South Asia Citizens Web

The below letter was handed yesterday [13 Sept 2017] to the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, by the signatories, on behalf of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha. The Finance Minister read the letter carefully and thanked the delegation, but did not comment.

SA Iyers’s piece in Times of India dated 10 Sept 2017, "Why many tribals don’t mind being ousted by dams", examining the condition of some of the oustees of Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam, (https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/why-many-tribals-dont-mind-being-ousted-by-dams/ ) is a classic case of misinterpretation of data, hiding the more important issues, and conclusions not supported by research findings. Indeed, a proper reading of the article itself shows that unlike Iyer’s assertion, his own figures show that tribals do mind being ousted. Some important points are given below.

If you judge the calibre of an editor by the quality of her enemies, Gauri Lankesh was one of India’s best. She was murdered on September 5 by three gunmen who attacked as she entered her Bangalore home. The killing shocked the Indian media.

Gauri Lankesh opposed the communal totalitarian politics of the BJP and its twisted interpretation of Hinduism. She stood against the caste system, inequality, and gender discrimination.

“Can political violence be feminist?” is the question behind Patricia Melzer’s exciting study of women within the West German militant Left of the 1970s.