South Asia Citizens Web

The vibrant presence of hundreds of thousands of women pitted against the mighty assault of state and capital in today’s context of resource plunder in Odisha needs to be reflected upon to locate them in the same Odia society. Who are these women who we meet in the many resistance struggles of Odisha? They are the ordinary women, otherwise largely invisible, trying to hold onto their livelihood, trying to protect it for their children from the rapaciousness of the state and capital.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) notes with the greatest alarm and anxiety the distressing events that transpired at Weliweriya in the Gampaha District of the Western Province last Thursday, 1st August 2013.

The forthcoming elections to the Indian Parliament are very crucial as the major political parties are in some sort of disarray and the other electoral outfits do not look to be strong enough to take up the challenge of spearheading the electoral process. They are also fragmented and not in a position to come to power on their own. While these equations are going on, despite not being in the best of health BJP at times shows signs of gearing up to take the centre stage, especially through the projection of Narendra Modi, who is a sort of darling of the big industrialists and a hero of sections of middle class, the IT-MBA class, and other communalized sections of society. BJP is the political arm of RSS, the organization trying to push the country towards Hindu Rashtra through its agenda of Hindutva.

It is a climb that Pramod Kumar Jena is not likely to forget in a hurry. On July 24, as the Niyamgiri hill range was enveloped in a thin film of rain, the Kalahandi Additional District Judge-cum-Special Judge (Vigilance) set off on perhaps the most difficult trek of his 55-year-old life as he prepared to walk up to Kunakadu village.

If it’s racism in the US and African-Americans its prime target, it’s communalism in India and Muslims its worst victims. Of course, a Muslim as the Prime Minister of India is beyond our wildest imagination.