Dalit Christians and Muslims demand equal rights
 New Delhi, November 18, 2009: About 3000 activists from all over the country gathered at Jantar Mantar for a one-day dharna demanding equal rights to Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste Origin on par with the rights of their SC counterparts in other religions.
Prominent among those who addressed the gathering were Mr Oscar Fernandez, Union Labour Minister, Mr J D Seelam, Mr Harsha Kumar, Members of Parliament from the ruling Congress Party, and Mr Ali Anwar, MP, Janatha Dal United, Jose K Mani, MP, Kerala Congress.
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Remembering the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador: Twenty Years On
 Twenty years ago today in El Salvador, six Jesuits, together with two women who were sharing their university residence, were murdered by the Salvadoran military. Dean Brackley SJ tells the story of the Jesuit martyrs, who will today be bestowed with El Salvador’s highest honour. What can we learn from these teachers who stood up against an unjust regime and remained firm in their commitment to serving the truth?
Sometimes, late in the game, justice is done and the truth served. Just two weeks ago, the President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, announced that on 16 November his government would bestow its highest honour, the Order of José Matías Delgado, posthumously, on the six Jesuits who were murdered twenty years ago on that same date.
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Andhra Karnataka Flood Relief
 In the first week of October 2009 the torrential rain battered several districts in Andhra Pradesh. The worst brunt was suffered by the poor. Kurnool district was one of the worst affected. Lacks of people were marooned. Properties worth cores of rupees were destroyed.
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Singur to Lalgarh via Nandigram
Rising Flames of People’s Anger against Displacement, Destitution and State Terror  After the historic Nandigram struggle, it is now the turn of Lalgarh. If Singur faced the initial experience of defeat, Nandigram could legitimately take pride in her experience of victory in course of her long and bloody struggle against the oppressive anti-people West Bengal government, the ruling CPI (M)-sponsored hermads (goons) and police brutality. From the historical point of view, Nandigram elevated the struggle against displacement and the State-sponsored land-grab designs to a qualitatively higher level. It showed a path that, although rooted in the anti-colonial struggle of the 1940s, was new and had elements from which the struggling people of other regions could learn. And Nandigram had already found a rightful leading place in the history of just struggles in our country. The Lalgarh struggle started in a somewhat different context and so has many new features attached to it. It is the culmination of a long-standing discontent and sense of humiliation and persecution at the hands of the powers-that-be and their agencies that the downtrodden adivasis nurtured in their minds. The Lalgarh revolt is a revolt against the existing order of things, against humiliation, police brutality and for justice. Some of the methods the people of Lalgarh have adopted showed that they had already learnt from the experience of Nandigram. Background: The place called Lalgarh is situated near Jhargram on the north-western side of the West Medinipur district of West Bengal. It is not very far from Salboni area located in the same district. Around 5000 acres of land have been acquired for the Salboni project, of which 4,500 acres have been handed over by the government and 500 acres have been purchased directly by Jindal from the landowners. According to newspaper reports, a large portion of this land was vested with the government for distribution among landless tribal people as part of the much-publicised land reform programme and also included forests tracts. Moreover, although the land was originally acquired for a “usual” steel plant, in September 2007, Jindal got SEZ status for the project, with active backing from the state government, which, as always, dispensed with the requirements for following most regulations for building and running the plant, including such crucial requirements as doing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). A government that has in reality sold itself out to big capital—both domestic and foreign—is not at all bothered about the setting up of an SEZ having a polluting steel plant in the middle of a forested area, brutally displacing tribals from their land and endangering their means of survival. It is, thus, quite understandable that there could be major grievances among the tribals against this, although the mainstream media, as one of the spokespersons of the State policy, had constantly portrayed a very rosy picture of the entire project.
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Aila and Jesuits in West Bengal - II
The situation in the affected area is still grim as the saline water that entered the land is stagnant and most of their cattle and livestocks have been washed away with Aila. This is a big loss to the people. The govt. as usual has done a mighty little to rehabilitate the victims. Some of the interior islands still remain untouched by any relief work, even after three weeks! The biggest challenge is to get the land once again cultivable. The saline water that is chocking the land damaging the cultivation of paddy, watermelon and chilly, which are the major production here. The sweet water ponds, where the people cultivate fish have become totally saline thus destroying the fish cultivation completely. People do not have any source of pumping the water out, hoping the imminent monsoon would wash away the salinity from the soil and people could start their life once again.
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JESA / SAPI Blog