December 2009

At a time when there is growing concern about the causes of increasing discontent and alienation among tribals, it is important to recall a very important law for improving the governance of the Scheduled Areas in such a way as to protect the interests of tribals. The reference here is to the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (briefly called the PESA law). If this Act had been properly implemented then many causes of discontent and alienation could have been removed by now (…)

The encouragement and patronage of the then Speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, Harbans Lal, prompted the then Chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, Adampur (Hisar), Bhajan Lal, to join State politics in 1965. The defection of the Congress MLA from Adampur, Hari Singh Dabra, in 1967 facilitated his success in getting the Congress ticket in the 1968 mid-term elections. The defection of the only Bishnoi MLA, Mani Ram Godara, also made his task easier as Bhajan Lal was the sole serious (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Between Terrorism and Global Governance by Roberto Toscano; Har-Anand Publication; 2009; pp. 109; Price Rs 250.
This lean but compact book hardly running into 100 pages on global governance and terrorism represents relevant and profitable fusion of academic approach with the operative insight gleaned from the experience of working as a professional diplomat in different capacities in different fora of the world. The author has identified the causes and offered concrete (…)

COMMUNICATION
The common man has always considered the judiciary to be the last resort of relief. This hope has been belied by the MP High Court’s verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. What a silver anniversary gift! The shameful fact that no one has yet been held responsible for the ghastly crime, adds insult to the injury suffered by the living dead of Bhopal. This case has once again proved as to how cheap human life is in our country. Whose life is it, anyway? Not that of a Minister, (…)

Introduction
The phenomenon of disability is one of the pressing problems in the world. According to the projections of international agencies, about 10 per cent of the population are affected with physical, mental, sensory and other forms of impairments and around 75 per cent of the disabled population are concentrated in the rural and inaccessible areas of the developing societies. This data is based on recent studies carried out in various developed and developing countries as also (…)

COMMUNICATION
P.V. Narasimha Rao’s letter to the editor of Mainstream and Chanchal Sarkar’s article (October 31) reminded me that November 3, 2009 is Nikhil-da’s 96th birth anniversary. I had the good fortune of knowing him when I was in Kolkata. I was a member of the undivided CPI. As I was associated with the Bandar Local Committee and with trade union activities, I also used to do some office work at the Central District Committee. Thus, I had the privilege of meeting many party (…)

DOCUMENT
Statement of Women’s Organisations on increasing State Violence on People’s Movements and Sexual Violence on Women by the Police, Paramilitary and Army
We, the undersigned representatives of women’s organisations and individuals, are deeply shocked and disturbed by the Indian Government’s armed offensive by paramilitary and armed forces in the adivasi-dominant forest areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. This (…)

A Division Bench of Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar, in its 105-page order given on July 2, 2009 on a PIL plea by Delhi-based non-government organisation Naz Foundation, said: “We declare that Section 377 of the IPC (the controversial law on homosexuality which goes back 149 years when Lord Macaulay introduced the section in the IPC) insofar as it criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private, is violative of Articles 21 [Right to Protection of Life and Personal (…)

The following is a statement issued on behalf of the Citizens Initiative for Peace.
While there were indications from the government as well as the Maoists some time back that they were prepared to consider the idea of a dialogue as proposed by the Citizens Initiative for Peace and other groups, the CIP notes with deep concern that operations by the security forces of the Central and State governments have already been launched in several States causing untold miseries to the tribal people (…)

The world’s biggest industrial disaster took place in Bhopal on December 3, 1984 taking a toll of 20,000 lives and affecting 5.69 lakh people. The twentyfifth anniversary of that massive mishap at the Union Carbide plant in the city is being observed across the country today.
That disaster is a crying shame for all our citizens. Why? For three reasons. First, the real culprit behind the mishap, the Union Carbide management, got away real cheap—the Union Government reached a (…)