By NS Venkataraman*  In the recent COP 26 Glasgow Climate Meet, all the Prime Ministers and Presidents of various countries who participated in the meeting, expressed deep concern about the global warming and pledged to limit the emission of carbon dioxide and other noxious gases in their regions, to save the global climate from possible disaster. Different countries promised and pledged that they would bring the emission to zero level in their regions with different target dates. United States has set a goal of 100% clean electricity by the year 2035, that would result in a crucial foundation for net-zero emissions not later than the year 2050 in USA. China informed the UN General Assembly that it would aim for peak carbon emission before 2030 and would reach carbon Net Zero by 2060. Japan declared that by 2050, Japan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero. Russian government has drafted a new decarbonisation strategy that sets a 2060 net zero emi...

Counterview Desk  Over 150 feminist activists, individuals and groups have come together to appeal to the Vice Chancellor and Faculty Committee of the Jamia Millia Islamia to revoke the cancellation of student-activist Safoora Zargar’s admission, and to allow her to submit her MPhil thesis. Safoora acquired prominence during the anti-Citizenship Ammendment Act (CAA) protests that rocked Delhi in early 2020. In custody from 10 April until 24 June 2020, Safoora was accused of being part of a conspiracy to cause riots, of making an inflammatory speech, and of being involved in a "sinister design" with the "objective of uprooting a democratically elected government." She was granted bail by the Delhi High Court and released on 24 June 2020. The statement, floated by the civil rights group Saheli Women's Resource Centre, says, the cancellation of Safoora's admission comes despite the fact that extensions have been granted unconditionally to research scholars e...

By A Representative  Considered close to the BJP-RSS dispensation, Firoz Bakht Ahmed, formerly chancellor of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University and grandnephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, has approached the Supreme Court for a ban on talaq-e-hasan, a form of divorce by which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq once every month over a three-month period. He insisted, the perpetrators of this form of talaq should be jailed for 10-years. Calling the practice of talaq-e-hasan or talaq-e-husna "void and unconstitutional", Ahmed cited a petition filed by Benazeer Heena, a journalist, before the Apex Court, stating that the curse is similar to triple talaq, "cured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi", though regretting, the bane of talaq-e-hasan continues to "haunt and horrify Muslim women." In an email alert to Counterview, Ahmed, who approached the Supreme Court through his counsel Atulesh Kumar, said, "The only difference between t...

Senior activists* represent to the Telangana Governor on GO Ms 69 dated 12.4.2022 issued by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD), Government of Telangana: ‘...restrictions imposed under para 3 of said GO Ms 111 dated 8.3.1996 are removed...’: *** Ref: GO Ms 111 dated 8.3.1996: ‘To prohibit polluting industries, major hotels, residential colonies or other establishments that generate pollution in the catchment of the lakes upto 10kms from full tank level as per list in Annexure-I...’ We come to your office with grievance that GO Ms 69 dated 12.4.2022 issued by Government of Telangana not only contains false information issued ‘By Order and in the name of the Governor of Telangana’ , without any scientific or expert reports, but also that implementation of the said GO is detrimental and can be catastrophic to the Hyderabad city as two 100 year old reservoirs Osman Sagar and Himayath Sagar were constructed as dams on river Moosa and river Esa, with the first and ...

By Bharat Dogra  Economist Abhijit Sen passed away on the night of 29 August, 2022. He was 72. For a long time he has been regarded as one of India’s leading agricultural economists who made a very important contribution to government policy, particularly in the context of public distribution system. India’s structure of food security has been created to a considerable extent on a system of procurement food crops at a higher price from farmers and supplying at a lower, subsidized price to consumers. It is ideas and scholarship such as those of Prof. Abhijit Sen which contributed much to this. He emerged as a firm advocate of universal public distribution. Those who were doubtful about this said that it will be difficult to go on for long with these subsidies. Sen countered this criticism by arguing that it is certainly possible at a fiscal level to accommodate a genuinely fair procurement price for farmers with an affordable price for consumers. This brought him closer to the food ...

By Bharat Dogra*  The wider discussion on coastal areas often takes place in the context of their beauty and tourism potential. However ecologists place more emphasis on seeing coastal areas as very significant as well as sensitive areas whose development activities should be carefully monitored and regulated to prevent unintended serious and longer-term harm. The need for this has increased further in times of climate change when several wider aspects need to be monitored carefully and when the need for protective policies has increased further.  In particular the increasing frequency and intensity of cyclones is a very worrying aspect of coastal life related to climate change and anything which increases further the harm caused by cyclones is best avoided. A second aspect of coastal life is that traditional fishers and coastal communities, the children of the sea so to say, have experienced increasing injustice and marginalization during recent decades. Due to mechanization ...

By Osman Sher*  The basic character of Hinduism is “all the things to all the people all the time.” It gives freedom to every individual to establish a personal relationship with God and seek salvation in his own ways. He is free even to choose his favorite dewata and be his bhakt. Unlike other religions, it has no binding doctrines.

By Anirudh Menon*  The world is looking at a transition from energy production using fossil fuels to renewable energy sources i.e, Wind, water and solar (WWS) in order to achieve the carbon net zero targets. India too has committed to achieve the carbon net zero targets by 2070 at COP 26. It has also set an objective of generating 500GW of power from non-fossil fuels by 2030, out of which 450GW is to be generated using renewable energy sources. A move to renewable energy is the need of the hour but in order to achieve this in a truly sustainable manner, there must be consideration of several aspects. One of which is to reduce the ecological damages that are incurred during the setting up of large utility-scale solar parks. An article published back in 2009 , based on a study conducted by Stanford university , gave insight into a complete transition from fossil fuel energies to renewable energy sources by 2035 or the latest by 2050. In the article, the plan put forth was to harvest ...

By Bharat Dogra*  On August 28, 3,700 kg of explosives were used in Noida city ( in national capital region) to demolish two 100-metre tall structures called Apex ( 32 storeys) and Ceyane ( 29 storeys), following court orders based on complaints of glaring violations of construction regulations and the builder’s own earlier commitments. These twin towers were not in the original plans of development and were built on what should have been kept as green area for residents. The residents were therefore well justified in going to court for justice and court orders have been praised by many for sending a clear signal that such violations and corrupt practices will not be tolerated. However, a question arises -- as the violations of building regulations are not at all so rare in India, will such drastic actions be repeated? Can we not find less destructive ways of punishing violators of regulations? If following the first news or complaints of violations, the twin towers had been stopp...

By Ram Puniyani*  Indra Meghwal a nine year old student of Sarswati Vidya Mandir, Jalore in Rajasthan was beaten by his teacher on 20th July 2022. The crime of this boy, was that he drank from the water pot reserved for his upper caste teacher. This is the version of Indra’s parents and classmates. Another version is being floated that the boy was beaten as he had a tiff with another schoolmate. The truth seems to closer to what the deceased’s parents and other school children say. The eradication of untouchability, the struggle for getting right of access to public drinking water run parallel and have gone through various phases. The teachings and travails of Mahatma Jotirao phule revolved around facilitating the education for dalits, something forbidden by Hindu Holy Scriptures. Ambedkar stood tall among all the social reformers who strove for social justice. On August 4, 1923 The Bombay Legislative Council opened the state funded schools, watering sources, dharmashalas, Courts a...

By NS Venkataraman*  It was reported that respected the Dalai Lama reached Delhi after visiting Lhasa. It was surprising that Indian Prime Minister Modi has not met His Holiness the Dalai Lama for more than three years now. Some months back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kushinagar international airport in Uttar Pradesh, that connects the key Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India. Kushinagar is believed to be the final resting place of Gautam Buddha and therefore, is an important Buddhist pilgrimage destination A large contingent of Buddhist monks from different countries were invited for the inaugural programme of Kushinagar airport. However, His Holiness the Dalai Lama , the renowned Buddhist monk , was not invited for the meeting. Obviously, Mr. Modi has not met the Dalai Lama for several years and has not invited him for the Kushinagar airport inauguration programme, fearing China’s reaction. In viewing these incidents , one gets an impression that Mr. Modi do...

By Sudhansu R Das  The state of Punjab has immensely contributed to India’s freedom struggle. The frontier state worked as an impregnable shield against the marauding foreign invaders. Since independence, the Punjabis have served the Indian army with single-willed dedication, established their business all over the world, and contributed to the sports and agriculture sector. Being a border state Punjab also suffered a lot during the foreign invasions; Punjab was the worst sufferer at the time of partition. During the green revolution in the late 60s and 70s, Punjab became the granary of India. It happened due to the hard work and strong determination of the Punjabi farmers. Punjab has also faced the worst effects of the green revolution; the crop diversity of the state was significantly reduced. In the next three decades after the green revolution, Punjab continued to grow mono-crops like wheat and paddy; the farmers used excess chemical fertilizers, spurious seeds, and over-exp...

By Jay Ihsan*  Independence is a mouthful of a word. Even more difficult is to ensure its execution remains impartial, healthy and more importantly, meaningful. Be it Malaysia or India, when flying the national flag becomes “compulsory” to reminisce independence day, it begs a second look at the elephant in the room. Why the lethargy or reluctance to voluntarily raise the national flag at residences and business outlets? Is there a relation between a country's leadership and the people's desire to embrace the nation’s most pertinent identity ie. the national flag? For the longest time now, Malaysia has been struggling to request its citizens to fly the national flag known as Jalur Gemilang. The interest has always been dismal, so much so that this year a fine of RM250 awaits business premises in Malaysia’s city of Ipoh whose owners refuse to fly the national flag to celebrate August 31, the country’s 65th independence day. Ipoh mayor Rumaizi Baharin was quoted by English daily...

By Harsh Thakor*  Punjab's civil rights organisation, Lok Morcha, launching a campaign engulfing 14 districts of the state, has taken the stand that there is a need to "expose" the true nature of the 1947 Independence in the light of its 75th anniversary. The organisers particularly targeted the Congress, pointing out how the party digressed the path of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru by "diluting the cutting edge of class struggles of the working class and peasantry."  The civil rights leaders sought to analyse the various junctures of the freedom movement -- be it the Quit India Movement, the Non-Cooperation Movement or the Civil Disobedience Movement -- where they said the Congress "nullified the militant resistance of the broad masses." According to them, the Congress and the Muslim League "never waged a secular resistance" to combat partition, but instead danced to the tune of the "notorious divide and rule policy of the B...

By A Representative  Top Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover has said that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under Amit Shah has "allowed" the controversial remission granted to 11 gang rape and murder convicts in the Bilkis Bano case on August 15. Speaking in Ahmedabad before Gujarat activists gathered for a lecture in memory of well-known state high court lawyer Girish Patel, she said, “It is mandatory for the Central government to approve the remission.” Grover, a human rights lawyer, said, there is “radio silence” on the part of the Government of India on providing remission, despite so much of noise around it. However, the very fact that the committee appointed by the Gujarat government for giving remission is legally bound to take the approval of the Central government suggests that without the latter’s approval the remission would not have happened. “Hence, I assume the Ministry of Home Affairs concurrence was taken”, Grover underlined, regretting, however, “No docum...

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The international debt trap is a product of colonial and neo-colonial plunders, imperialist hegemony and neoliberal economic policies imposed by developed countries on developing world. The Asian, African, Latin American and even the capitalist west is suffering from debt due to the dominance of Westphalian capitalist system that controls world economic and politics. However, the reactionary and capitalist ideologues, their mouthpiece mass media, writers, journalists, consultants, think tanks, leaders and their propaganda machines are on a relentless campaign to defame, delegitimise and diminish Chinese achievements. The core idea of this consorted anti-Chinese propaganda is to undermine the alternative development model pursued by China. The Chinese economic and political engagement in Asia, Africa and Latin America is challenging the debt dependence development model and questions the very foundation of western debt trap designed to exploit natural reso...

By Prem Singh*  Bharat Jodo Yatra of the Congress Party has become a topic of much discussion in the media. The Congress has announced that it will organise a padyatra (foot march) which will start from Kanyakumari on 7th September and reach Kashmir in 150 days. During the padyatra, a route of about 3500 km will be covered through 12 states and 2 union territories. The Congress has taken all possible measures for the promotion and success of the yatra, and will continue to do so. One such measure is to involve civil society organizations, specific civil society members, intellectuals, writers, and others, in the yatra. In this connection, 150 civil society organizations attended a meeting convened in Delhi on 22 August. The names of some civil society members/activists who attended the meeting also appeared in the media. It is said that civil society members/activists who were not called, or could not reach, or reached there but their names did not appear in the media – have become...