By Dr MA Rashid* The companions of Prophet Hazrat Muhammed Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam (Peace and blessings be upon him) asked, “What is this sacrifice(Qurbani)?” He answered that it is the Sunnah of your father Hazrat Ibrahim Alaihissalam(Peace be upon him).” This historic Qurbani incident took place about five and a quarter thousand years ago in “Mina” near “Khana-e-Ka’aba” located in Mecca, a desert region of Arabia. This touching event will keep the faith fresh and remain enlightening and memorable for the Muslim community throughout the life. Sacrifice is very important among different forms of worships performed for Allah. The reason for this is that Hazrat Ibrahim Alaihissalam was the most beloved prophet of Allah. Allah himself conferred upon him the title of “Khaleel”, which means an intimate friend. This incident of the sacrifice of Hazrat Ibrahim Alaihissalam provides an example of a practice which show unlimited and superlative love for Allah. Hazrat Ismail(Peace be upon him...

Swami Sanand, Narendra Modi By Sandeep Pandey* In 2018, Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, earlier known as Professor Guru Das Agrawal when he used to teach at Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, wrote four letters to the Prime Minister when he went on a fast for 112 days demanding a law for conservation of Ganga before he succumbed on October 11 at All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, in which he held the PM responsible for his imminent death.

By Our Representative More than 100 MBBS Part-I and Part-II students of the NHL Medical College and the LG Hospital and Medical College, which are run by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), in response to a show cause notice, have said that no provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, have been attracted while requisitioning their services for Covid-19 care.

By Pankti Jog*  Ever since March 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nation-wide lockdown, civil society organizations (CSOs), religious bodies and citizen initiative groups have been working tirelessly to provide food to the lockdown-affected people, especially migrant workers. In fact, an impression has gained ground that government efforts have been minuscule as compared with that of CSOs. Facts in our possession suggest that, frequently, the officialdom has been reporting numbers of how the affected people are being helped from CSO data.

By Surabhi Agarwal, Lubna Sarwath, Sandeep Pandey* The ecologically sensitive citizens had barely recovered from the excruciating death of Professor GD Agrawal aka Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, who gave up his life after a 112 days of fasting on October 11, 2018, in Rishikesh demanding an end to devastating activities going on in Himalayas in the form of construction of a series of dams on various streams which join to become Ganga, mining in its bed and deforestation in its valley, that they are now witness to another tragedy unfolding.

By Dr Mike Ghouse* On Friday, July 31, 2020, over a billion and a half Muslims around the world will be slaughtering millions of goats, camels, and cattle to carry out Abraham's tradition of sacrificing the symbolic lamb. Is there an alternative to the ritual of slaying animals on Eid Al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice? The answer is yes!

Counterview Desk In a letter to Hardeep Puri, Union minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India (GoI), a civil rights network, the Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee, referring to the Central government’s reported plan to launch an urban employment guarantee (UEG) programme at the national level, has offered its expertise in the matter.

Guna Gope with his daughter Counterview Desk On 15 June, Central Reserve Police Force (CRP) personnel reportedly beat up about 20 people of Chiriabera village (Anjerbeda revenue village, Khuntpani block, West Singhbhum district), Jharkhand. Amongst them, 11 were severely beaten and three sustained grievous injuries.

By Venkatesh Nayak* Last week, the Central Information Commission (CIC) remanded a two-and-a-half-year old RTI query about the procedures adopted for ensuring adequate representation for candidates belonging to weaker segments of society in the higher judiciary back to the Department of Justice (DoJ) for fresh consideration. DoJ had not bothered to send any reply to either the RTI application or the first appeal filed in 2018 until a second appeal was filed before the CIC. Even in its 5-month late reply, DoJ merely cited “confidentiality” for all communication between the Central Government and the Chief Justices on this subject and a 10-year-old RTI case that was pending in the Supreme Court of India at that time ro refuse to part with any information. Now the CIC has given the DoJ another opportunity to apply its mind to the RTI query on the ground that the 10-year old case was decided in November 2019 when a Constitution Bench of the Apex Court recognised that the Chief Justice of ...

Counterview Desk Condemning the "arbitrary arrest" of Delhi University professor Hany Babu by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Mumbai, India’s civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) has called it a part of the current witch-hunt going on against human rights defenders. Calling Prof Babu’s arrest as also that of others in the “fabricated” Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case, and terming them all political prisoners, in a statement CASR demanded their immediate release.

By Anurag Singh, Sandeep Pandey* Atma-nirbhar (self-reliant) India must perform on several fronts in order to vindicate itself on its adopted path in the current economic crisis coupled with crippling pandemic, two of which are Education and Employment. As a matter of considerable advantage, two recent historic social legislations offer a means to overcome the times of crisis -- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), 2005 and Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* Prof John Weeks, widely admired development economist passed away on 26th of June 2020 at the age of 79. His death is a blow to many friends, comrades, colleagues, students and fellow progressive economists. He was born in Austin, educated in Texas and Michigan, lived and worked most of his professional life in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK where he continues to be a Professor Emeritus after his retirement. His urban upbringing and professional life in metropolis could not confined himself within narrow silo of privileges. He looked at issues of everyday working class lives beyond territories. His publications show his abilities as an interdisciplinary researcher spanned several continents. He did not fall for the fashionable wave of regional specialisations within economics for career progression. His extraordinaire mind and research interests moved around issues in different continents from Africa, Americas to Eu...

By Our Representative A senior expert on migration has complained that the Government of India does not have database or policy for the migrants, whose numbers is likely to reach 650 million in 2021. Prof Irudaya Rajan, who is with the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, told a webinar organized by the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi, that this is a major reason why migrants’ plight worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prof Rajan said, of the 650 million around 200 million are interstate or inter-district migrants, and of these, 140 million were actually working and have faced the main brunt of the lockdown. Of these around nine million resorted to “distress migration.” Noting that there are policies for urbanization, the senior expert said, the government effort to ensure that the rural poor get jobs in rural areas has not been successful, as MGNREGA provides jobs only for 100 days, one reason why migrants are again being pushed back to cities...

By Our Representative Reconciliation, Relief and Rehabilitation, an organization of Kashmiri Pandits, has demanded that Article 370 should be reinstated in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) ahead of the completion of a year of its abrogation by the government of India on August 5, 2019. The Government of India (GoI) move bifurcated the state of J&K into into two Union Territories -- J&K and Ladakh. Demanding “immediate restoration of the special status, enjoyed by J&K before it was taken away by the GoI, n a statement, the Kashmiri Pandit group said, "The Indian Constitution ensures the right to equality that extends to individuals, communities, religions, regions, and all social and political institutions. The right to equality ensures non-discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, region, or any other social and political sub-categories.” Signed by Satish Mahaldar, chairman of the organisation, the statement added, “Never before a state has been downgraded. This is no...

By Rajiv Shah As Indian cities continue to successively unlock themselves amidst Covid-19 pandemic, a major survey sponsored by the high profile Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation, and carried out by a top Indian environmental group, has found that in the post-lockdown period a whopping 34 per cent of those not owning vehicles would be buying new four wheelers, while 23 per cent said they would go in for two wheelers.

Pankti Jog* Despite taking World Bank loan for food security, facts have come to light suggesting that the Gujarat government is shying away from implementing a crucial food item meant to provide protein under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). This is happening despite the fact that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) mentions chana as a crucial protein intake to 68 lakh ration card holders.

Below are excerpts from Oxfam India’s discussion paper “Human Cost of Sugar Living and Working Conditions of Migrant Cane-cutters in Maharashtra” by Pooja Adhikari and Vani Shree with inputs from Namit Agarwal, Ranu Bhogal, Diya Dutta and Sayantoni Datta : *** Approximately 80% of the population in Marathwada is dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry for their livelihood. These are the only sources of sustained earnings for the community. However, prolonged drought over the years has led to agrarian distress, and lack of alternative livelihood opportunities forces people to migrate. Crop insurance schemes have failed to cover these losses. Funds disbursed under the crop insurance scheme for drought prone areas of Marathwada were inadequate to cover the losses. The total amount disbursed under the scheme is limited to a few thousand rupees per person, compared to the loss incurred in hundreds of thousands per person/ per season on each crop. Government’s minimum employment guar...

Justice SA Bobde, advocate Prashant Bhushan Counterview Desk As many as 131 concerned citizens in a solidarity statement with top Supreme Court (SC) advocate Prashant Bhushan on the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against him over two controversial tweets, have said that this has come about amidst “serious questions” having been raised on SC’s reluctance to play its constitutionally mandated role.

By Mansee Bal Bhargava, Sherayu Wadekar* The impact of lockdown-affected is underrated currently amidst the world continuing (rightly so) with the Covid affected. Covid and lockdown are interrelated, their effects too are interdependent over time and space. Although there is right now no such thing like the Worldometers for lockdown, like the one for Covid, however if we collate the data of the rising issues of just suicides by depression and domestic violence, deaths by hunger and hatred, we may get shocking numbers way far than those affected by coron. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that those not affected by Covid are equally affected by the lockdown with long-term unaccounted physical-psychological impacts. The lockdown impact is going to be more on people who are living in the high-middle rise buildings with barely a balcony to stand outside, an open space to stroll outdoors and in many cases even no balcony in the building and/or open space in the premise. We have heard...

Antonio Guterres By Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant, Sandeep Pandey* “Covid-19 has exposed the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all, the fiction that unpaid care work isn't work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world.We are all floating on the same sea, but some are in super-yachts and others clinging to drifting debris”, tweeted  Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General a few days back.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* In early 15th century Europe, news used to be political, economic, military and diplomatic messages of the ruling classes. There was no mass media. It was often the voices of the businessmen and ruling elites circulated within their own networks. The revolutionary upheavals and democratisation of society during 19th century led to the growth of mass media.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot Rit Nanda* In 1947, when India became independent, our modern founders decided to experiment with the democratic system. Furthermore, as the British left, so did the presence of their crown in our country. Hence, in 1950, when the Constitution of India was given to its people, it was proclaimed as a democratic republic.

By Our Representative In a unique move, a 27-year-old from Tentulipadar, a village in Odisha’s Koraput district, who is post-graduate in Spanish and Latin American Literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been on an anti-caste mission by rooting lyrics in his lived experiences as a Dalit man. A presenter at French Radio Live, Sumeet Samos has taken his rap to various parts of France and Mauritius, where small gatherings of people, ranging from school children to seniors, are made familiar with discussions on caste and its ramifications in India, including reservation in education and jobs and honour killings, using videos, maps and illustrations. Excited by the reach of social media and its revolutionary potential, he decided to combine his lived reality, academic background and experience in activism (as a part of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association) with songs that sound like protest anthems and powerful declarations, instead of run-of-the-mill rap tracks abou...

By Our Representative A Dalit family in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh has been forced to live in a toilet for the last several years, said a media report, even though the administration denied that the family is living like this. Maganlal Ahirwar, his wife and four children live in Keshavgarh Gram Panchayat of Mohangarh area of Tikamgarh district, Madhya Pradesh, are have been living in the toilet for four years, the report said . Ahirwar’s wife Phula Devi has been quoted as saying that she had told the authorities several times that her family didn’t get house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, but no one listened to her. The couple even got their daughter married in the same toilet. Ironically, t hey even got an electricity connection and gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme. When brought to light, Mohangarh tehsildar Dr Abhijeet Singh, told to media that he got to know about the case and hs sought report. Maganlal Ahirwar had come to his office a few days back, but had...

Counterview Desk In a representation to Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, several Central Trade Unions (CTUs), have said that the Central government and several state governments continue to be flouted the principle of “equal pay for equal work” in the name of ease of doing business, with labour laws, in whatever form they exist, sought to be suspended for 1,000 or more days.

By NS Venkataraman* It is reported that bank employees’ unions and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) have agreed for an annual wage hike of 15 per cent to the bank staff, a move that will result in an additional yearly outgo of around Rs 7,900 crore for the banks. As many as 8.5 lakh bank employees are set to benefit from the wage hike, which will be effective from November 2017. This means bank staff will get the salary hike with retrospective effect from November 2017.

Cedric Prakash with John Lewis By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* John Lewis is no more and the world will miss him! When he died on July 17, 2020, he left a great void which will never be filled! He was one of a kind who roamed this earth, impacted on the lives of many and has left us all a rich and unforgettable legacy. He was truly a wonderful human and a great hero! Beginning Saturday, July 25, his funeral ceremonies lasting for full six days began – until his burial on Thursday, July 30.

By Our Representative Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, launching a youth led campaign, Towards a Better World, has called upon youth to change lifestyle and sources of livelihood for a sustainable and just development, underlining, even though everyone agrees climate change is a big issue, internationally our governments are not acting on climate emergency. Addressing Fridays For Future, a global movement led by Greta Thunberg, in which several youth activists took part, Patkar exhorted the youth to fight against killing, destruction and exploitation of nature whose damage is irreversible, adding, this happens when rivers are polluted, groundwater is extracted to an extent that aquifers are also emptied, when glaciers are coming down, and even the agriculture land is being diverted and food security is lost. Referring to the impact of Narmada dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat, Patkar regretted, without the river flowing, the sea cannot be stopped from coming in. Sea ...

Open letter by Prof Mansee Bal Bhargava , entrepreneur, researcher and educator with the SaciWATERS, Hyderabad, and is Environmental Design Consultant, Ahmedabad, to Niti Aayog and PMO on the need for a chief strategist and not chief economist for the Niti Aayog: *** I’m writing with great passion regarding professional concerns over the vacancy position of chief economist cum sr lead at Niti Aayog which is also published now in regular news. My concerns are two-folds with a concluding remark more as a suggestion: Qualification sought for the Position: It is worrying that the qualification asked is biased asking for a PhD in Economics. Planning is not about Economics alone! We have seen over the decades since the inception of the predecessor of Niti Aayog, the Planning Commission, that doing only Economics has not brought us to a good state of Economy rather Development. Therefore, here is a chance to Rethink! The position should rather call for a person with a qualification of Mu...

By Mansee Bal Bhargava* I’m writing with great passion regarding professional concerns over the vacancy position of chief economist cum sr lead at Niti Aayog which is also published now in regular news. My concerns are two-folds with a concluding remark more as a suggestion: Qualification sought for the Position: It is worrying that the qualification asked is biased asking for a PhD in Economics. Planning is not about Economics alone! We have seen over the decades since the inception of the predecessor of Niti Aayog, the Planning Commission, that doing only Economics has not brought us to a good state of Economy rather Development. Therefore, here is a chance to Rethink! The position should rather call for a person with a qualification of Multi-Trans-Disciplinary Background (with a PhD) who has a Vision and Mission to Take India to a Right Path of Development, which at this moment should be GREEN GROWTH-DEVELOPMENT which India too is a signatory as an International Agenda and that ...