By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Ram Kishan Yadav or Ramdev is a product of grand Hindutva package that works through raising 'cultural' issues. He has indeed succeeded in reaching Indian households, even outside, through his yoga. As we wait for miracles in India, he seemed to be the 'miracle' man. All those who didn't want to put their bodies to trouble felt that his miracles were boon for them. The business started once he became a brand.

By Anand K Sahay* Recent observations on India’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic emanating from the highest levels of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- praised by many as a selfless, nationalist outfit given to social service, and denounced as a “fascist” or “militarist” body by a range of critics -- have left the country mystified. This is because the RSS is the inspiration behind the founding of the BJP.

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* About two weeks ago, on May 12, 2021, the US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken released in Washington the ‘2020 International Religious Freedom Report.’ This official annual report of the US Government details the status of religious freedom in nearly 200 foreign countries and territories and describes US actions to support religious freedom worldwide. Mandated by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, this report highlights the fact that ‘religious freedom is both a core American value and a universal human right’.

By Our Representative  Popular Front of India (PFI), a civil society rights organisation, has called upon democratic forces to come forward to resist the Central government move seeking to endanger religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the civil rights of the indigenous people of Lakshadweep Islands.

Counterview Desk India's premier civil rights network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has begun an extended programme of action in more than 100 districts in support of Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s call for nation-wide resistance, which began on May 26, marking six months of farmers' struggle against "authoritarianism and anti-corporatisation."

By Our Representative Seeking demarcation of the entire flood plain zone of Vishwamitri river, which passes through Gujarat's cultural capital, Vadodara, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), in its order has insisted that not only steps are required for plantation and maintaining the integrity of the river in totality but plans should be undertaken to implement the Vishwamitri River Action Plan by seeking the removal of unauthorised structures.

By Haider Abbas*  The Afghan-Taliban (AT) had been camping around 40 kms to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan since from quite sometime. But, now AT is gaining its foothold to almost the border of Kabul. AT is now engaged into fighting right at the gateway of Kabul. 

By Abhay Jain, Sandeep Pandey*  As Covid consumes human life in a very conspicuous way we are confronted with additional problem of disposing of human corpses. Cremation grounds are lit with continuous pyres, graveyards are running out of land and now Ganga has become a mass grave potentially polluting its water.

By Moin Qazi* It was a time when a lot of people didn’t realize women’s boxing wasn’t in the Olympics. It was always considered a male preserve. There was a strong belief that women’s bodies were somehow too frail to box. The decision to grant it recognition for Olympics inspired many enthusiastic women who were previously discouraged from considering combat sports as career. Girls thought that women could not box, but now there are role models for them. Some of the acclaimed female pugilists stepped into the ring and answered the bell even during pandemic times. One of those who have defied the age old myths and dispelled the belief that women can’t be boxers is Nagpur’s dream girl, Alfiya Pathan. It is a rare coincidence that a girl from a conservative community overcomes such compelling odds to emerge on the boxing landscape as a shining comet. Alfiya recently won gold at the World Youth Boxing Championship organized by international Boxing Association (known as AIBA, after its Fren...

By Sudhir Katiyar* As the Covid-19 virus penetrates rural India, the rural communities are responding very differently from their urban counterparts who rushed to the hospitals. The rural communities are avoiding the public health facilities and any mention of the disease. The note argues that this supposedly irrational response is based on a deep-seated mistrust of the state by the rural communities. It can not be resolved with routine Information, Education and Communication (IEC) measures suggested in the Government of India SOP for tackling Covid-19 in rural areas.

Counterview Desk  Senior activists Rohit Prajapati Krishnakant of the environmental NGO Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) have asked the Central government authorities to tell the Gujarat government to take immediate steps to stop illegal sand mining which is contaminating and degrading ground water, rivers, lakes, check dams, other water resources in the state's Bhavnagar distict.

Counterview Desk  Gujarat's senior human rights and environmental activists Krishnakant Chauhan and Rohit Prajapati of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) have urgently sought relief policy, which should include a sustenance allowance of at least Rs 5,000 for the state's street vendors and other daily wagers till the current "blanket restrictions without considering impacts of ongoing economic despair situation and health crisis".

By Mansee Bal Bhargava* For May 18, the World Museum Day, a tribute goes to the historical and heritage buildings of the country that are the living Museums apart from the designated Museums that archive the history, art, and culture of India. The existing 800 plus Museums in the country have not been that integral to the modern everyday living as it is in Europe and the US, where Museums are highly active public realms to emulate, archive and exchange evolution of civilization. 

By Koko Singh* From the very onset of the Covid pandemic, it was apparent to all and sundry that the only sustainable check would be vaccine-induced protection. As early as July 2020, vaccine R&D went into overdrive globally, with Phase 1&2 trials being conducted in tandem. Even a covid idiot like Donald Trump committed millions for development and speculative production.

By Anandi Pandey, Sandeep Pandey*  Without consulting anybody from the Arab population, which outnumbered the Jews by about ten times, the British made public their intent to create a national home for Jewish people in Palestine on 2 November, 1917 through the Balfour declaration. Then on November 29, 1947 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution recommending creation of independent Arab and Jewish states with a special status for Jerusalem. The UN Partition Plan for Palestine was opposed by the Arab world. Today whereas Israel, after being admitted to the UN as a member state in 1949, enjoys recognition as a country by 164 of the 193 member states of UN, Palestine has got a non-member observer status at UN in 2012. The demographics changed dramatically in 1948 during what is termed by Palestinians as Nakba (catastrophe) and since then Jews have been dominating the Arabs in all respects including population. Most of the Arab population was killed or made ...

Counterview Desk  On 26 May, global civil society alliance CIVICUS launched its annual “State of Civil Society Report 2021”, which shows that protests matter – even during a pandemic. “Our report describes the massive people’s mobilisations that swept Asia this past year, leading to breakthroughs in democracy and human rights. It features the creativity of protesters in Thailand, the resilience of activists in Myanmar and the determination of farmers in India, among others”, a CIVICUS spokesperson said in an email alert to Counterview.

By Haider Abbas* Only a naive would buy that the ‘situation of ceasefire’ between the State of Israel and Hamas would continue, as if the foiled attempt to demolish Al Aqsa this time, is not be repeated, if not in any near future then in sometime to come. Israel already has spurned the ‘ceasefire’ by storming Al Aqsa after the Friday prayers on May 21.

By Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay*  If we must keep the serious repercussions of the third wave away we absolutely need to treat Covid vaccination as Fun Free, Universal and Now! It is just not ethical, but good economics. It is puzzling as to why the government is contemplating a complicated multi-party negotiation, differential pricing, market intervention in something where market economics will only cause more damage.

Counterview Desk  Recallig the third anniversary of Thoothukudi "massacre" in Tamil Nadu, in which 15 people were gunned down for resisting Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper Plant, India’s civil society network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has called for the ending corporate impunity by carrying forward the global campaign launched on May 14 by the Anti-Sterlite People’s Movement and other organisations. In a statement, NAPM said, “While the protestors faced legal charges, no police officer has been charged and convicted till date under appropriate sections of the law, for the murders and injuries.” “Similarly”, it regretted, “Vedanta whose Sterlite Copper Plant was shut down due to fraudulent and unlicensed operation and expansion for over 20 years, gas leaks and pollution, still hasn't been prosecuted for any of its crimes.” Text: National Alliance of People’s Movements remembers with anger and pain the 15 people of Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu who were brutally...

Average work over the last one month during the second wave By Rajiv Shah  A recent civil society survey, conducted to analyse the impact of the second Covid wave among informal sector workers of Gujarat and Rajasthan has, found that they were able to get work for just about 18 days in a month on an average. “In Ahmedabad construction workers at the nakas reported getting work for just eight days in a month”, the survey report, forwarded by the by the Centre for Labour Research and Action (CLRA) to Counterview, said, adding, “The basti residents of Ahmedabad reported just seven days of work.”

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  It was quintessential Stan! In a manner which has come to characterize him Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy told the Bombay High Court during a hearing on 21 May 2021, “I want to go to Ranchi to be with my friends… Whatever happens to me I would like to be with my own.”

By Harshavardhan Purandare, Sandeep Pandey*  India has been advertised as ‘the country with a great future’ ever since we globalised in the 1990s, but now this narrative of the future has become empty rhetoric to hide our weaknesses. At present, we paint a pathetic picture of ourselves. 

Counterview Desk  As many as 116 former civil servants , belonging to the Constitutional Conduct Group, in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi objecting to the “approach of the Government of India to the Covid pandemic" and suggesting measures "urgently needed to provide relief to the people of India”, have said, “Your government seems to be more concerned with managing the narrative of ‘efficient’ management of the Covid crisis rather than addressing the crucial issues at stake.”

KK Shialaja, Harsh Vardhan By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  India's political culture is deeply disappointing and depressing. Even those who wish to counter the BJP and Hindutva suffer from the same mindset and sometimes worse. After 'building' a brand, we sideline some to create our own monopolies. A few days back, one of its greatest Left leaders, KR Gouri Amma, who should have been the chief minister of the state at some point of time, passed away.

By Haider Abbas* When the news on May 14 arrived that three gangsters inside Chitrakoot Jail, UP, were killed, the movie “Pataal Lok” splashed before my eyes as a large part of it revolved around Chitrakoot’s crime world. Perhaps, what its director could not have perceived was how murders even inside the safe-premises of Chitrakoot Jail can happen. This is real time UP. The reel-time can take a gasp!

Cyrus Poonwalla, Pankaj Patel By Our Representative  At least nine people have become new billionaires since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on Covid vaccines are making, the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), a global alliance advocating its availability free of charge to all people in all countries, has revealed ahead of the G20 leaders Global Health Summit.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* The blaming of young people as ‘lazy, deviants, drug abusers, materialists, selfish, directionless, apolitical and other stereotypes continue to dominate public narratives. The objectives of these borderless narratives are designed to weaken young people’s ability to challenge and transform the society in which they live. The blame culture and negative portrayals are control mechanisms of old and established social, political, cultural and economic order to tame the youth power. It is a mechanism to create hopelessness and domesticate youth to normalise the crisis faced by the young people. Each generation of young people face their own problems of their times, but some problems are inherited from their predecessors. However, the challenges faced by the youth today are neither created by the young people nor promoted by them. The issues of inequality based on gender, class, race, sexuality, religious and regional backgrounds are not created by the young people...

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* In recent years, the Hindutva politics has caused long term damage to India and Indians. The so called 56-inch macho PM, the propaganda master manufactures and survives all political crisis including the current mismanagement of the Coronavirus pandemic in India. In spite of deaths and destitutions, the social, cultural, economic and religious base of Hindutva is intact.

By Rosamma Thomas*  My highest educational qualification is an MA in Sociology. I did not study science beyond Class 10. This I write, because what I intend to deal with here is a matter that someone trained in science might be better equipped to do. Since there are gaps in our public discourse on the need for the vaccine to contain the coronavirus pandemic, I intend to leap right in. Stay with me if you have the patience to hear out a non-expert.

Counterview Desk  Top civil rights network, Occupational and Environmental Health Network India (OEHNI), which is known to work for occupational safety and health (OSH) rights, has said that not only are the Swaminarayan temple owners in New Jersey responsible for “violating” the labour law of the US by paying a meagre $1 per hour to its workers, it is should also take the responsibility for high level of silicosis in Sirohi, Rajasthan, where stand stone for the temple is mined.

By Mansee Bal Bhargava* The responsibility of healthcare in the Corona time is hanging between the Centre and the States, with the virus as well as the masses being footballed by both the Centre and the States to put in the other’s court. The changing goalpost of who, what, when, how Covid care has gone too far, making things murkier to dump the matter in the waters.

By Bidisha Chattopadhyay*, Sudeshna Roy** Little did Pandora know while opening the box that she would be the harbinger of diseases and misery. The recorded history of mankind has been dotted with deadly diseases such as plague, cholera, smallpox, leprosy, polio and various pandemic influenza, one of the worst being the ongoing Covid-19 in the recent times. These diseases owing to their contagious nature spread fast leaving no section of the society untouched. These have wreaked havoc killing and disabling people, turning systems upside down. But then all men are created equal, but some are more equal than others; these diseases have affected the marginalised sections of the society relatively more gravely. Historically, the poor, diseased and certain discriminated sections of society have suffered, but more so during the epidemics. The façade of a modern, humane society has been challenged in the present ongoing pandemic as well. The circumstances of the past have been mirrored to a l...

Counterview Desk Insisting on a time-bound, equitable vaccine policy to ensure universal access to a free vaccine before it is too late, public health practitioners and civil society members, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have said that India’s current pace Covid-19 vaccination drive will take 2.4 years to complete, warning, global epidemiologists feel it could take under a year before the virus may mutate making it difficult for current vaccines to contain the spread.

By Haider Abbas*  The day, since the West Bengal (WB) polls ended, the Union Home Minister is totally invisible! BJP, despite its most robust campaign, peppered with heavy communalism, could not even smell victory, as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) under Mamta Banerjee romped with her third time tenure in a row. It did not come late to political pundits that had Election Commission (EC) not played to the gallery of BJP, as it did in Bihar lately, BJP was not to cross even the 20 figure in WB.

By Our Representative  In a letter addressed to Dilip Walse Patil, Maharashtra home minister, the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) has demanded that 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy should be immediately shifted to a good hospital in view of his fragile health.

By Birendra Ram Mishra, Ramprashan Singh, Santosh Kumar Pradhan, Sonu Khan, Gatha G Namboothiri* Most of the women in Panso gau (‘village’) gathered at a common place in their village. Situated in the Gumla district of Jharkhand, Panso is a Muslim dominated village. The Rehnuma Law Centre team started the gau mulaakat (‘village get together’) with a seemingly simple question; what do we need in society for women to be happy? Amidst responses revolving around education, livelihood opportunities, implementation of government schemes and so on, several conversations also took place on women’s rights and the problems affecting Muslim women. While talking about polygamy in the Muslim community, discussions around triple talaq naturally crept into the discourse. Amidst this, one of the women present tried correcting a Rehnuma team member and stated that men are allowed up to seven marriages under Muslim personal law. The woman who answered and engaged with the team is married to a maulana (...

By Arjun Kumar, Ritika Gupta, Sakshi Sharda With the exodus of millions of migrant workers returning to their villages during second wave of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the Central government has relinquished its role in the governance. The state governments are now parenting the city governance for their ignored migrants.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  A TV actress, more known for her flirting ways than acting, recently exposed her caste mindset when she said: “Lip tint ko halka sa blush ki tarah laga liya hai because main YouTube pe aane wali hoon aur main achha dikhna chahti hoon. Bhangi ki tarah nahi dikhna chahti hoon..." Simple translation: I am planning to speak to you through my YouTube channel and hence I want to look beautiful and not like the 'Bhangis'.

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* Pope Francis has once again thrown a challenge to Catholic Communicators in his annual message for World Communications Day which this year falls on Sunday 16 May. In his typically direct yet profound way, he focuses his message on the theme ‘Come and See (Jn 1:46). Communicating by Encountering People Where and as They Are.’

By Sandeep Pandey, Divesh Ranjan*  In the recently concluded elections in Assam, it turns out that if the votes of Mahajot alliance led by Congress Party and the alliance of Assam Jatiya Parishad and Raijor Dal are combined then they would have been in a position to prevent Bhartiya Janata Party from forming a government in Assam. If 14 seats where Mahajot alliance and AJP-RD votes are together greater than Mitrajot alliance led by BJP votes are subtracted from 75 seats won by Mitrajot and added to the Mahajot and AJP-RD combine strength of 51, it yields a different result.

Counterview Desk  More than 150 academics, activists, students, lawyers, filmmakers and concerned citizens from Assam, North-East and across the country have taken strong exception to the deployment of security forces in the midst of a raging pandemic in Mikir Bamuni Grant, Nagaon district, Assam, to push forward the construction of Azure Power's solar power plant.

Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury*  Covid infection has reached an inflection point in India which is now the Corona capital of the world, and the citizens need a warlike initiative to vaccinate the entire nation, of which just 14 crore out of 140 crores population has been vaccinated till now.

By Our Representative  Senior civil rights leaders Harsh Mander, Anjali Bhardwaj and Jagdeep Chhokar have welcomed the Supreme Court (SC) order in the suo motu matter regarding the problems and distress being faced by migrant workers, calling it “a positive first step towards providing much needed relief to migrant workers, who are the worst hit by the lockdowns and restrictions imposed by several states to curb the spread of Covid-19.

By Our Representative Will Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray act following a letter (see text below) written by family members and friends of 15 undertrial activists, currently in Maharashtra jails, and ensure bail to them bail? An online media conference addressed by them revealed that Thackeray, who was sent the letter two days ago, has so far only acted to ensure that, so far, only one of the activists, Dr Hany Babu, has got the "relief" of being shifted to a hospital as he has tested Covid positive.

KP Sasi, a well-known Left-wing film director and cartoonist from Thrissur, Kerala, currently based in Bengaluru, has come up with a 12-point charter on what he calls Socialism of a Third Kind. Sent in an email alert via Dalit Media Watch, Sasi, who is son of late K Damodaran, a Marxist theoretician and writer and one of the founder leaders of the Communist Party in India, provides his perspective of the types of equal status he thinks socialism should have. Though interesting, one didn’t find in any of his 12 points what exactly his view on economy is – whether there could be economic equality, especially at a time when even Marxists agree private capital is a must for development in view of the fact that the productive forces are not ripe enough to change relations of production, supposed to be a precondition of socialism. Be that as it may, the 12 point charter by Sasi was interesting, coming as it does from a person who has made powerful documentaries like "A Valley Refuses ...

By Moin Qazi* Vidarbha has been a fertile soil for many social reformers and intellectuals. It has played an active role in the nation’s destiny and its social, cultural and political rivulets have flown into and enriched the great sea of national civilization. One such luminary who emerged from Yavatmal was Kazi Syed Karimuddin. He rose to be a great criminal lawyer of the region and played a critical role in the drafting of the Indian constitution. Kazi Karimuddin was born on 19 July 1899, at Darwah in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra to Kazi Syed Nasiruddin and Dayanath Begum. He had his school education at Mohamedan High School, Amravati. He graduated from Morris College, Nagpur and obtained his postgraduate degree in economics from Aligarh Muslim University. He later qualified for law. He married Qadirunnisa Begum (May 24, 1926) . Kazi Karimuddin had an active presence in social, legal, judicial and political circles in Yavatmal. He was Vice Chairman, District Council (1924-28) S...

By Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury* While the second surge of Covid is ravaging India, it is important to dwell upon the reasons of its lethality, for posterity and delineate good governance in public health, hopefully in future. Carrying forward from the first part on this theme, we look into the other issues compounding the crisis.