Dear Reader,

Ballots were cast last week, for what has been perceived to be one of the most critical elections in Bangladesh’s history. The Red Mike ground reported the elections from the capital Dhaka. Among its many reports, this particular report, on the day of polling, examines and ponders the central questions that face Bangladesh today. Will Bangladesh continue its slide into sectarianism, conflict, and cleavages over the last decade, or, as the election results promise, will it regain its mojo — as a strong, democratic, and free country, and substantially achieve its tryst with destiny envisioned during its liberation struggle of 1971?

At Dhaka’s Rabindra Park, amidst campaign banners and the general hum of a bold new future, The Red Mike talks to young voters, journalists and civil society leaders on what they want that future to hold. A plea for moving away from religious polarisation, for ensuring safety of minorities, and expanding the space for peaceful dissent and protest. The story also delves into what has in the recent past been a source of anxiety—the seemingly increasing opposition to the representation of women in Bangladesh’s polity even though, ironically, it has produced two powerful women prime ministers in its history.

Annual migration cycles in India are bookended by traditional festivals, from Diwali and Holi, to more regional ones such as Makar Sankranti. Celebrated as Khichdi in Bundelkhand, the harvest festival sees the return of lakhs of migrants from across India. The Migration Story travels to Banda district in Uttar Pradesh to talk to both the workers who have returned for a respite and the families that they leave behind. Their journeys are arduous, involving multi-day trips in packed unreserved compartments of trains that shuttle them from big cities to their homes.

Back home, the itinerant workers find comfort in home-cooked food and loved ones who have missed them. Staying at home, however, is not an option. Without working for at least 20 days each month, they are not in a position to make ends meet. Women, who are often left behind, do the unpaid and undervalued labour of maintaining the household and fields. The separation of families is seen as so inevitable that workers give up on their dream of living together as a family ever again. The preponderant aspiration that drives them is to educate their children in the hope that they will one day find livelihoods and a life far better than they could give themselves.

The ambitious plan of the Inland Waterways Authority of India to transform the Ganga into a freight and cruise corridor, also known as National Waterway-1, is making brisk headway, with each month bringing new contracts, tenders, and acquisitions. Already, 87 cruise and cargo ships operate between Haldia and Varanasi, with plans for a public-private partnership to increase the number of cruise passengers to 10 lakh per year. However, along the shores of Varanasi, where around 100 acres of land have been allotted for a freight village that will serve as a cargo hub, discontent and anger are brewing. Traditional boatmen and farmers, fearful of losing their land and livelihood in one fell swoop, have begun to protest the acquisition process.

Janchowk went reporting to the area and found that the work on the waterway project — dredging and plying of large vessels—has impacted the natural flow of the river. Fish populations are declining and the existing concerns of oil, waste, and noise pollution are compounded by the ongoing construction. With low water levels, large freighters have been unable to operate, raising doubts among the villagers about the long-term feasibility and employment opportunities the freight village will bring. The acquisition process itself has been allegedly vitiated with payments being disbursed at lower than market rates, and people from marginalised groups being discriminated in the allotment of work. Petitions to the administration are yet to elicit a satisfactory remedy.

In Karnataka, The File investigates and reports that by the government’s own admission, reserved forest land in Kadugodi Plantation (Survey No. 1, Bengaluru East) has been illegally encroached and sold by private individuals and entrenched groups, even though it remains legally classified as forest land. The area—originally declared a state forest towards the end of the 19th century— has seen unauthorised construction, waste dumping, land transactions via dubious ‘power-of-attorney’ deals, and other non-forest activities in violation of forest laws.

Parts of the land were diverted or notified for industrial use by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) without proper legal acquisition, and hundreds of acres were handed over to companies. Despite court orders affirming that the land belongs to the government and lacks private ownership rights, illegal transactions continue. The Forest Department recently reclaimed 120 acres, fenced it, and began reforestation, but multiple legal cases have been filed by affected occupants. Officials admit that identifying the private beneficiaries of these land deals has not been pursued seriously, allowing illegal sales to continue.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF