The Movement of India by The Movement Of India

Editorial Team Anand Mazgaonkar Arundhati Dhuru Ashish Ranjan Madhuresh Kumar Meera Sanghamitra Advisory Team Aruna Roy Gabriele Dietrich Medha Patkar Sanjay MG SG Vombatkere SR Suniti Design & Layout: Amit Kumar Cover Photo Credits: www.sabrangindia.in

Send in Subscription, Sponsorship, Donation and Articles to: National Alliance of People’s Movements C/O - 6/6, Basement, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi, 110014, India Contact: +91 11 24374535 Email: napmindia@gmail.com | movementofindia@gmail.com

Subscription Rates India and South Asia India and South Asia (Institutional)

One year 200 400

Three Years 500 1000

Life Subscription 1000 2500

TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial 2 FEATURE 3-21 The Politics of COVID-19 Vaccination 3 - Dr Anant Phadke Shutting Down the Parliament: People’s Parliament Shows the Way 9 - Justice A P Shah Delhi Riots: Is the Investigation Itself a Conspiracy? 12 - Apoorvanand, Harsh Mander, Ors Remembering Fukushima 15 - Soumya Dutta Unmindful Development will Lead to Permanent Pandemic 20 - Prafulla Samantara

POLICY 22-38 Why the Farmers are Asking for a Repeal of the 3 Farm Acts? - Kisan Sansad The Disturbing Context of the Issuance of the Draft EIA Notification 2020 - Coalition for Environmental Justice in India Review the National Education Policy 2020 - Suhas Kolhekar

22 32 37

STATES 39-42 Tamil Nadu: A Victory For Farmers at the End of the Pandemic Year - Gabriele Dietrich Learning to Create Our Own Stories - Kanika and Kamayani Swami

39 41

CAMPAIGN 43-45 We Shall Speak / Hum to Bolenge - NAPM

MOVEMENTS & STRUGGLES 46-57 News & Updates 46 Curbing the Freedom of Dissenting Media - NAPM

EDITORIAL Dear Readers, 2020. It was a year which many of us would like to forget. It turned out to be a year like never before, not for some but for everyone. Millions suffered and lost their lives due to Corona virus. Those who survived, world over, faced immense misery and difficulties cutting across class lines, from physical, fiscal to mental health woes. But then government’s saw their power rising, many choosing to veer towards authoritarianism, pushing more economic reforms, depriving citizens of their democratic rights and freedoms in name of containing the pandemic among others. Businesses and ruling political and financial elite used the pandemic as an occasion to increase their wealth and political power and continue to benefit in its aftermath. The pandemic is far from over even after a year and many parts of the world are still living under restrictions of various kind, with a big restriction on international travel. Vaccine programmes in many countries have rolled out but even as we write this, several countries have halted their vaccination programme due to questions over efficacy of one of the vaccines. At the current rate, it will take a couple of years before the whole world could have access to the vaccination. Everyone agrees on the seriousness of the pandemic but when it comes to the agreement over its cure and collective measures then the politics and greed takes precedence. There are still a handful of countries trying to protect the patents for the vaccine, as witnessed at the WTO negotiations recently, rather than making it accessible to everyone. What the pandemic made us realise that the virus doesn’t recognise physical boundaries and has travelled freely in the last times. The concepts like nation-states, union and coalition of nations like European Union, G-7, G-20 and others became redundant for a time when travel within European Union became restricted and each country closed their borders. The existing fault lines within the society became starker as millions died because of lack of access to health services and then those faced hunger and unemployment. But amidst all this we also witnessed the human compassion and solidarity cutting across existing boundaries too, which showed that humanity is not dead and we as a society can brave this together. What also came as a relief that despite the authoritarian tendencies and the health pandemic citizens across the world from Belarus, Algeria, Lebanon, Thailand, China, USA, Chile, Argentina to India came together to fight for their rights and oppose the forces of patriarchy, militarisation, capitalism and authoritarian governments. They showed the human spirit of collective endeavour for freedom and peace despite the repression and waves of arrests of activists and dissenters. In India, we are seeing the unfolding of the farmers protests across the country even when government has failed to address the grievances of the farming community and have unleashed worst forms of vilification and criminalisation of dissent going beyond the protesting farmers. The government’s action is not limited to the farm laws, but they used the pandemic to change the labour laws, environment laws and out restrictions on freedom of association and speech. As we look ahead to the ongoing elections in five states, we are hoping that the democratic processes will give a befitting reply to the politics of hate and terror and vote for those who will stand to defend the constitutional values of the country.

FEATURE Differential Response to Epidemics by the Elites !

Just a word about the welcome, energetic response of the elites in India to the Covid-epidemic but the neglect of the much deadly, prolonged epidemic of tuberculosis. By the first week of January 2021, in India, about 1.5 lakh people have died of Covid-19 in last 10 months. This is of course most deplorable and the hue and cry about this epidemic is quite justified. What is problematic is the silence about more than 4 lakh TB deaths every year, especially when this number has not declined during last 60 years! This is despite the availability of very good diagnostic technology and very effective medicines. This silence is because TB is primary a disease of the poor!

THE POLITICS OF COVID-19 VACCINATION

he attempt to develop a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19 disease and permission given to it in India have been riddled with contradictions. The main contradiction is between the fantastic techno-scientific development regarding Covid-19 vaccine versus the limitations imposed by vaccine nationalism and the politics of profit-hungriness of giant pharma companies.

- Dr. Anant Phadke

phase-III testing, eight have received limited or emergency use approval, and two have been approved for full use. However, patenting even for these Covid-vaccines is a sore point because the pharma companies have benefited hugely by so many non-profit inputs. There are welcome exceptions to patenting of Covid-vaccines - The Oxford University is not charging any patent fee to Astra-Zeneca, the British pharma company which is manufacturing its vaccine and who also has declared that it will not make any profit on this vaccine till the pandemic id over.

WELCOME NON-PROFIT INITIATIVES Usually, it takes from 5 to 15 years to develop a new vaccine because it is an extraordinarily challenging work for the scientists and technologists. However, the SARS-Cov-2 virus is similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS viruses on which considerable work had already been done. This helped tremendously to expedite the development of SARS-Cov-2-vaccine. For example, the Moderna mRNA vaccine was developed in record time. It entered phase I human trial just 63 days after the availability of the genome sequence!; the latter was available in record time by January 11, 2020!! Thanks to the initiative by WHO and some international agencies, there was consensus among scientists to have parallel phases of clinical testing and reviewing of data to expedite the research process of phase-I, phase-II trials instead of the usual method of sequential process. Large investments by governments (for example, financial help from the US govt. for the Moderna mRNA vaccine) and innovative financial models helped pharmaceutical companies to work on developing the vaccine without having to face the financial risk entirely. Currently more than sixty SARS-Cov-2 vaccines are in human clinical trials, of which twenty have reached

The ‘Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator’ (ACT Accelerator) is the global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. ‘COVAX vaccines pillar’, another international coalition, is speeding up the search for an effective vaccine for all countries. It is planning to distribute free of charge, 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 to developing countries including India. However, the interests of the profit-centric pharma corporations and the nationalistic postures (bordering chauvinism) by different right-wing governments have vitiated such global humanist responses to this unprecedented health crisis. Here I would limit myself to the experience in India to illustrate this broader point of the harm done by profit-centric pharma companies and by nationalistic postures. PECULIAR TRAJECTORY OF THE EPIDEMIC IN INDIA There is a great deal of difference in the trajectory of the Covid-19 epidemic in developing countries like India and that in the West. The number of Covid-19 cases per million population in

developing countries is comparatively far less (Sri Lanka – 2600, Bangladesh- 3200, India – 7700) as compared to European countries and the US (Germany – 25000, UK- 52000, France 46000, US76000). The reasons are unclear. But it seems that firstly there is much lower proportion of urban population and much lower social interactions in developing countries. Secondly, there is much higher incidence of all kinds of infections compared to these developed countries. This seems to have led to much higher prevalence of “innate immunity” in people resulting in the much lower prevalence of Covid-19 disease.

times that of the recorded cases, i.e. about 300 million. This is corroborated by the results of the second national sero-surveillance in midAugust and of the other local sero-surveys, which showed that 30% to 60% plus people have been infected with SARS-Cov-2 virus and have therefore developed immunity to Covid-19 disease. Over all one can see that at least 30 crore Indians have already been infected with SARS-Cov-2 and have developed immunity to Covid-19 disease. Given the above, in India in recent months, there has been a steady march of this epidemic towards what is called as herd immunity. For an epidemic to recede, it is not necessary that hundred percent of the population be infected and thereby get immunity against the infection. If majority of the people get infection and hence immunity, the remaining get protection from infection. This is called ‘herd’ immunity, i.e. immunity from getting infection even without developing antibodies etc but on account of merely being part of the ‘herd’. For herd immunity to develop, the proportion of people who need to get infected is a variable. SARS-Cov-2 virus is far more infectious than the Swine Flu virus but less infectious than the measles virus. The number of people to whom the one infected person transmits infection, is called ‘R-not’ factor. In case of SARS-Cov-2 virus the ‘R-not’ is 2, meaning one SARS-Cov-2 infected person will infect on an average, two persons. This rate of transmission also depends upon how frequently people meet each other and how; how frequently and for how long are ‘close contacts taking place. Taking such factors into account, India’s leading senior epidemiologist Dr Jayprakash Muliyil has argued that in India if 40% of the rural population and 60% of the urban population gets immunity either through natural infection of SARS-Cov-2 virus, or through vaccination, the remaining will get heard immunity. Thus, we can say that when approximately 70 crore Indians get immunity, the rest will be protected through herd immunity. The epidemic will fade away but Covid-19 disease will continue in endemic form as has happened with the swine flu.

Deaths per million in developing countries including in India, are about one tenth compared to that in Europe and US. The votaries of the ruling establishment are posing this as the achievement of the Indian govt. But the fact is - this lower mortality is there in many south Asian developing countries. The lower mortality in India is despite the pathetic health care system and is due to two main reasons – Firstly the prevalence of Covid-infections is much lower as pointed out above. Secondly compared to the developed countries, much less proportion of Indians (8%) is above sixty years of age, the agegroup in which there is highest Covid-mortality. There have been a little more than ten million recorded Covid infections in India by January end 2021. However, the total number of people in India infected with SARS-Cov-2 virus is much, much larger. This is because majority of Covid infections lead to minor symptoms and in India most people with minor symptoms are not interested in reporting these symptoms to the health authorities and to get tested; some of them are also afraid of undergoing the PCR test because of the stigma around people who are Covid-positive. The govt health workers approaching all the contacts of Covid-positive cases to test them for Covid-infection is relatively less compared to the developed countries and hence many contacts of Covid-positive cases remain undetected. Lastly, about 20% of people who get Covid infection have absolutely no symptoms at all and hence most of them are not detected and counted as Covid infections. Experts have therefore pointed out that the number of actual Covid infections is about 30

We can see in India the progress towards herd immunity. In India the epidemic peaked in the

first week of September with almost one lakh new cases per day. However, subsequently this number declined and in the fourth week of the New Year, we have only 10,000 new cases per day. We had feared that India will have a second peak after Diwali (because of great deal of social interactions during Diwali) but fortunately this fear has been belied. There has been some sort of second wave in some places and even a third wave in Delhi. But on the whole, now there has been a decline in most parts. This is in stark contrast to the experience in Europe and the US where the second wave was much worse than the first one and many European countries had to impose a lockdown around December-end. In India if the current trend continues, the Covid-19 epidemic would gradually fade away by the end of 2021; may be before the coming winter or after it.

flu pandemic in 1918. Secondly thanks to the miraculous scientific technical developments, for the first time in human history we have a vaccine which is being given in the first epidemic of a new disease in order to overcome it. All other vaccines have only prevented epidemics and have protected individuals or groups of individuals from certain viral infections like flu. Despite this welcome development, we also need to understand that at least in countries like India, the Covid-19 epidemic is now already on the decline and hence the vaccine will have a limited yet welcome, important role. Vaccination programme launched by the Indian govt from 16th January will first cover all kinds of health workers and frontline workers totaling about 3 crores. It is planned that after this, all the people above the age of 50 years totaling 27 crores will be vaccinated. There is also a need to vaccinate all people under 50 years of age, who have co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic lung disease, HIV infection, people with suppressed immunity etc. etc. All these together total about 40-50 crore Indians to be vaccinated on a priority. Currently the government has set up only 3000 Covid vaccine centres giving 100 shots a day, a total of 3 lakh vaccines a day. At this rate it will take hundred days to cover the 3 crore people, and 1000 days to cover the 30 crore priority people! (Additional problem - because of the wide-spread vaccinehesitancy currently only about two instead of three lakh people are being vaccinated daily.)

THE ROLE OF COVID-VACCINE IN THE EPIDEMIC AND IT’S POLITICS COVID-19 vaccine is the first vaccine in the world which will help to end an ongoing pandemic. All other vaccines have been helpful in prevention of epidemics. In India too since it is going to be at least some months before the epidemic fades away, there is still an important role for a vaccine. However, the talk about the vaccine as a savoir in this epidemic is nonsense. From the 16th January the government has launched the national Covid vaccination programme with a big hype about it. The claims and expectations about vaccine’s role in overcoming this epidemic are unrealistic and more of propagandist. They have a political role in that the government would claim the credit for overcoming the epidemic due to its vaccination drive when in fact most of the work of controlling the epidemic has already happened.

It is pretty clear that the existing government preparation, speed is most grossly inadequate to timely vaccinate these 30 crore top priority people. So there is a great need to rapidly, massively expand, at least temporarily, the trained human power to do this vaccination and also to involve where necessary, private sector doctors who are a million plus. But there is not even any talk about these two things. Just a lot of propaganda hype about the vaccination drive! When false, boastful claims are being made about “world’s largest vaccination drive against Covid19”, (US is planning to give 100 million doses in 100 days) what is glossed over is the fact that at the current pathetic rate of vaccination, it will be quite an ineffective programme to

Any epidemic of viral infection runs through its target vulnerable population (children in case of most infections) and fades away after achieving herd immunity. Epidemics like measles, mumps used to occur before the advent of their vaccines, and all of them used to fade away without any vaccination. The Swine Flu epidemic also faded away without any vaccine at hand. Covid-19 epidemic is far more damaging and has killed incomparable more people in a year compared to any other viral epidemic except the infamous

overcome the remaining epidemic of Covid-19.

obtained marketing approval from the regulatory authority in UK. However, as per the relevant rules of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act 1945, any medicine or vaccine permitted in any other country has to undergo what is called as bridge trial in India to assess whether this particular medicine or vaccine is effective in Indian population. However, Serum Institute applied for approval to Drugs Controller of India even in absence of Indian data of the phase III trial for Covishield. No detailed, plausible scientific rationale is made available. This permission is difficult to justify scientifically and in terms of relevant sections of ‘New Drugs and Clinical Trials rules 2019’.

It may also be pointed out that the government health workers have been giving around 15 crore shots of different vaccines to the under five population and to the pregnant women in India every year. Now to expect the same machinery to give additional 3 crore Covidvaccine shots in coming three months, is to expect them to work almost twice as fast as they normally do. The understaffed and underfunded Public Health System (thanks to the policy of privatisation since 1980s) is already fatigued because of the tremendous extra work it had to do during last 10 months. Hence this additional work of vaccinating 3 crore adults in 3 months is likely to be at the expense of routine work. The annual round of giving one dose of the Oral Polio Vaccine to all under-five children on 15th January was postponed!

The Subject Expert Committee, which advises the Drugs Controller of India about the introduction of a new vaccine or medicine in India, during its meeting on 30th December, told Serum Institute to submit “adequate data”. On 1st January Serum Institute submitted the data of the Oxford University trial in England and Brazil which showed that the vaccine has on an average 70% efficacy. This was considered in the context of phase I, II data in Indian trials, which had showed very good results. Based on this, on 2nd January, this Committee gave green signal to Covishield without giving any detailed scientific explanation for this permission in absence of phase III Indian data, as mentioned above! In case of Covaxin, permission was given in absebce of any phase-III data!! However, Covaxin is to be used under what it called, “clinical trial mode” as an “abundant precaution” and in view of the emergence of the new mutant strain in England. Without going into the technical details, it must be said that this conditional permission to Covaxin is also questionable in view of standard scientific norms and the relevant rules under the drugs and cosmetics act.

Overall, it seems that as usual, the performance of the Modi government would be suboptimal. But through huge propaganda, it will claim the credit for overcoming the epidemic. That now we have the vaccine at hand will hardly help matters and it will be a case of missed opportunity because of poor planning and very poor resource deployment by the government for this vaccination. POLITICS OF THE REGULATORY PROCESS The haste in giving permission to use of this new vaccine manufactured in India seems to have been shaped more by the needs of the concerned Pharma Companies and by the political interest of the ruling elite in India. Any new medicine or new vaccine, for it to get permission for it’s use in India must undergo first animal studies and then undergo Phase I, II, III clinical studies in human volunteers. Phase I, II studies are primarily for assessing the safety and immunogenicity and phase III involves larger clinical trial to primarily assess the efficacy of the vaccine as compared to a placebo. In India the Serum Institute of India has produced ‘Covishield’ with the help of manufacturing agreement with Astra-Zeneca which in turn has collaborated with Oxford University to develop this vaccine. The OxfordAstra-Zeneca vaccine, after completing Phase III trial conducted in England and Brazil, has

Two things form the background of this unwarranted haste in giving permission, without waiting for phase III data from Indian trials. Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech have already produced 50 million and 10 million vaccine doses respectively before applying for permission. Serum Institute is to sell this stock on a priority basis to government of India at a special concessional rate of 200 rupees per dose,

whereas Adar Poonawala, the owner of Serum Institute, has said that Serum will sell Covishield for Rs. 1000 per dose in the open market. Even if we take Rs. 200 per dose as the value of the vaccine, Rs. 1000 crore would have been lost by Serum Institute if the permission for this vaccine were to be denied. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, the Covid-19 epidemic is on the way out, as there has already been 90% reduction in new cases occurring per day from the peak in September. As days go by, there will be less enthusiasm by people to buy this vaccine at the rate of Rs. 1000 per dose, when it is available in the open market. Thus the profit needs of Serum Institute demand that the vaccine gets permission as early as possible. Similar is the case of Bharat Biotech. The regulatory decisionmaking should be completely insulated from these commercial considerations. To ensure this, transparency is most important. But information like who are the members of the Subject Expert Committee, what is the connection of these members with the concerned Pharma Companies if any, what is the detailed scientific rationale given by the committee members for giving this permission --- is not available in the public domain. In the U.S. similar expert advisory body meeting was open for outsiders online. In India there is the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) for advising the government about new vaccines. It’s website does not contain anything about permission for these two Covid-19 vaccines!

Critique of the hasty permission does not imply any criticism of the involved scientists who have done a great job. The owners/managers of these companies and the regulators have indulged in haste. Covaxin is based on the tried and tested ‘inactivated whole virus’ ‘vaccine platform’ which has been used for other vaccines and hence Covaxin is likely to be as safe as the earlier vaccines. We hope, when phase III Indian data of both vaccines are available, both will cross the bar of 50% efficacy which has been internationally agreed upon. But hope cannot be a substitute for evidence. SERIOUS ADVERSE EVENTS AFTER COVID-VACCINATION Serious Adverse Events Following Immunization (SAEFI) occur in case of most vaccines at the rate of 1 such event per lakh to per million doses. Except the immediate allergic reactions, some of which could be serious, like anaphylactic shock, (it’s average incidence is 1 per million shots) it’s extremely difficult to establish with certainty, it’s relation with the vaccine dose in a particular individual. But in developed countries, through phase-IV data to be obtained after marketing approval, SAEFI which were seen in phase IV clinical trials are recorded systematically and their relation with the vaccine is ascertained. Based on these data, in 19 developed countries, “no fault compensation” is given to anybody who gets any of these SAEFI. Expectedly, there is politics here also. Pharma companies want as less SAEFI to be regarded as related to the vaccines as possible and many experts come up with analyses, arguments about various issues related to SAEFIs which favour pharma company interests and vice a versa. Wading through some controversies, various governments have prepared details of the “no fault” compensation to be paid in their respective countries. In India since 1986, we have a system to record SAEFI’s. It’s controversial how well it’s implemented. Moreoverm there is no system of paying any compensation. In India, starting with Covid-19 there is the need to start this system of “no fault compensation”.

The permission for Covaxin is sought to be justified by some people by evoking nationalistic feelings on the basis that Covaxin has been developed by the National Institute of Virology. It’s a matter of great satisfaction and even pride that Indian scientists have been able to develop a new Covid vaccine within one year. But it is simply unacceptable that any vaccine be permitted for use without adequate evidence about its efficacy in Indian population which is to be available through Phase III trial data. Oxford University is not charging any patent fee and Serum Institute is an Indian company. Hence Covishield is fully compatible with the policy of Atma-Nirbhar-Bharat and hence there is no point in posing it as ‘foreign’ vaccine versus Covaxin.

There have been reported 9 post-vaccination deaths in India by 28th January, among 23 lakh people who got the vaccine in first 12 days.

These deaths are all after Covishield. It is being claimed that they are unrelated to the vaccine. However, the system to record, analyse, and deal with Serious Adverse Events Following Immunization (SAEFI) in India does not have a reputation of being effective, sturdy. For example, it is accepted among experts that Oral Polio Vaccine can rarely result in paralytic polio, one child gets it per 25 million doses. Since 1998, India was pushed into adopting the strategy of Polio Eradication through OPV vaccination. Hence tens of billions of OPV doses have been given during last 22 years. This must have resulted in thousands of cases of polio. Since 1986 India has a system of monitoring SAEFI and a special mechanism to monitor SAEFI after OPV was set up after 1998. But yet, very few vaccine induced polio cases have been recorded as this is inconvenient for the ruling elite. There is a need to take a break from this tradition and there should be a reliable, robust, transparent system to record, treat and analyze Serious Adverse Events after Covid-vaccination. All aspects of the process of investigation of SAEFI should be available in the public domain so that people will feel assured that there is no unnecessary categorization of such cases as “not related to vaccine” and hence no unwarranted denial of compensation.

in England and Brazil is 62% for 2 doses of 1cc 4 weeks apart. Let us assume that Covishield, it’s Indian version has efficacy of 60% (Covaxin’s efficacy figures are not known.) Assuming this 60% efficacy of vaccination, only 8000 will get Covid-19; 12,000 will be protected; 140 will die and 260 lives would be saved. Compared to this, vaccination of 11 lakh people would mean majority will get minor symptoms like pain at injection site, headache/chills/fever/nausea/ weakness and they will be alright after half to one day with some paracetamol tablets and rest. One to ten people out of the 11 lakh vaccinerecipients will get significant adverse events including anaphylaxis and most will be alright after half to one day’s treatment and observation care in the health care centre. If at all, one or two persons may perhaps die due severe adverse reaction. Thus, benefits of vaccination will far outweigh the harm even when the epidemic is fading away. Hence it is improper especially for vulnerable people to keep away from this vaccine and worse to propagate against and it’s use. We need to distance away from politics for the sake of opposition or politics based on irrationality. In conclusion, one can say that in India, as is elsewhere, narrow corporate interests and nationalist political interests/postures have overshadowed the humanist global response to this global epidemic. Most pharma companies would obtain patents/monopoly rights despite the global crisis due to this pandemic and despite huge Public Funds used for the development of these vaccines. The big fanfare, propaganda about the government’s Covid-vaccination programme is meant to create an impression that this vaccination will tame the epidemic when in fact this vaccination is too slow and in any case the epidemic has mostly declined before the vaccination started. Therefore, the politics of opacity of the regulatory process which has favoured the commercial interests of the concerned pharma companies and the politics of attaching nationalistic values to Covaxin also needs to be critiqued. There is also the need to distance away from politics based on irrational opposition to these vaccines.

BENEFITS VERSUS HARM OF COVID VACCINATION Let me take the example of Pune district in Maharashtra, where I live. With a population of 10 million it reported daily 4000 new Covid-19 cases and 80 deaths during the epidemic peak in early September. It declined to 500 new cases and 10 deaths daily by 20th January. If we assume that in the coming months this will be further reduced, on an average to one fifth of this current level, we will have daily 100 new cases and two deaths. At this rate, in coming say 200 days, there will be 400 deaths and 20,000 new cases. Let us compare the above to the scenario after vaccination. Pune district has 55 Covid vaccinecentres, each meant to give 100 shots a day. Thus about 11 lakh people will get Covid-vaccine in 200 days. The efficacy of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the phase-III trial conducted

- Dr Anant Phadke is a public health activist with CEHAT and can be reached at anant.phadke@gmail.com

SHUTTING DOWN THE PARLIAMENT PEOPLE’S PARLIAMENT SHOWS THE WAY

he budget session of the Indian Parliament began this year on 31 January 2020. Coincidentally, it was also one day after the World Health Organisation announced the Covid-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern. Originally scheduled to run till 2 April, after a brief 23 sittings, on 23 March 2020, Parliament decided to adjourn sine die, with no signs of activation since.

- Justice A P shah

in 2001, the Indian Parliament met the very next day in New Delhi. It is not as though parliamentarians cannot work virtually in India: The joint committee on salary and allowances already met on April 6, and recommended a 30 per cent reduction in the constituency and office allowances of MPs. If they can meet online to discuss these kinds of issues, surely they can also assemble virtually to perform their legislative duty as elected representatives?

Contrast this with how other jurisdictions have been operating in this time of crisis: the United Kingdom, Canada, European Parliament, have all made procedural changes that enable holding hybrid or complete virtual sessions of parliament, with some members being physically present in the house, and others participating through video conference. These jurisdictions also have provision for remote voting to ensure that legislative business continues uninterrupted to the extent possible.

ROLE OF PARLIAMENT, EXECUTIVE, ETC. At this stage, it is useful to understand what the role of the various arms of the state was intended to be. The Constituent Assembly, with their experience of colonial India, had a deep mistrust of executive autocracy, and instead, believed more in the sanctity of the legislature as the protector of people’s rights. In Parliamentary systems, the executive is accountable to the legislature, where the actions of the executive are subject to scrutiny on a daily as well as periodic basis. A host of tools are employed for this, such as questions, resolutions, no-confidence motions, and debates. This is in addition to the oversight of the laws and executive actions by various parliamentary committees. There’s a secondary round of accountability and assessment of all these actions through elections held periodically, every five years. It was precisely this electoral process that forced someone like Mrs. Indira Gandhi out of the office of the Prime Minister in 1977, and voted her back in, in 1980. With Parliament, the upper house, or the Rajya Sabha, has a clearly defined role too: to impose a check on hasty legislation that the Lok Sabha might otherwise be prone to, and to represent those interests that might not be considered by the Lok Sabha.

Many other countries are working similarly, such as France, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Australia and New Zealand. Spain - one of the countries worst affected - also ensured that legislative work went on. The People’s Majlis, which is the Maldives Parliament, is using Microsoft Teams video conferencing technology to hold virtual Parliament sessions. Mohamed Nasheed, the Speaker of Maldives Parliament, sums it up perfectly, when he says, “Parliaments worldwide cannot just stop representing their people during this crisis. The institutions of democracy must continue to function.” These sentiments, sadly, do not seem to echo with counterparts in India, where Parliament has remained a ghost town since March 2020. This decision to shut Parliament down is also going against tradition in India, where Parliament remained in session even in times of crises like wars and terror attacks: in 1962 and 1971, the Indian Parliament remained in session, even as its armed forces were fighting neighbours. Despite the horrific terror attack on its building

Thus, the Parliament was always intended to function as a body that keeps the executive in check. It exercises this form of accountability on behalf of the people it represents. Tools and instruments such as questions and debates are

used for this purpose. But what happens when Parliament itself stops working? Besides failing to provide leadership to the people in a time of crisis, like the pandemic, it compounds the problem of representation and accountability by granting the executive a free rein to do as it pleases. Executive accountability, in these conditions, is a thing of memory, for there is no one to raise any questions about its actions.

the opposition; and overriding the Rajya Sabha in important decisions by converting bills into “money bills”, which mean that the bills in question can be passed by the Lok Sabha’s approval alone. Also, the act of frequently putting bills to vote without any discussion. Through these, the executive has been allowed to get away with a lot of actions that would ordinarily have not gone unquestioned in another set of circumstances.

THE DEATH OF EXECUTIVE ACCOUNTABILITY? The Indian Constitution, on paper, checks many boxes of what a liberal, democratic, secular, and egalitarian Constitution should look like. With fundamental rights that are firewalled against interference, fiercely protected by the judiciary, a parliamentary system of government, separation of powers with a truly independent judiciary, and a federal division of responsibilities between the centre and states, the Constitution is a document that is the envy of many.

Even if the executive has ensured that Parliament is weakened to the point of inconsequence, one would have hoped that other entities would have stepped up to the plate and performed their duty of holding the executive accountable. Most notable amongst these, obviously, is the judiciary. We have always prided ourselves in, and boasted of, India’s independent judiciary. Despite serious aberrations in the past, such as during Emergency, the judiciary has always somehow managed to restore the people’s faith in the institution as one that preserves sanity in the chaotic life of the Indian democracy. But, today, the judiciary appears once again to be failing us.

Like its counterparts in the liberal democratic world, India, too, aligns to a textbook framework for executive accountability: through the legislature, there is accountability to the people; through the judiciary, there is accountability to the Constitution and adherence to the rule of law, as well as to other institutions like the auditorgeneral, the election commission, a human rights watchdog, anti- corruption bodies, and so on; and there is additional accountability through entities like the press, academia, and civil society. These include non- governmental organizations, trade unions, religious organizations, and charities. Unfortunately, what we see happening in India today is an insidious takedown of each of these institutions and mechanisms empowered to hold the executive accountable. Since 2014, every effort has been made to systematically destroy these institutions, not necessarily in the blatantly destructive way that the Indira Gandhi government did in the past, but certainly, in ways that have rendered the Indian democratic state practically comatose, and given the executive the upper hand in most matters.

There are many important issues that need to be deliberated upon today. With Parliament already so weakened, the Supreme Court would have been the next best space to discuss the Kashmir trifurcation, the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act, suppression and criminalisation of protests against this law, misuse of draconian laws like sedition and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, electoral bonds, etc. Sadly, most of these are ignored or brushed aside or mysteriously kept pending for an indefinite period of time. In some cases, such as that of internet access in Kashmir, the Supreme Court has all but abdicated its role as arbiter, and handed over the matter to an executive-run committee to determine. How such a committee can take an unbiased view on a review of the actions of the executive itself makes no sense at all. Indeed, these are all matters that are not being discussed in any forum of constitutional relevance.

Several examples of this can be given. The nonappointment or non-recognition of a leader of

The other authorities and institutions that could have played an important role in these times

are also silent. We have heard nothing of the Lokpal since forever. The National Human Rights Commission is dormant and appears to exist only on paper. Investigation agencies seem to be misused at the slightest opportunity. The Reserve Bank of India and the Election Commission of India appear to have been suspiciously compromised. The Information Commission is almost non-functional. The list is long and needless to say, very disturbing.

subject to the worst form of scrutiny and even punishment. The principle appears to be that all dissent must be silenced.

In these conditions, we are left to fall back on the third category of those who are equipped to hold the executive accountable - in the form of academia, the press, and civil society. Each of these too, sadly, has been systematically destroyed or silenced. Universities are under attack daily, whether it is students being accused of rioting, or teachers being accused of criminal conspiracy. The idea of an unbiased mainstream fourth estate in India died its death a long time ago. Now, with policies like the Media policy in Kashmir, the concept of an independent free media is also dying. And civil society is being slowly but surely strangled, through various ways.

It is not just in India, but in other parts of the world too. When the pandemic first came about, there were many who feared that this would be used to suppress dissent and consolidate power. This is exactly what is happening in India: the central executive has become all-powerful, and all accountability mechanisms are diluted.

Today, with only the executive conducting its operations, and with every other institution systematically sidelined, we are moving towards a form of elected autocracy. And indeed, as many scholars have reminded us time and again, this is how democracies die.

In these conditions, there is no option left but for the people of the country to raise their voices. We must keep speaking out, and keep speaking up. Our aim must be to revive the liberal democratic state of India that we are so proud of. Failing this, we run the risk of allowing ourselves to be overrun by an overzealous and unchecked executive, which has unimaginable consequences. 74 years after independence, it is the least we can do for ourselves and our future generations.

The source of these attacks is unquestionably the current executive, and the underlying strategy in the attack against these entities is to suffer no difference of opinion. Those of even limited influence found voicing opinions that are contradictory to the ruling party’s view are

(This is the text of the speech delivered by Justice A P Shah at Jan Sansad on August 16, 2020.)

IS THIS AN INVESTIGATION INTO A “CONSPIRACY” OR IS THE INVESTIGATION ITSELF A CONSPIRACY? - Apoorvanand, Harsh Mander, Kawalpreet, Umar Khalid, Yogendra Yadav

however, is conspicuously silent on the actions and statements of leaders of the BJP and actual incidents of violence since December.

he brutal communal violence in parts of North-east Delhi in February led to the death of 53 people, and injured hundreds. Over the past half year, the supporters and participants of anti-CAA protests continue to be summoned by the police, harassed and subjected to long interrogations. Several young activists and students also continue to languish in prison under the draconian anti-terror law – UAPA – for almost 6 months now, without any official charges framed against them. Despite inconsistencies and lies that have been rebutted publicly, the Delhi Police has continued unrelentingly with the theory – not coincidentally propounded by the ruling dispensation – that the roots of the conspiracy of the riots lie in the protests against CAA.

We want to ask a few pointed questions to the Delhi Police, about which it has maintained an evasive silence: 1. On 25th February, a statement was released by the Press Information Bureau, after Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting attended by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. The statement said. “Shri Shah noted that the professional assessment is that the violence in the capital has been spontaneous.” However, just a few days later, the Home Minister contradicted his previous statement and stated in the Lok Sabha that the riots were a pre-planned conspiracy? This was even before any investigation had begun into the riots. Is the entire investigation just a façade to arrive at pre-meditated conclusions already announced before the investigation had even commenced? 2. Why is the chronology by the police silent on the two incidents of shootings on protestors that happened in Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh on 29th January and 1st February? Why is the chronology silent on the statements made by Anurag Thakur exhorting his supporters to shoot whom he considers as traitors on 27th January – just a few days before the two shooting incidents? 3. Between December and February, BJP leader Kapil Mishra made several inciting statements asking people to shoot the ‘traitors’ in December 2019, calling the upcoming Delhi elections a battle between India and Pakistan in the first week of February 2020, and also threatening in front of the DCP that his supporters will take the law into their own hands if the police does not clear the protestors. Does the Delhi police not consider these utterances as clearly an attempt to provoke violence and

However, on several occasions since December 2019, leaders and supporters of the BJP were seen inciting people to take the law into their own hands and making hate speeches. It would have been reasonable to expect any fair investigative agency to probe the impact such speeches had on the gradual breakdown of law and order in Delhi and subsequently its complete collapse in parts of North-East Delhi between 23-26 February. After all, the majority of targets of the Delhi violence – as pointed out even in the affidavit filed by the police in court - were Muslims, their livelihoods, properties and places of worship. But instead, the ‘investigation’ of the conspiracy behind the riots has chosen to target exactly those whom these hate speeches were made against – the participants and supporters of the protests against CAA/NRC/NPR. On more than one occasion, the police has tried to build a ‘chronology’ of events as part of this conspiracy. In this version, the conspiracy of these riots began with the anti-CAA protests in Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh in mid-December. The chronology then goes on to detail other major anti-CAA protests in Delhi as all part of this conspiracy and the prominent voices as conspirators. This ‘chronology’,

6. 7.

promote disaffection and divide between communities? During the violence, multiple videos emerged of persons associated with the ruling dispensation openly inciting and participating in the violence and carnage. In one such video, which was streamed live on Facebook from Maujpur, a woman named Ragini Tiwari is seen openly asking people to kill or die. Why does her name not find any mention in the chronology of the ‘conspiracy’ put out by the Delhi Police? Reports have also surfaced accusing BJP leaders like Satya Pal Singh, Jagdish Pradhan, Nand Kishore Gujjar and Mohan Singh Bisht. Why has the police not taken cognizance of all this so far? A video showed officials of the Delhi Police assaulting four brutally injured men, and forcing them to chant the national anthem. One of them, 23 year old Faizan, subsequently succumbed to the injuries he sustained in this assault. Has the Delhi Police initiated any actions against its personnel who were involved in this assault, that led to the death of one person? Has the police even taken cognisance of the brutal custodial torture meted out to one of the arrested persons Khalid Saifi? Has the police ordered any probe to several accounts where police allegedly was complicit in the violence, directing mobs pelting stones or looking the other way when mobs were indulging in violence in front of them. There have been multiple occasions showing Police breaking CCTV cameras too. Are these charges being fairly probed? Many of those already arrested were initially in different FIRs. It was only after they secured bail in the cases for which they were initially arrested, that the police implicated them in the conspiracy case under UAPA. Is this a ploy to keep protestors in jail for long periods, without the need to provide evidence or frame charges? Why is a draconian anti-terror law like UAPA being used to probe this case? It has also come to our notice that the police has been coercing people it has summoned for questioning to give false statements. Is this a desperate attempt by the police to buttress its conspiracy theory in the absence

of any real credible evidence? 10. Confessions made in police custody have no value as evidence in deciding the guilt of anyone. But there has been more than one instance of ‘confessions’ of those arrested making their way to the press. This has been done despite a High Court ruling regarding one of the accused against such leakages of the details of the investigation to the press. Why is the police trying to prejudice public opinion against those arrested, even before it has officially framed any charges? 11. In its latest line of questioning, the Delhi Police has been grilling people on their about conversations in some Whatsapp groups with hundreds of members. Isn’t it ridiculous to believe that riots of this scale were conspired for several weeks in Whatsapp groups with hundreds of people and the police never got to know about them? Or is the police pursuing this line of argument in order to safeguard real culprits? The impunity granted to the supporters of the ruling dispensation in the clear incitement to violence seems to be a repeat of the impunity that the Delhi Police has provided over decades to the political leaders who were involved in inciting and participating in the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide. However, this time, the Delhi Police seems to have gone one step ahead, and while providing impunity to the netas, it has started targeting the students and activists who have been critical of the regime. The entire country witnessed massive protests against the discriminatory CAA-NRC-NPR. The protests were peaceful, democratic and continuously spoke about the supremacy of the constitution and unity in diversity of the nation. The protests were mostly led by women and saw spirited participation by all sections of the society. This current witch-hunting of anti-CAA protesters is not only an attack on a few individuals. Such a sinister profiling of the democratic mass movement basically criminalizes our basic right to protest against the policies of the ruling dispensation of the day. It erodes public faith in rule of law and chokes democratic dissent.

We reiterate our opposition to CAA-NRC-NPR and shall continue our peaceful and democratic protest against such anti-people laws. We demand a court monitored investigation or an inquiry into this investigation under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, by sitting/ retired judge(s) of the higher judiciary.

(Statement released by activists of Anti-CAA-NRC-NPR movement in a press conference held on Zoom on 4th September 2020. As of today several activists including Umar Khalid, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Meeran Haider, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Sharjeel Imam and several others remain in jail and have been denied bail.)

Excerpts from “Foreword by the Chairperson of the Delhi Minorities Commission’s Fact-Finding Committee on Delhi Riots 2020” My experience and interaction with various quarters suggests that the victims of arson, loot, physical injuries etc. would stand better served with fast justice and even faster disbursement of monetary relief to the victims. Similarly, Police has not registered many complaints of Muslim victims, including the most glaring example of the Mohan Nursing Home Shooting and hence no investigation has taken place on it and other such grave issues and incidents. In most cases, chargesheets have been filed by Police first against Muslim accused and the entire narrative has been changed to one of violence on both sides rather than a pogrom that was in fact carried out. This is a serious issue of changing public perception by attributing the riots to CAA protestors in general and Muslims in particular. This reflects injustice and partisan bias in the system which is neither good for a democratic system nor for our nation as whole. Much before these chargesheets were filed by Delhi Police, while being in the riot-affected area in Mustafabad, I spoke with an elderly Muslim gentleman about the prevailing situation after the riots. He narrated two couplets of two different poets to summarise the whole scenario. These two couplets are reproduced [with their English translations] as follows: Usee ka shahr, wahee muddaee,wahee munsif Hamein yaqeen tha, hamaara qusoor niklega (It’s his city, he himself is the petitioner and himself the judge; I was sure, I’d be held guilty).— Ameer Qazalbash Shahar kare talab agar, tumse ilaaj-e-teergi Sahib-e-ikhtiyaar ho, aag laga diyakaro! (If people ask you for a cure of darkness, you are in power, set the city on fire).— Peerzada Qasim … Non-registration of FIRs or delayed action on complaints naming the accused of riots, loot, arson and murder has led to no investigation in many crucial cases. Cases like the shooting from Mohan Nursing Home, instigating and inflammatory statements of Shri Kapil Mishra, have not been registered despite High Court’s observation. Partisanship and bias on the part of the Police and Government have led to the abject failure of duty and of the law and order machinery in the Capital of India. Investigations have purposefully been misdirected to change the narrative of the cause of the violence that erupted in the North-East district of Delhi. Instances of incitement for violence by politicians of national standing have been completely bypassed and persons like Dr M.A. Anwar of Al-Hind Hospital of Mustafabad have been castigated in the chargesheet. This reflects the partisan bias and shoddy methodology adopted in the investigation process… M R Shamshad, Advocate-on-Record, Supreme Court of India Chairperson, DMC Fact-finding Committee on the North-East Delhi Riots Feb. 2020 Full report is available at https://archive.org/details/dmc-delhi-riot-fact-report-2020

REMEMBERING FUKUSHIMA

en years ago, on the 11th of March 2011, ‘all hell broke loose’ in the Pacific coast of Japan. A huge Tsunami, triggered by the gigantic ‘Tohuku earthquake’, hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants on the coast, overwhelming the ‘tidal defence walls’. What followed is now well known to the whole world, as the live television coverage of the apocalyptic events streamed into all homes around the globe. Three of the four reactors went completely out of control into meltdown, millions were evacuated, huge areas became uninhabitable for decades or even centuries, massive radioactive water was (and is still being) dumped into the Pacific Ocean causing untold damage to marine life… And that disaster is still unfolding 10 years down the line, with no certainty about when the technologically and financially sound Japanese government and Corporate world (TEPCO owns and ran the Fukushima Daiichi NPP) will be able to fully contain and decommission these reactors.

- Soumya Dutta

Australian territories of Monte Bello, Maralinga, Emu Field., and the Chinese test site of Lop Nur in the Uygur Autonomous region. BUT WHERE AND HOW DO THE STORY OF NUCLEAR BOMBS AND ENERGY START? There is a millennia long fascination with the atom and its secrets, that began about 2500 years ago, with the Greek philosopher Liucippus being credited with the origin of the ‘atomic philosophy’, and his student Democritus naming the smallest unit of matter as ‘atom’ (meaning indivisible) around 430 BCE (roughly around that same times, Indian philosopher Kanada was also proposing a somewhat similar idea). The modern era of experiments with the innards of the atom – particularly the atomic nucleus, began in the early years of the 20th century, with Ernest Rutherford in Britain experimenting with changing the nucleus (and thus, very properties of the original matter) by bombarding them with energetic ions. After about 40 years of scientific investigations by many scientists, into the secrets of large energy release by radioactive atoms and their nucleus, the four European scientists Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch collectively discovered and understood the process of induced Nuclear Fission in 1938. This was facilitated by Enrico Fermi’s 1934 discovery that neutrons can split the nucleus of atoms. They discovered how to split open the very nucleus of the heaviest radioactive atoms that releases a huge amount of energy and calculated the amount of energy released. In 1942, a team led by the American scientist Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago, first demonstrated the process of slow-neutron induced Nuclear Chain Reaction with Uranium235 (one of the 3 isotopes of Uranium), the basis of all nuclear-fission power reactors.

One was reminded of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in then existing Soviet Union, as the only comparably horrendous nuclear disaster, both being classified at the highest rank of Level-7 in the deceptively named “International Nuclear and Radiological Events Scale INES”. These are not any other event; these are apocalyptic events. Many such nuclear disasters have happened every decade, in many countries operating nuclear power projects, in various smaller scales. And it’s better not to forget the cataclysmic nuclear bombings of Hiroshima (over 12,00,000 dead from one small fission bomb) and Nagasaki. That’s not the end of nuclear bombs destructive story though, as the ‘nuclear powers’ have tested over 2,000 of these nuclear weapons of mass destruction in several designated areas of the world. The tales of the major US testing site, the Marshal Islands and how its unsuspecting citizens were used as nuclear-exposure guinea pigs, is another horror story. Similar but lesserknown stories exist in the Soviet nuclear test sites of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, Novaya Zemlya and others, the French nuclear test sites of Reggane & Akker in Algeria and the Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific, the British test sites in the

The first human-made self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction based nuclear reactor started on December 2, 1942, and thus began the so-called “Nuclear Age”. Simultaneously, the massive US government program to get highly enriched Uranium 235 (the fissile or fissionable isotope of Uranium) from natural Uranium

(which has only 0.7% of U-235) and the task of building an ‘atomic bomb’ (starting from the beginning and continuing today, atomic bomb / power and nuclear bomb / power has been – though wrongly – used synonymously) continued at full speed, resulting in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at first, and then a global nuclear arms race that continues today.

the US opening its first commercial power reactor at Shipping Port in May 1958. Even before the first nuclear plant became operational, a dream was sold to the people, that “Nuclear power will be too cheap to meter” (Lewis Strauss, then chairman of US Atomic Energy Commission, in 1954). This, ironically, now is a recurring taunt to the hugely expensive, controversial and risky nuclear power industry.

One has to recollect the historical perspective of the 1930s. All around the world, political tensions were building up dangerously and the second World War was looming in the near horizon, with a host of dictatorial and fascist powers trying to change the then established (not just by any means) global order, established after the defeat of Germany in the first world war. So obviously, this new and massively energetic physical process of Nuclear Fission attracted much more than scientific interest. Within a year of first nuclear fission, the World War broke out, and it was no surprise that the first efforts of this massive new energy release mechanism were targeted towards developing weapons of unimaginable mass destruction. That discovery turned a curse, and is still hanging over our heads like a proverbial Damocles’ sword. Today, the world stockpile (from estimates of stocks of the nine nuclear armed countries) of destructive nuclear bombs are about 14,000 with about 10,000 actively deployed by their militaries. More than enough to destroy all life on Earth several times over. A ‘miniature demonstration’ of that destructive power has been Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The three decades of 1960s to 1980s were called the “golden age” of nuclear power, and one needs to put that in perspective too, to understand ‘why’. The world was coming out from the ravages of the second world war. Infrastructure in the “developed world” were devastated (except in the US), needing massive rebuilding efforts all around, with the Marshall Plan being implemented in Europe. The US became the dominant world power with the Soviets leading the opposition camp. And both these sides were thoroughly convinced of the ‘huge potential and benefits’ of ‘abundant and cheap’ nuclear power, and were equally convinced that nuclear weapons will determine the power structure of the world from now on. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Europe (also north America to a lesser extent) faced massive air pollution problems due mainly to the huge amounts of coal being burned for electricity and industrial production, also due to the rapidly increasing petroleum burning for transport and heating. The infamous “London Smog” of December 1952 killed over 12000 residents, and was a haunting recent memory then. The ‘first and second worlds’ faced huge air pollution and acid rains, with Solar and Wind power or any other ‘clean source of power’ nowhere in sight. So, it was no wonder that the ‘apparently clean’ nuclear power was seen as the solution to both the rising energy needs and the problems of air pollution.

ERA OF HONEYMOON WITH NUCLEAR POWER (ABOUT 1960—1990) Even during the War, many scientists, political leaders and others realised the ‘enormous potential’ of this new energy source, as a large supply of energy-to-energy hungry industries and societies. Once the War was over, this new fascination with “atomic energy” started peaking and the experiments to harness the ‘power of the nuclear fission’ started in victorious allied power countries, particularly in the USSR, US and UK. The World’s first commercial nuclear power reactor generating electricity was opened in the erstwhile Soviet Union, in June 1954 in Obninsk, then in the UK at Calder Hall in 1956, followed by

In terms of energy availability too, the whole world faced two big oil shocks during the 1970s Arab-Israel wars, in 1973 and again in 1979. Oil or petroleum, which by then had become a large source of essential energy, became unaffordable, hitting economies all around the globe. Nuclear power was seen as a stable source, as countries in the developed world, like Canada, Australia, US etc had huge reserves of Uranium. Thus,

following the mid-1950s first nuclear power plants in Europe and north America, the 1960s and 70s saw an explosion of such NPPs being built all over their territories. Thus, global installed nuclear power capacity reached about 1,36,000 MW by 1980 (about 7% of global total electricity capacity), rapidly increased to 3,10,000 MW (11%) in 1985 and then to 4,58,000 MW (13%) by early 1990. Then Three Mile Island happened in the USA in 1979, and the Chernobyl disaster in erstwhile Soviet Union in 1986, and the nuclear power honeymoon started unravelling.

accidents points to our vulnerabilities, and the disastrous project of Koodamkulam is a ticking (nuclear) time bomb. With nuclear reactors, it’s not just the major problem of accidents (which can be catastrophic, like Chernobyl or Fukushima), but also the regular release of radioactive contaminants into the environment. Any operating reactor will – in the very process of Uranium fission – generate radioactive by products in the form of gases and solid particles. This happens throughout the nuclear fuel cycle, from Uranium mining and processing to reactor operation, venting and generation of spent fuel. Millions of tons of comparatively low level radioactive mine tailings and radioactive process liquids are left after the mining, as the occurrence of Uranium in ores is generally a low percentage. Though of low level radioactivity, these can and do have serious impacts on surrounding populations and animals & plants, as anyone can verify in India, by the examples of Jaduguda, Turamdih (both in Jharkhand), Tummalapalle, KK Kottala, Mabbuchintalpalle (in Andhra Pradesh) etc. The Uranium fission process generates radioactive gases like Iodine 131, Caesium 137 etc. that have ‘half-lives’ (by what time the radioactivity level drops to half) of hours and days to dozens of years. Considering that at least five half-lives (ten is the conservative opinion) are needed for these to become of an ‘acceptable’ level of radiation exposure, the surrounding populations of any NPP are regularly exposed to unacceptable levels. Breathing these highly radioactive gases and the fine radioactive particulates (generally, the shorter the half-life, stronger is the radiation level) causes the inside tissues of our bodies to get exposed to these dangerous radiations, which can cause a host of serious diseases and even genetic mutations.

THE WINDING DOWN PROCESS HAS STARTED The problems and dangers of nuclear power were evident from the beginning, no less from its intricate association with nuclear bombs. But in the early decades, scientists were confident that these problems can be tackled in time, with new research and developments. Reactors had supposedly ‘fail-safe safety systems’, the radioactive releases were small to begin with, and the occasional accidents were either hidden or under reported by both the governments and the companies involved. Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident in March 1979 started changing all that. There were several ‘nuclear accidents’ reported to and listed in the International Atomic Energy Agency database before this, but this was the first reported and recorded case of a feared Core melt-down. The core of Reactor-2 at TMI partially melted but ‘only a small amount of radioactive gases were released’, as reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA. One thing is worth noting – all reporting to the IAEA INES are voluntary, meaning whatever and to what extent the accidents will be reported and their impacts recorded, depends on what the member country (where the accident occurred) choose to report – a very tricky arrangement indeed. And then came the mega accident of Chernobyl in 1986. It needs to be noted that studies of the IAEA INES shows that about 100 significant accidents happened in world’s NPPs from mid-1950s to 2010, before Fukushima happened. And these started right from the dawn of the “nuclear age”, in 1957, with the Mayak, Kysthym disaster in erstwhile Soviet Union, in the fuel reprocessing plant. India is also not spared, the Narora accident, the Rawatbhata

On top of all that, the biggest radioactive contaminant is the spent fuel, where both highly radioactive and long-lived contaminants are concentrated. And some of these, like all the Plutomnium-239 generated in the world’s 440+ nuclear reactors, will remain dangerously radioactive for well over a hundred thousand years, with a half-life of about 24,000 years. After about six decades of research and spending many

billions of dollars, scientists have not yet found a safe and feasible solution to the mounting problem of radioactive spent fuel. Nor are they any closer to any perceived technological solution than they were 40 or 50 years ago. In the meantime, the world of energy has changed, and changed dramatically in some of its aspects.

and energy sources. The technical capability of commercially available Solar photo-voltaic panels today gives us about 20% efficiency, compared to 8-10% a decade or so ago. And poised to grow quickly to over 25%. The cost of solar PV generated electricity has dropped over 16 times over the last 15 years. Today, Solar PV generated electricity in good solar areas cost about Rs.2.50 to 2.80 per Kwh /unit, compared to Rs. 3.50-4.00 from new coal power projects and anywhere between Rs. 5.00--7.00 from new nuclear power projects (if all subsidies are calculated). Wind power from good sites also cost around Rs. 3.00—3.50 per unit. Both solar PV and wind power has some adverse impacts on the local ecology, and for the centralized models – on local populace. But none of these are inherent to the technology or pose any technological challenges, though social reorientation is needed to include communities in the benefits, which is not possible with nuclear or coal power. And neither Solar or wind energy plants will explode, spreading radioactive contaminants or toxic chemicals over tens of thousands of sq. kms, forcing lakhs of people to be evacuated or thousands to be killed by cancer or other deadly diseases. How critically dependent is the world, and India in particular, on the available nuclear power today ? The total installed electricity generating capacity in the world, at the end of 2019, was about 83,00,000 MW. Out of this, installed nuclear power capacity was around 3,70,000 MW, or about 4.5%, while total installed capacity of Renewables was about 24,50,000MW (including about 11,40,000 MW of hydropower). While fossil fuel-based power capacity still making up over half the total, at around 42,13,000 MW.

Nuclear power has other serious limitations of geography, politics and economics. With its better-quality indigenous Uranium ores already exploited or in difficult to access areas, the cost of extracting, refining and fabricating fuel rods have gone up. As per some estimates, India’s indigenous fuel resources cannot run a single-use (breeder reactors are as yet far off) nuclear power program much bigger than 10,000—12,000 MW. This will necessitate importing uranium, as we are already doing in substantial scale. India is already dependent on Russia, Canada, France, Kazakhstan, Australia etc, for nuclear fuel for its operational power plants. Nothing concrete has been done to tackle – even in the medium term, the mounting stockpile of nuclear wastes, particularly the highly radioactive (for a very long time) spent fuel stocks. With additional safety features required as a result of flaws exposed by the massive nuclear accidents, the costs of building new nuclear reactors is going up, and will continue to go up for some time, making these economically uncompetitive by a large margin, while the costs of solar and wind energy keep falling. Meanwhile, the fears of an ‘Indian Fukushima’ will keep haunting us all. SOCIETY NEEDS ENERGY, NOT NUCLEARFISSION TECHNOLOGIES. THERE ARE SAFER CHOICES TODAY. The world today is very different than what we had in the 1960s and 1970s. We are now well aware of the enormous dangers of the nuclear fission route to power. We have faced two mega nuclear disasters, and have seen that in spite of their huge financial, technological and managerial capacities, neither Soviet Union nor Japan (nor US, to include them) have been able to control these nuclear catastrophes. And it’s now clear, that no conceivable near-future technology exists to do that kind of work. We have also arrived at a very different technoeconomic reality in terms of renewable power

We in India have a total installed electricity capacity (of all types) of around 3,75,000 MW, of which all the 22 operating nuclear reactors contribute a paltry 6,780 MW, or about 1.81%. About 2,000 MW of this nuclear power is the onnow-off-again Koodankulam power plant. In the year 2019 (pre-pandemic and lockdowns), these nuclear power plants produced about 43 billion units (each unit being a KWhr), compared to the total commercial generation of about 1390 billion units, thus contributing to about 3.1% of the

generation, with roughly 1.8% of the countrywide installed capacity. At the same time, over 100 existing grid-connected power units had been shut down for lack of demand of electricity, the peak demand at around 1,85,000 MW being roughly half of the total installed capacity. At the same time, all renewable energy sources taken together (excluding big hydropower) has produced about 10% of the total generation. And once you consider that nuclear-fission energy is being aggressively promoted in India from the early 1960s, with the first power plant –Tarapur-1, coming online in 1969, this dismal performance over such a long period of time becomes even more pathetic. In contrast, the first large commercial wind power projects in India began in late 1980s, with an installed capacity by end-2020, of about 39,000 MW. The first commercial solar power project (just 2 MW capacity) in India began operation in late 2000s in Punjab. In just a dozen years, India’s installed commercial solar power capacity has reached about 36,000 MW. Both commercial wind and solar power plants are generating power at less than Rs.3.00 per KWHr cost, often less than artificially depressed coal power prices.

expensive to build, and if all subsidies are taken into account, much costlier than either Solar PV or Wind power. This cost is likely to increase with needed additional safety features; • Society needs energy, Not new nuclear technologies. Better choices are available; • Coal has to be phased out in a planned manner, as early as possible, to avoid the worst impacts of – not only climate change, but also of critical air pollution and water shortage; • In today’s commercial energy market in India, Solar PV is the cheapest and easiest option for any new power capacity, and costs about half the amount of per MW installed cost than new nuclear; Wind power is close to this lowest price also; • Both solar and Wind power has some environmental and social impacts, but these are policy and implementation issues, not technological challenges. By all studies, Solar and wind power also has the least external cost now; • Solar and wind power do not have any catastrophic accident risks. The greatest risks are limited to some possible bird hits, mild local temperature variations, at its rare worst – a few people getting hit by a torn wind turbine blade. Almost all these small risk factors can be minimised; • Unlike nuclear (and Coal or big hydropower), solar, wind, micro-hydro, small biomass etc power systems are modular, and are very amenable to community (or even family) owned and controlled power systems, that can be integrated with the power grids. These can revitalise stagnating rural incomes and economies; So, Let’s learn from Fukushima (and Chernobyl), adapt to the 21st Century world and abandon the tried and failed 20th century nuclear-fission power system, and transition to a cleaner, safer, cheaper renewable power world. The world will be much better off without the ever-present threats of other Fukushimas.

In conclusion • India now has more installed capacity and generation than is presently in demand, even considering lower Plant Load factors of renewable power, and likely to be surplus for the next 4-5 years’ peak demand as well; • Nuclear (fission) power generation contributes a small fraction (2-3%) of our current power consumption; • Nuclear power has limitations in terms of the availability of Uranium, and the dreamed Breeder cycle of reactors, are still decades away. No one knows if they will be fully safe, cost effective etc; • Nuclear power has several serious associated radiological pollution threats – both short, long and very long terms, that do not seem to have ready answers, even after 65 years of nuclear power (50 years in India); • The threat of a nuclear reactor disaster cannot be eliminated, nor can it be managed once it happens, as shown by experiences of ‘advanced countries’; • Nuclear power currently is one of the most

- Soumya Dutta is with the MAUSAM (Movement for Advancing Understanding on Sustainability And Mutuality) and SAPACC (South Asian Peoples’ Action on Climate Crisis) and can be reached at soumyadutta.delhi@gmail.com

UNMINDFUL DEVELOPMENT WILL LEAD TO PERMANENT PANDEMIC

- Prafulla Samantara

oday, the whole world is under panic due to the health crisis created by the coronavirus. Nobody, not even the group of scientists engaged deeply in research work to produce medicines for its treatment, knows the said crisis’s duration. It is speculated that the end may be in two years, when most of the world has received the vaccination. But is it a temporary crisis? We believe new viruses may appear as a result of destruction of deep forests along with its rich biodiversity, which is natural shelter of zoonotic viruses. However, given that the nation-states are totally driven by the capitalist global market forces for profits and have shown complete insensitivity to the need of a cool earth, seems we are headed to a permanent crisis. We partly experienced reduction of air pollution, cleaner rivers and water bodies due to COVID-19 lockdown, but as the economy restarts soon, we are headed to the business as usual driven by fossil fuels extraction and exploitation of natural resource through extensive mining and destruction of green forests. The deadly combination of a climate crisis with the health crisis will pose a deadly threat not only to human civilization but also to the whole earth and human existence.

wants and accordingly to reign in unmindful mining and unending industrialization which is responsible for finishing non-renewable resources and excessive emission of carbon dioxide. This pandemic should be taken as an opportunity to begin with changes to the present economic system and developmental paradigms for achieving minimum needs for dignity of life to everyone without concentrating of either natural resources or capital in the hands of limited people or corporates. Unfortunately, Indian government’s new economic package, in name the of economic revival is dangerously antithetical to any mitigation or prevention of climate change. It is adding fuel to the fire, destroying the livelihood system of the marginalised sections like tribals, Dalits, farmers and labouring class who need small-medium industries, food processing, renewable energy for which the protection and conservation of land, forest and water resources and its development are necessary. If taken in right earnest, these measures could open the gates for mass employment in every region of the country. India has continued its extractive policies and commitment to neo-liberalism even during the time of the pandemic and announced commercial auction of its coal reserves. The PM justified the diversion of 41 Coal blocks for commercial mining though private Indian and foreign Conglomerate of companies for making of ‘’Atma Nirbhar Bharat’’ / self-reliant India. This sounds completely hollow, given that handing over its previous natural resources for destructive development and profiteering is not going to make India self-reliant.

The lockdown is not desirable for cooling the earth but it does have a message for us. In this period the over polluted cities saw clear blue sky, return of migrated birds, the clean water in rivers, roaming around of deers, and other animals on the empty highways built on their habitatsm and emergence of flora and fauna in polluted and degraded spaces, even within such a short span of time. This has a learning that the reduction of green-house gases and reduced extractive industries and unmindful production for consumption is the only way to save the burning earth. And more specifically, high consumption is being driven by the global elite in North and South both and high resources exploitation by the developed nations.

The present auction of 41 coal blocks will destroy lakhs of acres of forest and agricultural land in Odisha, Chhatisgard, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra. Hasdeo Arand, the longest forest area of 1,70,000 hectares has many ecological hotspots, elephant corridors and primary sources of water streams to the river Hasdeo, a tributary of River Mahanadi.

Last year 11,000 scientists in a joint appeal to the heads of nations and the decision makers of every country had urged to reduce unnecessary

has said that the governments shouldn’t open new coal mines in lockdown and they should go for solar and wind energy production as to maintain quietness of present atmosphere in this lockdown. The UNO environmental chief Mrs. Ingar Anderson also said to keep the pristine forest’s untouched to prevent viruses transfer to human habitats.

Similarly, in Angul and Jharsuguda districts of Odisha 33,000 acres of forest and agricultural land will be diverted and the mining activities will pollute and create water scarcity in river Brahmani which has been already vulnerable to industrial and mining activities. In jhadkhand there will be huge loss of livelihood system of tribal communities. In Maharashtra a tiger sanctuary will be affected along with the land of tribals. In Madhya Pradesh 11 coal blocks are to be auctioned even when the state is surplus in power generation.

So far, the electricity generation is concerned, India has a total installed capacity of around 4 lakh MW to produce but our maximum national consumption in last year was below 3 lakh MW. 33% of our power plants were shutdown at one point or the other either due to low demand or due to water and resource shortages. For next 20 years, it would be prudent for the govt. to go for increasing green energy without stepping into new thermal projects, something vital for protection and conservation of non-renewable resources as the primary source of livelihood of millions of people. This means that the arbitrary anti climate justice coal auction are unwanted, undesirable and unwise.

We know that the decision to hand over such rich non-renewable resources to the corporates are violations of the existing principles, laws and restrictions and are subject to the legal scrutiny. In 2010, the ministry of Environment and Forest had notified 60 thousand hectares as ‘’no go zones’’ and ‘’inviolate area’’. It is a matter of deep concern that there are 11 such restricted zones among 41 coal blocks for destruction. Why this madness? All these auctions of mines are fixed ignoring the Forest Protection Act 1986, Environmental Conservation Act 1980, PESA of 1996, FRA 2006 and Land Acquisition Act 2013. In this covid period, the MOEFCC cleared Dibang Valley Etalin hydropower project of 3097 megawatts dam in Arunanchala Pradesh, requiring submergence of 1178 hectares of dense forest, natural habitat of more than 300 species of birds and mammals along with endemic goat antelope. It has 2.8 lakh matured trees. The hydro project above 25 MW was not considered as green energy but the government changed the criteria of limitations, to show this as contributing to increase in green energy.

In addition, to the said plights of coal mining in Odisha, green forest and crop land for another 9 iron ores blocks will be finished by the corporates in Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts. Notification for auctions have been issued, including in rich and deep natural forests of 9 lakhs saal trees in Dangalpada of Keonjhar district. Neither the present government nor of future governments has right to finish these precious non-renewable natural resources. Once lost these will be lost forever. To prevent global warming and stop emissions of green-house gases not only the unmindful and endless mining has to be stopped but the moment demands to increase our conservation efforts and.

India is a signatory to Paris Climate Agreement 2015, by which we have to reduce fossil fuel emissions up to 30-35% till 2030 and have to strive for green energy like solar and wind. The Secretary General of the UNO Antonio Guterres

- Prafulla Samantara is President, Lokshakti Abhijan and Adviser NAPM India.

POLICY WHY THE FARMERS ARE ASKING FOR A REPEAL OF THE 3 FARM ACTS ?

- Kisan Sansad

consolidation of big players.

INTRODUCTION Farmers’ organisations of the country have been demanding a full repeal of the three recent agriculture related acts: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. [Hereafter referred to as ‘APMC Bypass Act’, ‘ECA Amendment’ and ‘Contract Farming Act’ respectively].

(iii) That de-regulation of traders and companies without any oversight and information is useful to farmers. Every evidence suggests that farmers need the regulatory protection from the government in their interfaces with markets when new Trade Areas are created and trade happens outside mandis. This is the reason why APMC Acts exist in the first place, to ensure fair market practices for farmers who are mostly small and marginal farmers, who face a huge inequality in the marketplace.

FALSE ASSUMPTIONS: The rationale being given by the Government to claim that these Acts will benefit the farmersis based on incorrect or problematic assumptions that are not true on the ground. These false assumptions are:

(iv) That removing restrictions on traders and agri-business will necessarily mean better price for farmers. The laws assume that many fairplaying, non-cartelising buyers would line up in front of farmers and buy from them directly without any intermediaries and aggregators and the freed-up margins from middlemen will accrue to farmers. This textbook picture of competition does not hold true, and deregulation would result in monopsonies and domination of a few big players, now outside the mandis.

(i) That farmers were not free to sell anywhere they like in the existing state APMC Acts. In most states, such freedom already exists (In various state APMC Acts, farmers were exempted or excluded from the purview of regulation (Maharashtra (sec.6), Karnataka (sec.8(1)(b)(i)), Andhra Pradesh (sec.7(1)), Gujarat (Sec.6(3), Uttar Pradesh (sec.9(1), Odisha (Sec.4(3), for example). The fact is that 63% of the farm produce is getting traded outside the mandi regime as per NSSO data, but was subject to regulation and oversight.

WHY REPEAL? (A) Farmers are demanding the repeal of these Acts because they understand that these three Acts seek to alter the legal architecture of Indian agriculture to the detriment of the farmers and that they also work in tandem with each other (the government also knows that these three Acts work together and therefore, brought them in together as a package). These amount to retreat of the government from its responsibility to protect the interests of the farmers. The core message of these three acts as a whole is that the Government of India does not care for, or respect the federal polity of the country, welfare provisions enshrined in the Constitution and is happy to let the small and marginal farmers as well as poor consumers fend for themselves. These would result in unregulated freedom to corporates and agribusinesses at the expense

(ii) That farmers enjoy an equal bargaining status with the buyers and their problem is lack of more choice:It ignores the reality that a majority of farmers are caught in a nexus of input dealers, informal credit and output dealers. Farmers do not have holding capacity in terms of storage or finance and hence forced to sell immediately after harvest. Hence their bargaining capacity in the market is very limited, and they face a huge inequality in the market place with agribusiness companies and traders on the other side. And it cannot be forgotten that big capital was never bigger in the past in terms of market

of crores of small and marginal farmers of India. Farmers demand nothing short of repeal of these legislations because they wish to save the future of farming and farmers in the country.

under a Central legislation. (D) Farmers demand repeal of these Acts because they know that the problem does not lie merely with a few select provisions or the wording of these laws. They object to the core provisions of these laws and question their intent – it is about the very objective of the laws. Hence,amending these laws is not sufficient. These laws must be repealed in toto, so that it becomes a lesson for future governments: farmers must be taken into confidence before a government seeks to alter the conditions of their life and livelihood.

(B) Farmers demand repeal of these Acts also because they were never asked for by the farmers or their organisations, because they did not involve any pre- or post- legislative consultation with the principal stake-holders with no draft Bills circulated for public comments and so on which is an important part of any good law-making process, because these were rushed through the Parliament in violation of parliamentary procedure, and because these were illegitimate right from the beginning in terms of the processes adopted to ram them down the throats of farmers. In fact, it is important to note that for several years now, farmers in the country have been fighting for a legal entitlement for guaranteed realisation of a remunerative MSP for all farmers and all agricultural produce – the government chose to ignore this demand despite lakhs of farmers coming into Delhi in 2017 and 2018. On the other hand, it chose to bring in legislations which go in the exactly opposite direction!

(E) Farmers are also falling back on a wellset procedure in law-making where even a government which introduces a Bill in the Parliament, when it encounters a lot of recommendations for amendments from a Standing Committee, goes back to the drawing board completely and brings in a new Bill rather than move many amendments. In the case of these laws too, given that the objective itself is wrong, many provisions need to be changed and it is not worth doing so. A full repeal is the requirement in such a situation. (F) Farmers are also apprehensive of some amendments now which will continue to keep the Acts alive, allowing the government to pass executive orders that might once again weaken the position/protection of farmers’ interests. A repeal would be an answer to this fear. Farmers are also pointing out that the government has delayed engaging with the farmers for too long, and ignored the continuous protests that were unfolding all over the country for many months now. Now, the trust deficit of protesting farmers on the government has only widened, and they will not have anything short of a complete repeal.

(C) Farmers demand repeal of these Acts because ‘Agriculture’ and ‘Markets’ are State subjects under the Constitution, and through these Acts, the Centre is blatantly encroaching into the domain of the State governments. The Centre is using the item “Trade and Commerce” under the Union List to justify these Central Acts, but farmers contend that it is ‘Markets’ that are being directly and drastically affected by the laws. These are the first points of interface between farmers and markets. Further, for farmers, the state government and its agencies are not only more accessible, but they are also more accountable. When regulation is with the state government, the entire administration from the village agriculture and revenue officials to taluka, division and district level officials have the duty to intervene on behalf of the farmers when required, and the farmers have an opportunity to use the administration as well as local elected representatives to address their issues. These avenues become ineffective for farmers when the agriculture markets and contracts are brought

It is also reported that during the multiple rounds of talks with the Government of India team so far, farmers’ representatives had pointedly asked the government why it would not repeal the laws, and found that it is essentially political compulsions that the government representatives are pointing to, which cannot be the reason why a government will not repeal the laws in this case.

1.4.Wiping out competition: The combination of APMC Bypass Act and Essential Commodities Amendment Act will be used by very big players to wipe out competition from the market after initially presenting some options to farmers, and later on depressing their prices.

1. SOME GENERAL ISSUES THAT CUT ACROSS THE THREE ACTS : 1.1. Fragmented markets and weakening of farmers’ collective bargaining power: The APMC Bypass Act paves way for the creation of fragmented markets, with unequal rules and unequal regulatory regimes governing the mandis and the new trade areas. This is not about reforms, but about weakening and eventual death of mandis. These mandis are the physical spaces for farmers’ collective bargaining power but with the weakening and withering away of mandis, farmers will have no place and space in which to struggle and secure their entitlements related to just returns for their hard toil.It has to be remembered that the difference is not just about taxes/fees and registration by state governments, but about a difference in the regulatory and institutional approach itself.

1.5. Food security of consumers jeopardised: The ECA Amendment clearly legalizes hoarding for speculative purposes. The deeper the pockets of an agri-business, the greater their ability to profiteer in this setup. Further, Sec.7 of the Contract Farming Act states that the ‘obligation related to stock limit shall not be applicable to such quantities of farming produce as are purchased under a farming agreement entered into in accordance with the provisions of this Act’. This jeopardizes consumer food security. 1.6. Irrelevance of price triggers amidst giving up of other regulatory tools: The price trigger for imposing stock holding limits in the ECA Act is irrelevant. In the best-case scenario, it will not serve the very purpose that the government claims it will serve, and in the worst- case scenario it will severely affect both consumers and farmers. The latter is the most likely scenario given that the government has willingly given up various regulatory tools that the ECA 1955 gave the government.

1.2. Deregulation of traders and agribusiness companies harmful to farmers: Regulation of traders and agribusiness companies is essential to protect the interests of the farmers.Regulation does not necessarily mean competition being stifled. All competitors have to be play in an equal or standardised regulatory regime. Small and marginal farmers, each operating individually, are liable to get exploited in many ways – related to fair price, timely payments, weighing, grading, moisture measurement, trader collusion, etc. Farmers, given their disadvantaged socioeconomic background when they interface with markets, require a system which ensures fairness in all aspects, and when they face exploitative situation, they should be able to easily and collectively approach local officials and market committees and get the issues resolved on the spot. These laws have a disconnect from the ground and do not recognise this exploitation of farmers.

1.7. Ineffective and inaccessible dispute resolution & inadequate understanding of farmers’ exploitation: The dispute resolution mechanisms in the APMC Bypass Act and the Contract Farming Act will be ineffective and inaccessible to farmers. They would become new channels of corruption/rent-seeking behaviour. Preventing the access of parties to justice through regular courts of law is deeply problematic. 1.8. Hoarding of food legalised: Hoarding of essential commodities has been legalized in India, to the detriment of the interests of poor consumers including farmers. There is no additional freedom given to farmers in this new amendment. On the other hand, it reduces the bargaining capacity of farmers including their FPOs, vis-à-vis agribusinesses.

1.3. Excuse for the government not to take up market intervention: The APMC Bypass Act and ECA pave way for the government to use the excuse of lack of price/stock intelligence to not intervene in the market when prices are crashing for farmers. It is the mandi prices which act as a signal or trigger for the government to intervene whenever required.

1.9.Invisibilising of stocks for inaction even in

extra-ordinary circumstances: The invisibilising of stocks held in various unregulated storage spaces of various private players is a big cause for concern, even if the government manages to impose stock limits in extra-ordinary circumstances. Regulation even at those times has now become ineffective since the government will have no information on food stocks, where they exist, whether they exist, in what quantities etc.

transactions within the APMC market yard are subject to market cess and are regulated by the state government’s APMC Act. This makes the trade area hugely advantageous to traders and companies, and offers very little protection for the farmers’ interests. This will lead to traders and companies increasingly making their purchases exclusively outside the APMC market yards leading to the collapse of the market yards. It needs to be noted here that the difference between APMC market yards and central Act’s trade area is more than that of fees or simple registration of traders by state governments if they choose to. It is about unequal regulation, and this distinction becomes important to note in the light of government’s so-called ‘concrete proposals’ to farmers’ representatives.

1.10. Undermining the role of state governments:Agriculture and Agricultural Marketing are State subjects as per the Constitution, and through these Acts, the Centre is severely undermining the role of State government in regulating and governing on these subjects. From the farmers’ point of view, state government machinery is accessible right from the village level to taluq and district level, and it is also more politically accountable.

2.3. Absence of APMC markets leads to lower prices for farmers: It is well-known that farmers who have an accessible, functioning APMC market obtain a better price, compared to farmers who are located in remote areas without access to functioning APMC markets. In Bihar, after the repeal of APMC Act in 2006, farmers have suffered from low prices - the prices of paddy and maize, for example, are at least 25% below MSP in Bihar in the past few years, and the farmers clearly know that they are getting lower prices because of lack of access to market yards. There is also evidence on volatility of prices. And even this price information in published literature seems to have come from an erstwhile market system that had already collapsed.

2. SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS TO APMC BYPASS ACT [FARMERS’ PRODUCE TRADE AND COMMERCE (PROMOTION AND FACILITATION) ACT, 2020] 2.1. Overriding the powers of State governments: “Agriculture”, “markets and fairs” and “trade and commerce within the state” are all state subjects in the Constitution (Entry 14, 26, 28, List II, Seventh Schedule). This Act severely undermines the ability of the State government to regulate agriculture markets and trade and commerce in agricultural produce, by making a Central Act that overrides the State’s powers.

2.4. Impact on state government’s resources for market infrastructure: The traders and companies purchasing outside the APMC markets are being exempt from market fees, which has a significant impact on state government’s revenues. This undermines the state governments’ ability to potentially build and expand market infrastructure, even as it might be true that state governments were not always using this collection for infrastructure development.Further, it is a false assumption that the traders’ savings from the removal of market fees will be passed on to the farmer.

2.2. Undermining the APMC Market yard system leading to collapse of market yards: The Act severely undermines the APMC market yard system by creating Trade Area (Section 2(m)) which consists of the entire area outside the market yards which are notified under State APMC Acts. The Act creates unequal playing field between two market systems in every area of the country operating under very different rules. The transactions in the Trade Area are not subject to the market fees (Section 6)and are not regulated under the state government’s APMC Act on price, payments, grading processes, and dispute resolution, whereas the

2.5. Absence of Regulation and Oversight in trade areas: Under the new Act, there is a

complete absence of regulation and regulatory oversight for both the new trade areas and for the new electronic platforms that might emerge. The failure of a clear mechanism to record, collect and collate data renders all transactions in the new trade areas invisible and the entire marketing system opaque. There is no obligation for anyone in the trade area to record or report details of the transaction.

Market Committee and state agricultural officials as it happens in the APMC market yard system. The farmers do not have recourse to a civil court, which further undermines their ability to get justice in cases of exploitation. Furthermore, the dispute resolution is only meant for particular transactions and not for any faulty mechanisms which are exploiting the farmers. 2.10. No protection to farmers on issues other than payments: The Act doesn’t provide protection for the farmers on any matters other than payments, such as faulty mechanisms of grading, moisture measurement, weighing, etc. These are often sources of big losses to the farmers when they are transacting outside the APMC market yards, whereas in the APMC market yards, there are ready mechanisms for reporting and addressing these issues. Where thriving well-regulated APMC market yards are present, farmers always have the option of selling there, which limits the exploitation by private players outside the market. If regulated APMC market yards are not present, then the bargaining capacity and ability to resist exploitation in private trade transactions outside the market yards also gets severely undermined. This is something that the central Act does not take cognisance of, and the government’s proposals do not address these either.

2.6. Private Mandis can charge market fees too: While the government is touting the fact that there is an exemption from APMC market fees in trade areas, Section 5 (2) of the FPTC Act provides that “the person establishing and operating an electronic trading and transaction platform shall prepare and implement the guidelines for fair trade practices such as mode of trading, fees, technical parameters ...”. So, these private mandis will be levying their own fees, but will be free from government taxes. 2.7. Problems with deregulation of e-trading platforms: Exempting e-trading platforms from regulation would work to the advantage of corporates at the expense of small farmers. Association of Planters of Kerala has come out against the Rubber Board proposal to set up an e-auction platform for trading natural rubber, saying that the existing system provides fair prices for the commodity and maximum benefit to growers.

2.11. No Provision to guarantee MSP as the floor price: Farmers have been demanding that the floor price of auctions in the market yards everywhere should be set at a remunerative Minimum Support Price so that this MSP (at C2+50%) is realized by the farmers as the minimum price. However, the Act does not have any provision for this. Instead, it reduces the ability by the governments to make effective market intervention by de-regulating and invisibilizing the transactions. The Commission of Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has also recommended in its reports, including 2017-18, that MSP should be backed by a legal guarantee. This is a key demand of the farmers.

2.8. Receipt as sole proof of transaction for the farmer: For a farmer who makes a sale in the trade area, the sole proof of transaction itself lies in a receipt that farmers are supposed to get upon delivery, which is left entirely to the buyer and the ability of the farmers to demand and insist on one (even on electronic platforms). When the transactions happen in a dispersed with no oversight and enforcement, the farmers’ ability to get a receipt and take up any dispute resolution based on that is limited. 2.9. Weak Dispute Resolution mechanism and No Recourse to Civil Courts: The dispute resolution mechanism is very weak, putting the onus entirely on the farmers. If there is any dispute, the farmers are required to go to the Sub-divisional Magistrate, instead of settling them through the

2.12. No space for collective bargaining by farmers: The daily auction of agricultural produce in the APMC market yards provides a collective bargaining space for farmers to obtain

a remunerative price, even with the limitations of the market yards. It provides a space for collective intervention by farmers and farmer organizations to expose and counter exploitative practices and collusion by traders, commission agents and companies. A further strengthening of the regulations in the market yards is required to ensure fair practices. However, this Act, by leading towards a collapse of regulated market yards, gives it a free-for-all to all companies and traders to exploit farmers.

wholesale trade, retail, end-use, value addition, processing, manufacturing, export, consumption or for such other purpose. This means that any individual consumer buying farmers’ produce without a PAN card or other document notified by Central Government (as per Sec.4 (2)) will be committing an offence (Sec.11 (1))! 2.17. Over-regulation of Farmer Producer Organizations: In this Act, the government is over- regulating Farmer Producer Organizations which are supposed to be autonomous farmers’ institutions by laying down the rules for payments, whereas that decisionmaking is supposed to be an internal process within the FPO. This in effect is a violation of the concept of farmers’ collectives.

2.13. Lack of benchmark price through auction: As of now, the auction price at the APMC market yards provides the reference benchmark price for transactions outside the market yard, just as the MSP sends a price signal to the APMCs. In the absence of a functioning and thriving market at the APMC market yards, there is no signal for fair price and the small and marginalized farmers are at a big disadvantage in decentralized and invisibilised transactionswith big companies or traders.

A large section of farmers sell most of their produce outside the regulated markets. Women farmers, Adivasi farmers, tenant farmers and other such invisible and vulnerable farmers are in any case mostly outside the regulated markets’ purview. They however get some protection through the price signals that go out from the MSP regime and the mandi prices even when they don’t engage in trade transactions within the APMC regime. Further, the procurement regime, whenever it is brought down to the farmgate level, including by women’s SHGs opening procurement centres in south India, have benefited such marginalised farmers also. This is why the APMC mandi regime, the MSP regime and the procurement regime become important for farm livelihoods, even as improvements are to be made in these regimes.

2.14. Enables reorganization of cartels outside APMC markets and local monopsonies leading to lower prices: Instead of effectively addressing the issue of possible cartelization within the mandi, this Act enables the cartels of traders and companies to efficiently reorganize outside the mandi to escape regulation and detection. The unregulated dispersed markets created by this Act would lead to monopolies and monopsonies developing in the trade areas rather than enabling better prices. 2.15. Invisibilization of stock holdings: Since registration and reporting are not mandated, the Act makes stock holdings invisible, unlike those registered warehouses under the Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority. The lack of information at all levels makes the trade areas essentially unregulatable.

3. SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS TO ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2020 3.1. Misleading statement of objectives: The Preamble to the Act says that the purpose is “enhancing income of farmers” but the EC Act was never about Farmers or their incomes. There was no restriction under ECA on Farmers or Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) from stocking produce and selling it. The restriction was on Agri-business companies and traders. Now, those restrictions are being removed for all food commodities, so it gives businesses/ tradersfreedom to purchase and store any

2.16. Individual Consumer being equated to a trader: In this Act, a consumer has been equated with a trader. Sec.2 (n) says, “trader” means a person who buys farmers’ produce by way of inter-State trade or intra-State trade or a combination thereof, either for self or on behalf of one or more persons for the purpose of

quantities, and hence indulge in speculative hoarding and black marketing.

3.7. Invisiblising of stocks: There are different regulatory regimes applicable between registered warehouses and private players now. Private players don’t need to record or disclose their stocks. This would lead to invisibilisation of stocks. The implications for trade and food support policies are apparent, when the government does not have information on food stocks and where they exist, whether they exist, in what quantities etc. It is not clear how implementation of the meagre regulatory powers kept with the government will take place in such a situation.

3.2. Market Domination byCompanies:Big traders will now have freedom to stock any amount of food commodities. Section3(1A) of the amended ECA that the supply of foodstuffs, including cereals, pules, potato, onions, edible seeds and oils. They will build huge storage and processing facilities, and build complete market domination. This means that they will dictate terms to farmers – which is likely to lead to less prices to farmers, not more income. 3.3. Disadvantage both for farmers and the consumers: It has been established that when there is price rise in retail market, the benefit is not passed on to the farmers, but when there is a price fall, the loss is borne by the farmers.

3.8. Favours big retailers:The definition of the expression “value chain participant” includes ‘distribution’ that includes retailing. The big retailers are integrating everything from production (through contract farming), processing, packaging, storage and transportation. This integration is always against the interest of the small producers. Corporate retailers have processing, storage and transportation facilities.

3.4. Government has surrendered its power to regulate:There used to be several regulatory tools with the government in the earlier ECA: licensing, price control, compulsory licensing, stocking, information collection and produce for inspection records, entry/search/examination of premises and seizure etc. The amendment does away with all these regulatory tools to help protect the consumer interest.

4. SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS TO CONTRACT FARMING ACT [FARMERS (EMPOWERMENT AND PROTECTION) AGREEMENT ON PRICE ASSURANCE AND FARM SERVICES ACT, 2020]

3.5.Power to regulate only under extra-ordinary circumstances: The extraordinary circumstances are specified in Section 3(1A)(a) which may include war, famine, extraordinary price rise and grave natural calamity. The price trigger for extraordinary price raise is very high – 50% hike in price in case of non-perishables and 100% hike in case of perishables, as per Section 3(1A)k so that it would get triggered very rarely.

4.1. Does not address serious shortcomings with existing contract farming regulation: The existing APMC Acts in states already allow contract farming based on the Model APMC Act of 2003, whose provisions were adopted by most states. However, these Acts have not provided effective regulation in practice. In reality, most contract farming arrangements simply did not comply with these Acts. Very few contracts were written and registered with the Marketing departments. There were no provisions to compel the companies to make written agreements, hence all contract farming remained unregulated, with no protection to farmers from exploitation.

3.6. Exemption for export houses:Even under extra-ordinary circumstances like war and famine, stock limits cannot be imposed on entities within their installed capacity of processing, or demand for export. This essentially exempts all the big companies like Reliance and Adani from this Act even under extraordinary circumstances. If the situation is so extra-ordinary, how is this non-applicability clause to large hoarders justified?

4.2. Overrides the constitutional powers of State government: “Agriculture”, “markets and fairs” and “trade and commerce within the state” are all state subjects in the Constitution (Entry 14, 26, 28, List II, Seventh Schedule).

However, Section 7(1) of the Act provides that “Where a farming agreement has been entered into in respect of any farming produce under this Act, such produce shall be exempt from the application of any State Act, by whatever name called, established for the purpose of regulation of sale and purchase of such farming produce.” Thus, the Act overrides the power of the state government to regulate the contract farming arrangements in its own state. This is a clear violation of the constitutional powers of the state. Further, it is advantageous to the farmer if the state government has regulatory role rather than the Centre. Both in terms of administrative accountability and political accountability, the farmer would find it easier to get justice from the state government. Further, there is no justification for why a Central Act is required for this, when many state governments had already included contract farming provisions in their state Acts.

in the Act, belying the government claim around removal of middlepersons etc. 4.6. Defective mechanism for dispute resolution: Under Chapter III (Dispute Settlement), Section 13 specifies that all farming agreements shall provide for conciliation process and disputes will be settled through conciliation board. This process is alien to the farmers, and the companies with their lawyers have an opportunity to dominate the dispute settlement, especially with the farmers having no recourse to civil courts. 4.7. Bar of jurisdiction of civil courts: In the Contract Farming Act, where everything else has been kept voluntary, the statute now puts a bar of jurisdiction of civil courts on disputes arising out of contract farming arrangements (Sec.19). Strangely, a law that makes the arrangement itself voluntary makes bar of jurisdiction mandatory! 4.8. Contract farming as proxy for Corporate Farming:While Section 8 prohibits the sponsor from acquiring ownership rights (or any other transfer including for lease and mortgage), or making permanent modification on farmers’ land or premises the Act has a concept of ‘production agreement’ where “the sponsor agrees to provide farm services, either fully or partially and to bear the risk of output, but agrees to make payment to the farmer for the services rendered by such farmer”. This appears to be a proxy for corporate farming. This also opens up the possibility of indirect corporate control of land.

4.3. Only written agreements recognized as farming agreements: As per Section 2(g), a farming agreement is a written agreement. As per Section 3(1), “a farmer may enter into a farming agreement in respect of any farmer produce.” However, almost all contract farming arrangements in India are informal and unwritten, therefore the farmers in those arrangements are not provided any protection under this Act. 4.4. No provisions that compel companies into making their agreements written: There are no provisions in the Act that would compel companies into making their agreements written and hence under regulation, nor are there penal provisions for not being so. Therefore, unregulated contract farming will continue as it is.

4.9. No Provision to guarantee MSP as the floor price: Farmers have been demanding that the floor price for any purchase of agricultural commodity should be set at remunerative Minimum Support Price (C2+50% at least). However, the Act does not have any provision for this.Instead of referencing the price to be assured price to be pegged at remunerative MSP, the price reference was fixed to the mandi price which is in any case engineered to collapse due to the APMC Bypass Act.

4.5. False claim of removal of intermediaries: The role for multiple intermediaries, commercial agents, arhatiyas and village touts who will act as intermediaries now. The contract agreements are mostly with “Aggregators” who act as classic middlemen between companies and the farmers. This means that the company doesn’t even enter into the picture if there is any liability to the farmer. There are also references to Third Parties

4.10. Crop losses not compensated: There are no mandatory provisions for crop loss compensation for farmers in the Contract Farming Act, although these agreements are

likely to take place in unsustainable and riskier production conditions (monocropping, exotic crops, intensive farming paradigm etc.).

as a form of energy is a national resource, the Bill sacrifices the interests of the citizens of the country including farmers and poor consumers and is geared towards increasing and securing the profits of private power companies.

4.11.FPOs being wrongly equated with Farmer: Definition of Farmer includes Farmer Producer Organisation in both APMC Bypass Act and Contract Farming Act – they cannot be equated and clubbed in the same definition. As per Sec.2(f), Farmer Producer Organization is a group of farmers. An FPO does not get into production directly.

5.2. Electricity is a very important input for agriculture for a large number of farmers in the country. While the nation has made lakhs of crores of public investment into large irrigation projects which have provided irrigation in some areas, in other areas, especially the rainfed and dryland areas, farmers themselves have had to make lakhs of crores of private investment into groundwater irrigation. This groundwater irrigation which depends on electric pump-sets is playing a crucial role in sustaining agricultural production and farmers’ livelihoods. The move to take away the subsidy for agricultural connections in the interests of private corporations is a massive injustice against crores of farmers in the country.

4.12. On the assertion that the farmer will not lose her/his land: In case the contract suffers a financial loss, there will be recovery as is stated in Section 14, subsection 7 as “The amount payable under any order passed by the SubDivisional Authority or the Appellant Authority, as the case may be, may be recovered as arrears of land revenue”. So, it is clear that Section 8 is an empty statement, meant to fool the farmer. Yet Sec.15 states that “Notwithstanding anything contained in section 14, no action for recovery of any amount due in pursuance of an order passed under that section, shall be initiated against the agricultural land of the farmer.” How is all this reconcilable is unclear.

5.3. Farmers and Consumers to be charged full tariff without subsidies: Electricity connection to all farmers shall be metered and they will be forced to pay the full electricity tariffs, as per Section 62, subsection (1). The subsidies may later be reimbursed by government through direct benefit transfer, but there is no assurance or protection for the farmers to ensure the receipt of the DBT support in a timely manner. Farmers will end up paying large bills or face disconnection by the DISCOMS. The state governments at this time have huge arrears of subsidies to be paid to DISCOMS. In the new regime, they will similarly delay and run arrears of paying subsidies to the farmers. This will be a death knell to farmers who are dependent on electricity motors for irrigation.

4.13. Sec. 8(b) of the Act prohibits the raising of any permanent structure on the land or premises of the farmer unless the sponsor agrees to remove such structure or to restore the land to its original condition at his cost under any farming agreement. It is also stated that if the structure is not removed, ownership of such structure shall vest with the farmer. However, the law does not state about any loans by the sponsor for the setting up of the structure and how the farmer might end up bearing the liability of the same.

5.4. Mandating Reduction in cross subsidies: As perSection 42, sub-section 2, “such surcharge and cross subsidies shall be progressively reduced by the State Commission in the manner as may be provided in the Tariff Policy:” Therefore, the State governments are being forced to reduce and end cross-subsidies to farmers and poor consumers, thus benefiting the corporate consumers with reduced bills, while increasing the bills of poorer consumers who now benefit

5. OBJECTIONS TO DRAFT ELECTRICITY ACT (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2020 5.1. Farmers oppose the draft Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to force the farmers to pay high tariffs on electricity, with the Centre forcing the states to remove their cross-subsidies to farmers and other poor consumers, and to convert any subsidy schemes into direct benefit schemes. While electricity

from a slab system.

IN CONCLUSION: Farmers cannot rely on any oral or written assurance being given by the government that the MSP and procurement regime will continue, nor does that address what they are asking for. What farmers require is a repeal of these Acts, and a new Act that confers a legal entitlement to a remunerative MSP (at atleast C2+50%) in all commodities upon all farmers, and makes it an obligation on the government to deliver on the same through a basket of measures including expanded procurement, effective and timely market intervention, through investments on storage/processing/value addition by farmers and importantly, by making MSP as the floor price guaranteed in all transactions of sale by farmers.

6. AIR POLLUTION AND REGULATION / CRIMINALISATION OF FARMERS: Farmers are also asking for an exclusion from the regulatory and penal provisions of the Ordinance passed by the Government of India that seeks to set up a Commission for air quality in Delhi and adjoining areas. They are pointing out that straw-burning in agriculture is not just a matter of air pollution in Delhi, but also a serious resource degradation that affects farm livelihoods themselves. However, the approach of the government should not be to criminalise farmers and penalise them, but to support and incentivise farmers to move to sustainable practices and cropping.

Given all the above, farmers are rightly asking for a complete repeal of these 3 Acts and withdrawal of the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill. They are also asking for a legislation that guarantees realisation of a remunerative MSP to all farmers for all their produce, whatever might be the marketing channel.

7. LEGALLY GUARANTEED REMUNERATIVE MSP FOR ALL PRODUCE: An important and key demand of farmers is around a legal regime for guaranteeing realisation of a remunerative MSP (at C2+50% formula) for all farmers and all produce, through a basket of measures. They are asking the government to enact a new law that will create this entitlement for all Indian farmers. It is to be understood that this is vastly different from the government offering to give it in writing that the current MSP and procurement regime will continue.The current regime has several deficiencies including benefiting only a few farmers (of rice and wheat mainly, in some states mainly, and of some landholding classes mainly, whereas the most marginal farmers including rainfed women, adivasi and tenant farmers are out of the ambit of this regime) and not having a legal framework in which the regime is embedded in. The current proposal from the government does not provide any entitlements to farmers, whereas that is what farmers are seeking. The statutory framework that farmers are demanding will ensure economic viability, social equity as well as environmental sustainability when all agricultural commodities are assured of a remunerative MSP when any farmer interfaces with the market for their sale.

The issues being raised by farmers are valid and legitimate and their demands cannot be construed as “maximalist” or “my-way-or-highway”. It is not very difficult for a government to repeal an Act, politically or procedurally, provided that it does not become a matter of prestige and facesaving. This is India’s largest section of workers and population putting forward their reasonable demands, and accepting their demands is indeed the truly democratic thing for the government to do.

(This is the text of the background note of the Kisan Sansad / Farmers Parliament held on 23-24th January at Singhu Border, Delhi. Organising Committee for Kisan Sansad included, Shri Justice Gopal Gowda, Shri Justice Kolse Patil, Admiral Ramdas, Smt. Aruna Roy, Shri P Sainath, Shri Yashwant Sinha, Smt. Medha Patkar, Shri Sant Gopaldas, Shri Mohammad Adeeb, Shri Prof. Jagmohan Singh, Shri Sompal Shastri, and Shri Prashant Bhushan. Collaborating organisations included Nation for farmers, People first and Jan Sarokar.)

THE DISTURBING CONTEXT OF THE ISSUANCE OF THE DRAFT EIA NOTIFICATION 2020

- Coalition for Environmental Justice in India

he Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) put out the Draft Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2020 for public comment on 23rd March 2020, a day before Prime Minister Narendra announced a nation-wide lockdown as a means to contain COVID-19 pandemic. As the lockdown suspended most fundamental freedoms of association guaranteed per the Constitution of India, and almost everyone across India were occupied with the task of securing themselves and their families - basically taking measures to stay alive, it was extremely difficult for anyone to engage with, and if necessary, disagree or even oppose, the Ministry’s motives in so promoting this major amendment. It must also be noted that the lockdown blocked most from accessing their work places, and in engaging with their elected representatives and public offices, thus making the task of commenting on the proposed Notification even more difficult.

other Scheduled languages of India. Future livelihoods lie in conserving and regenerating natural resources and ecosystems. Destroying natural resources is condemning the people of India to a permanent crisis of life and livelihoods from which India and her people will never recover. World wide, we are all waking up to the brutal impact of taking nature lightly, as is evident by the COVID-19 pandemic. THE MASSIVE IMPACT OF THE NOTIFICATION ON THE NATION: The EIA Notification, a subordinate law, empowers MoEF&CC and State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities to formulate decisions that have very serious, often irreversible, impacts on forests, coastal areas, mountains, wetlands, grasslands, urban and rural landscapes, and our biodiversity. Equally importantly, the Notification provides the Executive with enormous power over Peoples’ Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and to determine the future of India’s ecological landscapes, their interdependency and ultimately ecological sustainability.

It is necessary to highlight that the total lockdown (which extended to over 60 days), imposed without any pre-planning and preparation, caused widespread distress in urban and rural communities, especially amongst coastal and forest dwelling communities, in mountain regions and in the deserts. Normal information flows were unavailable to most, not even access to postal services. People of India who are not formally employed and without any livelihood securities (which is over 80% of the population) were forced to fend for themselves waiting in endless queues for food, water, rations, and for transport. The horrendous distress this situation caused was most evident in the massive reverse migration of labour back to the villages, by walk mostly, weathering unspeakable brutality, devoid of the merest gesture of support from the government; no water, no money no food. In such circumstances, could Indians be asked to focus on commenting on the draft of a Notification issued by MoEF&CC? Notwithstanding this gross insensitivity demonstrated by the Ministry, it also proceeded to issue the Draft Notification only in English and Hindi and in none of the

The EIA Notification also provides enormous power to the Executive to regulate extraction of natural resources, bioresources and biodiversity. The Notification privileges, in a deeply undemocratic manner, project Consultants, Technocrats, Engineers and Investors, on the one hand, and Regulators and Bureaucracy on the other, to decide what happens to our forests, rivers, coastal regions natural resources and commons. And all this largely on the basis of deeply flawed and fraudulent EIA’s, and largely without conforming to the importance of public involvement in environmental decision making. Studies reveal that this power has almost always been used to defeat the cause of advancing ecological and social security, and instead to advance the interests of investors, business community and industrialists without in any manner caring to attend to adverse impacts.

Such reckless actions damage wetlands, forests, and other essential carbon sinks, which are increasingly crucial in our fight against an accelerating climate crisis. And despite widespread protests, the recent actions of Prime Minister Modi and Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar in throwing open mining for coal in dense forests, are clear indications of what such unfettered powers result in. It is no wonder, therefore, that India now ranks 177 out of 180 in the Environmental Performance Index in 2018. It is a cause of worry that we have slipped 36 places in just a matter of 2 years since 2016

and National Green Tribunal. Though the EIA Notification, 2006 has helped in realizing necessary environmental safeguards by assessing environment impacts due to the proposed projects, that require Prior Environment Clearance at the planning stage itself, the Central Government seeks to make the process more transparent and expedient through implementation of online system, further delegations, rationalization, standardization of the process, etc.;” But a couple of paragraphs later, the justification reads contradictorily, advancing the case of violators:

The modification, or comprehensive amendment, of this deeply flawed and problematic legislation ought NOT to be done when the wide public is unable to comfortably and critically engage with what is proposed and argue multiple implications, which includes the exercise of a Fundamental Right to organize forums to debate the Draft and protests if necessary. This is absolutely critical to our democratic process as the EIA Notification 2006 that this Draft seeks to replace, has been amended 39 times! Moreover, as and when there have been demands to rectify legislating errors, or when there have been questions raised about motives of amendments, including through the Judiciary, the Ministry has been compelled to issue 10 more Gazette Notifications/Orders and about 348 Office Memorandums in clarifications. The legislative mess that resulted confounded even Judges of High Courts, National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court, forcing MoEF&CC officials to prepare a compendium of the Notification and its associated clarifications. In 2014 when the compendium was issued, it was 622 pages already!

“the Ministry deems it necessary to lay down the procedure to bring such violation projects under the regulations in the interest of environment at the earliest point of time rather than leaving them unregulated and unchecked, which will be more damaging to the environment;” What this means and implies is that the Ministry, by way the Draft Notification, is seeking to approve egregious legal violations of India’s forest, biodiversity and environment protection laws, and thus employ the power vested in the Ministry as per Sec 3 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to violate the very purpose of the Act, and derail its intent. In simple terms, the Ministry is blatantly violating the very law it is meant to protect. Those who have suffered adversely due to such violations, are most unlikely to know that the wrongs committed against them are now sought to be corrected by a legal sleight. It becomes clear also that the Notification is being employed to sidestep, even over power, participatory planning of urban, infrastructure, mining and industrial development as is mandatory per Article 243ZD/E of the Constitution of India. There is also no evidence that MoEF&CC has conformed with principles of harmonious and coordinated decision making by consulting Ministry of Tribal Affairs as is essential per the Forest Rights Act, 2006, or in consulting Local Governments (Biodiversity Management Committees) and State Biodiversity Boards and

The Ministry categorically admits this legislative mess resulted by the issuance of the EIA Notification 2006, in justifying the Draft Notification: “AND WHEREAS, there have been several amendments issued to the EIA Notification, 2006, from time to time, for streamlining the process, decentralization and implementation of the directions of Courts

National Biodiversity Authority on implications to the implementation of Biodiversity Act, 2002. Similarly, there is no evidence of MoEF&CC consulting with fisherfolk and the Dept of Fisheries of Government of India given what is proposed has a direct impact on the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification.

monitoring to see whether environmental safeguards for development projects are actually implemented.” The Committee went on to acknowledge that: “a major deficiency lies in the fact that the current efforts in generating widespread awareness of the need for environmental conservation, and of the need for public participation in the protection of the environment, are totally inadequate. Without the peoples’ support and involvement at the field level, it will be difficult to ensure that environmental consideration become an integral and important part of the process of project formulation and implementation.” (Emphasis supplied.)

It is settled law that Rights that such laws protect (to forests, forest resources, coastal areas, biodiversity and associated rights) cannot be impinged or adversely affected by any other law, most certainly not a mere subordinate legislation that the EIA Notification is. The Allocation of Business Rules, 1961 makes this clear. However, MoEF&CC now seeks to frontally assault this well settled legislative principles and discipline by promoting a Notification that not only encroaches powers vested in statutory committees, but also dismisses the fetters imposed on the exercise of its powers by the Parliament of India.

With such honest analysis, the Committee recommended the setting up of the Dept. of Environment to “provide explicit recognition to the pivotal role that environmental conservation must play for sustainable national development” and to “play an important coordinating role in the planning and implementation of all environmental protection measures”. Following the enactment of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, this role shifted to the newly constituted MoEF&CC. (Emphasis supplied.)

GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES’ FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION ON THE INTENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATIONS: At this time it is relevant to refer back to September 1980 “Report of the Committee for Recommending Legislative Measures and Administrative Machinery for Ensuring Environmental Protection” produced by the Dept of Science and Technology, Government of India. Based on a nation-wide consultative process, the Committee recognized that impacts of developmental projects “can be minimized or even completely avoided by adequate preplanning, through used of techniques such as environmental impact analysis”. Besides, it listed several systemic constraints that came in the way of ensuring it is done right and well:

Several Parliamentary Committees have reviewed the functioning of the Ministry and found it wanting on almost every aspect of its task. The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests in its 263rd Report on the “High Level Committee Report to Review various Acts administered by Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change” (popularly known as TSR Subramanian Committee Report) had held about the environmental clearance process managed and monitored by the Ministry as dependent:

“1. The interdisciplinary expertise for such work is yet to be built up to any significant extent. 2. There is no statutory backing to ensure compliance with the stipulations and provisions in respect of the necessary safeguards that emanate from environmental impact analyses. 3. There is no mechanism for systematic

“…almost entirely on information submitted purely by the project proponent. The Environment Impact Assessment is paid for by the company. The proposal is produced by the company. In the forest clearance process, all the reports are prepared either

by local officials or by the concerned project proponent. So, we already have a system that effectively relies entirely on the project proponent and we have seen the results of that system and to take this to a further extreme by incorporating a principle of utmost good faith in law, will make the current irrational system even worse. In fact, a vast majority of projects that have been cleared in forest areas since the 1st of January, 2008 have been cleared illegally because the Forest Rights Act implementation was not complete and consent had not been taken. However, the only thing that these provisions offer was that very few people in the area would come to know that a project is happening. Without these processes that requires some level of public notice, people who are affected by projects do not even know that a decision is being taken that may destroy their entire livelihood or their lives until the stage at which construction begins.” (Emphasis supplied.) Based on extensive public consultations and submissions, this Committee went on to advise the Ministry as follows: “…the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, instead of proceeding with the implementation of the recommendations contained in High Level Committee Report, should give due consideration to the views/ opinion and objections raised by stakeholders including environmental experts. Some of the essential recommendations of the HLC have been doubted and would result in an unacceptable dilution of the existing legal and policy architecture established to protect our environment. Further, an impression should not be created that a Committee whose constitution and jurisdiction are itself in doubt, has been used to tinker with the established law and policy. Should the government wish to consider specific areas of environmental policy afresh, it may consider appointing another Committee by following established procedures and comprising of acclaimed experts in the field who should be given enough time to enter into comprehensive consultations with all

stakeholders so that the recommendations are credit worthy and well considered which is not the case with the recommendations of High Level Committee under review.” (Emphasis in original.) This categorical opinion of bipartisan Parliamentary Committees ought to have motivated the Ministry to comprehensively change its way of working, and move forward in a deeply democratic manner towards evolving an environmental protection, monitoring and regulatory mechanism that sincerely works to secure the interests of the nation. Instead, it is pursuing with the implementation of several of Subramanian Committee recommendations, even though it publicly claimed the contrary as true, which the Draft EIA Notification 2020 reveals. Despite such critical reviews by the Parliament of its functioning, MoEF&CC appears to not have woken up to the dangerous environmental degradation in India, and consequent social distress and adverse economic fallout. Instead, the Ministry proposed the 2018 Draft National Forest Policy (DNFP) which sought to allow for the takeover of India’s forests by the private sector and intensification of extraction of forest resources, all in blatant disregard of the policy prescriptions promoted by Forest Rights Act, 2006, Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. DNFP was also reviewed by the aforesaid Parliamentary Committee which in its 324th Report reminded the Ministry that its critical role is in ensuring environmental monitoring and regulatory powers is employed deeply democratically, transparently and with necessary prudence to advance environmental conservation, forest protection, ecological security and secure social justice. This is evident in following extracts from the report: “9.5 Land use transformation along with industrialization, rapid urbanization and mining is causing fast depletion of plant and animal life even within protected areas. Due to all these factors, we are also witnessing increasing incidents of man -animal

conflicts. In recent times, we have witnessed numerous incidents of animals straying into human habitations due to fragmentation of their habitats and rapid and unplanned urbanization. This is now a serious cause of concern because man-animal conflict can have a detrimental effect on conservation efforts, as such conflicts can undermine respect for animal life that has hitherto defined Indian cultural attitudes to animal life. 9.6. The Committee notes with serious concern that wildlife is increasingly coming under pressure in all parts of the country. Reports of man- animal conflict threaten to tear apart the respect for wildlife that has traditionally been the hallmark of conservation in India. The Committee feels that community led solutions must be explored in order to prevent fragmentation of habitats of wild lives besides policy interventions of the Ministry. 9.7. The Committee is also of the view that wildlife protection requires concerted efforts and that growing incidents of poaching, encroachment and habitat destruction should be tackled in an effective manner and it also requires implementation of various Acts such as Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 etc. and statutes in letter and spirit.”

It is clear that the manner in which MoEF&CC put out the Draft EIA Notification 2020 for public comments during nation-wide lockdown follows a dangerous pattern of formulating laws and policies ritually, and without adhering to Constitutional norms, legal procedures and the will of the Parliament - which speaks for the people of India. This regressive method must end, and end now. In light of what is stated above, the undersigned representatives of peoples’ movements, environmental and social action organisations and networks, as well as public spirited researchers, academicians and individuals, demand: • The Draft EIA Notification 2020 must be withdrawn immediately as constituting undemocratic employment of Executive power, and thus unconstitutional. • Ministry officials must carefully study the values of environmental governance espoused in the aforesaid 1980 “Report of the Committee for Recommending Legislative Measures and Administrative Machinery for Ensuring Environmental Protection” and ensure that any action by them in advancing law, policy and regulatory practices is based on deeply democratic processes and discussions and debates respectful of the Federal nature of India’s polity. • That the Ministry must not pursue in any manner the promotion of interests of business and corporate communities over that of human rights, environment and biodiversity, as appears to be the intent of the Draft EIA Notification 2020. For such actions are absolutely opposed to Article 21, Right to Life, which includes the Right to Livelihood and a Clean Environment, and various other fundamental principles of governance.

This august body of the Parliament was disturbed by the lack of coordinated and harmonious decision making in formulation of laws and policies by the Ministry, that it categorically recommended as follows: “The Committee was informed that during the formulation stage of DNFP, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs wasn’t consulted. It was also informed that many provisions of the FRA, 2006 and PESA, 1996 have been diluted or disregarded. Therefore, the Committee recommends that Ministry of Tribal Affairs must be taken on board for wider consultation alongwith State Governments/ Local Bodies/ NGOs/ Civil society members before finalizing the Draft Forest Policy and notifying it. Further, adequate safeguards must be taken for the protection of vulnerable forest communities such as tribals and other communities who are dependent on the forest for their sustenance and survival.”

- (Coalition for Environmental Justice in India – CEJI is comprised of progressive organisations and individuals from across India working every day in advancing environmental and social justice for all and securing and expanding fundamental freedoms. This critique was released in public by the coalition on June 30th 2020.)

REVIEW THE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2020

hen the entire world was locked down because of the COVID 19 pandemic, in a special cabinet meeting the New National Education Policy was passed within 7 minutes, without any discussion. In current times, this is hardly surprising but it is certainly not consistent with the democratic systems and norms. Let us try to understand what is the hidden intent in doing so. The education Policy of a country has far reaching impact on people’s lives and social relationships, among the various social constituents in the Society. A draft Education Policy report was submitted by Dr. Kasturirangan committee in 2018 to the then Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD). On the government website there is a mention of this report received by the Minister on 31st May 2019. This 480 pages draft report was accepted by the Union government soon after it came to Power, in the second term and announced it as the “Draft National Education Policy 2019. The letter published states that education is a national agenda and is an important tool to change the future of our Children and Youth.

- Suhas Kolhekar

draft which had some discussions before did not have this chapter. This Policy was pending was inn making since 2015 with T S R Subramaniam Committee preparing a draft with inputs from various quarter and the Ministry of Human Resource Development putting out a draft in 2016. Therefore, one wonders if there is any connection between the announcing of this Policy in a hurry, in the midst of the Lockdown and the ease of doing business. Unfortunately, in the upcoming parliament sessions there was no time for a discussion on this important policy document. Another problem is that as per the Right to Education Act 2009 (with all its limitations), the Right to Education is a Constitutional Right. However, in the new policy there is no clear mention that education is a constitutional right and the government has the responsibility to provide for the same. On page no 4, under the subtitle ‘”earlier policies” there is a brief mention of the RTE / Right to Education. It does not say universalisation of education is responsibility of the governments. The overall policy points to the large scale corporatisation of education. This Policy does not mention even once the word reservation which is in fact the very thoughtfully introduced concept in the Indian constitution. As a result, only those who can afford to pay will have access to education.

The draft had many problems including its heavy emphasis on the centralisation and corporatisation of the education system. While talking about the Indian cultural heritage, the report mentioned only one religion from Vedic lineage. The draft was made available only in English and Hindi, so it could not be widely discussed in various states. After much criticism that translations, be made available in all state languages to enable discussion, only a 60 pages summary was made available on the government’s website in the 22 scheduled languages.

The third conspicuous thing relates to the constitutional values. At some places there is a mention of constitutional values but secularism does not find a place in these Values. Even though, the list includes words like cleanliness, Respect for elderly, Seva, Selfless actions, peace and sacrifice. The special feature of this Policy is said to be its emphasis on skills. However, neither the thought that the famous educationist Jean Piyage advocates ‘skills to complement and enhance intellectual development’ finds any place nor the concept of respecting physical labour. Ironically, special livelihood skills such as carpentry and claywork are mentioned under fun classes.

This sequence of events is Important to show that in the midst of the Lockdown on 29th July 2020 this draft was accepted hurriedly and with big fanfare was announced as NEP 2020 and thus imposed on, ‘we the people of India’. Thus, not enough space was given for the discussion. This new document has 66 pages, an entire chapter on online education. The earlier public

Prof. Anil Sadgopal and Prof. Madhu Prasad from the All India Forum for the Right to education and many others think this Policy includes many different ways to exclude and expel students from the low socio-economic groups from the mainstream education. Around the age of 10 years the children begin abstract thinking. At this stage in the name of skill Education, there is an increased risk of the children from the low socio-economic class to be driven to the child labour by families facing economic crisis. It is important to have the 12th standard exam of only one kind otherwise the students from the low Socio-economic class may be denied access to higher education.

development (physical as well as intellectual) of children is assured by good nutrition and stressfree childhood, has now been widely accepted, it is very painful to see mention of the concept of gifted children / students. This outdated concept of gifted students promoting caste-class discrimination is condemnable. The Policy mentions that the subject of ‘education policy’ presently in the concurrent list of the constitution, be given to the Center alone and necessary amendments be made in the constitution. This is indeed a direct assault on the federal structure of the Indian Constitution. Such a change would prove to be clearing way to further centralisation. Dismantling of the federal structure, which is based on the concept of respecting the plurality and diversity in the country, is certainly damaging. It is therefore extremely essential to review the new national education policy.

At least, at the school level, it is considered very crucial that the Education is child-centric. However, the new policy clearly states that it is teacher centric. If this is true one fails to understand why in some states the administration has threatened the teachers of disciplinary action for criticising the policy and raising questions.

(Suhas Kolhekar is an active member of the All India Forum for Right to Education and National Alliance of People’s Movements).

Although scientifically true that growth and

Government passes the Codes for the Protection of Employers’, 2020 In a matter of three or four hours of parliamentary time, labour rights won by workers over a century and a half were wiped away and replaced by the Codes on Industrial Relations, on Social Security and on Occupational Health, Safety and Working Conditions. The BJP’s ‘maximum governance’ comes with a brutality that turns over labour rights entirely in favour of capital. A day before this the BJP ran through parliament new laws that change the course of pricing and markets for farm produce placing income and livelihood of the entire peasantry at risk. For the past six years trade unions have stressed that the government has refused all discussion on labour law ‘reform’. While introducing the bills the Labour Minister claimed that government had accepted 80 per cent of the electronic suggestions and 85 per cent of the recommendations made by the parliamentary committee. No one can tell what recommendations government accepted, but it clearly rejected the recommendations of the standing committee on the definition of workers and employees, on closure and retrenchment, on lowering standards for health and safety, on the lack of protection for fixed term contract employees, on inadequate protection for workers against disciplinary rules along with the sheer scale of delegated legislation and violation of principles of separation of powers between the centre and the states. Codes to Protect Employers The BJP promised to ‘consolidate’ 44 allegedly out dated, unwieldy and contradictory laws into four codes through ‘… amalgamating, simplifying and rationalising the relevant provisions’ of law and codify them by including case law derived from judicial decisions of courts. Many critical labour rights have been won through long legal battles by unions over time, a majority of which have been excluded from this process of ‘codification’. On the basic question of what is an ‘industry’, the Supreme Court settled through its 1979 ruling that it must be defined by the nature of work and not just by the existence of the profit motive. Further, both the Andhra Pradesh and Madras High Courts ruled in 1982 that tribunal awards cannot be altered by government. Both these critical advancements find no mention in the codes. Definitional Smokescreen Multiple definitions of worker and employee in the Codes have created more ambiguity than earlier and will now allow employers to use this ambiguity to deny workers their already limited rights. ...to be continued on page 40

STATES TAMIL NADU : A VICTORY FOR FARMERS AT THE END OF THE PANDEMIC YEAR

- Gabriele Dietrich

n December 21, 2020 a government order (Nr. 268) from the Industries (SIPCOT-LA) Department was issued in Tamil Nadu, which brought a thirteen years old land struggle of the Madurai Farmers Organisation to a successful end. The order concerned 1478 acres of farmland of the villages of Sivarakottai, Karusaikalampatti and Swaminallampatti, in Thirumangalam Taluk. The poramboke land, which sustained the farmers flourishing agriculture was required by SIPCOT for setting up an industrial park. SIPCOT had originally categorised these lands as “wasteland”, but was compelled to acknowledge that this is a total misnomer after continued challenge by the farmers.

Gnanadurai confirmed. The crops also provide fodder for large herds of goats and sheep. Earlier, in 2007, the government had tried to acquire lands in Vellakulam, Kalligudi and Kengampatti, but shelved this plan after a while and also dropped a plan for thousand acres of land in Sengapadai. However, in 2009 a G.O. was issued to acquire 1,475 acres of land in Sivarakottai, Karisalkalampatti and Swaminallampatti. The Madurai District Farmer’s Association is convinced that the officials misguided the High Court at that time, so they lost the case and had to appeal the order in the Supreme Court. Even there, justice was not served to the farmers. The land acquisition notices had not yet been issued to the farmers, which, according to very recent change in the TN Land Acquisition Act, was a requirement.

It has been proven that people’s lives would be ruined if these lands are taken away for industrial purpose. The victory is to a large extent due to the unwavering inspiration and undeterred tenacity of M. Ramalingam, President or Madurai District Farmers Association, who spearheaded the protest all along. They documented the rich biodiversity of flora and fauna (plants and wildlife) of the area through photo exhibitions, numerous press interviews, as well as invitations to ecological and human rights organisations, who came out in strong support for the struggle. Women’s participation was enhanced by Pennurimai Iyakkam, a state wide women’s organisation. Medha Patkar also came to Thirumangalam with the NAPM “Samvidhaan Samman Yatra” and addressed a widely attended hall meeting.

However, people never felt discouraged, they refused to give up. They had experienced so much encouragement throughout, even in Delhi. Ms. Jayalalitha, who was at that time the leader of the opposition in T.N., had promised to save the contested lands, but did not implement her promise speedily enough and later died without having taken action. But people sustained the faith in their struggle. As elections are nearing again, the incumbent AI-ADMK saw to it that SIPCOT finally issued the G.O. 268 and invalidated the old G.O.No. 58 of 12.6.2009. It is now officially acknowledged that the Industrial Park in Sivarakotttai had become obsolete, as there was one such “Park” already functioning in Kappalur, at a distance of only ten kilometres, as well as another one in Sattur, 45 km away.

Despite lack of irrigation, the black soil of the area holds water for a long period and a single good rain goes a long way in helping growth of millets, pulses and cotton. Even in times when the Periyar-Vaigai irrigation system runs dry, due to lack of storage in the catchment area, the rainfed fields in the area sill produce twenty two varieties of millets, pulses and cotton, as the former Joint Director of Agriculture A. Jayasingh

Not only that, the new G.O. acknowledged that the lands are indeed very fertile and innumerable protests have taken place from affected panchayats. The District Collector

had also recommended to heed to the villagers demands and to drop the project, and thus the Commissioner of Land Administration came around to recommend to listen to the collector in this case. The managing Director of SIPCOT thus issued the fresh G.O.268 of 21.12.2020, which people took xerox copies of and held them in their hands during the public celebration in Thirumangalam. It felt like a dream, after the long struggle and movement is reminded of the song of revolutionary poet Bharatiar, which starts with:”Manathil Uruthi Vendum” (We need firmness of spirit) and ends with “Unmai Nindrida Vendum” (Truth must Prevail).

As the movement celebrates the victory, it feels inspired by the farmers struggle on the borders of Delhi. There has been wide support to the farmers organisations in different parts of Tamil Nadu. The struggle of the farmers is also supported by UWF (Unorganised Workers Federation), which has waged a relentless struggle against the Labour Codes passed by the Central Government earlier, invalidating 43 Labour Laws initially. The alliance between workers and peasants is built with great sacrifices and nurtured by the faith that ‘Truth Must Prevail’!

- Gabriele Dietrich a feminist and Dalit rights activist is with Pennurimai Iyakkam – NAPM Tamilnadu.

The Codes expressedly exclude the huge numbers of agricultural workers, ‘honorarium’ and domestic workers, the overwhelming majority of who are women, from the definition of a worker. At the other end, a wide definition of ‘manager’ will allow employers to classify a large number of workers in this category. The definition of ‘employer’ now includes contractors and sub-contractors effectively absolving the principal employer of all responsibility. The government, of course believes that the contract labour system will be replaced by fixed term contracts (FTC), who are not provided any safeguards on period of contract, its renewal and any possibility for regularisation. Hence the established judicial premise that a perennial task must command a permanent job is now a renewed challenge. The threshold for most critical health and safety provisions will now only be applicable in establishments with 300+ employees. The same threshold now applies for introduction of standing orders, for lay off, retrenchment and closure, shrinking the number of establishments where there will be jobs protected by law. Most significantly, the entire body of the four codes can effectively be set aside at the will of the executive in ‘public interest’. So we could have a situation that a coal mine or petroleum refinery here or a sea port or car manufacturing factory there can be made completely free from even the few rights that are left in ‘public interest’. Rights replaced by Dole The most significant expectation of people at large and the promise of the BJP government has been universal social security. The code has settled this through a discriminatory two tier system that divides ‘employees’ and ‘unorganised workers’ through ‘rights conferred on them and schemes framed, under this Code’ respectively. In effect, a very small number of regular employees whose workplaces will qualify as an establishment will have the right to social security (PF, ESI, gratuity and maternity benefit) as guaranteed in the past, and the remaining large section of the working population will have to squabble over the benefits given out under the various budget constrained ‘schemes’ of a ‘generous’ government. These schemes shall be made up by the executive and will neither be disbursed from legislatively protected funds nor be justiciable in a court of law. Trade Unions as Centres of Resistance The future course of the country’s working class will be determined critically by our response to the new codes, most of all on the attack on trade union rights – on registration, on membership, on union recognition, and on the right to strike. As elsewhere in the world, trade union rights in our country too were won through sustained militant hard fought battles with unparalleled sacrifice. Trade union rights have always been won by challenging the laws of private property and profit. These are not rights we shall give up. Of course, we know that the BJP has carefully chosen this time to launch what it thinks is its final attack on the working class – a time when vast numbers of working people have been without work and wage for almost six months as a result of the draconian lockdown. This is not just an attack on working people, it is an attack that hits at the very core of democratic rights on our right to free association, on our rights to defend our rights, on our rights to dissent, speak up and strike when our rights are under attack. Whether it is the right to universal social security, or a fair and just minimum wage, or a safe workplace or a secure job: none of it can be won and secured without trade union rights. Hence our struggle must go forward in defending, retaining and sustaining our trade union rights. And it is with this resolve that we must and we will go forward in a struggle that is united, democratic and militant. - Gautam Mody is the General Secretary of New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI).

LEARNING TO CREATE OUR OWN STORIES

- Kanika and Kamayani Swami

“We had not thought that we would be able to make such good videos!” exclaimed a participant on the final day of the social media training workshop organized by the Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan (JJSS) and the Mosamat Budhiya Shiksha Nirman Sangathan (MBSNS), sister organizations working with rural workers in Bihar. For this group of participants, all firstgeneration learners and children of workers and laborers from the Dalit-Bahujan community, this was a unique experience. For the first time, they were creating content. While workingclass families have always been producers and creators of knowledge and wisdom which are often unrecognized, it was the first time that these youth were seeing their creations, in an objective, recognized, and contemporary form through social media.

- content that is usually created by and for dominant communities, content that systematically preys on young minds and sows seeds of hatred, and inequality in us. It is crucial that movement spaces combat this powerful attempt at colonizing young minds. One way to effectively do this is to have marginalised communities take control of the cultural narrative, by using social media to build and shape opinions, ideas, discourse and eventually, cultures. In the long struggle against fascism, caste, patriarchy and imperialism, it is important to effectively weaponize the tools of social media to build a common political understanding, widen our reach outside our echo chambers, and eventually, intensify our struggles.”

Social media and digital technologies, for the most part, have been a double-edged sword. Social media have been widely used as tools for propaganda and misinformation. Given the widespread inequality in access, digital technologies have also become the criteria for exclusion (for instance, in the case of Aadhaar), thereby further perpetuating inequalities. However, this workshop and the experience of the participants underscored the immense positive power of social media.

The youth participants of the JJSS workshop showed immense potential in building these counter-cultures throughout the workshop. When they were asked to choose themes they would like to make videos on, they all chose crucial social and political issues that affected them, such as unemployment, floods, NRC, communalism, superstitions, inter-religious and inter-caste love marriages, among others. Their sharp political understanding was evident when they were able to make a comprehensive commentary on critical issues in videos that were just about a minute long. They drew from their realities to show a worldview that is often absent from elite media and discourses. For instance, in a video on health-related superstitions, one participant brought in an example from her village when a child died of exorcism instead of being taken to the hospital after a snake bite. This kind of connection with everyday lived experiences that the participants were able to achieve is what makes their content compelling, relevant, and relatable.

When used creatively and consciously, social media can be a significant leveler. For those who have been denied a voice and resources, social media can be an important outlet of self-expression and representation. Take for example the use of TikTok by workers during the ‘migrant crisis’. They used the platform in creative ways to highlight their struggles as well as the hopes, joys, and irreverence to the powers that be. Instead of portraying themselves as mere victims, they showed themselves as creators and thinkers of a society and citizens of a nation. Tanmay, one of the facilitators of the JJSS workshop, put it well when he said:

These participants demonstrated that when the oppressed youth are taught with thoughtfulness and mutual respect, something that is largely missing in our education system, they can pick up and even master seemingly difficult skills in

“We live in a world where dominant forces control the content we consume

no time. Sabyasachi, another facilitator of the workshop, said: “We had planned two days to teach them the technical things like the use of software to create videos and adding background music. But it was very inspiring to see them pick those things up and already start making videos by the end of the first day itself.”

youth, creative tasks such as social media content creation can be one of the ways to both use their talents and retain their interest. It can also lead to further democratization of movement spaces, as Tanmay says: “In the hands of oppressed youth, social media holds the potential to not only build counter narratives but also re-align skewed power dynamics within movement spaces as it is the most oppressed who are creating ‘knowledge’.” In conclusion, the JJSS social media training workshop experience has shown that it’s time to truly leverage the empowering capacity of social media. It’s time to let our youth, engaging in people’s movements, take over the critical work of creating and shaping our narratives, one video and one post at a time!

The participants also showed remarkable creative prowess in choosing songs in the background of the videos. Their choice of songs indicated how deeply they understood the pulse of their audience and how well their imagination worked in linking different kinds of content. For example, in a video to celebrate the work and courage of Savitribai Phule, the group used the popular song “Dhaakad”. Some lines of the song go as follows:

(Some of the videos created by the participants have been released on the Dhakad Bihar Facebook page, and others have been circulated on Whatsapp. You can also watch the videos by using any app like the barcode reader to scan the QR code below:

Tere Purje Fit Kar Degi (She’ll teach you a lesson) Tere Daanv Se Badh Ke Painch Palat Kar Degi (She’ll beat you by doing a brilliant reversal maneuver) Chitt Kar Degi, Chitt Kar Degi (She’ll defeat you; she’ll defeat you) Aisi Dhaakad Hai, Dhaakad Hai, Aisi Dhaakad Hai (She’s so bold and strong) The appeal of social media can be effectively used not only to retain the attention of the audiences but also of the creators themselves. This was evident in JJSS’s workshop when none of participants wanted breaks between sessions. As one participant put it, “usually we get bored in workshops and don’t want to come rushing back to sessions, but this time we don’t want to leave the sessions.” For movement spaces that are seeing a lack of active participation from the

If you would like access to these videos or organize such a workshop, please feel free to contact Kamayani: kamayani02@yahoo.com) About the authors: Kanika is a researcher, and volunteers with the JJSS. Kamayani Swami is with the JJSS, MBSNS and NAPM.

CAMPAIGN WE SHALL SPEAK / HUM TO BOLENGE Sitting on a burning stump The nightingale sang. The ruler’s gun Couldn’t touch a hair.

- NAPM India

community, the Sangh Parivar is doing what the Nazis did in Germany in the 1930s. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh considers Hitler and Mussolini’s ideals as its own and has steadfastly followed in their path. Whether it is through “love jihad”, imposing their food preferences or accusations of spreading disease, an atmosphere of hatred has been created towards a religion to the extent that crowds of otherwise normal people are killing innocent people. Gandhi’s assassination was a result of this same ideology. Today his killer Nathuram Godse has been declared a patriot and those accused of mob lynching are being honoured.

- Nagarjuna (1911-1998)

The history of the world has been a history of struggle by people and society, not of rulers. Today’s human civilization has been shaped by this desire to live a life with dignity, and the successful and unsuccessful efforts to fight different forms of discrimination, injustice, poverty and lies. Peoples’ movements have forced the retreat and, at times, decimated the strongest of autocratic forces. The people of this country have gradually gained rights and progressed by fighting numerous small and big struggles in the fields and factories, in the countryside and in cities. The peoples’ movements that emerged in the first half of the 20th century ended the rule of the world’s largest superpower, which was dependent on the plunder of India. History is a witness that the people who rose up for independence were fighting for not just political freedom but also economic and social freedoms.

The RSS, that has justified the caste and varna system as being essential for social harmony is today praising Ambedkar. To mislead people, the Sangh is celebrating great personalities like Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel, Subhash and Bhagat Singh, while every day they trample on the principles that the nation builders espoused, lived by and left behind for us. The people of our ancient civilization, which taught truth and nonviolence to the whole world, are being scared by lies that Hindus are in danger. Instead of settling disputes with Pakistan and China, geo-political conflicts are being regularly used to gather votes and force our soldiers to be martyred in false battles. Nationalism is being used aggressively against the people of Kashmir and the Northeast, where citizen’s rights are being disregarded every day and to imprison opposition leaders for no reason. Across the country, those speaking against the government are being accused of being anti-national.

Today, under the leadership of the BJP, a period of dangerous majoritarianism has shaken the roots of democracy. There has been a successful attempt to undermine all the pillars of democracy in India. Constitutional institutions like the Supreme Court, Election Commission, CAG and CVC are functioning like an extended arm of the government. Institutions like CBI and ED are being grossly misused. The way in which, the three farming laws were passed in the Rajya Sabha shows that the government is willing to ignore all rules and laws to forcefully impose its view. It is their conceit that they have an overwhelming majority. They forget that the meaning of democracy is not “they who wield the stick owns the buffalo”!

The media has been completely captured to create a narrative based on many such lies. Even a pandemic like coronavirus has been exploited through such a policy and the media has been used extensively to target a particular community. Far from providing information to the people and questioning those holding power on their behalf, influential media institutions

This majoritarianism rests on a politics of dividing people and blind nationalism. By spreading hatred in society towards a particular

have been left with just one task – to propagate the viewpoint of those in power with the people and twist the words of anyone who question those in power.

throws dalits, adivasis, minorities and women out of education will not move us forward. We reiterate the founding fathers’ and mothers of this country that India shall be a secular society that respects equality, simplicity and social justice. Towards that end, we will bring forward an education policy of the people, and by implementing it we will ourselves build a society that respects constitutional values.

As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads across the country, we have reached second place and are rapidly moving towards becoming the country with the maximum number of infections in the world. The government which was claiming that it would defeat corona in 21 days is now trying its best to hide data. During the crisis, the country saw how millions of working families had to travel hundreds of kilometres on foot. Many tired workers lost their life on railway tracks and in railway coaches. Research by NGOs puts the number of such deaths at more than 650, but the government says that they do not even have data on the number of dead people!

Only history will show how we get out of this difficult period, but it is certain that people are raising their voice against it, as witnessed in the massive protests all over the country against the NRC-NPR-CAA. Women are playing a decisive role in this movement and have come out in the streets in such large numbers for the first time since independence. Similarly, ignoring the threat of state violence, the farmers and workers of the country have taken to the streets against the agrarian crisis, land acquisition and changes in factory laws. The Dalit movements have created movements like Bhima Koregaon which gives a new light of inspiration to underprivileged communities across the country. In order to save the environment, communities depending on natural resources, which include fisher people, Adivasis, farmers and common people, have given a tough challenge to the government and strongly opposed changes in environmental laws that facilitate corporate exploitation. Alongside the struggles, small and big peoples’ movements spread across the country have also put forward an alternative model for a better society. Many encouraging experiments based on different economic, social and environmental research and efforts are being undertaken in the country to build a just and equitable society.

Today, instead of questioning the government when the country is going through an unprecedented economic crisis and unemployment, the media is diverting the entire country’s attention to the tragic death of an actor, Pakistan and China’s misbehaviour, etc. Rather than rethinking the economic policies that have destroyed the country’s economic situation, the Prime Minister is using the slogan of self-reliance and the pretext of the lockdown to run a campaign to silence opponents and impose various new orders, laws and policies, all with one objective – to make business easier for companies, no matter what difficulties people in cities or villages have to face. Opening coal mines to the private sector, relieving them even from environmental and social impact assessment studies, and handing over 700 kilometres of our coastline to companies so that fisher people who are called the king of the sea are made unprotected laborers on corporate owned trawlers, while ignoring the global crisis of climate change, this is their idea of development.

The government and the Sangh Parivar are trying to suppress voices brutally misusing government machinery. This autocratic period is even more dangerous than the Emergency because alongside the oppression, the focus on turning people against each other has taken a terrible form. The Delhi riots are a living example of this, where those who advance peace and brotherhood are being called conspirators of the riots and the ruling party’s ministers and leaders who openly promoted violence are being protected. In order to avoid transparency and

The corona epidemic has proved that our country’s public healthcare system has faced budget cuts for years while corporate hospitals were being set up, but these have not come forward to serve the public. Similarly, the New Education Policy 2020 which, by handing over the public education system to the private sector,

accountability, question hour has been removed in the Parliament session and there is a constant effort to weaken the RTI law. It has become common practice to frame false charges and detained in jail anyone who raises their voice and asks questions. In the Bhima Koregaon case, social activists and intellectuals are being called urban naxals and jailed under the UAPA, and the police is not even filing a charge sheet for many years. The ruthless killings of secular, rationalists like Dabholkar, Kalburgi, Pansare and Gauri Lankesh were carried out to suppress dissenting voices by those inspired by a particular ideology which is practised, promoted and protected by the current government.

to bring together on one platform, the voices of those fighting for their rights from across the country. In these series of programs, we try to highlight the issues of small and big grassroots peoples’ movements and people in different parts of the country and try to build public opinion for a progressive vision which builds on the constitutional values that the freedom fighters fought for in the previous century. We are starting this campaign on birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, death anniversary of Kishan Patnayak and on eve of martyrdom of Shankar Guha Niyogi, and the historic Harsud rally drawing inspiration from them and strengthen our own movements’ efforts to implement their ideas.

These are all unacceptable developments! We shall speak!!

Educate ! Organize ! Agitate ! NAPM India caravan of grassroots struggled organised online started on September 27th and covered a wide array of issues in each of the states and continued through end of the year in 2020. For details see https://weshallspeakup. wordpress.com

The voices of resistance are growing louder across the country. The National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements program “We shall speak” is an attempt to amplify these voices of peoples’ movements at such a time. We want

State Wise Schedule of the We Shall Speak campaign September 27 Inaugural Event October 4 West Bengal October 9 Bihar (I) October 10 Madhya Pradesh October 11 Bihar (II) October 13 Jharkhand (I) October 15 Jharkhand (II) October 17 Chattisgarh October 19 Odisha October 26 Andhra Pradesh October 31 Kerala November 3 Gujarat November 7 Telangana November 8 Uttar Pradesh (I) November 17-22 Maharashtra November 29 Uttar Pradesh (II) December 8 Karnataka (I) December 9 Karnataka (II)

MOVEMENTS & STRUGGLES NEWS AND UPDATES **** 2020 **** January 6, New Delhi : NAPM condemens the unprecedented violence unleashed by the masked goons on the JNU campus specifically targeting Student Union activists, students active in anti fee hike agitation, Kashmiri and Dalit students and the faculty members supporting them. The attack left more than 20 students and faculty members with grievous injury, fracture and cuts including severe head injury to JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh, Prof Sucharita Sen and others.

Kotputli, Shuklawas and Chandwaji, reached Jaipur, where three programs were conducted next day. Yatra travelled to Dudu, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Beawar, Bhim, Udaipur, Dungarpur and Baswadam and entered Madhya Pradesh. The first phase of Yatra was to conclude in Hyderabad on 23 March and pass through 16 states. The second phase was proposed to start from Champaran on 11 April and conclude in Patna on 17 May covering 10 states. The third phase was to start from Sitabadiyara (Ballia) on 11 October and conclude at Narendra Niketan, Delhi on 31 October. The yatra was to conduct 500 programs across the country led by the chief convener Arun Srivastava and co-convenor Dr. Sunilam (former MLA and NAPM Convener). However, the Yatra was cut-short due to nationwide lockdown in the wake of corona pandemic.

January 25, New Delhi : People’s movements, trade unions, women’s groups and others in a joint letter oppose the visit of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as State guest for Republic Day Parade. They express their opposition to his misogynistic, homophobic and anti-people views and regressive actions taken by him since the time he became President in January, 2019.

February 16, New Delhi : Second Dalit Literature Festival concludes at Kirorimal College, Delhi University. The theme of the festival was “literature will create a new world”. Several writers and poets like Mamta Kalia, Balli Singh Cheema, Chauthi Ram Yadav, Vimal Thorat and others attended the festival.

January 26, Mumbai : Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) on a petition by Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan upholds the rehabilitation rights of the slum dwellers living on the mangrove land and directs the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra to form a committee of experts in order to make a rehabilitation plan for around 1500 families of Ambedkar Nagar slum in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai whose houses were demolished by the mangrove cell of Maharashtra Forest department in May 2017. The order was passed by MSHRC on 30th December 2019, however, the detailed order copy was received by the complainants on 24th January 2020.

March 1-2, Bhopal : NAPM organizes two days discussion forum on the state of rivers in the country. The meeting saw participation of activists, researchers, farmers and fisherfolks from the Narmada, Ganga, Tapi, Krishna, Mahandi and other river basins. The discussions focused around the current status of the river valleys and the threat posed to them due to various ‘developmental’ activities, very specifically dam building and interlinking of rivers.

January 30, 2020 New Delhi : Samajwadi Samagam flags off its Samajwadi Vichar Yatra from Gandhi Smriti, 30 January Road, Delhi. The inaugural programme was disrupted due to detention of the core members of the yatra by Delhi police till 2 pm. However, the yatra proceeded further with its plan and reached Rewari, and after conducting programs in

March 24, New Delhi : Government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi orders a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, limiting movement of the entire 138 Crore population

of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

of strict lockdown and corona pandemic. It also condemns continued oppression of civil liberties and targeting of dissent through fabricated cases and misuse of government machinery and law enforcement agencies.

March 25 : Several individuals working with the feminist and transgender Organisations, social movements write to the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment pointing to the dire situation of transgender persons in the light of Covid-19 & Lockdown, and call for immediate intervention, with monetary and material support by the central government and state governments. They point that this is also required as in compliance with the directives of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in NALSA vs UoI (14th April, 2014) as well as the spirit of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and obligations of the state, there under.

April 22, Faridabad : Aman Ki Pahal, a NAPM member, in a statement strongly condemns the mob lynching of two elderly persons in Palghar, Maharashtra. While lauding the immediate action of the Maharashtra Government, they cautioned the attempt of the right-wing elements and certain sections of the media to give a communal twist to the incident. They also demand that the Central Government immediately enact a stringent law on mob lynching as per the Supreme Court’s order.

April 1, Patna : NAPM Bihar writes to CM Nitish Kumar drawing his attention to the severe difficulties being faced by the migrant workers in the wake of the sudden lockdown announced by the Union government to deal with the Corona pandemic. This suddenness has forced thousands of workers to start walking or using other non-motorised vehicles to their villages in Bihar. The memorandum demanded that provisions for their safe travel to their villages are made by the government, appropriate medical facility, food, water and other resources are provided since migrant workers are facing hardship, hunger and deprivation and also police atrocities on the way. It was also demanded that Bihar government undertake proactive steps to liaison with the other state governments and set up a centralized helpline for their relief.

April 24, New Delhi : Several Jamia Islamia University alumna write to the President of India demanding action be taken against the Delhi police personnel responsible for the police violence on the Jamia campus on the 15th of December, 2019. The letter pointed that the Delhi Police denied all these charges and submitted to the court that they entered the library to protect the students sitting in the library. The fact of the matter is that there is no FIR against the police personnel till now and it is evident from the leaked CCTV footage of the university library that the police used excessive force and violence on the students. It also pointed out that Delhi Police has now engaged in witch-hunt and arrests of the Jamia students and several of them have been arrested in fabricated cases related to the Delhi riots. Letter demanded that the President intervene and ensure justice for the students.

April 9, Delhi : NAPM calls for a nationwide fasting programme “karo naa kuch (do something)” on April 10 to draw government’s attention to the plight of the 43 crore migrant workers, who have been left to fend for themselves in wake of the strict and sudden lockdown announced by the union government.

April 30 : NAPM demands immediate withdrawal of draft Environmental Impact Assessment Notification (EIA) 2020. It says the draft attempts to further weaken environmental regulations in name of ‘ease of doing business’, which is a sure doom for environment and no way to fight climate change.

April 14 : NAPM pays homage to Babasaheb Ambedkar on his 129th birth anniversary and reaffirms faith in the Constitution. It also lauds the selfless services of doctors, health and sanitation workers and spontaneous relief efforts from ordinary citizens and civil society in the time

May 1 : On the occasion of May day, NAPM hosts an e-seminar on the topic of Shramik Adhikar : Samman, Nyay aur Janvadi Vikas (Labour Rights: Dignity, Justice & Pro - People Development). Medha Patkar, Prasanna Heggodu, Geetha

Ramkrishnan, P Chennaiah, Richa Singh and Kaladas Bhai spoke on the occasion.

economy; environment and economy. May 16 : Social movements, trade unions, women’s organisations and NAPM Himachal Pradesh members appeal to the government of Himachal Pradesh to facilitate their return in the wake of the hardships faced by the migrant workers in the State due to lockdown and shutdown of the factories. The BaddiBarotiwala-Nalagarh Industrial area in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, houses more than 2000 industrial units and is known as the pharma hub of Asia. With an annual turnover of more than 60,000 crores, this zone has a major concentration of migrant workers in the state of Himachal Pradesh, possibly between 1.25 to 1.5 lakh people. These workers belonging to various states mainly Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and many others faced severe distress due to the sudden announcement of a country-wide lockdown.

NAPM also salutes the spirit of resilience of millions of workers worldwide and in India, in particular women workers, who even in the midst of the worst pandemic asserted their right to life, livelihood and dignity, despite numerous odds, state apathy and clout of capitalist forces. It also salutes all categories of health care, essential services and relief workers who are risking their lives to keep the nation safe during these trying times. May 3 : More than 1100 feminists and gender rights activists in an open letter strongly condemn the brazenly malicious attacks, arrests and intimidation by the Delhi Police of Muslim women, students and activists. The letter cites media reports about 800 + anti-CAA protesters who have been detained or arrested since the Covid 19 lockdown. Given the circumstance they had little means or access to lawyers and legal aid, and their families had no information of their whereabouts for extended periods after they were in custody.

May 17 : Marking the 86th foundation day of Congress Socialist Party two day online conference is organised by socialist organisations. They conclude ‘socialism’ as the only alternative from the current crisis for the country. The conference extends support to the 25th May strike by central trade unions against the repeal of labour laws by the Union government.

May 15 New Delhi : A series of conversations titled “re imagining the future : peoples’ agenda for a post covid economy” is organised collectively by the people’s movements, solidarity and social action groups ending on September 14th 2020. The series organized in the wake of the unprecedented health, economic and livelihoods crises triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the failures of the neo-liberal corporate led model of economic governance across the world. In the country, despite a brutal 50 day lockdown of the economy, COVID-19 cases continued to mount and newspapers were rife with reports of stranded migrant workers, millions of job losses and rising cases of hunger and malnutrition. The inaugural session was followed by discussions (twice every week, Tuesday and Friday) on themes such as loss of jobs, employment & livelihoods; labour: informal, formal and artisans; industry: small, medium, large; infrastructure; banking, finance and financial markets; mineral extraction; energy; urban sustainability; public sector units; agriculture; fisheries, forest and pastoral

May 19 : NAPM condemns absolutely insensitive, anti-poor and anti-working-class approach of the Govt of India, reflected in the ‘mega economic package’ of Rs. 20 lakh crores, announced by the Prime Minister and Finance Minister over a period of 5 days. Despite all word-play around ‘Atma-nirbharta’, the current regime ‘abandoned’ millions of toiling masses, left them to fend for themselves in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic and horribly managed ‘lockdown’. NAPM urged the government to undertake urgent measures to provide food, transport, income, and work support needed to the people, specifically on the margins and migrant workers. May 20 : NAPM expresses grave concern to the purported moves of the Govt of India to dilute pro-people, pro-environment legislation and

push forth massive projects that are detrimental to national interest. It condemns the clearance granted to the much-hyped Central Vista Project despite 1300 objections raised to the Environment Assessment Committee by environmentalists, historians and concerned citizens. Based on the EAC’s recommendations dated 22nd April, MoEF & CC granted Conditional Environmental Clearance for construction of the new additional Parliament building, which is a part of the ambitious Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista Project. The project envisages a ‘revamp’ of the entire 3-km long Rajpath, including South and North blocks of Central Secretariat and also the Parliament House of India. This revamp also entails that the North and South Block would be converted into museums and many critical offices like Krishi Bhavan, Nirman, Bhavan, Vignan Bhavan have to be demolished. The proposal is to construct a new 900-seater Parliament building by July 2022 and a common Central Secretariat by March 2024.

May 29, New Delhi : Supreme Court hears the issues related to the migrant workers on May 28th taken up suo moto, along with the petition filed by Medha Patkar and other social activists of National Alliance of People’s Movements. Court passes several directions for the transport of the migrant workers and relief operations to be carried by the State and the Central government. The petitioners include Narmada Bachao Andolan (MP), Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan (Bihar), Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan (Mumbai), Aman Ki Pehel (Delhi & Haryana), National Domestic Workers Union (Delhi), National Campaign Committee for Rural Workers and Maharashtra Rajya Hamal Mapadi Maha Mandal. June 3, New Delhi : NAPM appeals to join nationwide protests against the arrests of anti-CAA activists by the Delhi and UP police, especially using the draconian UAPA and sedition law. The campaign demands release of all activists of the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR movement; immediate attention to the plight of migrant workers and toiling masses; arrest of the real culprits of the Delhi pogrom; repeal of CAA-NRC-NPR and UAPA. It also appeal to join the twitter storm using the hashtag #SabYaadRakhaJaega #FreeAntiCAAProtesters.

May 20, Kohima : Reacting to the instances of human rights violations by the 19th Sikh regiment in the third week of May, Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) in its press statement decries the aggressive intrusion into Naga areas under the present state of Manipur against “so-called insurgents”with whom they are in Ceasefire and Political negotiations. It also condemns the kidnapping and torturing of Naga civilians in Arunachal Pradesh. It further calls upon the Indian civil society organizations, democratic rights institutions, people’s movements as well as the international communities, United Nation’s agencies and others, to take cognisance of these heinous atrocities of the Government of India, who have denied even the basic “right to life” of the Naga people, leave alone the recognition of their people hood.

June 18 : NAPM calls upon the government of Kerala to immediately withdraw its ‘revived’ proposal to construct the ecologically destructive Athirappilly Hydro Electric Project (HEP) in the heart of the Western Ghats. June 23 : NAPM calls for review of the fourlane highway, 400 KV transmission line and double tracking of the railway line through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park in Goa. It urges Supreme Court to direct Goa and Central government for mandatory compliance of the recommendations in the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel Report.

May 21, Bengaluru : NAPM unequivocally condemns the abusive and misogynistic behaviour of Mr. Madhuswamy, the Minister of Law, Parliamentary Affairs, Legislation and Minor Irrigation in Karnataka towards Nalini Gowda, a young woman and farmer’s rights activist in Kolar on May 20 and demands strict action against him.

June 24 : NAPM condemns the diabolical design of the Centre led by the Prime Minister to ‘virtually auction’ 41 coal blocks for commercial mining in the bio-diverse rich, adivasi heartlands of Central and Eastern India and asks for its

cancellation. It says that opening up of these areas to profit-making domestic and foreign corporate mining entities will irreversibly jeopardize the pristine forest lands, increase environmental pollution and public health risk in Covid times and destroy the habitats of a major chunk of the adivasi population and wild-life.

of the provisions of the Act. It demands that the rights of marginalized citizens are prioritized before ‘business sentiments’ and stop the patronizing ‘Divyang Politics’. Accessibility is a fundamental right of every citizen. July 8 : NAPM write to Kerala Chief Minister seeking review of the cost-benefits of semi high speed train project and take a decision in the interest of the ecology, economy and people’s livelihoods. The proposed project, 532 Kms long, also known as Silver Line Project from Kasargod (north) to Thiruvananthapuram (south), is to be constructed at an estimated cost of INR 67,000 crores by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL), a Joint Venture Company under the Government of Kerala and Ministry of Railways, Govt of India. While 3,000 acres of land are to be acquired for the tracks and an additional 2,500 acres would be taken for ‘development’ of smart cities and other commercial establishments near the proposed 10 stations, the actual and full extent of land being frozen for the project is not yet known. It is also estimated that nearly 20,000 families would face displacement and loss of livelihood from the project.

June 29 : NAPM condemns the incomprehensible physical, mental and sexual violence inflicted by the Santhankulam police on two Thoothukudi residents, father-son duo Jayaraj and Bennicks, that led to their painful death in custody on June 22 and 23 respectively. The news caused major uproar in Tamil Nadu and across the country. June, 29 : Marking 200 days of absolutely unjust arrest of the mass leader of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Akhil Gogoi on draconian charges, NAPM demands his immediate release and withdrawal of ill-conceived charges foisted against him. It also demands the release of young leaders Bittu Sonowal, Dhaijya Konwar and Manas Konwar associated with KMSS and its sister organizations. July 2, Bhopal : All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee terms the three farm ordinances brought by the union government as pro-corporate and anti farmer. Dr Sunilam, NAPM National Convener and AIKSCC working committee member criticizes these ordinances brought in the time of the lockdown and also extend support to the 3rd July nationwide strike launched by the central trade unions demanding no changes to the labour laws.

July 12 : NAPM expresses deep concern over the series of destructive and extractive projects being taken up in the bio-diverse rich regions of the North-Eastern states that jeopardize the interests of wild life and humans alike. ‘Dehing Patkai’ famously known as ‘Amazon of the East’ in Upper Assam became a flash point of resistance after the recent “recommendation for approval” by the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL), to allow opencast mining by Coal India Limited in about 98.59 hectares of land in the Saleki Reserve Forest (Digboi), which is a part of the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve. It was done ignoring the existing scientific and official evidence of long-standing unlawful mining in the area and ‘legalizing’ the mining in a ‘postfacto mode’. The area is the largest rainforest in India, home to many endangered species and is believed to be the last remaining contiguous patch of rainforest area in the Upper Assam region, extending upto the Deomali elephant reserve in Arunachal Pradesh.

July 4, Patna : NAPM writes to Bihar Chief Minister endorsing the demand raised by Kosi Navnirman Manch to ensure immediate purchase of maize crop by Govt. as per minimum support price (MSP) and ensure disbursement of proceeds to farmers as well as payment of ‘loss differential’ between market price and MSP for previous season maize sale, as per Prime Minister’s Annadata Aay Suraksha Abhiyan. July 5 : NAPM demands roll back of problematic amendments to the “Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016”and asks to resist attempts to weaken the penal provisions against violations

July 16 : Feminist organisations, social movements and activists write to the Chief Justice of Patna High Court in the matter of arrest of a 22-year old survivor of a gangrape along with the two activists who were accompanying her in Araria district on July 10, 2020, right in the midst of recording her statement under S124. The two feminist activists - Kalyani Badola and Tanmay Nivedita were her support givers, who worked with Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, a registered trade union and member of NAPM. The three were sent to judicial custody in Dalsinghsarai Jail in Samastipur district, 250 kms away from Araria, on 11th July 2020. They request the Chief Justice for immediate release of the survivor and activists, as well as quashing of all charges against them; a smooth and quick trial of the incident of gangrape so that the culprits are brought to book; and issuing of state-specific guidelines to ensure that there is a friendly and non-hostile environment in respect of rape/sexual assault cases in adherence with the recommendations of the Justice Verma Commission.

the political autonomy of Jammu & Kashmir, National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements expresses unflinching solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and urges the government of India and the country’s institutions including the judiciary to work towards restoring the special status of the region, demilitarize and fulfil its old promises to the Kashmiri people.

July 19 : NAPM writes to Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel requesting him to stop the eviction of workers in the Bhilai Industrial Area and demolition of their houses in Bijli Nagar. It was reported that around 30 houses of factory workers are slated for demolition in the coming week in Bijli Nagar area of Hathkhoj basti, Bhilai, which will make more than a 100 people homeless, including around 50 children. The basti has been in existence for over 30 years, but is now slated for demolition as the land belongs to Chhattisgarh administration’s Department of Industry and Commerce, which needs to set up new industrial units. The workers have been given no alternative accommodation and no provisions have been made for their resettlement or rehabilitation.

August 13 : NAPM writes to the Home Minister and expresses its deep concerns about the proposed reform of Criminal Law and the constitution of the Committee set-up to carry out this task. It points to the hasty and opaque manner in which the current reforms are being carried out, and strongly urge him to immediately abandon this process and if at all required, undertake a more transparent, consultative and representative approach, at a later time, after the pandemic crisis is addressed fully.

August 5 : NAPM expresses deep anguish at the initiation of the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, through the Bhumi Pujan ceremony which culminated in the laying of the foundation stone today. The participation of none less than the Prime Minister, the Uttar Pradesh administration and its Chief Minister in the ceremony, even though these offices are constitutionally mandated to remain secular, is another blow to constitutional principles. It calls upon people to resist the ‘Hindu rashtra’ project of lies, hatred and violence and demands that perpetrators of the criminal demolition of Babri Masjid must be held legally accountable.

August 15 : Observing 74th Independence Day feminists committed to democratic values in an open statement ask, ‘where is the real independence, the real freedom for citizens to think, speak, write, educate, agitate, organize, resist, dissent or question?’ They mention that from late 2019 to early 2020, we witnessed 100+ days of strong, vibrant, peaceful, feminist, mass people’s movements asserting the vision of a diverse, egalitarian and just India against the deeply discriminatory CAA-NRC-NPR project of the government. However, this was followed by a brutal crackdown by the State in different parts of the country, especially in Delhi which reeled under the worst ‘riots’ in 40 years,

July 28 : The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the arrest of Professor Hany Babu MT at Mumbai by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case. August 5, New Delhi : Marking the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which took away

targeted primarily against Muslim populations and leading to fabricated arrest of young women, students, muslims and activists who participated in these protests. This raises questions on the nature of independence citizens enjoy today.

advocate Sudha Bhardwaj, in Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case, NAPM condemns the continued incarceration of activists, lawyers, writers and poets by the government. Given the slow and tardy progress of the investigation and failure of the State to prove the false and trumped charges under UAPA, it was demanded that all the prisoners are immediately released and charges dropped. The laws like UAPA must be repealed, since they have no place in a democratic society. It was also demanded that given the pandemic situation bail should be granted to many political and undertrial prisoners to reduce overcrowding in the jails.

August 16, New Delhi : Inaugural session of the Janta Parliament is held online and is joined by Justice (Retd) AP Shah, Jignesh Mevani, Soni Sori, Syeda Hameed and hundreds others who raise crucial questions for Indian polity and democracy. August 21, Ranchi : NAPM Jharkhand members write to the Chief Minister Hemant Soren demanding enactment of land laws in line with the Supreme Court judgment in State of Meghalaya vs Dimasha Students Union appeal no 10720/2018 dt 03.07.2019 which recognizes the right over the underground minerals of the community and individual who owns the land. This would ensure that the community ownership the minerals can be established and the forceful eviction for mining can be prevented in the mineral rich state of Jharkhand.

September 2 : National Green Tribunal issues notice to 15 mine lease holders and State of Rajasthan for continued illegal mining in Kotputli Teshil, Jaipur district. The petition was filed by Radhe Shyam Shukla and Vimal Bhai on behalf of Mining Affected Struggle Committee. September 14 : NAPM condemns the arrest of former JNU student leader and youth activist Dr. Umar Khalid. It urges Delhi police to stop coercing ‘confessional’ statements to manufacture evidence and refrain from painting the democratic anti-CAA protests as a ‘conspiracy against the state’. It demands repeal of the draconian UAPA and release of all antiCAA protestors. It further adds that Kapil Mishra and all those who incited the ‘Delhi Riots’ must be arrested.

August 26, New Delhi : The week-long (16th to 21st August ) Janta Parliament, concludes with a three hour working session between the Janta Parliament and representatives of political parties. This session of the online Janta Parliament was adjourned after 43 hours of discussions with around 250 speakers, more than a hundred resolutions, over a thousand voting participants and engaging with more than one lakh people on social media. The specific plans for further advocacy around the issues in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament were also announced after further meeting of the organizing committee. Brief statistics, information and highlights from the Janta Parliament may be accessed here: https:// jantaparliament.wordpress.com/2020/08/25/ invite-concluding-session-of-janta-parliament/ A comprehensive ‘People’s Policy for Post COVID-19 Times’ as well as a collation of all resolutions from the Janta Parliament is available here: https://jantaparliament.wordpress.com/ policy-proposals/

September 27 : Marking the Historic ‘Harsud Rally’ and in revolutionary remembrance of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Shaheed Shankar Guha Niyogi and Kishan Patnaik NAPM organizes all India caravan of grass roots struggles from 27th Sep to 10th Dec, 2020 titled “ham to bolenge / we shall speak”. October 3 : NAPM Condemns the rising caste and gender-based violence in BJP ruled Uttar Pradesh & Gujarat and demands punishment for the rapists & murderers of Dalit women and other victims. It also demands that the administration and police be held accountable given their complete disregard for law and UP Chief Minister must resign for repeatedly failing to safeguard rights of women from marginalized

August 28 : Marking two years of the arrest of

October 14 : A memorial meeting for T Peter, General Secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) is organised by NAPM, NFF, PIPFPD, DSG and others. He passed away on 8 October 2020 from COVID-19 related complications in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was 62 years old. Peter fought for more than three decades, as a full time activist and union organiser, to empower India’s fishing communities and played a critical role in advancing their struggles from the margins into the political mainstream. He joined the Kerala Independent Fishworkers Federation (KSMTF) in the early 1980s as a young militant organiser in the fight against trawlers which were destroying both the fragile coastal ecosystems and traditional livelihoods. He quickly rose through the union ranks, first to district-level leader and then to state president. His soulful association with groups as a cultural activist before being a political activist brought him closer to the community wherever he went. After passing on the state leadership mantle to the next generation, Peter spent his last years playing a creative and active role at the national and international levels.

communities in the state. October 3, New Delhi : NAPM expresses shock and dismay at the verdict of the CBI Special Court acquitting all 32 persons accused of being responsible for the demolition of Babri masjid on December 6, 1992. It alleges that CBI led a weak prosecution based upon defective evidence, even though the Liberhan Commission after its detailed investigation (1992-2009) pointed to the involvement of senior RSS and BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti. The Judgement running in to 2,300 pages goes at length to say that there was no active conspiracy, which is a mockery of the rule of law. The verdict also fails to remedy the illegality of the demolition, which was recognized by the Supreme Court in its Ayodhya Verdict on November 9, 2019, but on the other hand encouraged claims for demolition of other mosques, leading inevitably to increasing discord, hate and violence in society. The verdict further trivializes Supreme Court’s comment that the Babri masjid demolition was “an egregious violation of rule of law”. October 4 : Over 10,000 people from all walks of life, cutting across caste, religion, gender, occupation and community coming together from almost every state in India and more than a dozen countries across the world such US, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, Netherlands, Sweden, Slovenia etc demand justice for the heinous rape, brutalising attack and murder of a young Dalit woman from Hathras. The statement while condemning the incident says that “despite a continuing saga of countless other cases of brutal sexual assault and murders especially of young Dalit women the conscience of this nation does not seem to be shaken enough to do anything serious to stop the systematic targeting of women, Dalits and the poor.” It also criticises the failing law and order in the state of Uttar Pradesh and rising instances of violence and rape against women and minorities.

October 15 : Movements from Jharkhand join the online caravan as part of the We Shall Speak series organized by NAPM. October 17 : Movements from Chattisgarh join the online caravan as part of the We Shall Speak series organized by NAPM. October 18 : National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) completes ten years of its existence as a specialised body for adjudication of environmental cases in India. The NGT Act was passed on May 5, 2010, in the backdrop of need for expert intervention for growing environmental cases, identified by the Supreme Court and recommended by the Law Commission in its 186th Report. Since its inception, the NGT has championed the cause of Environment and pushed the boundary of environmental jurisprudence evolved by the Supreme Court since the 1970s. Over one decade, the NGT has moved beyond its statutory ties of jurisdiction, powers and procedure by exercising suo moto jurisdiction, condonation of delay and displaying flexibility in procedure & damage

October 10 : Movements from Madhya Pradesh join the online caravan as part of the We Shall Speak series organized by NAPM.

assessment. At the same time, it has been mired in debates surrounding its limitation as statutory body, concerns regarding implementation and bureaucratic dependence in its appointment and operation. Over the past ten years, NGT has unquestionably witnessed its ebb and flow.

Delhi’s Burari. November 28 : Home minister Amit Shah offers to hold talks with the farmers as soon as they vacate Delhi borders and move to the designated protest site in Burari. Rejecting his offer, the protesting farmers demand to hold the protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and continue to camp at Delhi borders.

October 19 : Movements from Odisha join the online caravan as part of the We Shall Speak series organized by NAPM.

December 1 : The Modi government holds the first round of talks with leaders of 35 farm unions. The meeting remains inconclusive. December 3 : A marathon eight-hour meeting between the government and farmer union heads ends in a deadlock.

October 20 : NAPM fact finding report on Hathras incident is released by the team that visited Bulgarhi village (Hathras, Uttar Pradesh) and met the family and relatives of victim on 9th October, 2020. The team comprised of Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Manimala, Faisal Khan and others.

December 8 : Protesting farmers call for a nationwide shutdown and demand a complete rollback of the new farm laws. The shutdown gathers support from many opposition parties and trade unions, especially in Punjab and Haryana. A meeting between home minister Shah and a selected group of farmers’ representatives fails to achieve a breakthrough.

October 20, Bhubaneshwar : Prafulla Samantra, President Lok Shakti Abhiyan and Adviser NAPM writes to Governor of Odisha demanding implementation of PESA and FRA-2006 to protect 160 acres of land belonging to SCs and STS being transferred to Odisha Industrial Development Corporation in Kosaguda village, Nawarangapur district without the mandatory consent of Gram Sabha.

December 9 : Leaders of farmer unions boycott services offered by industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani saying the new farm laws favour large corporates.

November 5 : More than 200 farm unions from 22 states organise a nationwide road blockade against new laws introduced by the Modi government that relaxes restrictions governing the purchase and sale of farm produce, eases out constraints on stocking, and enables contract farming.

December 16 : The apex court suggests that the centre put the new farm laws on hold while putting forward the idea of constituting an impartial and independent committee to end the impasse.

November 25 – 26 : All India Kisan Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti (AIKSCC) gives a call to march to Delhi in protest against the three farm acts passed by the government of India. November 26 : The police at Haryana’s Ambala district uses water cannons and tear gas to stop farmers from reaching Delhi. Reports say the Haryana government has dug trenches on the roads leading to Delhi as part of their efforts to stop farmers from travelling to the capital.

December 21 : Farmers hold a one-day hunger strike at protest sites near Delhi borders. December 22 : More than 35 social, political, farmer organisations, and trade and labour unions hold a peaceful protest in Mumbai to show their support. December 30 : Some headway is made in a fresh round of talks between the government and union leaders when the former agrees to drop the penal provisions against farmers in an ordinance relating to stubble burning and to put on hold a proposed electricity amendment law.

November 27 : Farmers set up camps on the highways on the city’s border, in defiance of the police permission for the protest at a site in

Janauary 4 : Reliance Industries, owned by India’s richest person Mukesh Ambani, says it will never enter contract farming. A fresh meeting between the farmers and the government ends without a solution as the union leaders continue to press for the withdrawal of the three farm laws.

January 24 : The Delhi police allows farmers to hold a tractor rally in the national capital to mark the completion of two months of their protest. The permission is limited to a fixed route through the city. January 25 : The meeting between the representatives of the joint platform of Central Trade Unions and the Samyukta Sangharsh Morcha of farmers is held on 22nd January, which congratulates the farmers for their determined struggles and extends support to demands for repeal of three farm laws. The meeting pays homage to the farmers who lost their lives during the course of the protests. The meeting also deplores the use of NIA, ED, Income tax department and filing of criminal cases to threaten and intimidate the leadership of the agitation and innocent farmers. It demands that the Central Government take cognizance of widening support to Kisan agitation, stop delaying tactics and accept the just demands of the Farmers graciously at once.

January 12 : The supreme court puts on hold the implementation of the three farm laws and sets up a committee to evaluate any changes to the laws. The committee is given a two-month deadline. January 15 : Another round of talks between the farmers and the government fails to end the deadlock. January 20 : In a fresh round of talks, the Modi government proposes to suspend the three farm laws for one-and-half years and set up a joint committee to discuss the legislation. The farmers, however, reject the proposal and continue their demand for a complete rollback of the laws. January 22 : The government hardens its stand and says the next round of talks will be held only when the farmers agree to discuss the suspension proposal.

January 26 : Sanyukt Kisan Morcha holds historic tractor rally across the country, which remains peaceful all across. A group of farmers deviate from the route and march towards Lal Quila leading to the altercation with the police and in the ensuing police violence one farmer dies.

January 23 – 31 : Marking its 20th year of existence and due to corona pandemic, World Social Forum organizes its first global virtual summit. The event was scheduled to be held earlier in Mexico. First organised in 2001 by organisations and social movements in Porto Alegre/Brazil, with the goal to act as a counterpoint to the neoliberalism represented by the World Economic Forum, which has been held every year in Davos/Switzerland since 1971. Besides the first editions in Porto Alegre (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005), the WSF travelled the world with events happening in Mumbai, Caracas, Karachi, Bamako, Nairobi, Belém, Dakar, Tunis, Montreal and Salvador da Bahia. Thematic, regional and continental editions were also held. The Forum process has been a space of expression for movements working towards a different globalization. There have been 13 face-to-face WSF editions and a decentralized one that connected local events through online platforms in 2008.

January 27 : Sanyukt Kisan Morcha braves the malicious campaign and pressure from the media and State over the violence at lal quila and vows to continue the protest against the three contentious farm laws untill they are repealed. Delhi police file 22 FIRs against farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, Medha Patkar and others in connection to the violence on Republic Day. January 28 : Sanyukt Kisan Morcha call off their march to the parliament on February 1. A couple of farm unions from Uttar Pradesh— Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) and Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan—end their protest and dissociate themselves from the agitation. At night, the Uttar Pradesh police forcefully remove the protesting farmers sitting on the DelhiSaharanpur highway.

CURBING THE FREEDOM OF DISSENTING MEDIA

- NAPM

Reports show that over the past years, more than 150 journalists in India were arrested, had FIRs lodged against them, were detained and interrogated, either under ‘terror’ related charges, sedition charges or UAPA, and, after the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, under the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases Act as well. The year 2020 alone saw 20% of these cases, with the large majority concentrated in BJP ruled states. At a time when many journalists are also staring at retrenchments and livelihood insecurity, the presence of threats entailed by the very nature of reporting under this regime only makes matters worse. It is now evident that large sections of mainstream media have been steadily converted into a toxic propaganda machine, reflecting solely the voice of the Centre, peddling lies, hate and misinformation incessantly. At the same time, journalists who stand by the ethics of their profession face threats and even violence, with almost 200 physical attacks against them between 2014 and 2019, and multiple deaths. Less than a month and a half into 2021, the instances of violence against and targeting of journalists are already too many to count. One of the most blatant examples is the recent raid by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Newsclick, an independent online news platform. Starting the 9th February, over 8 premises, including the office of Newsclick, homes of some of its journalists and senior management were raided. For over a marathon 113 hours, the ED camped at the residence of editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha & writer Githa Hariharan, virtually placing them in home detention for 5 days. NewsClick has been consistently reporting on the farmers’ protests and also on an entire range of people’s movements and issues ignored by much of the mainstream media. On 30th January, Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist who has contributed for The Caravan magazine and Junputh, was dragged by the Delhi Police across the police barricades at Singhu Border, from where he had been reporting from day 1 of the Farmers’ Protests. An FIR was registered against him in Alipur Police Station at 1.21 a.m. for allegedly ‘assaulting a police official’ at around 6:30 pm, the previous evening. His is one of the rare cases in recent times in which an arrested journalist receives bail, along with a clear acknowledgement by the Magistrate that ‘bail is a rule and jail is an exception.’ As many as five FIRs have been filed against prominent journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, The Caravan magazine’s editor and founder Paresh Nath, its editor Anant Nath and executive editor Vinod K Jose. The given grounds for the FIRs are allegedly ‘promoting enmity between different groups, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal conspiracy’. These FIRs pertain to tweets and reports which alleged that a farmer was shot on 26th January, during the Farmers’ Republic Day Parade. On 30th January, the UP police filed an FIR against Siddharth Varadarajan, Founder Editor of The Wire for a report that had the allegations of the dead farmer’s family. Prior to this, on 25th January 2021, three Kanpur based TV journalists, Mohit Kashyap, Amit Singh and Yasin Ali, were booked after they ran a story that showed how children in a government school were shivering in the cold while practising yoga in the open. This took place during a government event which was attended by the technology minister in the UP government, Ajit Singh Pal. On 20th January 2021, a lower court in Gujarat issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in a defamation case filed by Adani against him for stories published in The Wire in 2017. The Gujarat High Court subsequently suspended the warrant and directed him to appear before the lower court in the matter. Also in January, journalists Dhiren Sadokpam, Paojel Chaoba and M Joy Luwang from Manipur were arrested for a piece in The Frontier Manipur. They were charged with sedition and under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), laws which have been used indiscriminately across the country against activists and journalists alike, especially in the past few years. The arrest and unconstitutional incarceration of Siddique Kappan is symbolic of this repression. He was on his way to report the Hathras rape case in Uttar Pradesh when he and three others were charged and arrested under UAPA. He has been in jail since October 2020 without trial or bail, not even allowed to meet his extremely ill, 90-year-old mother. On 22nd November 2020, a TV journalist, identified as Pongi Naganna was arrested in Vishakapatnam, on the charge of being a ‘courier’ for the Maoists. This arrest was followed by arrests of many other activists under UAPA. Other major instances of journalists being targeted include the repeated arrests and incarceration over months, of Prashant Kanojia for social media posts calling out the UP Govt.

Looking back at 2020 reveals that this trend is not new. In November, 2020 the Meghalaya High Court refused to quash criminal proceedings against Patricia Mukhim, Editor of Shillong Times for a Facebook post which was seen as tantamount to promoting ‘disharmony between communities’. Earlier in November 2019, N Venugupal, the editor of Veekshanam, a progressive Telugu magazine, was charged under UAPA and the Telangana Public Security Act. On 26th September, 2020 senior journalist Kamal Shukla, editor of Bhumkal Sumatra magazine and head of the Patrakar Suraksha Kanoon Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, was physically assaulted in Kanker (North Bastar) district of Chhattisgarh. Also in September, 2020 journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem was arrested by the Manipur Police on charges of sedition to be granted bail only in December. The continued incarceration, for over 2 years, of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan, who has been charged under UAPA allegedly on grounds unrelated to his journalism, is one of many reminders that journalists in Kashmir have been reporting under atrocious conditions of surveillance and violence, especially after the abrogation of Article 370. It is an extremely sad reflection of our ‘democracy’ that crucial constitutional matters such as blanket media and internet curbs in Kashmir have not been attended to with due urgency even by the Apex Court. The attitude of the state towards journalists and the many strategies of suppression they employ also include and encourage attacks specifically targeted against women journalists such as Neha Dixit, Pushpa Rokde and many others. The journalists mentioned above are by no means representative of the range of attacks that have taken place in the past decade. Journalists working in conflict zones, in non-metro areas, face challenges and forms of repression which often do not even make the news. We, therefore, need to be constantly vigilant to safeguarding the interests of those who are reporting from difficult conditions. Article-19 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech & expression through writing, printing, pictures, electronic broadcasting and media and it is fundamental to the idea of democracy. The control over information and news by the Central and state governments through brutal measures is nothing but fascist in nature and goes against the democratic framework enshrined in the Indian Constitution. While there is a need for legal frameworks for the protection of journalists, the steps proposed by some states, like the Maharashtra Media Person and Media Institutions Bill (2017) and the proposed Chhattisgarh Protection of Media Persons Act (2020) are insufficient, especially in instances where reporting takes place against government authorities who are then tasked with protecting the journalists.

The Movement of India

Articles inside

POLICY

MOVEMENTS & STRUGGLES

STATES

CAMPAIGN

FEATURE

Editorial