RajivBuzz

  In a surprise move, the Rajasthan police stopped a Dalit women's rally from Gujarat on the borders after it crossed Gujarat alleging that it would "disturb peace" in village Surana, Jalore district, where the gruesome incident of death of a Dalit boy took place on August 13 after he was brutally beaten up by his teacher on touching the drinking water pot. Sources said, while the Gujarat government had "no objection" in allowing the rally, which originated from the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), an empowerment-cut-technical institute for teens founded by human rights leader Martin Macwan, on September 24 morning, the Rajasthan police stopped it for two and a half hours before allowing it to proceed to Surana. The decision to take out a women's rally was taken at a DSK meeting on September 5 following a condolence meeting of the NGO Navsarjan Trust, also founded by Macwan, activists committed to work against caste-based discrimination, organised to offer condole...

A few days back, I received a message from one of the finest former Gujarat government bureaucrats, PG Ramrakhiani, a 1964 batch IAS official, who retired in November 2000. I would often interact with him in 1997-99, even later, after I was sent to Gandhinagar as a Times of India man to cover Sachivalaya. 

A new study has blamed the Government of India (GoI) for seeking to create “inviolate spaces” -- spaces devoid of human presence -- in the core areas of the country’s 53 tiger reserves, thus allegedly undermining the forest rights of the communities residing in these areas for centuries. At the same time, it notes, ironically, the GoI  is acting fast to implement of “big and small linear infrastructure projects” within their vicinity in the name of development, "adversely affecting" the tiger reserves.

It was amusing to see Congress reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi omitting the name of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from the names of those who fought for India's freedom. Of all persons, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, the party "will oppose the wrong statements made on historical facts for political benefits and every attempt to question great national leaders like Gandhi-Nehru-Patel-Azad on the basis of lies.” Ironic though it may seem, whatever I know of Congress, its leaders or cadres (whatever they are left, now) have paid scant respect to the "Gandhi-Nehru-Patel-Azad" legacy. My visits to Congress office in Ahmedabad as also offices and residences of party leaders has made me firmly believe: they don't care about the foursome Sonia has sought to identify. In fact, visit any of these places, and you will only see photos of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and (now) Priyanka Gandhi -- as if the four towering persons didn't exis...

 In a move which may raise many an eyebrow, a Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi-supported child rights NGO has celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi-intitiated Har Ghar Tiranga by commemorating 75 freedom fighters by "narrating their famous deeds and chanting slogans of each leader", including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai and a person who had little or nothing common with the freedom movement -- RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.

  Noticing the emergence of a novel trend, a just-released report based on a fact-finding team's observations following its interaction in particular with Hindu and Muslim political activists, administrators and police officials, has claimed that a major reason why chasm between the two communities in Gujarat has lately reached new heights is, a veritable competition between Hindu right-wing groups and leaders to capture the existing communal space. Titled "Hindu Right, Communal Riots and Demolitions: Emerging Pattern of Communal Riots in India", the  report  has been prepared against the backdrop of what it calls "low intensity" communalism which has characterised rioting in Gujarat in the recent past, especially after the 2002 communal carnage, one of the worst in Independent India. Especially focusing on riots in two Gujarat towns, Himmatnagar and Khambhat, which took place on April 10, the day clashes broke also out in different parts of India on the occasio...

  The Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD), an Ahmedabad-based civil rights group, has taken stong exception to the Gujarat government calling the recent hooch tragedy, which caused death of 57 persons in three districts, covering 60 villages, as a chemical tragedy. The country liquor which caused the tragedy consisted excessive quantity of methyl alcohol, "stolen" from a chemical company’s godown in Ahmedabad’s Aslali area. Stating that it is, on the contrary, direct result of the laxity of the government, its administration and the nexus between the liquor barons, and those in power, MSD in its representation to the Gujarat chief minister quotes a letter by the sarpanch of Rojid (taluka Barwala) to the police seeking steps to stop liquor menace in his village. Signed by  tens of Gujarat-based activists , the MSD representation said, the state government lacks "political will" to strictly implement the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949, which was amended in 2009. In fac...