Medha Patkar with Ranya and Rajubai By Medha Patkar* When I decided to spend Diwali days with the adivasis, our saathis of last 34 years struggle, in the hilly villages of Maharashtra, I knew what the scenario would be. In Manibeli, Chimalkhedi, Bamani and Mukhdi, houses after houses and fields had been submerged… lost partially or fully into the oblivion! Yet when I reached, crossing a number of police checks by boat from the Sardar Sarovar dam site, I got a shiver, witnessing the huge ocean that the mother river, Narmada, had turned into. It was demonic, indeed.

By Anand K Sahay* In an extraordinary display of deployment -- amidst nationalistic fervour -- not seen since the militancy of the early 1990s, the country’s armed forces are spread across the towns and villages of the Kashmir valley, guns at the ready. Men of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, doing duty alongside them in urban areas, no longer carry a weapon.

By Shaktisinh Gohil* Come October 31, and we have functions to mark events relating to two great personalities who have played very important role in the making of India. They are Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Indira Gandhi. Like many other friends in public life, I also have to attend functions involving these two leaders at some places as speaker, while at some as guest.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* This last day of October reminds us the brutal assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her own security guards who were supposed to protect her. Since June 1984, when Indira Gandhi ordered Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Sikh feelings were tremendously hurt, but there was no attempt to assuage the feelings.

By Mohan Guruswamy* Exactly a year ago, Narendra Modi inaugurated the giant Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue facing the Narmada Dam. It is 3.2 km away from the dam on a river island called Sadhu Bet near Rajpipla in Gujarat. Standing almost six hundred feet tall, it is the world's tallest statue.

Detained activists By Our Representative Several Gujarat human rights and tribal activists have been detained in Gujarat ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaching the Kevadia Colony on Thursday, October 31, to celebrate one year of the Statue of Unity off Sardar Sarovar dam. The state officialdom acted similarly a year ago, too, when Modi reached the Kevadia Colony to inaugurated the 182-metres statue, tallest in the world. October 31 is Sardar Patel's birthday.

By Moin Qazi* As you read these lines, 1.6 billion Muslims across the world, from Morocco to Jakarta, will be paying homage to Prophet Muhammad ahead of the Prophet’s birthday, which falls on 9-10 November 2019. This day, 1,430 years ago, Prophet Muhammad delivered the historic Last Sermon (khutabat al-wida) on the parched terrain of Mount of Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahmah) in the Uranah valley of Mount Arafat, 20 kilometres east of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It was precisely on the ninth day of Dhu al-Hijjah (12th and last month of the Islamic year -6 March 632) in the tenth year of hijrah (migration from Mecca to Medina) that the Prophet addressed 1,44,000 pilgrims. The sermon, though seemingly addressed to a Muslim gathering, had a universal message. It consists of summarized exhortations based on some core teachings of the Qur’an and sunnah (Prophetic practices). It captures the ethos of Islam and provides a great lens to view the religion through. Some of his advices have become the f...

By Anand K Sahay* The gun trigger that took the first life in Kashmir was squeezed on August 6, just one day after constitutional violence had been done to J&K state- and it wasn’t the militants. In the Ilahi Bagh-Soura area of Srinagar’s old city, locally called the “downtown”, Asrar Khan, a 14-year old pupil of the well-regarded Kashmir Harvard School, near his home, was shot in the head from a pellet gun.

By T Navajyoti* Francois Gautier, an India-based senior French journalist, believes Hinduism is “the only religion” today that accepts and respects all the other religions, and though Hindus are descendants an ancient civilization in human history, there are many western journalists and correspondents who are “still biased” against Hindustan.

By Sandeep Pandey and Meera Sanghamitra* The Nagas claim that their leader Phizo never signed any instrument of accession with India like the other 562 princely states and Nagaland or Nagalim, as they prefer to call their land, was never part of India either with consent or by conquest. Nagas are proud of their unique history in which they have never been subject to any foreign rule.

By Rajiv Shah Top economist Raghuram Rajan, who resigned as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor in 2016 ahead of the Modi government’s controversial demonetization move, has taken strong exception to the World Bank seeking to show India climb up the East of Doing Business indicators, saying these do not match “the actual conditions in India” that “prevent businesses from working easily.”

By Anand K Sahay* Says a 30-year old, a minor government functionary in Baramulla, in an uncomplicated, way, “Aap apne Pakistan ka gussa Kashmir par nikal rahe hain!” (You are taking it out on us in Kashmir because you are angry with Pakistan!)

By Anand K Sahay* My recent trip to Kashmir has revealed a picture that can only fill one with gloom and dread. Grave political uncertainty and psychological disarray at the level of ordinary people is the standout impression.

By Rajiv Shah Girish Chandra Murmu, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat retiring next month, this correspondent still remembers, during his interaction with him as the Times of India (TOI) man in Gandhinagar, his rather huge laughter (a loud “ha ha ha”) after he would frankly state what all was going on in the government. Now, the very same Murmu, 59, has been appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

By Maju Varghese In the last week, we saw two indices, which were released globally. One on hunger and another on Ease of Doing Business. India slipped from 95th position to 102nd position out of 117 countries in Global Hunger Index, while the country gained another 14 points in Ease of Doing Business jumping from 77th position last year to 63rd position this year among 190 countries. India improved its ranks by 79 position from 2014.

By Rajiv Shah  A high level conference in Chicago has seen a strong appeal to the Government of India to promote safer technology among stone cutters in India and better occupational health standards in India’s jewellery business by developing better inspection standards. The appeal came after a senior Gujarat-based health rights activist, Jagdish Patel, made a presentation on the state of agate stone cutting industry in Khambhat in Gujarat and Jaipur in Rajasthan.

Counterview Desk Representatives of trade unions and workers organisations of all sectors (including formal, informal, self-employed and home based workers), who met in Delhi on October 23-34, 2019 in order to analyse the Code on Social Security 2019, published at Ministry of Labour and Employment, has taken strong exception to the Government of India seeking to exclude the unorganized sector, insisting, what is actually needed is a right to social security Act.

Bilkis Bano By RK Misra* Seventeen years after the incident and six months after the apex court ordered relief for the victim, the BJP government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat figured in a callous disregard for compliance. Successive BJP governments in Gujarat have dragged their feet, particularly in matters relating to the minority community, even when the highest court of the land has unequivocally ruled it’s mind.

Counterview Desk The Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), a civil society network campaigning against alleged efforts of the Government of India to dilute the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has said that the new RTI rules, which follow the Act’s amendments about three months ago, have reduced India’s Information Commissions into ‘caged parrots’.

By Our Representative In a sharp rejoinder to “Western businesspeople”, who are said to be still inclined to “defend” Prime Minister Narendra Modi by claiming that Modi may be “bad for democracy his pro-business philosophy is good for the economy”, the powerful British periodical “The Economist” has declared, “But that argument no longer washes. India’s economy is incompetently managed and doing badly.”

For the powers-that be, surely, it is but natural to consider this a proud moment: That the World Bank’s new “Ease of Doing Business” report has shown India jumping 14 points; and that India is one of the two countries across the globe out of 190 economies analysed among the 10 top “improvers” which have shown climbed so sharply – the other country being the tiny Djibouti in the huge African continent. Further, if the report is to be believed, out of total of 11 business regulatory reforms in the past two editions of Doing Business, India made 14 sizeable improvements during 2017-18, while Djibouti improved on 11 counts; and overall, it was important that two economies with “the largest populations, China and India, demonstrated impressive reform agendas.” So far so good. But after reading through the report today, I decided to read another report, also by the World Bank, which I had meticulously downloaded and kept in my computer for a closer perusal on some other day, at leisure. The...

By Rajiv Shah For the powers-that be, surely, it is but natural to consider this a proud moment: That the World Bank’s new “Ease of Doing Business” report has shown India jumping 14 points; and that India is one of the two countries across the globe out of 190 economies analysed among the 10 top “improvers” which have shown climbed so sharply – the other country being the tiny Djibouti in the huge African continent.

By Our Representative The Supreme Court has refused to accept the report of the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir Regulation Committee dated October 14, 2019, submitted by the Union of India and the Narmada Control Authority (NCA). 

By Rajiv Shah Today, after I took my morning stroll as part of my daily routine, my search for online news led me a tweet by friend and colleague, whom I have for long considered an honest and sincere journalist, Abhishek Kapoor, currently executive editor, Republic TV. Formerly with Indian Express and Times Now, he loudly, perhaps proudly, proclaimed that India has jumped 14 points in the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in a World Bank ranking.

Max Mueller's Manusmriti By Shamsul Islam* The current vociferous campaign for awarding Savarkar Bharat Ratna by Savarkarites claims that this Hindutva 'Veer' was a ‘rationalist Hindu’ a leader who ‘ended the practice of Untouchability’, propagated ‘scientific temper’ and died as an atheist. They also persist in saying that his “outlook was absolutely modern and scientific and secular”.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The process of manufacturing post facto approval for the momentous changes that the Central Government made to the status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in August 2019, with Parliament’s nod, is in full swing. Apart from the chest-thumping at the recent election rallies in Maharashtra and Haryana and the latest round of military operations launched across the northwestern border , educational institutions are being pressed to organise debates on this issue. A common theme that pervades all these attempts to legitimise recent actions over J&K is the blame game targetting other political parties that governed the Centre and J&K for all that went wrong until August 2019. Arguably, the favourite whipping boy of critics of the Kashmir policy is Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was the Prime Minister at the time of J&K’s accession to the Indian Union in October, 1947. An oft-repeated charge against Pt. Nehru was that he did not show enough courage to beat back th...

By Mohan Guruswamy* Just a few years ago the breaching of data from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed a number of Indians and Indian-owned entities were shovelling their money away from Indian tax officials into Panama based shell companies. One of those discovered doing this was India's favourite brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan, despite not being a posterboy for good citizenship. Panama: No questions asked.

Counterview Desk The Wangan & Jagalingou (W&J) Council, claiming to represent the indigenous people of the Queensland, where the powerful Indian industrial house Adani has begun to implement a $16 billion project, has complained that claiming the "First Nations land owners" are being "banned" from their own country.

By Our Representative A civil rights network, the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI), in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has sought his immediate intervention on the Centre’s "failure" to prescribe rules regarding the salary, tenure and terms of service of information commissioners, after the enactment of the Right to Information Amendment Act, 2019.

Counterview Desk The civil society organization, Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch (JMM), even as condemning the attachment of well-known social activist Fr Stan Swamy’s belongings by the Jharkhand police on October 21, has said that the harassment is part of the state government’s growing attempts to stifle dissent and intimidate those fighting for justice.

Savarkar By Shamsul Islam* The Hindu Mahasabha under the presidentship of VD Savarkar aligned with the British masters to crush the Quit India Movement in 1942. The Responsive Cooperation with the British was not only a theoretical commitment. It soon got concretized in ganging up of the Hindu Mahasabha with the Muslim League.

Kamlesh Tiwari By Masood Peshimam* It has become so easy to blame Muslims for any wrong in the country. Attuned to this scenario the needle of suspicion was immediately turned to Muslims for the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, who was an appellant on behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha in the Ayodhya title suit. He was shot and stabbed to death at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.

By Our Representative  The adivasis from the Sardar Sarovar affected village, Manibeli , the first in Maharashtra from the Narmada dam site, boycotted the voting in the assembly elections on October 21 to protest against waters gushing into the village, allegedly because the dam was filled up to the brink.

By Prateek Aggarwal* The current age of technological revolution is being led by digital technology (mostly computers) that change the way we work, communicate, navigate social relationships, spend our leisure time, and much more. An inherent part of this revolution is automation—the execution by a machine agent which was previously carried out by a human. (Parasuraman & Riley, 1997) Automation has considerably affected various aspects of our lives, directly and indirectly, driving the work of modern devices we are so accustomed to, such as washing machines, ovens, cars, mobiles. Automation has penetrated sectors such as banking, agriculture, education, medical sciences, manufacturing, etc., and is seen in most economic, social, and personal aspects of our lives. Automated devices have become a necessity that enables us to have a better standard of living by providing access to a multitude of services and information. However, what is considered automation changes with time. When a...

Counterview Desk A citizens’ protest, organised on October 19 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to protest against the 75 days of “oppression” of the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) saw over 200 activists, academics, intellectuals, prominent citizens, students, citizens from a large number of groups controversially appeared to suggest holding plebiscite in order to decide the future of the state.

By Rajiv Shah A few days back, I met independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, one of those who has been regarded in some circles as an iconic Dalit leader of Gujarat. He had come for a meeting in Gujarat Vidyapeeth, organized to remember a truly iconic Gujarat High Court advocate, late Girish Patel, known to be the founder of public interest litigations (PILs) in India, and one who firmly stood by the underprivileged. After listening to several speeches, including that of Mevani, I came out of the hall along with a journalist colleague, Darshan Desai. I murmured in Desai’s ear a strange rumour I had heard a few weeks earlier – that Mevani, known for being a long-time opponent of BJP, had “possibly” met Union home minister Amit Shah, or maybe he have asked for an audience. Desai immediately advised me to ask Mevani. I never believed in the rumour, though I thought there was nothing wrong in meeting Amit Shah. After all, he is India’s home minister, and if one has to make a representation or a co...

Pragya Thakur (right) By Our Representative The Special NIA Court has allowed the intervention application filed by 11 journalists in their individual capacity against the National Investigating Agency's (NIA) plea seeking to make the rest of the 2008 Malegaon blast case "in camera", which effectively means no media reporting. BJP MP Pragya Thakur has been one of the Malegaon blast accused.

By Shamsul Islam* The Quit India Movement (QIM), also known as ‘August Kranti' (August Revolution), was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience Movement for which a call was given on August 7, 1942 by the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee. It was to begin on August 9 as per Gandhi's call to 'Do or Die' in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan on August 8. Since then August 9 is celebrated as August Kranti Divas.

By Our Representative  In what appears to be a major setback for environmentalists in Australia, India’s powerful Adani Group, close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has announced a $100 million rail contract with the Martinus Rail for the 16.5 billion Australian dollar Carmichael coal-mining project. The contract took place amidst continuing protests against the project, with pickets being organized at different sites.

By Rajiv Shah Recently it was reported that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped printing Rs 2,000 notes. The report said that the “slowdown” in printing the notes – which were widely proclaimed (for unknown reasons, and from unknown sources) as high security because it was claimed they contained a hidden chip which would help the powers-that-be to trace their whereabouts – began about two years ago. Fewer and fewer notes were being printed, and now the printing has just stopped. Several reasons are being advanced for the “withdrawal”, something that was in the air for quite some time – one of them being it is “easier” to hoard high denomination notes. It was also rumoured that fake Rs 2,000 notes – printed with much fanfare alongside the by now infamous demonetization days of November-December 2016 – are taking rounds in the market. Meanwhile, the ATMs across the country appear to have stopped offering these notes; they mostly offer Rs 500 currency notes. There was, of course, ...