By Neil Tangri

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
-- Steven Biko

On September 21, 2007, hundreds of people will assemble in New Delhi to put the World Bank on trial. In four days of parallel sessions in front of more than a dozen judges, people from all walks of life will air their grievances against one of the world’s most powerful institutions. In convening an Independent People’s Tribunal on the World Bank in India, they are attempting to do more than simply chalk up another protest against injustice. The People’s Tribunal is also a shrewd political strategy, aimed at renewing a silenced debate over neoliberalism and economic policy. But most profoundly, it is a direct assault on one of the Bank’s (and the elite’s) most powerful tools: the monopoly of knowledge. By bringing into the limelight the testimony and personal experiences of the poor, adivasis, Dalits, women, and other marginalized people, it is in direct conflict with the World Bank’s own means of understanding economic and social policy. That challenge is not one the World Bank can afford to ignore.

• Eminent Persons’ team visit Sardar Sarovar affected areas in Narmada Valley for fact finding
• Public Hearings in 3 States exposes the blatant violations of law and rehabilitation policy

There was an air of investigation in the Narmada Valley when the Sardar Sarovar affected people disposed in the Public Hearings in the 3 States – M.P., Maharashtra and Gujarat, held by a team of eminent and concerned citizens of India. The panel that undertook the serious exercise if fact finding through hearings consisted of Shri L.C. Jain, former member of Planning Commission and former Indian High Commission to South Africa, Shri S.C. Behar, former Chief Secretary of State of M.P., Shri Bharat Chhaparwal, former Vice–Chancellor of Indore University, Prof. Krishna Mazumdar, Delhi University, Prof Johannes Manjrekar, M.S. University, Vadodara (Gujarat), Shri S.G. Vombatkere, Major General (Retd), Smt Devaki Jain, noted Feminist, writer and activist and Adv. N.D. Suryavanshi, Dhule (Maharashtra).

(published in Socialist Worker, UK, August 14, 2007)

Sixty years after independence India is being ravaged by neoliberalism and increasingly divided between rich and poor, writes activist Meena Menon*

Sixty years ago on 15 August 1947, India was handed over by its British rulers to be governed by the political medley called the Congress Party - ending over 170 years of colonial rule. Since then, a fledgling nation with hardly any claim to the conventional concept of nationhood has belied the scepticism of many schools of political thought and emerged as a distinct entity with political and economic ambitions of its own.

Press Statement

Peoples' Media Initiaitve (PMI) strongly condemns dastardly attack on the office of Outlook magazine. Shiv Sainiks vandalised the Nariman Point office, Mumbai, on the eve of India's 60th Independence day. It was an assault on Media's Independence.

Around 10-12 Shiv Sainiks barged into the office, damaged computers and smashed glass partitions and started shouting slogans praising Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray.