Hemant Shah, Suresh Mehta, Rohit Shukla By Our Representative In a fresh calculation, a campaign organization set up ahead of the Gujarat elections, claiming to be not associated with any political party, has said, much against the "tall talk" of employment generation during the biennial Vibrant Gujarat global investment summits, during 2004-15, 43.44 lakh fresh unemployed were registered with Gujarat's Employment Exchanges. Of these only 24.41 lakh people could get employment.

By Our Representative A fresh report jointly prepared by two of the world’s best known institutes, the Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security (Washington), and the Peace Research Institute (Oslo), has ranked India a poor 131st in its Women Peace and Security (WPS) Index among 153 countries for 2017-18, worse than other competing BRICS (short form for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, on one hand, and all of India’s neighbours, except Pakistan, on the other.

Akhil Gogoi By Battini Rao* Akhil Gogoi, leader of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti of Asom, and Chandrasekhar of the Bhim Sena in Western Uttar Pradesh, have been under detention for many months now. Akhil was arrested on 13 September under sedition charges by the BJP government of the state. On 25 September a total of 122 cases against him were clubbed together under the National Security Act, foreclosing any possibility of judicial redress. The NSA advisory panel of the state approved his detention on 19 November, thereby sealing his incarceration for 12 months at least. Akhil Gogoi has been a vocal critic of the BJP government and was arrested for his address at a meeting against amendments to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 which aims to legalise preferential treatment of citizenship applicants on the basis of religion, and which many people in Asom believe is specifically designed to help Bengali speaking Hindus of the state to legally obtain citizenship, while denying it t

Prof Niranjan Dave By Our Representative In a major embarrassment for Narendra Modi, Prof Niranjan Dave, who was head of the department with the Government Engineering or LE College, Morbi, has contested the Prime Minister's claim in in an election rally that he served people in the aftermath of the tragedy that befell the town after the Macchu dam burst on August 11, 1979.

Medha Patkar with Ashok Shrimali By Our Representative A new danger awaits the rural areas under the influence of the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). If a recent Maharashtra government notification, a copy which is with Counterview, is any indication, it empowers the state government to acquire tribal land for industrial development without seeking any gram sabha nod.

By Our Representative Top civil society leaders and experts have got together to tell the World Bank board that it must comply by the recent recommendations of the Bank's Inspection Panel for funding the project (approximately Rs 4,700 crore soft loan) to build a new capital for Andhra Pradesh, Amaravati, which it had prepared following its visit to India in mid-September this year.

By Moin Qazi* One of the most challenging problems of our times is homelessness. While we continue to record improvements in dealing with poverty, homelessness has been plagued with an unimaginative response from policy pundits. The apathetic approach of successive governments is symptomatic of the disease that ails India’s housing system. Housing is often the bedrock of other development interventions: owning land boosts health profiles, educational outcomes and gender equality. Decent housing is a rising tide that lifts all boats. The converse is equally true. India’s slums are horribly chaotic and sickening. Inmates live in cramped shacks made of rotting wood with rickety corrugated roofs. They are not only visual eyesores but also emblems of raw inequality. Moreover, the slums are unhealthful and physically dangerous. Hygiene is worse. These slums do not just breed physical illnesses but are also home to social ills like gambling, stealing, domestic violence and worse, sexual ass

By Our Representative Even as Gujarat goes to polls, a high-profile NGO Plan India’s new Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI) has found that the model state is behind 11 out of 21 major Indian states. On a scale of 1, Gujarat GVI is 0.543. The best GVI is that of Kerala (0.634), and worst that of Bihar (0.41).

Poll spending in 2012, as provided by MLAs By Rajiv Shah The Election Commission (EC) of India and the Narendra Modi government may be under scanner (click HERE ) for "undermining" transparency by refusing to part with any information on the controversial Electoral Bonds scheme, allowing political parties fund their activities secretly.

By Rajiv Shah Open Doors USA, an American non-profit organization, has triggered Hornet's nest by ranking India 15th, next to Saudi Arabia (14th), among 50 top countries where Christians allegedly face "most severe persecution for their faith". Blaming the "persecution" on BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it says, "As a result, radical Hinduism, which was already present under the previous government, has increased steadily."

By Our Representative The Union Finance Ministry, the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have all claimed in separate replies to a Right to Information (RTI) plea that they do not have any information about the Electoral Bond (EB) scheme, or who influenced the Government of India to launch such the controversial scheme.

By Venkatesh Nayak* “The name’s Bond, Electoral Bond- a sovereign guarantee of donor secrecy for political party funding!” In the near future, this is how an Electoral Bond might introduce itself to large donors (money-wise, not girth-wise or chest size) to seduce them to put money in the pockets of any political party (with apologies to Mr. James Bond immortalised on the silver screen by Sir Sean Connery, the Late Sir Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig and others). Readers may recall the “big idea” of Electoral Bonds (EB) that was announced in the Annual Budget presented in Parliament, in February, 2017. The Government amended three laws relating to elections, income tax and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to create this new method of making monetary donations to political parties. Briefly explained, anybody will be able to buy EBs in the form of bearer bonds from a designated commercial bank for any sum of money and donate it anonymously to a political party that he, she or it

By Our Representative In what is being considered a partial success by forest rights activists, following the tribals' six months long campaign, half a dozen gram sabhas of Kalahandi district have "forced" the Odisha Forest Department to issue a special circular allowing them to sell kendu leaf (KL) to anyone whom they want as per the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* On 14 November, speaking at a function in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vehemently stated, “I believe that after Independence, the biggest lie in India is the word secular...the people who gave birth to this word and who use it, should apologise. No system can be secular. Political systems can be neutral towards sects, but not secular.” Coming from the CM of the biggest State in the country, this is obviously no off-the-cuff remark, but a well-calculated attempt to test the waters and at the same time prepare for the 2019 General Elections. This is not the first time that a senior BJP functionary has negated a core value of the Constitution of India. There have been several utterances from many of them these past years, which have systematically denigrated and eroded the rights and freedom guaranteed in and of the values enshrined in the Constitution of India! There have been lofty proclamations of the establishment of a ‘Hindu Sta

Rahul Gandhi with Martin Macwan at DSK By Our Representative Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who reached out to the non-political Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK) off Ahmedabad to accept the "largest" tricolour of India, refused by Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani on the ground that the state government "did not have enough space for it", was in shocked to hear that his party in Gujarat had done "pretty little" in raising issues of untouchability.

By Rajiv Shah While top bureaucrats in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) may have worked overtime to "lobby" and "manage" certain well-known international institutes (click HERE ) in order to show how Modi's popularity is on the rise and the economy under him is looking up, it appears, they have been less successful with certain institutes. One of them seems to be is the World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Zurich, known for "uniting" world political, business  and academic leaders for economic development.

Aliyabet By Our Representative The Gujarat government closing down all the 30 gates on the the Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam in June this year may have "helped" raise the water level to the full reservoir level, 138.68 metres, swelling the dam’s live storage from 1.27 million acre feet (MAF) to 4.73 MAF. However, this has allegedly led to a major ecological destruction downstream of the river, 150 km away, on the river mouth, on the Gulf of Khambhat.

By Our Representative One of the topmost campaigners against aadhaar, Reetika Khera, has admitted that the marketing of the scheme as “a welfare-enhancing, pro-poor, anti-corruption programme has been hugely successful”, adding, things have gone to the extent that, despite contradictory evidence, “the view that it is helping disadvantaged people is hard to dislodge.”

By Our Representative In what is being described as “travesty of justice”, the Rajasthan police have arrested Tahir Mohammad and Javed Jabaa, the two eye witnesses in the gruesome murder of Umar Mohammad, who was killed on November 11, after which his body was dumped on railway track. They have been arrested on the basis of FIR No 273/2017 for seeking to smuggle cows.

Counterview Desk Gujarat’s Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani has made an “urgent appeal” for funds through Crowdnewsing (click HERE ) to support his campaign against the BJP ahead of the Gujarat elections. Text of the appeal: Dear friends and well-wishers, ever since the horrific videos of Una flogging surfaced, some of us got together to relentlessly work against the fascist communal and brahmanical Gujarat government led by RSS-BJP. The Una flogging brought to the fore the largely invisible yet deeply entrenched casteist character of BJP led ruling class of Gujarat. In no time, a massive consolidation of the Dalit masses took place in Gujarat. Dalits are just 7% in Gujarat and the mainstream media hardly highlighted their plight and suffering before. However, after one and half year of our continuous struggle under the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, the mainstream media is forced to write about atrocities and marginalisation of Dalits in Gujarat. RDAM’s continuous struggle has been a

The national flag spread in DSK premises By Our Representative In a major embarrassment to the BJP, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be “accepting” one of the largest national flags of India, prepared by Dalits at a technical institute off Sanand, Gujarat’s new industrial hub, which houses some of the most “prestigious” industrial units, including Tata Nano and Ford.

Children amidst asbestos dumping site in Kymore By Our Representative Nirmala Gurung, a former school teacher and headmistress in a secondary school, lived near a factory in a big village, Kymore, in Madhya Pradesh which has been making chrysotile or white asbestos products for over 30 years. The factory was previously a subsidiary of the British company Turner, and Newall PLC and the Belgium company ETEX (Eternit).

By Our Representative A Kisan Mukti Sansad (Farmers' Freedom Parliament), held in New Delhi after completing Kisan Mukti Yatra of more than 10,000 kilometers under the leadership of the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) in 19 states, saw its leaders introducing a draft Farmer’s Freedom From Debt Bill, 2017, seeking it's approval in the winter session of Parliament.

Kusum, tribal activist, speaking at the meet By Tanushree Gangopadhyay* More than 300 women from different parts of Gujarat assembled in Ahmedabad under the banner of Gujarat Mahila Manch to complain of "abusive, repression, sexual harassment, deprivation and control", pointing towards how the state government has failed to accord them basic human rights. At the end of the day-long meet, they unanimously resolved not to vote for a government which has deprived them of their basic rights.

By Moin Qazi* Reviewing the impact of demonetisation on its first anniversary, it is evident that several sectors have suffered severe setbacks. The microfinance industry is one of them. According to Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory organisation of the NBFC-MFIs, the MFI industry which has a total loan portfolio of just over Rs 1 lakh crore, may have to write-off 7 percent of outstanding loans, or Rs 7,000 crore, because of delinquencies due to demonetisation. “Demonetisation affected a lot of businesses where cash was used extensively including MFIs. But the impact has been extended in case of MFI sector due to non-monetary influences on the ground after demonetisation,” says Ratna Vishwanathan, CEO, MFIN. She explained that the non-payment after the first three months were more influenced by people who were politically motivated or had vested interest and wanted to create a place for themselves in the business post demonetisation. Microfinance has been faci

By Our Representative Giving a scary picture of inequalities in India, the recently-released “Global Wealth Report 2017”, published by Credit-Suisse, a Swiss multinational financial services holding company, headquartered in Zurich, has said that India’s 92% of adults “have net worth less than USD 10,000”, while “a small fraction of the population (just 0.5% of adults) has a net worth over USD 100,000.”

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* Pope Francis invited all Catholics and, in fact, all men and women of goodwill, to observe 19 November as the ‘World Day of the Poor’. This year was the very first observance of such a day (now fixed for the 33rd Sunday of the Liturgical Year). In a message, which was released last June, Pope Francis said: “I invite the whole Church, and men and women of good will everywhere, to turn their gaze on this day to all those who stretch out their hands and plead for our help and solidarity. They are our brothers and sisters, created and loved by the one Heavenly Father. This Day is meant, above all, to encourage believers to react against a culture of discard and waste, and to embrace the culture of encounter. At the same time, everyone, independent of religious affiliation, is invited to openness and sharing with the poor through concrete signs of solidarity and fraternity. God created the heavens and the earth for all; yet sadly some have erected barriers, wall

By Rajiv Shah Did Narendra Modi's top bureaucrats from the Gujarat cadre, currently in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), work out a well-planned strategy to lobby with three top international institutes, all headquartered in Washington, World Bank, Moody's and Pew, for ensuring a sharp image make over of Modi ahead of the Gujarat elections, after all three last year seemed least cared to show India under Modi in good light?

Macwan introducing "Gujarat Vikas Samachar" By Our Representative Out of 112 cases of social boycott and forced migration of Dalits across Gujarat over the last 28 years, ever since the anti-atrocities Act came into force in 1989, as many as 85 of them took place during a little more than 14 years when Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat, from October 2001 to May 2014 (click HERE for detailed table).

Counterview Desk A recent study by Aajivika Bureau, an advocacy group working among Ahmedabad’s migrant workers, who come from the tribals belts of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, has found that many of them live in “sub-human” conditions inside the garments factories operating of the Narol industrial belt of Ahmedabad.

By Our Representative In a shocking disclosure, many of the vaccines injected to children in Gujarat have either been found to be expired, or are in the last stage of expiry, with district health officials, conducting vaccine programme and distributing vaccines to local health centres, writing two letters to the Gujarat government about this.

Gaurang Jani and Hemant Shah By Our Representative In a stark revelation, the word “adivasi” (tribal) does not find mention in any of the Gujarati language textbooks, ranging from classes 5th to 12th. Speaking on the state of textbooks being taught in Gujarat schools, Gaurang Jani, professor of sociology, Gujarat University, said that there are 15% tribals in Gujarat, and their children would naturally feel alienated as a result of this type of discrimination.

By Our Representative Following the refusal to a civil society delegation to meet Krishak Multi Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader Akhil Gogoi in jail in Dibrugadh, Assam, several farmers' leaders, who have got together under Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA), have decided to raise their voice against "the continued incarceration of Gogoi is a political ploy to completely silence any voice of dissent in Assam today”.

By Our Representative In an unusual turn of events, top farmers' body, Khedut Samaj Gujarat (KSG), which had planned a 14-day motorbike rally from South Gujarat's Bhilad to North Gujarat's Amirgadh starting on November 17, has been denied permission to pass through Surat district. "We were told by that they don't have enough cops to handle the bike rally", Sagar Rabari, general secretary on the non-political farmers' organization told Counterview.

By Moin Qazi* Poverty won’t allow him to lift up his head; dignity won’t allow him to bow it down — Malagasy Proverb The global battle against poverty has acquired a new dimension this year with Pope Francis declaring 19 November 2017 as the First World Day of the Poor. Hereafter it will be observed on 33rd Sunday of every year. The occasion provides us an opportunity to reflect on growing inequalities and realign our thinking and approach in the light of our learning and experiences. The perception that the poor do not have skills or would not be able to survive on their own is a myth. This conclusion is grounded in the premise that a paternalistic conceit has hindered the development of poor families and negative beliefs perpetuated about them. The new findings are challenging traditional development wisdom—particularly the assumption that poor families need a great deal of advice, aid, support, and motivation to improve their lives, instead of engaging in wishful thinking we