Counterview Desk The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM) organized a nation-wide protest on February 28, 2019, following which the protesting NREGA workers filed police complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, allegedly for “fraud in NREGA wages of workers”. Alongside complaints at hundreds of police stations across the country, a petition was sent to Modi and the Union Minister of Rural Development for “immediate release” of Rs 25,000 crore for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) budget.

By Our Representative Hundreds of Adivasis of several villages of Jharkhand’s Khuntpani block (West Singhbhum district) protested at the block administration’s office against the denial of ration, use of Aadhaar and other irregularities in the Public Distribution System (PDS). The protest took place following widespread unrest because of the “failure” to distribute ration in several of the villages for the last several months.

By Our Representative A joint statement by about 100 India’s and the world’s about 100 conservationists and conservation biologists , expressing dismay on the recent Supreme Court order to allegedly evict a million claimants under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of forest land, has said it is "a real setback for conservation in India." According to them, "Forest dwellers have for centuries used and managed these forests that we are now considering to be valuable for conservation. The rights of local communities are an integral part of any sustainable and just model of conservation, as is now recognised in international law." "Furthermore", they say, "FRA not only recognises these rights, it also legally empowers communities to protect their forests and wildlife as well. It is the first and only law in India that gives those who live in and with forests the power to protect them." They adds, "Since it was notified into force in 2008, the FRA ha

By Our Representative PS Krishnan, IAS (retd), former secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Welfare, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to BJP chief Amit Shah and his Congress counterpart Rahul Gandhi asking their respective party chief ministers to file review petitions against the Supreme Court’s order of February 13, 2019, has said, it is good that an all-party consensus on STs' forest rights, but this is not enough. The apex court order had allegedly endangered the rights of over a million forest dwellers over forest land. According to Krishnan, such review petitions "virtually never lead to positive results", insisting, "What is required is decisive action, which will at one stroke resolve the problem, and this has to be through the legislative route and, initially, at this pre-election stage though the Ordinance route." Asking him to "consider issue of such an Ordinance, before the Election Code of Conduct comes into force&

Counterview Desk The Centre for Financial Accountability (AFC), a New Delhi-based NGO, referring to the US Supreme Court 7-1 order in the Jam vs International Finance Corporation (IFC) case, allowing individuals and organizations to sue international organizations like the World Bank Group, has said has said that this has opened the way to sue IFC funding of the power plant in Mundra, Gujarat.

By Our Representative In what may prove to be a major embarrassment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top international news agency Reuters has created a flutter by saying that it's survey of economists suggests India's growth rate slipped to 6.9 percent annually in the October-December quarter. Pointing out that it would be the "slowest growth in five quarters, making it harder for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP to persuade voters that government policies were delivering economic success", Reuters' estimate  comes one day ahead of the Government of India is scheduled to release the second advance estimates for fiscal 2018-19. According to Reuters, "Weaker domestic and external demand were key factors behind the economists expectations of sub-7 percent growth. India would still be growing faster than China’s 6.4 percent growth in the same quarter, but its economy has decelerated from the more than two-year high of 8.2 percent growth posted in the April-Jun

By Our Representative Three civil rights organizations, South Asia Solidarity Group, London; Awami Workers Party, Pakistan; and University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) India Society, have “urgently” called upon “warmongers” of India and Pakistan to “draw back from the brink”, insisting, “We want peace in South Asia and call on the Indian and Pakistani governments to work for peace, not war.” Criticizing the BJP government, in a statement, they have said, the suicide bomb attack on February 14, in which 40 jawans of the Indian CRPF were killed at Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), is being used by it to “whip up nationalist anger before the general election due to start in April.” They add, “In doing so the India’s BJP government led by Narendra Modi is recklessly taking the country to the brink of war with Pakistan.” At the same time condemning “the warmongering and attacks with which the Pakistani military has responded”, the statement urges Pak

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi negotiated with French President Francois Mitterrand in 1981 for the purchase of 150 advanced Mirage-2000 warplanes, used by the Indian Air Force in the surgical strike 2.0 on February 26, 2019 to attack Jaish-e-Mohammad camp at Balakot, deep inside Pakistan. The negotiations were for a $2 billion deal, which were meant to give India “a major source of aircraft other than the Soviet Union and give France's Mirage production lines a new lease on life”, the "Washington Post" (WP) had reported in 1981. The deal came in following Indira Gandhi’s strong criticism of Pakistan's “plans to buy U.S.-made F16s”, the paper said, adding, the negotiations were finalized by Mitterrand and Gandhi, who participated in the summit meeting of 22 world leaders in Cancun, Mexico in October 1981, dealing with issues of economic growth for developing countries. The negotiations from the Indian side were led by Defense Secretary PK Kaul, who, said the report, ba

By Rajiv Tyagi* On February 26 morning as I woke up at 5 am in Gurugram, I was informed of an IAF strike on Balakot, in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunwa area, approximately 200 km north-west of India's nearest Air Force station at Avantipur, South East of Srinagar. A few phone calls later, I learned it was a pre-dawn attack at 0330 hrs, which delivered 1,000 kg bombs to a designated target area.

By Fr Cedric Prakash  SJ * All we are saying is give peace a chance/ All we are saying is give peace a chance, is the chorus of an anti-war song "Give Peace a Chance written by the famous Beatle John Lennon and performed with Yoko Ono in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, exactly 50 years ago in May 1969. It became an anthem of the American anti-war movement during the 1970s. Give Peace a chance! was the message sent by Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday February 24.

Counterview Desk Several cultural and civil rights organizations from across India have come together to organize an all-India cultural convention on March 16-17, 2019, at Bhilai, Chattisgarh, to analyse the role of culture at a time when India is allegedly undergoing social, political and economic unrest on a massive scale.

By Rajiv Shah  Has Gujarat faltered in the fight against tobacco vis-à-vis other states? It would seem so, despite the data suggesting the percentage of men and women using “some form of tobacco” (smoking cigarettes, bidis, cigars, pipe, hookah, chewing paan with tobacco, using gutkha or paan masala with tobacco, using khaini, using usoing snuff etc.) have come down considerably. The National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) data for 2015-16, released a year ago, suggest that 51 per cent of men and seven per cent of women in the age group 15-49 “use some form of tobacco”, which is seventh highest among 21 major Indian states. A similar household survey held a decade earlier (NFHS-3), which took place in 2005-06, suggested that 10 per cent more men (60%) used “some form of tobacco”. As for women, in 2005-06, the tobacco use was found to be eight per cent. However, at that time, as many as nine other major states out of 19 for which survey results have been obtained had a higher percent o

Counterview Desk In a move that is likely to raise the eye-brows of sections of "nationalists", the national committees of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), based in Lahore and New Delhi, with branches in Mumbai, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Jammu, Bhubaneshwar and Srinagar, even as condemning India's second surgical strike in the wake of the recent terrorist attack on CPRF jawans, killing more than 40 jawans, has called for "restraint" from both the sides.

Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat ahead of state assembly polls in 2017 By Rajiv Shah Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap , there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

By Our Representative The Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), a national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers' organisations, has announced a national struggle over the next two weeks against the "unjust attack" on millions of people whose claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) have allegedly rejected through a Supreme Court order. CSD said in a statement, "The Supreme Court's order to evict over one million claimant families is the direct result of the BJP government's decision to not say a word in court for the last four hearings. This is only the last step in this government's consistent sabotage of this law, from May 2014 to the present." Mass protests would be launched under the banner “BJP Sarkar Jawab Do!”, starting on February 26 and ending on March 10. On February 26, Jal Jangal Jeevan Bachao Sajha Manch will be holding a mass rally in Bhopal.On February 28, Adivasi Chhattra Sanghatan and allied groups will be holding rallies in

Counterview Desk As many as 73 ex-civil servants, in a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI), have sought urgent steps from ECI to make electronic voting machines (EVMs) more secure and less vulnerable to manipulation and tampering ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, scheduled in April-May this year. According to them, ECI’s audit plan is unable to detect outcome-altering miscounts due to EVM malfunction or manipulation, which defeats the very purpose of introducing ‘voter verified paper audit trail’ (VVPATs).

By VS Roy David, JP Raju* For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Counterview Desk As many as 28 Korean human rights and civil organizations, in a joint statement titled "Seoul Peace Prize to PM Modi: Why should we feel embarrassed, while they know no shame", has denounced awarding a ‘Peace Prize' in the name of Seoul to Modi, saying he is "accountable for the murders of thousands of Muslims".

By Our Representative Claiming to have exposed a racket in Vadodara district involving a former Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), environment group Prakruti Suraksha Mandal (PSM) has said that its team has found large scale illegal disposal of solid waste in the premises of a farm in Nani Bhadol village of Savli taluka. In a statement, it said, the team found a tempo emptying barrels filled with chemical waste barrels on the farm. “We made a complaint to the GPCB, Vadodara, which sent its officials to find out what was happening. The officials were surprised to see this type of activity was taking place”, said PMS’ Salim Patel, noting, “On inquiry, the officials found that a former GPCB employee was also involved in this illegal dumping of waste.” Suggesting that this is not an isolated incident, Patel added, “We demanded the GPCB should take investigate into the racket and take strict action against the culprits.”

By Our Representative The Uttar Pradesh civil rights organization Rihai Manch has taken strong exception to targeting of Dalits and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar district, pointing out that National Security Act (NSA) is being "selectively" imposed on members of these two communities, suggesting "Manuvadi" behaviour of the Modi-Yogi government at the Centre and the state. Addressing media in Khatauli, Muzaffarnagar district, Manch leaders referred to the arrest of individuals during the April 2 Bharat Bandh, saying, most of them are Muslims and Dalits, and were booked under NSA. Rajiv Yadav, general secretary of the Manch, said, "On one hand, cases against the 2013 communal violence accused, including BJP MLAs and MPs, are being withdrawn, on other, cases are being framed on fake charges on the deprived sections of society. Even minors and women in Khatauli are not being spared." He said, things have reached another extreme in Deoband, where students from Kash

In a letter to Union minister for tribal affairs Jual Oram, former secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Welfare, PS Krishnan, IAS (Retd), who was also member, National Monitoring Committee for Education of SCs, STs and Persons with Disabilities, has said that emergency action is required to immediately stay eviction of lakhs of STs and find complete solution to the situation that has arisen following the Supreme Court order of February 13. The order, says Irishman, directed 21 States to evict a mind-boggling number, mainly of the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and of some other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs), in the case of the Wild-Life First and Ors vs the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Ors. The letter regrets, "It appears that your Ministry was not in the picture in this case. In view of the orientation of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, there is room for apprehension that the facts and the Constitutional and legal position pertaining to STs may not have

Counterview Desk Reacting to recent attacks on Kashmiri students and traders, civil rights organization People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) has regretted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the incidents more than a week of violence began, which is "woefully inadequate".

Counterview Desk In a letter to Tamil Nadu chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, eminent citizens have expressed serious concern over the mysterious disappearance of environmental and human rights defender S Mugilan of Tamil Nadu, saying, he is "a target of attack by the state apparatus."

By Moin Qazi* Among the many challenges India faces, the most underappreciated is the ongoing mental health crisis. Mental illness is actually India’s ticking bomb. An estimated 56 million Indians suffer from depression, and 38 million from anxiety disorders. For those who suffer from mental illness, life can seem like a terrible prison from which there is no hope of escape; they are left forlorn and abandoned, stigmatized, shunned and misunderstood. Particularly worrying is the intensity of mental disorders in the adolescents. Half of all mental illness starts by the age of 14, but most cases go undetected and untreated. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds.depression is the third leading item in the burden of disease among adolescents Fortunately, there is a growing from the earliest ages, in order to cope with the challenges of today’s world. The pathetic state of mental health care in the country coupled with government’s apathy is a cause of g

Counterview Desk Admiral L Ramdas (retd), former former Chief of the Naval Staff, PVSM AVSM VrC VSM, and Magsaysay Awardee for Peace, in a letter to the President of India, has argued, in the wake of the recent terrorist attack in Kashmir, that there cannot be a military solution to the Kashmir problem; it has to be a political one, he insists, adding, a political solution must involve a genuine and continuous dialogue with the people of Kashmir – including dissidents and separatists, and governments of Pakistan and India.

Counterview Desk A recent policy brief by Oxfam, “India Public Good or Private Wealth? The India Story”, insists that “universal health, education and other public services reduce the gap between rich and poor, and between women and men”, something that is not happening in India today.

Haryana vigilantes "keep a watch" on cow smuggling Counterview Desk A 25-year-old man from Jalalabad in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, identified as Naushad, was reportedly  brutally thrashed by cow vigilantes at Bhalout village of Haryana's Rohtak district on January 19 night on suspicion of cow smuggling. A vigilante on a scooter followed Naushad, who was transporting a buffalo and its two calves in a vehicle to UP, and forced him to stop.

By Our Representative The Karnataka High Court has quashed the freezing of accounts of Greenpeace India by the Enforcement Directorate, holding the order of freezing to be null and void. Funding to the top international environmental watchdog was blocked following a raid by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its Bangalore office in October 2018. In a setback to the ED move, not only has the High Court allowed funding of Greenpeace, it has directed immediate defreezing of Greenpeace India’s account. Diya Deb, campaign director at Greenpeace India, has welcomed the Karnataka High Court's decision to unfreeze the bank accounts of Greenpeace India, saying, the decision not only strengthens its "belief in democractic values and constitutional propriety but also attests our stand that the organisation functions in accordance with Indian laws and for the benefit of society at large." The campaigner adds, "We hope that the attempts to shut us down will continue to be thwar

By Our Representative HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL Technologies, has granted Rs 5 crore each to three NGOs -- She Hope Society for Women, Wildlife Trust of India and Srijan Foundation Noida, India -- under the top industry's corporate social responsibility programme. The grants were handed over to the three NGOs in the presence of Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, and Sourav Ganguly, former captain of the Indian National Cricket Team. These were in recognition of the NGOs' exemplary work in the field of healthcare, environment and education, respectively. The HCL Grant award ceremony, held at the HCL Technologies campus in Noida, was also attended, among others by Shiv Nadar, founder and chairman, HCL, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, vice chairperson, HCL Technologies. The She Hope Society for Women Entrepreneurs works in remote, border and isolated areas of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) on physical rehabilitation. It would use the grant as humanitarian assistance to strengthen i

Counterview Desk India's top land rights network Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) in a statement has said that the recent Supreme Court verdict on Forest Rights Act (FRA) is a continuation of historic Injustices over Adivasis and other forest dwelling communities, insisting, if implemented, FRA 2006 would become "dysfunctional".

Counterview Desk The forest rights organization, Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), claiming to have presence in a dozen states, has strongly contested the statement issued by Wildlife First's Praveen Bhargav "on behalf of" petitioners in Writ Petition 109 of 2008 -- -- in defence of the recent Supreme Court order, which, they said, is being wrongly interpreted as underling the Forest Rights Act.

Counterview Desk Following widespread apprehensions across India that the recent Supreme Court order on Forest Rights Act (FRA) would lead to the eviction of about 10 lakh forest dwellers, depriving them of their rightful ownership of forest land, a statement issued by Wildlife First's Praveen Bhargav "on behalf of" petitioners in Writ Petition 109 of 2008 -- Kishor Rithe, Nature Conservation Society, and Harshwardhan Dhanwatey, Tiger Research and Conservation Trust -- has claimed that the order does not affect genuine claimants.

By Our Representative A protest took place on the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) campus in Hyderabad against its chancellor Firoz Bakht Ahmed, dubbed as an RSS appointee and a Modi man. The protesters sought Ahmed's removal from his post, alleging interference. Calling it "very unfortunate" and "wayward", Ahmed in a statement said, first the university "hurt the national sentiment in the aftermath of the martyrdom of our 44 soldiers by celebrating a gala musical evening and then followed it up with this protest against the chancellor, who had reprimanded the administration for having gone through with this festivity." Alleging that the protest was engineered by the vice chancellor, Ahmed said, it is being used "as fodder" to create an atmosphere against the chancellor, whose photograph was blackened. He added, "The future of these poor students is not in safe hands."

Counterview Desk The National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI), in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding non-implementation of the Whistle Blowers Protection (WBP) Act, passed 5 years ago, on February 21, 2014, has said that government indifference stands in sharp contrast to scores of whistleblowers being threatened, attacked and even killed.

By Our Representative About 300 individuals belonging to the Muslim community, in a representation to the Amreli district collector, have complained that the policemen, forest staff and electrical staff of the Pashchim Gujarat Vij Nigam raided 40 houses of Semardi village of Dhari taluka belonging to the minorities and looted them. The representation said, this happened on February 17 afternoon. Not just males, even women and children were not spared. They were indiscriminately beaten up. They did not even spare children's toys, even as they destroyed TV, fridge, fans, treasury closets, window bars, bathroom and toilet doors, bicycles, motor bykes, etc. Asking the district officialdom to immediately rehabilitate the victims, carry out a survey to make payment against the destruction of property, take legal steps to ensure equal justice for all to regain trust in law and order machinery, the representation wanted the officialdom to ensure that those who raided the houses return cash

Counterview Desk In a strong reaction, one of the top-most international NGOs, Amnesty International, has termed the recent Supreme Court ruling of Forest Rights Act (FRA) as “devastating”, warning, this could render over a million indigenous people homeless. A statement issued by Amnesty International’s India office in Bangalore says that India is party to a number of international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit forced evictions.

Counterview Desk A recent paper “Open defecation: Manual scavenging’s legacy in rural India” by Payal Hathi and Diane Coffey of the  Research Institute for Compassionate Economics , has undertaken a mobile phone survey, called Social Attitudes Research, India (SARI), in order to collect data on caste prejudice among adults in several states in India, claiming to confirm what manual scavenging activists have long argued: that Indian society suffers from deeply ingrained casteist attitudes.

By Our Representative Calling the Gujarat government allocation for the minorities in the state budget “discriminatory”, Minorities Coordination Committee (MCC) convener Mujahid Nafees has said, as against its population of 11.5% of the state, the state government has set aside only Rs 5.51 crore for them. Total size of the 2019-20 budget, presented in the state assembly on February 19, is Rs 1.92 lakh crore. Giving a breakup, MCC says, quoting budget papers, while the Gujarat Minority Finance Development Corporation has been given Rs 1 lakh, Rs 1.50 crore go to the National Minority Finance and Development Corporation, and Rs 4 crore for the Multi-Sectoral Development Plan (MSDP), meant for minorities. The civil rights organization had demanded Rs 5,940 crore for the development, protection, education and employment of minorities. In a statement, it regrets, “But the current government, which talks about development, has deliberately neglected the plight of 11.5% of the population in

By Our Representative Several civil society organizations have decided to hold a foot march starting near Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate, to Jantar Mantar via Copernicus Marg on February 23 afternoon, followed by a public meeting, to protest against the government’s alleged silence on fast unto death by Swami Aatmabodhanand for free Ganga since October 24, 2018. A National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) statement ahead of the protest rally regrets, "Regardless of all the claims being made in the Ardhakumbha, the symbol of the Ganga-Jamuni culture, river Ganga is in danger. While the Ganges in Uttarakhand is suffering from dams, pollution, sand mining, barrages and waterways affect the river in the plains." Aatmabodhanand, 26, of Matri Sadan is on fast unto death after the death of Swami Sanand (Prof GD Agrawal), who gave up his life after 111 days of continuous fast for the noble cause of free flow of Ganges. A student of computer science, Aatmabodhanand took sanyas

Counterview Desk The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in detailed report, "India: Vigilante ‘Cow Protection’ Groups Attack Minorities", has blamed for BJP for increasingly using communal rhetoric since it came to power in May 2014, spurring a violent vigilante campaign against beef consumption and those deemed linked to it.

By Our Representative The Delhi High Court has issued notice following a contempt petition against the Delhi government's failure to implement directions on grievance redress under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The petition was filed by the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan for the state government "failure" to comply with the directions of the High Court given in September 2017 regarding implementation of grievance redress and accountability measures under NFSA. Giving time till March 5, 2019 to the government to file its reply, the High Court in September 2017, while hearing a PIL on the difficulties faced by people in accessing their entitlements under NFSA (due to Aadhaar being made mandatory) took cognisance of the non-implementation in Delhi of provisions related to grievance redress under the NFSA. The High Court had stated that they were appalled to note the failure of the Delhi government to promulgate rules under the NFSA, including those related to trans

By Shamsul Islam* All Indians are devastated by the massacre of 44 para-military personnel and maiming of many of them by the notorious, Azhar Masood led Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) who tops Security Council’s list of most wanted terrorist. The most heinous part of this carnage was that the victims were not on the battle-front but travelling.

By Prof Madhu Prasad, Dr Vikas Gupta* The All-India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) organized on February 18 in Delhi a protest demonstration at Parliament Street, a nation-wide referendum on education policy, a People’s Parliament (Jan Sansad), and an evening of cultural resistance as part the full-day All-India Shiksha Hunkar Rally.

Counterview Desk More than 100 activists, academics and former civil servants have signed a statement expressing solidarity with leading human rights advocate Prashant Bhushan, against whom contempt petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court. The statement says, "Unfortunately, expressing an apprehension that the government might be misleading the apex court is being alleged to be contempt of court."

JeM chief Masood Azhar By Sandeep Pandey* I went to participate in a candle light homage paying event at Dr BR Ambedkar's statue organised by about 200 Dalit students on Hazratganj main crossing in Lucknow on February 16, 2019 evening, two days after the dastardly terrorist act in Pulwana, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), in which 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was killed.

By Our Representative Firoz Bakht Ahmed, chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, has sharply criticized the university authorities for bothering little about the sacrifice of 44 CRPF jawans in near Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir but going ahead with celebrating a gala musical evening on February 16 involving 2000 MANUU students, teachers and journalists. Ahmed, who was appointed MANUU chancellor last year but holds little authority, says in a statement, "Nothing more insensitive and anti-national", adding, this was being in order to appease students to obtain a "positive" report from the UGC Fact Finding Committee. It is probing into allegations of mismanagement and misappropriation in the university.