By Venkatesh Nayak* After agonizing last week over the Madras High Court’s judgment and the reckless exercise of the rule-making power by some competent authorities, it would be nice recall three decisions where the adjudicating authorities have done just the opposite of what I had lamented (click HERE and HERE to read) – they have done more than raise a finger over some of the retrograde rules made under the RTI laws in India. First about the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) High Court, which directed the state government to revisit its RTI rules. Thanks to the fervent efforts of well-known RTI advocate and lawyer BR Manhas, who is based in Jammu, the J&K High Court recently directed the J&K government to reconsider its decision to repeal the RTI rules it notified in 2010. Under a peculiar constitutional arrangement, the Central Right to Information Act, 2005, like several other laws, does not extend in its application to the state of J&K. So, in 2009 the state legislature ...

Jaspara sarpanch Shaktisinh Gohil addressing By A Representative As previously planned, villagers from Mithi Virdi-Jaspara region of Bhavnagar district in Gujarat on Sunday took part in a well-attended meeting against the proposed 6,000 MW nuclear power plant on 777 hactares (ha) land. The meeting, said a joint statement issued by the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti and the Bhavnagar Gram Bachao Andolan, “marked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, where he was expected to agree on an administrative deal to implement the Early Works Agreement signed in 2012 between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and the USA’s Westinghouse Electric Corporation.”

By A Representative Tens of Gujarat adivasis, threatened displacement from their Narmada resettlement site on the basis of the town planning Act for triggering industrial and urban development, sat on dharna on September 28, 2014 following clear indications that the promised meeting with the  district collector, Narmada, would not take place, as promised, for settling their grievances. The meeting was to take place to discuss the implications of the notices being given to the resettled Narmada oustees. "When a team of 15 oustees reached Rajpipla headquarters, they found that the collector was transferred overnight, and hence no dialogue was possible", the anti-dam Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) said in a statement.

By A Representative World’s top rating agency Standard & Poor may have lifted India's rating outlook to 'stable' from 'negative', with claims that this shows it acknowledges efforts by the Narendra Modi government to maintain fiscal discipline while reviving the economy and drumming up investment, influential British journal “The Economist” believes not enough has yet been done, and the new government’s “modest policies” will not bring back to nine per cent growth. The commentary comes when Modi is in the US, the stocks have returned following a three-day losing streak and the rupee showing signs of strengthening.

Villagers' protest public hearing on N-plant in March 2013 By A Representative While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the US and his supporting NRIs are chanting “Modi, Modi”, back home in Gujarat, tens of villages surrounding the proposed site for the 6,000 MW nuclear power plant are set to stage a major protest rally. To be held in the Mithi-Virdi-Jaspara region of Bhavnagar district of Gujarat on April 28, during the protest, when Modi will have intense discussions in the White House, the anti-nuclear campaigners are likely to insist that the Early Works Agreement signed in 2012 between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NCPCIL) and Westinghouse Electric Corporation for the project be scrapped.

Protest rally in Mahan By A Representative In a major ruling, National Green Tribunal (NGT), India’s quasi-judicial environmental watchdog with powers of a High Court, has declared that the forest clearance granted to Essar and Hindalco’s Mahan Coal Ltd are invalid. This follows the Supreme Court order to de-allocate 214 coal blocks. The NGT’s decision is in response to a petition filed by members of Mahan Sangharsh Samiti (MSS), a people’s organisaion, which challenged the coal mine’s forest clearance. According to Greenpeace India’s estimate, the project would have led to the loss of approximately 5 lakh trees and affected the livelihoods of over 50,000 people in 54 villages of Mahan forests in Madhya Pradesh.

By Venkatesh Nayak* On September 17, the Madras High Court held that a person seeking information under the right to information (RTI) Act cannot exercise the power without revealing why he or she wants the information. However, the High Court did a suo motu review of this judgement on September 23, and deleted two paras (20-21) of its judgement. While passing its order on the suo motu review motion, the Court held as follows: “In the said order dated September 17, 2014, we have made certain general observations in paragraphs 20 and 21, stating that the RTI application should contain bare minimum details or reasons for which the information is sought for. However, the said general observations were made without noticing Section 6(2) of the RTI Act, 2005… “Therefore it is evident that a person seeking information is not required to give any reason for requesting such information. Hence, the general observations made in paragraphs 20 and 21 of the said order, dated September 17 is an err...

By A Representative A public meeting, “Minorities under Attack”, has been proposed for September 27 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, day on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address UN General Assembly. To be held in afternoon, the meeting will see the release of a US NRI sponsored report critical of 100 days of Modi, and those addressing it include Manish Tiwari of the Congress, Ali Anwar of Janata Dal (United), Kunwar Danish of Janata Dal (Secular), CPI’s Amarjeet Kaur, bureaucrat-turned-activist Harsh Mander, ex-Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, anti-Modi campaigner Shabnam Hashmir, Dalit rights activist Paul Divakar, and Archbishop Anil Jt Couto. Muslim and Christian groups, apart from some human rights NGOs, will support the meeting.

By A Representative The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Delhi, and Police Reforms Watch (PRW), Mumbai, will be launching an eighteen-day campaign on September 26 in order to “catalyze” voters in Maharashtra, and especially in the city of Mumbai, to “vote for a representative and a party that commits to and is vested in better policing in the state.” In a statement, the two advocacy groups have said, this is being done ahead of the state elections, scheduled on October 15, in order to “blow the whistle for police reforms in Maharashtra.”

Demonstration against N-plant By A Representative The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has strongly opposed “continued efforts” by government authorities in India to use the sedition law against activists and protesters. While the latest incident relates to immigration officials on September 16, 2014 preventing environmental activist SP Udayakumar from traveling out of the country because of sedition cases filed against him for leading protests at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, there is enough evidence why Parliament should act quickly to repeal the colonial-era sedition law, repeatedly misused to harass activists and protesters, it said.

By A Representative With Navratri festival all set to begin in Gujarat, several civil rights groups and individual activists of Gujarat have come together to strongly protest the efforts by certain “extremist” forces to create an atmosphere of communal hatred in Gujarat in the name of fighting Love Jihad, saying, the essence of the whole exercise of these forces is to consider women as property of a particular community by considering Navaratri as the private property of a particular Hindutva group. In a strongly-worded letter to Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel, they have urged upon her to immediately put a brake on their “vicious propaganda.”

By Venkatesh Nayak* The RTI fraternity is abuzz with heated discussions around the recent judgment of the Madras High Court holding that a citizen must explain his/her reasons for seeking information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) . Whether the Court wanted this norm to apply to people seeking information from its Registry or from all public authorities covered by the RTI Act is not clear. However, the Court’s Cause List for 23rd September listed this matter for suo motu review by the Court. I thank renowned RTI activist C J Karira for alerting me to this development. There are news reports today that some offending portions of the judgment have been deleted. However the Court’s website continues to display the text of the 17th September judgment without any changes (1st attachment). This is not an isolated trend. The Registry of the Madras High Court has been curtailing the transparency regime bit by bit. Madras High Court amended RTI Fee Rules in a retrograde man...

Counterview Desk  Reproduced below are minutes of a meeting on Annihilation of Caste in Ahmedabad on September 12-13, 2014, where participants* — senior academics, activists, scholars and scribes — expressed concern over dilution of Dalit identity because of overt stress on entitlement-based policies. The meeting advocated for alternative strategy based on vulnerability index, in which manual scavengers, especially women, are the chief focus of attention: *** The one and half day meeting on moving from caste based discrimination to annihilation of caste, taking cue from the famous treatise of Dr BR Ambedkar, began with a note of concern that Dalit identity is getting diluted because of overt concentration of entitlements based on reservation to those who have been identified officially as scheduled castes (SCs). While not denying the importance of reservation as a means to empower certain sections of Dalits who are above than other Dalit sub-castes, the meeting believed that there...

Prashant Bhushan By A Representative Seven well-known activists and academics, Aruna Roy, Ajit Ranade, Jagdeep Chhokar, Nikhil Dey, Rajni Bakshi, Shailesh Gandhi and Trilochan Sastry, in an open letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India have said that there was a need to ponder if the September 15 apex court order to reveal the name the identity of the whistleblower in the case against CBI director Ranjit Sinha was not against the Whistleblowers’ Act, passed in Parliament. “It is true that the rules for the Act have not been made so far. But the nation and the courts had backed the idea and spirit of the whistleblower’s Act”, the letter insists.

By Venkatesh Nayak* Once again the issue of whistleblowing on corruption and inappropriate behaviour and protection for individuals who blow the whistle is in the limelight. This, even as the Central and State Governments and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) drag their feet over operationalising the Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2011 enacted in May 2014. In a country where whistling and making catcalls at women are often dismissed with a wink and an uncivilised justification — “boys will be boys” – can and should whistleblowers come forward to serve the national motto ‘satyameva jayate’ (truth alone triumphs) by risking their lives and reputation openly? Will the administrative edifice erected over the foundation of the rule of law rise to protect them or is the foundation itself so shaky that whistleblowers will prefer the alternative of remaining silent in the face of apparent violation of the law, rules and code of ethical conduct? Should we only demand that Caesar’s wife be...

Vodafone's Marten Pieters By A Representative In a commentary, "Modi allure dims for multinationals awaiting ‘big bang’ in India", the world's one of most influential business papers, the Financial Times (FT), has warned Narendra Modi that "honeymoon is nearing its end for the growing ranks of investors disappointed by the dearth of radical economic reforms." Authored by Victor Mallet and James Crabtree, in a strong critique of Modi's economic policies, FT has said , the Indian Prime Minister's "first four months in office" suggest that he is "squandering his strong mandate".

By A Representative Following successes achieved by the protesting manual scavengers of Dudhrej municipality of Surendranagar district in Gujarat, women workers of another neighbouring town, Wadhwan, have gone on strike against the despicable practice. Sitting on dharna in front of the Surendranagar district collector’s office with placards such as “manual scavenging continues in Modi’s Gujarat” and “real face of Vibrant Gujarat” in their hand, the women workers, employed through contractor, have demanded that they should be paid minimum wages and provided protective equipment for their work. Earlier, they took out a protest rally.

Kanti Mulji Parmar By A Representative Two more persons, Kanti Mulji Parmar and Prakash Khushal Parmar, have died because of the deadly occupational disease, silicosis, following long illness. With this, the total number of deaths due to silicosis in Gujarat this year has reached 19, highest in a single year. Revealing this, Jagdish Patel, who has been supporting agate workers’ plight in Khambhat region of Gujarat, says, “Both had may things in common. They stayed in same village, in same area. They were from same caste, Dalit vankar. Both were late thirties. They remained unmarried for the similar reasons -- their elder brothers had also died of silicosis.Both were agate polishers. Both lost their parents and brothers who also died because of silicosis. And, both died in September 2014.”

Sanjay, brother of the victim By A Representative About 17 Dalit families belonging to Timba village of Vadhvan taluka of Surendranagar district in Gujarat have been forced to migrate to several villages neighbouring areas following threats from upper caste Rajputs, accused in fatal attack on Tokarbhai Jagabhai Jitiya, 32, on April 9, 2014. Talking with newspersons, family members of the victim said, “The Dalit families were forced to migrate after they were told they that would suffer in case they supported our effort to bring to book the accused. While six of the accused involved in the murder have been arrested, the main accused, Kanbha Nadoda, is still at large, thanks to his political support from the ruling BJP.”

By A Representative Well-known film director Hansal Mehta has expressed serious concerns over the overt activities and statements of the RSS and allied organizations, after the recent BJP victory in the general elections of 2014. He has stated that "communal and divisive agenda of the century old rightist organization RSS is now open and public." In an interview, which is part of a series of audio-visual interviews to be released soon, Mehta has sought to compare the way the Government of India is acting with the Emergency days (1975-77), imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

NBA's anti-dam campaign in MP By A Representative In what may be seen as a clear refusal to take an equidistant position between the ruling NDA government and its predecessor UPA government, well-known anti-dam activist Medha Parkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has said that the previous regime “consulted” civil society on critical issues, which is not true of BJP rulers. In a recent article , Patkar comments, while the UPA “paranoid about NGOs, especially those challenging big business or inequitable development projects”, it never shied of seeking “NGO input on major public welfare policies such as the right to information, universal education and food security.”

Modi at 2011 sadbhavna campaign By A Representative Gujarat may be claiming to have ushered in a new era of communal harmony, pushing the 2002 communal riots to the backdrop. But reports from Gujarat suggest Muslims traders are angry over alleged efforts to close down their business in different parts of the state. This is happening not just around the Jain religious shrine of Palitana in Saurashtra, where meat and egg shops are banned, but elsewhere in the state as well. Palitana, it may be recalled, is situated just about 60 kilometres from Bhavnagar town, where Vishwa Hindu Parishan leader Pravin Togadia offered advice to Hindus on how to prevent Muslims from buying property in areas where they are in the majority.

By A Representative A Delhi Declaration adopted by over 100 senior civil rights activists from 20 Indian states, and joined by representatives from Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that a People’s/Citizens South Asia Council would be formed in order to lobby for the formation of a human rights mechanism under the South Asian Association of Regional Countries (SAARC). The declaration— whose text was released five days later -- was adopted at the end of two-day consultations (August 26 and 27, 2014) in Delhi. The council, it said, would reflect “the diversity of the vast region.”

By A Representative Amnesty International India has sharply criticized the arrest and detention of a 25-year old man accused of sedition for allegedly disrespecting India’s national symbols, pointing out that this suggests "how archaic laws continue to be used to curb free speech in India.” In a statement, Amnesty, a human rights organization with presence in several countries, said, “On August 20, 2014, police in Kerala arrested Salman M for allegedly making catcalls and not standing up when India’s national anthem was being played at a cinema two days earlier.”

By A Representative The All-India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRE), consisting of some of the most reputed educationists, has strongly protested against what it has called the Government of India’s attempt to officially “intrude into the calendar of educational institutions.” Calling the Prime Minister’s decision to address all children across India as nothing but “marginalizing the teachers and the students”, the authoritative organization says, “Misfortunes as they say never come alone. Now Chief Ministers are also joining the race to politically indoctrinate the students/ teachers on Teachers Day.”

Manjula Pradeep at the meeting  By A Representative Gujarat’s manual scavengers, belonging to Doodhrej municipality of Surendrangar district, ended their nearly month-long protest against the authorities after the latter handed over a written assurance that their major demands, especially those related to providing them with fair wages and necessary safety equipment, would be met. This, the letter hopes, would take care of the issue that the workers have to manually clean up human excreta. The assurance follows Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust director Manjula Pradeep’s meeting with Surendranagar district collector KB Bhatt, who agreed the manual scavengers’ plight was being “ignored.”

By A Representative Even as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, conservative leader who captured power in the last polls, reaches Delhi, the Aussie anti-nuclear lobby has upped the ante against a possible nuclear deal with India. “Abbott’s deal with Indian PM Narendra Modi to sell Australian uranium to nuclear-armed India will further destabilise the region and damage Australia’s international reputation”, the Australian Conservation Foundation (AFC), a powerful environmental group, said in a statement on September 3.

By A Representative The National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI), India’s apex body of right to information (RTI) NGOs in India, has taken strong exception to failure of the Government of India to appoint a new chief information commissioner (CIC) in the Central Information Commission of India, ostensibly because of the deadlock over leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. Saying that this may be a requirement to appoint CIC, the NCPRI in an open letter has reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the RTI Act gives clear-cut explanation on this, and there is no ambiguity about it.

By Nandini Oza*  Mahadevbhai Desai’s Diary Part 2 (Year 1933): Pages 9-14: On discussions concerning separate electorate: [Mahadevbhai] : “…People will come [to meet], Christian friends too will come and will say that you are finding faults with the Government, but before that why don’t you see your own [faults] first? Why is the Hindu community considering the Antyaj people as untouchables?”

By A Representative In a strongly-worded editorial, Bloomberg, a major source for global business and financial market news, has characterized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to go out of the way to woo Japan as nothing but “India’s foolish crush.” A Bloomberg View comment, it says, “Canceling talks with Pakistan, or rejecting the World Trade Organization deal reached at Bali, Modi could be projecting the India that can say no. But it is hard not to suspect anachronism and naivete in Modi’s plan to model India’s economy on Japan’s postwar achievements.”