by her hotel room as she had a few more questions. There she told me that “one of her Briti...

By Aakash A Shah and HP Mishra* Health and safety of the employees is an important aspect of a company's smooth and successful functioning. It is a decisive factor in organizational effectiveness. It ensures an accident-free industrial environment. Companies must attach the same importance towards achieving high OH&S performance as they do to the other key objectives of their business activities.

Counterview Desk Statement by South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People: On June 17, 2017, a PIB Press Release from Union Ministry of Water Resources announced, “Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has cleared the final raising of Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) in Gujarat by lowering of gates and impounding of water in the reservoir upto its Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of EL 138.68 mts. The NCA which met under the Chairmanship of Dr. Amarjit Singh, Secretary (WR, RD & GR) considered all aspects of environmental and Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) issues.” The gate closure will lead to submergence and displacement of lakhs of tribals and farmers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, without even proper resettlement as legally required. There is also no justification for the decision as the canal infrastructure necessary to use the additional water that the dam will store with increase in height from 121.92 mts to 138.68 mts is not even ready. Unfortunately, this is ...

By Our Representative The Government of India’s powerful Central Reserve Police force (CRPF) – whose roles include crowd control, riot control, counter-insurgency operations, and dealing with left-wing extremism – has denied that the Naxal attack on April 24, 2017 in Chhattisgarh was a human rights violation.

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers will recollect the dastardly attack on CRPF personnel that occurred in Chhattisgarh on 24 April, 2017. Left-wing extremist (LWE) groups carried out an attack on a team of 90 CRPF personnel who were on duty, sanitising a stretch of the public road being constructed in the Burkapal-Chintagufa area of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh. At least 25 CRPF personnel are said to have died in the ambush, while scores of others were injured. According to surviving CRPF jawans, an unspecified number of militants are also said to have been killed in the attack. Later, the media reported on the preliminary findings of an internal inquiry conducted by the CRPF to determine what went wrong that cost so many human lives. CRPF denies that the Sukma attack amounts to violation of the human rights of its personnel A couple of weeks after the attack, I sought the following information from the CRPF, under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act): “Apropos of the enclosed new...

By Sadhan Mukherjee* Both the TMC and BJP seem to be caught in a political cleft over Gorkhaland. Only a sincere dialogue among the three parties together – BJP, Trinamool and GJM -- can bring a solution to the vexed issue that has grown beyond the control of any one party. It may still be possible to have a peaceful solution as the condolence marches with the three dead bodies of GJM activists showed. Government allowed the marches without any hindrance and GJM did not take any retaliatory means. Peace prevailed during the marches. The proposed joint meeting on 22 June called by the Union Home Ministry in Siliguri should break some new ground towards an amicable solution as all three sides seem to realise the gravity of the situation. A pre-requisite for a decent and amicable settlement can only be a ‘give and take’. A rigid stand by any one party can break the talks. The introduction of Bengali as a compulsory language in all schools of Darjeeling hills area up to 10th standard by th...

By Our Representative The lynching of Zafar Hussein, a political and trade union activist of Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, attached with the CPI-ML (Liberation), was the direct result of India’s ruling establishment’s approach to Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, the national cleanliness drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a detailed letter sent to Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has alleged.

By Our Representative Protests have erupted in the Narmada valley in Madhya Pradesh against the inter-state body, Narmada Control Authority (NCA),which   allowed  the Gujarat government to close down the Narmada dam’s 30-odd gates. This follows large-scale fear among villagers of the state's highly fertile Nimad area their houses and land, along with their means of livelihood, would be submerged.