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HINDUS with MUSLIMS against Islamophobia

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A powerful statement of solidarity between concerned Indians, Hindu and Muslim, South Asian Americans and others against the growing Islamophobia manifest in the United States after the Donald Trump victory has been issued.

islamophobia

The text of the Solidarity Statement:

We issue this statement as concerned Hindus, South Asian Americans, and members of the AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian) community who are tired of defending our people from hate and living in fear for the safety of our families. While Islamophobia and xenophobia are not new—and neither are resistance and solidarity—we believe this is a particularly urgent moment that requires a response from all of our communities. We as Hindus bear a particular responsibility in this moment of rising U.S. fascism, alongside rising Hindu fundamentalism in India.

As Hindus, we believe we have a particular responsibility to stand up against this hate and for the U.S. – and world – we want to live and thrive in. We have a long history of being divided against our Muslim brothers and sisters, EVIDENCed in the ‘divide-and-conquer’ colonization of the Indian subcontinent. When the colonial project was finally abandoned, it left a deep rift in our homeland – separating “Hindu India” from “Muslim Pakistan”. In reality, we know that Hindus and Muslims lived together for centuries, sharing their spaces and resources, inter-marrying, living as neighbors and friends, before our communities were violently separated by colonizer-imposed borders.

The long list of hate crimes since the San Bernardino shooting and the election of Trump includes violence on places of Sikh and Muslim worship, physical assault on AMEMSA community members, vandalism, hate speech, and hate mail. We reject any normalization of this violence, and are committed to a vision where Hindus resist this trajectory with our AMEMSA family.

White supremacy culture and xenophobia are overwhelmingly prevalent in the US today. Earlier this week, 60 million people cast ballots for radical right wing presidential candidate Donald Trump, who ran on pledges to deport millions of immigrants and require Muslims to register. This rhetoric is part of a vicious cycle of hate which fuels and is fueled by the deeply embedded racism on which the United States economy was originally built. The same ideology shows up in public institutions through racial profiling and armed police forces that brutally attack communities of color and Black people in particular; it shows up in the militarization of our borders, and the refusal of Syrian refugees displaced by climate chaos; and it shows up in renegade self-appointed “saviors” and vigilantes physically attacking Muslims, Black people, and anyone else who doesn’t fit into the white supremacist narrative of who and what America is.

In that context, the South Asian diaspora of today has often been pushed to separate and divide itself. Particularly since the racial profiling and government-sanctioned surveillance that has followed the 9/11 attacks, it has become commonplace for non-Muslim South Asian Americans to distinguish ourselves by religion, feeding into false binary narratives of good vs. bad South Asians. But for us this is defeat – surrendering to white supremacy and condoning racist violence against our own. The only value of distinguishing ourselves as non-Muslims is to recognize how we are impacted differently, so that we are better equipped to stand in solidarity as allies.

We must pledge resistance in our homelands, as we see the rise of Hindu fundamentalism under the Modi government in India, and how this supports Islamophobia and U.S. Empire globally. And we must pledge resistance in our home the United States, where one man can paint Nazi symbols and “go home” on a Somali restaurant before setting fire to it a few days later, and another can bomb threat a Muslim community center – and both can walk free with barely a blink from the media or local law enforcement.

Enough is enough. We pledge to resist hate and to organize our people and resources towards an America where all people are free to live without fear: free to work, play, pray, raise their families, and serve their communities without being dehumanized, targeted, incarcerated or attacked. We will work towards a world without Islamophobia. We will live and work in active solidarity, and we will move together towards a vision and practice of collective liberation.
 

No Suprise At All, Modi Govt Softens Stand Against Reliance Industries

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Even as the ordinary people of the country reel against the Modi government’s hasty move on de-monetization, Reliance Industries gets a nod of mercy from the regime. This move goes against the recommendations of the Justice AP Shah-headed panel that recommended swift recovery for the “unfair enrichment” ” RIL had by way of retaining the gains of gas flow into its block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG D6).

Mukesh Ambani

The Mint  reports that the oil ministry has decided not to take any coercive action to recover the $1.55 billion it has demanded from Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) as compensation for producing gas allegedly at the expense of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) from a shared offshore reservoir while the dispute remains under arbitration, an official aware of the development said.

Keeping the demand, raised on November 4, in abeyance is a departure from the approach the government had taken in several past disputes that have gone into arbitration, including with RIL and Cairn India Ltd. The development will avert an immediate financial impact on RIL, one of the largest private investors in the oil and gas sector.

The move is also set to signal certainty of the regulatory regime governing resolution of disputes in the natural resources sector, and is in line with the Modi administration’s intent to improve the country’s track record on enforcing commercial contracts, an indicator in World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking.

The oil ministry has been campaigning for investments into hydrocarbon exploration and has set a target for reducing oil and gas import dependence by 10 percentage points to 67% by 2022.

The ministry raised the demand after the Justice A.P. Shah panel, which looked into ONGC’s claim of gas flow between the neighbouring fields of the two companies, recommended on  August 31 that RIL should compensate for the “unfair enrichment” it had by way of retaining the gains of gas flow into its block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG D6).

“Recovery of the compensation will be kept in abeyance. There is little sanctity in arbitration if coercive measures are taken simultaneously,” a person briefed about the oil ministry’s position said on condition of anonymity. An email sent to RIL on Thursday remained unanswered at the time of publishing.

This contrasts with the approach the government had taken earlier. When gas price was raised by 33% to $5.61 per million British thermal unit on October 18, 2014, the government insisted that since an arbitration with Reliance was pending since November 2011 on recovery of cost of gas production, the incremental revenue from price hike should be kept in an account maintained by GAIL (India) Ltd till legal proceedings are over. That arbitration is still on.
Also, the government had in May 2014 attached the residual stake of 10% that UK’s Cairn Energy Plc holds in Cairn India Ltd in relation to a tax dispute arising from the controversial 2012 retrospective amendment to the Income Tax Act. That dispute too is in arbitration.

Dispute resolution is one area the government is working on to improve investor interest in the country’s sedimentary basins, the entire unexplored part of which will be opened up for bids next year under a new open acreage policy.

Director General of Hydrocarbons Atanu Chakraborty told Mint in an interview published on October 13 that the upstream regulator was planning to set up a portal to facilitate communication among stakeholders in the industry that will help in reducing disputes. At the moment, there is no such mechanism for companies operating different blocks which are adjacent to one another.

According to Kalpana Jain, senior director, Deloitte in India, prolonged disputes do not augur well for the natural resources sector considering the high risk and capital-intensive nature of the industry.

The Masterstroke Policy of Demonetization: Oh, Really?

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The media is hailing Modi’s demonetization of old 500 and 1000 Rs note as a masterstroke policy on curbing the menace of black money.

demonetisation
Image: India Today

Really??
Hmmmm.

Let’s have a look at a few figures.

• What if I told you that total Bad Loans of Indian Banks right now are close to Rs. 6,00,000 crores?
• What if I told you that PSU (public sector banks) Banks are in a miserable condition right now, and need immediate infusion of money to shore up their lending capacities?
• What if I told you that few weeks back credit rating agency Moody’s had stated that Indian Banks require Rs. 1.25 lakh crore capital infusion?
• What if I told you that in July 2016 the Centre injected 23,000 crore into 13 Public Sector Banks?
• What if I told you that Jaitley said, in 2015 that the Centre would pump in more than 70,000 crore in PSU banks in coming 4 years?

And.

What if I told you that this demonetization is nothing but a measure to infuse money in those ailing Banks so as to shore up their lending capacities?

Can’t you see people queuing up banks to deposit their hard earned money, waiting hours for their turn?

What other “Masterstroke” would have made this possible?

Just trigger the panic button by stating that your old 500 and 1000Rs. currency is no longer a valid legal tender, and

Voila!!! People are queuing up since morning to deposit their hard earned money.

What for?

To curb the menace of black money?

By bringing in new Rs. 2000 note?

You don’t curb black money by bringing in notes of higher denomination.

In fact, you are now simplifying hoarding of black money by bringing in new notes of higher denomination.

Ok. So what would banks do with the fresh infusion of money from public pockets?

Lend of course. That’s what their business is.

And to whom would these banks then lend their money to?

You? Me?

So sweet of you :p

You are in the deposit queue dear.

The following are in the withdrawal queue:

(Note: the figures in bracket are their present repayable amount which they owe to various banks)

10. GVK Reddy (GVK Group) (33933 Crores)
9. Venugopal Dhoot (Videocon Group) (45405 Crores)
8. L. Madhusoodan Rao (Lanco Group) (47102 Crores)
7. G M Rao (GMR Group) (47976 Crores)
6. Sajjan Jindal (JSW Group) (58171 Crores)
5. Manoj Gour (Jaypee Group) (75163 Crores)
4. Goutam Adani (Adani Group) (96031 Crores)
3. Shashi Ruia & Ravi Ruia (Essar Group) (101000 Crores)
2. Anil Aggarwal (The Vedanta Group) (103000 Crores)

And

Finally

1. Anil Ambani (Reliance Group) (125000 Crores)
The government just carried out a surgical strike in your pockets, and now you are running like chickens.
That’s how crony Crony Capitalism works.

Now call me whatever you like- Marxist, Communist, Anarchist, Congi-agent, Conspiracy theorist blah blah blah
 
(From a Facebook post by Farhan Rahman)
 

नोटबंदी 8 लाख करोड़ का घोटाला है, इसका समर्थन केवल बेईमान लोग कर रहे हैंः अरविंद केजरीवाल

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नोटबंदी को 8 लाख करोड़ का घोटाला बताते हुए दिल्ली के मुख्यमंत्री अरविंद केजरीवाल ने केन्द्र सरकार को आड़े हाथों लेते हुए कहा कि मौजूदा नोटबंदी 8 लाख करोड़ का घोटाला है और हर देशभक्त और ईमानदार इसका पूरी ताकत से विरोध कर रहा है। उन्होंने अपने ट्वीट में लिखा कि इसका समर्थन केवल बेईमान लोग कर रहे हैं।

नोटबंदी
Photo: Janta Ka Reporter

इससे पहले अरविंद केजरीवाल ने विधानसभा के विशेष सत्र में प्रधानमंत्री पर रिश्वतखोरी का आरोप लगाया था और कहा कि ‘जो खुद भ्रष्ट है वह भ्रष्टाचार मिटाने की बात कर देश की जनता को गुमराह कर रहा है। उन्होंने कहा था कि ऐसा स्वतंत्र भारत में पहली बार हो रहा है कि जब एक प्रधानमंत्री का नाम काले धन वालों की सूची में आ रहा हैं।

 

दिल्ली सरकार के प्रस्ताव में राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुखर्जी से अनुरोध किया गया था कि वह केंद्र सरकार को नोटबंदी की कठोर पहल को तुरंत वापस लेने का निर्देश दें, क्योंकि धन्ना सेठों का कालाधन ठिकाने लगवाने के बाद दिखावे के लिए नोटबंदी कर देश के लोगों को नाहक परेशान किया जा रहा है।

इसके अलावा उन्होंने अपनेे ट्वीट में कहा था कि ‘नोटबंदी आजाद भारत का सबसे बड़ा घोटाला है। बड़े लोगों से पैसे खाकर आम जनता को भूखे लाइन में खड़ा किया। मोदीजी ने देश के साथ धोखा किया है’

अपने आरोपों को पुष्ट करने के लिए केजरीवाल ने जो दस्तावेज प्रस्तुत किए वह आयकर अधिकारियों द्वारा कि गई छापेमारी जो क्रमशः 2013 और 2014 में आदित्य बिड़ला ग्रुप व सहारा समूह के कार्यालयों पर की गई थी। ये उन्हीं के मूल्याकंन की रिर्पोट थी। इस मुल्याकंन रिर्पोट के अनुसार, आदित्य बिड़ला ग्रुप ने कथित तौर पर मोदी को 25 करोड़ रूपये रिश्वत के रूप में भुगतान किया था।

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter