Sanjay Singhvi - His indomitable Spirit of Activism lives on
Sanjay Singhvi was a signatory to the registration of doccentre as Centre for Education & Documentation in 1978. Barely out of the Xaverian Union Agitation, where he finally went on a fast unto death for 9 days, he spent hours on the typewriter and cyclostyling machine preparing handouts on the issues of the day. It is too much to ask him to Rest. We therefore wish him "Amar Rahe"
Indira Jaisingh's tribute https://theleaflet.in/miscellaneous/an-ode-to-sanjay-singhvi-for-whom-life-was-an-unwavering-commitment-to-labour-justice Sanjay, too, belonged to a disappearing class of labour lawyers who did not represent management for ideological reasons. Today it is fashionable to say: “I will take any case that comes my way.” It is the cab rank rule but some of us make choices and he made his choices regarding which side of the line he wanted to be on. A friend, who is also a lawyer for management, told me, “He made life hell for employers, but that is what is needed. These people will never change when it comes to the rights of workers.“
“Par yaad rehti bas tareekh”- Gulfisha Fatima : A Saga of Arrest and Re-arrest
https://freespeechcollective.in/par-yaad-rehti-bas-tareekh-gulfisha-fatima-a-saga-of-arrest-and-re-arrest/ Gulfisha has also begun to write very powerful and heart-wrenching poetry to capture the experiences of her incarceration alongwith making beautiful paintings and writing letters to her friends.
Some links to reports and Gulfisha’s prison poetry, art and letters:
‘These Walls Around Me’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Prison Poetry https://thewire.in/rights/these-walls-around-me-gulfisha-fatimas-prison-poetry
‘Days Become Like A Ladder’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Letters from Prison https://thewire.in/rights/days-become-like-a-ladder-gulfisha-fatimas-letters-from-prison
Right wing take over of Auroville
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VLQlLH35dgk
The full long version of this story is behind a paywall. https://www.thenewsminute.com/long-form/rss-and-bjps-quiet-takeover-of-auroville
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/aurovilles-dream-turns-into-legal-chaos-land-encroachment-and-drug-allegations-surface/articleshow/113437250.cms ,,In September 1988, the Union govt took control, enacting the Auroville Foundation Act to resolve internal disputes between community power centres and representatives of the Sri Aurobindo Society. By January 1991, the Auroville Foundation was formally established. The Mother had laid out Auroville's vision in its charter, comprising four key tenets: "Auroville belongs to nobody in particular; it belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness. Auroville will be a place of unending education, constant progress, and youth that never ages."..
The Union govt's recent involvement in Auroville's administr ..The lands are held by the Auroville Foundation under the Auroville Foundation Act of 1988. "These are not govt lands, and the GB and secretary's office alone do not constitute ‘the Foundation' to exchange lands without due process or consultation with the RA and IAC. It is troubling that, instead of addressing the issue, the education ministry has simply asked the Foundation's administration to investigate, essentially tasking those involved in the land mismanagement to investigate themselves. No honest outcome can be expected from such a process," they said.
The committee has urged the Union govt to appoint an impartial and independent inquiry panel to engage with all stakeholders, including committees recognised by the RA, and conduct an investigation. ,, With the working committee alleging that since 2021, the new administration of the Auroville Foundation (AVF) has systematically undermined decades of progress through authoritarian measures and arbitrary actions, one can only wonder what lies ahead for Auroville, the "first and only internationally supported experiment in human unity".
Auroville Under Existential Threat https://auroville.media/crisis/ There has been a systematic takeover by the AVFO of all of Auroville’s major internal working groups and committees that manage the key areas of administration, media, and finances, resulting in the concentration of power in a handful of people who were not appointed by the residents and who do not represent the needs and aspirations of the majority... In June 2024, 98% of 945 residents voted to halt, review, and reverse land deals undertaken by the Secretary, yet these concerns were dismissed and more land exchanges were approved by the Governing Board in October 2024.
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