Dear Friend,
Today, May 15th, is the 72nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) and counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation with Jews with dual nationality from around the world continues more aggressively than ever. So does the building of illegal settlements to house those interlopers. They too are still going apace with no end in sight.
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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
Countercurrents.org
Nakba: A Call For Justice In Palestine
by Jafar M Ramini
Today, May 15th, is the 72nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) and counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation with Jews with dual nationality from around the world continues more aggressively than ever. So does the building of illegal settlements to house those interlopers. They too are still going apace with no end in sight.
Today, May 15th, is the 72nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) and counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation with Jews with dual nationality from around the world continues more aggressively than ever. So does the building of illegal settlements to house those interlopers. They too are still going apace with no end in sight.
And I haven’t even got around to mentioning the Israeli prisons which are full of Palestinian men, women and children, tortured and held in disgusting conditions without charge or legal recourse.
In the last 72 years there were many attempts to settle the so-called Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Yet, to put it in those terms is misleading. A conflict is between two opposing powers and their armies. Israel has the power, has the army, has the airforce, has the navy. Not to mention three hundred nuclear heads. The Palestinians have none of these. So how can we call it a conflict?
It is genocide. It was designed to ethnically cleanse all of Palestine and turn it into a state for Jews only, as per the nation state bill that was passed two years ago, which emphatically states that the right of self-determination in Israel is exclusively a Jewish prerogative.
There you have it. Black and white. This ethnic cleansing and theft of land and expansion are all official Israeli policy. This is not new. This is how the Zionist terrorist organisations operated in Palestine during the British mandate of 1922 -1948. They embarked on a policy of murder of innocent Palestinian men, women and children while the British forces looked the other way in some instances and actively encouraged it in others. Yet all of this was just a starter for a much more ambitious, well-planned and financed project of the Greater Israel.
First: Conquer Palestine. Get rid of the Palestinians, or corral them in bins euphemistically referred to as ‘cantons’ and keep them on a strictly limited diet and under tight military rule.
Second: Present to the world that Jews are the only victims and Israelis are the biggest victims of all.
Third: Blackmail friends and allies to support Israeli ambitions come what may. Steal their technology. Kill their sailors. Blame it on others. Those who do not submit, smear them as ‘anti-semitic’.
This is how Mr Benjamin Netnayahu, has kept his grip on power since the 1990s. He has lied, he has waged wars, he has inflicted more death and suffering on the Palestinians and he has pretended to make peace. What he was actually trying to do, and is still trying to do is establish a legacy as the man who put the Greater Israel project on a higher level than any other leader before him.
The opposition to his rule in Israel is minimal. His popularity with the Israeli people is higher than any other leader ever and when it comes to the Trump family, at present ruling the USA ,he is just one of the family. Mr Trump will grant his every wish. First, he rewarded Netanyahu and the Jewish lobby in America with his declaration that Jerusalem was the eternal capital of the Jewish people. He also declared that Israel could enforce its sovereignty on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. All against the rule of international law and past UN resolutions.
He then kicked out the PLO representative in Washington. But that wasn’t enough for Mr Netanyahu. So Trump went one step further by depriving the Palestinian Authority of much needed funds and demonising the UN Refugees and Works Agency, UNRWA by insisting that there were no such thing as Palestinian refugees. Consequently a lifeline of vital food, health and education for 5 million Palestinian refugees was put in jeopardy.
You’d think that would be enough. Israel has got its wish. Palestine no longer exists, other than in name, although even that is denied by many Israelis. But no, Mr Netanyahu, the arch manipulator who was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, found another escape route. He went to his benefactors, the Trump Administration, and started yet another assault on the Palestinian people. The so-called ‘Deal Of The Century’.
This was a deal that totally ignored the Palestinians and catered, as usual, to the demands of Mr Netanyahu and his cronies in Washington.
The Palestinian leadership could only reject it. What else could they do? They have no power to speak of on the ground. They have no influence and no cards to play in the corridors of power in Washington, London, Paris or any other western capital and they are, most importantly, divided amongst themselves and have been publicly abandoned by their supposed brethren in the Arab world.
Despite 25 years of unproductive ‘peace’ negotiations and despite the relentless expansionist policies of the Israeli government the Palestinian leaders, the world leaders and the UN still do believe that a two-state solution is the only way forward.
Enter Mr Netanyahu and his new partner in crime, General Gantz with a new idea and a new government based solely on the total annexation of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the entire Jordan Valley. In a normal world with ordinary, fair-minded people in charge this would be seen for what it is. Blatant theft. Blatant misuse of power and flagrant disregard for the rule of law. Nothing of the sort. Europe, as per usual, offered lukewarm rejection, but the people who matter, i.e.the United States of America gave it their tacit approval. In the words of Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, “As for the annexation of the West Bank, the Israelis will ultimately make those decisions,” he told reporters. “That’s an Israeli decision.”
To reaffirm the Trump Administration’s total devotion to the survival and continuation of Mr Netanyahu’s career Mr Pompeo, ignoring any health risk in quarantined Israel against the Corona virus, was in Tel Aviv two days ago. He was there to make it clear that in this year of the American elections, to the Trump Administration only Israel matters.
The chosen one to facilitate this latest annexation process is none other than American Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, an ultra-nationalist, settlement supporter and religious zealot and rejectionist of the two-state solution. Yet this is the person who is deciding where the future border will be between Greater Israel and the remaining, already lacerated West Bank.
Thankfully, not all American presidents are Trump clones. Jimmy Carter, former president of the USA and author of ‘Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid’ has spoken firmly against this blatant flouting of international law.
“If the joint mapping of Palestinian lands to be seized by the Israeli government continues, the standing of the United States in the international community will be further damaged. The West Bank belongs to Palestine, and any changes should be mutually agreed upon.”
In the name of fairness there was one dissenting Jewish, Zionist, right-wing voice who was against this idea of annexation. Not because it is illegal. Not because he has sympathies with the plight of the Palestinians. Not because he is anti Israel. On the contrary, his dissent was based on racist condescension. The man I am referring to is Daniel Pipes, president of something called ‘The Middle East Forum’ and a well-known supporter of Israel. Mr Pipes gave six reasons why he would be against such a move. But the one I have chosen for you, my readers, is the last and I believe the only true one.
“Annexation would be likely to make more Palestinians eligible to become citizens of Israel.”
Dear God. Palestinian citizens of anywhere?
Heaven forbid!
Heaven forbid!
Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer and political analyst. He was born in Jenin in 1943 and was five years old when he and his family had to flee the terror of the Urgun and Stern gangs. Justice for the people of Palestine is a life-long commitment.
My Beit Daras, My Nakba: Two Palestinian Intellectuals Reminiscing about Their Destroyed Village
by Romana Rubeo
Dr. Ghada Ageel and Dr. Ramzy Baroud have more in common than their scholarly
research on Palestinian history and politics. They are both refugees, and the direct descendants of Palestinian refugees who have been expelled from their historic village of Beit Daras at gunpoint during the catastrophic events that led to the Palestinian Nakba of May 15, 1948.
Oppose the Israeli Annexation of West Bank Settlements
by Howie Hawkins
It is time for the United States to end its bipartisan blanket support for Israeli policies that violate the human rights of Palestinians. At this critical moment, where Israel has announced its intention to annex Israeli settlements on the West Bank with the support of the Trump administration, we must speak out and resist this blatant violation of international law and the right of Palestinians to self-government.
It is time for the United States to end its bipartisan blanket support for Israeli policies that violate the human rights of Palestinians. At this critical moment, where Israel has announced its intention to annex Israeli settlements on the West Bank with the support of the Trump administration, we must speak out and resist this blatant violation of international law and the right of Palestinians to self-government.
Friday, May 15 is the anniversary of the Nakba, which Palestinians commemorate as The Day of Catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their own lands, homes, and businesses preceding and following the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians of a total Palestinian population of 1.9 million became refugees, 530 Palestinian villages and cities were destroyed and about 15,000 Palestinians were killed and 78 percent of Palestine was claimed by the State of Israel. Since 1967, Israel has militarily controlled the remaining 22% and expanded Jewish settlements into these occupied territories.
This year a new phase of land theft from the Palestinians is developing with the Israeli plan, backed by the Trump administration, to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to the State of Israel. This annexation is illegal under international law and opposed by all the members of the UN Security Council, except the United States. It is opposed nearly unanimously in the UN General Assembly and unanimously across the Palestinian political spectrum.
Democratic Party leaders nominally oppose the annexation, but the Biden wing refuses to call for measures to pressure Israel to drop its ambitions. Bernie Sanders has called for a cut-off of US military aid to Israel if the annexation goes forward, but Joe Biden along with other Democratic Party leaders have called Sanders’ position “outrageous.”
The new coalition of government led by a partnership between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz says it could announce the annexation plan to the Knesset after July. It may be timed to come right before or after the Republican Convention.
The United States should stop giving Israel blanket support no matter how much it violates Palestinian rights and expands the illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
The growth of illegal settlements and the annexation of Palestinian land, as well as Jewish-only roads and hundreds of checkpoints already dominating in the occupied West Bank, is making the two-state solution, supported by international law, increasingly untenable. The two-state solution calls for an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River, based on the pre-1967 borders. As a result of the constant expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Palestinians and pro-justice Israelis are increasingly turning to the one-democratic-state solution as the only just solution that is possible now.
The One Democratic State solution respects the multicultural character and the collective rights of the peoples living in the country, Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews among others. It calls for a constitutional democracy in which all citizens enjoy a common citizenship, a common government, and equal civil rights. Constitutional protection will prohibit laws that discriminate against any ethnic or religious community, which addresses the key concern Israeli Jews that their religious and cultural rights will be protected in a country in which they will be a minority.
Regarding the Gaza Strip, which has become a large open-air prison, the Israeli blockade of Gaza must be lifted so that food, construction equipment, and the essentials for healthcare and other humanitarian aid are allowed into the area. The repeated bombings by Israel of Gaza must come to an end. The 715,000 people of Gaza must be given democratic rights and their human rights protected.
The US should be putting pressure on Israel to change its policies by no longer providing Israel with political protection in the UN and no longer providing $3 billion in annual funding and military aid without any conditions that require Israel to respect Palestinian human rights and negotiate with the Palestinians for a just solution.
I support an escalating program of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to put pressure on Israel to respect human rights and negotiate a just settlement, starting with cuts to US military aid to Israel, as called for by the Palestinian BDS National Committee with broad support across Palestinian society. I oppose laws in the United States that criminalize individuals and businesses that take their own BDS actions. These laws violate our constitutional rights to organize, speak out, and take political action.
If the US is going to play a positive role diplomatically in promoting a just solution, it has to end its unconditional support for Israel in whatever it chooses to do and instead become a neutral broker helping both sides to negotiate their differences. The political solution is up to the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate because self-determination means they decide their solution, not us.
Howie Hawkins is the leading candidate for the Green Party nomination for president. His website is HowieHawkins.US.
Addendum to ICAN Report on World Nuclear Arms’ Spending
by George Chakko
Only a day ago CounterCurrents.Org brought in a very informative article on world nuke spending to a tune of almost 73$ billion. While the entire humanity is facing a far worse survival crisis currently, one has to seriously ask how obscene such one spending is and for whose benefit. It is simply put, a bizarre veritable shame on civilised humanity, when our world is still struggling to find a viable vaccine and the nuclear powers are spending so much money on nuclear arms to illusorily protect themselves against enemies that are not, when a real enemy has already entered our bodies worldwide borderless and without visa into White House as well! While still on a spiritual health retreat, this ICAN report spurred me to add few missing lines that are complimentary and supplementary to the CCO story.
India’s COVID Crisis: Increasing vulnerabilities and visible caste-class divide
by Vidya
Bhushan Rawat
‘Sorry, we have run out of all words today, National Shame”, said the front page headline of Mumbai Mirror, a sister publication of Times of India, on the horrific killings of 16 migrant workers who were walking back to their homes in Madhya Pradesh nearly 800 kilometers away. Most of the ‘walkers’ are doing that in the night as the day time temperature is too high to bear with and hence they feel walking in the night was easier but then they have the biggest threat from the rash driving by the people who too prefer night. So far nearly 380 migrant workers have been killed due to accidents or hunger. The crisis is aggravating daily.
‘Sorry, we have run out of all words today, National Shame”, said the front page headline of Mumbai Mirror, a sister publication of Times of India, on the horrific killings of 16 migrant workers who were walking back to their homes in Madhya Pradesh nearly 800 kilometers away. Most of the ‘walkers’ are doing that in the night as the day time temperature is too high to bear with and hence they feel walking in the night was easier but then they have the biggest threat from the rash driving by the people who too prefer night. So far nearly 380 migrant workers have been killed due to accidents or hunger. The crisis is aggravating daily.
There is no way out for the poor. For the two month, during the complete lock down, they did not have other option other than to return but there were no services available to them. Without their wages, they struggled hard. Poor workers had no luxury of ‘social distancing’, a term being ‘popularised’ world over by the corporate sponsored medico-guides. In a country where people do not have access to potable water and space to live, talking about this is pure hypocrisy. Mumbai’s Dharavi slums have the largest number of immigrants from different part of the country and today it is struggling to maintain that ‘social distance’. Till yesterday, this slum alone has over 1061 positive cases and 31 deaths.
In the absence of any direct assistance from the government, the migrant workers were compelled to return to their home. Many ran out of their savings as cost of local travels as well as other things went high. As there was no control on these things, poor families were depended on their money from parents back home.
“We have been feeding ourselves using money sent from home. At the railway station, police cane us…some even demanded money…to let us board the train even though our registration was complete 12 days ago. With no way out, we decided to go home on a bicycle. Not sure if we will reach home or die along the way.”
As Brij Kishore (21) expresses his fear and helplessness at Punjab’s Phagwara, he had already travelled 150 km, with nearly 1,500 km yet to cover to reach his home in Bathani Tola village of Bihar’s Bhojpur district.[i]
At many places the police wielded batons on the hapless migrants who were with their children and faced the trauma along with their female wards. On the one side they had the absolute brutality of the police and administration as if they were ‘spreading’ the virus. There was no protocol in place to deal with them. Though every district had made provisions for quarantining the people coming from outside, yet the overjealous staff went out of their way to humiliate them. It was good that sanitary staff was told to disinfect various places but what is deeply disturbing that they sprayed the ‘disinfect’ on the migrant workers who had come to a certain place. After lots of noise in the media the government expressed the shock and send guidelines but such thing happens on regular intervals.
“The district magistrate of Bareilly, Nitish Kumar, tweeted that while the Municipal Corporation and local fire service were under orders to sanitise buses, they were “overzealous” in spraying the migrant workers directly.
The incident sparked outrage online, with many turning to social media to condemn it. A Twitter user wrote: “Who r u trying to kill, Corona or humans? Migrant labourers and their families were forced to take bath in chemical solution upon their entry in Bareilly”[ii]
The government’s orders and directives have always been ambiguous related to the issue of salaries, wages and compensation. The Prime minister has spoken on various occasions after the lock down. He ask people do ‘respect’ elders, health workers, doctors and many more things which is appreciable but not a single word about how the government would resolve it. Many of the business persons and industries categorically said that they were not in a position to pay to the workers. The delay in a categorical response compelled people to make their own plan even at the cost of their lives. According to a report in The Print, “On 29 March, the home ministry made it legally compulsory for salaries and wages to be paid even during the lockdown period. Yet, many of our disgraceful capitalists didn’t even pay wages for the month of March, not even for the days the labourers had worked. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, a survey found 63 per cent labourers hadn’t been paid wages they were owed from before the lockdown. In Gujarat, the diamond industry hasn’t been paying workers despite repeated government orders. Governments, NGOs, middle-class volunteers, political parties and even the police have been busy feeding migrant workers meals. Yet this charity, this munificence, would not have been needed if employers hadn’t abdicated their responsibility. These employers are mostly small businessmen and they also seem to be rather small-minded. They are your ‘micro, small and medium enterprises’ or MSMEs. These capitalists have refused to bear the cost of paying even a month’s wages to migrant labourers who are the engine of their economic enterprises[iii].
The crisis is unprecedented. With factories closed and workers returning to their homeland in desperation, the World Bank estimated that the lock down would impact the lives of nearly 40 million internal migrants. As per their estimates around “50,000-60,000 moved from urban centers to rural areas of origin in the span of a few days, the bank said in a report released on Wednesday. According to the report — ‘COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens’ — the magnitude of internal migration is about two-and-a-half times that of international migration. In India, the number of low-skilled emigrants seeking mandatory clearance for emigration rose slightly by 8% to 3,68,048 in 2019[iv].
Train tickets for migrants and buses expenses
The supreme irony of the current crisis is the absolute antipathy on part of the government towards these migrants. Except for the first case of bringing people back from Wuhan, China on January 31st and February 2nd by Air India flight, the government’s ‘evacuation’ mission are actually charging people and definitely they seem to be higher than any normal time price. For the poor labours, there is no concession despite lot of noise made by the government. Some political parties promised to pay while some state governments too said that they would pay for the train fare for these poor migrants. The government promised to start some trains after lots of noise in the third phase of lock down when migrants started walking after deep distress but to their utter shock people have been virtually looted by petty taxi owners, private operators and trucks who ever had the opportunity to do so.
There was no concession in the train services. Moreover, for the ‘middle classes’, they started AC trains whose fare was equivalent to Rajdhani Express which has the highest fare among train services. A news report in the Times Now, news channel says, “ The Uttar Pradesh government-authorised private bus operators, to evacuate those trying to flee Delhi-NCR, are charing the poor migrants three to four times of the actual fare. The development comes hours after Yogi Adityanath’s government said it had arranged for 1,000 buses to ferry such people in view of the absence of public transport after the lockdown was imposed. On the Delhi-Ghaziabad border, passengers were charged Rs 1,000 per seat for a 300-400 km journey”.[v]
When the workers started returning in distress and desperation, after the third phase of lock down was announced, some builders in India’s tech city Banguluru, met the chief minister asking them to put pressure on the railways to cancel the train ‘ Shramik Express’ specially meant to carry these labourers who wanted to return. This was shocking and reflected how the state felt about these workers, perhaps no more than the bonded labors.
After much criticism, the state government decided to allow the migrant workers to go back their home and also facilitate the workers of the state too and facilitate their return but here too, the government was absolutely insensitive and said that “ Karnataka will take only the usual one way fare from the migrant workers returning to the state who opt to travel by the state transport buses to reach their villages, even as the number of passengers in the vehicles will be half the usual numbers to maintain social distancing norms amid Covid-19 lockdown”[vi].
The Prime Minister of India announced a ‘big package’ of Rs 20, lakh crore i.e. Rs 2 million Crore to revive the economy and to help the Medium and Small Scale Industries but a careful understanding of it reflect that it is more about playing with data and figures. The whole process does not even speak about a single penny about those in distress. It would have been better for the government to announce an absolutely free commuting package for all from the beginning and so many deaths would have been avoided. Now, people have lost all trust from the government structure and it is also true that they don’t have money to pay hence they are either walking back or going through their own private vehicles or even cycles without knowing the consequences of the entire journey.
Farmers forced to follow the government diktats
Lock down has also created deep distress among the farmers. This is now middle of May and many of the Indian states facing incessant rains too. Normal monsoon season is middle of May or end of May in Kerala while it reach to Delhi or to the north of India by June end. In many places farmers were forced to abandon their crop and compelled to destroy it as there were no market for them. Ironically, they know it well, nothing to expect from the government.
‘ We are helpless. The produce cant be taken to any market and it is wasting the fields. We have now begin to clear the field for the next harvest. We don’t expect the government to compensate us and are left with no choice then destroying it’, said a farmer in district Shamli, Uttar Pradesh”[vii].
Unfortunately, the response from the government has not been of that level as it deserve. It may be possible that government do a direct cash transfer to some of the farmers but in this entire exercise the agrarian workers are left penniless as the land is not in their name. It is also true that governments are using this calamity as opportunity to push their privatization agenda and hence every action reflect a deeply flawed approach towards that. In the Indian state of Telangana, which is southern part of India, the state government has brought out a law for farmers to cultivate the crop as per the advice of the government. While attempt to provide farmers better infrastructure as well as professional know how is welcome but compelling them to opt for the crop of the government choice is fundamentally dangerous and absolute authoritarian in nature.
The new law suggests that those farmers who do not follow the government ‘advise’ will be barred from receiving government subsidy or support.
“ The state’s new agriculture policy aims at making farming profitable and area of cultivation for every crop will be determined so that there is no glut, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (RAO) has announced. Telangana becomes the first state in the country to enforce regulation that will ensure a “glut free” produce.
To make the implementation of the agriculture policy a success, the government will pay minimum support price (MSP) for only those crops cultivated on its suggestion and other farmers may even be denied the benefits of the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme that grants farmers Rs 8000 per acre per year for purchase of seed, etc.”[viii]
Farmers are in deep distress but there is not enough that the government is doing except a political decision to pay them ₹6,000 (approximately USD 80) annually under PM Kisan and that too is given in various installment. The first installment will be disbursed now for Rs 2000/- . The government says that this action will immediately benefit 8.69-crore farmers in India.
Labor laws abolished
When the country is planning to return to normalcy and the issue of the distress migration has now emerged powerfully. We need to understand as why are migrants going back to their home when the State is planning to lift the lock down. The fact is that last two months, since India went for a lock down i.e. May 22nd, 2020 ( the first day was termed as ‘Janata Curfew’ but actually it was the way forward to lock down. Many states had already decided on the same day that they would continue with it. Formally, Prime Minister announced lock down from March 27th). Till date, the conditions of these migrants have deterioted and they have faced the worst form of discrimination, a feeling of alienation and unwatnedness to the places where they devoted their lives. They are city builders and yet there was little botheration. While so many announcements were being made, there was no effort to assuage their feeling or extending a direct help to them in the form of free passage to their home or cash transfer.
Amidst all this, the states have started using this period to push their own agenda. Tragic part is that the vulnerabilities of the poor are being increased deliberately and they are pushed to darkness. So, state after states are now amending their labour laws to ‘help’ the industries particularly Media and Small Scale Industries but helping the industries does not mean violating the rights of the labour which India is duty bound to follow the International labour laws as it is a signatory to ILO convention No 144 on the same as India is a signatory to it and states are bound by the ratification.
We never thought that to help the industries, the government would seek to increase the working hours for the laborers from 8 hours to 12 hours and that too without any compensation for the same. If the working hours are being increased then the compensation for additional four hours should be equal to one day wages. Rather than working to ensure for smoothening the law, it gave a handle to corporate to dismiss the workers without any notice. These withdrawal of labor act will kill the labour and convert them into a slave labour where they cant ask for additional money for extra work and can be dismissed at will if they speak against it. Various trade unions including that belonging to the ruling party has opposed this legislation and asked the government to withdraw it or amend it.
“Uttar Pradesh labour minister Swamy Prasad Maurya told India Today TV in an interview, “CM Yogi Adityanath wants to ensure that new and existing businesses and industries flourish and do not get tangled in legal battles. To ensure this, we have decided to temporarily exempt industries and businesses from the purview of some labour laws for 1,000 days. But laws, meant to uphold the rights of the labourers and are in their favour will not be exempted.
“It seems the government is capitalising on the desperate situation of workers during the COVID 19 pandemic,” says K R Shyam Sundar, Professor in Human Resource Management at XLRI Jamshedpur. He says since economy is down, government is using this as an opportunity to reduce the bargaining power of trade unions. “It is an extremely misguided logic that labour law rigidity is the solution for all economic problems. The government needs to think of human development index, infrastructural facilities, literacy rate amongst many other things,” he says”.[ix]
Towards Corporatisation
As our analysis points out that in these critical times too political class want to ensure more privatization. There are various committees of the government which are not keen of speaking to the stake holders but more with the business. Now, reports are coming that a Group of Ministers have prepared a draft which will pave the way for corporatization of land. In fact prime minister emphasized in his speech ‘ Land’ which never meant Land Reform for the poorest of the poor but land for the industries and private. Now, all the government dole out package is going to ensure that public land might go to private hence we will have to carefully study all the ‘dreams’ which the government want to sale to the people.
“The GoM, headed by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, was created last week. It is now ready with the draft proposals, which will be approved on Thursday before being sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources said. The draft proposes that the land pooling model which is used in building greenfield airports can be used in agriculture to enable corporatisation, which will create demand for skilled labourers[x]”.
Need to provide immediate emergency assistance
It is time for the government to procure more and distribute the grains that it has in its Go downs. It will help people in distress and resolve a lot of issues while also help the farmers.
As per the official data, the government has 58.49 million tonnes (mt) of foodgrain in FCI godowns — 30.97 mt of rice and 27.52 mt of wheat. The foodgrain stock is much higher than the required reserve norm of 21 mt as on April 1.[xi]
According to Dr Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, we need to have Rs 65,000 crore for providing relief to the poor. While the Prime Minister has announced a huge package of Rs 20,000000 Crore, it is still not categorical on many things particularly as far as the poor and the farmers are concern. Most of these are indirect support particularly to the industries in terms of delay in interest rates and for the middle class salaried workers in terms of their Income Tax refunds. It does not have anything specific for the poor. All those who are paying hefty sum to take a bus or a train or a private vehicle are compelled to pay heavily much beyond their capacity to do so and the government would have done all the transportation free of cost to instill confidence among the people yet it did not do so.
Big Industries still enjoying the big wave off
A journalist activist Saket Gokhale filed an RTI with the Reserve Bank of India. Despite all efforts, government of India was refusing to inform to the Parliament and to the people details about the big defaulters of various banks. It is because of their crookedness, many banks collapsed and money of the poor or middle classes was completely wiped off.
“ Outstanding loans amounting to ₹68,607 crore of top 50 wilful bank loan defaulters in the country including firms of Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya have been technically written off till September 30, 2019, the Reserve Bank of India said in a RTI reply. Absconding dimantaire Choksi’s company Gitanjali Gems tops the list of these defaulters with a whopping amount of ₹5,492 crore, according to the list.
This is followed by REI Agro with ₹4,314 crore and Winsome Diamonds with ₹4,076 crore. Rotomac Global Private Limited has funded advances of ₹2,850 crore which have been technically written off and Kudos Chemie Ltd with ₹2,326 crore, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, now owned by Ramdev’s Patanjali, with ₹2,212 crore and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd with ₹2,012 crore being the other companies.” [xii]
Priorities of the government
The government want to go with Central Visa Plan with a budget of Rs 20,000 which
“seeks to redevelop and reconstruct several historic buildings in a four-square-km area from the gates of Rashtrapati Bhawan to India Gate. The five plots for which the land use has been amended include where a new parliament house is proposed to be constructed, adjacent to the existing building, and another on which the new prime minister’s residence is to come up.”[xiii]
The second priority in these hours of crisis is to have a luxurious aircraft for the Prime Minister and the President which is budgeted around Rs 8,5480 crore. The government will buy two aircraft for the top government functionaries. It is not that they don’t have but now they wish to take India into 21st century and feel they deserve better.
There have been demand by rights group as well as those work on protecting heritage that the New Delhi Vista Project is absolutely destructive and is not required when the nation want to focus on dealing with Corona and its impact on our economy. This is sad that despite all criticism, government want to go ahead with its projects.
Understanding the migrants and their identity
Many social scientists are speaking about the ‘class’ discrimination in India when they look at the current ‘migrant’ crisis but the fact is a majority of these informal sector workers belong to Dalit, OBCs, Adivasis and nomadic communities. Migration to cities has been a historical phenomenon for many of these communities who face the tyranny of the caste structure openly visible in our villages. A large number of them used to work with the feudal lords who would not pay them according to minimum wages and would hurt their self respect and dignity. To protect themselves from the humiliation of the hierarchical caste elite in the villages, who are powerful because of their control over all the food producing resources particularly land and farming, these communities migrate to cities under the feeling that there people would not immediately judge them from their caste identity. Many of them would hide that because the urban spaces in India have not become secular and liberal. Instead, in the past few years, these spaces have become more conservative, fanatic and rigid and obsessed with their caste identities.
Having worked with a large number of those communities such as Mushahars, doms, and Swachchakars, I can vouch that these are the communities remain at the margin because of their caste identities and are absolutely landless as well as homeless.
If they assert or don’t do their ‘traditional’ work or if there is any young boy or girl, who don’t want to follow their traditional ‘occupation’, they face economic boycott as well as physical violence. Most of the time, cases are never filed let alone any investigation on these caste violence even when ‘enough laws are there. In the fight against Corona, we clapped for the doctors and other health workers. How many of us know that the sanitation work belong to one community which is untouchable in India. This community of Swachchkaars lives in most humiliating condition and a large number of its youth die in cleaning the sewage system in our cities. The community faces untouchability not merely from the upper castes and upper elites but also with in the Dalit communities too. We are asked to ‘respect’ the sanitation workers but have we ever thought of what is the salary being given to them? Whether they have social security for them? How many of them died and what was the compensation given to them.
My understanding and work with them showed that they would work independently on their land rather than working at someone else’s domestic. Women among them prefer this and enjoy the freedom and respect the ownership of land give to them. Even a small piece of land has brought huge changes in the lives of people and protected them from humiliation and exploitation.
Protect nature and promote local food culture
Migration to cities increased because of caste violence in our villages and that resulted in the migrant becoming more vulnerable. There is a trend in Indian cities and states to give employment to ‘outsiders’ in the informal sector. The reason is that these ‘outsiders’ are mostly people from Dalit Adivasi communities and under deeply vulnerable circumstances they escape to cities to protect themselves from the caste humiliation and hence they are ready to work in less money to get work. Hence migration happened because of failed land reforms or to say it categorically because the Caste Hindus were never really interested in the empowerment of the marginalized communities. A Land Reform in the villages would have altered the existing power equations in the villages for which our caste supremacists won’t ever agree and therefore most of these landless have no other option to migrate to cities to save themselves from harassment and humiliation. Now, the order of migration is reverse, we will have to focus on radical land reforms, access to common property resources for not only ensuring dignity to India’s indigenous people like Dalits and Adivasis but also democratization of our society which is needed to protect our political democracy. Current crisis has given us an opportunity to undo the historical wrongs and work for an eco-culture which respects not merely dignity of human being but work to protect environment and work in complete harmony with nature. It is understandable that current crisis happened due to exploitation of nature and attempting to build a food mono culture all over the world. For years, indigenous people have survived because of their local knowledge system and food culture. We need to take a few lessons from them. Once agriculture is being developed for ‘commercial’ purposes or if we take it to corporatization, we will be exploiting our natural resources and only move towards the food mono culture. The alternative to current monopoly culture is to opt for radical land reforms, give land to landless and allow them build their family farming tree. For the future of our survival, agriculture needs to be part of life and not part of corporate. If we do not learn our lessons from this crisis, humanity will not survive. Corporatization means exploitation of our natural wealth or national or international wealth which we need to protect. Exploitation of natural resources has created huge climate crisis and if we have to protect humanity from these catastrophes, it is essential to delink agriculture from corporatization and allow it a mean to diversify through diverse community practices. A Comprehensive Agrarian Reform is the only way to protect nature as well as overcome poverty but if it became a mean to give corporate a control or monopoly to our food producing resources then none can save us from the revenge of the nature. Time for quick pro people action and the world will be better for ever.
References
[i] (Indian Express : https://indianexpress.com/article/india/migrant-crisis-coronavirus-india-lockdownnot-sure-if-well-reach-home-or-die-on-way-6407046/
[ii] https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/newsfeed/2020/04/indian-migrant-workers-sprayed-disinfectant-chemical-200406104936658.html
[iii] ( Shivam Viz : The Quint : https://theprint.in/opinion/indias-heartless-capitalists-deserve-the-labour-shortages-they-are-about-to-be-hit-with/418845/
[iv] https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/lockdown-in-india-has-impacted-40-million-internal-migrants-world-bank/article31411618.ece)
[v] https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/covid-19-lockdown-shocker-up-private-buses-charge-migrants-rs-1000-for-300-km-journey/570773
[vi] (https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/karnataka-govt-to-charge-one-way-bus-fare-from-migrants-returning-to-state/story-wnjXZY608B46P2S2uyn5eJ.html )
[vii] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/meerut/hit-by-lockdown-disappointed-vegetable-growers-in-west-up-destroy-standing-crop/articleshow/75542419.cms
[viii] (https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/now-telangana-farmers-can-only-grow-what-government-wants-84325)
[ix] (https://www.businesstoday.in/bt-buzz/news/bt-buzz-why-uttar-pradesh-labour-law-ordinance-is-unconstitutional/story/403509.html
[x] (https://indianexpress.com/article/india/panel-proposes-land-pooling-to-corporatise-agri-merging-mnrega-with-skilling-programmes-6408812/)
[xi] (https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/fm-announces-50-lakh-insurance-cover-for-health-workers/article31170696.ece}
[xii] (https://www.livemint.com/news/india/over-rs-68-600-cr-loans-of-wilful-defaulters-written-off-rbi-in-rti-reply-11588076928813.html)
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
COVID-19 Pandemic – Surpassing China, India’s Case Trajectory Racing Towards That of Europe!
by Dr P S Sahni
India has crossed 80,000 cases with no peak in sight in the near future after fifty-two days of lockdown; phase IV of lockdown will become effective from 18 May, 2020 onwards. The daily increase of cases even as of today is 5 %; with no hope of reaching under 1% in the foreseeable future. It means that unlike China, Indian health authorities did not do aggressive and adequate testing; so asymptomatic cases could not be detected and the infection continued to spread.
India has crossed 80,000 cases with no peak in sight in the near future after fifty-two days of lockdown; phase IV of lockdown will become effective from 18 May, 2020 onwards. The daily increase of cases even as of today is 5 %; with no hope of reaching under 1% in the foreseeable future. It means that unlike China, Indian health authorities did not do aggressive and adequate testing; so asymptomatic cases could not be detected and the infection continued to spread. The ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) – approved testing kits were returned back to the Chinese firms; if these were indeed faulty has anyone from ICMR/Union Health Ministry/All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) been punished for the initial approval? Delay in adequate testing raised the number of cases in India; this could have been prevented. India could have just followed the Chinese template of management. Indian Government did not.
China reached its peak of 80,000 cases within 40 days of clampdown (22/23 January – 1 March, 2020). About 20,00,000 tests were conducted in these 40 days. In the next 81 days the daily increase of cases stayed under 1%, nay a fraction of 1%. China continued the lockdown for a total of 77 days. When it lifted the lockdown the daily increase of cases was 0.08%. Thus at a total of 81740 cases on 6 April, the increase was by 62 cases on 7 April!!
After reaching 40,000 cases China doubled to 80,000 in 20 days (Doubling rate 20). India reached 40,000 cases on May 3 and doubled to 80,000 cases in 12 days on May 15. Our daily increase is 5% on 15 May. It is 5 divided by 0.08 or 62.5 times the Chinese growth rate on reaching 80,000 case mark!
Cabinet Ministers in the Indian Government were openly asking foreign countries to shift their manufacturing bases from China to India; these Minsters joined the motivated campaign of isolating China presumably at the instance of USA.
China offered help by way of sending medical experts; the Indian Government did not care to accept. The Indian Government all along took solace from the fact that a dozen odd countries mainly in Europe as also the USA were doing worse; whereas comparison should have been between the four Asian countries – more so China, South Korea, India. The Indian Government failed to learn from both the Chinese and South Korean experiences of managing the COVID-19 Pandemic faster and much better with less morbidity and mortality.
Dr. P. S. Sahni is an independent medico-legal researcher and member of ABVA. Email: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan@gmail.com
Who Is “Essential” to Our Covid-19 World
by Andrea Mazzarino
A Military Spouse’s Perspective on Fighting This Pandemic
Oppose Dilution of Labour Laws!!
by People's Union For Civil Liberties
PUCL is deeply concerned at the swiftness with
which many states in the nation are dismantling the protection afforded to workers under their various labour laws. These laws provide many of the basic guarantees to workers – ensuring that employees get paid decent wages on time, have reasonable working hours, and are not subject to discrimination. They require employers to provide basic necessities such as drinking water and clean toilets to workers, and protect them from accidents and occupational hazards and diseases. Labour laws are essential for ensuring fundamental rights for our workers
Transfer CA funds to Gram Sabhas, tribal rights groups demand
by Press Release
Transfer of CA funds to Forest Departments will allow land grabs for commercial plantations, will increase distress in Tribal areas
‘Quarantine’ World…..!
by Sheshu Babu
No humanity!
No
empathy !
No sympathy !
Only apathy !
This is sharply divided
‘Quarantine’ world…!
COVID-19: Past, Present, Future
by Amita Basu
COVID-19 is the latest in a long line of devastating zoonoses. Unless we radically alter our behaviour, it won’t be the last.
COVID-19 is the latest in a long line of devastating zoonoses. Unless we radically alter our behaviour, it won’t be the last.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is one of a family of coronaviruses, named for the wreaths that ‘coronate’ them. As of March 16, SARS-CoV-2 has infected 171,000 and killed 6,500. SARS-CoV-2, first reported in China, is from the same family as 2003’s SARS virus, also from China, that killed 775; and MERS, from Saudi Arabia, that has killed 282 people 2012-2019. These three diseases have more in common besides their kinship. They are all zoonoses: infectious diseases that came from nonhuman animals. SARS-CoV-2 came probably from pangolins; 2003’s SARS from civets; and MERS from dromedaries. All three coronaviruses jumped from nonhuman animals to humans. Throughout history, this has been the norm for the origin of human infectious disease.
Zoonoses are the norm
In 1962, infectious disease was declared a problem largely solved: thanks to vaccines, antibiotics, and public sanitation. Now, “emerging and re-emerging infections have become a significant worldwide problem,” declares PS Brachman, in the Journal of Epidemiology (2003). Infections like tuberculosis, endemic in Eurasia for centuries, have staged a comeback in drug-resistant forms. And new infections have emerged. Ebola. Zika. Swine flu. These are all zoonoses.
Like most organisms, pathogens specialise: as a hummingbird specialises in extracting nectar, so a pathogen specialises in exploiting one species/genus. Yet most major diseases of human history came from nonhuman animals: up to 75%. How does a pathogen of nonhuman animals evolve to infect humans?
Wolfe, Dunavan, and Diamond (2012) list the stages. At Stage One, a pathogen specialises in animals and cannot infect humans (barring blood transfusion etc.): this includes most species of malarial plasmodia, each of which specialises in one species of nonhuman mammal/bird/reptile. At Stage Two, a pathogen travelling from animal to human can sicken the human, but this infected human cannot spread the infection further (anthrax, rabies). At Stage Five, the pathogen has evolved to specialise in humans. For various reasons, many pathogens stay “stuck” at earlier stages. After millennia of close canine-human contact, the rabies virus remains at Stage Two. Whereas perhaps just a few centuries of close contact between humans and chimpanzees sufficed for SIV (S for ‘simian) to evolve into HIV.
Most major human pathogens originated in either (i) livestock species: cows alone ‘gave us’ smallpox, tuberculosis, and measles; or (ii) wild animals, generally encountered in hunting: HIV came from chimpanzees hunted in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1920s; Ebola in West Africa came from bats or nonhuman primates; 2003’s SARS came from bats via masked palm civets. A third route of transmission is indirect: (iii) a domesticated animal becomes a disease intermediary between a wild animal and a human. Influenza A, which kills 290,000-650,000 annually, came to humans via poultry, who got it from wild birds.
Differential ‘access’ to zoonoses shaped human history
Polymath scientist Jared Diamond’s 1997 bestseller Guns, Germs, And Steel traces the origin of major historical zoonoses to the Neolithic Revolution: when hunter-gatherers settled down to tend to crops and livestock. Large populations, crowded living, and close human-animal proximity encouraged zoonoses to specialise for human hosts; zoonoses became endemic (like most tropical diseases) or broke out in periodic pandemics (most temperate diseases). For biogeographical reasons, it was in Eurasia that most of the domesticable animals lived. It was primarily in Eurasia that these zoonotic ‘crowd diseases’ developed: periodically killing millions, but also conferring immunity to survivors. Survivors who were carriers. This accident of biogeography was to have profound historical impact: altering whole continents’ demographics and culture.
Zoonoses were the secret weapon that Europeans carried to the New World. This is the ‘germs’ part of the thesis of Guns, Germs, And Steel. Criticised on ideological grounds, the book holds up to scientific scrutiny: it was the advantage Eurasians had in advanced technology, central organisation, and an agricultural package that equipped them with deadly germs – that allowed the Old World to dominate the New. Guns helped: it was guns that allowed Spaniard Francisco Pizarro’s 168 men to defeat an Incan army 80,000 strong. But vastly more effective were the Europeans’ germs, notably smallpox of bovine origin: decimating, in many places, 65-90% of the New World’s population. Europeans also deliberately weaponised zoonoses against each other, and against Native Americans.
Zoonoses shaped human history and culture in other ways. Tropical zoonoses (malaria, sleeping sickness) shaped how Africans lived; these novel illnesses impeded Europeans’ progress through Africa and Asia; but Europeans also spread them to the Americas. Within Europe, zoonotic epidemics including the plague (from rats, attracted to agricultural communities’ surplus food and poor sanitation) increased the wages and bargaining power of surviving workers; they also slowed urbanisation.
The ubiquitous threat of infection has shaped, also, human psychology. It equipped us with the behavioural immune system: which makes us over-vigilant to signs of infection, motivates xenophobia, enforces conformity to social norms, and biases our mating preferences.
Zoonoses are emerging and reemerging
To some extent, these historical infectious diseases have been contained (many diseases of temperate origin have been virtually eradicated; tropical diseases have become treatable, but still impose huge costs). In recent decades, novel zoonoses have caused several pandemics: H1N1, originating in Mexico’s large-scale pig pens, killed 150,000-575,000 in the first year; since it was recognised in 1982, chimpanzee-derived HIV has killed 35 million. And older diseases have reemerged: malaria, tuberculosis. As we struggle to contain COVID-19, let’s not forget the huge costs of established zoonoses: tuberculosis killed 1.5 million Indians in 2018 alone.
New patterns of human behaviour are driving both reemerging (tuberculosis) and emerging (COVID-19) zoonoses. These include: rapid growth of population and urbanisation (many zoonoses are ‘crowd diseases’); contact with wildlife via hunting, transporting wild animals live, and keeping wild animals as pets; frequent long-range travel; and poor sanitation and nutrition in many densely-populated regions. The reemergence of old diseases has been fuelled by antibiotic resistance: a major challenge for the medical community, and one that has also empowered pathogens once mostly harmless. Antibiotic resistance also occurs in livestock, partly fuelled by the practice of administering chronic subclinical doses of antibiotics: a cheap way to fatten livestock. Livestock antibiotic-resistance is a particular problem in emerging economies, including India: affecting not just livestock, but the people who eat them or live around them. Whether in humans or livestock, antibiotic resistance is not just an economic problem: it is a crisis of global public health.
Highly infectious emerging and reemerging zoonoses have one thing in common: they transcend social boundaries, forcing us to acknowledge our common humanity. Today, young people, at low risk of severe COVID-19, are being beseeched to take precautions: for the sake of their elderly contacts, if not their own. (Some governments initially claimed that asymptomatic individuals couldn’t transmit the disease; this is now in question). Of course, like everything else, zoonoses disproportionately affect those already disadvantaged; influencers are beseeching us to stay home to ‘flatten the curve’ so that everyone who needs care can get it, also to keep in mind what illness and shutdowns may do to those of us who can’t afford to stay home. (Washington Post’s interactive COVID-19 simulator demonstrates transmission dynamics.)
Moving forward
How should we act to contain, not only COVID-19, but all zoonoses – and, more broadly, all infectious disease? Clearly, not by killing animals. After 2003’s SARS outbreak, palm civets were decimated: a tragedy for the cat, whose only fault was being hunted by humans. Nor will the international blame game do any good: zoonoses have come from everywhere, and are a risk anywhere humans come into close contact with any nonhuman animal.
What we must do is to ban, or strictly limit and regulate, the international wildlife trade. This trade, driven largely by Chinese demand, includes wild rhino horns; ivory; and bones, skin, and genitalia from farmed or poached tigers. The origins of SARS-CoV2 are still being investigated; it probably came from pangolins in a live wildlife market in Wuhan. (Wuhan was also the origin of 2003’s SARS outbreak.) Chinese traditional medicine encourages consuming wild animal parts: though there’s no evidence for their benefit, and though synthetic substitutes are often available.
It was in the 1970s, when the Chinese government responded to famine by opening up agriculture to private industry, that China’s longstanding appetite for wildlife began to be met. Today, China’s farming and trade of wildlife is a massive market: in 2016, the food-related sector alone was worth 125 billion yuan, and employed 6.3 million people.
The Chinese government has sent mixed messages about wildlife trade. South China Morning Post reports: “The Chinese government has long encouraged the commercial use of wild animals.” 2003’s post-SARS ban on wildlife trade lasted only six months before lobbyists got it reversed. Even when laws do exist – e.g. banning the trade of specific animals – China has enforced them poorly. Pangolins, the probable source of SARS-CoV-2, are an endangered animal, and were illegal to trade in China: but were nonetheless found at Wuhan’s market, suggesting that what laws do exist are poorly enforced. On the other hand, in 2018, China legalised sale of rhino and tiger parts: though both animals are critically endangered.
Clearly, so massive an industry, and so deeprooted a cultural demand, cannot be erased overnight; a premature law would only drive the business underground, increasing its potential for harm. But a series of zoonotic outbreaks – and now this pandemic – forces us to confront that, besides ethics and conservation, public health is threatened by the wildlife trade.
Polls indicate overwhelming Chinese support for a permanent ban of the wildlife trade; many consumers simply don’t know the costs of their consumption, and are horrified to learn it. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has already imposed another ban; as of now, it’s unlikely to be permanent, or to be actually enforced if permanent. The world must pressure China to do better. China houses much of the demand in the wildlife market: but the origin of the goods is often in countries across Asia and Africa, where legal loopholes and poor enforcement allow poaching. We must petition international governments to amend laws and improve enforcement. To protect wildlife and to protect human health.
Further, we need decisive action to improve international cooperation during epidemics, and public health access within nations. World citizens must be educated in the dangers of wildlife trade. Individuals in close contact with wildlife must be monitored. Antibiotic resistance must be addressed. The anti-vaccination movement has already caused an outbreak of measles, which had been virtually eradicated; this baseless and destructive movement must be swiftly dealt with. More than any other advantage of civilisation, vaccination works only if everyone participates. Liberty of thought is important: even the liberty to hold baseless beliefs. But the right to life is more important still.
As citizens and as advocates, we must demand structural reform to reduce the enormous cost of zoonoses. If we don’t, sooner or later business-as-usual will resume, and the clock will start ticking down to the next zoonotic pandemic.
Amita Basu is a graduate student of cognitive science. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Flash Fiction Magazine, Kelp, Fearsome Critters, The Bookends Review, Potato Soup Journal, Gasher, Star 82 Review, Proem, St. Katherine Review, Entropy, Muse India, Dove Tales, Novel Noctule, and The Right-Eyed Deer. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Curious Reader, Deccan Herald, Qrius, Countercurrents, and Parent Edge. She has finished a collection of literary short stories, and is working on a mystery novel about art. She lives in Bangalore, India. Her blog and links to published pieces are at https://amitabasu.wordpress.com/
Civil Societies issue statement calling for adequate measures for the vulnerable groups during Coronavirus pandemic
by Press Release
The world faces an unprecedented moment of crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing humanity’s resilience to the limit and has vast impacts on the wider social, economic and environmental fabric of our world.
What happened to ‘failed state’ thesis?
by Bhabani Shankar Nayak
The
Coronavirus pandemic and failures of capitalist states provide an opportunity to interrogate the ideas and objectives around the ‘failed state’ and expose its conceptual ambiguity, theoretical absurdity and empirical fallacies.
Great Opportunity to Promote REVERSE Migration to Villages
by Prem Verma
The Indian economy is in doldrums and the Government rightly is experimenting with various stimuli to kick-start the economy. This is the right time to provide the MSME sector with incentive and support and motivate them to shift to the rural sector for the long term benefits of a contented work force. The cities consequently will get decongested and heave a sigh of relief. Let us get back to the Gandhian model and make the villages of this country the pulsating veins of economic growth with simplicity, humility and empathy.
A reader’s love note: tribute to RV Smith
by Aatika Singh
It is rare to come across a person like Ronald Vivian Smith these days. The message of his ill timed demise during a state of widespread anxiety and impoverishment has come like a jolt of thunder. It feels as if a close family member has passed away into oblivion with all the precious stories still buried deep inside his youthful heart full of many secrets about his beloved city of Dilli with whom he had a lovely and long stint of sixty years.
My solemn tribute to journalist Fakhre Alam
by Saifur Rahman Saif
Farkhre Alam of Bangladesh was not just a journalist, but also a poet and writer. He never speaks, but tells stories. In fact, when he speaks he talks as if he is telling stories. He was a contemporary journalist. He wrote smoothly with colloquial Bangla language, for which he had his own style.
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