Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Government, Law, Metropolis, Scams

A few questions about a few thousand new auto-rickshaws in Delhi: Simon Harding

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Guest post by SIMON HARDING

On Friday, Supreme Court judges KS Radhakrishnan and CK Prasad gave the go-ahead for 45,000 new auto rickshaw permits to be issued in Delhi. The move has the potential to drastically improve the city’s auto-rickshaw service for passengers and drivers alike, but many unanswered questions about distribution, implementation and numbers remain.

There are currently around 55,000 auto-rickshaws in the capital. The number of autos has not grown since the Supreme Court stopped the issuing of new auto permits in 1997 due to concern about the pollution emitted from the old dirty two-stroke petrol engines (now replaced with CNG).

The number has not remained frozen. Evidence suggests that it has actually fallen since 1997 because around 20,000 autos were lost during the CNG switchover as many drivers had their permits cancelled as they were too slow to convert their autos to the new fuel or simply could not afford the conversion. The fall in numbers contrasts with the growing demand for autos from Delhi’s population, which grew 21.6% in the period 2001-2011.

Continue reading A few questions about a few thousand new auto-rickshaws in Delhi: Simon Harding →

Centre watch, Excavation, Government, Media politics

In The Indian Express, a statistical Nehru-Gandhi oddity

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Over at the Indian media blog Sans Serif, Pritam Sengupta counts the number of advertisements by the Government of India on the holy occassion of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary, and discovers a statistical oddity:

While it is natural that ToI and HT should garner so many ads given their large circulations in the national capital, the second place for the Express group is revealing considering it sells less than five per cent of market-leaders ToI and HT in the Delhi market, which both sell in excess of 5 lakh copies.

The tabloid Mail Today, which has the third highest circulation among the Delhi newspapers, too gets fewer ads than the Indian Express. [Read the full post]

Genders

Air India Hostesses Vindicated: Press statement by Air India hostesses

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It’s been a long struggle for Air India hostesses who have been fighting for the basic right to be treated equally with their male counterparts. What follows is  a press statement they issued after finally having won the right to be considered for appointments to the position of In-Flight Supervisor, the person in charge of all the cabin crew. It is shocking enough that Air India maintained a system where only men could be appointed to this post until December 2005, when a Delhi High Court decision finally permitted women to be considered for the post. Even more disturbing is the fact that the union claiming to represent the ‘workers’ of Air India, the Air India Cabin Crew Association, chose to contest this decision, as if the women employees of Air India are not as much ‘workers’ as the men are. Continue reading Air India Hostesses Vindicated: Press statement by Air India hostesses →

Capitalism, Countryside, Law, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Justice for Valsa John of Jharkhand, latest victim of the mining mafia

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This press release was put out on 18 November 2011 by the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS (NAPM), the NATIONAL FISHWORKERS’ FORUM (NFF) and the NATIONAL FORUM OF FOREST PEOPLE AND FOREST WORKERS (NFFPFW)

Sr. Valsa, an activist of the Rajmahal Pahad Bachao Andolan (RPBA) and an ordained nun with the Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary, who had been working among Santhal Adivasis in the coal rich region of Dhumka, Jharkhand was brutally murdered by a group of about 40 armed men on the night of 15 November 2011. On behalf of Indian peoples’ movements and resistance struggles, NAPM, NFF and NFFPFW condemn this heinous and cowardly act, evidently conceived by the powerful mining mafia, aimed at essentially hunting down individuals and movements to silence the voices of resistance by people.  Continue reading Justice for Valsa John of Jharkhand, latest victim of the mining mafia →

Centre watch, Frontiers, Government, Identities, Law, Mirror Worlds

Dr Khaleel Chishty’s family in Ajmer to appeal for his release: Kavita Srivastava

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This press release comes from KAVITA SRIVASTAVA of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties. It was released after a press conference in Ajmer on Friday, 18 November 2011

  • Family appeals to Governor Shivraj Patil to sign the mercy petition of Dr. Khalil Chishty pardoning him at the earliest
  • Government of Rajasthan grants perrmission to the family to meet Dr. Chishty in Jail
Culture, Frontiers, Identities

In Search of Ram and Kabir

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You may have seen this documentary film before. If you have, you will, I’m sure, want to see it again. It is not about Ram or Kabir. It is about you and me.

Had Anhad is a documentary film, part of the Kabir Project, released in 2008.

A film by Shabnam Virmani
Language: Hindi & Urdu with English Subtitles
Duration: 103 min

Kabir was a 15th century mystic poet of north India who defied the boundaries between Hindu and Muslim. He had a Muslim name and upbringing, but his poetry repeatedly invokes the widely revered Hindu name for God – Ram. Who is Kabir’s Ram? This film journeys through song and poem into the politics of religion, and finds a myriad answers on both sides of the hostile border between India and Pakistan.

Watch it on Culture Unplugged.

Capitalism, Everyday Life, Movements, Politics

The Last International: Occupy New York, Occupy the Night, Occupy Earth.

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Facebook Found Image of the Occupation of Foley Square, New York

Sometimes just a few images, and a few facebook update texts tell you all you need to know.

New York, 18th November 2011, NYPD estimates say that approximately 36,000 people voted with their feet to take back their city, and their planet. Could this be the beginning of the end of Capitalism, at least as we know it? Continue reading The Last International: Occupy New York, Occupy the Night, Occupy Earth. →

Culture, Everyday Life, Government, Language

Sexting no more: Pakistan’s hilarious list of 1,795 expletives to be banned on SMS

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Whoever made the English and Urdu lists deserves an award, though I did find some Pakistanis who knew expletives that were not on the lists.

Thanks to this helpful compendium many Pakistanis are finding their expletive vocabulary enhanced. @UroojZia asked what “BUMBLEFUCK” and “LADYBOOG” meant. @Zakoota said the lists should be required reading in schools to give children the vocabulary to describe politicians and cricketers. With the amount of phrases that include the word “BUTT”, @KhaLeak wondered if Aijaz Butt was banned as well. [My story for FirstPost.com]

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Law

Clean Chit to Law-Breaker Lavasa, a Blot on India’s Democracy and Environmentalism: NAPM

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This press release was put out by the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS on 14 November 2011

Post-facto Green signal to Phase-I of Lavasa by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) given on the November 9th is a blot on the democratic process and a shockingly dangerous precedent in the history of environmental action in India. MoEF’s improper action has infact sent shock-waves to eco-activists within the country and also across the world. Although it is not the first time in the long history of Indian Environmental clearance regime that political highhandedness has been used to subvert rule of law and the ends of justice, this case is unique since the clearance has disregarded well established evidence based on facts collected by no other than the MoEF itself. It is surprising that the Ministry’s decision has come in the wake of the case filed by the Maharashtra government against 15 persons including promoters of Lavasa Corporation for alleged violations of the Environment Protection Act (EPA), while the Maharashtra Chief Minister on the other hand has recommended that Lavasa be considered for environmental clearance, exposes the double standards of the state government.  Continue reading Clean Chit to Law-Breaker Lavasa, a Blot on India’s Democracy and Environmentalism: NAPM →

Countryside, Genders, Law, Media politics

Bring Justice to ANM Bhanwri Devi: Women’s organisations protest in Jaipur

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This press release was put out by KAVITA SRIVASTAVA on behalf of various women’s organisations in Rajasthan, on 11 November 2011. For a background to the case, see “A CD and a missing health worker“.

  • RAJASTHAN CONGRESS, STOP MISUSING AND EXPLOITING WOMEN IN POLITICS!
  • ARREST MAHILPAL MADERNA AND OTHER POLITICIANS INVOLVED IN THE DISAPPEARANCE BHANWARI DEVI!
  • ASHOK GEHLOT, PRODUCE BHANWRI DEVI DEAD OR ALIVE, OR ELSE RESIGN!
  • BJP WHERE ARE YOUR TEARS FOR BHANWRI DEVI!! STOP PLAYING THE CASTE CARD!
  • MAMTA SHARMA, NCW Chairperson, WHY THE SILENCE ON BHANWRI DEVI!

Raising the above slogans, Women, Dalit and Human Rights Organisation under the leadership of Dr. Pawan Surana ex-chairperson of the state women’s commission, protested today 11 November, 2011 condemning the Ashok Gehlot Government for the disappearance of one the workers of his Government ANM Bhanwri Devi and an aspirant of the Congress party.  Continue reading Bring Justice to ANM Bhanwri Devi: Women’s organisations protest in Jaipur →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Government, Law

‘A Call for Rejecting 2011 Land Acquisition Bill’

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This joint statement, signed and endorsed by various organisations and individuals from across India, named at the end, was put out on 12 November 2011. 

The 2011 Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is a dangerous exercise in doublespeak that will worsen the injustice and devastation caused by the present law. Below is a joint statement on this legislation from a number of organisations and individuals, calling for the rejection of the new Bill and raising the basic issues that need to be addressed by any legal framework.

The statement points out that:

Continue reading ‘A Call for Rejecting 2011 Land Acquisition Bill’ →

Centre watch, Frontiers, Government, Identities, Law, Mirror Worlds, Violence/Conflict

Govt must do more to protect minorities: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

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This press release was put out by the HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN, Lahore, on 9 November 2011

The brazen murder of three brothers from the Hindu community in Shikarpur district on Eid day demonstrates that the perpetrators believe they can get away with murder simply because the victims are non-Muslim, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said.

In a statement issued on Wednesday the Commission said: “HRCP is shocked at the brazen murder of the three Hindu citizens in Shikarpur and shares the sense of outrage of the Hindu community, not least because of the utter failure of the police to prevent the killings or arrest the killers even though threats of violence had been brought to their notice. Continue reading Govt must do more to protect minorities: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan →

Bad ideas, Culture, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

A Curious Silence and an Un-Crossed Line: In the Wake of A Disbanded Exhibition

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A news item from some weeks ago, which has gone curiously unremarked and un-commented upon has made me think about the limits that the freedom of expression debate and the discourse on secularism in India unwittingly or knowingly does not seem to be able to cross, despite repeated provocation.

We all know that when the Hindu right comes to town –  declaring that this or that text should not be taught in the university, or this or that painting should not be seen, or this or that film should not be shown – the secular left-liberal intelligentsia in India automatically gets outraged, signs petitions, holds press conferences and generally vents it righteous anger. I know this because I do all these things, along with all my friends. I sign the online petitions, attend the demonstrations, express my anger and do some (or all) of that which needs to be done, that should be done. We should never give an inch to the hoodlums of Hindutva.

However, when it comes to responding to the equally aggressive, reactionary and utterly arbitrary actions of sections of the Muslim clergy and other self appointed leaders on the ‘Muslim Right’ a strange inertia seems to take hold of the best and boldest foot-soldiers of secularism in India.

Continue reading A Curious Silence and an Un-Crossed Line: In the Wake of A Disbanded Exhibition →

Left watch, Politics

Statement on the killing of Niyamat Ansari and “apology” by the CPI (Maoist)

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Summarized version of statement by concerned academicians, students and activists.

For full text of the statement visit

http://www.petitions.in/petition/statement-on-the-killing-of-niyamat-ansari-and-apology-by-the-cpi-maoist/1492

and http://www.pragoti.in/node/4567 .

In a statement of apparent ‘self-criticism’, dated September 1 2011, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has offered an apology for the posters threatening Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze, Gokul Vasant and Nandlal Singh and members of Gram Swaraj  Abhyan.  But they have not tendered an unconditional apology for the brutal murder of NREGA activist Niyamat Ansari and threat to Bhukan Singh for allegedly being ‘police informers’ and ‘cheating local people’ of their forest land.

86 families in Kope Gram Panchayat, including Bhukhan and Niyamat, were part of a larger movement to secure legal entitlements over forest land under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which was opposed by the same corrupt contractors involved in committing malpractices in the NREGA Programme. His team exposed a scam involving Rs 2.5 lakhs leading to an FIR being filed against the local Block Development Officer. Within days after this, on 2nd March 2011, Niyamat was beaten to death. The fact finding report published by Gokul Basant- Nandlal Singh has hinted towards possible involvement of Maoist with corrupt middlemen, illegal contractors, forest department and local administration.

Continue reading Statement on the killing of Niyamat Ansari and “apology” by the CPI (Maoist) →

Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Law, Violence/Conflict

Rain, Eid and Geelani: Sameer Bhat

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Guest post by SAMEER BHAT

A fine rain was falling as I disembarked the aircraft. Srinagar was shivering at 7 degrees centigrade. Rams and ewes, all set for slaughter on Eid, looked forlorn. Meat-market persons in untidy pherans haggled with locals for rates. Half the male population, I noticed, had not seen a shaving blade for weeks, a very Kashmiri trait most noticeable in winters. While it continued to drizzle, queues outside ATM machines got fretful. At least three people entered the cashpoint at one time to witness your transaction. The invasion of financial privacy has a very harmless ring to it, which is very indigenous. Continue reading Rain, Eid and Geelani: Sameer Bhat →

Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Frontiers, Law, Violence/Conflict

Mistaken Identity: Arif Ayaz Parrey

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Guest post by ARIF AYAZ PARREY

The Indian army in Kashmir must be reading a lot of Manto these days. Or Borges. Or Kundera. Or –and this is most likely, given the approaching winter season and their ‘hearts and minds’ programme– Kashmiri folklore.

Not three months have passed since they made a highly publicized acknowledgement of “mistaken identity” after they had killed a mentally “challenged” “Hindu” youth in Poonch and declared that he was a “fierce” “Pakistani terrorist Abu-Usman killed after a 12-hour long gunbattle” (such valour exhibited by the Indian security forces is the stuff of legends in Kashmir) that they have followed it with another announcement of a (dis)similar “mistaken indentity”.

This time, like always, the culprits are the Kashmiri people (whose synonym in the Indian army’s dictionary is “miscreants”) Apparently, people beat to pulp a “member of a covert team of the army and J&K police” who were “sent to Sopore Town on getting info of presence of terrorists in the public rally addressed  by SA Geelani”. The person was carrying a camcorder and his service pistol. The people thought he was the terrorist.

Democracy? History? Or “mishtake”? Choose your option.

Kundera writes, “When the institutions of a state no longer feel the need to make sense or to give plausible explanations, the state can only survive as long as people allow it to lie shamelessly.”

See also:

Previously in Kafila by Arif Ayaz Parrey:

Capitalism, Culture, Everyday Life, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Politics, Theory

A Rickshaw Ride in Kolkata: Waled Aadnan

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Guest post by WALED AADNAN

“Amar naam Chatterjee!” My name is Chatterjee! sounds like a proclamation from a fiery leader of the masses at a public rally, but it came from a rickshaw wallah plying his trade in the dusty bylanes of North Calcutta and addressed to no one in particular.

As I sat on his rickshaw, the frail old man launched into an indignant tirade against the ruling political party, whom he branded as a group of turncoats, insisting vehemently and repeatedly to nothing but the evening breeze that he had always been a Congressman.

Yes, he defended, petrol prices have been rising, but surely the bosses in Delhi would admit to that! What is the point of protesting about that in an insignificant meeting of rickshaw wallahs’ union? His tone of uncompromising understanding of world affairs drew me to listen to him, rather than plug in my earphones and switch off the world. Continue reading A Rickshaw Ride in Kolkata: Waled Aadnan →

Culture, Frontiers, Identities

Bhupen Hazarika – The Sub-nationalist Imagination of a Universalist: Bikram Bora

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Guest post by BIKRAM BORA

The unprecedented number of mourners crowding the otherwise sleepy streets of Guwahati at night following the demise of the maestro, proves testimony to his genius. In his life, there was no dearth of followers, some logical, some blind; while in his death, grief engulfs both the sections. What could be the reasons for Hazarika’s powerful grip over people’s emotions? It can’t be just his musical dexterity; it’s more the aura surrounding him, emanating from his multi-dimensional persona and life-span.

Continue reading Bhupen Hazarika – The Sub-nationalist Imagination of a Universalist: Bikram Bora →

Culture, Politics

Taking the Jajabor’s Journey Forward – The troubled legacy of Bhupen Hazarika: Mayur Chetia and Nayanjyoti

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Guest post by MAYUR CHETIA and NAYANJYOTI

Mourning people from across Assam assemble in miles and miles of roads leading up to Bhupen Hazarika’s funeral. He’s a restless jajabor/wanderer no more. Paeans after paeans are being sung now after the ‘great cultural hero’, the ‘greatest Assamese’, the believer in ‘the power of the nation’ (the ‘nation’ being Akhand Bharat or Brihottor Axom, depending on whichever variety of nationalists sing). Bhupenda is dead.  Assam is in despair.

Continue reading Taking the Jajabor’s Journey Forward – The troubled legacy of Bhupen Hazarika: Mayur Chetia and Nayanjyoti →

Frontiers, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Adib Shishakly – The Rebel in the Hotel Room: Alia Allana

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This guest post by ALIA ALLANA, a despatch from Istanbul, is the seventh in Kafila series of ground reports from the Arab Spring. Photos by Alia Allana unless otherwise mentioned

Adib Shishakly’s rebellion starts with a small pin on his blue blazer.

Embellishing the the blue of his jacket, clipped on to the left collar is a flag of Syria not seen since the days following the French mandate. Today the flag flies in the besieged areas of Homs, Hama and Dera’a where the protestors have posed Bashar al Assad’s regime with it’s biggest challenge to date. It’s this very flag, with its three golden stars that was outlawed by the Ba’ath Party, by strong man Hafez al Assad.

Continue reading Adib Shishakly – The Rebel in the Hotel Room: Alia Allana →

Culture, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Scams

Esther’s Story – Battling the Land Mafia in Hardwar: Sumantra Maitra

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Guest post by SUMANTRA MAITRA

When you are in journalism, something that slowly builds up in you is your immunity to suprise. You can feel fear, sadness, hopelessness, impatience, and even joy, though the last emotion is increasingly becoming a rare thing in this field. But whatever you feel, one thing is for sure, that you generally don’t get surprised. So when I initially heard about a lone Canadian woman of advanced age and energetic spirits, who had come to India at the age of 19 in the 1960s, fighting the land mafia in Hardwar, without any help from anyone, I was intrigued, but NOT surprised.

I decided to chase the story.

Continue reading Esther’s Story – Battling the Land Mafia in Hardwar: Sumantra Maitra →

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