Dilip Simeon's blog

The failure to assess how migrant daily-wage workers would react to a sudden  lockdown suggests that the present government may be on a journey without maps. How else does one explain its inability to formulate a plan to protect this hugely vulnerable section of the urban population? Planning inputs should have come from the bureaucracy, political parties and from NGOs and civil  society organisations working in the informal sector. The bureaucracy failed to alert the government to the possibility of the tragic migration back to the villages. Worse still, as migrants walked, carrying their belongings and small children, they were beaten up, baton-charged and frog-marched on interstate highways and occasionally sprayed with chemical bleach like dead animals by an insensitive system.  Did the government seek the views of the bigger states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, and Delhi which receive a large number of migrants or the states wh...

The present crop of Indian political parties have been largely incapable of taking on the BJP’s brand of authoritarian and religiously sectarian politics. Many think that the hope of an alternative politics may lie with those who work outside the framework of political parties in the voluntary sector. Could they somehow become effective in reviving the politics of resistance in an increasingly authoritarian, majoritarian and relentlessly market-driven polity? The question may seem odd at a time when NGOs, human rights organisations, or what are broadly called civil society organisations, seem to be losing steam. Civil society organisations have been under a constant onslaught for the past decade. What started with the ostensible aim of preventing money laundering and terrorist funding through Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) in 2010 has ended with specific targeting of civil society activists. The FCRA was the response to international pressure by the Financial Action T...

NB : In the eyes of the RSS/BJP government, human rights advocacy is criminal activity. And they talk about their resistance to the Emergency! DS On December 20, 2017,  a Bangkok-based Nepali national, who is also a human rights activist, was denied entry into India and deported after being detained for 20 hours at Tiruchirapalli airport in Tamil Nadu.  Here’s his account of the events. At midnight on December 20, 2017, I reached Trichy Airport from Bangkok by Air Asia Flight FD-110. I was on a holiday to Madurai (Tamil Nadu) and Adoor (Kerala) to participate in a few family get-togethers and celebrate Christmas with friends and colleagues. At around 0040, I reached the immigration desk. The lady officer on duty signalled that there was something wrong as soon as she keyed in my passport number. She had a surprised look and asked me to spell my name. I did so like an obedient child. She keyed in something again and with the same look, left the counter.  Withi...

In contemporary global development circles, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now performing many more roles and activities than they did a few decades ago. NGOs work with governments, community groups and the private sector — to develop and implement programs, monitor and evaluate their progress and help train people working on those projects.  They’re considered more nimble than other institutions in accomplishing development goals, because they can reach the most vulnerable or disaffected people in a community and find innovative solutions to problems. Although their funding streams and institutional decision-making structures are typically multinational, NGOs’ legitimacy, indeed, often rests on perceptions of them being “local” and “close to the people.” NGOs are increasingly taking on the responsibility of implementing the gender equality and women’s empowerment agendas of the global development sector. But very rarely have researchers tried to understand or...

The global pushback from governments against civil society is ‘an emergency’, says the head of a worldwide network of NGOs Danny Sriskandarajah is charged with the job of looking out for countries where governments are cracking down on NGOs or on grassroots groups. Two years ago his organisation  Civicus  launched a monitor which tracks threats or infringements of the right to freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, both for grassroots, voluntary organisations, and for the larger professionalised NGOs.  “In the last four years things have changed so dramatically,” he says. “In 2013 we would be issuing press statements or alerts about Russia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, countries where you’d expect to see this sort of thing. But over the last few years we’ve been issuing alarms about the UK, US, Hungary and Poland. What’s begun to emerge is that we really think there is a global emergency around civil space, that for a variety of reasons gov...

The Emperor’s Masks It is deceitful of the RSS to compare themselves to any other civil society organization, rather than to the National Advisory Council to which they had strenuously objected. No other NGO exercises ideological control over the government and maintains a vast cadre of political activists, many of whom undergo arms training. None of them can summon government ministers for discussions. The RSS sustains many front organisations that do its bidding. Prior to the 2014 general elections, the leader of one such front, VHP President Togadia, reminded Muslims of the violence in Gujarat and Muzzafarnagar. It is unlikely that he will be punished for hate speech. The Bajrang Dal is another front. One of its local leaders hailed the murder of Professor Kalburgi and warned of more such outrages. In fact, BJP members had participated in threatening demonstrations at Kalburgi's house. One union minister of state is accused of incitement in the Muzzafanagar violence. The...

"Recently EAS Sarma, former Secretary to the Government of India and a petitioner in the above case, wrote to the Cabinet Secretary with these telling words: “ I find that the MHA has shown unusual speed and alacrity in proceeding against NGOs under the FCRA but it has not apparently displayed the same enthusiasm and passion in proceeding against the political parties that have accepted illegal donations from foreign companies, violating the same FCRA .” NB -The author has omitted mention of the vast funds going to Hindutva and 'Islamic' NGOs. I have added some observations below the article - DS The recent government crackdown on Greenpeace in particular, and the activism sector in general, reeks of arbitrariness and illegitimacy, says Ashish Kothari in a scathing critique. The question is will the people give in to the state’s tactics? Civil society organisations are gearing up for possibly one of the most important struggles of resistance since the Emergenc...

The Narendra Modi government has suspended the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010, (FCRA) for 180 days, preventing it from receiving any foreign funds. Earlier it had frozen the bank accounts of Greenpeace for alleged financial irregularities. It has also placed the Ford Foundation on its watch list for allegedly funding organisations not registered under the FCRA. This came after the Gujarat government sought action against the agency for “direct interference… in internal affairs of the country and also of abetting communal disharmony in India.” There is nothing new in harassing inconvenient civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by denying them FCRA clearance. Past governments have also done this. Yet there is a renewed vigour with which the Modi government has been targeting NGOs, ostensibly based on a report of the Intelligence Bureau which accused NGOs of “using people-centric issues to create an...

Among a few obsessions India and China share is a paranoid distrust of activists of various hues and of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In China, activists and almost entirely home-grown NGOs - whether concerned with the environment, human rights including labour rights, land-grab, those suffering from AIDS/HIV or Hepatitis B and so on - are closely monitored, controlled or silenced through house arrests or other forms of illegal detentions. India, which preens itself as the world's largest democracy, is increasingly resembling China in this respect: Witness the harassment of Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, the curbs put on Greenpeace, the action against hundreds of anti-nuclear activists in Koodankulam and the jailing of Maruti Suzuki workers, Dr Binayak Sen and members of the Kabir Kala Manch, to cite but very few examples from recent weeks and months. One oft-repeated canard against such activists and NGOs is that they serve the agenda of hostile Wes...

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response of the Centre on the plea of Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai against her “offloading” from a flight to London at the Delhi airport. Justice Rajiv Shakdher also issued notice to IB and Immigration Department seeking their responses on Pillai’s plea terming the “offloading” act as illegal and a violation of her basic rights to personal liberty and freedom of speech. Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai plea challenges her offloading from flight The court notices were issued on the activist’s plea seeking direction to the concerned authorities to expunge the endorsements made while offloading her from the flight by immigration officials on January 11, while she was on the way to London to make a presentation before British MPs, regarding alleged human rights violation at Mahan in Madhya Pradesh. The court, meanwhile, has also directed the counsel appearing for the respondents to take instructions on Pillai’s interim application s...

Dear Friends, Greetings from all of us at AMAN. You are well aware of the unprecedented devastation brought about by floods in Jammu and Kashmir. Many of you have called and inquired about the wellbeing of AMAN colleagues in Kashmir. Some of you have asked if we have initiated any relief work for the survivors. Some have generously offered financial and material help. This is a brief update regarding these matters: 1/ For over 10 years AMAN has been running a health centre in a village in Baramulla. Several other projects are coordinated from our office in Rajbagh in Srinagar. We have about 15 Kashmiri colleagues who work with AMAN. Since last Saturday, we have lost touch with all of them. All our efforts to do so have been unsuccessful. Both our centres have been extensively damaged. 2/ A colleague from the Sadhbhavna Trust (SBT) who lives in Kashmir has informed us of her work in a makeshift relief camp in Srinagar. SBT and AMAN have purchased blankets, infant food, ...