It is World Camel Day on June 22. It is sheer accident that World Yoga Day, June 21, is not also World Camel Day – in December 2014, the United Nations accepted a resolution marking June 21 each year as Yoga Day; in 2009, a researcher in Pakistan, finding that the camel played an important role in the desert region[Read More…]
SATHI, a Pune-based NGO, has brought out a compendium of 23 testimonies from patients or their kin, documenting price gouging by private hospitals in Maharashtra. The report, ‘Patients’ voices during the pandemic: Stories and analysis of rights violations and overcharging by private hospitals’, documents the fact that hospitals blatantly disregarded government price capping, and regulatory bodies seemed all to have[Read More…]
Here is another instance of a large corporate group bringing small farmers to ruin: Danone North America, owner of Horizon Organic, the North American counterpart of the French food products major, has left 89 organic dairy farm families high and dry, suddenly pulling the plug on the company’s operations in the northeast of the United States. Petitions with over[Read More…]
On December 1, 2021, a bench of the Rajasthan High Court comprising Chief Justice Akil Qureshi and justice Sudesh Bansal ordered that notices be sent to the state government over rampant illegal mining of stone in the Thob village of Barmer district in Rajasthan. Over 20 letters have been written to local police, officials of the district administration and the[Read More…]
Adria Jagaranga was a student of Class 7. About 14 years old, the boy was a keen student. During the lockdown, he moved from Bhubaneswar, where he went to school, back to his village in Rayagada district of Odisha. The boy would go up the hill each day with a smartphone to attend online classes. A few days ago in[Read More…]
It was not an Independence Day event that got any coverage in the mainstream media – camel herders in Pali district brought their camels too and some of the camels sported national flags and posters around their necks. Some of the banners that the camel herders held up mentioned that they could no longer afford to keep taking care of[Read More…]
Lawyers, former diplomats, journalists, scholars and host of eminent Gandhians have written an open letter appealing that the Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati not be disturbed. The government has proposed to make it a “world class” tourist destination, taking over the 54 acres near the Sabarmati River, where Gandhi lived between 1917 and 1930. Among the proposals is a VIP lounge,[Read More…]
Mohammad Arif is a singer of bhajans, and usually in high demand at functions. With the lockdown, functions were cancelled and bhajan singers were no longer needed. “I’ve taken a big hit, I’m just home in Meerut now, there is nowhere to go and no money made for months,” he said, at an online press conference held by the Stranded[Read More…]
On June 30 2021 Channel 4 broke the news of a senior Exxon Mobil lobbyist captured on camera explaining how US senators were roped into efforts to block climate change legislation. This should give us in India pause. Could such things be happening here too? In 2018, PM Narendra Modi was awarded the United Nations ‘Champion of the Earth’ award. Readers[Read More…]
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act currently offers 100 days of work to all rural households. Given the crisis in the economy and the slowdown of economic activity in urban centres, more people have now returned to their rural homes. NREGA Sangharsh Morcha on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking that the Union government extend the[Read More…]
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced in the last budget that a Fintech Park would come up in state capital Jaipur, attracting investment of about Rs3,000 crore. Over four lakh sq metres of land near the airport, adjoining the B2 Bypass and Tonk Road, would be allotted for it. “Many chartered accountants and IT professionals belonging to the state are[Read More…]
Asha worker Kamlesh from Haryana explained how, in a time of crisis, the government machinery can prove a hurdle – when people were reeling under the fear of the coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic last year, there were Union ministers and ministers from Haryana asserting that Muslims who gathered for the Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin, New Delhi,[Read More…]
The PM Cares (Prime Minister Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) Fund, set up in March 2020 ostensibly to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, is being widely publicized. Even private banks can now collect funds for PM Cares, and many of them have been reminding their customers that they are now authorized to collect such funds.[Read More…]
Over 85 per cent of those who died of Covid-19 had some other underlying health condition and were very old. The risk from the virus to the young and healthy is not great, and vaccination of the whole population could set off other health crises, over 25 Swedish doctors have warned in a joint, open letter. In the age group[Read More…]
The Coca Cola bottling unit in Plachimada, Palakkad, lying unused since 2004, will soon be converted into a Covid care centre. Ecologist Dr S Faizi, who served as an expert member on the high powered committee set up by the state in 2009 to study the impact of the bottling plant on the local ecology and community, on Wednesday wrote[Read More…]
Members of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyaan have joined the Socialist Party of India and other civil society organizations in calling for the nationalization of all health infrastructure and all medical education services and infrastructure in the country, without any delay. In a press release, Socialist Party (India) said nationalization was necessitated by the “acute national emergency threatening public health and[Read More…]
The people of Navalewadi village in Pune district awoke to the panic-stricken roars of a leopard on Tuesday morning. A healthy two-year-old female leopard had been splashing around in a 25-feet-deep well, and seemed exhausted. The villagers alerted the forest department. A team of four, comprising forest staff joined by members of NGO Wildlife SOS was dispatched to the spot.[Read More…]
When Yogesh Gandhi set up his medical store in Phaltan about 100 km from Pune in Satara district of Maharashtra, he invited his uncle, natural farmer Babulal Gandhi, to make an inauguration speech. “We should not be having medical stores in our cities – we should instead provide good food and a clean environment, one that fosters health and well-being.[Read More…]
KV Biju, national coordinator of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, one of groups under the umbrella of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha that has been leading the farmer protests on the borders of the national capital, was among two people thrashed late night on March 30, 2021, while out pasting posters urging voters in Kerala to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates[Read More…]
Vivek Gour Broome looks the personification of that nursery rhyme, “Old McDonald had a farm…” His farm west of Pune, beyond Hinjewadi in the village of Marunji, is an island of biodiversity – the crows were flying in to the shade of the trees the morning this writer visited. The farm has several different varieties of bamboo, including the thorny[Read More…]
In 2016, when CEO Ata Safdar of Reckitt Benckiser, a UK-based firm, offered an apology to all those who had been affected by a toxic product that his firm sold in South Korea, an angry relative of one of the victims slapped him – an act caught on camera. RB’s toxic humidifier disinfectant had caused over 1,500 deaths, many of[Read More…]
Afrin Kale is a farmer with a degree in civil engineering. A resident of Pune city, her five-acre farm is in Pimpalgaon Ghode village of Ambegaon Tehsil of Pune district, about 80 km from the city. She travels once or twice each week to the farm, and she has hired Ravi and Roshni, a young couple, to live in the[Read More…]
A draft proposing amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, was released on February 9, 2021 on the website of the Ministry of Mines seeking public comments until February 24. Just as the three new farm laws that are being vigorously opposed by farmers camping on the border of the national capital for nearly three months,[Read More…]
Food justice advocates and many US farmers on Wednesday issued a statement expressing solidarity with the farmers on protest at the borders of India’s national capital for over two and a half months. The unjust farm laws will increase the stranglehold of agribusiness on the food system, the statement said, adding that the three new Central laws were passed in[Read More…]
Anthi Devi of Chungru Panchayat in Barwadih, Latehar district, Jharkhand, cannot control the tremors in her body. She is evidently suffering from symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but she too is among those protesting in Jharkhand seeking their monthly pension. Her Rs1,000 pension per month stopped five years ago, and she does not know why. https://twitter.com/roadscholarz/status/1355141137284034565 Social security pension, despite the[Read More…]
Soon after the disaster in Uttarakhand on February 7, 2020, when a deluge washed away two hydropower plants and left at least 100 dead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a sum of Rs2 lakh each would be given to the families of each of the dead, and Rs50,000 each to those who have sustained injuries. PM Modi’s monthly salary[Read More…]
On February 3, 2021, Nitin Negi, who runs an electronics goods repair shop in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, found a toddler outside his shop, no trace of his parents. The shopkeeper asked the little fellow what his name was, what his mother’s name was, and what his father was called. The toddler said he was Nana, his mother Anju and[Read More…]
As fake news becomes a propaganda tool, there is also great outrage about everything that is not true. I want to share a recent experience on a Whatsapp group meant solely for journalists, which set me thinking about the difference between false and fake. I shared a video that I had received on another group, of two women being crushed[Read More…]
On January 1, 2021 Frenchman David Weiller found a unique way to greet people a happy new year – on his YouTube channel, he posted a six-and-a-half minute video of monarch butterflies fluttering by the thousands and landing on a tree. All the ambient sounds were captured too – the birds, crickets. There was no music on the video, no[Read More…]
Man over Machine: A Path towards Peace is the kind of book you might want to preserve and return to, every once in a while. Author Bharat Dogra has worked for long years as a freelance journalist – never taking on a full-time journalism job in order to be completely free, and writing a prodigious number of articles, many of[Read More…]
UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan, and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2020 expressing grave concern over[Read More…]
The proposed 1,600 MW Godda Power Plant in Jharkhand, to be set up by the Adani Group with the aim of supplying power to Bangladesh, is to get its turbines from General Electric. A press conference on Friday, December 11, 2020, conducted online by civil society groups from Kenya, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Bosnia and Herzegovina urged GE to pull[Read More…]
Narayan Govind Sagar, a 74-year-old farmer in Sangli district of Maharashtra, holds a Below Poverty Line ration card. He has four acres of land, but ground is rocky and there is little water, so farming is hard. Despite all this, though, he is quite parsimonious and managed to save Rs25,000. He went to the ICICI Bank at Khargani village[Read More…]
“Democratic values, like Humpty Dumpty, could have a great fall. And no one will be able to put them together again,” said Justice Madan Lokur, retired judge of the Supreme Court who currently serves on the Supreme Court of Fiji. Justice Lokur, who served in the SC from 2012-18, is the first Indian SC judge to serve another nation’s SC.[Read More…]
On Gandhi Jayanti 2019, a group of 50 people, 35 of them Adivasis from different parts of India, set out on what they called a ‘World Peace March’ – the plan was to walk all the way to Geneva, crossing seas by flight and getting permission to cross international borders on foot. They started from the Gandhi Samadhi in[Read More…]
A group of public health experts in India including Dr Narendra Gupta, based in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan and Dr Gopal Dabade in Karnataka have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider fully the as-yet-unknown consequences of large scale vaccination of the whole population against the SARS-COV-2 disease. This is not a “sound, rational, scientific or intelligent” approach for India, the experts[Read More…]
Historian Uma Chakravarti said there was cause for hope, as more young women were getting together and organizing, and the state apparatus appears to be reacting in some panic when a case of sexual violence is reported. She was commenting on the hurried cremation that the Uttar Pradesh police felt forced to give to the victim in Hathras, whose body[Read More…]
In a recent blog post, former Union finance secretary SC Garg said he sought voluntary retirement from the IAS prematurely as he did not get along with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Now, Swadeshi Andolan, a group of mostly farmer activists who have taken up a large number of public interest issues, has written to President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister[Read More…]
The new Jammu and Kashmir Development Act is being celebrated as a special achievement of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted, “OUSIDERS CAN NOW BUY LAND IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR”. At least 11 land laws in the state have been amended, without inputs from residents of the state. Seven political parties, under the umbrella[Read More…]
In the afternoon of October 28, poet, theatre artist and Dalit rights champion Jayesh Solanki died by suicide at his home in Bhuvaldi, about 50 km from Gujarat capital Ahmedabad. During the Asmita Yatra after the flogging of the four youth at Una in 2016, Jayesh had emerged as a charismatic leader of Dalits on protest in Gujarat, vowing to[Read More…]
On November 1, the Commission to Study the Environment and Health Effects of Evolving 5G Technology in the US state of New Hampshire submitted its report to the governor of the state. It noted that the permissible radiation exposure rates in the US are among the highest in the world, and recorded that research within the country exists to show[Read More…]
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
The Contemporary Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg 
Does Court Judgement on Rahul Gandhi Breach Human Rights (Freedom of Expression) 
From Oslo to Sharm el-Sheik 
Is Washington now Khan’s Buddy? 
Nord Stream sabotage was to undercut Germany, says Seymour Hersh It Will Be Hard And Cost A Lot Of Blood For Ukraine To Kick Out Russians, Says Top U.S. General 
Saudi – Iran rapprochement: A chance for peace 
Day 30 of the NREGA Protest: Students and Activists Detained by the Delhi Police An Irrational Verdict? 
Trump Rot at the EPA 
AUKUS, the Australian Labor Party, and Growing Dissent 
Palestinians Don’t Exist? 
The Long Arm of Washington Extends Into Africa’s Sahel 
Radio Fatherland!! 
Bellies of the Rich Swell Further on the Back of Hunger 
The Big Picture And The Small – Part II 
2500 people urge Chief Minister of Karnataka to protect farmers, pastoralists and Dalits from Supreme injustice 
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
