MediaVigil, Journal of Global Communications and Justice

On 17th April, 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally met the campaigners seeking justice for the victims of Bhopal Gas Disaster of 3rd December 1984 and assured speedy work on three of their six demands. He has agreed for a clean-up of the contaminated site, clean water and a commission to execute medical and economic rehabilitation schemes. The six demands were: 1. The setting up of a National Commission on Bhopal to oversee medical and social rehabilitation; 2. Supply of safe water to communities currently drinking poisoned water; 3. Speedy prosecution of the accused, including Union Carbide Corporation and its former chairman; environmental remediation; 4. Curbing Dow and Carbide's business in India; and 5. Memorialising the disaster by including it in school and college curricula and 6. Building a Bhopal Memorial in consultation with survivors. Bhopalis who were on hunger strike called off their fast but they are upset with the Prime Minister who rejected their demand that...

The churning of a lethal cocktail of arrogance and dishonesty by academicians' research, motivated reporting by corporate-religious media(Indian Express-India TV etc) and the official view is a recurrent phenomenon like flood and drought all through the history of water resources development projects. The mega dam projects are ridden with half truths, falsehood and promises of a fantasy land. Take the case of Dr Rajendra Prasad's role with regard to embankments. Britishers had embanked the river Damodar in Bengal as an experiment in flood control in 1855 but regretted their decision because of its adverse consequences. The terrible floods of 1933 in Hwang Ho river had caused more than 50 breaches of the dykes and caused major disaster. In those days Dr Rajendra Prasad was known for his anti-embankment views. His assertions are available in the Proceedings of the Patna Flood Conference, 1938. This is not sursprising since in 1938, the Chiang Kai Shek government had ordered the o...

Medha Patkar's hunger strike enters 18th day. The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) Review Committee is meeting today to review the decision of NCA to raise the height of the Narmada dam in Gujarat from 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres. Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are members of the Committee, which is chaired by Saifuddin Soz, the Water Resources Minister. The three states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are falsely claiming that rehabilitation of the displaced people has been completed. The Action Taken Reports (ATRs) apparently have been submitted to the Centre by the three states in order to ask for clearance. These ATRs have not been made public. They have not been verified by the NCA or by the Gram Sabhas (village bodies). Despite this the height of the dam is being increased. Responding to the all round support for the victims of Sardar Sarovar dam, there was a combined religious and corporate reaction to it with a full page a...

In every step where an attempt is made to unravel the conspirators behind the assassinations and killing, there is an attempt to subvert it and suppress it. By the way will CPI-ML and others tell how often have the Commission's unearthed the truth? Why is CPI-ML and other political parties interested in the lies or half truths which Commission's give birth to? Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose continues to be in news 60 years after his disputed death. A BBC poll named Netaji the third most popular leader in South Asia after Jinnah and Gandhi. Netaji is supposed to have died at the end of Second World War. Netaji went missing while waging war for India 's freedom and in heart of hearts all Indians wish to know what happened to him. Nehru did institute the Shah Nawaz Khan Committee in 1956 after the Indian newspapers broke the news (based on agancy reports) on August 25, 1945 that Netaji had died in a freak plane crash in Taipei (Taihoku) on August 18th, 1945 . Nehru...

You had to live in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard... —`1984' George Orwell Here is a list of some top 30 people who rule the Indian print, electronic and interactive media. Your comments are invited about their political and corporate affiliations and where do they stand in your opinion. Also you may add your own suggestions with regard to the same. 1. Amar Singh*, media user (Indian media is no more the same after they received a CD called`Amar Singh ki Amar Kahani'** containing 24-set of conversation of Amar Singh allegedly having talks with Mulayam Singh, Anil Ambani, Bipasha Basu, Jayaprada, Mahima Chowdhry, Prabhu Chawla and others) 2. Aroon Purie/Prabhu Chawla, Aaj Tak and India Today 3. Samir Jain & Vineet Jain, The Times of India (Bennett Coleman and Company) 4. Rupert Murdoch, Star 5. Prannoy Roy, NDTV 6. Mahendra Mohan Gupta & Sanjay Gupta, Dainik Jagran 7. Raghav Bahl/Rajdeep Sardesai, CNN-IBN 8. Subhash Chandra/Laxmi Goel, Zee 9. Ram...