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"Bailing out" Modi, US religious freedom panel attacks his right-hand Amit Shah's call for national anti-conversion law

By A Representative Even as giving the impression that it has spared Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the influential US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its just released annual report has attacked his right-hand, BJP chief Amit Shah, along with other "high-ranking members of the ruling BJP" , for declaring the need for a "nationwide anti-conversion law".

Top Gandhi baiter Arundhati Roy 'supports' Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj concept

By A Representative Is prominent social activist Arundhati Roy following the footsteps of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati and its late founder Kanshi Ram, at least in theory if not in practice? In an interesting move, top Indian English writer and one who recently converted into a Gandhi baiter, Roy has given her support to efforts to propagate the term "Bahujan" for bringing together oppressed communities in order to overcome a "caste-ridden society."

Attacking Modi support to crony capitalism and neo-liberalism, AAP splinter Swaraj Samvad not to ally with Communists

Prof Anand Kumar (centre) at the press conference By A Representative Even several weeks after it "broke away" from the parent organization, the splinter group of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has tentatively called itself Swaraj Samvad, is still at the exploratory stage about the political directions it should take in futre. Swaraj Samvad's national convener Prof Anand Kumar, in Ahmedabad to explore "possibilities" of political support, has told newspersons that the organization cannot find any established political organizations or individuals with whom it could find a common ground in the country.

Land acquisition Act, eco-clearance not chief reasons for stalling projects

By Venkatesh Nayak* A big question that is begging a credible answer today is – why is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government hell-bent on road rolling amendments on to the land acquisition law without even implementing it despite vociferous opposition from several quarters? Several spokespersons for the government and the political parties which support it have repeatedly said that the amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR Act), enacted by Parliament in 2013, first promulgated as an Ordinance, and repromulgated because they could not get the approval of Parliament last month, are necessary to arrest the slowing down of the economy and breathing life into the stalled development projects. The mainstay of this argument has been that the process of acquiring privately owned land for developmental projects laid down in the LARR Act is too cumbersome and requires simplification. The state of t...

Australian greens accuse Adani Group of making "false promises" of economic benefits from coalmining project

A GetUp! poster against Adanis in Australia By A Representative In a development which may go a long way adversely the powerful industrial group of Adanis’, currently involved in a legal tangle in a land court in Australia’s Queensland province for obtaining permission to go ahead with one of the world’s biggest coalmining projects, the British daily Guardian has  reported the “Indian conglomerate” has admitted it will not be able to “generate” 10,000 jobs it had previously promised. “Australia’s largest coalmine would deliver only a fraction of the jobs and state government payments promised by the company, Queensland’s land court has heard”, daily says.

Most smartphone users in India feel mobile broadband services are "too expensive"

By A Representative A recent report by Ericsson ConsumerLab, “The changing mobile broadband landscape, India 2015” has said that affordability poses a “major barrier to mobile broadband adoption, particularly in a market as diverse as India, where hugely varied socioeconomic factors affect price sensitivity.” The report notes that as many as 88 percent of Indian smartphone owners, who do not use mobile broadband, feel it is “too expensive”.

BJP's poll exigencies behind sharp dip in Narmada's hydropower generation

By A Representative Senior environmentalist Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has said that India’s “biggest dip” in hydropower generation has taken place in the Narmada dam’s 1,450 MW capacity, witnessing a reduction of 50.31% in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14. This was followed by a 35.9% reduction in power generation upstream dams on Narmada river situation in Madhya Pradesh, with a capacity of 1,520 MW, channeled through Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC).

Heavy-handed regulation, slow-moving reforms characterize Modi's one year in office: Vodafone chief

By A Representative Prominent British daily "Financial Times" (February 26) has criticized Prime Minsister Narendra Modi for "heavy-handed regulation and slow-moving political reforms" as the main hurdles for India’s "battered" telecom sector's efforts to move towards developing next-generation broadband services. The daily quotes the outgoing chief executive of Vodafone, India's second biggest telecom operator, to warn that India may risk missing "a huge opportunity”.

Politics and prejudice: BJP, Congress converged with hysterical attacks on AAP

By Kamal Mitra Chenoy* The suicide (I won't call it a stunt gone wrong), of Gajendra has been a matter of wild speculation. Apoorvanand's article in The Indian Express, 25 April, has made some valid points about this tragedy. But his assertion "that all that he wanted to do was to create a spectacle which would force the crowd or leaders or police to converge under the tree...and pleaded with him to climb down." This the author surmised was so because, "He wanted...to be helped to be able to return home, from where he was forced out." Yet his family owns some 90 bighas of land, so he was a rich peasant with his crop not badly damaged, and his family was convinced that he couldn't have committed suicide. But the other assertions are equally speculative. For example, the description of the AAP leaders on the stage. The claim that AAP leaders virtually ignored Gajendra because "The AAP leaders were upset with this protest...They suffer from a strange s...

Biometric aadhaar is linked to land acquisition, land titling: Inform Supreme Court about violation of its orders

By Gopal Krishna* The questionable 12-digit biometric unique identity (UID)/aadhaar number cannot be made mandatory for any government service, according to the Supreme Court orders of September 23, 2013, November 26, 2013, March 24, 2014 and March 16, 2015. Yet, so far opposition parties have failed to note that biometric aadhaar number is linked to legislations on land acquisition and land titling. It is abundantly clear that the biometric aadhaar number case has become the litmus test to demonstrate whether rule of law still exists in India or biometric surveillance companies have subverted Indian legal and political system for good. In the current situation, it is the moral and political duty of the genuine opposition parties to ensure that aadhaar is abandoned. It is noteworthy that Section 10 and 36 of the land titling bill is linked to aadhaar. It has been disclosed in writing by the government that new land acquisition law was meant to create a "perfect land market", ...

It's our turn to lead! Reflections by a Jesuit on the Earth Day, April 22

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* It is Earth Day once again, and on this 45th anniversary when the focus of every citizen is on what are we doing to Mother Earth, the theme that is suggested is “it’s our turn to lead”. The publicity material speaks about “the most exciting year in environmental history. The year in which economic growth and sustainability join hands. The year in which world leaders finally pass a binding climate change treaty. The year in which citizens and organisations divest from fossil fuels and put their money into renewable energy solutions. These are tough issues but we know what’s at stake is the future of our planet and the survival of life on earth. On Earth Day we need you to take a stand so that together, we can show the world a new direction. It’s our turn to lead. So our world leaders can follow by example.” So it’s our turn to lead! India is a classic example of how sustainable development is thrown to the winds: the ‘corporatisation’ of the country; the anti-sm...

Sharp shooter and fast scooter: How flow of rhetoric catapulted Modi to power

By RK Misra* If a library is a thought in cold storage, a politician is a pragmatist selling pipedreams for a meal ticket. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is nearing an year in national harness has had a charmed existence cashing in on a negatively projected past while proclaiming his own governance as the harbinger of a bright future. "achche din aane wale hai”- good times are round the corner. Modi will complete a year on May 26 this year but people still wait for the professed deliverance, their patience wearing thin. Meanwhile, the word splurge continues. Like before. Four thousand six hundred and ten days in the chief ministerial chair in Gujarat, we were fed dollops of it. The past provides a perfect mirror to the future so let's take a look. With great fanfare and at great expense- the then chief minister Modi announced the revival of the mythical Saraswati river at Siddhpur in North Gujarat on September 8, 2005 through diversion of the Narmada waters. The Saraswati-Na...

Modi's Rafale deal in France "reminds" one of how tinpot dictators would carry fat chequebooks during trips abroad

By A Representative One of the top-most Indian diplomats, who has worked as ambassador in several countries, has taken strong exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Rafale deal in France, saying, this reminds one of how the French would get around “authoritarian rulers” and “tin-pot dictators” – like Muammar Gaddafi – who would carry fat chequebooks in their pockets while travelling abroad.

Law criminalizing cow slaughter, possession of beef "violates" state's mandate not to enforce religious practices on people

By A Representative Thirty senior citizens have challenged the Maharashtra government’s recent decision to ban cow slaughter and possession of beef as a non-bailable offence, saying the whole purpose of the ban is to “implement” a certain version of Hindu belief, which may not be acceptable to all. Filing a petition in the Bombay High Court, they say, the ban is “in violation of the basic structure of the Constitution of India which mandates the state not to make law towards enforcement of a particular religious practice.”

Narmada dam oustees withdraw agitation after Maharashtra govt agrees not to shift them to Gujarat for rehabilitation

NBA agitation for Narmada oustees at Nashik By A Representative The Narmada dam's tribal oustees of Maharashtra have withdrawn their four-day agitation after the state government agreed to look into their demand of identifying land for their resettlement within the state. Led by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), the oustees' main contention was, as against the need for about 2,500 hectares (ha) of land for about 1,200 oustees, the Maharashtra government had set aside just 202 ha in the state, which is “grossly inadequate”.

Anti-dam Adivasi, Dalit protesters again fired upon in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, casualties reported

Police action on April 14 By A Representative In less than four days of open firing at peaceful protesters in Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh on April 14, Ambedkar Jayanti, the again police opened fire in the morning on Adivasis and Dalits protesting against the Kanhar dam. Those fired at included large number of women in Kanhar valley, Amwar, Sonbhadra district, said National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), an apex body of tens of rights bodies in India.

Statue of Unity project to adversely impact livelihood, downstream biodiversity

Fence around proposed Shreshtha Bhawan  By Trupti Shah, Rohit Prajapati, Krishnakant* The National Green Tribunal (Western Zone), Pune bench, issued a notice on April 9, 2015 in the Application No. 32 of 2015 (Trupti Shah & Ors V/s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel RET & Ors) filed against the Statue of Unity project. The second hearing took place on April 16, 2015, and now the next date of hearing has been fixed for May 8, 2015. Since March 2015 authorities constructed fencing around the homes of six tribal families comprising of 70 people for the construction of the proposed Shreshtha (Bhrashta) Bharat Bhavan. Police force stands guard 24X7 outside the newly raised gate which the people have to pass through to access their homes and land – they feel as if they live in a veritable “open air prison”. Since October 31, 2013 at the time of the laying of the foundational stone of the Statue of Unity project, activists have been writing to respondent authorities raising several importan...

RSS, Sangh Parivar consider tricolour as "state flag" and not "national flag"

By Teesta Setalvad* Today, when the nation has been independent for 67 years, the Sangh Parivar is set to launch ‘Tiranga yatras’ and Satyagrahas to defend the honour of the flag and the nation. Yet when the Indian people were involved in the decades-long struggle for freedom against British imperialism, the RSS was conspicuous by its absence in the struggle. When thousands of people faced lathis, bullets and jail sentences for hoisting the tiranga and participated all over the country in satyagraha during the Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements against the British Raj, the Sangh publicly took the stand that it would not take part in the movement and seldom missed the opportunity of assuring the British rulers that they would keep to the right side of colonial law and avoid any clash with the authorities. Of course the reason given for this was that the Sangh was secretly strengthening itself and would take on British imperialism only when it was strong enough to do so! A simil...

International journalists' body: World Bank has "failed" to keep promise to alleviate plight of project affected people

A fisherman along Mundra sea shore By A Representative In fresh report, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), claiming to be the world’s "best" cross-border investigative team, has singled out a coal-fired ultra modern mega power plant at Mundra, Gujarat, as one of the spots in the world where the top bankers have allegedly failed to keep up to their declared aim of alleviating the plight of the people affected by the projects it has funded over the last one decade.

Paucity of land for Narmada dam oustees in Maharashtra: Adivasis agitate at Nashik

By A Representative The Narmada dam oustees' eight-hour long dialogue on April 16 with the Maharashtra government officials at Nashik around their rehabilitation has failed bear any fruit, with 400 adivasis deciding to continue their mass agitation at the Divisional Commissioner's office on Nasik Road. A Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) statement said, the dialogue was necessitated because of "serious problems" arising out of the continuing construction to raise the Narmada dam's height by 17 meters.

2002 Gujarat 'massacre': Canadian Court issues summons for Prime Minister Modi; attorney general blocks it

By A Representative A Canadian Court reportedly issued summons to visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Section 269.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code following a law suit filed under the aegis of the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which has offices in New York and Toronto which charged Modi for “torture and genocide in connection with the horrific anti-Muslim pogroms of 2002 in Gujarat”.

Civil society groups tell Gujarat governor: New anti-terror law will mean undeclared emergency in the state

OP Kohli By A Representative The Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD) and People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, in representation to Gujarat governor OP Kohli have asked him reject the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and organized Crimes (GCTOC), passed by the Gujarat state assembly on March 31, saying, if this bill turned into an Act, it will be a “mockery of democracy” and would among to “undeclared emergency like situation” in Gujarat.

An insider's view of rebel AAP meet Swaraj Samwad led by Prashant Bhushan

By Aurobindo Ghose* On April 14, 2015 was Ambedkar Jayanti, when three social activists from Delhi - Dwijendra Nath Kalia, Tarun Kanti Bose and me - attended the Swaraj Samwad (a Dialogue on Present and Future Alternative Politics ) held at Gurgaon, Haryana from11:45 am to 6:45 pm. The participants to this Dialogue consisted of about 3,000-3,500 Aam Admi Party (AAP) volunteers, mostly (2,000-2,500) drawn from all parts of the country, outside Delhi, organised and invited by 49 named leaders of the AAP and spear-headed by four members of the National Executive Council who were forcibly ejected from its meeting on March 28, 2015 and later expelled, namely Prof Ajit Jha, DrYogendra Yadav, Advocate Prashant Bhushan and Prof Anand Kumar. Throughout the day, there were speeches, messages, discussions, voting on key issues, interspersed by songs (by Neeraj Kumar), poems (including those by Mahipal Sharma) , video shows, lunch and tea..A video-recorded message of the erstwhile AAP internal Lok...

Sabrang Trust, CJP do not see themselves above law; expect others to do so as well

Sabrang Trust, headed by well-known human rights activist, Teesta Setalvad, issued the following statement following a visit by an inspection team of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, to inspect its and Centre for Justice and Peace's accounts and records in an embezzlement case: Following the letter from the Gujarat Government to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, a team of four senior officers from the Monitoring Unit of the Foreign Contribution Regulation (FCRA) department, New Delhi visited the registered offices of Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) for an inspection of the accounts and records of both the trusts. The inspection team was led by a Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India and he was accompanied by three Assistant Directors from the FCRA department’s Monitoring Unit. Executive functionaries of CJP and Sabrang Trust, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, extended full co-operation to the inspection team...

If anti-terror bill is signed by Gujarat governor, it will be mockery of democracy

Memorandum by Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD) and People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) to OP Kohli, Governor of Gujarat on the need to reject the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and organized Crimes Bill: We the citizens would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Govt. of Gujarat passed a Bill Gujarat Control of Terrorism and organized Crimes (GCTOC) on March 31, 2015 in the House of the Gujarat Assembly amidst opposition. This Bill GCTOC is synthesis of GUJCOC and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act/TADA and Prevention of Terrorism Act/POTA and is modelled on the MCOCA/Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act; it has also been in force in Delhi since 2002. The bill is in not in consonance with the policy on terror laws as mentioned in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Introducing the bill for the fourth time in 12 years, with a new name, Gujarat minister of state for home Rajnikant Patel said it "is aimed at combating terrorism and organis...

AAP imbroglio: Rules for the attempted reconciliation were not fully followed

By Kamal Mitra Chenoy On April 14, feared split in AAP became a matter of time. This is a tragedy. It is true that the new alliance (largely of old AAP members) will not develop into a new party for some time. But the discourse in the "official" and "dissenting group" worried all AAP supporters. Yes, there were differences. But couldn't these have been settled by AAP activists who had worked together for years. Unfortunately, the rules for the attempted reconciliation were not fully followed. For instance, even before the National Council meeting on March 28, sizeable sections of the media were saying that AAP was "leaking like a sinking ship." Some colleagues were clearly unaware that media leaks are double sided. But this trial worsened the atmosphere, and sabotaged the attempts at compromise. It did seem that a coming together was possible, but the necessary trust, what Prashant Bhushan termed "the trust deficit" was a problem. But if both...

New York Times protests Modi government crackdown on Greenpeace as attempt to "silence citizens"

By A Representative The New York Times (NYT), one of the most influential American dailies, in a sharply-worded editorial , has taken strong exception of the Government of India's latest crackdown on Greenpeace, one of the world's most powerful environmental NGOs. Pointing out that the Narendra Modi government isn't the first to "conjure the threat of the meddling foreign hand", the NYT has noted, "His government has taken this to an alarming new level."

Anti-dam protesters, demonstrating against land acquisition ordinance, attacked in Sonbhadra, UP

Protesters ahead of the attack By A Representative Even as news came in about police firing on “peaceful protest” of Adivasis and Dalits on Tuesday Morning, morning, followed by “brutal” lathi charge, at Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) characterized this as “brazen”, especially as it came on the day of the Ambedkar Jayanti. NAPM is the apex body of tens of people’s organizations operating across India, and is led by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar. Several people were injured in the melee.

"Repeal" Gujarat anti-terror bill, it's "incompatible" with human rights norms

By A Representative Top human rights body, Amnesty International, has asked the President of India to reject the new anti-terror bill, passed in the Gujarat state assembly last month-end. Calling it "draconian", Amnesty said, it "falls far short of international human rights standards." It also demanded, "Similar laws already in force in other states and nationally must be immediately repealed."

Scientific tempter and explorations with water diviner: Debate around anecdotal reports

By Gagan Sethi*  In 1990s, Janvikas built partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to involve women in watershed development in Kutch. Janvikas set up an ecology cell, now known as Sahjeevan, in order to tackle the problem of drinking water. The aim was to build a reserve in village water bodies, such that they could withstand at least one drought year. This required that women should plan and supervise, through a committee, the earthwork that was needed to be done, so that all rainwater within the village boundary could be nudged to common recharge wells and ponds. While this meant that part of the private land would also be used for earthwork, it also required negotiations at every level. To implement the programme, women talk over with men. In some villages they succeeded, in others there was an impasse! Watershed-based development has become a national programme, which has found support from many NGOs, many of whom are doing painstaking work of bu...

Extra-judicial killings: Andhra police manual requires reasonable restraint

By Venkatesh Nayak* April 7, 2015 turned out to be a bloody Tuesday in the newly-formed states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Broadly, this is what the media reports on the two incidents of extra-judicial killings said: (a) The first incident was in Warangal district of Telengana where the police escorting five under-trial prisoners shot them dead on the pretext that one of them tried to snatch a firearm from one of the escorts in a bid to flee police custody; and (b) In the second incident, 20 men alleged to be smugglers of red sandalwood were shot dead in the Seshachalam forest of Chittoor district in a joint operation conducted by the Andhra Police and Forest Officials. The purpose of this article is not to make a assessment about whether the use of lethal force by the police was justified or not in either incident. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the High Court in Hyderabad have sought reports about the Chittoor incident from the Government. The district administr...