By Pankti Jog* Government data on Universal Identity (UID) or aadhaar website may show a coverage of up to 95% till March 2019. But ground realities are not so glorious. In fact, villages of Devgadh Baria block of Dahod, a predominantly Adivasi district in Gujarat's eastern tribal belt, are facing the bitter truth: That you are virtually a niraadhar (orphan) without an aadhaar number.

Subramanian Swamy with Modi By Rajiv Shah I have had a special liking for GDP, and it isn’t new, either. During my Times of India days in Gandhinagar (1997-2012), I remember, how as chief minister, Narendra Modi, post-2002 Gujarat riots, kept harping on the state’s double digit rate of growth rate continuously for three or four years, but got a little puzzled when, during a press conference, I asked him how was it that an official document talked of just 5.1% growth rate.

Counterview Desk India’s civil society network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)* has said that the controversial transgender Bill, passed in the Rajya Sabha on November 26, which happened to be the 70th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, is a reflection on the way the Government of India looks at the marginalized community with utter contempt.

By Battini Rao* The November 9 judgment of Supreme Court gives the entire 2.77 acres of the Babri Mosque land to the deity Ramlalla Virajman, It also directs the central government to form a trust to oversee the construction of a temple at the site of the erstwhile mosque. These decisions of the highest court have pushed the country towards a religion based majoritarian polity, where matters of faith would stand above the rule of law, and faith of the majority community will be treated supreme.

Counterview Desk In a fact-finding report, a nine-person team, consisting of activists of the civil rights organization Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression(WSS), has taken strong exception to what it calls patriarchal character of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), implemented in Assam to weed out "foreigners" from its territory.

By Our Representative The 12th biennial convention of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), a top civil rights network, underway at the Doodhwawala Dharamshala in Jagannath Puri, concluded on November 25 by adopting a declaration detailing the alliance’s stance on the pressing national issues of today, including majoritarianism, redefining citizenship, unfulfilled promises made to tribal communities and agrarian crisis.

By Shamsul Islam* Many well-meaning liberal and secular political analysts are highly perturbed by sectarian policy decisions of RSS/BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially after starting his second inning. They are vocal in red-flagging lynching incidents, policies of the Modi government on Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the demand for 'Bharat Ratna' to Savarkar who submitted 6-7 mercy petitions to the British masters (getting remission of 40 years out of 50 years' sentence), and the murder of constitutional norms in Goa, Karnataka and now in Maharashtra.

Sworn in, resigned: CM, dy CM, Maharashtra: Devendra Fadnavis with Ajit Pawar By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* Exactly 70 years ago on November 26, 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted and gave to “we, the people” a landmark Constitution. The Constitution of India is the sacred book of every Indian citizen; it is a bulwark of fundamental rights and directive principles, which are a prerequisite for any healthy democracy.

By Our Representative Releasing a  list of 10,136 Saurashtra farmers belonging to just one taluka, Kodinar, who have registered themselves for selling their groundnut crop to the Gujarat government’s offer to buy it all a remunerative support price, well-known farmers’ rights activist Sagar Rabari has revealed that, contrary to the promise by Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani that “all groundnut will be bought over”, things are moving at a “snail’s pace.”

By Our Representative India's top civil engineer rights network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), which held its 12th national convention on completion of its 25 years in Puri, Odisha, with the participation of over 1,000 people's representatives, saw Lakhan Musafir of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Gujarat, taking strong exception to the world's tallest Statue of Unity, saying, it has led to tribals losing their agricultural land and fodder for their cattle.

Old Surajbari bridge, proposed spot of the dam to "stop" sea water ingress  By Rajiv Shah Top Saurashtra industrialist Jaysukhbhai Patel’s by now controversial proposal to convert the 4,900 sq km Little Rann of Kutch area, an eco-sensitive zone – a UNESCO biosphere, world’s only wild ass reserve, and a nesting ground of lesser flamingoes – into a huge sweet water lake, called Rann Sarovar, has suffered a major roadblock. At least three Central agencies have expressed serious doubts about its feasibility.

Bharat Mohan Parmar By Our Representative In yet another gruesome incident, Bharat Mohan Parmar, aged 46, has died of silicosis on November 23 morning at Thangadh, Surendranagar district, which is the hub of ceramic units in Gujarat. Sixth worker from Thangadh to die of the deadly occupational disease this year, Parmar worked in different ceramic units as a glaze worker for about 27 years. 

Counterview Desk The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), India’s top civil society network, has claimed that the Government of India (GoI) us “lying about the situation in Kashmir”, insisting in a statement signed, among others, by Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Dr Binayak Sen, Prafulla Samantara, Lok Lingraj Azad, Kavita Srivastava and Sandeep Pandey that it is totally wrong to say “migrant workers and marginalized communities continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Kashmir.”

Constitutional clauses written on a pathal in adivasi area Counterview Desk The civil rights organization, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), has contested the state government claim that not 10,000 people but only 172 persons have been accused under sections 121A/124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which is regarding waging a war against the state or sedition.

By Our Representative Gujarat's premier environmental non-profit organization, Paryavaran Mitra, has asked chief minister Vijay Rupani to immediately set up an expert-level committee to find out the exact reasons for sharp rise in pollution in Ahmedabad. This committee, says a letter by the organization's director Mahesh Pandya, must focus on each of the city's regions as a unit, even as taking the opinion of the people.

By Sanjeev Sirohi* It is heartening that one after other leaders both from BJP and Opposition parties like BSP are raising the demand for the creation of a high court bench in West UP. The latest to join the growing list of MPs demanding the creation of a high court bench in West UP is Kunwar Danish Ali of BSP from Amroha. He has demanded that it should be created at the earliest.

By Our Representative A left-wing students' union in Gujarat went in for a massive signature campaign in Ahmedabad in support of the anti-fee hike movement of Jawharlal Nehru University (JNU) students. The All-India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) organised the campaign near the main gate of the historic Gujarat College, whose students had made a major mark during Independence movement.

By NS Venkataraman*   A well-researched study has been conducted about the linkages between global population growth and climate hazard. The study has been conducted by Nandini Consultancy Centre, a firm of chemical engineers based at Chennai and Singapore. The study report urges the UNO to recognize the inadequacies of the decisions taken during the Paris Climate Conference and convene another world conference to discuss the climate issues with focus on reducing global population growth and density of population, which is the ultimate way to solve the impending global climate crisis once for all. Global Climate Conference was organized in Paris in 2015, when various measures to protect climate were discussed and some steps were initiated with specific target and time frame. World leaders have committed themselves to keep global warming below 2 deg C, with an ambitious target to limit it to 1.5 degree Celsius. However, decisions taken during the Paris Climate Conference ar...

By Mohan Guruswamy* Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah (1580-1611 CE), the fifth sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda, laid the foundation of its iconic Charminar to symbolise the founding of Hyderabad. Hyderabad was intended as a citadel of Muslim power in the Deccan. Qutb Shah was an accomplished poet and wrote his poetry in Persian, Telugu and Urdu. His famous ghazal “piya baaj pyaala piya jaye na, piya baaj ek din jiya jaye na” is still a favorite in soirees today.

Uphold forest rights act to secure rights, livelihood and forest conservation: A note by Community Forest Rights-Learning and Advocacy (CFRLA), All India Forum of Forest Movements (AIFFM), Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM): The Forest Rights Act (FRA) was enacted to undo the historical injustice against Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribe and other forest dwelling communities by recognizing their pre-existing rights over forest land and community forest resources. It provides for democratic governance of forests by vesting the rights and authority to manage and conserve forests in the Gram Sabha and forestdwellers. The law also recognizes and vests rights over community forest resources (CFR), individual/common rights over forests for cultivation and habitation, ownership and control over minor forest produce (MFP). FRA expressly recognizes women as equal participants in decisionmaking in the Gram Sabha, and their equal ownership in individual forest rights (IFR) and CFR. The FRA is fac...

Golwalkar, Savarkar By Shamsul Islam* With the unleashing of the reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working-class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here...  ***  Before sharing my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of fascism, let me briefly define fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as authoritarianism. Whereas fascism, while retaining all these repressive characteristics, also believes in god-o...

By Sandeep and Arundhati Dhuru* It was heartening to hear Narendra Modi praise Imran Khan for facilitating the opening of 4.7 km corridor so that Sikh pilgrims from India could visit the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan, after a mostly anti-Pakistan narrative first during the general elections and then after the decision related to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was taken by his government.

By Dr Aparajita Sharma* The Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 has been pioneering in many ways, It defined changes to be made within a definite timeline for realising children’s right to education. For the first time in the history of India, children in relevant age groups were conferred the right to free and compulsory education as a fundamental right, which is legally enforceable.

By Neeraj Nanda* In an interesting turn, the federal government in Australia, which is led by the centre-right Liberal Party, has slammed incidents of Islamophobia gripping the country, calling them ‘completely unacceptable’. A media statement from David Coleman, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, has referred to a report released by the Charles Sturt University to point towards the danger.

By Moin Qazi* Muslims are the second-largest demographic of India, with nearly 14 per cent of the country’s population, or roughly 172 million people, but they are so marginalised that their presence in important public spheres is almost invisible. Most of them are poor, semi-literate and driven into ghettos.

By Our Representative Condemning the arrest of over 100 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, who were marching   to Parliament, the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, an education rights organization, has said that the “ruthless” attack on JNU’s peaceful protesters, who included JNU student’s union president Aishe Ghoshe, is an attack on the their constitutional right.

Excerpts from the Jaccha Baccha-Survey (JABS) of pregnant and nursing women in rural India conducted in June 2019, coordinated by Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera and Anmol Somanchi: The Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS), conducted by student volunteers in June 2019, took place in six states: Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. In each state, the survey teams visited 10 to 12 randomly-selected anganwadis (spread over two blocks, in the same district) and interviewed as many as possible of the pregnant and nursing women (women who delivered a baby during the six months preceding the survey) registered at those anganwadis: 342 and 364 respondents, respectively. Special Needs Ignored We were shocked to find how little attention was paid, in the sample households, to the special needs of pregnancy – good food, extra rest and health care. Often, family members or even women themselves had little awareness of these special needs. For instance, 48% of pregn...

By RB Sreekumar, IPS (Retd)* The Supreme Court last week, by 3:2 majority, decided to keep the review petitions in Sabarimala matter pending until a larger bench determines questions related to essential religious practices. The majority of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra expressed that the issue whether Court can interfere in essential practises of religion needed examination by larger bench. Justices Chandrachud and Nariman dissented.

By Our Representative Around 1,500 people displaced and affected by the backwaters of Sardar Sarovar Dam have reached Bhopal and begun an indefinite protest, demanding adequate compensation and rehabilitation, in front of the Narmada Valley Development Authority’s (NVDA’s) office. The protestors included people from different districts of Madhya Pradesh, including Barwani, Dhar, Khargone and Alirajpur. Their satyagraha is led by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, who has been fighting for the last 34 years, first against the construction of the dam and now for the dam’s operations to comply fully with the Supreme Court orders, the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal award of 1979 and the state government’s rehabilitation policy. “We have been forced to come to Bhopal as there has been a violent attack on our Narmada Valley carried out by the callousness of Gujarat and central government,” Patkar said. “We have come to ask questions related to the human rights and livelihoods ...

Mahesh Vyas By Rajiv Shah It is surely well-known by now that India's top people in the power-that-be have been castigating all those who disagree with them as "anti-nationals". Nothing unusual. If till yesterday only "secular liberals", and "left-liberals" were declared anti-national, facts, however, appear to have begun surfacing that, now, guns are being trained against those who could be qualified as right liberals, too. Let me be specific.

Saint Teresa By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* In 2017, Pope Francis dedicated a special day, to be observed by the Universal Church, every year, as the ‘World Day of the Poor’. This year it will be observed on November 17 on the theme ‘The hope of the poor shall not perish for ever’; in a message for the day Pope Francis says: