(1) A deeply disturbing,indeed ominous feature of our contemporary debates and struggles on the question of the state has been the increasing penetration and dominance of Hindutva ideas in them. It has not occurred abruptly and suddenly,but over years,incrementally and with increasing force and conviction,supported by well-planned popular movements at the ground level.The opposition,after having long ignored it as of[Read More…]

Notwithstanding the importance accorded to this special session of the Parliament, one is prompted to deliberate on what really is key purpose behind convening it? As per reports, the new Parliament was fully completed this year in May. Amid controversies, it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28. Several opposition parties boycotted this function as they felt[Read More…]

On 31 August, the Government called for a special session of Parliament for five days beginning on 18 September. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi tweeted, “Special Session of Parliament (13th Session of 17th Lok Sabha and 261st Session of Rajya Sabha) is being called from 18th to 22nd September having five sittings. Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to having[Read More…]

In a meet-the-press program at Press Club Kolkata on September 9 the Save River Save Life (Nodi Bachao Jibon Bachao or NBJB in Bangla) campaign announced its program regarding this year’s World River Day on September 24. From September 10 to September 24 a river fortnight drive will be undertaken that will touch more than 20 districts of West Bengal.[Read More…]

Even though Satai village is located close to a town, the land belonging to several dalit households had been denied irrigation opportunities for a long time and so could not be cultivated properly. Recently Haritika voluntary organization brought new hope by creating a tank with the enthusiastic involvement of people of this hamlet located in Bijawar block of Chattarpur district[Read More…]

Obsessed with a dead movement of Khalistan, an imaginary Sikh homeland, the right wing government in New Delhi needs to follow the case of Jaskaran Singh, who recently won a famous Q and A show hosted by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, to reassess their position. The 21-year-old Sikh from Khalra village in Punjab is in the news after his great[Read More…]

On July 26, 2023, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi moved a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha over Manipur violence. The Lok Sabha speaker, Om Birla, accepted the no-confidence motion moved against the National Democratic Alliance’s government. Although the Lok Sabha speaker admitted the motion on the same day, he did not right away set aside a specific date(s) for the[Read More…]

In times of climate change and adverse weather conditions, rural livelihoods come under increasing strain and there is increasing need for efforts which can protect sustainable livelihoods, particularly in the context of small and marginal famers and other weaker sections. In Bundelkhand region of Central India the work of Arunodaya Sansthaan, a voluntary organization, has consistently lived up to this[Read More…]

In the course of its eventful journey that started in 2001, Vidyadham Samiti (VDS), a voluntary organization of Bundelkhand region in central India, has acquired a well-established reputation as a true friend of weaker sections of society, standing by them in difficult conditions and in resisting injustice. Often facing several hurdles placed in its path by the rich and the[Read More…]

Would it be correct to say that confidence – rather overconfidence- marked Prime Minister Modi’s address from the Red Fort as he asserted that he would be there again a year later on the same date and highlight India’s achievements? Of course, as has been expressed by several observers, this clearly marked a part of his electoral campaign for coming[Read More…]

Bharti Aharwar, a dalit woman of Nadia village in Jatara block of Tikamgarh district, was finding it difficult to cope with increasing economic difficulties. Her husband had even gone to Delhi in search of better earning opportunities but no durable solution had emerged. So when she learnt from an activist of Srijan social organization visiting her village about their plan[Read More…]

There  is  currently  an  exhibition  being  held  at  Mumbai’s  Nita  Mukesh  Ambani  Cultural  Centre entitled  `Run  As  Slow  As  You  Can.’  Designed  by   two  eminent  Italian  artists,  Maurizio  Cattelan  and  Pierpaolo  Ferrari,  the  exhibits  lampoon  the  rat  race  in  the  consumerism-obsessed   society  today.   The  paradoxical  title  may  be  suggesting  that  in  a  demanding  competitive  world  one  should  run  as  slowly [Read More…]

ISRO is working on moon but it is time to look what is happening on the earth, the only planet so far where we can live and enjoy life so far. Important to protect it even if we find some chances or possibilities of living on other planet nothing will be better than earth. Let us seriously look at the[Read More…]

Campaign against state repression strongly condemns the brutal murder of Farmer Pritam Singh and repression against Kissan Union by police On August 21, 2023, elderly farmer Pritam Singh died amid a police lathi charge against protesting farmers who were marching to Chandigarh to raise their demands against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Pritam Singh was run over by a tractor[Read More…]

 To Shri Vivek Bharadwaj Union Mines Secretary Dear Shri Bharadwaj, I understand that China, which dominates the production of the two critical minerals, namely, Gallium (Ga) and Germanium (Ge), has imposed a ban on their export (https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-controls-take-effect-wait-gallium-germanium-export-permits-begins-2023-08-01/). Considering that both these metals are critical links in India’s important supply chains for electronics, renewable energy facilities and the defence sector, India should[Read More…]

One hopes fervently that the honourable judges of the Supreme Court understand the final repercussions of the present government’s latest initiatives.It is nothing less than the abolition of constitutional democracy as we understand it.The draconian provisions of the revised penal code,the brutal elimination of existing safeguards for tribal rights,human sustenance and environmental sustainability from biodiversity laws,and the Chief Economic Adviser’s[Read More…]

Writers, scholars, artists have always worried the powers that be. There was a time when the Parisian police had been given the onerous task of keeping the greatest writers of late 18th Century who were living in Paris at that time under their watch. Poor fellows, one can imagine their difficulty in maintaining files on writers and artists and scholars[Read More…]

Rajaram Ka Purva is a most neglected rural hamlet inhabited by the poorest people of Kuchbandia community. This is located in such an isolated backyard of Mahuwa panchayat (Banda district of Uttar Pradesh) that a visitor to the panchayat may easily go away without noticing it. As we went around nearly 40 homes of this hamlet, almost every home gave[Read More…]

As Indian parliamentary elections approach, politicians’ promises resting on uplifting economic status of the poor will get more assertive and aggressive. As these promises become louder, headlines may be expected to display the same more prominently. The unwritten rule followed in general by most politicians is to try convincing voters that “magic wand” to achieve this rests only in his/her[Read More…]

 16th Aug, 2023: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns the latest round of vicious allegations against NewsClick, an independent media organisation, whose primary focus since it was founded in 2009, has been to cover news on public interest and diverse, progressive, working-class movements within India and beyond. This comes as part of the larger attack of the current pro-corporate[Read More…]

A public hearing on 13 August in Atarra ( Banda district, Uttar Pradesh) provided revealing glimpses of extreme injustices suffered by people in more remote parts of the country and the obstacles placed in the path of getting justice for them by the rich and the powerful. This public hearing was organized by a voluntary organization Vidyadham Samiti (VS) which[Read More…]

As we celebrate yet another Independence day I am enveloped in a feeling of dread, a fear that my life is a precarious one. I may not be economically in a state of precarity, but I live in fear of being mob lynched, of being hunted down as the Other, of my state turning into a vengeful entity bent upon[Read More…]

While not denying the value of opposition dramatics at Parliament,one might yet worry that activities at the ground level are at a low ebb.Particularly because the saffron camp is in a furious but orchestrated drive to unsettle minds and in the chaos start divisive fires all over the country.Right from riots to vicious communal campaigns to camouflaged religious armed drills.Thus[Read More…]

The issue of unemployment has become a regular talking-point for the political opposition in India and one of the many grounds on which it alleges that the ruling BJP has failed the country, especially its youth. However, the issue of dignified and fair conditions of employment is rarely brought up. It seems that the people of the country should not[Read More…]

Ram Puniyani is President of Center for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai. Is associated with various secular initiatives and has been part of various investigation reports on violation of human rights of minorities. He has been conducting workshops and delivering lectures in different parts of the country on the themes related to threats to democracy; the agenda of communal[Read More…]

Mr Sharad Pawar will share the dais with Bhalchndra Nemade, Jnanpith award winner novelist and Ashok Vajpayee one of our few bureaucrats who has an understanding of culture and he is a poet as well. That will be on August 5 to mark the 125th anniversary of Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya library in Dadar. Sounds so much better than Mr[Read More…]

What happens when suddenly huge amounts of mud and debris start falling on people sleeping peacefully in a remote village, burying some of them entirely, while others watch helplessly as their near and dear ones are buried? This is a tragedy that has befallen hundreds of people in recent landslides. The recent landslide in Irshalwadi village of Raigad district, about[Read More…]

Recent steps taken by the government of Rajasthan, one of the better governed states of India, can result in providing much needed relief to the weaker sections ( with rights based longer term commitments added) and hence deserve our high praise and appreciation. The Chief Minister Mr. Ashok Gehlot deserves appreciation for his commitment to giving high priority to pushing[Read More…]

Respected Sir, We had sent two open letters to you which were published in Countercurrents.org on 11/06/2017 and 23/03/2023. In the first we had requested you to undertake a padyatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari; in the second letter we had urged that a public declaration be made that you would not be a candidate for Prime Ministership in 2024 General[Read More…]

To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, According to “Research and Development Statistics, 2019-20” published by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), India’s national investment in R&D is abysmally low, stagnating at around 0.6-0.7% of GDP. Compared to it, countries at the forefront of technology development such as the USA (2.8% of GDP), China (2.1%), Israel[Read More…]

Creation of news states in India from time to time has helped India in satisfying regional aspirations and improving governance in some of the larger states. Of course creation of a new state is not easy and involves a lot of careful work and consultation with people and various stakeholders. Whenever these consultation processes are properly followed, creation of new[Read More…]

Recently there have been several efforts by traditional boatmen of Varanasi to mobilize protests against their livelihoods being threatened by the introduction of water taxis in the Ganga river. In fact there was even a strike by them on this issue when they did ply their boats for some time. Earlier there was a protest by them against the introduction[Read More…]

Article 338A of the Constitution obligates the State to consult the NCST on matters that affect tribals’ interests- Failure to do so should be reported to the Parliament   To Smt. Droupadi Murmu The President of India Respected Rashtrapati Ji, The National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is a Constitutional authority set up in pursuance of Article 338A. In all[Read More…]

The horrific and terrible video of a man, who was later identified as Pravesh Shukla, member of BJP’s youth wing in Madhya Pradesh, urinating on the face of an innocent and helpless Adivasi boy is simply outrageous and an act of terror. I am not sure whether it will ever become the point of Prime Time Debate but this question[Read More…]

On 26 June, 2023, a four-member team led by Uttarakhand Mahila Manch from Dehradun visited Purola town in Uttarkashi district. The team consisted of Kamla Pant, Geeta Gairola, Ranjana Padhi and Chandrakala. The objective of the team’s visit was to understand the reasons that triggered communal tension a month earlier in Purola and to apprise the current situation. The preliminary[Read More…]

So, the world is not oblivious of the state of democracy in India. The issue is not the degree to which democracy is ingrained in India’s DNA but more pertinently the degree to which it is not allowed to be abused and is actually practiced. Irrespective of however “noble” democratic claims may be of respected politicians, office-holders in various capacities[Read More…]

Narendra Modi’s United States visit has made big news. In his seventh trip to that country as the Prime Minister he has been able to get himself invited as a state guest for the first time, riding on the back of a proposal from an Indian private company Air India to buy 220 aircrafts from another U.S. private company Boeing.[Read More…]

To Shri G C Murmu Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) Dear Shri Murmu, I had earlier addressed you vide my letter dated 2-6-2023  questioning the prudence and propriety of the government giving subsidies to profit-earning private companies in the name of attracting investment for boosting production in certain specific manufacturing sectors. I pointed out in my letter that[Read More…]

New Delhi: 130+ organisations and civil society leaders expressed concerns at the lack of transparency and non-inclusive consultation processes adopted by the Union Government in the negotiations for entering into free trade, comprehensive economic partnership or investment related agreements. In an open letter to the Govt of India on Tuesday, they referred to the ongoing negotiations with several countries, including[Read More…]

Recent government policy has resorted to huge promotion of exotic palm oil trees to end edible oil shortage in the country. However this is associated with highly disruptive ecological costs, as has been seen from the experience of several countries. The kind of high rainfall conditions needed for its high yield are not readily available in India and this will[Read More…]

Gobindo, the fish-seller, sat smoking bidis, amidst piles of silvery, shining fishes of different kinds, every evening, just where the street began as an off-shoot from the Lake Town main road, near the Lake Town bus stop in Kolkata. Not only did he sell the best quality ones, he customarily handled old customers and new ones with equal familiarity and[Read More…]

Dear India, It was in 2016 that I had left you to pursue my higher studies in a faraway country in Europe. For a middle-class family this was a dream, and I was simply living it. You had made it happen. Your welfare schemes and subsidized public education made it possible. Sociology has taught me to understand the reasons behind[Read More…]

To Shri Shaktikanta Das Governor RBI   Dear Shri Das, I refer to RBI’s latest guidelines issued on 8-6-2023 (Notification No.RBI/2023-24/40 DOR.STR.REC.20/21.04.048/2023-24 8-6-2023) on Framework for Compromise Settlements and Technical Write-offs, modifying the earlier guidelines issued on 7-6-2019 (Notification RBI/2018-19/203 DBR.No.BP.BC.45/21.04.048/2018-19 7-6-2019). Para 34 of the 2019 notification stipulated, “Borrowers who have committed frauds/ malfeasance/ wilful default will remain ineligible for restructuring. However,[Read More…]

To Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, The Hon’ble Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India.   We are writing this letter as People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) to bring to your attention the alarming rise of hate speech, vigilantism, and targeted communal violence against the minority Muslim community in Uttarakhand in the last few days. We are a civil liberties and human[Read More…]

Did we protest when the exotic, narrow genetic-base varieties of various crops displaced thousands of indigenous varieties? Did we protest when many millet crops were being displaced? In both these cases the lack of any sustained opposition by a significant number of people (leaving aside the opposition of a small number of scientists and farmers) proved very costly. Much later,[Read More…]

June 7, 2023 violence at Kolhapur as per the claims of the perpetrators affiliated to the Hindutva gang was a reaction to ‘provocative’ social media posts which carried photographs of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb (1618-1707) and Tipu Sultan ruler of Mysore who was killed by the British army with the help of Nizam’s army on May 4, 1799. What was ‘provocative’[Read More…]

Recently some new threats have been emerging for small scale food processing units in India. To give a recent example, this year new directives have been issued for mandatory six-month lab tests for them which can raise their costs and reduce their viability to a significant extent. Food fortification requirements being pushed relentlessly by the authorities in recent times can[Read More…]

The mass scale ugly, blinding illumination of trees all over Mumbai is a terrible waste of energy when many parts of the state are suffering from load shedding. And the price is paid by villagers who lose their land and suffer pollution because of the insensitively built power stations as in Dahanu. One realised this at a largely attended meeting[Read More…]

The least the present government could have done,even if to save appearances,in response to the ghastly train accident at Balasore,was the Rly Minister’s resignation.For there can be no doubt whatsoever that the accident or disaster had been caused by gross human error and utter blatant negligence. This is no one off default but routine systemic malady.Last year’s CAG report had[Read More…]

India, a land steeped in history and natural wonders, holds a profound responsibility to protect and cherish its heritage for the coming generations. With breath-taking landscapes like the mighty Himalayas and architectural marvels such as the temples of Khajuraho, India’s heritage is a constant reminder of our glorious past. As we step into the future, let us embark on a[Read More…]

To Shri G C Murmu Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) Dear Shri Murmu, I had earlier written to you on the pros and cons of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) under which the Central Ministries extend subsidies to private companies to incentivise them to boost indigenous production of different items critically needed in the economy. My last[Read More…]

Reading a recent news suddenly my mind raced back across to a time when as an inquisitive child of twelve I used to read all available printed stuff in Assamese or Bengali.I recall a debate in Bengali magazine PROBASI between an irate eminent scientist Meghnad Saha and an elderly Hindu scholar who argued that ancient shastras had anticipated all the[Read More…]

Have the legislative gaps provided by the Finance Ministry and SEBI indirectly helped domestic corporates having oveseas shell companies to profiteer? To   Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, I had earlier addressed you vide my letter dated 31-1-2023 (https://countercurrents.org/2023/02/overseas-shell-companies-a-shadow-economy-a-threat-t-national-interest/) pointing out how the government failed to define the term “overseas shell companies” in the Companies Act, SEBI[Read More…]

 The burning desire of people to resolve the problems of agriculture and water crisis in the Punjab was manifested at it’s highest pitch by the massive rally held by the Kirti Kisan Union at Dana Mandi in Moga today .Tens of thousands of farmers congregated in a massive rally organised by Kirti Kisan Union . Farmers from fifteen districts of[Read More…]

Stop the kidnap policy of public space by the Mumbai municipal corporation and the government. That was the theme of a public meeting held at St Michael’s church auditorium in Mahim last evening. Kidnap is perhaps too mild a word for the most condemnable attitude of the authorities who may be said to be vandalising our public life in the[Read More…]

In the last 2 weeks the resistance of Dalit agricultural labours in Punjab is simmering at full fervour with relentless spirit. Grameen Mazdoor Union protest in Jaitu For the last 2 days the Grameen Mazdoor Union of Punjab have embarked on a protest dharna outside the office of the SDM, raising their legitimate demands of dalit agricultural labourers. Inspite of[Read More…]