The Truth About Dr. Abdus Slam A Documentary by Pervez HoodBhoy

November 23, 2016

Mohammad Abdus Salam ( 29 January 1926 – 21 November 1996),was a Pakistani theoretical physicist. A major figure in 20th century theoretical physics, he shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory. He was the first Pakistani and first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize in science and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize (after Anwar Sadat of Egypt).

Salam was a top level science advisor to the Government of Pakistan from 1960 to 1974, a position from which he played a major and influential role in the development of the country's science infrastructure.Salam was responsible not only for contributing to major developments in theoretical and particle physics, but also for promoting the broadening and deepening of high calibre scientific research in his country.He was the founding director of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), and responsible for the establishment of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). As Science Advisor, Salam played an integral role in Pakistan's development of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and may have contributed as well to development of atomic bomb project of Pakistan in 1972; for this, he is viewed as the "scientific father" of this programme. In 1974, Abdus Salam departed from his country, in protest, after the Pakistan Parliament passed a controversial parliamentary bill declaring the Ahmadiyya movement, to which Salam belonged, as not-Islamic. In 1998, following the country's nuclear tests, the Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp, as a part of "Scientists of Pakistan", to honour the services of Salam.

Video Courtesy: GICK Education

Free Software Movement of India Demands Apology for Banning Social Media Criticism

November 23, 2016

Government resorting to such draconian measures to stifle all legitimate criticism

The District Magistrate of Indore has issued an order – Order/2956/RADM/2016, Indore/Date 14/11/2016 under Section 144 – banning any criticism on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc., on exchange of old currency that is “objectionable” or can “cause incitement”. The order is attached here. This, in effect, is a blanket ban on any criticism of the Government on its failure to provide sufficient new notes for the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes that it has demonetised. Clearly, having failed to remonetise the economy and putting the common man to immense hardship, the government now wants to clamp down on all criticism on its failures.

The use of Section 144 for censorship of social media also goes far beyond what the Supreme Court has held in its various judgements. The Supreme Court, in Madhu Limaye and Anr v. Ved Murti and Ors. ((1970) 3 SCC 746), held that the use of Section 144 is justified only for prevention of public disturbance or violence, and urgency as the only ground for using this section.

The state and central governments have been using Section 144 arbitrarily in shutting down the internet and going far beyond what its powers are under Section 144. It has now extended such powers, earlier used only for banning public assembly, to now attacking peoples rights of Freedom of Speech, guaranteed under the Section 19. It shows the desperation of the Central and the Madhya Pradesh governments that having failed in the elementary task of providing money to the people for conducting their day to day lives, they are resorting to such draconian measures to stifle all legitimate criticism.

The Free Software Movement of India demands that this Order of the District Magistrate be immediately withdrawn and the Madhya Pradesh government issue an apology to the people for this action.

Y.Kiran Chandra #kiran@fsmi.in
General Secretary
Prabir Purkayastha
Vice President
The order of the DM can be read below:

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Poem on Demonetisation: What Colour, Money? Ballad of the Commoners

November 23, 2016

R. Umamaheshwari (Veena)

(Of real people, real narratives and real lives. In my neighbourhood and city, Hyderabad.)

Bajji seller Hanumanthu
Mestri Yadgiri
Bangle seller Mohammad Laeeq
Earth-worker, brick layer, matti pani Ramachander
Footwear seller Lakshmamma
Shaadi-khana labour Najeeb
Coolie, cook, etc Jahangir
Miscellaneous labour: Suryanarayana, Baburao, Nagaraju…
Srikakulam, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Hyderabad, Kurnul
North Andhra, Telangana, Rayalaseema
(Region / State)
India
SC, BC, Muslim.
Illiterates; school drop-outs.
Dalit Bahujan, the "Common" Ones
Delinked from banking systems,
Yet, struck by it, in one blow
Delinked from the Nation’s economy
Yet, paying the price for it

"This is anyaayam amma", says Hanumanthu
Wondering, what happened to all his giraaki, to whom he served
Hot, delicious mirchi bajjis and vadas, with a benign smile, writ large on his face
His oil-pan now gone cold for days now
The TRS party guy came by, the other day, telling him not to worry
And gave him a 500 rupee note, as a gesture of protection
Another guy on a bike stopped by, ate bajjis, gave another 500
Adding, "Keep the change" (while a third wasn’t that generous and demanded change!)
Hanumanthu was 1000-rupee rich, suddenly!
Yet 1000-rupee poor, and in a dilemma
Should he take the money,
That might buy him nothing today?
Or, should he refuse, and go home, empty-handed?
He kept it — a paper without value, begging for change from any kind soul
Hanumanthu has no bank account
He asks, how do people like me use cards, amma?
Hanumanthu never stepped into an ATM in his 70-year-old life
Banks don’t exist in Hanumanthu’s world,
Just as Hanumanthu doesn’t, in the Nation’s GDP
Hanumanthu didn’t know (since he watches no TV)
That the Finance Minister promises a "cashless" economy
Hanumanthu only understands "cash"; the few hundreds he earns each day,
Cash that he can hold in his hands, coming from a livelihood, honest, simple, pure
Not enough. Hardly so. But pure.
Not bloodied with farmers’ dislocations, displacements, deaths and impoverishment.
What colour, money?
Blood and Sweat and Tears of Hanumanthu, and his Benign Smile, Now Stolen.

Mestri Yadagiri, by the Gandhi Statue, Sitaphalmandi, says —
"More than a week now; no work, no money; we spend hours here
Waiting; we drink tea and leave. Where do we go? What do we eat?
Sometimes a contractor arrives, and, handing us a 500 note, demands 50, or 100, back.
The note buys us nothing; not food, not milk.
Why did he do this? He says it will benefit our desam, amma
But I don’t know those big things; we have no food, no work, no money."
But, in his amazing honesty, Yadagiri adds, "At least my wife works in people’s homes; I am managing
What about the rest of us? There are hundreds of us here."
What colour, money?
Yadagiri’s honesty, in face of hunger, desperation, and loss of a million workers.
By the Subhas Bose statue, Jahangir (not the king), part-time auto driver, labourer, cleaner, cook asks —
"Will he just close it all down all at once, this man? Just like that (aiseheech?)
How do we live? My children need milk in the morning. How do I buy it?
They dump 500 notes on us poor people
They have black money; we don’t!
He is the central government guy; happy. What about us?
Do I have a tree growing 100 rupee notes?
Money can come back, madam, not a human being.
Do you remember the old man who died in a bank queue the other day?
And the old woman who committed suicide after selling the only land she had?
What was their crime?’
What colour, money?
Jahangir (not the king)’s question, and anger, and pain.

Coolie pani Ramachandar, by the Bose statue, cries out,
"We are poor people; we will all slowly just die
This is a wound they inflicted on us poor.
By chance if we get a 500 note, seeking change, they give us 300
And take 200 as their share. We shall go hungry, were we to lose that money…"
What colour, money?
Ramachandar’s cry
"Upavasam has been forced on me since a week now", says Lakshmamma
Selling footwear since last thirty years by the street junction at Sultan Bazar, once the shopping paradise (for cheaper things, of course!)
Once busy, now pining for busy-ness
Shunned and stumped by the Metro-rail, yet-to-realise.
"People give me a 500 note for a slipper costing 100.
Is there a solution to all this?
Why did they do this to the poor?
How do I pay my rent?
Nobody cares for us", says she.
What colour, money?
A Table and cardboard panel of shiny, snazzy footwear, gathering street dust; a lone woman waiting they would be picked up, but not for 500.

By the historic Charminar, Najeeb — with a pretty little daughter with a broken toy,
Hungry, and a bewitching, momentary, smile — says, "We have no work."
They used to call him for work, any work, in normal times, in the shaadi khana (wedding hall).
Now "sab kaamaan cancil hain" (all works have stopped)
"It's been a week", says he.
"I have no work, no money; we just sit here, sleep on the streets."
"Don’t talk much’, friends tell him; they are scared
Of the media, perhaps, or of the government, or both (remember, they are Muslims)?
Says Najeeb, "What will they do? What can a poor man do to them?"
What colour, money?
Silent whispers, muted cries by Charminar
Suryanarayana, landless, mestri (mason), by the Skandagiri temple, says,
"Had no work, no land; had a house, but do I eat it? I came here
Why would I, if I had work in the village?
Now there is no work here either."
Colour of money? A blank look, a bleak future in a hyper city.
Koti, daily wage earner (painter),
Tells me, "I saved every penny; not a single day I miss at work
For a whole year,
To bring in our second child into the world,
The TV shook me up, one day,
Scared, I put all my money in the bank.
What do I do now, amma? The baby is due, anytime now.
The hospital demands advance."
What colour, money?
The future, of an unborn child.
What colour, money?
Senior citizens’ deaths in bank queues
What of the Constitution? Who knows?
Right to Livelihood? What’s that?
Right to Life? Who cares?
Who cares, for the right of the people to their money?
For those that pay taxes, without question?
And stand in long queues, without question, like puppets in a puppetry show?
Who do not question; who believe, almost always; who pay bills on time
Who do not assert for their "hard-earned" money to come by with human dignity
Who do not question the inking of their fingers
Nor the general distrust that governments in power always have, for their ilk (except once in five years)?

Meanwhile, Simhachalam (doesn’t tell me his true name, others call him Reddy), the contractor, shows me a thick bundle of 500 notes
Says he is "managing" it; paying the labourers this money or putting them into "zero accounts". "It is now allowed", he quips.
(I forget to ask, though, what does zero account really mean?)
The construction of the city must go on
For the nation’s good.
The daily wagers stare in silence, as he talks,
Pain in their eyes, stomachs rumbling from a few days’ hunger.
Another builder, elsewhere, someone tells me, has deposited money
Into accounts newly created, of daily wage labourers,
To make the "black" legally "white".
They feel rich for a while, the daily wagers; the "ommoners"
"Notionally", at least,
But, of course, he tells them, he will take the cash back
And he gives them a couple of 1000 notes, in return for a vow of silence!
What colour, money?

R. Umamaheshwari, who also uses the pen name Veena, is a well-known social activist.

This article was first published on indianculturalforum.in

Hundreds of Rohingya cross into Bangladesh

November 22, 2016

Members of the muslim Rohingya minority are fleeing Myanmar after government troops poured into their land since a series of attacks on police border posts last month

Rohingya refugees sit as they wait to enter the Kutupalang Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016REUTERS

Hundreds of Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, refugee camp community leaders said Tuesday, many with horrific tales of troops killing and burning villages.

Bangladesh prevented hundreds more from crossing into the country after up to 30,000 Rohingya were displaced by violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have intensified patrols along the 237-kilometre border, but refugee camp leaders estimate that 1,000 people have still managed to get in over the last week.

Most are hiding out in camps for the 32,000 legally registered already living in Teknaf, fearing repatriation if they are found by authorities.

Mohammad Amin, 17, said he and 15 others fled their homes in Rakhine five days ago and reached Bangladesh by swimming across the Naf river that divides the two countries.

“The (Myanmar) army killed my father and elder brother. I hid on a hill and then walked and swam across the river, and took refuge at a mosque (in Bangladesh),” he told AFP by phone from Cox’s Bazar near the border. “Where I looked I saw only burnt houses. I don’t know what happened to my mother and sister.”

Zohra Khatun, 25, arrived late Monday with her seven children after their village was burned to the ground, and has been helped by a relative already living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. “I waited two days before I had the chance to cross the river to come here,” Khatun told AFP by phone.

The relative, who asked not to be named, said that at least 100 families had arrived at the camp from Myanmar in the last two days. Another refugee said 500 people had taken shelter near two other Rohingya refugee camps in the area.
Border Guard Bangladesh said their troops had blocked nearly 300 Rohingya from crossing the border overnight, the highest number since the crisis began last month. “We’re preventing them on the zero line, especially those who were trying to cross the barbed-wire fences erected by Myanmar,” said Imran Ullah Sarker.

Satellite images show destruction across five villages. HRW

Rohingya Muslim women look outside as many new refugees arrive near the Kutupalang Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016 REUTERS

Rohingya refugees approach the Kutupalang Refugee Camp after illegally crossing Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016 REUTERS

A Rohingya Muslim woman and her son cry after being caught by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) while illegally crossing at a border check point in Cox’s Bazar , Bangladesh, November 21, 2016 REUTERS

Security personnel check an auto-rickshaw near a check post to identify Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016 REUTERS

A security personnel stands guard after catching thirty eight Rohingya Muslims illegally crossing at a border check point in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016 REUTERS

Horrific stories

Myanmar troops have poured into a strip of land that is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority since a series of attacks on police border posts last month. State media reports in Myanmar say security forces have killed almost 70 people and arrested some 400 since the lockdown began six weeks ago, but activists say the number could be far higher.

Witnesses and activists have reported troops killing Rohingya, raping women and looting and burning their houses. “We’re hearing horrific stories from them,” said one international rights worker visiting the area, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

“We’ve heard that they have to bribe some people to enter Bangladeshi territory. The government must open the border and allow access of aid workers,” he said.

The arrival of more has caused tensions with the local community in Teknaf, which border Myanmar’s western Rakhine state and is one of the country’s poorest. “If they (the government) don’t act now, soon there will be a flood of Rohingya entering Bangladesh,” said Teknaf councillor Anwar Hossain. Sarker said many Rohingya were sent back after they managed to sneak across unmanned parts of the border.

Security guards are also patrolling the Naf river, the commanders said, adding that more than a dozen boats packed with Rohingya tried to land at the ghats (stations) in the Bangladeshi parts of the river.
“They told us that their houses were torched and they came here seeking safe shelter,” said one border guard official.

Thiis article was first Published on Dhaka Tribune

Rising Tide of Allegations Suggests ‘Systemic Abuse’ by British Military

November 22, 2016

Rogue military personnel? Or a deliberate policy of abuse? Day 6 of our 7 day openDemocracy's series on alleged abuse by British soldiers in Iraq.

Documents in the military court room in Colchester, Essex, where four soldiers and three ex-soldiers accused of the murder of an Iraqi civilian stood trial back in September 2005. Corporal Scott Evans, 32, Private Billy Nerney, 24, Private Samuel May, 25, Private Morne Vosloo, 26, and former Privates Daniel Harding, 25, Roberto Di-Gregorio, 24 and Scott Jackson, 26, were accused of murder and violent disorder following the death of Nadhem Abdullah on 11 May 2003 in a roadside incident in Al U'Zayra. The case eventually collapsed and the men were cleared. The judge criticised the poor handling of the case by the Royal Military Police's special investigations unit. PA/Chris Rayburn. All rights reserved.By 2010, the number of allegations of unlawful killing and abuse in detention had ballooned. Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) had registered 141 different claimants before the courts and the Ministry of Defence by 21 October of that year. They were gathered as one case, called Ali Zaki Mousa, after the first Iraqi on the list.

PIL argued that the range of ill treatment alleged by these claims suggested “systemic abuse”. In other words, it was not just the result of rogue military personnel but indicated a deliberate policy of abuse to break detainees as part of interrogation — or at best a failure by the military and political establishment to investigate, prevent and punish such practices effectively.

An institutional pattern

All the Five Techniques that appeared in the Baha Mousa case, with religious and sexual humiliation added, were used across 14 military facilities, PIL said. That alone pointed to an institutional pattern which could be rooted out only by an over-arching independent public inquiry.

The Ministry of Defence accepted that the allegations were sufficiently “credible” although it didn’t accept that they were necessarily true. It also acknowledged, following the Al Skeini judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, that it had a duty to investigate both the individual claims and the possibility of military systems contributing to abusive practices. But it did not accept the call for an inquiry. In court, the MoD argued that it would be far too costly.

Instead, it set up a convoluted alternative structure that was eventually approved by the high court. First, the MoD recruited a retired senior civilian police detective, Mark Warwick, to lead a 145-strong team made up of military police personnel, civilian investigators and civil servants. Called the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), the unit was supposed to deal with the investigations of the multiple claims. The priority was what the Court came to call, rather insensitively, the “death cases”.

If IHAT finds sufficient evidence of a serious crime, it refers the case to the military’s Director of Service Prosecutions, who decides if there is a realistic prospect of conviction and if it’s in the public interest to prosecute.
Up until August of this year, IHAT had been referred 1,668 allegations, 325 of unlawful killing, and the rest ill treatment “ranging from serious sexual assault to common assault”.

After six years of operation, it has completed investigations into 176 of these cases. Publicly available information is thin on detail, but of these, two have been referred to the Director of Service Prosecution (who has decided not to prosecute) and one soldier was referred to his Commanding Officer for an unspecified crime and fined £3000. The remaining 1,492 allegations are still under review. IHAT announced that they would be continuing their work until at least 2019.

Sir William Gage, chairman of the Baha Mousa inquiry. Anthony Devlin PA Archive/PA Images.

In case of Baha Mousa, where the circumstances of his death and the perpetrators of assault and ill-treatment are irrefutable following Sir William Gage's detailed public inquiry, IHAT has been unable to complete its investigations. In September 2013, on the 10th Anniversary of the killing, IHAT announced it was pursuing “new lines of inquiry”. Nothing has been heard since.

It’s not the only case left hanging. In 2014 IHAT reported that in one case of alleged unlawful killing, when an Iraqi prisoner died whilst being transported in an RAF helicopter, it had finished its review and referred the matter to the Royal Air Force Provost Marshal “for consideration”. That’s shorthand for saying something suspicious may have occurred. All that has happened since, according to IHAT, is the Provost Marshal has “directed further investigation”. No one is saying what that entails.

Boy, 12, maimed and disappeared

The case of Memmon Al-Maliki has also been left in limbo. Memmon was a 12 year old boy who was severely injured after he picked up a shell that exploded in his hands. He was taken to a British army base for emergency treatment and transferred to the British Field Hospital in Basra. The family never saw him again. The army said they had records of the boy’s transfer to an American hospital in Kuwait. But the US had no such information. IHAT reported that they met with the boy’s father and explained what they had found. There was nothing more they could do, they said, and the case is closed.

Frustrated by the delays in getting to the bottom of these cases, either to dismiss them or take action against possible culprits, Public Interest Lawyers with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights contacted the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague at the beginning of 2014. Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor, announced they would begin a preliminary examination into the matter. Her Office representatives have visited the UK to look at IHAT’s operations. They are keeping a watching brief on what’s happening at this stage, no more. A state is left alone to investigate its own alleged crimes unless its efforts do not appear genuine. That point hasn’t been reached, as the ICC reported on Tuesday this week. They are still examining the evidence.

Solicitor Phil Shiner outside the high court in London ahead of a judicial review on behalf of 180 Iraqi civilians. John Stillwell PA Archive/PA Images.

Another inquiry, no accountability

The Iraq Historic Allegations Team was not the only process of inquiry approved by the court in Ali Zaki Mousa.The Minister of Defence established an Iraq Fatalities body in 2013 that will act as an inquest into only some Iraqi deaths. Where cases of alleged unlawful killing have been inadequately investigated and have led to unsuccessful courts martial (the Minister has estimated there may be 11 of these cases), Iraq Fatalities Investigations (IFI) will publicly examine what happened. The families concerned are consulted, but these are not criminal proceedings. The IFI is precluded from determining any individual or collective liability. Sir George Newman, a retired High Court judge, was appointed as the IFI chair.

So far six killings have been referred to Sir George. He’s reported on four. In the first, Nadhem Abdullah’s case, he found soldiers had used excessive force which led to Abdullah’s death.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon accepted Sir George’s findings in a parliamentary statement. He announced in March 2015 that in “the light of the facts as found by Sir George, and in particular the finding that excessive force was used, I wish to express the Government’s regret at the death of Mr Abdullah”. Appropriate compensation would be paid to the family, he wrote.

In two other cases completed in the past year, Sir George found sufficient evidence to suggest that the soldiers involved had killed in self defence. His conclusions on the drowning of the 15 year old boy Ahmed Ali were released in September.

Evidence of torture, but . . .

So, despite an inquiry finding that Baha Mousa had been unlawfully killed, that the Ministry of Defence had “forgotten” that abusive interrogation techniques should not be used, despite “credible” allegations accumulating from Iraq, despite Camp Breadbasket and the IFI substantiating claims of two needless deaths at the hands of British soldiers, why is it the government and Theresa May have turned on the lawyers acting for the Iraqis? And why does Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, say the legal system has been abused “to falsely accuse our armed forces”?

(Andrew Williams is a law professor at the University of Warwick and Co-Director for the Centre of Human Rights in Practice. His book, A Very British Killing, The Death of Baha Mousa (Vintage 2013), won the 2013 Orwell Prize for Political Writing).

This story was first published on openDemocracy.

Midwife Modi Mishandled Delivery, Killed My No-Pain-All-Gain Demonetisation Scheme, claims Anil Bokil

November 22, 2016

Anil Bokil. Photo Credit: Mumbai Mirror

When PM Narendra Modi announced his government’s decision to demonetise Rs. 1000 and Rs 500 notes on November 8, Pune resident Anil Bokil was quick to claim credit for having provided the inspiration for the scheme.

Bokil has claimed that the prime minister was so enthused with his idea that the 9-minute appointment granted to him in July had stretched to two hours.

But with the scheme causing untold suffering to millions across the country, Bokil has now claimed in an interview to Mumbai Mirror that the current mess was the result of a “selective” implementation of his idea. Bokil also told the Mumbai Mirror he was on his way to Delhi for a fresh meeting with the PM but the daily could not confirm the same with the PMO.

Bokil told the Mirror his think tank had proposed a comprehensive 5-point plan of action which were as follows:

1: Complete abolition of taxes, direct and indirect by the Central or State governments and also the local bodies.

2: The taxes to be replaced with Bank Transaction Tax (BTT), wherein every inward bank transaction would attract a levy (say about two per cent). It would be a single point tax deducted at source. The deducted amount would go into the government kitties at various levels (Centre, State and Local, broken up in perhaps a ratio of 0.7 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.35 per cent, respectively). The concerned bank will also get a share of say another 0.35 per cent. Of course, the BTT rate would be decided by the finance ministry and Reserve Bank of India.

3: Cash transactions (withdrawals) would not attract tax.

4: All high denomination currency (anything above Rs 50) to be withdrawn.

5: Government to create legal provision to restrict cash transactions to Rs 2,000.

According to Bokil, if all these were done together, it would have not only benefitted the common man but also changed the system completely. He lamented the fact that selectively plucking just two out of this 5-point plan by the Modi government has resulted in the “death [of the plan] we are witnessing”.

Does Demonetisation Tackle Black Money?

November 22, 2016

At the stroke of midnight on November 8, 86% of the value of Indian currency in circulation ceased to be a legal tender. Many different adjectives are being used to qualify the action – surgical strike, master stroke, third freedom (after freedom from British and license raj), 'Massive swachh abhiyan' and so on.

Though the government and even the RBI vehemently defend demonetization, its implementation is continuously taking a toll on the common masses. Citizens are put into extreme hardships. The past few days are witnessing a total lack of preparedness by banks and post offices. They lack the institutional capacity to deal with such a huge magnitude of workload. Hoards of people began to throng banks and ATMs leading to chaos and aggression. People are starting to break open shops for food as cash is not available to buy essential things.

Prof. Prabhat Patnaik was speaking at a public meeting organised by Center for Financial Accountability and Public Finance and Public Accountability Collective.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Nearly 50 Lakh have so far viewed Kejriwal’s Damning Speech on Demonetisation

November 22, 2016

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal’s blistering attack on the Modi government’s demonisation has already grabbed nearly half a million pair of eyeballs.

Fifty lakh people have lakh people have so far viewed Arvind Kejriwal’s Assembly speech on demonetisation on social media platforms, according to a press statement issued by the party.

“AAP Facebook Page saw organic growth of about 640% in the week of Demonetisation and Arvind Kejriwal's response to it”, the report adds.

In his speech Kejriwal exposed the real reason” behind Narendra Modi government’s decision to withdraw Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes.

Highlights from the press release:

Video viewed by more than five Million people so far, as it is being shared across hundreds of platforms.
AAP Facebook Page saw organic growth of about 640% in the week of Demonetisation and Arvind Kejriwal's response to it.
We received 640% more traffic on Nov 16th (Wednesday) compared to Nov 9th (One day after the day of announcement of Demonetisation).
Arvind Kejriwal’s speech has recorded 4802000 views and 172128 shares on party’s Facebook pages (Please find attached the statistics along with this press release).
AAP national Facebook page recorded 27,000,00 views on the speech video.
AAP Delhi page recorded 10,50,000 views on speech video.

These statistics highlight the public response against the anti-people decision of demonetisation imposed on them by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the night of 8^th November, the press release noted.

1...2,3562,3572,358...2,697 Page 2,357 of 2,697

The Truth About Dr. Abdus Slam A Documentary by Pervez HoodBhoy

Poem on Demonetisation: What Colour, Money? Ballad of the Commoners

Hundreds of Rohingya cross into Bangladesh

Members of the muslim Rohingya minority are fleeing Myanmar after government troops poured into their land since a series of attacks on police border posts last month

Horrific stories

Rising Tide of Allegations Suggests ‘Systemic Abuse’ by British Military

Rogue military personnel? Or a deliberate policy of abuse? Day 6 of our 7 day openDemocracy's series on alleged abuse by British soldiers in Iraq.

An institutional pattern

Boy, 12, maimed and disappeared

Another inquiry, no accountability

Evidence of torture, but . . .

Midwife Modi Mishandled Delivery, Killed My No-Pain-All-Gain Demonetisation Scheme, claims Anil Bokil

Does Demonetisation Tackle Black Money?

Nearly 50 Lakh have so far viewed Kejriwal’s Damning Speech on Demonetisation

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal’s blistering attack on the Modi government’s demonisation has already grabbed nearly half a million pair of eyeballs.

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