Gurugram Detention Centre
On 25 July, CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya led a delegation of political activists, lawyers, journalists, and concerned citizens to Gurugram (Delhi NCR) to visit the detention centres, meet the affected workers, as well as the concerned officials.

Kalpana Wilson, Sucheta De, Akash Bhattacharya, Shayeri Mukhopadhyay, and others from CPI-ML; Prakriti and Tazeen from the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR); Radha, Rupinder and Neeta from Gurugram, among others, joined the delegation.

Dipankar Bhattacharya expressed his solidarity with the residents of the camp who have been living without electricity for over two weeks. They had earlier been targeted as Bangladeshis and last month their electric connection was cut due to the allegations of “encroachment”.

While due to the relentless pressure from civil society, progressive media and political leaders, the detainees have been released, the officials gave vague and highly unsatisfactory answers regarding the rationale and methods used for identifying “foreigners”.

At the DCP’s office it was confirmed that an official exercise–the first of its kind–had been undertaken based on a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to all states and union territories, but the directive is neither available in the public domain nor was it shared with the delegation by the DCP’s office. The officials failed to provide any cogent or satisfactory information regarding the legal basis or the standard operating procedure for carrying out this exercise.

Speaking to the workers, the team found that the detentions were mostly performed by men who claimed to be police officers, but were in plain clothes, arrived in unmarked vehicles, and bore no badges of name or identification. From various locations, multiple people were picked up and taken away to different detention centres/holding centres.

After holding them, they were asked to prove their citizenship, wherein documents such as Aadhar Card, voter ID card, ration cards, PAN cards, etc were not considered sufficient. They were held in the police station for extended durations, the period lasting up to a week for some individuals, during which there have also been isolated reports of police brutality, torture, and offers made to the detained individuals to accuse some people from their colonies to be Bangladeshi if they wanted to get released. The authorities verified the detained people’s addresses through the police stations in their states of origin (Bengal or Assam), but did not provide the detainees with any certificate of verification before releasing them–making them vulnerable to future detentions and harassment.

The authorities are identifying suspects in a rather arbitrary manner–speaking in Bengali, having “Muslim” names, and living in workers’ jhuggies.

The arbitrary, brutal, and highly discriminatory nature of the procedure has left thousands of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in a quandary. They left their homes in Assam and Bengal in search of livelihood and have nothing to go back to.
ML Update

The USA is out of UNESCO
The United States is once again withdrawing from UNESCO, the United Nations science and cultural organisation, ending its two-year return to the agency. Researchers say the decision is a setback for global cooperation in science and education, but came as no surprise. The country, a founding member, last withdrew from UNESCO in 2017, during the first term of President Donald Trump, cutting off more than 22% of the agency’s funds. According to UNESCO, the latest withdrawal won’t hit as hard as in 2017 because the US contribution now accounts for 8% of UNESCO’s current annual budget.
A Reader

Environment Martyrs
More than 2,100 environmental activists were killed worldwide between 2012 and 2023, with Latin America holding the highest percentage globally, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) said on July 22. The new report by Global Witness said an estimated 196 land and environmental defenders were killed around the world in 2023 alone.

The report found that Colombia was found to be the deadliest country in the world for environmental activists, with 79 deaths in total last year. Other deadly countries last year in the region included Brazil, with 25 killings, and Mexico and Honduras with 18 each, it said.

Once again, Latin America had the highest number of recorded killings worldwide, with 166 killings overall, including 54 across Mexico and Central America and 112 in South America.

Laura Furones, senior advisor to the Land and Environmental Defenders Campaign at Global Witness, said that the number of killings remains “alarmingly high, and simply unacceptable.” “As the climate crisis accelerates, those who use their voice to courageously defend our planet are met with violence, intimidation, and murder,” said Furones, who is also lead author of the report. She urged governments to take decisive action to protect defenders and to address the underlying drivers of violence against them.

Global Witness also acknowledges that the names of many defenders who were killed last year may be missing, and the world may never know how many more gave their lives to protect the planet. People should honour their work too.

Dilip, after the truth-shower

Halt this Barbarity
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday [July20] called for “immediate halt to the barbarity of the war” on the Gaza Strip as Israel’s military carried out fresh massacres of Palestinians seeking food aid.

The pontiff decried the Israeli military’s recent deadly bombing of Gaza’s sole Catholic Church and read aloud the names of the three victims–Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud.

But Pope Leo stressed that the attack was “just one of the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” whose religious sites have been decimated by more than a year of Israeli bombings.

The Pope went on to demand a “peaceful resolution to the conflict” and implored the international community to respect “the prohibition against collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force, and forced displacement of the population.”

Pope Leo’s remarks came as the Israeli military issued expanded evacuation orders in central Gaza and killed more than 80 people across the enclave as they sought to obtain food aid amid an increasingly dire hunger crisis fueled by Israel’s blockade.

The Associated Press reported that “at least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel.”

“The UN World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for ‘starving communities’ when it encountered massive crowds that came under gunfire,” the outlet continued. “Nafiz Al-Najjar, who was injured, said tanks and drones targeted people ‘randomly’ and he saw his cousin and others shot dead.”

Meanwhile, the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen said in a statement Sunday that its teams in Gaza “have again run out of ingredients to cook warm meals” after serving 80,000 meals the previous day.

“Our field kitchens are prepped and ready to resume cooking the moment new supplies arrive. Every second counts. Families in Gaza rely on these hot meals,” the group said. “This is the second time lack of access to aid has forced our kitchen operations to pause. Cooking halted for 12 weeks while aid was not permitted to enter Gaza. We were able to resume work one month ago. Since then, our kitchen teams have worked nonstop to serve tens of thousands of meals daily.”
Common Dreams Staff

Onge Tribe Students
The remarkable achievement of ten students from the Onge tribe passing the CBSE Class 10 exam is a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Their success inspires us all, proving that determination and resilience can overcome any obstacle.
T S Karthik, Chennai

Back to Home Page

Frontier
Vol 58, No. 9, Aug 24 - 30, 2025