Dr John Chelladurai By Rosamma Thomas* The Gandhi Research Foundation (GRF), Jalgaon, was founded in 2012. In its less-than-a-decade lifetime, this institution has worked to “preserve for posterity the profound legacy of Gandhiji’s life, thought and work,” says its vision, declared on its website .

By Sandip Chowdhury*  India stands vulnerable today, severely impacted by the effects of Covid and a fluctuating economic barometer on the one hand and an ecological crisis on the other. Scientists concur that biodiversity loss and climate change impacts could be more devastating than the current Covid crisis.

By Sudhansu R Das The USA’s war against terror with the support of Pakistan has abruptly ended after the US trained Afghan army meekly surrendered to the Taliban. Many US trained Afghan soldiers sold their weapons to the Taliban and ran away. USA has not succeeded in de-radicalizing the Afghan youth because it was treating the symptom and not the disease; it pumped dollars to Pakistan in its war against terror and Pakistan radicalized the young Afghan minds to root out USA’s presence in Afghanistan. 

By Anushree Naik*  The struggle with illegal clinical trials and their cryptic impact on the victims, their families has been long drawn. The battle began somewhere around 1995. Clinical trials are the testing of drugs that happen on research participants, known as subjects, as a part of clinical research by pharmaceutical companies or a health tech companies.

By Mukund Maheshwari*  To be silent is to be ‘anti-national’, believes Kannan Gopinathan , ex-IAS officer-turned-social activist, who has travelled across the country to 60-65 districts (~10% of the country) spread over 18 states, meeting thousands of people from different backgrounds and perspectives, observing agreements and disagreements in different parts of the country. During a conversation with me, he observed how different people think differently within the bounds of their own rationality framework.

By Palla Trinadha Rao Telangana is using brute force and dispossessing tribals from their forest land occupations without recognizing their preexisting forest rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006. The fear of eviction looms large over several tribal habitations in the erstwhile Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad and Mahaboobnagar districts affecting nearly one lakh tribal families.

By Sanjana Koli*  Hailing from the mountains, I have always felt privileged to experience the best of nature, the purest of environment, and the calmest places in my life. Over the years, I have appreciated the beauty that I see and learnt the importance of this environment and its element in the working of our day-to-day life. Most of which goes unnoticed. We get most affected when some damage is done to a thing belonging to us. That is why environment concern affects most the people who have either been in proximity of the environment or have dedicated their lives to it. One such person is Dr Ravi Chopra, with who I got in touch to share my concern about the deteriorating environment and natural beauty of my native place, Uttarakhand. A person born at the time of independence, who has patriotism in his blood, his zeal to do something substantial for the nation, made him bring out the First Citizen Report of India, an account of the current state of India’s Environment. When the n...

By Narender* Rakesh Tikait is a farmer activist from the Muzaffarnagar of western Uttar Pradesh. He is the son of a well-known farmer leader and Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) co-founder, late Mahender Singh Tikait. After completing his MA from Meerut University, he joined Delhi Police and now holding the position of spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union. Tikait also contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election on the ticket of RLD but lost the election badly, even lost his deposit.

A Gujarat Dalit women's demonstration   By Shantanu Singh Yadav*  Even after 75 years of independence, India, along with significant macro and microeconomic issues, is dealing with a problem that lies at the very heart: Casteism. The first thing an individual associates to, right after being born, is their caste. This is a critical factor during admission to a school, marriage, renting/buying a flat in society, and even the rights performed during cremation. The result of casteism is heavily skewed with only selected individuals enjoying power at the helm of everything while the masses still facing the brunt.

By Our Representative  Atikur Rahman (28), a young political activist from Muzaffarnagar, arrested by Mathura police on October 5 last year along with Masood Ahmad (28), Mohammad Aalam (37) and journalist Siddhique Kappan (41) while they were heading to Hathras to meet the gangrape victim’s family members, may face “custodial murder”, his family members have alleged.

Counterview Desk  In response to a lecture by well-known Marxian scholar Vijay Prashad, who is director of Tricontinental, originally a Cuban journal which now seeks to serve what is considers as anti-imperialist causes across the world though its website thetricontinental.org , Chandra Vikash, convener, GAIA Earth Sansad , offers coordination between Tricontinental and those who advocate what he calls the "global indigenous" thrust.

By YS Gill  One Deshbhakt Col Trautman is shown trying to put together a mercenary army for a clandestine CIA-sponsored mission to supply arms, train and fight alongside the Mujahideen and other tribes, to dislodge the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. Despite being shown photos of civilians suffering at the hands of the Russian tyrants, the invincible super commando Rambo refuses to go for the kill. Rambo says he is tired of fighting. Enough is enough!

Gail Omvedt with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Bharat Patankar By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Gail Omvedt is no more. She passed away on August 25, 2021 in Kasegaon. On August 18, I went to see her along with my dear friend Rahul Nirmal. Her condition was deteriorating and her partner Bharat Patankar was doing everything to serve her at their ancestral house in Kasegaon, Maharasthra, where Gail and Bharat decided to live and work for the people.

By Vibhuti Patel*  We salute Dr Gail Omvedt for her revolutionary spirit. Dr Gail Omvedt, committed and courageous, prolific writer and powerful social scientists who brought to the fore Phule-Ambedkar legacy in the context of rising social movements in the post emergency period is no more .

By DB Sagar*  The International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR), together with the National Coalition Against Caste Discrimination (NCACD) and other civil rights groups, have submitted a policy memo demanding the US Department of Justice recognize that civil rights laws prohibit caste-based discrimination in the United States and integrate and enforce this recognition into civil rights and non-discrimination guidelines.

By Atanu Roy*  “What is there in a name”, a popular phrase originated from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". May be Shakespeare never imagined on the looming controversy surrounding Covid B1617 variant. B1617 variant has been the most contentious and ravaging Covid-19 variant from the very outset. A series of claims and counter claims ensured, whether B1617 variant originated in Singapore or India.

By Our Representative A roundtable with sewer workers, organized by the civil rights group Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) at Tahirpur, Delhi, has taken strong exception to Union minister for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale seeking to distinguish between manual scavenger and sewer workers.

By Raghav Agarwal*  The Covid-19 crisis has laid bare the Indian public health system and brought it to its knees. Visuals of patients and kin desperately searching for bed, life-saving oxygen or critical medical supplies have hogged international headlines. After decades of neglect and underinvestment, the unfolding human tragedy has taken the veil off the problems plaguing India's public health system.

Shamsul Islam, formerly with Delhi University, remembers Meena, the first Afghan woman who laid down life for rights of Afghan women: *** The great Afghan woman martyr, Meena (1956-1987), founded the Revolutionary Association Of The Women Of Afghanistan (RAWA) in 1977. She was assassinated by the hired goons of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4, 1987. RAWA resolutely fought for the rights of the Afghan women against the Islamists and the Russians occupation (1980-87) of their country offering heroic sacrifices. RAWA kept on the fight for the rights of the Afghan women during the first Taliban rule (1996-2001), the USA led occupation of the country (2001-2021) and continues the resistance during the current 2nd rule of the Taliban. In the following is reproduced a part of Meena’s poem which she wrote few months before her martyrdom. I’ll Never Return I'm the woman who has awoken I've arisen and become a t...

Yash Khanapure*  In 1984, a severe disaster occurred at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, and in 1986's Chernobyl accident was eye-openers for the world. The debate on the use of nuclear power sparked a fire. The people became aware of nuclear energy and its consequences.

By Shriya Bajaj, Sandeep Pandey* Recently population control bill has been in the light in India. Two states Assam and Uttar Pradesh have proposed Population Stabilization Bill. Also, many other states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Odisha are following two-child norm for the local body elections.

Neha Dabhade* Recently, Maya (name changed) went to the Gotri police station in Vadodara, known for being cultural capital of Gujarat. Maya was facing domestic violence at home at the hands of her husband, Sameer Abdul Qureshi. The police instead filed a case under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 against Qureshi for forcefully converting Maya and marrying her.

Counterview Desk Several campaign organizations*, including women's groups, giving a national call to organise Afghan solidarity demonstrations across India on August 23, making a direct attack on the Taliban takeover, have said that, today, "the liberties and lives of Afghanistan’s feminists, human rights activists, care workers, welfare workers are all in especial danger from the Taliban. Refugees fleeing the Taliban are risking their lives in conditions that display their desperation."

Counterview Desk  In an open letter addressed to the "citizens of India", more than 100 ex-civil servants, who are members of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), have said that the Government of India is violating citizens' fundamental rights by the arbitrary use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

By Sudhansu R Das The Union Government has launched Vehicle Scrappage Policy to scrap 15 year old commercial vehicles and 20 year old private vehicles; the estimated target is 51 lakh vehicles in the first phase. The government said its new circular economy would attract investment worth Rs 10,000 crore and create 35,000 new jobs. 

Vidya Bhushan Rawat* speak to Raj Mohan, lyricist, singer and musician in Sarnami Bhojpuri: *** Rootlessness is a serious crisis of the current generation as most enjoy the gated life styles surrounded by ‘gazettes and ‘connectivity’ where any guest is unwelcome and you are lost in the virtual world without ever caring or even thinking of your neighbours or near dear ones. The dependency on the virtual world and race for ‘successes and ‘fame’ has made our youths look soulless who do not enjoy being ‘surprised’ and even while travelling to a peaceful region they would still want ‘connectivity’ and link to the virtual world. And these aspiring to live in the virtual world are basically those who enjoy the privileges of their ‘families; and ‘identity’. History is a powerful tool. It may deny you identity and fill you with a deep sense of ‘pride’ in your ancestors. The history of colonial rule in India has been interpreted by ‘experts’ through different perspectives. There are different s...

By Gopal Krishna*  Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) welcomes the Brazilian court’s immediate suspension of the extraction, exploration, processing, marketing, transport and export of asbestos produced. The 25 page long decision of the court located in the Brazilian State of Goiás is consistent with the decision of the Brazilian Supreme Court. In 2017, decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) recognized the unconstitutionality of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 9,055/95, which allowed the extraction, processing, transportation, industrialization and export of asbestos of chrysotile variety. The order was communicated by Federal Public Prosecutor's Office on August 16, 2021. India is one of the key consumers of Brazilian asbestos. It is noteworthy that both the Brazilian decisions are consistent with the 24 page long verdict of Supreme Court of India in Consumer Education & Research Centre (CERC) v Union of India (1995) authored by Justice K Ramaswamy as part...

By Vignesh M*  At a time when migrant children are transitioning their education through a difficult phase, the education policy discussions were primarily on providing di gital accessibility. However, non-coordinated and unplanned efforts altogether avoided the discussions on the medium of instruction (MoI) that critically affects the learning of migrant children.

By Anjali Bhardwaj, Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd), Amrita Johri* On August 18, 2021, a petition regarding delay in appointment of information commissioners under the RTI Act was heard by the Supreme Court. The bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari heard the matter. During the hearing, it was pointed out that despite the judgment of the SC, the Union of India and several states had failed to fill the vacancies in the information commission leading to a large number of pending cases and long delays in the disposal of appeals/complaints.

Counterview Desk The New Socialist Initiative (NSI), a Trotskyite political group based in Bengaluru, has said in a statement that the Government of India is likely to shed "crocodile tears for the Afghan people", but, like other governments around the world, "are in fact only motivated by the crude and amoral considerations of realpolitik."  Insisting that "it is the good of the Afghan people, not our supposed 'national interest', that must be our point of departure for reflecting on what we must support and oppose", in a statement, distributed by well-known political commentator Ram Puniyani, NSI demanded,  "There should be no restriction to those seeking refuge or asylum and adequate provision be made for them to stay or relocate to where they can."  Pointing out that India was and remains a non-party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol which "rejects refoulement (forcible return of refugees to their places of di...

  Counterview Desk  In a curious Facebook  post  "What happened to Netaji?", former editor of the Times of India, Ahmedabad, Kingshuk Nag, who later took over the Hyderabad edition of TOI as editor, has asserted that not only did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose didn't die in a plane crash, he went to the Soviet Union, where he served as adviser of the Soviet leaders during the post-Stalin phase.

In an curious Facebook post "What happened to Netaji?", former editor of the Times of India, Ahmedabad, Kingshuk Nag, who later took over the Hyderabad edition of TOI as editor, has asserted that not only did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose didn't die in a plane crash, he went to the Soviet Union, where he served as adviser of the Soviet leaders during the post-Stalin phase. One who has authored a Netaji book , he makes another astonishing "revelation": that Netaji, it is believed, had undergone face surgery "to change his appearance", and is "supposed to have met Indian PM Lal Bahadur Shastri when he went to Tashkent in 1966." Was Netaji so meek? One doesn't know... Anyway, read the FB post : *** Today is purportedly the day that Netaji died in an air crash in Taiwan in 1945. An elaborate theory of his death and the fact that his ashes were stored in Renkoji temple was created. By all accounts this is fiction. Netaji disappeared into Soviet...

By Our Representative  In a surprise move, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), considered the liberal face of Islamic political groups in India, lending its support to the the new change in Afghanistan, has hoped that they will end "years of unrest and bloodshed" in the country and "restore peace and order in the region and help to reinstate the rights of the Afghan people."

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  India is much older than 75 years. Hence our leaders need to speak the language of maturity and reasoning. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister and his government are least bothered about governance and more about elections. To declare August 14 as the 'partition horrors day’ is nothing but a deliberate effort to create an atmosphere of mistrust and disharmony. We all know the horrors of partition and there are issues which can be discussed.

By Nihir Gulati* On January 16, 2021, the first-ever dose of the Covid vaccine was administered in India. With the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare claiming to have administered both doses to a mere 10% of India's 94.5 crore adult population, I reached out to Bobby Ramakant, director, for policy and communications at Citizen News Service (CNS), to gain a deeper insight into the snail-like pace of covid vaccine administration in the country.

Counterview Desk  The Occupational Knowledge International ( OK International ), a US-based NGO that works to build capacity in developing countries to identify, monitor, and mitigate environmental and occupational exposures to hazardous materials in order to protect public health and the environment, has raised the alarm that the rise of a new export industry in India may lead to “significant health risks” in the country.

August 15, apparently, also happens to be Independence Day of Nagaland. In a message on that day, top NGO International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) global coordinator Beverly L Longid sent out the following message: *** Warmest greetings to all our Naga sisters and brothers. It is an honor to join you today in your celebration of the 75th year of Naga Independence. The first time I heard of Nagalim was 30 years ago when I joined in 1992 the secretariat of my local organization, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance. I met some of your leaders like Nengulo Krome of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights. Later, I had the opportunity to meet young leaders like Nengreichon and younger ones like Atina and others. I am happy to see you again and other indigenous activists, although online. Since then, we have maintained communications, but more importantly, we developed and strengthened our solidarity. On behalf of the International Indigenous Pe...

Counterview Desk Hannah Greep of the international BankTrack, an international tracking, campaigning and CSO support organisation targeting private sector commercial banks and the activities they finance, in a recent report has identified several banks and companies, including those from India, which have ties with the Myanmar junta.