Medha Patkar Convicted for Defamation
The PUCL is shocked at the conviction by a Delhi Court of Medha Patkar, one of India’s most renowned social activists, for defamation u/s 499/500 IPC and a sentence of five months imprisonment combined with a fine of Rs 10 lakh rupees imposed against her. The case itself was filed in 2000 and relates to a press note, the contents of which are allegedly defamatory to V K Saxena who then headed the National Council for Civil Liberties of Ahmedabad and is now the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is one of India’s oldest people’s movements, and led by Medha Patkar, has been exposing the severe environmental impacts of big dams, especially on the Narmada River. The NBA has courageously brought to light the displacement of Adivasis from their land and mobilised the people against a form of development that has done injustice to India’s poorest people.

The filing of the case of defamation against Medha Patkar is nothing but a weaponisation of law meant to silence, censor and intimidate viewpoints which challenge the dominant understanding of development. This phenomenon of seeking to control dissent through a heavy-handed use of the law is a well-known strategy used by corporations as well as states and has been characterized as SLAPPS, which stands for `Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation’. The conviction of Medha Patkar was only possible because of the archaic law of defamation.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, (BNS) which came into force on the 1st of July, 2024 has reproduced Section 499 of the IPC word for word as Section 356 of the BNS, confirming that the decolonial nature of the three criminal laws is nothing but an eyewash.

As per BNS, a campaign against big dams or `destructive development’ projects can be construed as an act affecting economic security or subversive and prosecuted under section 113/152 BNS!!
Kavita Srivastava, (President)
V. Suresh (General Secretary)
People’s Union for
Civil Liberties

Hathras Stampede
The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) is shocked and outraged by the devastating stampede that occurred on 2 July in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh in a Satsang by the self-styled godman, Narayan Saakar Vishwa Hari aka Bhole Baba. Nearly 121 people, mostly women, lost their lives in this stampede. The number of injured is known.

This tragedy is a stark reminder of the negligence of the Yogi government, which failed to ensure the safety and well-being of the people. The lack of adequate arrangements and crowd control measures led to this avoidable disaster.

The stampede was also a devastating consequence of the recklessness and negligence of these so-called spiritual leaders, who lured vulnerable people with unrealisable promises. AIDWA condemns the exploitation of faith for personal gain and demands that the government take action against the organisers of this Satsang. Although the police have lodged an FIR, Bhole Baba has not been named in it.

The lack of proper medical infrastructure and emergency response mechanisms resulted in the death of 121 people. Delayed medical attention and inadequate healthcare facilities are an outright indictment of the state’s apathy towards healthcare. The callousness of authorities by not providing adequate security measures and also preventing overcrowding of the location is a violation of the fundamental right to life of the citizens.

This incident is a wake-up call for the state to acknowledge its failures and take concrete steps to prevent such tragedies in the future. AIDWA holds the authorities accountable for their negligence, demands justice for the victims and their families, and action against the perpetrators of this stampede. AIDWA expresses heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, who lost their lives in this tragic incident.
P K Sreemathi, President
Mariam Dhawale, Gen. Secretary

Termination of Contracts at TISS
We, the alumni of Women’s Studies (WS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai; are appalled at the recent news published in various news platforms (30th June 2024 The Hindu; 1st July 2024, Indian Express among others) about the mass termination of contracts of faculty members and non-teaching employees. More than 100 faculty and non-teaching employees across the Mumbai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, and Tuljapur campuses of the institute were given letters on 28th June 2024 stating that their contracts would come to an end on 30th June 2024 without any further renewal of contracts. The affected faculty and non-teaching employees include those whose contracts are supported by the Tata Education Trust (TET), as well as those who were hired and remunerated under the UGC 12th Plan. This led to a sudden loss of employment for a wide pool of teaching and non-teaching employees, many of whom have been working in the institution for more than a decade.

We express full solidarity with all the teaching and non-teaching employees at the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, and the teaching and non-teaching body of TISS at large.

We demand that all contractual faculty and non-teaching staff under the UGC 12th Plan to be reinstated with immediate effect, their pending salaries released and the terms of their employment to be regularised at par with the permanent employees on the UGC payroll.
Alumni of Women Studies [WS], TISS

Demonetisation, GST and Covid-19
The cumulative impact of macroeconomic shocks is estimated to cost the Indian economy Rs 11.3 lakh crore between 2016 and 2023, rating agency India Ratings and Research reported in The Hindu on July 11. This loss is in addition to the loss of 1.6 crore jobs in the informal sector.

The economy faced three primary shocks over the eight-year period of assessment: demonetisation of high-value currency notes in 2016, the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax in 2017 and the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The agency said the economic loss from these is equivalent to 4.3% of India’s GDP in the financial year 2022-23.

These shocks had a “severe impact” on the informal sector. According to the rating agency, an estimated 63 lakh informal enterprises closed between 2015-’16 and 2022-’23, and about 1.6 crore jobs were lost.

The newspaper quoted Sunil Kumar Sinha, the chief economist of the rating agency, as saying, “This period coincides with an increase in formalization of the economy, which has led to a strengthening of tax collection.”

Sinha said, “Although formalization of the economy is the way forward, the reduced presence of the unorganized sector will impact job creation.”

The India Ratings and Research report is based on the annual survey of unorganized sector enterprises released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on July 5.

The ministry’s survey said the total number of enterprises in the non-agricultural sector increased from 5.97 crore in 2021-22 to 6.5 crore in 2022-23. During the same period, employment generated by the sector increased from 9.79 crore workers to 10.96 crore workers.

However, in 2015-16, before the first economic shock of demonetisation, the sector employed about 11.13 crore workers, reports The Hindu.
A Reader

New Criminal Codes
In a statement issued on July 2, AICCTU has demanded the immediate withdrawal of FIRs filed against street vendors in Delhi and Goa under the newly implemented Indian Penal Code. The organisation has also called for the repeal of the new criminal code, describing it as unconstitutional and undemocratic.

On July 1, 2024, the first case under the new penal code was filed against Delhi street vendor Mr Pankaj Kumar for setting up his stall. Mr Kumar relies on his vending activities for his livelihood, a fundamental right protected under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. Similarly, in North Goa, the police have filed a case against Mr. Nisar Ballari, a street vendor who sells coconuts.

Progressive and democratic organisations, including AICCTU, have repeatedly highlighted that the new penal codes are not only unconstitutional but also undermine democratic principles. The first case, registered at 12:15 PM on July 1, clearly illustrates the detrimental intent behind these codes, as it directly attacks the livelihood of a street vendor, Mr Pankaj Kumar. This action is seen as a deliberate attack on the working class.

Legally, street vendors have the right to conduct their business on sidewalks and are not to be considered obstructions or encroachers. Courts have ruled against labelling street vendors as "illegal" and have recognised their vital role in the economy. Section 27 of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, was specifically included to prevent harassment by the police and to safeguard the livelihood of street vendors.
ML Update

NCERT
The Director,
National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT)
New Delhi

Dear Professor Dinesh Prasad Saklani,
This refers to our email of 8 June 2023 wherein both of us had requested the NCERT to “drop our names as 'chief advisors' from all Political Science Textbooks of classes IX, X, XI and XII as mentioned in the 'Letter to the Students' and also in the list of Textbook Development Team at the beginning of each textbook”. We had categorically asked you to “give effect to this request immediately and ensure that our names are not used in the soft copies of the textbooks available at NCERT website as also in the subsequent print editions.” This mail was followed by a collective letter by a majority of scholars associated with the Textbook Development Team in Political Science making the same request. The NCERT did not act upon our request, nor did it have the courtesy to write back to us.

Both of us do not want the NCERT to hide behind our names to pass on to students such textbooks of Political Science that we find politically biased, academically indefensible, and pedagogically dysfunctional. We reiterate our demand that the NCERT must delete our names as 'chief advisors' from all Political Science Textbooks of classes IX, X, XI and XII as mentioned in the 'Letter to the Students' and also in the list of Textbook Development Team at the beginning of each textbook. The new editions of these books that have been published with our names should be withdrawn from the market forthwith.
If the NCERT fails to take immediate corrective action, we may be forced to take legal recourse.
Sincerely,
Suhas Palshikar & Yogendra Yadav

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 5, Jul 28 - Aug 3, 2024