Caught in the Crossfire: Young Activists Targeted for Challenging a Crony Capitalist Government | Countercurrents 07/03/21, 12�42 PM

Caught in the crossfire: Young activists targeted for challenging a crony capitalist government | Countercurrents 07/03/21, 1242 PM

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Caught in the crossﬁre: Young activists targeted for challenging a crony capitalist government

in India — by Ashish Kothari — March 4, 2021

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Common Pass And What Is Not So Common About It Nachiket Gudi | March 7, 2021

An Expat Billionaire’s Sedition, said Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was the “prince among the Lifestyle in Los Angeles is political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the Reminiscent of the “Gilded Age” citizen”. He said this in the context of the British colonial administration’s use of Zeenat Khan | March 7, 2021

this section (124A) against many freedom ﬁghters, including himself and Tilak. Brawling over Vaccines: And while pleading guilty as charged, he said it was his moral duty to express Export Bans and the EU’s disafection towards a regime that had done “irreparable harm to my country”. Bungled Rollout Dr Binoy Kampmark | March 7, 2021 This was 1922. Almost a century later, young activists who have challenged the Government of India to be more responsible towards their future, are being Marx Goes To Hell subjected to the kinds of ordeals that Gandhi, Tilak and many others faced. There K P Sasi | March 7, 2021 is however at least one crucial di!erence; unlike the freedom ﬁghters who were struggling to rid India of its colonial shackles, these young people are in no way Chhattisgarh SHRC trying to overthrow the Indian state. Nor, whatever the hyper-imaginative Demands Action Taken sections of the government and the sensationalist sections of media might say, Report On Attack On Adivasi have these activists ever advocated separatism, violence, hatred against some Christians Press Release | March 7, 2021 sections of society, or other such actions that could threaten the integrity of India.

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Indeed, an essential similarity with Gandhi and others has to be noted: in Decolonizing Palestine – everything they have done as environmental activists, they have been non- Hamas Between the violent. It is a mockery of justice that while dozens or hundreds of hatred- Anticolonial and the Postcolonial spewing people who have incited or been part of violent acts against peaceful Jim Miles | March 6, 2021 citizens, such as Sangh Parivar cadre that attacked farmers on the Singhu border 100 Days of Rage and on 28th January, roam around freely simply because they are close to Delhi’s Resistance! 248 Lives corridors of power, people like Disha Ravi are picked up and held in ways that Lost! should make any democracy cringe in shame. National Alliance of People’s Movements | March 6, 2021

Why then such an attack on young environmentalists who are only asking for a Modi’s picture on the healthier present and a secure future? If, as per one statement by the police, there COVID vaccination may be thousands of people involved inciting disa!ection and in some way certibcates! th involved with the violence on January 26 , then how will catching 3-4 of them E A S Sarma | March 6, 2021 help? When in history has a violent uprising been stopped by picking up a few of Gogoi’s criticism of its advocates? If violence was really in their minds, why did not use it, along with judiciary and comedian’s farmers against whom similar charges are being made, for the several months contempt before January 26th that they have been active? Dr Madabhushi Sridhar | March 6, 2021

No, the government actions are not to quell violent disorder or actions to To Be Empowered Is A destabilise India, for the government knows quite well that such is not the Choice Than Fait intention of these activists (or of the farmers they support). Rather, they are Accompli…. meant to stop exposes of and opposition to the blatant crony capitalism that is Dr Harleen Shergill | March 6, 2021 taking control of every sector of our economy. One of the world’s biggest mobilisaton of farmers (and joining them, workers, youth, feminists, Not A Cyber Attack On environmentalists, academics, artists, and many more) in recent history has India’s Power Utilities, But shaken a government that has moved rapidly towards the privatisation and An Imperialist Onslaught On India- corporatisation of India. The farmer movement has not only opposed the 3 laws China Peace Efforts Ramakrishnan | March 6, 2021 which are further steps towards such corporatisation, but also the favours the government has granted to big corporates like Adani and Reliance. Several youth Tribute to Sunil Gavaskar environmental groups have supported the movement (with their ‘Greens with on 50th anniversary of his Farmers’ campaign), while also carrying on their own campaigns on a spate of Test debut ecologically and socially disastrous projects cleared by this government. These Harsh Thakor | March 6, 2021 include the private port (Adani, of course) threatening a bird sanctuary and ﬁsher Approaching a Risky 1.5°C livelihoods at Pulicat (Tamil Nadu), coal mining in Dehing Patkai Elephant Global Overshoot Reserve in Assam, and a national highway through Mollem National Park in Robert Hunziker | March 6, 2021 Karnataka and Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa. Many of them jointly initiated a ‘Youth Action to Stop Adani’ campaign that has aligned with adivasis and ﬁshers Earthworms, Humanity’s and others impacted by this corporation’s industrial projects across India, as also Friend Bharat Dogra | March 6, 2021 with young people in countries like Australia where Adani has proposed the world’s biggest coal mine, threatening local indigenous populations as also one of Resource Grabs and the world’s natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef. Compensation for Those Devastated by the Pilfering The Indian state has never taken kindly to local and national dissent on such Sally Dugman | March 6, 2021 matters. Whether under the Congress, or the BJP, or even Left and regional parties, opposition to so-called ‘development’ projects that entail grabbing of JatiIndia Flag of Atrocities land, destruction (politely called ‘diversion’) of forests, draining out of wetlands, Caste, Present and Future: take-over of coastal areas, construction in fragile mountains, has often been dealt The Farmer We See and the Farmer with harshly. In particular since 1991, when the then Congress government We Don’t explicitly moved away from a focus on domestic self-reliance (weak as it was), to Priti Gulati Cox | March 6, 2021 one on global economic integration, the private sector (Indian and foreign) has

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gained increasing clout. Economic policies have increasingly favoured the Government, Farmers’ handing over of agricultural, farm, forestry and pastoral lands, water, seeds, and Movement and the Quest other natural resources (including airwaves) to powerful corporations. Barring a for Just, Healthy, Sustainable Food few exceptional decisions taken by the (very) occasional bold minister, India has and Farming System been up for grabs to whoever can bid the highest or sidle up closest to the Bharat Dogra | March 5, 2021 government. And if you happen to speak up against this, and become su"ciently In the Struggle for visible, chances are you will be dealt with harshly. Several activists currently in jail Palestinian Political with charges of sedition or under laws like Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act Legitimacy, De-Normalizing Jewish (UAPA), were involved with local farmer or adivasi movements resisting such Nationalism is Essential corporate landgrab. Rima Najjar | March 5, 2021

While the BJP is by no means the only party to follow such a path, it has taken Ready to Work with India’s slide into an ecocidal, corporatised and authoritarian regime to new Netanyahu: Mansour depths. Since 2014, it has not rejected almost any proposal for mining, industries, Abbas Splinters Arab Vote in Israel mega-dams, ports, highways, and other projects that are devastating for Dr Ramzy Baroud | March 5, 2021 environment and livelihoods. Environmental laws and provisions have been An Abnormal “Farmers” systematically diluted, or sidestepped; its own agencies that warn against such Movement Celebrates projects have been ignored, such as Wildlife Institute of India’s observations that 100th Day the Mumbai-Delhi highway stretches in Rajasthan will fragment crucial wildlife Sandeep Banerjee | March 5, 2021 habitats (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/rti- reveals-moef-cc-cleared-3-highway-proposals-disregarding-wii-s-views- The Greater Green 75250). While it has tom-tommed the UN ‘Champion of the Earth’ award to MP Revolution Bharat Dogra | March 5, 2021 Modi, it has ignored the UN Secretary General’s call on India to stop further extension of coal mining, or the urging of UN Special Rapporteur on Human Hands Against Racism Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, in January 2021, to immediately release prisoners campaign team sends a held under UAPA (https://www.counterview.net/2021/01/these-people-shouldnt- message of solidarity with Indian be-in-jail-un.html). It attempted to bring in the weakest ever Environmental farmers Impact Assessment regime in mid-2020, in the middle of a pandemic lockdown; Press Release | March 5, 2021 in fact the hundreds of thousands of protest emails/tweets/letters it got from Congress in Kerala needs young activists in that period may well be the beginnings of its ‘big brother is new faces as candidates watching’ attitude towards the youth. At that time it even ﬁled a UAPA case

against youth groups, hurriedly withdrawn as it got intense ﬂak. But it has been George Abraham | March 5, 2021 watching, and now it is hitting out again, with the January 26th violence as its ﬂimsy excuse. Unable to deal with the resolute farmers on Delhi’s borders, it is MOTHER and CHILD David Sparenberg | March 5, 2021 hitting out at what it considers softer targets.

It is also worth noting that while the sedition clause has been repeatedly used Soil Is Gold against people’s movements and civil society, including by the Congress (e.g. Bharat Dogra | March 5, 2021 against anti-nuclear activists a decade back), such use has seen a visible rise in BJP times. For instance, 96% of sedition cases ﬁled since 2010 for criticising the Recent Amazon government, are during BJP’s rule (https://www.article-14.com/post/our-new- Revelations: What do they database-reveals-rise-in-sedition-cases-in-the-modi-era). tell us about the ongoing farm protests? This regime has also added a heady dose of hyper-nationalist, communal ﬂavour Rahul Varman | March 4, 2021 into the crony capitalist mix. Many people are equating the current situation to Why Pentagon Weapons the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi in 1975-77. That was a very dark Programs Rarely Get period indeed, but in some ways this is a more dangerous one. Unlike then, this Canceled Despite Major Problems regime has succeeded in creating an ‘India vs India’ situation, with a large William J Astore | March 4, 2021 number of ‘ordinary’ citizens convinced that people like Disha Ravi, or those charged under UAPA over the last few years, are indeed threats to the country; and

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that if you are also Muslim or Christian or Dalit or adivasi then you must be Reading The Riot Act unquestioningly anti-national. The hatred being spewed against Ravi, including Haider Abbas | March 4, 2021 calls for ‘destroying’ people like her (uttered by the Haryana Home Minister Anil Trump & Biden’s Secret Vij, against whom no action has been taken … is this not inciting violence?), the Bombing Wars selective leaks from her private communications, a sensationalist media already Medea Benjamin | March 4, 2021 pronouncing judgement on her, are all symptoms of the dangerously volatile atmosphere generated in the last few years. In this sense, and in the way it is The Origin of the Northern selling o! the country to corporations, it is this government that is that is leading Freeze to the country’s break-up, and should be asked: who is the real anti-national? Dr Andrew Glikson | March 4, 2021

As the youth are showing, however, such actions are not going to cow them down. Upholding or Upending They have regrouped and issued statements of solidarity with those accused, as Accountability and Justice Thambu Kanagasabai | March 4, 2021 also continued their campaigns against speciﬁc projects shown to be ecologically hazardous. RSS – BJP Rulers of India

Civil society resistance has always sprung back after every attack on its existence. Competing with Nazi India’s democracy, built on the legacy of multiple freedom movements against Germany in Persecuting Satirists Shamsul Islam | March 4, 2021 pre-colonial and colonial rulers, and on a history of post-Independence movements by adivasis, dalits, women, environmentalists, farmers, LGBTQ+ Repeal; ReRight; activists, and youth, is not so weak as to quietly lie down while the government ReConstitute; Peoples attempts to sell o! its present and future. Republic of India Vinod Kumar Edachery | March 4, 2021 Ashish Kothari is with Kalpavriksh and Vikalp Sangam; views expressed here are personal. Tribute to the genius of late actor Sanjeev Kumar which still sparkles 35 years after his GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX death Harsh Thakor | March 4, 2021

If Tragedy Had A Face – Related posts: Lest we forget Suparna Banerjee | March 4, 2021

Caught in the crossbre: Young activists targeted for challenging a crony capitalist government Earthworms, Humanity’s Resource Grabs and From the Murder of Berta Free Malik! Save The Bay Ashish Kothari | March 4, 2021 Friend Compensation for Those Cáceres to Dam Disaster in View Newspaper! Devastated by the Pilfering Uttarakhand Biden, Afghanistan and Forever Wars Dr Binoy Kampmark | March 4, 2021

Neglecting Crucial Role of Food Processing Can Prove very Costly Bharat Dogra | March 4, 2021 The Trend to Push Harmful Islam And Human Rights Stop Kulda Mines Ecocide! and Disruptive Projects as Expansion Eco-Protective Should Be Checked Before It Is ... Biden response to Khashoggi investigation Tags: Environment, Human Rights ‘shocking,’ says UN opcial Countercurrents Collective | March 4, 2021

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Anti-Asian hate crimes Author: Ashish Kothari rose 150% in major U.S. cities, bnds study Countercurrents Collective | March 4, 2021 Visit Author: All Posts

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