Travails of Zakia

By Ram Puniyani
The metropolitan court on 26th December 2013 exonerated Narendra Modi and 59 others for their complicity in the Gujarat carnage. Fully accepting the report of SIT (Special Investigation Team) the court endorsed the view of Modi and Government about their role in the carnage.
The Court rejected a petition seeking the prosecution of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal riots case. There were varied reactions to this. Mrs Jafri broke down but vowed to continue her legal battle. She has alleged that Mr. Modi colluded with senior ministers, bureaucrats and the police to facilitate the communal violence that tore through the state.

A Nobel for Malala

Pic: NYTimes

By Ram Puniyani                                                        

Pakistan has been facing innumerable troubles, not entirely due to its own faults. The whole politics of oil, the designs of Empire and the subservience of Mullah-Military complex to the US designs have brought in lot of misery in the region. Currently one is painfully witnessing the plight of a young girl, Malala Yususzai, (Age 15) who is battling for her life after she was shot twice by the Taliban. (October 2012) Her ‘crime’ has been that she dared to defy the Taliban dictats and expressed her longing for education for herself, and for the education of other girls. When Taliban became powerful in Swat valley they shut down girls’ schools and women were banned from social space till Pakistan got control over the area, but still Taliban’s influence in the area did not vanish.

Fears of a Militant Resurgence Loom in Kashmir as Territorial Dispute is Revived at UN Forum

Pic-news.bbc.uk

By Animesh Roul
The security situation in the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state of India has reached a new low in the past few months as militant organizations backed by Islamabad have stepped up a campaign of politically-motivated violence by targeting vital infrastructure in the region and attacking civil society members. The region’s status remains disputed by Pakistan, which refers to J&K as “Indian-occupied Kashmir.” In what seems to be a shift in terrorist tactics, the militants have begun focusing on soft targets such as workers, engineers and village-level political representatives.

On September 23, armed militants in Kashmir’s Baramulla District shot and killed local headman Mohammad Shafi Teli, affiliated to the ruling Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC). Earlier in the month, Ghulam Mohammad Yatoo, sarpanch (elected village chief) of Raipora village, was killed on September 10. These assassinations, similar to others carried out this year, suggest that the militants have resorted to these tactics to undermine ongoing grassroots democratic efforts in the troubled region.

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India Growth: The untold story –Caste as social capital

By Prof. R Vaidyanathan

Indian economy has been growing at a compounded average growth rate [CAGR] of more than 8.5 percent in the last five years. [1].The largest segment of the economy namely the service sector accounting for nearly 65 percent is also the fastest growing sector. We find that the share of non-corporate sector namely partnership /proprietorship firms in the service sector are significant. It is more than 70 % in activities like trade, hotels and restaurants, transport and other areas like plumber/carpenter/painter/mason/priest etc. Domestic savings have been the primary source of funding of this growth. They constitute nearly 90 percent and the role of Foreign Institutional Investments [FII] and Foreign Direct investments [FDI] has never been more than 10 percent. Of this domestic savings; the role of House hold savings is phenomenal and it constitutes nearly 75% of the domestic savings. Hence the growth is due to households in service sector facilitated by self-financing or financing by extended families/communities. Different castes/communities have played important role in this growth in terms of capital formation, market access; risk mitigation and diversification etc.

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Indian Navy: Developing ‘Arctic Sea Legs

pic-en.wikipedia.org

By- Vijay Sakhuja
Two Russian built warships with the same name i.e. Admiral Gorshkov have been making news in the last few weeks. The first vessel is an aircraft carrier which was sold to India in 2004 and is rechristened as INS Viramaditya. It has been plagued in controversy due to costs and time over runs. The pre-delivery trials of the ship were unsuccessful and according to reports, the vessel will have to wait till the White Sea ice melts during the summer of 2013 to complete the trials. During their meeting in New Delhi earlier this month, the Russian defence minister had assured his counterpart that INS Vikramaditya would be handed over to the Indian Navy in the fourth quarter of 2013. Although the Indian side is disappointed and had contemplated to invoke the penalty clause, it was decided that the Indian Navy should keep a skeleton staff onboard and wait for the next summer to conduct sea trials.

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Benefits of FDI In Retail –Busting the Myths

– By Avinash Bhat

From the day the Government of India notified FDI in Retail allowing foreign companies to have 51% stake, there has been a flurry of opinions both for and against allowing Big Retailers like Walmart an entry into India. Though most of the opinions have been in support of the move there have been a few voices of caution against the entry of Big Box Retail. Most of the debate arguing why Kiranas won’t be hit, are sadly backed by very limited empirical evidence in terms of similar experiences in other countries. Let us look at some the biggest arguments in favor of FDI and examine why they might well turn out to be pipe dreams:

Feminists Demand Property Law without proper data

Pic- thehindu.com

-By Legal Fighter

The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010, that sought to make divorce easier, has always been in news. And one of the major reasons why this bill was in discussion was because of property-division clause which sought to transfer more than 50% of husband’s property to wife in the event of a divorce.

And this radical proposition was made on the basis of claims made by feminists which said, “Studies have shown that in 80% cases women are rendered homeless after divorce.” This news was carried by the Times of India. In order to confirm the news, I sent an application to the Right to Information Act (RTI) to the Ministry of Law and Justice asking the following information for the last 10 years from 2002 – 2012.

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Kaveri River Water Sharing : What Are The Solutions?

Pic- inMysore

By Kiran K S

Kaveri or Cauvery river is one of the 7 holiest rivers for Hindus. In many Dharmic poojas, the water filled into the kalasha or holy vessel, is adored with a chant. “Gange cha Yamune chaiva, Godavari Saraswati. Narmada Sindhu Kaveri, Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru”. It essentially means the water being used for the worship of Bhagawan or Bhagawati, is as sacred as the combination of all 7 holy rivers.

Kaveri is the “Jeeva Nadi” or life sustaining river. It is very highly revered by both Kannada (also Kodava) and Tamil people. You can hear 100s of celebratory songs like the super hit song Kodagina Kaveri . You can also see many customary celebrations like Aadi Perukku which is a very special time for Kaveri delta people. In short, SHE is the mother for those who live along its banks.. and SHE is theirs! These people do not understand the artificial linguistic state formation boundaries, politics, courts and other systems.

But today, when you hear Kaveri, what comes to your mind? If you are a person from Tamil Nadu (or Pudhucherry for some part) the “villain” is a state to the north west, Karnataka. If you are from Karnataka (or to some extent Kerala), the “villain” is a state to the south east, Tamil Nadu. And, this is not something that is for just 2012 or 2007 or 2002 or 1991.. this is happening for over 200 years now. The holiest of rivers adored and worshiped as “Kaveri Maata” or Mother Kaveri, has become a humongous political, agricultural, legal, economic and propaganda fight in South India. It does not even leave students or movie industry folks..

Why did this happen? How did this happen? Is there any way out, even if the process is gradual?

For that some basics will be needed. No, I am not going to present every detail about how the dispute got magnified till this time. There are enough resources in internet, court papers, government documents and in media for you to read through. Also, if you are reading till here, most likely you have a special interest in this case, as for most India out of South India, this is just one of those “burning” issues that keep coming up again and again. Like Telangana, Amarnath Yatra, state border disputes and more. Not much interest will be left by now, for those folks. So this is for only those who have a stake in Kaveri water or those who want a peaceful south India in the long run. I am in no way an expert in this topic, but since I drink Kaveri water every day, I have special interest in learning more from my readers here. For that I will present what I have understood about the topic and seek your comments and/or corrections.

Read the full article here 

Why can’t the Sexual Harassment at Workplace law be gender neutral?

By Legal Fighter

Expose: Women and Child Ministry is desperately trying to get an anti-male extortionary bill passed despite severe opposition from the country regarding the same.

Men’s Rights Organizations, representing more than 50% of the population of the country have already highlighted the unconstitutional nature of the proposed bill for sexual harassment at workplace.

Crucial Points:

1. Based on presentations made by men’s rights organizations, The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources Development had also recommended that the law should be made gender neutral and men must be provided protection, at par with women.
2. We fail to understand the problem in making the law gender neutral, for, if women don’t harass men, then there would be no complaints filed against them or very less complaints filed against them.
3. There are already so many sections in the IPC that cater to sexual harassment and indecent representation of women. But this law is not being made to provide justice. It is being created just to make another channel of extortion from men by blackmailing them.
4. It is ironical that the Government of India is ready to provide protection to men from sexual assault but not from sexual harassment.
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Who is in Whose Land? Thackeray Family’s Bihar Connection

By- Ram Puniyani
India is facing lot of communal-ethnic strife where the place of origin and religion of people is the marker due to which they are attacked. Many a retrograde political ideologies are based on the ‘first comer’ assertions. The deeper problems related to social resources, economic deprivations and socio-political inequalities are being presented as problems related region or religion of people. In Mumbai(Bombay), one can see this in its extreme form, in the politics of Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Both these outfits have a regional-religious chauvinist agenda. They switch from region to religion at the drop of the hat. They also keep combining the two in the aggressive street politics.