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Nehru
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Nehru is in: Media response to Narayan speech |
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Gandhi's India versus Godse's India |
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September 1998, first issue
Peoples Rally
against the BJP government
New Delhi was witness to a massive peoples rally on September 16, 1998. The rally was against the unprecedented price rise, against the growing attacks on peoples livelihood, against the mortgaging the national economy and against the communalist threat to peoples unity. The rally was organised by the the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest left party in India, which is control of the state governments in the provinces of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
Bring guilty to the book;
demand Indian women
On September 2, 1998 nine womens organisations organised a mass protest in New Delhi demanding action against those found guilty in the Bombay Riots of 1992-93 following the destruction of Babri Masjid. They also presented a memorandum to the Union Home Minister demanding the arrest of Mr. Bal Thackeray and other Shiv Sena members whom the Justice Srikrishna Report named as guilty of inciting communal violence. The protest was the culmination of a series of street-corner meetings and jatthas in different localities.
A small victory for
Bhopal victims
After a long legal battle and popular struggle the social activists pursuing the case relating to compensation to the victims of 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster (caused by the infamous Union Carbide Corporation) have gained a small victory. The money meant for the Bhopal Hospital Trust, set up on direction of the Supreme Court of India with the sale of share of the Union Carbide India Ltd. in 1994, was being thoroughly misused for personal ends by its sole Trustee, Britains former Solicitor General, Ian Percival. Accounts submitted to the Supreme Court, at the insistence of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, show that he has admitted to transferring Rs117 million to England and to incurring administrative expenses of Rs48 million in just 2 years.The activists have pointed out that while the victims got Rs67,000 each from Rs7050 million settlement, Percivals daily expenses were to the tune of Rs60,000. One day before his death on April 4, Sir Ian Percival nominated his son Robert, a barrister, the sole trustee. Under pressure from the social activists, the Government of India has been forced to issue instructions to the State Bank of India that the two accouints of the trust operated by Percival will now only be jointly operated by a co-signatory, a Joint Secretary in the Ministry. It is incredible that it has taken so many years of dedicated struggle on the part of so many activists to simply ensure that just one person does not eat up the entire money meant for a hospital for the victims (which is yet to be built). It is also is an indication of the kind of odds that are weighed against the victims in their one and half decade long struggle for justice.On the plight of Bhopal victims
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