A few days ago Countercurrents.org published a petition by Avaaz. Its first few lines read this way, In a few days, India will delete as many as 7 million Muslims in Assam State from its master list of “citizens” because they speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God. Husbands, wives, and children could be torn apart and left[Read More…]
They call it National Register of Citizen (NRC) but it is basically an attempt to take away the citizenship of the people on the basis of your religion. In pure political terms BJP wanted to polarise the north east through its vicious anti Muslim agenda and were finding ways to make permanent presence in the states of north east. The[Read More…]
Such mass-scale profiling has been done officially only in Germany of the Jews by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. Now, 40 lakh people in Assam have found themselves trapped in a twilight zone As many as 40 lakh people have been dropped from the “final” list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Finally, 2.9 crore people have found[Read More…]
The world of the terrifying hypothetical is programmatically standard in the Trump White House. Periods of tense calm are followed by careless flights of fury, digs and remonstrations. Mortal enemies become amenable comrades; reliable allies turn into irresponsible skinflints who ought to fork our more for their defence. For all that swirling chaos, the one constant since the 2016 election[Read More…]
On Thursday, July 19, Israel’s Knesset (parliament) passed a new law proclaiming that Israel is the “Nation-State of the Jewish People.” This bill legally enshrines—and heightens—the racist oppression and subordinate status of Israel’s 1.9 million Palestinian citizens. And its declaration that only Jewish people have the right to “national self-determination” and its call for more settlements ominously opens the door[Read More…]
It does little to allay the grief of relatives and friends, but the MH370 report on the doomed, and ever spectral Malaysian passenger liner merely added smidgens of further speculation. The report from Malaysian authorities into the disappearance of the Boeing 777 on route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014 will do little to contain the fever[Read More…]
Although I usually spend at least an hour every day reading the news, it has been years since I have held a newspaper in my hands. But my son-in-law Emile, and his father, my friend Henry LaFargue, like to sit and “read the newspapers.” They are stacked up on the kitchen table: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,[Read More…]
The conduct of our military and CIA has become more than questionable. They have become a law unto themselves with no regard for the Constitutional restrictions that have been placed upon them. I am not a crusader; I work at my responsibilities to solve problems based on a true analysis of the situation and not with any preconceived notions or[Read More…]
Just because we don’t hear them scream in pain doesn’t mean they don’t feel the sharpness of the axe. Trees. the first victims of ‘development.’
Pakistani prime minister-in waiting Imran Khan’s ability to chart his own course as well as his relationship with the country’s powerful military is likely to be tested the moment he walks into his new office. Pakistan’s most fundamental problems loom large and are likely to demand his immediate attention. He probably will have to turn to the International Monetary Fund[Read More…]
Co-Written By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The quote in the headline comes from Mao Tse Tung. It was aptly used by Professor Slavoj Žižek to describe the situation we find ourselves in during the Trump era. There are many things to dislike about President Trump, but he is shaking up the establishment and raising mishandled issues that would not[Read More…]
In his article, “The Earth’s Carrying Capacity for Human Life is Not Fixed,” Ted Nordhaus, co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute, a California-based energy and environment think tank, seeks to enlist readers in his optimistic vision of the future. It’s a future in which there are many more people on the planet and each enjoys a high standard of living, while[Read More…]
Today after seven decades, JK Muslims, are struggling hard to protect “semblance” of their Unique Culture and Identity that was “guaranteed” to them under Articles 370 and 35-A by the givers of the Indian Constitution. For 70 years, Article 370 has served the interests of India beyond its expectations, internally as well as externally, keeping in view geo-political challenges it faced[Read More…]
I welcome Dr Prem Singh’s article: The era of `teaching lessons’ as a timely intervention in the current debate over how to resist the goons of the Sangh Parivar, particularly in the context of their recent attack on Swami Agnivesh. I however find a few problems with his position and the implications flowing from it. First, he seems to be upset [Read More…]
Wake Up India: Essays for Our Times – Part 2 – Chapter 2 If we draw a line with three cardinal points in it of extreme left and extreme right and centre to represent the political situation in India at the extreme right is BJP with its backers like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and other Hindu ultra right organisations and[Read More…]
Among the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set up by UN to be achieved by 2030, health and well-being stands at the number three positions from the top. That means ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all is a top priority of SDGs worldwide. The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of every person. Many countries[Read More…]
On a couple of times, I noticed a man wearing grief on his face as withering leaves on hackberries on graveyards strolling on dusty lawns of the Srinagar court. At some other times, I had spotted him silently sittingin corners of the canopies erected by the human rights activists or the resistance leadership to mark the world human rights[Read More…]
(CNS): Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, nurses have been at the forefront of the response to this once fatal infection. The nurse is involved at every stage of the trajectory of a person living with HIV—from usually being the first to counsel the newly diagnosed person, to one of the last to be with him/her at the point[Read More…]
The debate of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assemblies’ elections is gaining momentum in India. After continuous pitch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ruling BJP, the Law Commission recently held consultations with national and regional parties to know their views on the idea of ‘One Nation One Election’. The main arguments behind having One Nation One Election system are[Read More…]
Like many countries, India’s food system was essentially clean just a generation or two ago but is now being comprehensively contaminated with sugar, bad fats, synthetic additives, GMOs and pesticides under the country’s neoliberal ‘great leap forward’. The result has been a surge in obesity, diabetes and cancer incidence, while there has been no let-up in the under-nutrition of those[Read More…]
With the nearly unbelievable sudden rapprochement between the presidents Abiy and Afwerki, hopes and dreams seems to have come through. Hopes and dreams for peace and cooperation between the two neighbour nations and ending the total blockade of communication after 20 years of walking in the desert. Telephone lines and transport lines are opened, so people can meet their[Read More…]
It is a well known fact that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has scant respect for democratic processes. He rarely attends the parliament. He has spent more days abroad than in the parliament. In the last four years he has made several times more public speeches than he gave in the parliament. He has never addressed a press conference as[Read More…]
An Egyptian Kangaroo Court Saturday (July 28) sentenced 75 supporters of the former President Mohammad Morsi to death. Egyptian Kangaroo courts are on death sentences spree since the overthrow of Mohammad Morsi, the first democratically election president of Egypt by US client General Abdel Fattah el-Sissi who has since assumed the title of Field Marshall. Last month Egypt’s Zagazig Criminal[Read More…]
“We are at a watershed, where success in managing forced displacement globally requires a new and far more comprehensive approach so that countries and communities aren’t left dealing with this alone”, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, heralds. ‘Global Trends’, the yearly report published by UNHCR unravels the contemporary state of global population of forcibly displaced people. “Globally, the[Read More…]
This month marks the first anniversary of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI). Formed in Surrey, BC on July 8, 2017, IAPI was created in response to the growing attacks on religious minorities in India. Ever since the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in 2014, violence against minorities has grown in the[Read More…]
As election results are almost declared, Pakistan is entering new phase of governanc under a new premier. Hindus comprise about 1.85% of Pakistan population ( wikipedia.org and as of 2010, it had fifth largest hindu population in the world. Pakistan census separates scheduled castes from the main body of hindu population who constitute a further 0.25% of national population. Thus,[Read More…]
Here it is – my short film about North Korea. No need to drag it, to prolong it – let’s just watch it all together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV2RQCZqsTk&feature=youtu.be This is my 25-minutes piece about the DPRK (North Korea) – country that I visited relatively recently; visited and loved, was impressed with, and let me be frank – admired. I don’t really know[Read More…]
During a study tour on 31 August 2000, when some teachers and students of Degree College Sopore discovered a fossil of a mammoth at Pampore, 15 kms south of Srinagar, geologists in Kashmir were excited. The find, comprising a skull with complete lower and upper jaws, a broken tusk and a vertebra, was highlighted as ‘the largest ever unearthed in[Read More…]
Pakistan has a new prime minister. A remarkable man: a remarkable history-making career in cricket leading to numerous awards and records; a remarkable politician, mocked when he started, who after a 22-year struggle has reached the pinnacle of power. Bringing home the 1992 World Cup as captain of the Pakistan cricket team made him a national hero. His achievements in[Read More…]
The public have been so brainwashed by Big Brother’s lies, so that many people won’t believe this article unless they click onto the link wherever they happen to think that what it is alleging is false. Then, they will see the evidence, for themselves, and will recognize that they’ve been fooled about that matter, and those readers will learn something[Read More…]
Always trust the handy anecdote to overwhelm reality with force and false persuasiveness. The taxi driver irate at the latest opportunistic scribble in a Rupert Murdoch rag is bound to regale you with a story as you speed to the airport: “Those bloody gangs. And the police didn’t even bloody mention they were African!” A vital canon of reactionary politics[Read More…]
I come awake to the rattle snake sound of the cicadas, nuanced, orchestrated, ebbing and flowing on the air; the buzz of lawnmowers, the swish of tires puckering up from the tarmac.The dog barking in the yard completes the suburban symphony that plays daily in the well to do communities of Northern New Jersey. I have been here two weeks,[Read More…]
With multiple Middle Eastern disputes threatening to spill out of control, United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash acknowledged what many in the Middle East have long said privately: the UAE’s recently-found assertiveness and determination to punch above its weight stems from its inability to rely on traditional allies like the United States. What is true[Read More…]
The handwriting is on the wall that reads ‘pale skin folks will not keep power over six times as many folks of color toned skin for all that much longer.’ Realizing this, a block of important investors within the 1/10th of 1%, who rule USA have been in fraternal confrontation with the war establishment & its CIA-fed media pushing for[Read More…]
India is the country of people belonging to varied regions, religions, sects, communities, castes; etc.From the past times till date, the multiculturalism and plural ethos of this country has set a strong precedent to the world about this land of diversity. This country is the country of its natives, be it hindus ,muslims,sikhs,christians,parsis,buddhists,etc.No one can escape its identity at the[Read More…]
Over 50 years ago, in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, addressing a struggle of the civil right era, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” His message is now more prevalent than[Read More…]
It is mandatory to introduce India’s most versatile Musicologist and who has authored one of the finest musicological Research venture for the benefit of the International and Indian Music Lovers of Hindi Music Songs. Here is an attempt to grasp the Origins and historical dynamics and transformations of Hindi Film Music into a great Modern Cultural phenomena. The idea germinated[Read More…]
Respected AIMPLB members, Be it the women rallies taken out by AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board) throughout the country abruptly stopped, the sudden ” Deen Bachao, Desh bachao” rally in Patna, the announcement of Darul Qazas or the conduct of the board-member, Mr.Aijaz Qasmi, you have been quite in the news, for all the wrong reasons. The old[Read More…]
Some stories say that Saraha was a Prince. Some stories say that he was born in a family of arrow-makers. At times, even the same stories, in different telling, tell different tales. Some say he lived in the 9th century AD. Some say, in the 10th. Some even say that he was from sometimes between the 10th & the 11th[Read More…]
The Special CBI Court has sentenced two police officers K. Jeethakumar and S.V. Sreekumar to be hanged till death for their crime of torturing and murdering Udayakumar. Others who were proven to be involved in the crime, P.T. Ajit Kumar (DYSP), EK Sabu (SP) and TK Haridas were given the punishment of 3 years imprisonment, for destroying the evidences, conspiracy[Read More…]
In one of the cruelest and most outrageous violations of human rights in American history, the Trump administration has refused to reunite nearly a thousand of the immigrant children forcibly separated from their parents under the “zero tolerance” policy Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began to carry out in early May. The deadline of[Read More…]
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945) in his January 6, 1941 State of the Union address to Congress presented the “Four Freedoms”, much of the world was at war: German troops were advancing in Europe as were the Japanese armies in China. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) said then “ I suppose that[Read More…]
I knew the alphabet from A to Z I could also recite it in reverse right from Z to A But I didn’t know so many combinations of the alphabet were possible When joined together they could form such big meaningful words ICDS and ICPS – the difference of but a letter yet two big independent things they say One[Read More…]
The state of Pakistan is now poised for a change, as predicted by many in the context of the General Elections held on 25 July. Though Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s victory is not decisive, there is a general feeling that given the lead in the race, PTI under the leadership of Imran Khan will form a government. The provinces will also[Read More…]
Tariq Ali, whilst having a lunch in Knightsbridge with the Pakistani cricket colossus, Imran Khan, suggested that retirement should not be too problematic for him. (Khan had seemed gloomy, deep in thought about post-retirement prospects at the age of 30.) Consider, posed Ali, film, or at the very least funding for a film institute. “You could be an enabler or[Read More…]
(Scene) Axel Honneth paces in a lavish office on an upper floor of a building overlooking the Main. In the middle of the room, a Ouija board sits on a table next to a bust of Vater Karl with papers strewn about. A pamphlet lies on top of the mess, entitled SMUSH: Special Methods Upholding Socialist Hegemony. The ghosts of[Read More…]
In brief, you will find that the illogical direction the Pentagon and Department of State have directed this nation’s foreign affairs and military has its roots in the defeat of the United States Military in Vietnam. The Vietnamese used terrain and gorilla (insurgency) strategy to oppose the US tactical deployment which was organized to fight like a WWII main force[Read More…]
The first batch of 820 (Haj-1439) pilgrims left Srinagar by air on 14 July 2018. In all, about 10,196 pilgrims from Jammu & Kashmir will perform Haj this year through the State Haj Committee. Of these, 8450 are from Kashmir. The last flight will take off from Srinagar on 25 July. The return flights commencing on 25 August will conclude[Read More…]
“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” This near-kitsch description comes from Justice Anthony Kennedy, US Supreme Court justice whose resignation sent Democrats screeching and Republicans chortling with opportunity. There was a general registered lament from the fearful that Justice[Read More…]
As part of an effort to be balanced in the final stages of a Phd on counter-terrorism,I recently spent six weeks in Palestine ‘to see things for myself’. I can’t think of another ‘place nor issue’ in world affairs that is more emotive, misrepresented, ‘linked to terrorism’, and further sits at the heart of grievance in the Muslim world. I[Read More…]
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) under the Ministry of Power has prepared an electricity generation plan for the period 2017-2027, and also has invited feedback on its draft. Such a generation plan prepared by CEA can be seen as crucial in the context of overall development of the power sector in the country because the same is intended to be[Read More…]
(The way we have been deliberately and knowingly destroying various components of Nature in Kashmir makes it look like an Environmental “Suicide”!) Recently there has been news about some dredging scam in the Wular Lake area where the contract given to a firm has been cancelled. The need for dredging of the second largest sweet water lake in Asia is[Read More…]
The Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) condemns the recent attack by lawyers on those accused of a child rape within the Madras High Court premises on 17th July 2018. This act of the officers of the Bar is not an isolated incident and has been witnessed in 2016 in the Patiala Court in Delhi and other courts. It would[Read More…]
As many as 463 immigrant parents may have been deported without being reunited with their children, according to filings made by the Trump administration in federal court on Monday. Previously, the government had admitted to only 12 parents being deported without their children. The official status of the 463 parents remains uncertain. Federal lawyers stated in court Tuesday that they[Read More…]
What have Julian Assange, Stephen Hawking and Noam Chomsky in common? They spoke the truth. Stephen Hawking left us with these words of wisdom “In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years.?” Noam Chomsky echoes the same warning. As an 82 year old Global Citizen, I concluded a[Read More…]
Today, Indian politics is going through a particular kind of change, especially in the area of politics of uprising. Indian politics has long history of uprising, better to say, India emerged as an independent nation with the Naval Uprising of 1946, a forgotten page of Indian history. Indian democracy has sustained for more than 70 years, with riots and[Read More…]
China’s brutal crackdown in its north-western province of Xinjiang and growing questions about the dark side of some of its Belt and Road investments is fuelling anti-Chinese sentiment, prompting some countries to explore ways to chart an independent course, and feeding into the narratives of rising populist leaders. The incarceration of up to 2,500 Kazakhs in re-education camps in Xinjiang designed to[Read More…]
Forward I as part of the fact-finding team and being associated with its day-to-day work – from field work to preparation of the report – can say with confirmity that Assam is sitting on the tip of a volcano that can erupt if the injustices meted out to Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus on the basis of language and religion in[Read More…]
Given the overwhelming evidence that activist efforts are failing to halt the accelerating rush to extinction precipitated and maintained by dysfunctional human behavior, it is worth reflecting on why this is happening. Of course, you might say that the rush to extinction is being slowed. But is it? Even according to BP’s chief economist: ‘despite the extraordinary growth in renewables[Read More…]
As Earth is in a condition of runaway climate change, – as feedback effects from warming oceans unleash dramatic temperature extremes on Earth, – there are more and more people who need first aid to save them from the negative effects of heat during the hot season. In some regions the hot season may be becoming longer and longer.[Read More…]
Those familiar with the debate around genetically modified organisms (GMOs) may be forgiven for thinking that science alone can solve the world’s food problems. The industry asserts that GMOs are vital if the world is to increase agricultural productivity and we are going to feed a growing global population. There is also the distinct impression that the GMO issue is all about ‘science’[Read More…]
The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the passing of the racist Jewish Nation-state Law as “the death of our democracy.” Did Odeh truly believe that, prior to this law, he had lived in a true democracy? 70 years of Israeli Jewish supremacy, genocide, ethnic cleansing, wars, sieges, mass incarceration, numerous discriminatory laws, all[Read More…]
“We’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” (US General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Commander of NATO) Contemptuous of international law, the US makes no secret of its plots to overthrow the leaders of internationally recognized governments that reject the neoliberal New World Order.Iran[Read More…]
I recall an incident, when a young girl was kidnapped from an upper middle-class colony in South Delhi. Police were immediately deployed at the scene and within a matter of a few days, the girl was rescued and restored to her parents. News of this case stirred up the fears of residents and consequently the Resident’s Welfare Association, in a[Read More…]
When terrorists attack, the media splashes news quickly and continue to discuss at length. The politicians try to use the news for boosting their political career. But deaths due to cleaning drainage holes or potholes on roads are rarely discussed by either media or politicians. Rise in numbers The deaths due to bad roads, speed breakers, potholes, in 2015 was[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar Recently, the Government of India has decided to allow lateral entry for the post of joint secretaries of various ministries thus opening the doors to the private sector. The constitutional validity of the notification providing for lateral entry is challenged by an ex-IAS officer through a PIL in the Supreme Court on[Read More…]
The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018 attempts to dilute the independence of Central and State Information Commissioners (ICs) besides giving undue powers to the government of the day to appoint Commissioners with uncertain term and salary. The Bill intends to defeat very purpose of RTI Act 2005 besides an affront to federalism enshrined as basic feature of Indian Constitution.[Read More…]
Christine Assange, the mother of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange, spoke at length with the World Socialist Web Site yesterday about the dangerous situation facing her son who, according to recent media reports, confronts imminent eviction from Ecuador’s embassy in London. Christine Assange commented on the US-led efforts to frame-up her son and extradite him to America on bogus espionage charges,[Read More…]
All these news are alarming: “Sweden Wildfire: Blistering heatwave sparks fires within Arctic Circle as Europe boils”. “Two major forest fires raged out of control Monday on either side of Athens, killing at least 50 people, burning houses, prompting thousands of residents to flee and turning the sky over Athens a hazy orange from the smoke.” “At least 44 people[Read More…]
It may well go down as one of the most appalling conferences in the history of the International Political Science Association. The World Congress is one of those hot air events that ventilates academic views in limited circles while shutting them off from actual discussion in the broader community. In this setting, academics with the oxymoronic title of “political scientists”[Read More…]
The race-based Apartheid Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed the racist Jewish Nation-State Law on18 July 2018, with a vote of 62 to 55 with two abstentions. This racist law offensively and intolerably ignores the Indigenous Palestinians who are 50% of Israeli subjects and enshrines a special, dominant, race-based position for the Jewish Israelis who constitute a 47% minority of the subjects[Read More…]
My dog Charlie is long gone. But Charlie, who was a brown “Great indian Mongrel”, was wise in the ways of the world. He taught me a lesson in public policy I will never forget. Corruption is India’s favorite conversation topic. We love discussing it and bemoaning its all pervasiveness. We are experts at it and have all experienced it[Read More…]
After 70 years of Israeli colonization of Palestine and discrimination against the Palestinians treating them as subhuman goyims, Israelis; the racist self-proclaimed holy people, light on all nations, and chosen by a racist god, have just crowned their racist ideology with a new law; Jewish Nation-State Law, that was passed last Thursday night of July 19th. This law defines the[Read More…]
The Book of Exodus in the Bible tells us how Moses, 3,500 years ago, in 1446 B.C., ascended Mt. Sinai (Gebel Mousa) to meet with God and after forty days and forty nights spent between them communing, Moses received the Tables of the Law and its ten guidelines, issued as commandments, inscribed on two stone tablets, that instructed the Israelites[Read More…]
On Sunday night, July 22, the Trump/Pence regime ratcheted up its gangster threats against Iran to new, even more dangerous levels. In response to the Iranian regime’s warning against the U.S.’s moves toward war, Trump tweeted out that Iran would “SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.” Trump was threatening Iran and its 80[Read More…]
“If they would just confirm to us that my brother is alive, if they would just let us see him, that’s all we want. But we can’t get anyone to give us any confirmation. My mother dies a hundred times every day. They don’t know what that is like.” In July of 2018, an Amnesty International report entitled “God Knows[Read More…]
China appears to be shifting gears in its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road initiative. Long projected as driven by economics and the benefit of infrastructure linkages, China appears to be increasingly adding a security component to the initiative against the backdrop of President Xi Jinping positioning of his country as a superpower rather than a developing nation. The emergence of[Read More…]
It is not the case that we can live long in places without them becoming part of us and we becoming part of them. I am not here talking about countries or cities, but the quarters in which we live and to which we return daily to satisfy our most basic needs. Our spaces shape our thoughts and feelings, and[Read More…]
Photograph of Alphonsus Stoelinga, Netherlands Ambassador to India (CNS): We are all very familiar with the phrase ‘going Dutch’ (meaning each person of a group pays one’s own expenses in an outing), but are we also aware of dealing with HIV/AIDS the Dutch way? Perhaps very few of us know that “Amsterdam, which is currently hosting the 22nd International AIDS[Read More…]
According to Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, between 2014 and March, 2018, 45 people were killed in mob lynchings across nine states in India. In the latest example, a group of villagers beat to death 28-year-old Akbar Khan in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, an incident that came to light just five days after the Supreme Court urged the Center to frame a[Read More…]
On July 20th, 2018, Sh Narendra Modi led NDA government defeated No Confidence Motion moved by Sh Srinivas Kesineni of TDP which also enjoyed support of other opposition parties by margin of 199 votes. While nobody had doubts over NDA government’s ability to win the motion, debate provided a much welcome healthy discourse in the Indian political discussions among plethora[Read More…]
The rising anger against age old State atrocities & injustices, augmented by the news of sacrilegious acts by non-Muslims pouring in from some Jammu areas, caused outright outrage among the Muslims of Kashmir. (Disputed Legacy, Alastar Lamb, pages 89-90) It was in 1931 when the growing dissatisfaction of the Kashmiri people burst into flame. (Danger in Kashmir, Josef Korbel, page[Read More…]
The thugs policing our cultural fraternity have struck again. In response to the violent threats against his family, Malayalam writer S Hareesh has now withdrawn his novel Meesa (Moustache) being serialised by Mathrubhumi, stating that he will publish it when “the climate is congenial”. Meesa is the first novel written by Hareesh, winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for[Read More…]
Tamils all over the world will be commemorating the 35th anniversary of the HOLOCAUST 1983 where theTamils Shops, Offices and Restaurants in the Capital’s crowded City Centre and Main Streets were burnt while the Police looked on, thousands of houses ransacked and burnt, sometimes with women and children inside. 25th July was the fateful day for Tamil people in Sri[Read More…]
Credible reports indicate that Ecuador’s government is about to renege on the political asylum it granted to WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and hand him over to British police, possibly within days. The reports also indicate that Assange would be subjected to lengthy imprisonment by the British authorities, perhaps for two years or more, pending extradition to the US, where he[Read More…]
Silenced and cut off from the outside world, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the last six years with no access to sunlight, fresh air, or proper medical treatment. Furthermore, last March President Lenin Moreno’s Ecuadorian government cut his access to the internet, phone calls and even visitors and journalists. For a[Read More…]
Although the recent attack on social activist Swami Agnivesh is being widely and strongly condemned, there are many people who, citing some earlier incidents involving Swami ji, perceive the attack as an inevitable and normal culmination. This is definitely most unfortunate. Those who do not agree with his earlier or present views and actions were, and are, absolutely free and[Read More…]
86 years old Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand sat on an indefinite fast in Haridwar on 22 June, 2018 to demand making a law on conservation of river Ganga. Nobody came to see him from the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvnation. He was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Haridwar but continued his fast there[Read More…]
South Asian activists came together to raise voice against the recent attack on Swami Agnivesh in India by Hindu extremists at Holland Park in Surrey on Sunday evening. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI), the rally was attended by people from diverse backgrounds. The speakers unanimously condemned the attack on Agnivesh and expressed their solidarity with the[Read More…]
The date 6 August 2018, has been hanging like the sword of Damocles on the heads of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, across the religious, regional, ethnic and linguistic divide. On this date, the Supreme Court of India is to hear Public Interest Litigations on the Article 35A dealing with permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. In 2014,[Read More…]
12 Thai boys of Wild Bore soccer team and their coach has finally been discharged from the hospital. The visuals of the rescue mission, showing how unmindful of the nationality of the children divers from different countries risked their lives to save these trapped children, were beamed on almost all the news channels across the world. These visuals contained a[Read More…]
When a perfectly ordinary bunch of people turn into bloodthirsty mobs. A stranger becomes the object of bottomless hate. Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist. https://www.facebook.com/Ferraodesigns
The Hindutva forces now expect every one to fall in line with their thinking. But they will not succeed. This reminds me of a play Rhinoceros written by Eugene Ionesco, a French-Romanian, a major playwright in the tradition of the theatre of the Absurd In this play over a period , every one turns from a human being into a[Read More…]
“Neither can you hide; nor can you run” is the popular slogan of the Tamil reality show- Bigg Boss, spinoffs of the Hindi and English version. IrumbuThirai (literally translating to iron curtain) is a film that accurately juxtaposes this slogan with the digital world. By amalgamating contemporary conceptions and controversies around Cambridge Analytica, UIDAI’s Aadhar, digital privacy, NaMO’s Digital India,[Read More…]
As the Lok Sabha debates the No confidence motion against the Modi government thousands of farmers from across the country marched from Mandi House to Parliament Street. The foot march was organized by All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), which is an alliance of more than 201 farmers organizations across the country, formed in late June 2017. The main[Read More…]
Note: Before the update on Nicaragua, I an providing two recent interviews that provide a context for what is happening in Nicaragua. First, is an interview I did with Lee Camp, the lead writer, and host of Redacted Tonight, “US Pushing for Regime Change in Nicaragua,” where we discuss the economic and political situation in Nicaragua as well as who[Read More…]
I recently watched a video (https://bit.ly/2mzut9M) of a Birthright trip gone wrong. A young man confronted the Birthright guide asking why the West Bank is not shown on the map distributed to the group, that instead names the territory “Judea and Samaria”. The guide states that it is Israel’s position that the entire land belongs to Israel…it is part of[Read More…]
What a week it has been. Not only do we have to endure the debacle that is BREXIT but the Zionist lobby has decided to inflame the debate about alleged anti-semetism in the Labour party. They directed their venom at its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Dame Margaret Hodge, a veteran member of the Labour Party, a Jewess of German origin is[Read More…]
Long satisfied to attempt to dominate pan-Arab media and battle it out with Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera television network, Saudi Arabia has now set its hegemonic sights on influencing the media landscape of the non-Arabic speaking greater Middle East. In the wake of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s concentration last year of control of Saudi-owned pan-Arab media in an[Read More…]
There is a long standing debate as to whether Marxism played any role in the Dalit’s struggle for social emancipation and justice. The debate is characterized by two currents of thoughts one favours, advocates and project the communist system as an ideal landscape for the social emancipation and freedom of Dalits and another takes a view of communism as an[Read More…]
Co-Written by Bhaskar Kumar & Snehil Kunwar Singh A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) comprising CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud are to conclude hearing on a PIL seeking complete ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Practice of FGM also known as ‘Khatna’ is highly prevalent among Dawoodi Bohra community among Muslim Shia. Also[Read More…]
Israel—once Palestine, the holy land of three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam—has been declared a mono-religious State with “Jewishness” and Hebrew as indispensible part of the cultural-state apparatus of the ultra-right Israeli regime. Having celebrated the 70th year of independence of the State of Israel, Knesset, the legislature of the state, passed the much-feared bill that officially declares Israel as[Read More…]
Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno arrives in London today, with his administration seeking to force WikiLeaks editor and Australian citizen Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy there, where he sought and was granted political asylum in 2012. If Assange leaves the embassy he will be imprisoned by Britain for breaching bail and almost certainly face an application to extradite him[Read More…]
21 July: In a bizarre turn of events, Lila Gurung, a high school teacher in Kalimpong district in Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal was accused by the district administration of ‘anti-government activity’ and for stirring up unrest in the area as he supported the forest villagers to demand the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. Following a letter sent by[Read More…]
I’ve dropped out of regular learning From WhatsApp Education Academy I will now be dabbler, an occasional Visitor, an irregular scholar I have decided to manage my own consumption of information Away from device dependency, I will regain my ability to remember and store memories, and give myself more time for contemplation, time-in-nature, reading books and face-to-face social interaction I[Read More…]
A Muslim man was beaten to death in Rajasthan on Friday night by villagers who accused him of cow smuggling. The police have identified the man as 28-year-old Akbar Khan. Villagers in Ramgarh saw two men with cows and attacked them, according to the police. The two were beaten up and one of them died on the spot. “Akbar Khan,[Read More…]
Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet. Let it not be a death but completeness. Let love melt into memory and pain into songs. Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest. Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night. Stand[Read More…]
On July 8, 2018 An eminent economist opined in Times of India that the Central government made a mistake by enhancing the MSP of paddy crops because it goes against international competition and the laws of demand-supply. It further says that European Economic Community once made the same mistake by enhancing crop prices, for which it later had to pay[Read More…]
It is perhaps typical in a time where a star of the fleshy celluloid wonder Baywatch, heavy in bust and known for her sexual adventures, should feature as a political voice. Pamela Anderson’s views are treated with judicious seriousness – at least in some quarters. Her association with Julian Assange has given needless room for columns on what, exactly, their[Read More…]
On 12 July 2018, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to the text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration after more than a year of discussions among Member States, non-governmental organizations, academic specialists on migration issues as well as interviews with migrants and refugees. imm01_400The discussion had gained visibility in September 2016 at the U.N. General[Read More…]
Turkey last week commemorated the second anniversary of an abortive coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that left nearly 290 people dead and hundreds wounded. On July 15, 2016, renegade factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow President Erdogan. Clashes took place in Istanbul, Ankara and Marmaris, where Erdogan was on holiday and[Read More…]
Since terrorists mostly outsmart law-enforcers and their victims, counterterrorism (CT) is an arduous tightrope walking. Effective CT requires governments, law-enforcers, and all potential victims of terrorism to understand what terrorism is all about. However, false flag operations, cry wolves, and politically motivated persecution of wrong people, and even invasions of the wrong countries have become very challenging to successful CT[Read More…]
‘I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection’ Sigmund Freud Condemning rapes and harassment of women has become a routine with increase of these cases over the years. Among the ten countries reporting incidents of rape, nations like America, Canada, Sweden and UK appear in the list ( wonderlist.com ,Ejaz Khan).[Read More…]
It is partly because the mainstream Western media persists with its hysteria on Trump’s failure to stand up to Putin on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US Presidential Election that other aspects of the meeting between the two men in Helsinki have yet to come to the fore. One of them is about the position that the two adopted[Read More…]
Last Tuesday the Israeli government, emboldened by total support from the Trump Administration and the total cowardice of the international community passed one of the most discriminatory, racist bills in the history of the State of Israel, the Jewish Nation State Bill. The vote was 62:55 with two abstentions. The bill categorically states that the State of Israel is for[Read More…]
“Christianity gave Eros poison to drink; he did not die of it, certainly, but degenerated to Vice.” – Frederick Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil “Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little[Read More…]
An 80 year old, saffron dressed monk was talking with local tribal groups in Pakur district of Jharkhand when he heard that an angry mob gathered outside to protest him. Allegedly this mob was workers of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, associations supported by the BJP, a party which is in government at Centre and Jharkhand[Read More…]
I saw this image and started laughing while also feeling somber. I shared the cartoon with a friend of mine and he sees several problems in relation to it. The first is that humans do not like reality. We do not like our mortality (the fact that we will die) and we do not like having no or little control[Read More…]
Dana Milbank wrote it off as a victory of demographics, a minor, inconsequential point which left the “down-the-line liberal” Rep. Joe Crowley in its wake, a simple ploy that avoids any hard headed analysis of the Democrats themselves. “The argument that there is a Democratic establishment resisting the progressive tide is a straw man.” This was as one such reaction[Read More…]
Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Felipe Neri Ferrao’s pronouncements about the Indian Constitution being in danger created a furor in the media. Apparently the Catholic church in Goa is only supposed to boost tourism. Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist. https://www.facebook.com/Ferraodesigns
After Helsinki, where Putin and Trump exposed their personal relationship to the world, in a perfect exemplification of the dialectic, Trump returned to feel the wrath of his people, and Putin to feel the pride of his. Yet the dialectic is no simple polarity, no either or. Alongside the rage that spewed forth from so many (see below), the voices[Read More…]
First, I thank Kim Scipes for his review of a recent book of mine- Practical Utopia – and for the many kind things he had to say about it. While I might enjoy rehashing our agreements on strategy, underlying ideas, vision, and the motives and methods of writing, I will only comment on his disagreements. Scipes notes that regarding goals,[Read More…]
The summary The new educational policy and proposed reforms like CBCS, RUSA, Central Universities’ Act are steps towards conformity of the WTO demands commoditization, liberalization and privatization of education on the so-called developing countries and the least developed countries. It is to be noted that the WTO representing the interests of the imperialist global capital, has included education in GATTS[Read More…]
The penchant of development agencies for high-yielding cows has never abated. Whenever relief measures are planned for drought-affected families in villages, free quality cows are considered an important element in the official relief `packages’ or self –help schemes. I have seen in my career that whenever a drought ravages a village, the crossed Holstein and Jersey s cows arrive in[Read More…]
There is spate of lynching incidents reported from different parts of India. Many of them are attributed to fake news that is discovered much after the damage is done. The Supreme Court of India has become agog to such frightening reality and had ordered the Centre and the States government to take immediate steps to stop the dissemination of misinformation[Read More…]
(In spite of the fact that one and all claim Tourism to be back bone of Kashmir’s economy, yet the government does not seem to accord it the priority it deserves!) Almost all the governments have been declaring from various pulpits that the Tourism is the backbone of Kashmir’s economy. Unfortunately, so far there is neither an approved “Policy of[Read More…]
Vijai Sardesai the leader of Goa Forward,wants farmers to chant ‘vedic hymns’ for better crops..if the same worked for good governance! Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist. https://www.facebook.com/Ferraodesigns
Why is Europe full of hate for Donald Trump? Is it, perhaps, because millions could soon die in yet another of the senseless and horrible wars unleashed by the Western empire? Or is it because Europeans suddenly ‘saw the light’ and realized that they mistreated billions of innocent people throughout history; that actually all people on Earth are equal and[Read More…]
An Israeli sniper deliberately targeted Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar, an investigation by the human rights group B’Tselem has found. Al-Najjar, 21, was killed on 1 June, as she and her colleagues treated Palestinians taking part in Great March of Return protests in Gaza, near the boundary fence with Israel, east of Khan Younis. According to B’Tselem, al-Najjar “was fatally shot by a member of the security forces[Read More…]
“In my four years as High Commissioner, I have heard many preposterous claims. That claim is almost in its own category of absurdity. Have you no shame, sir, have you no shame? We are not fools.” These were some of the remarks made by outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, in his final briefing to the Human[Read More…]
The uniquely African Empire of Ethiopia has seen itself launched into a peaceful revolution that promises to transform one of the planets poorest countries into a modern peoples democracy. Being that I have spent my entire life living by the principle of “political power grows from the barrel of a gun”, or as Marx said, “Force is the midwife of[Read More…]
This month’s inauguration of a fibreoptic cable linking Pakistan with China could prove to be a double-edged sword. Constructed by Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, the cable is likely to enhance both Pakistan’s information communication technology infrastructure as well as the influence of Chinese authoritarianism at a moment that basic freedoms in Pakistan are on the defensive. The $44[Read More…]
2018 Nagaland State Assembly elections witnessed meteoric rise of BJP on the political platform in the state of Nagaland which set the wheel of discussions in motion regarding elections and the unsettling emergence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state politics of Nagaland on social media and other relevant platforms which have been overwhelming; as this is a phenomenon[Read More…]
The well planned digging of the footpath by supporters of Raj Thackeray outside Mantralaya shows the deeply anti-people nature of a section of the political class. Simply because the attack was not directed against human beings does not make it less sinister than recent lynchings and the assault on Swami Agnivesh. Thackeray loves expensive and fast cars and a good[Read More…]
India is a land of diversity where people from different regions merge in a single Union. Jammu and Kashmir is the only northern state of India dogged with an overridden unhealthy political atmosphere which augurs ill to the tenets of democracy itself. The Political equations in the state have undergone a comprehensive transformation down the passing times. The PDP-BJP coalition[Read More…]
Co-Written by Indrani Talukdar and Sharonee Dasgupta The Right to Information (RTI) Act, one of the most extensively used transparency legislation in the world was introduced to keep a check on the functioning of the government. According to news reports, around 4 to 6 million information applications are filed every year. However, in the present scenario when the central government[Read More…]
There is news about the Tata Nano plant at Sanand rolling out just one or two cars in the past week. It is, hence, likely that the factory is shut down and in the event it could be a record; a record in the sense that what began with lots of talk of a story of success in the larger[Read More…]
Spreading the news which is Fake Being promoted for the divisive Sake Selling like a hot Cake It is time to be Awake Through producing the fake News To spread the hatred Views Building the lynching Queues By eradicating the cognitive Fuse Serving the Saffron Ring Masters Creating the lie Posters Under the direction of Communal Promoters It is time[Read More…]
The Helsinki Summit – or the Treason Summit, as some call it – of the 16thof July, has come and gone. It left a smell of burning hot air behind. President Trump, opened the meeting by saying that up to now relations between the United States and Russia were bad, and confessingthat the US was to blame for it. He[Read More…]
In America, where a union of bankers run a system promoting private initiative ahead of public interest, the President has adopted a ‘so say I’ approach to trade and worldly issues that would not be out of place in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. What can be observed in his approach as ‘leader of the free world’…a very American delusion…[Read More…]
“Knowledge is power; but who hath duly Considered the power of Ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down. Knowledge, through patient and frugal centuries, enlarges discovery and makes record of it; Ignorance, wanting its day’s dinner, lights a fire with the record, and gives a flavor to its one roast with the burned souls of[Read More…]
Early last month, at a tiny military post near the tumbledown town of Jamaame in Somalia, small arms fire began to ring out as mortar shells crashed down. When the attack was over, one Somali soldier had been wounded — and had that been the extent of the casualties, you undoubtedly would never have heard about it. As it happened, however, American commandos were[Read More…]
Those were the years that followed the Bolshevik Revolution. Tales of Lenin was spreading faster than the Soviet itself was. Historians given to anti-Communist propaganda have since kept on insisting that the USSR was formed by military force – by warfare unleashed by the Red Army. However, tales, anecdotes and narratives that speak to the contrary could not in entirety[Read More…]
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones” (Albert Einstein)[2] A red alert in an age of fear, anger and extremes In anticipation of its 2018 edition, the well-regarded Munich Security Conference issued a report which aimed to serve as a useful compilation for an[Read More…]
When the constitution makers were drafting the constitution of India they did not include the word Secular into the preamble, however, the nature of the constitution has always been completely secular. The idea of India is varied from Pakistan, and the very reason that Greater India had to settle for a partition, was because different pockets of the nation could[Read More…]
The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) is shocked to learn that the prominent Indian social activist, Swami Agnivesh, was assaulted on the 17th of July 2018 in the Pakur area of Jharkhand State while leaving a hotel where he had participated in an event. The assassins are allegedly from the youth wing of the BJP, the ruling party.[Read More…]
Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist.
More than a dozen working-class protesters have been shot and killed by police, Special Forces and pro-government militias across south and central Iraq over the past week, amid a widening popular upsurge against the US-backed government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The driving force of this movement is anger that seven years after the official withdrawal of the US military[Read More…]
The failure on the part of establishment media to defend Julian Assange, who has been trapped in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, has been denied communication with the outside world since March and appears to be facing imminent expulsion and arrest, is astonishing. The extradition of the publisher—the maniacal goal of the U.S. government—would set a legal precedent that would[Read More…]
This is a condensed and modified version of a paper of mine that appeared on “The Journal of Population and Sustainability” this year. The image above is the well known “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” by Albrecht Durer – 1498. Yes, I know it is catastrophistic, but it is not my fault if biological populations do tend to collapse![Read More…]
Text Andre Vltchek and Rossie Indira, Photos: Andre Vltchek This time it was really supposed to work! The turbo-capitalist, anti-Communist and obedient Indonesia got so used to hearing bizarrely inflated compliments from its Western handlers, that it began to believe that it finally could do it – to build at least one dignified, livable urban center complete with sidewalks, public[Read More…]
Eminent social activist Swami Agnivesh was assaulted by BJP’s youth wing workers in Jharkhand’s Pakur area today. The video of the assault that took place in broad daylight has gone viral. Agnivesh was there to attend an event in a hotel. The moment he came out of the hotel, he was attacked. The assaulters were reportedly upset with Agnivesh’s recent[Read More…]
This is an important book. It’s important because it asks questions that rarely if ever get asked, and it tries to provide coherent answers to them. However, whether you agree or not with Michael Albert’s answers, engaging with this book will help each of us further think out what we want to see in the future. For as Noam Chomsky[Read More…]
The first official meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Donald Trump was a fairly casual, unpeopled affair, absent bureaucrats and note takers. This was what both wanted in Helsinki, men who believe in the gold weighting authority commands. According to Masha Gissen of The New Yorker, their meeting reflected “their shared understanding of power: the triumph of[Read More…]
It should come as no surprise to me, but it does, that after decades of studying the thinking of the ancient Greeks, I have begun to think like them. In saying this I am not merely speaking of their philosophy but also in reference to their religious beliefs, which, no less than their philosophy, set great insights about Being before[Read More…]
In the July 16th joint press conference between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the question arose of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officials for allegedly having engineered the theft of computer files from the Democratic National Committee and from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. Here is that part of[Read More…]
The 2018 World Cup delivered on all the promises and allayed all the suspicions and jeremiad predictions. It had a gamut of ineffaceable moments, vocabulary of emotions, kaleidoscope of iconic goals and unforgettable controversies. More often than the football fan would want, World Cups can be deceptively monolithic in terms of crippling nerves, attritional play, combative and virulent atmospheres and[Read More…]
You may remember about how the judgment given by Hon’ble Supreme Court on 8th February 2017 had first created panic and later the outcry in the Narmada Valley. Satyagraha, Fast and various form of struggles including imprisonment had disapproved the submergence of thousands of families on the basis of laws and the judgements of various including the apex court. The[Read More…]
Nature has indeed endowed the valley of Kashmir & the neighbouring mountains with an abundance of fine springs including the one named “Kounsar Nag”. (The ancient geography of ancient Kashmir (1899) by M A Stein, pages 32, 72) It is a two miles long & ½ mile wide beautiful lake lying above Kongwattan village in Pir Panchal mountainous range of[Read More…]
Another suicide at the altar of so-called Education. The news report about a fortnight back shook one to the core – so much so that the tragedy stays in the mind all these days after the happening, knocking at the door of conscious thought every now and then. A young girl seeking admission to the M.Sc. (Chemistry) Course in Maharshi[Read More…]
There is more to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s apparently graceful response to the Twitter trolling she has faced over her ministry’s issuance of a passport to an inter-faith couple than meets the eye. Swaraj has been the target of offensive tweets for helping Tanvi Seth, wife of Mohammad Anas Siddiqui, get her passport after an officer allegedly harassed her for not changing her name to a Muslim[Read More…]
Dear friends across India, In a few days, India will delete as many as 7 million Muslims in Assam State from its master list of “citizens” because they speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God. Husbands, wives, and children could be torn apart and left to rot in prison camps. This is how genocides begin – how the[Read More…]
The London-based Times newspaper reported yesterday that the British and Ecuadorian governments have been holding secret discussions on plans to evict WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, where he sought political asylum six years ago. The article said the talks are “an attempt to remove Assange” from the embassy and are being conducted at the highest levels of government, with[Read More…]
US retail giant Walmart bought 77 per cent stake in Indian online website Flipkart in a $16 billion deal. India does not allow retail monoplies like Walmart to enter Indian market. Walmart’s acquisition of Flikart is seen as a back door entry which may put thousands of small vendors out of business. Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist. https://www.facebook.com/Ferraodesigns
For many weeks much of the mainstream media world-wide, including broadcasters, been warning of potential concessions in the negotiations between the US and North Korea andbetween Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, lest vital interests of the west are compromised. In the process little has been said about the alternative for such negotiations and potential agreements, namely a nuclear holocaust on[Read More…]
The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court is often described by liberal pundits and Democratic Party leaders as threatening to “restrict women’s right to abortion” and “erode our civil rights and liberties.” This is wildly underestimating the danger. Kavanaugh’s outlook and legal positions are to a great degree in line with the Trump/Pence fascist regime and its[Read More…]
Elijah Magnier, one of the world’s most respected reporters in and about the Middle East, reported on Sunday, July 15th, that Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, has rejected a proposed offer from the U.S. Trump Administration. The offer was that U.S. forces will leave some of its key military bases in its military occupation of Syria, if all of Iran’s forces,[Read More…]
My take on the book, ‘Kashmir Glimpse of History and Story of Struggle’ by Saifuddin Soz the past week in this column kick-started an important debate on the social media. Minus, some unsavoury remarks by some friends on the book and the scholarship of the author, the debate generated was important in as much as, it raised some important questions[Read More…]
A reference to ‘Hindu Pakistan’ by Shashi Tharoor, in a speech, sparked off another controversy across the media and political circles. The BJP seized the occasion to launch a rabble-rousing diatribe against Tharoor and the Congress. According to Tharoor, “If they (BJP) are able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha, then frankly our democratic[Read More…]
A virulently anti-Shiite, Saudi-backed candidate for parliament in Pakistan’s July 25 election symbolizes the country’s effort to reconcile contradictory policy objectives in an all but impossible attempt to keep domestic forces and foreign allies happy. Ramzan Mengal’s candidacy highlights Pakistan’s convoluted relationship to Islamic militants at a time that the country risks being blacklisted by an international anti-money laundering[Read More…]
You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere. -Lee Iacocca We live in an age where noisy posturing often substitutes reasoned debate and brash opinion trumps hard facts. The thread of logic often disappears in a blizzard of gee-whiz statistics, acronyms and catchphrases that are liberally sprinkled by our contemporary[Read More…]
With the euphoria of men’s football world cup drawing to a close, there has been little discussion on ‘womens’ football’ . Sports like cricket, football or hockey are primarily dominated by men. The tournaments and world cup matches played by men are sponsored, telecast and viewed regularly while women playing these sports are rarely telecast due to less viewing and[Read More…]
A new scheme of greater autonomy to educational institutions has been announced. Depending on their NAAC scores, institutions will be slotted in category I, II and lower. There will be less autonomy as the rank declines. Those in the highest category will have the freedom to start new courses, hire foreign faculty and pay higher emoluments to faculty, So, some[Read More…]
Char is a word that attracts instant attraction in Assamese mainstream life for all wrong reasons. They are river islands of the Brahmaputra populated by mostly Muslims of East Bengali descent for more than a century. The islands are overpopulated and devoid of all basic amenities of modern life. The inhabitants of Chars are dubbed as ‘foreigners’ or ‘Bangladeshis’ by[Read More…]
Rumour of child snatchers spread via WhatsApp has taken another life in Bidar district of Karnataka. A 32-year-old Google software engineer was beaten to death and three others, including a Qatari national, critically injured by a mob which suspected they were a group of “child lifters”. WhatsApp rumours warning villagers of child lifters has taken more than a dozen lives[Read More…]
It’s now Nicaragua. Rightists induced extremist violence and deaths, armed gangs triggered bloody strikes, and imperialism imposed sanction have gripped Nicaragua for months. All of these are part of imperialist intervention in the Latin American country defying the world imperialism. Imperialist intervention is an already-turned-old game currently going on in a number of countries. The imperialist operation is moving in[Read More…]
“Israel was created as a rather conventional European colony, to meet the demands of the European Zionist movement and to keep a western foothold in the Arab world. Built on an invented racial ideology which parallels that of the Nazi persecutors of European Jews, Israel almost managed to convince the world that it is a legitimate nation. But Palestinian resistance[Read More…]
“Why would a police officer arrest someone who was protesting at a nuclear facility? Because it’s his job? Isn’t it everyone’s ‘job’ to do away with the causes of cancer?” — demonstrator participating in a blockade at the entrance of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, June 21, 1982 Sick joke? Well, perhaps I should have simply said that raising money for cancer[Read More…]
Juraj Vrdoljak of Telesport was convinced. “I think half the population didn’t show up to work on the morning after the win against England.” The victory had inspired early shop closures, a feeling of rampant escapism. “Croatia is a country with a deep economic crisis. Every day, life is really hard. It’s full of bad stories and tough times. There[Read More…]
The Trump administration has blatantly ignored a court order requiring it to reunify children under the age of five who were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Out of 103 of the youngest children, only 57 children were reunited with their parents while the remaining 46 were deemed “ineligible” for alleged “safety” reasons or because their parents were[Read More…]
I had an opportunity a few months ago of being told I was privileged and was a “nasty” person in terms of many of my attitudes. I found that rather shocking for a number of reasons. The first is that since age five, I have worked my heart out — worked like a dervish perfecting dedicated swirls to be faster[Read More…]
Languages bear artillery of influences—they may comfort, stir, and immiserate, build perceptions, fortify beliefs, demolish conventions, entertain and educate. They can provide escape velocity to a whole new space or isolate and even cause the whole world come crashing down to the confines of one’s mental doldrums. Books, for most part are the windows to the arena of languages. They[Read More…]
When Tariq Ramadan, the respected Oxford Professor of Islamic Studies, voluntarily flew from London to Paris to be questioned over rape allegations, which he vehemently denied and for which evidence is yet nowhere to be found, he must have been confident he was not walking in through the iron gates of an Al-Shabab court somewhere in Africa. That was Paris,[Read More…]
To say that US foreign policy is delusional is not an exaggeration. It seeks political hegemony and a relationship with China and Russia akin to what it has had with Japan and Germany, that is, go ahead and develop in the economic sphere but don’t try to flex political or military muscle. There are at least two problems with this[Read More…]
It’s more than doors between government and the businesses that they supposedly regulate that go round and round. One of the other swinging doors is between the Democratic and Republican Parties. A second door Perhaps the best known case is when Al Gore ran for president in 2000, he picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Then, in 2008, Lieberman[Read More…]
Chapter 2 – Poverty and Class analysis with reference to 2014-2018 BJP rule (Part I) Why I have returned to write a sequel to the earlier book is basically to refute the claim that four years of BJP rule has made a difference to India, that things have become better. My first chapter that pointed out that atrocities against Dalits[Read More…]
Co-Written By- Praloy Majumder and Ashish Kumar Singh Around 12 million Indians joining the labour force every year. With millions of young people joining the labour market every month, the question everyone has is if there will be enough jobs for them. Few are asking who creates jobs. Entrepreneurship and job creation is directly proportional one does not need to[Read More…]
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and mercenary forces operating under its command have carried out widespread forced disappearances, torture and murder of Yemenis suspected of opposing the more than three-year-old intervention by the oil-rich Gulf state in alliance with Saudi Arabia and Washington. This is the conclusion drawn by the human rights group Amnesty International after interviewing at least 75[Read More…]
Farmers and environmentalists across Tamil Nadu are protesting against the proposed 277-km eight lane Chennai-Salem highway, a Rs. 10,000 crore project. Authorities say the green corridor project would uproot around six thousand trees. However, environmentalists claim the loss would be much more, with at least 3 lakh trees being uprooted and hundreds of lakes and water bodies that would be[Read More…]
Sagarika Ghosh congratulated poet Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi for being the voices of progressive democratic liberal Muslims, (without trying to be Sarkari tokens for Hindu Rashtra), lighting the path for Indian Muslims and adding as if an afterthought, in fact for all citizens. Someone countered; Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi can’t be taken as representative Muslims for they have[Read More…]
This is really getting personal. The Orange Orangutan made two moves this month that, if successful, will mean that I can’t see a doctor when I’m sick. Act One is Trump’s response to a frivolous lawsuit filed by the Texas Attorney General, and a few others who can’t stand the idea that sick people might get the care they[Read More…]
The cynical break-up of the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir by BJP without prior notice in Jammu and Kashmir is a clear evidence of its plans to continue with the policy of “no dialogue” and harsh suppression of all forms of protest. The policy that Modi government has been following is a combination of (a) harsh crackdowns on[Read More…]
What a rotten guest, but then again, that was to be expected. Ahead of his visit to Britain, there was some indignation that US President Donald Trump should even be visiting in the first place. Protesters were readying their assortment of paraphernalia in anticipation. Walls of noise were promised. Trump, on the other hand, was bullish after his NATO performance,[Read More…]
Chinese efforts to woo Saudi Arabia’s ethnic Chinese community highlight the People’s Republic’s effort to avert criticism from the Muslim world of its crackdown in the north-western province of Xinjiang and strengthen relations with the kingdom and Middle Eastern nations. The efforts to woo a community, a significant part of which is of Turkic origin, identifies itself as Turkestani, and[Read More…]
In the middle of April this year, I received an Email with subject line “To Ashish: The IRAQs’ Political Woes Won’t End Without Comprehensive Judicial Reform”. I’d ignored this Email if it was not personalised. I started reading and to my surprise I not only received praise for my previous articles on different human rights issues but also an story from an Iraqi citizen- Thaar Majeed Hassan AL_Taiey. Taking[Read More…]
The Trump administration has stepped up its trade war against China with the announcement that US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, will begin an investigation with a view to putting a 10 percent tariff of $200 billion worth of Chinese goods by the end of August. The latest decision comes on top of the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on[Read More…]
In Brief Humanity stands at a precipice. Overpopulation, resource scarcities, degraded ecosystem functioning from pollution and biodiversity loss, and anthropogenic climate change are damaging the life-supporting capacity of the planet. Diminishing returns on fossil fuel energy investments, combined with their dwindling availability and environmental harm, threaten industrial civilization. Many people recognize the need to transition to sustainable, resilient ways of[Read More…]
The North Shore of British Columbia is approaching yet another four-year election cycle in October 2018. But in 2014, out of a total population of some 265,000 residents, only a paltry 32,000 or 25% of the actual registered voters bothered to cast a vote for who would guide the course and direction of Canadian society along its shores; thereby calling[Read More…]
“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it[Read More…]
The heroic rescue of 13 young people from the flooded Chiang Mai cave in Thailand represents everything which is wonderful about humans cooperating and helping each other, and where they are at their best.By stark contrast the cover-up by the authorities and the media of the underlying reasons for the unfolding tragedy of the Hiroshima deluge, in which to-date more[Read More…]
Why is it so difficult to make accurate long-term economic forecasts for the world economy? There are many separate countries involved, each with a self-organizing economy made up of businesses, consumers, governments, and laws. These individual economies together create a single world economy, which again is self-organizing. Self-organizing economies don’t work in a convenient linear pattern–in other words, in a[Read More…]
Introduction: Child Exploitation under Neoliberalism Most people would agree that the manner a society treats children is a reflection of its values and moral standards. This was as true of the Golden Age of 5th century Athens as it is of 21st century America. In ancient Athens, boys of citizens received preferential treatment over girls, and boys of affluent[Read More…]
What would it take for America to become a moral society? We think it will take a revolution. The day before he was assassinated, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what is now known as the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address to the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. He said, Let us rise up tonight with a[Read More…]
There is a certain haunting similarity between the President of the United States and the now former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson. This does not merely extend to mad, oddly positioned hair, and misshaped mullets. Both share a philosophy of upending the order and permanent disruption, impossible for those on their putative side of politics to measure,[Read More…]
Vladimir Putin’s basic view has been expressed so many times, in so many different contexts, and it’s always the same: that the only people who have a sovereign right to any land, are the people who live on that land — nobody who lives outside that land does. In other words, his basic view is a repudiation — a total[Read More…]
(The most destructive element in every sphere of Kashmir Society is the widespread nepotism! For any real progress it has not only to be opposed but eradicated) Most of the ills in Kashmir in every sphere of the society emanate from extensive nepotism. It would be interesting to study the rise of nepotism and its prevalence in our parts. The[Read More…]
A Chinese campaign to forcibly assimilate ethnic Uyghurs in its north-western province of Xinjiang in a bid to erase nationalist sentiment, counter militancy, and create an ‘Uyghur Islam with Chinese characteristics’ ignores lessons learnt not only from recent Chinese history but also the experience of others. The campaign, reminiscent of failed attempts to undermine Uyghur culture during the Cultural Revolution,[Read More…]
In this piece, Helena Norberg-Hodge describes how economic globalization and corporate deregulation have contributed to the rise of authoritarian political leaders in the 21st century, and how rebuilding stronger, more diversified, self-reliant local economies can restore democracy and help us better meet our basic human needs. For those who care about peace, equality and the future of the planet, the[Read More…]
While the world watched and waited with bated breath for the outcome of the substantial global effort – involving over 100 cave divers from various countries, 1,000 members of the Thai Army and 10,000 others in various roles – to rescue a team of 12 young football players and their coach, who were trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand[Read More…]
A recent European Council summit in Brussels was meant to articulate a united policy on the burgeoning refugees and migrant crisis. Instead, it served to highlight the bitter divisions among various European countries. Considering the gravity of the matter, Europe’s self-serving policies are set to worsen an already tragic situation. True, several European leaders, including Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, went home[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Nils McCune There is a great deal of false and inaccurate information about Nicaragua in the media. Even on the left, some have simply repeated the dubious claims of CNN and Nicaragua’s oligarchic media to support the removal of President Ortega. The narrative of nonviolent protesters versus anti-riot squads and pro-government paramilitaries has not been[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi paid a visit to his constituency Amethi a few days ago. Rae Bareli-Amethi have become synonymous to India National Congress (INC). Every time one utters their name in front of people who have not been there, their eyes start glittering with a hypothetical boon these two places might have got because of INC’s long rule and because of[Read More…]
For decades now, going back to when Bob Geldoff handed over millions in cash to Meles Zenawi back during “We Are the World” circa 1983-4 supposedly for food aid for the victims of what was then the Great Ethiopian Famine, The City of London has been at the heart of Grand Theft Ethiopia, grand theft Africa really. With out a[Read More…]
They have been falling like ninepins at one of the most unpredictable World Cups in generations. Even before the kick-off in the tournament, Italy’s absence was conspicuous. By the time the first phase of matches had been concluded, Germany, whose teams have made it to the elimination phase for eighty years, found itself in exit mode, a victim of exhaustion,[Read More…]
This coming week will witness a major step towards the U.S. courts being put more firmly in the grip of the fascists. We will see the fabric of the “grand (imperialist) alliances” of the past 70 years being pulled apart and resoldered on an increasingly fascist and obscurantist basis. We will witness the rabid dog of xenophobia further unleashed[Read More…]
Even in these times of growing sense of hopelessness in the country under the present regime, the arrests of the five activists by Maharashtra’s Pune Police had stunned people all over the world by the blatancy of misuse of power and impunity it reflects. The continuing spate of condemnation by scores of people within and outside India would not affect[Read More…]
Today was the day many of us have been waiting for since 2013. That was the year the Supreme Court re-criminalised homosexuality. That case was set to be re-opened today with much anticipation. Petitioner for the respondents advocate Mr. Rohatgi and advocate Dattar represented the side of those appealing for reading down of IPC Section 377. In 2013 the SC[Read More…]
A runner which gets the Medal even before participating in the race With a hazardous stick which threatens of dire consequences And a gift box of political donations which lures those in power Eager to establish hegemony over educational landscape for ever Aiming to monopolize every sphere of social and economic life For shaping the minds that serve the powers[Read More…]
As millions of people across the globe face extreme heat advisories, with temperatures even soaring beyond 90 degrees in Siberia last week, a recent study published in the British journal Nature Geoscience warns long-term global warming—and thus sea level rise—could be twice as bad as climate models project. Study co-author Katrin Meissner of University of New South Wales, Australia remarked that “while climate model projections seem to be[Read More…]
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, No Gun Ri, My Lai, Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo – the list of US humanitarian crimes continues to grow. Now we have thousands of lost refugee children. How could that happen? This is the most horrific bureaucratic screw-up in history. Wal-Mart has a more efficient system for tracking tomatoes. No one knows how many children have been lost.[Read More…]
On 4 July 2018, a programme aired on Republic TV, presented by its Managing Director, Arnab Goswami, named as “Republic Super Exclusive” news. The programme contained a plethora of false allegations and absolute lies against trade unionist, lawyer and Visiting Professor at the National Law University, Delhi, Professor Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, among other individuals. In the programme, Republic TV has[Read More…]
We know very little about Queen Boudica of the Iceni (20 AD (?) – 61 AD) and most of what we know is probably deformed by Roman propaganda. But we may still be able to put together the main elements of her story and how it was that she almost threw the mighty Roman Legions out of Britain. Above, a fantasy[Read More…]
The Trump administration missed a court-imposed deadline Tuesday to reunite all young immigrant children who had been separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. In a separate ruling Monday, a federal judge in California ruled that families cannot be detained indefinitely during immigration proceedings. At the same time, the Trump administration continues to escalate its[Read More…]
Ten years ago this week—July 11, 2008 to be exact—the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit an intraday high of $147.27, its highest price ever. By the following autumn the world economy was in shambles and the price of oil was tumbling. The oil price eventually bottomed out around $34 per barrel in mid-February the following[Read More…]
It was meant to be an away day at Chequers in total hermetic isolation, an effort on the part of UK Prime Minister Theresa May to sketch some common ground in a cabinet that has struggled to agree on much regarding the imminent departure of Britain from the European Union. The clock is ticking, for many ominously, with the departure[Read More…]
Some twelve years back, Farooq Abdullah, senior scion of the Abdullah family told me he was writing a book that will tell many inside stories, never told before. The information as a student of contemporary Kashmir politics had come to me as good tidings. My belief has been that the stories of politicians, who are on the other side of[Read More…]
An exchange on June 28 in the parliament, prompted by questions from Green senator Andrew Bartlett, underscored the fact that Australia’s sweeping new “foreign interference” laws have immense implications, not only for whistleblowers, but for the right of media organisations to publish leaked information. Aspects of the legislation, relating to espionage and secrecy, appear to call into question what millions[Read More…]
Nazareth: Israel finally built an access road to the West Bank village of Khan al-Ahmar last week, after half a century of delays. But the only vehicles allowed along it are the bulldozers scheduled to sweep away its 200 inhabitants’ homes. If one community has come to symbolise the demise of the two-state solution, it is Khan al-Ahmar. It was[Read More…]
On 6 July, Union Minister of state for civil aviation, Jayant Sinha, felicitated life convicts after they were released on bail by the Jharkhand High Court. All the eight men were convicted in the lynching of Alimuddin Ansari of Ramgarh. According to media reports, these men were escorted from the jail to Jayant Sinha’s house by a local leader of[Read More…]
The U.S. Government (with France and a few other U.S. allies) bombs Libya, Syria, etc.; and the U.S. regime refuses to accept any of the resulting refugees — the burdens from which are now breaking the EU, and the EU is sinking in economic competition against America’s international corporations. America’s corporations remain blithely unscathed by not only the refugees that[Read More…]
I condemn and firmly deny the false statements made by Ankur Sharma of www.mynation.com in an article updated on 8th July 2018 on the same website. This article, without citing any reference, says that the Ministry of Home Affairs has released a report wherein it has been stated that I have “met Jharkhand officials and ministers asking them to lift[Read More…]
Mr. Shaji Maanathupadathu, a driver in Edappally, signed as a gurantor for a loan worth Rs. 2 lakhs is now losing his home worth Rs. 2 crores. This is happening because the bank and debt recovery officials exaggerated the outstanding interest payments to Rs.2.7 crores and have sold the house in an online auction for just Rs. 38 lakhs. This move[Read More…]
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could well dash expectations that he is gunning for a break with Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism rather than a shaving off of the rough edges of Wahhabi ideology that has been woven into the kingdom’s fabric since its founding more than eighty years ago. Prince Mohammed has fuelled expectations by fostering Islamic scholars who advocate[Read More…]
India is under siege from international capital. It is on course not only to be permanently beholden to US state-corporate interests but is heading towards environmental catastrophe much faster than many may think. According to the World Bank’s lending report, based on data compiled up to 2015, India was easily the largest recipient of its loans in the history of the institution. Unsurprisingly,[Read More…]
Bill Hohlfeld, LaborPress’s resident historian and educator, started out as an ironworker. He describes labor history as “literally, our story. It’s the chronicle of our ancestors.” Gotta know your labor history… It tells us who the farm girls were who went to work in the textile mills of New England; or the cigar workers of New York, who read the[Read More…]
Squandering the Planet’s Increasingly Scarce Fossil Fuels for our Amusement “Knowledge is power; but who hath duly Considered the power of Ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down. Knowledge, through patient and frugal centuries, enlarges discovery and makes record of it; Ignorance, wanting its day’s dinner, lights a fire with the record, and gives a[Read More…]
Are the Pakistanis living in a Fantasy World? The logic of July 25 parliamentary elections in Pakistan is questionable as being a ceremonial stunt to undermine the reality of a highly corrupted and disoriented political culture. For decades, Pakistan lacks systematic working capacity to organize fair and honest election campaigns representing the interest of the masses. Foremost, the intent to[Read More…]
One of my favorite books of all times is one compiled by this person. And you can buy it, too. For example. I bought it for a friend of mine in India out of Amazon.in. You can get it, too. World Tales : The Extraordinary Coincidence of Stories Told in All Times, in All Places Jun 1, 1991 by Idries[Read More…]
Ambassador (Retd) KP Fabian analyses the big picture and the pros and cons of oil imports from Iran for India in the backdrop of US sanctions on Iran The US first imposed various sanctions on Iran in 1979 when the US embassy was occupied, with the staff taken hostage, following the fall of US-supported Shah. Oil sanctions were imposed in[Read More…]
Tale of a family who lost their kin fighting Bangladeshi tag UDALGURI,Assam,July 8: Even as Assam awaits the much hyped final draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) a register containing names of Indian citizens.The fear and apprehension of genuine Bengali Hindu citizens of state being brandished as D-voter,being served notice from Foreigner’s Tribunal to prove citizenship haunts[Read More…]
Though there is less than a year for another general elections, lynchings continue in the country unabated. Dalits and muslims are being thrashed, harassed, beaten to death and, shamelessly, most of these incidents are being uploaded and circulated on whatsApp with impunity. There is a need to discuss the continued horrors and the stony silence of ruling party and its[Read More…]
After walking on Bangalore’s or Benguluru’s fashionable M.G. road earlier this week I casually hopped into a bus at Anil Kumble circle named after the former Indian cricket captain. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the fare was only Rs. 5 for Shivaji Nagar bus station. A distance of a little less than a km. but still the[Read More…]
“It has been said with good reason that the Jana Sangh resulted from a combination of a partyless leader, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and a leaderless party, the RSS”. (The Jana Sangh: A Biography of an Indian Political Party, by Craig Baxter p. 54) 1. In Search of the “Selfless Patriot” Untimely deaths of political leaders – whose career is just[Read More…]
FROM Medha Patkar TO: Pinarayi Vijayan Chief Minister Kerala Sub: Immediate intervention to stop unfair & unjust eviction of the family of Preetha Shaji, Manthpadath (H), Edappalli,EKM-682033 Respected Sir, I am writing you for the second time in three months bringing your attention to the sad plight of Preetha Shaji, a mother of two children, fighting to ward off[Read More…]
Following public protests and rallies around the country, the Trump administration has formally ended its practice of separating immigrant families. However, the end of family separation has not meant a change for the better, particularly when it comes to the fate of immigrant children. For one, there’s still the question of how as many as 3,000 children still in federal[Read More…]
Three civilians including a teenage girl were killed allegedly in government forces action during clashes in Redwani area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Saturday. A senior police officer told news agency GNS that army’s patrolling party opened fire upon a group of youth after they pelted stones on them in Hawoora area of Khudwani near Redwani area. The deceased[Read More…]
A flicker of fear passes through me this morning when I read the lead article in The Moscow Times titled “Foreigners in Russia are Panicking Over New Migration Rules”(https://themoscowtimes.com/news/foreigners-in-russia-are-panicking-over-new-migration-rules-62130). Panic indeed. It has never been easy or cheap to stay in Russia legally. To begin with, one must apply for, but not necessarily obtain, a visa. One can be denied[Read More…]
Starting on the 10th of July, the hearings on four important constitutional cases shall begin in the Supreme Court of India. Joseph Shine v. Union of India, one of the four cases, pertains to the constitutional validity of the Adultery Law in India. In this context, it becomes pertinent to revisit the Adultery Law in India and the judicial and[Read More…]
The PUCL strongly condemns the recent fabricated, malicious and motivated attacks against Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj and other human rights defenders, by Republic TV and its anchor Ms. Shivani Gupta, Deputy Editor Mr. Shawan Sen and its Managing Director, Mr. Arnab Goswami, by way of a series of programmes presented on Republic TV on 4th July 2018 as “Super Exclusive Breaking[Read More…]
Australia’s US lackey Coalition Government and its US lackey Labor Opposition have passed draconian espionage and foreign influence legislation that is implicitly aimed squarely at China, a country that is Australia’s biggest trading partner and that denies such activity. However US lackey Mainstream Australia utterly ignores the huge actuality of perversion and subversion of Australia by the US, UK and[Read More…]
In Oscar Wilde’s famous story, the hero Dorian Graypledged his soul,on the condition that the painted portrait of his as a handsome youth must go through the ageing process on the canvas-in exchange of his right to enjoy eternal youth in real life.It was a wishful deal betweentwo traditional forms – art as fixed imageon the one hand , and [Read More…]
In June 2018 alone, more than 500 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Their boatswere refused access to land in either Malta, or Italy. They were force-driven back by gun-boats to the North African shores they came from, mostly Libya, but many boats capsized and countless refugees didn’t make it. These are de facto murders, high crimes against humanity, committed[Read More…]
Increased Pakistani dependence on China to help it avert resorting to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid a financial and economic crisis spotlights fears that the terms of Chinese investment in massive Belt and Road-related projects would not pass international muster. Concerns that China’s US$ 50 billion plus investment in Pakistani infrastructure and energy, the Belt and Road’s crown[Read More…]
From the moment it took power in the U.S. in 2009, the Barack Obama Administration was angling to overthrow Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad. And then, by the time of December of 2012, Obama’s team were relying mainly on Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch to lead the tens of thousands of the U.S.-Saudi alliance’s boots-on-the ground ‘moderate rebels’ in this overthrow-Assad[Read More…]
The dark arts of fear-mongering and rabble rousing are not new by any stretch for the sport of football especially in Europe. Though, before obsessive vitriol for Islam became the new normal it was the menace of racism and skin color that plagued many a football arena among other sporting spectacles. Impassioned crowds hollering monkey chants and reprehensible banana throw-ins[Read More…]
The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility -Brooks Atkinson The Indian Civil Service represents the crème de la crème of the country’s university graduates who form the backbone of the country’s administration. Today, there are about 5,000 IAS officers who comprise this privileged club. The civil service has a hallowed past and[Read More…]
We the undersigned wish to place on record our utter disgust, contempt and outrage at the latest in the series of machinations by Republic TV, working to its brief as a propagandist for the ongoing crusade against all those who take public stands in defence of democracy, secularism, human rights, Constitutional propriety and rule of law. Republic TV’s latest target[Read More…]
The Trump administration has gone ahead with its threat to impose tariffs on China under section 301 of the 1974 US Trade Act, imposing levies on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods from midnight, with a further $16 billion to be targeted in the near future. The action is the first shot in a direct trade war against China, with[Read More…]
Sooner or later- sooner if they are rude and later if they are polite enough to wait until we have developed a relationship that would allow them to ask a personal question, Russians will inevitably ask “Why are you here?” Some in a tone of suspicion or contempt, will ask me as if they were throwing down a gauntlet The[Read More…]
VICTORY! Scott Pruitt just resigned from his job as EPA Administrator. The scandals surrounding Pruitt have been building for months. Sweet deals on rent in a lobbyist’s condo. Over $150,000 in taxpayer money wasted on luxury travel. Building a private phone booth in EPA headquarters. Meeting with Big Oil executives instead of scientists. Giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in[Read More…]
Historical Determinants of U.S. Foreign Policy: Dealing with Issues All U.S. Presidents have had to look over their shoulders at domestic politics when determining foreign policy. But usually those looks are in the context of determining restraints on what the particular President would like to do. And so, there were McKinley and the invasion of Cuba; Wilson and entry into[Read More…]
It all risks becoming pornographic, looped and re-run with an obsessive eye for updates and detail about despair and hope. The twenty-four hour news cycle tends to encourage this sort of thing, ever desperate for snippets, obsessively chasing the update. With a soccer team of twelve youths and their coach trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave some one kilometre[Read More…]
During the recent meeting in Caracas of the Venezuelan Presidential Economic Advisory Commission, in mid-June 2018, President Maduro said something extremely interesting, but also extremely disturbing – nonetheless highly important for the region to be aware of. Mr. Maduro mentioned Yugoslavia, the foreign induced local conflicts, the breakup and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, starting with the “Ten Days War” on Slovenia[Read More…]
As we were preparing to complete the first half of 2018, shocking news broke from America, one of the professed liberal space for journalists in a democracy on Earth. A gunman stormed into the newsroom of a Maryland newspaper in USA and killed five media employees including journalists. The 28 June 2018 shooting incident at Capital Gazette in Annapolis eliminating[Read More…]
The US celebrated the glorious Fourth, the nation’s independence day and the myths going along with it. As with most wars, the elite prospered, the poor shed blood, and most shamefully in this case the slaves remained slaves. Dissenters in this war dubbed Royalists were killed or fled to Canada, a country later peacefully independent from Britain and none the[Read More…]
By Sally Dugman and associates A group of excited and committed environmentalists and community members have the opportunity to preserve an old farm and heritage orchard at 20 Creeper Hill Road in North Grafton, MA 01536, USA. With the dedicated work of an orchardist, a skilled farmer and community volunteers, we plan to create a community asset and a place to[Read More…]
As you might be aware, the affected people of TN led by farmers are opposing forcible acquisition of their lands for the proposed Green Highway between Chennai and Salem. There is strong resistance to the project in the districts of Salem, Dharmpuri, Thiruvannamalai and Kancheepuram. People have a right to question, debate and dissent government policies that affect them adversely[Read More…]
A new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document released by NBC News Monday has exposed the cynical effort by the Trump administration to use a court-ordered “family reunification” process to force immigrant parents with separated children into signing a document agreeing to deportation back to their country of origin. The new policy comes in response to a court order handed[Read More…]
Israeli arms are being sent to a heavily armed neo-Nazi militia in Ukraine, The Electronic Intifada has learned. Azov Battalion online propaganda shows Israeli-licensed Tavor rifles in the fascist group’s hands, while Israeli human rights activists have protested arms sales to Ukraine on the basis that weapons might end up with anti-Semitic militias. In a letter “about licenses for Ukraine”[Read More…]
Israel is trying to silence people who witness its atrocities. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is considering a bill that would criminalize filming or recording Israeli soldiers and publishing the content. The law calls for a five-year prison sentence for those who film “to harm the morale of Israel’s soldiers or its inhabitants,” and a 10-year prison sentence for those who film to “harm the[Read More…]
The tiny Himalayan State Nepal continues to be economically vulnerable, primarily because of its geopolitical status as a land-locked country. This is the case with all land-locked countries across the world that do not have direct access to the seas. As the UN Committee for Development Policy says, these countries’ “ability to competitively trade in goods largely depends on political[Read More…]
Ties between Europe and Africa have never been rosy. A relationship based on predatory conquest and the exploitation of resources (slave flesh, minerals, and such assortments) is only ever going to lend itself to farce and display rather than sincerity. The late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, whose death must be placed squarely at the feat of the Franco-Anglo-American intervention in the[Read More…]
Marx was not aloof in the Bangladesh socio-economic-ideological-political reality. Incessant class struggle in the society along with development of ideas cropping up in the soil of class conflict was a home for Marx, the scientist-theoretician of the revolutionary proletariat. The society’s antagonistic classes compelled him to play a role in defining goals of the society, of the exploited in the[Read More…]
Five year after the overthrow of first democratically elected President Mohammad Morsi on July 3, 2013, Egyptian President, Field Marshall Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi’s government continues to rule with worst human rights violations as police systematically used torture, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances to silence political dissent. Egypt’s human rights crisis continued unabated, says Amnesty International. “The authorities used torture and[Read More…]
In an interview recently, and in several published papers before (1), Wendy Brown, the American political theorist, said she blames neoliberalism for the destruction of liberal democratic institutions and practices across the world including America. It seems surprising to me that an educated person like her should claim by implication that there were functioning liberal democratic institutions in the USA[Read More…]
Until 2008, Bangladesh elections did not attract much attention in Indiaand at the same, within Bangladesh, India never figured as an important factor in any of its election discussions, neither.This changed since 2008. Although seeds of the change were sownmore immediately in the aftermath of the end of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rule in 2006, its origin goes back[Read More…]
Humko Batlau to kiya Matlab hai Pakistan ka Jis jagah is waqt hain, najis hai kya who jagah Nesh e Tohmat se tere , Chisti ka Sina chak hai Jald batla kya Zameen Ajmer ki Na-Pak hai (Shamim Karhani, PakistanChahne walo se, To those who ask for Pakistan) Acknowledge me, what Pakistan means? Do the land where Muslims lives are[Read More…]
(The trauma caused by the disastrous flood of 2014 makes living in Srinagar’s low lying colonies virtually a continuous nightmare, especially during the rainy days!) The recent flood caused by just a couple of days of continuous rain created a wave of panic among the people living in different parts of Srinagar especially those in the low lying areas[Read More…]
In spite of the fact that there are a number of justifications for privatisation of education, commercial consideration underpins all its good objects of imparting quality education, of course, with the availability of adequate basic facilities of premises, toilets, infrastructure, libraries, drinking water dispensers-purifiers, computers, libraries & hostels: the facilities invariably unfound in government run educational institutions primarily for lack[Read More…]
I have been informed that Republic TV aired a programme on 4 July 2018, presented by anchor and MD Arnab Goswami as “Super Exclusive Breaking News”. The programme, which is being repeatedly shown, contains a long list of ridiculous, scurrilous, false and completely unsubstantiated allegations against me. Goswami has claimed that I have written a letter (identifying myself as “Comrade[Read More…]
The BJP government’s continuous assault on reservation policies in the higher educational institutions must be exposed and opposed tooth and nail. The current leadership has given clear indication to its brahmanical chums to hit at the heart of these communities and their intellectual leadership that emerge from these institutions. It is important to understand why the government has chosen to[Read More…]
For several months now, rumours of traveling child snatchers have been floating around the country, spreading fear through Whatsapp messages and Facebook posts.Recently, the consequences of these rumours was the lynching and killing of two men from Guwahati who ventured into the tribal region of Karbi Anglong in Assam, and, of a group of five people in Dhule district in[Read More…]
Majority humanity must not wait for Americans to free themselves from the deception, egoism, ignorance and violence that is seeded and psyoped into the minds of Americans as children to justify killing of tens of millions of poor to ‘protect US interests overseas,’ Wall Street’s criminal interests, the predatory investments of the powerfully wealthy. Genocides began 1776 – African Slaves,[Read More…]
PRELIMINARY REPORT OF FACT-FINDING TEAM OF WOMEN’S GROUPS INTO THE INCIDENT OF GANG RAPE IN KHUNTI AND CONTINUING REPRESSION IN GHAGHRA AND NEIGHBOURING VILLAGES IN KHUNTI AND ARAKI DISTRICTS OF JHARKHAND Following up on media reports of the gang rape of 5 adivasi women in Kochang, Araki block, Khunti district while holding street plays on anti-trafficking, WSS constituted a fact-finding[Read More…]
Tamil Nadu police is hounding film maker Divya Bharathi. On Monday evening 15 police officials entered her home without search warrant and demander her father about her whereabouts. The News Minute reported that On Tuesday, the group stopped her vehicle outside Madurai District Court, insisting that she come with them. “We kept asking who they were and if they had[Read More…]
When Mohammad Akhlakh was lynched in Dadri in 2015 on the suspicion of possessing beef, first in a series of dozens of such lynchings since then, Prof. Shah Alam Khan an Orthopaedics surgen in the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) wrote a short article in Countercurrents.org. The title of the article was arresting “The Color Of Human[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ will fail. Palestinians will not exchange their 70-year long struggle for freedom for Jared Kushner’s cash; nor will Israel accept even if there is a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank. The order of that anticipated failure is likely to go something like this: the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah is likely to[Read More…]
Are We Civilized Enough to Claim a Sense of Humanity? Global politics is fraught with man-made catastrophic tragedies. The human beings are supposed to be the most intelligent social animal on the planet. Yet, our proactive plans and actions continue to dehumanize the fellow human beings and engineer conflicts and wars that destroy the existence of mankind. The driving impulse[Read More…]
The fate of Vancouver’s survival and that of other world’s cities in the 21st century is a universal story of how to continually “Make Room” for the constant explosions of endless waves of humans to arrive upon its shores as native-born infants or as emigrants, migrants and refugees. The age-old philosophical arguments and debates waged over what to do with[Read More…]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke6UoG8WKU0 I keep reading more and more comments about overpopulation on the social media. It is not just an impression: the trend of increasing interest in population matters is visible in Google Trends. Still weak, but it is there. It is puzzling how the question is returning. It had disappeared from the media after it had been popular in the 1970s, at[Read More…]
When we first met in 2017, the Turkish poet, Mustafa Goren, stood proudly and defiantly next to a monstrous concrete wall built on orders from Ankara. The partition has just recently separated two towns with the same culture: Turkish Karkamis and Syrian Jarabulus. The poet then read some of his verses, and my friend, a translator of my books, originally[Read More…]
A United Arab Emirates-backed Saudi effort to wrest control from Jordan of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem signals a sharper, more overt edge to Saudi religious diplomacy and the kingdom’s quest for regional hegemony that risks deepening divides in the Muslim world. The effort also serves to support Donald J. Trump’s plan for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that[Read More…]
They are the sources of the paced slivers of sound played across seasons, sounds I awaken to, sounds that inform my days, Their sounds, although varying in tone and intensity, are always paced, steady, sure. This summer morning it is the soft swish of small tree branches, cut and tied to a wooden pole. There has been a storm in[Read More…]
Words can be teasing in their meaning. In the realm of political and financial discussion, they can become absurdly changing. Take Malaysia’s political status. On the surface, all looks delightfully democratic in that multi-ethnic state. Once the eyewash is applied, a certain ugliness manifests: the ethnic tensions that are only ever a stone’s throw away from bloodshed and riot; the[Read More…]
As if, there is a predetermined notion, 20 incidents of violence against Christians have taken place consistently every month since January till end May 2018. June reports are still being studied. UCF Helpline, launched in January 2015, has recorded 101 incidents of violence against Christians across India in first 5 months of 2018. The year 2018 began with 21 incidents[Read More…]
Gandhi is not well-known for his views on the environment. Indeed, in his vast output, there is little explicit mention of the environment. Yet, in Gandhi’s views, one finds a lot that is relevant to environmentalism. Like most great thinkers, Gandhi’s views are flawed; however we learn a lot by studying his views critically. Let us begin by examining Gandhi’s[Read More…]
The depth of our dilemma is suggested by a remarkable essaypublished in New York magazine by David Wallace-Wells, “The Uninhabitable Earth,” which upset a lot of climate scientists and some activists by laying out some of the worst-case future scenarios that climate science forecasts unless our activism is visionary enough to bring about some of the better ones. The hard truth seemed to upset[Read More…]
Since the stirring of “second wave” feminism a half century ago, the movement has become progressively more inclusive and systemic. Early on, Marxist-feminists argued that true women’s liberation required transcending both patriarchy and capitalism, and thus a politics at once feminist and anti-classist was essential. Soon, they, too, were challenged to broaden their theory and practice to acknowledge oppressions arising[Read More…]
Such moves should trouble any constructive dissenter and civil libertarian: the vesting of powers in a military force to be used against domestic disturbances. While the United States has a troubled history with it, posse comitatus still remains something of a letter restricting the deployment of the US armed forces on the streets of the country’s cities. That doctrine has[Read More…]
Less than two weeks after Trump signed his executive order supposedly halting the separation of families arrested at the border, three things are apparent. First, the Trump/Pence regime’s depraved and deliberate cruelty is not only continuing, but in some ways escalating. Second, this is not only generating massive revulsion and outrage, it has begun to reveal this regime’s fascist intent[Read More…]
Does Trump (and some of his advisors) Deserve Being Labeled Sociopathic, Narcissistic, Paranoiac, Egomaniacal, Megalomaniacal, Xenophobic, Demagogic and/or Neo-Fascistic? A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed.[Read More…]
On June 28th, PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) came out with their listing of “Global Top 100 companies (2018): Ranking of the top 100 global companies by market capitalisation”, and reported: “The increase in China’s market capitalisation has been close to that of the US this year. … China’s contribution to the top 100 market capitalisation increased by 57%, to $2,822bn. … European[Read More…]
The RSS inspired trolls abusing and threatening with rape to the daughter of a woman political leader on social media is reflective of the how much we have drowned in these four years. Our Prime Minister who opens his mouth on any international event of ‘terrorism’ or a bus accident in Jhumritallaiya but rarely spoken against these threats of violence[Read More…]
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leader of the Movement for National Reconstruction (Morena), was elected President of Mexico yesterday by a massive margin amid high voter turnout. His two main opponents, José Antonio Meade (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) and Ricardo Anaya (Together for México coalition, which includes the National Action Party, PAN, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution, PRD)[Read More…]
If James Joyce’s The Dubliners are stories about people who cannot escape their unhappiness, and Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools is about those who believe that they will find happiness when they arrive at their destinations, this story is about immigrants to Russia who once believed that when they arrived here they would find love, money or adventure. Instead,[Read More…]
With the release of the report titled ‘The most dangerous countries for Women – 2018’ by Thomson Reuters foundation which ranks India as the most unsafe country in the world, the defenders of national pride are out to argue the flaws of the report. The report was based on an expert opinion of about 548 persons which included aid and[Read More…]
In her new book “Fascism: A Warning” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I27X9L8rReo), Madeleine Albright’s states that the Fascism of a century ago was not atypical: “In hindsight, it is tempting to dismiss every Fascist of this era as a thoroughly bad guy or a lunatic, but that is too easy, also dangerous,” she writes. “Fascism is not an exception to humanity, but part of[Read More…]
A missing piece from most critiques of modern capitalism revolves around the misunderstanding of ecology. To put it bluntly, there will be no squaring the circle of mass industrial civilization and an inhabitable Earth. There is no way for energy and resource use, along with all the strife, warfare, and poverty that comes along with it, to continue under the[Read More…]
Since 2014, people of Jharkhand have faced severe attacks on their mere right to life by the Raghuvar Das led BJP government. The government has been trying to acquire land of Adivasis and Moolvasis against their wishes that will directly affect their livelihoods. On the other hand, there is also a direct attack on the people’s freedom to religion leading[Read More…]
The pro-GMO lobby claim critics of the technology ‘deny farmers choice’. They say that farmers should have access to a range of tools and technologies. It is all about maximising choice and options. Taken at face value, who would want to deny choice? At the same time, however, we do not want to end up offering a false choice (rolling[Read More…]
Today is the end of our FEC reporting period. Also, it’s the anniversary of the first tightrope walk across Niagara Falls, by Charles Blondin in 1859. Blondin began performing as an acrobat in 1829 in France, at the age of five. He moved to the United States in 1855, continuing to work in circuses. It is not known when[Read More…]
It’s Friday. There have been 28,420 incidents of gun violence so far this year in the US. 1,135 of those have happened since last week. Yesterday saw the 154th mass shooting—of four or more human victims—so far this year, and the year is marking its 180th day. Those numbers were reported early Friday morning by CNN. So you can expect[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Over the past weeks, there has been a series of major protests against the mistreatment of immigrants. Hundreds were arrested after blocking DC streets and sitting-in at a Senate office building. Two weeks ago, there were #FamiliesTogether rallies across the United States that forced Trump to end child separation and return to the Obama-era policy of incarcerating immigrant[Read More…]
The only comprehensive and scientific study which has ever been done of whether the U.S. is a democracy or instead a dictatorship, was published in 2014. It studied the period during 1981 through 2002, and it found that, “In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually[Read More…]
If the notion that history repeats itself is accurate, it is nowhere truer than in the Middle East where the international community, caught by surprise by the 2011 popular Arab revolts, has reverted to opting for political stability as opposed to sustainability, ignoring the undercurrents of change wracking the Middle East. Major powers do so at their peril. The[Read More…]
The India Pakistan Friendship and Peace March from Ahmedabad to Nada Bet during 19 to 29 June, 2018 concluded successfully even though Ahmedabad Police detained the marchers for about 3 hours at the beginning as soon as it started from Gandhi Ashram and Border Security Force didn’t give permission to the march at the fag end from Nadeshwari Mata Mandir[Read More…]
I will join Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick, authors of ‘Untold History of the United States in saying that ‘Ambassador Akbar S Ahmed is a treasure.’‘His insight, wisdom,and experience are desperately needed right now when so much US and European policy towards Muslim world is guided by fear, ignorance,and greed.’ Those, who have been reading him; one of topmost anthropologist[Read More…]
A Student Federation of India (SFI) activist and a student of Maharaja’s College Ernakulam, Abhimanyu (20) was stabbed to death allegedly by Campus Front-Popular Front activists today morning. Another student of the college Arjun (19) got seriously injured in the attack. He was taken for a surgery at a private hospital. He’s in critical condition. Another student, Vineeth, also was[Read More…]
The Zionist Israeli state calls on the Old Testament/Torah as a historical document to prove its legality to “re-claim” Palestine; their god’s promised land. To assert this legality and the myth of the promised land Zionist Organization, since its establishment, had recruited the science of archaeology, employing western Christian biblical archaeologists, to provide the required “historic” proof of the right[Read More…]
After several tit-for-tats with Russia in 2001, relations were at a low ebb like during the cold war. That was when a Russian initiative led to a meeting between the newly-elected George W. Bush and the Russian president. There was no major breakthrough but the two men got to know each other and the temperature cooled. The man heading the[Read More…]
On August 17, 1988, the then President of Pakistan General Zi-Ul Haq died in an air crash. It was termed as an accident then. But was it really an accident? A very important person of the time Johan Gunther Dean, the then Ambassador of US to India did not agree. Is he suggesting that Zia was killed? Who killed Zia[Read More…]
With women entering job market, sexual abuse and harassment has increased. But, many women choose to keep ‘ silent ‘ on their exploitation by male higher authorities and management or superiors. This is mainly due to fear of job safety, undermined by their own colleagues and lack of support if they come out openly. Punam Sehgal and Aastha Dang (2017)[Read More…]
Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words. ‒ Rumi Perhaps the truth is this: at the deepest level, human bonding is a conscious, unremitting labour of love, the soliloquy of a disjointed soul seeking its mirror amidst other equally flawed, unquantifiable souls. The firgun of connecting to a kindred soul,[Read More…]
South Asian activists came together to protest against recent arrests of political activists in India on Saturday evening. Organized by Radical Desi, the rally was held at Holland Park in Surrey. Police had recently arrested five political activists across India for inciting violence and allegedly being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Among them are[Read More…]
( “ If a heart patient knows the actual cost of the cardiac stent, he will realise how much the hospital looted him. He should be strong enough to withstand the shock. We don’t know how many suffered heart attack after knowing this exploitation. One small lawyer has to fight against this injustice. Where are the great doctors? Don’t they[Read More…]
FIR filed against Babu Gogineni for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ Times of India June 27, 2018 reported: Acting on the order passed by the 25th Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Kukatpally, Hyderabad, the Madhapur Police Station registered an FIR against human rights activist Babu Gogineni for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ of the people. The court issued the order after taking cognisance of a private complaint filed[Read More…]
If the Modi Government’s first year of its rule was marked by the burial of an important institution of national importance—the Planning Commission of India—with the launching of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), its last year in office is likely to witness another interment of a Statutory body of national importance—the University Grants Commission (UGC)—with the notification[Read More…]
Nord Stream sabotage was to undercut Germany, says Seymour Hersh 
It Will Be Hard And Cost A Lot Of Blood For Ukraine To Kick Out Russians, Says Top U.S. General 
Saudi – Iran rapprochement: A chance for peace 
Day 30 of the NREGA Protest: Students and Activists Detained by the Delhi Police 
An Irrational Verdict? 
Trump Rot at the EPA 
AUKUS, the Australian Labor Party, and Growing Dissent 
Palestinians Don’t Exist? 
The Long Arm of Washington Extends Into Africa’s Sahel 
Radio Fatherland!! 
Bellies of the Rich Swell Further on the Back of Hunger 
The Big Picture And The Small – Part II 
2500 people urge Chief Minister of Karnataka to protect farmers, pastoralists and Dalits from Supreme injustice 
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
How the Cuban Government and Its People Collaborated on the Family Code 
Stop Criminalizing Journalism and Human Rights Activism: Release Irfan Mehraj and Parvez Khurram 
Politics of Bhagat Singh’s trial 
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
