Bharati being felicitated by Ela Bhatt By Rajiv Shah Founded by Mahatma Gandhi a hundred years ago, Gujarat Vidyapeeth was in news recently for allowing police to enter the campus for the first time ever. The occasion was, some Vidyapeeth students were identified flying objectionable kites on the Makarsankranti day, January 14. The ire was against those who were flying kites printed with anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), anti-National Register of Citizenship (NRC) slogans – a “seditious act” from current standards!

By Our Representative Both Punjab and Haryana dropped down six notches in the national Performance Grading Index (PGI) of school education in 2018-19 since the previous year. The joint capital of the two states, the Union Territory of Chandigarh, has remained on top of the heap for the second consecutive year. According to a report of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for the year 2018-19, Haryana has come down to the 10th position from fourth in 2017-18 and Punjab has dropped from its 7th position to the 13th position during the same period. MHRD’s Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) assesses the quality of school education through a Performance Grading Index (PGI). The PGI for states and UTs was first published in 2019 for 2017-18.

Chand Bagh: February 27 Counterview Desk A quick report, prepared by Delhi's concerned citizens, "Let Us Heal Our Dilli", based on one-day visit (February 27) to several areas and mohallas of North East Delhi affected by the riots that gripped the country's capital -- Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Chaman Park, Shiv Vihar, Main Mustafabad (including Bhagirathi Vihar and Brijpuri) -- has said everywhere there is "zero trust" towards that the police.

By Moin Qazi* In the last two decades, the gender landscape in rural India has been slowly greening and women are now on the cusp of a powerful social and political revolution. The harbinger of this change is a unique policy experiment in village-level governance that has brought transformative results for the weakest of the weak and the poorest of the poor: The village women. In 1993, India introduced the Panchayati Raj Act, mandating a three-tiered structure of local governance at the village, block and district levels with reservation of one-third of all posts in gram panchayats (village councils) at the bottom tier of India’s decentralised governance system, for women. The vision was that these women-headed councils would bring greater transparency and better governance in their villages. It revitalised an age-old system of rural local Government whose name “panchayat” is drawn from Sanskrit, meaning the council of five wise men. This new law was a step towards the fruition of Maha...

By Our Representative A report, prepared by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), focusing on donations received by national political parties above Rs 20,000 during the financial year 2018-19, as submitted by the parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI), suggests of Rs 951.66 crore from 5,520 donations, the BJP received more than three times the total received by other major political parties analysed.

By Mahesh Trivedi* Eighteen years after the country’s worst anti-Muslim pogrom that left 2,000 people dead and thousands maimed, some 3,500 families, displaced because of the lackadaisical attitude of the government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat, continue to live in sub-human conditions.

By Shamsul Islam* The term Hindutva took birth with the appearance of VD Savarkar's book “Hindutva” in 1923. Savarkar’s “Hindutva” was declared to be the “Holy book of Hindu sangathan or organization”. MS Golwalkar, who headed the RSS after KB Hedgewar, too regarded Savarkar’s Hindutva as a great scientific book which fulfilled the need of a text-book on Hindu nationalism (Dhananjay Keer, “Veer Savarkar”, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1988, p 527).

By Aviral Anand* In the days leading up to India’s independence, when communal violence roiled areas of Kolkata, Gandhi insisted on staying in Beliaghata, the Muslim-majority area, in the midst of deadly riots. Whatever one might think of Gandhi, he believed in walking the walk, and offering his own self as the physical mediator and presence in the event of a crisis. He was able to put his body on the line.

Counterview Desk Well-known human rights organization, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), has floated a an online petition asking the Chief Justice of India asking the judicial intervention at the highest level in order to hold BJP leader Kapil Mishra accountable for instigating violence in north-east Delhi, and prosecute him.

By Rakesh Sharma* #DelhiRiots #VigilanteViolence #DelhiBurning AAP aur Hum/ आप और हम: What terrible irony! 2012: Water cannons used against Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) protestors. 2020: Water cannons used to disperse JNU, Jamia protestors outside chief minister Kejriwal’s residence.

Rahul Bajaj By Our Representative In a sharply-worded commentary titled “India is facing twin economic and political crises”, the top British daily “Financial Times” has noted that while India’s growth slowdown has been dramatic, its politics is taking “an aggressively illiberal turn”. The author, Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, who was in India last week, says, powerful people in the industry agreed with this state of affairs “if only privately”, because of the prevailing atmosphere of fear.

By RK Misra* There is an element of irony as India and Gujarat rolled out the red carpet to welcome US President Donald Trump. The Narendra Modi government move to give the US access to its dairy and poultry markets may help bail out the US milk industry but is set to hurt Gujarat and consequently India the most.

By Rajiv Shah Donald Trump left Ahmedabad for Agra to "enjoy" the Mughal monument Taj Mahel in the afternoon on Monday, leaving behind scores of huge billboards standing across the megacity showcasing larger than life images of the US president and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some of them boldly captioned: “Two strong leaders of two strong democracies”.

Counterview Desk The Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, network of people's organisations and activists, reminding the new state government of the promises it had made ahead of the budget session of the Jharkhand state assembly, has demanded withdrawal of all Pathalgadi cases, calling them human rights violations, set aside the “arbitrary” land acquisition law, and cancellation of the Adani power plant.

By RK Misra* What is common between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and American President Donald Trump? A king size ego, giant size events and an obsession with walls that separate rather than bridges that bind!

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* The Supreme Court on February 17, 2020, while hearing a plea against Shaheen Bagh road blockade, made an interesting observation cum interrogation saying that democracy works on expression of views but there are lines and boundaries and that people (protesters) cannot block public road indefinitely and create inconvenience for others; further adding that the "question is where can they demonstrate" .

By Prabhakar Sinha* The worldwide panic following the outbreak of coronavirus has further strengthened my belief that Gandhiji was one of the greatest human beings in human history like Christ and Buddha. He was so great not because of his politics or political ideology but his great humanity.

Counterview Desk The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, which met for its XXXIV plenary assembly, at the St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, on February 13-19, 2020, has, in a statement, said that “patriotism is different from narrow and divisive cultural nationalism, which is radically different from Constitutional nationalism.”

By Our Representative Indigenous communities affected by the Tanahu Hydropower Project in Nepal have filed complaints with independent watchdogs of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) -- two co-financiers of the project -- requesting an independent mediation process. The communities have alleged failure to uphold free, prior and informed consent and inadequate compensation for loss of lands and livelihoods.

By Mina Jadav*  Nearly 1,000 residents of untenable slums of Ahmedabad held a public meeting at Sarangpur, Ahmedabad, and then marched to the Municipal Commissioner office at Danapeeth seeking an end to constant eviction of their settlements and decent shelter on February 20. The residents comprise of two groups of workers – seasonally migrant construction workers who migrate from the tribal belt comprising of Dahod in Gujarat and Jhabua and Banswara in neighbouring states and long-term migrants from the Nomadic Tribes and De-Notified Tribe (NTDNT) communities.

By Our Representative A Gujarat-based minority rights organisation has demanded that the state government hold pre-budget consultations with representatives of minorities across the state. The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), which held a dialogue in Himmatnagar, a North Gujarat town, said that the allocation for the minorities should be in accordance with the proportion of the minorities.

By Saloni Kapur* Before a recent meeting in Davos with Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, Donald Trump reiterated his offer to help mediate over the issue of Kashmir. It’s been six months since India revoked the special constitutional status for the disputed territory of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and put the state on lockdown. While internet restrictions have eased, connectivity remains patchy and prominent local politicians are still in detention.

By Our Representative A single women's conference, held under the auspices of the Ekal Mahila Adhikar Sangathan, in Gujarat's Modasa town of Aravalli district has asked state chief minister Vijay Rupani give them lifelong pension, insisting the amount of pension should be increased to Rs 5,000 per month. Currently, the state government offers Rs 1,000 as widow pension.

By Our Representative A state-level dialogue, organized by the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, Bihar, has insisted that education should to be made the main issue in the forthcoming state assembly elections, scheduled to take place in October this year. During the discussion, which centred around girl child education, speakers expressed concern on lack of improvement in the condition of girls in the public education system of Bihar.

Counterview Desk Strongly reacting to a US Federal Court ruling in favour of the World Bank’s private arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), in the Tata Mundra Case, the civil rights organizations Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS), representing the fisherfolk of Kutch, and the advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) have said that IFC, in its arguments, before the court was trying to hide “behind technicalities of jurisdiction”.

Anjali Bhardwaj (right) during a protest in defence of RTI By Our Representative A civil rights organization has protested against the February 18 selection of the chief of the Central Information Commission (CIC) and one information commissioner of CIC, saying, the procedure followed for selecting them go against the directions of the Supreme Court order of February 2019.

By Our Representative In a major setback to the fisherfolk of Kutch, Gujarat, who have been claiming that their livelihood has been adversely affected by the Tatas' coal-based ultra mega power plant (UMPP) at Mundra, the US District Court of Columbia has given clean chit to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the ground that IFC’s "direct involvement" in the Tata Mundra plant did not occur in the US but in India.

Nehru announcing martyrdom of Gandhi on January 30, 1948 at Birla House Counterview Desk Herbert “Tom” Reiner started his first diplomatic posting his in September 1947 as vice consul at the newly opened US embassy in New Delhi. On the fateful day, January 30, 1948, he made a visit to Birla House, where Gandhi lived, to see the Mahatma. Soon after the three fateful bullets were fired, Tom seized Nathuram Godse, the assassin, and handed him over to the Indian security personnel present there.

By Our Representative As President Donald Trump’s motorcade makes its way from the airport in the Indian city of Ahmedabad anticipating millions of cheering Indians waiting to greet him at a sprawling cricket stadium, there’ll be a few thousand locals hidden from view. The city’s municipal corporation has built a four-foot-high wall to hide a stretch of slums on the American leader’s route. Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to inaugurate and share the stage at Ahmedabad’s Motera cricket stadium at a public reception being touted as “Namaste Trump” on Feb. 24. Trump told reporters he expects some seven million people at the stadium and lining the streets to greet him at the start of his two-day trip. According to census data, which is nearly a decade old, the city’s population was 5.5 million though more recent estimates put it at over seven million.

By Rajiv Shah More than a fortnight ago, prominent historian Ramchandra Guha, who calls himself Gandhi scholar and not a Gandhian, came to Ahmedabad. While I was part of a small group of persons who met him at lunch, his lecture on Gandhi in the evening, where he sought to interpret what swaraj meant to Gandhi, surely, interested the selected audience that had been called to listen to him.

By MK Shaji* In her budget speech 2020-21, Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman states that the Budget presented by her aims to address the aspirations of every member of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), along with those of “today’s youth” and “every woman”.

Counterview Desk A civil rights organization, National Coalition for Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanization (NCU), has condemned the construction of a wall in Ahmedabad to "hide" the slum on the route US President Donald Trump will take. The statement says, "This is rather not new; similar walls were constructed for other foreign dignitaries as well. For ages, India has been hiding its poor and calling it beautification. 10,000 basti dwellers were relocated for the surgical makeover of the Sabarmati river front, thus causing immense distress to the relocated families.

By Our Representative Strongly protecting against the Shri Sahajanand Girls Institute, Bhuj, for its allegedly outrageous act of forcing young women hostelers to undress to check if they were menstruating, thereby violating the “religious norms” of the institute, the Gujarat Mahila Manch (GMM) has claimed, the incident "violates the basic rights of young women".

Chikhalda, the ghost village By Shabnam Hashmi* I must admit that I have not worked on the Narmada issue. After my visit to the Narmada valley in December 2019, I have gone through a large number of policy papers where I found how Narmada rehabilitation policies have been violated and are not being implemented on the ground.

A typical house in Jaisalmer By Rajiv Shah It is called the Golden City of India. The raison d'être is simple: Virtually no houses in the 70,000-odd population of the small township are made of red bricks reinforced with cement. They are all constructed with yellow sandstone found in the nearby hilly tracks. One can go atop any house, not to talk of the hilltop fort, to fathom that it’s all yellow all the way, everywhere, including the beautiful hilltop Jain temples in the fort premises. Jain temples, we were told, aren’t coloured yellow anywhere, except here.

By Rohit Prajapati, Krishnakant* The recently enacted Statue of Unity (SoU) Area Development and Tourism Governance Act, 2019 in Gujarat comes amidst a terrifying atmosphere of intimidation, house arrests, detentions and FIRs, not to mention the overarching implementation of Section 144 across the state.

By Sandeep Pandey* On January 26, Republic Day, 2020, while protests simmered against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) throughout India, a dozen North American cities also witnessed historic protests. Indian Embassies have been witness to protests in the past. But this time it was different.

Counterview Desk Top Gujarat-based environmental organization, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS), Vadodara, in a letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India, has complained that, despite frequent reminders and meetings with senior officials in Delhi and Gujarat, issues related to existing Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) across Gujarat and India as prime source of pollution of the rivers remain unresolved.

Fr Prakash detained at anti-CAA protest By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* Dear Catholic Bishops of India! Greetings and good wishes to each one of you, as you gather together for your 34th biennial plenary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at St John’s National Academy for Medical Sciences in Bengaluru. I am writing this letter (to each one of you) after much personal discernment and discussions with some, including those who have encouraged me to do so. It is not easy because I would like to be concise yet substantial; however, let me begin...

By RK Misra* History repeats itself -- first as a mistake, second time as stupidity and thereafter as a tragedy -- invariably with lethal costs. It began in 2002 as an experiment in crass communal cleaving to win elections in Gujarat and has endured up to February 2020 as the BJP pulled out all stops in ethnic animosity to wrest India’s capital, Delhi from the Aam Admi Party (AAP) only to fall flat on its face. A recap would be in order.

By Kamal Mitra Chenoy* Sheila Dikshit was clearly a colossus, not only in the Congress, but in Delhi as a whole. It is really distressing that Sheila Dikshit’s major role has been sidelined. One did not believe that Sheila Dikshit’s huge contribution, blaming her for the “start of the decline in the Congress party’s fortunes,” would be so nasty.

By Rajiv Shah Ahead of President Donald Trump's much publicised India visit, which includes a visit to Ahmedabad on February 24, a bipartisan group of American senators have written to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concerns and seeking State Department assessments on India's "crackdown" in Kashmir and the controversial citizenship law.

By Moin Qazi* Over 26 years ago, on September 30, 1993, Latur district in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra was jolted by an earthquake that left a trail of mass destruction. It was India’s most devastating earthquake of the 20th century that left nearly 10,000 dead. It ravaged and obliterated vast swathes of villages and uprooted multitudes of people. Today, several thousand women among those severely affected by the tragedy are recognised as transformational leaders. The aftermath of a natural calamity disrupts the entire community’s well-being, from physical infrastructure and economic growth, to mental and social health. How these semi-literate and impoverished women converted adversity into opportunity is a saga of grit and tenacity. The glue that bonded them and provided the necessary impetus for driving a revolution was a passionate and indefatigable social entrepreneur, Prema Gopalan. Schooled and trained in disaster management, she began reconstruction and rehabilitation wo...

By Dr Aparna* The Supreme Court of India, in all its wisdom, quizzed the mothers of Shaheen Bagh with the query: Can a four-month old decide to participate in a protest? Who will listen to four-month olds? A four month old cannot protest, as the Supreme Court has noted. A four-month old can't be a construction worker either. And its absolutely true -- a four-month old can't speak, can't protest.

By Our Representative Regretting that the Gujarat government has still not taken any policy decision to pay assistance for the welfare of those suffering from silicosis, a fatal occupational disease, the health rights NGO People's Training and Research (PTRC), has wondered why is this happening even though there exists a government resolution (GR) of 2014 to offer Rs 1 lakh to the unorganized sector workers who die an unnatural death.

By Our Representative Even as welcoming the Supreme Court ruling upholding the Constitutional validity of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act (PoA Amendment Act), civil rights organizations seeking to strengthen the law have regretted that there is a failure to ensure its actual implementation.

Outsiders not allowed? Slab declares Burugulikera village sovereign territory Counterview Desk A civil rights organization, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) suspects that "growing influence" of Satipati cult, started in Gujarat, exhorting people to boycott government schemes and elections, on one hand, and religious practices of Adivasis, on the other, may be behind the recent killing of seven persons in Burugulikera village, West Singhbhum district, Jharkahnd.

Counterview Desk In a "solidarity" statement, Labia - A Queer Feminist Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LBT) Collective, has taken strong objection to sedition charges levelled against a young trans person and 50 unidentified persons for a slogan in a peaceful gathering, pointing out, such targeting against TBT community makes their lives even more vulnerable.

By Gladson Dungdung* On January 5, 2020, Naresh Koch, a detainee in the Goalpara detention centre in Assam, breathed his last breath at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital. He became the 29th person who had died in detention since 2014.

Sponsored by India’s oldest philanthropic organization, founded in 1892 by Jamsetji Tata, the 146-page study , “India Justice Report”, carried out by well-known civil society experts from the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS-Prayas and the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, has sought to rank 18 major states on police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid. A note on Gujarat ranking: Caste reservation in police According to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BP&RD), there should be reservation among police officers in Gujarat to the tune of 7% for SCs, 15% for STs and 27% for OBCs. Data for the last two years shows that it’s meeting its SC benchmark, but not its ST and OBC benchmarks. Further, while it has improved in filling ST vacancies, it has regressed in filing OBC vacancies. Increasing the share of women in police force In 2016 and 2017, Gujarat has taken significant strides in improving the representation of women ...