Archive for August, 2020

Live Like Them

Live Like Them

Back in the time before the time before the time before now, we used to have a chant. It would name some courageous, creative, fighter for justice and then urge that we Live Like Her, Live Like Him. In that time, in the next time, in the next time, up until now, would any serious committed activist for racial, gender,[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
My Last ( Electoral ) Dance

My Last ( Electoral ) Dance

Here I am stranded on this island called Dumarika. Being a baby boomer this writer can recall the days when this place was never as dumb as it is now. Don’t get me wrong, this was always home to many fitting the description of Dumb, but never such a preponderance. I mean, how dumb can the majority of us be[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 1 comment World
Life During a Trump Second Term: Paramilitary Democracy Accelerates

Life During a Trump Second Term: Paramilitary Democracy Accelerates

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must —at that moment—become the[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The failure of US strategy in Venezuela

The failure of US strategy in Venezuela

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States’ “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela continues to intensify. Washington is planning to impose sanctions on “bad actors” that do business with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, singling out countries such as Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. James Story, the top US diplomat accredited for Venezuela, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “Certainly[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 The Great Coastal Nightmare

 The Great Coastal Nightmare

How Mumbai’s new coastal road poses a threat not only to the environment and fishing communities but also to sites of historical, religious and cultural importance.  The Haji Ali dargah as work proceeds on the Coastal Road project. | Photo credit: Aaran Patel. Every city, every place on earth is defined by characteristics, landmarks, or certain quirks of nature which[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Pedestrians, Bus users are real heroes, says Traffic police commissioner

Pedestrians, Bus users are real heroes, says Traffic police commissioner

It would be good if our politicians and bureaucrats did a little introspection like Bangalore’s traffic police commissioner Ravikanthe Gowda. He said he had not travelled by a bus for the last twenty years and we make decisions about public transport without using public transport ourselves and without involving people who are real users. This situation has to change, he[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Iran Sitting On A Ticking Powder Keg

Iran Sitting On A Ticking Powder Keg

    Shahran oil depot in north west Tehran has been likened to a “hydrogen bomb”  The subterfuge and sabotage, particularly after the August 4, 2020 Beirut, Lebanon blasts 1 , in which around 181 people died, more than 3,00,000 rendered homeless and property worth billions of USD gutted, has become the new normal.   There are many theories about who[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Gupkar, The Name Behind A Declaration

Gupkar, The Name Behind A Declaration

Gupkar as the name behind a recent political declaration is catching headlines these days. On 4 August 2019, a group of politicians in Srinagar issued a statement, now known as the Gupkar Declaration, to defend the “identity, autonomy and special status of Jammu & Kashmir against all attacks and onslaughts whatsoever”. Within 24 hours, the Government of India responded by[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
There Is a Term for Sudarshan News Civil Service Expose. It Is Called Stochastic Terrorism

There Is a Term for Sudarshan News Civil Service Expose. It Is Called Stochastic Terrorism

It was a Friday morning when American president John F. Kennedy (JFK) sat in his Lincoln convertible to attend a feast at the Dallas Trade Mart. Infamous for harbouring enmity for JFK, journalist Ted Dealey had just called him a “traitor” in a series of advertisements that he published in Dallas Morning News. While the whirlpool of hatred and propaganda[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Carbon Debt & Dumping – Climate Criminal Australia Hugely Subsidizes Meat, Grain & Wine Exports To China

 Carbon Debt & Dumping – Climate Criminal Australia Hugely Subsidizes Meat, Grain & Wine Exports To China

Despite China being Australia’s biggest trading partner, US lackey Australia has joined Trump America in its anti-China trade war and military posturing policies. China has been offended by this increasing hostility from US lackey Australia and coincidentally for asserted anti-dumping reasons has applied tariffs to Australian beef and barley with threats of extending this to Australian wine. In actuality there[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Agribusiness and food industry: A curse for slavery and traditional farming

Agribusiness and food industry: A curse for slavery and traditional farming

Ignorance can be the best escapism, but if we are cognizant about the history of agriculture and the morphology of earth, we will know that a spectre haunts the living today. The spectre of science in proliferating scientificity and genealogy of knowledge on food production haunt us today. Food for self is transformed into food for others under the realm[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Don’t blame Nehru for partition and preponing independence

Don’t blame Nehru for partition and preponing independence

The other day an important BJP leader remarked that Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders managed to advance the date of independence and accepted country’s partition because they were in a hurry to enjoy fruits of power. This statement of the BJP leader is totally untrue and is not backed by facts and indicates that they lack knowledge of history.[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Sentencing of Brenton Tarrant: Jailing the Man, not the Great Replacement

The Sentencing of Brenton Tarrant: Jailing the Man, not the Great Replacement

  Brenton Tarrant was sentenced last week.  The Australian national who butchered, with relish, 51 individuals in Christchurch at Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, found himself facing something unique in New Zealand: jail for life without parole.  He pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one of terrorism.  He also faced[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
How Obama Administration Covered Up Swine Flu Pandemic?

How Obama Administration Covered Up Swine Flu Pandemic?

  It baffles the mind whether it’s willful blindness or anterograde amnesia but while drawing parallels with coronavirus outbreak, mainstream media appears to vividly recall Spanish flu of 1918 from a century ago and doesn’t seem to have an inkling about a much more pertinent example of H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10, even though it shared a lot of[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 I, the Registrar, Judge, Jury and Executioner for the Leader

 I, the Registrar, Judge, Jury and Executioner for the Leader

Gridlocked into the global jurisprudence of the war on terror, some judges of the Supreme Court of India have internalized a war justified by the ‘state of exception’. War has been transformed by the judiciary from military campaigns at the border, to the “containment of internal dissent and uprising” within the boundaries of India. Prashant Bushan’s tweets of the past[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 1 comment India
Worthless Degree &  Jobless Graduates

Worthless Degree &  Jobless Graduates

In India Engineering as a career has attracted alot of students in a big way & large number of aspirants who burn the midnight oil in order to crack the exam. These aspirant’s dream themselves as an engineer earning a decent package. Every year lakhs of students appear in the entrance examination for institution’s like “IIT” but only few of[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Long And Short Of A Corona Infection Story From Kerala

The Long And Short Of A Corona Infection Story From Kerala

Yes, we, both me and my daughter became COVID 19 positive on August 19th after an Antigen test done. We had no major symptoms as such. I just had a chill and was feverish for a day and I became normal after that. My daughter had fever and body pain for a day or two. After that she developed total[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 1 comment India
Division Bench Acknowledges Injustices against Indian Muslims

Division Bench Acknowledges Injustices against Indian Muslims

Injustice against Indian Muslim by the BJP government is a quite talk in many quarters in India, but never among those sitting in judgment and delivering justice. This silence is broken by a division bench of Justice Tanaji V Nalawade and Justice Mukund G Sewlikar of Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court who on August 21, 2020 made some[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Public Health and Health Literacy: Partnership for Health Promotion

Public Health and Health Literacy: Partnership for Health Promotion

Co-Written by Dr. Parul Malik and Dr. Arathi P Rao The year 2020, has not only been the year of the “pandemic”, but also the year of “infodemic”- a term that was coined in 2003 in relation to the SARS outbreak. This term “infodemic”, referring to an excessive amount of available information, which may be biased and harmful, is becoming[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
RM Saiful Alam Mukul

 Bangladesh: A Safe haven for killers of journalists

Journalists in Jashore, a bordering district in Bangladesh, have observed the death anniversary of slain journalist RM Saiful Alam Mukul, editor of local daily Runner on August 30. It was his 22nd anniversary of death. On July 16, they observed the death anniversary of another journalist Shamsur Rahman, former special correspondent of Bangla daily Janakantho and also stringer of BBC[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 1 comment South Asia
Grooming Chimps and Grovelling Minorities- Is this the Dead-End?

Grooming Chimps and Grovelling Minorities- Is this the Dead-End?

Desmond Morris’s pithy observations in The Naked Ape may be considered obsolete in our times, when we are busy talking about posthumans and homo-roboticus; but I think, it still contains many nuggets of wisdom. Being a zoologist, he sees quite a lot of parallelisms, between, us naked apes, who at some point in our history, unilaterally proclaimed the shattering of[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Mira Nair As A Documentarist

Mira Nair As A Documentarist

Some time ago, another edition of International Women’s Day was observed with the right amount of feistiness. Among other things, women-related films were screened and discussed in some places in this or that city. Two early documentaries by Mira Nair could perhaps have been profitably included in such programmes. Unfortunately, her documentary films have been little seen and less discussed.[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Demand for Non-Covid19 Public Health Services for Women, Children, Transgender, Disable and Senior Citizens gets Louder

Demand for Non-Covid19 Public Health Services for Women, Children, Transgender, Disable and Senior Citizens gets Louder

Women, children, transgender persons, people with disability and senior citizens is the most invisible population of the country. Though the harshest and extremely unplanned lockdown to prevent the spread of Coronavirus failed miserably, it brought 19million workers working and living away from home, the backbone of Indian economy, in public gaze. With the abrupt announcement of Lockdown and shutting of[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Seven CMs decry assault on federalism: Media dismisses it as party politics

Seven CMs decry assault on federalism: Media dismisses it as party politics

The mainstream media has diluted the concerns of seven chief ministers about an assault on federal structure, misuse of central agencies, financial injustice, etc. Instead, the entire media coverage has reduced the whole issue to party politics and differences over holding medical and engineering entrance exams (JEE-NEET). Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting of these seven chief ministers[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Israel-UAE Deal Isn’t About Peace at All

The Israel-UAE Deal Isn’t About Peace at All

In some ways, the U.S.-brokered plan for mutual recognition between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is big news. For more than a quarter of a century, only two Middle Eastern countries—Egypt and Jordan—had officially recognized Israel. None of the Gulf monarchies did. So, it was a pretty big deal when the announcement was made. Except, actually, not so much.[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Israel To Keep An Eye On Pakistan via Yemen

Israel To Keep An Eye On Pakistan via Yemen

  How many of us have had any clue about Socotra Island which had recently been in news ( on June 21, 2020) when it was reported 1 that Houthi rebels had taken over Socotra Island from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) backed Yemeni government.  ‘Yemeni separatists have seized control of the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea,[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Ebony Skinned

Ebony Skinned

Kente cloth adorns his body, Complete with a youthful grin. His soul is at its peak of joy, with Pride in his ebony skin. The sudden boom of an approaching gun Startles him in his wake. Whisked away by pale ghostly spirits He must obey, for his life is at stake. He is taken at gunpoint to a colossal ship[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 4 comments Arts/Literature
The police I served and the police I faced

The police I served and the police I faced

(I am a 1972 batch IPS officer of U.P.Cadre. After retirement as IG (Police) in 2003, I have been active on issues of Human Rights, Dalit Rights, RTI, Forest Rights Act, Right to Food and Education etc. I am the Vice-President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Uttar Pradesh. I am also ex- Advisor to National Commission for Scheduled Castes.[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 3 comments India
Protest marches across Canada call ‘Defund the Police’, John Macdonald statue toppled

Protest marches across Canada call ‘Defund the Police’, John Macdonald statue toppled

Peaceful protests were held in cities across Canada on Saturday as protesters urged governments to slash police funding and do more to tackle deep-rooted racism in this country. Rallies to defund the police were held in Calgary, Halifax, Fredericton, Toronto, Montreal and London, Ont., many of which were organized by the Coalition for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC)[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
New Education Policy: Duties Before Implementation

New Education Policy: Duties Before Implementation

  A friend of mine requested that I must contribute my suggestions sought by the government for the preparation of the New Education Policy (NEP). He reminded me about my elaborate critique of the report of Ambani-Birla Committee, constituted by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He added that in continuance of the argument presented in that critique I should suggest to the[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Trump’s acceptance speech at the RNC epitomized scare tactics

Trump’s acceptance speech at the RNC epitomized scare tactics

On Thursday night (August 27, 2020) President Donald Trump of the United States delivered his acceptance speech as the presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that was held in the White House. It was the first of its kind when the White House was used as a podium for campaign by a seating president. As noted by presidential[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
US-China Showdown Has Begun

US-China Showdown Has Begun

  US is itching for a war. In fact it is inching towards a war, a war which probably will have the full potential to change into a ‘third-world-war’, solely, for the reason that this time US is modelling itself against China, which by every standard is also a super-power.  US strategy is to station its aircraft carriers near the[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 1 comment World
Social Media And The Mental Health Of The Youth

Social Media And The Mental Health Of The Youth

Social media becomes an essential tool for youth today. Undoubtedly it helps people in connecting with the people around the globe and also reduces the distance, but on the other hand, it created a detachment from the people who are around. Social media is mostly famous among youngsters; they spend most of their time on social platforms for different purposes.[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Diluted Indian Environmental  laws on platter  for Corporates

Diluted Indian Environmental  laws on platter  for Corporates

The draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification 2020 proposed by the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change dilutes further the current EIA Notification 2006. Proposed changes in the name of “ Ease of doing business”  relax further and totally overhaul the environmental clearance system to benefit  large corporations and  mining MNCs. Many of the proposed  clauses in the[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Compulsive Shopping Addiction

Compulsive Shopping Addiction

  A recent study done by a market research firm Rakuten Intelligence found that since the pandemic started there has been a sudden rise in online shopping. Ecommerce spending in the U.S. is up more than 30 percent since the beginning of March. Ecommerce is booming, and Silicon Valley’s’ richest such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are getting even[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Church Demolished In Uttar Pradesh

A Church Demolished In Uttar Pradesh

A Church at a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was completely demolished by religious fanatics at midnight on the 25th of August 2020. The tin roof and fortifications made of bamboo cane were broken down and ruined during the incident. *Pr. Purohit who leads the Church in this village told Persecution Relief that he received the startling[Read More…]

by 30/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Nirmala Sitharaman’s economics as an act of god in India

Nirmala Sitharaman’s economics as an act of god in India

The Finance Minister of India, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman in Mr Narendra Modi led BJP government has attributed the pandemic led economic downturn as an act of god. She is not alone in this ‘act of god’ bandwagon. The theological reasoning gives temporary relief to the ruling classes but failed to provide long term hiding ground in history.  The extra ordinary[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 1 comment India
Thousands march in Washington D.C. with the rallying cry Get Your Knee off Our Necks

Thousands march in Washington D.C. with the rallying cry Get Your Knee off Our Necks

Thousands of protestors seeking criminal justice reform gathered at the National Mall in Washington D.C., the capital city of the U.S., on Friday under the rallying cry “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” a reference to the manner in which George Floyd was killed while in police custody in May and reminiscent of the 1963 March on Washington. Capping a[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Street violence in Portland as armed far-right returns “prepared to fight”

Street violence in Portland as armed far-right returns “prepared to fight”

Over the last three months in Portland, mass protests against police violence and racism gradually gave way to nightly often violent standoffs between a core of pro-Black Lives Matter (BLM) and anti-fascist protesters and law enforcement. The incidents are now part of a fact of life in the United States. In the past week the city has fallen back into[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Remedial class in village Majhipadara GP Kasinipadar of phiringia block in Kandhamal

Revamping education amidst COVID19 is an enormous task but feasible

Children cannot come to school. But schools can go home. CSOs working on education have urged the Odisha government to clarify mechanisms and modus-operandi of recently announced Shiksha Samparka scheme and to initiate remedial classes to bridge the learning gap among children. As per the government report, there are only 2.2 million school children out of around 6 million, who[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Australia-China Relations: Down Under Squabbling

Australia-China Relations: Down Under Squabbling

These are proving testy times for Australian-Chinese relations.  Last week, Chinese authorities announced that an investigation would be conducted into claims that Australia has been using unfair dumping practices for its wine on the Chinese market.  This was not what Australian wine makers wanted to hear, given that exports of Australian wine to China grew from AU$268 million in 2015/16[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 From Cotton to Brinjal: Fraudulent GMO Project in India Sustained by Deception

 From Cotton to Brinjal: Fraudulent GMO Project in India Sustained by Deception

Insecticidal Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton is the first and only GM (genetically modified) crop that has been approved in India. It has been cultivated in the country for more than 20 years. In a formal statement to the Supreme Court of India, the Indian government has asserted that hybrid Bt cotton is an outstanding success. It therefore argues that Bt[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 1 comment India
Men wearing protective masks walk as they carry bags, amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Nizamuddin, area of New Delhi, India, March 31,  2020. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

 Scapegoats and Holy Cows: Media, Police and Tablighi Jamaat in the Times of Covid 19

The spread of Corona Virus in India has been on the upswing despite the measures undertaken by the state. In most parts of India the suffering has been immense. The central Government took up the issue of Covid 19, with great amount of delay. From early February WHO started warning the Governments all around about the impending dangers of the[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Rona Wilson: Who Worked For Release Of Political Prisoners Is Now A Victim

 Rona Wilson: Who Worked For Release Of Political Prisoners Is Now A Victim

Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey Rona Wilson is a prison rights activist who has been in jail since April 2018 and denied bail several times. The Pune Police raided his home in Delhi on April 17, 2018, and arrested him subsequently for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence in January that year. A few months later, the[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Disappearing collegiality in Pedagogy: The COVIDian times

The Disappearing collegiality in Pedagogy: The COVIDian times

The online teaching due to the lockdown is a new experience for many students in the country. It has gone through many glitches due to lack of facilities,  lack of expertise among teachers, and lack of exposure to the  new medium devoid of collegiality, lack of interpersonal exchanges that people are used to in class  room teaching. This has resulted[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Discrimination and Exclusion during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

Discrimination and Exclusion during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

How should one deal with COVID-19 pandemic? Certainly not with social distancing, which in South Asian context, has inbuilt casteist connotations of discrimination and exclusion. Introduction India has more than 3 million cases of coronavirus now. The situation is far from normal. It is time not only to talk about ways and means for ending the pandemic which so far[Read More…]

by 29/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Late Summer ’70

 Late Summer ’70

When you’re 20, full of piss and vinegar, you can open up to so much. That was the year, 1970, when dreams seemed so real. This writer had just returned from a brief summer in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This was but the second time I ever was away from my parents’ apartment, and for that matter, Brooklyn, NY, lauded as[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
2 Years of Unjust Incarceration | Free 12 activists arrested in ‘Bhima Koregan case’ | Arrest the real criminals ! Repeal UAPA

2 Years of Unjust Incarceration | Free 12 activists arrested in ‘Bhima Koregan case’ | Arrest the real criminals ! Repeal UAPA

 In India’s dark history of human rights violations, 28th August 2018 has become a very important day. On this day, Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested by Pune police from her home in Faridabad. On the same day, Gautam Navlakha from Delhi, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves from Mumbai and Varavara Rao from Hyderabad were also arrested. Although Gautam Navlakha was granted[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Truth Behind The Lies

The Truth Behind The Lies

Fabricated Charges leading to the imprisonment of innocent Christians has become increasingly common and is on a steep upsurge. Since 2018, Persecution Relief recorded 194 cases of false charges and arrests made against Christians of which 57 cases were documented in the first half of 2020 alone. Arrests based on ‘forced conversion’ is the most widely used allegation by religious[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Safai Karmcharis and the alternatives for their betterment

Safai Karmcharis and the alternatives for their betterment

 Dr Hemangi Kadlak in Conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat Dr. Hemangi Kadlak is a native of Maharashtra, India. She did her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The Ph.D. topic was “Interface of Caste and Occupation: Case Studies of Children of Safai Karmacharis in Higher Education in Mumbai.”  She also holds an MPhil degree in Social Work from[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Tribute to Immortal contribution of Comrade Harbhajan Sohi

Tribute to Immortal contribution of Comrade Harbhajan Sohi

Without doubt late Comrade Harbhajan Sohi or HBS  was one of the finest theoreticians in the history of the Communist Movement and amongst the greatest leaders and protagonists of the massline.No Comrade contributed so much to shape the massline of Tarimela Nagi Reddy as Harbhajan Sohi or HBS.With the meticulous skill of an architect he shimmered its flame as a[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Waiting for the Old Bailey: Julian Assange and Britain’s Judicial Establishment

Waiting for the Old Bailey: Julian Assange and Britain’s Judicial Establishment

On September 7, Julian Assange will be facing another round of gruelling extradition proceedings, in the Old Bailey, part of a process that has become a form of gradual state-sanctioned torture.  The US Department of Justice hungers for their man.  The UK prison authorities are doing little to protect his health.  The end result, should it result in his death,[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 1 comment Human Rights
Velutha Rathrikal: This Malayalam film set in tribal Kerala will make you rethink bisexuality

Velutha Rathrikal: This Malayalam film set in tribal Kerala will make you rethink bisexuality

The overwhelming triumph of the film is its portrayal of same-sex love. It is arguably India’s first serious film about bisexuality. Muhammad Razi’s Velutha Rathrikal (White Nights) is one of the most exciting debuts in recent times among independent film-makers in South India. From the looks of it, the film seems unpromising. Yet another adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s story ‘White Nights’ (there have[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Remembering Dhirendranath Gangopadhyay ( ‘DG’) — Bilet Pherat (England-Returned) Turns 100

Remembering Dhirendranath Gangopadhyay ( ‘DG’) — Bilet Pherat (England-Returned) Turns 100

A hundred years ago, a silent film called Bilet Pherat (England-Returned) was made. That pioneering work placed its maker by the side of such greats of early Indian cinema as Dadasaheb Phalke and Hiralal Sen. The example and exploits of Dhirendranath Gangopadhyay, or DG, as he was popularly known, were been recalled on many occasions by Mrinal Sen or Dinen[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
My Journey To Socialism: From 9-11 Through The Great Recession

My Journey To Socialism: From 9-11 Through The Great Recession

Here are three questions I would propose to the people who read this article: Other than being a Red Diaper Baby, what is the process by which people came to socialism and how did they handle the disapproval of their families and long-term friends? How does having a framework for capitalism make it easier to understand what’s going on? In[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Cats, Camels and Jar Jar Binks

Cats, Camels and Jar Jar Binks

Cats came into Preeti’s life long before camels, around the time cows found a way out of her heart but into her life. She had seen cows ever since she could remember…while riding horse driven tongas in Haridwar in 1970s, creating traffic jams in Delhi, Haridwar, Kolkata, Dehradun, Lucknow and wherever she happened to visit in India. From long before[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Modi’s love for animals and politics of hate

Modi’s love for animals and politics of hate

As Indians are sinking amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, the makeup dependent, camera addicted, and selfie-savvy Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi is busy with sharing his multitasking photos, his photography skills and his love for animals, birds and wildlife. The utter economic and social crisis does not disturb his focus on camera. The positive vibe photos of Modi feeding peacocks at[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Review of “Thupaki Ramudu”

Review of “Thupaki Ramudu”

As a protagonist of Telangana state, it was a kind of a dream movie for me. There are many reasons for it. One of the first reasons was the “local accent” of the movie.  I was never comfortable with the Andhra accent that smacked of “internal colonialism” in the Telugu movies both in accent and content. It reflects the urge[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Stop them spreading hatred before it is too late

Stop them spreading hatred before it is too late

The air is more polluted than what used to happen during the worst period of a natural disaster or December winter when Delhi would be choked in heavy toxic smog. This time the contamination is not natural as because of Covid 19, the birds have acquired their spaces and the sky is looking absolutely stunning while we can breathe now[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
National Education Policy 2020: Empty Vessel Sounds Much

National Education Policy 2020: Empty Vessel Sounds Much

The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) on 29th July 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic across the nation. This policy would replace the education policy in operation since 1986.  According to NPE 1986, the aim of education was threefold, namely, the overall development of the human resource, international co-operation, and peaceful co-existence, development of socialism, secularism,[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Organizations from All Over India Issue a call for a Protest Week, August 28 – September 5

Organizations from All Over India Issue a call for a Protest Week, August 28 – September 5

Over 70 organizations and several individuals from around the country endorsed the call initiated by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties to conduct protest actions from August 28 to September 5, considering the deterioration in Civil Liberties in the recent past. This call was given marking August 28 as the day when two years ago, 5 human rights activists –[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
How students may be selected for IITs without any entrance examination in the time of pandemic and beyond

How students may be selected for IITs without any entrance examination in the time of pandemic and beyond

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic threat a raging debate is going on at present regarding the holding of the Joint Entrance Examination Mains, the preliminary examination required to be cleared for admission to prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology and other engineering and technology institutions, during 1-6 September, 2020, by the National Testing Agency, in which 8,58,273 candidates are to[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Canadian legislator honoured for standing up for Kashmir and minorities in India

Canadian legislator honoured for standing up for Kashmir and minorities in India

The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) presented a medal of courage to a North Delta MLA at his constituency office on Thursday, August 27 for raising the issue of Kashmir with the United Nations and speaking out for justice to the victims of Sikh Genocide. Ravi Kahlon, who is known for his strong advocacy for human rights[Read More…]

by 28/08/2020 1 comment World
Forging unity within the working class: An interview with Michael D. Yates

Forging unity within the working class: An interview with Michael D. Yates

Farooque Chowdhury interviews  Michael D. Yates In its desperate race to survive its series of crises, capitalism keeps clinging onto its old tool of dividing the working class. But, since commencing its political fight, the working class has uplifted a different call: Workers of the world unite! More than one hundred years ago, the proletariat in Russia trampled over all[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Listen To The Disabled

Listen To The Disabled

The recently released circulars by NTA (national testing agency) and other institutions to conduct the entrance examinations is highly exclusionary in general and for the students with disabilities  in particular. As we are aware that in the current crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, the students with disabilities  have been particularly neglected by most of the universities as well as other[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
War And Mental Health crisis in Kashmir does not seem to be Resolved soon

War And Mental Health crisis in Kashmir does not seem to be Resolved soon

 War and conflicts always comes in a severe human cost. Apart from the death and injuries it brings to the body, it has always brought a similar degree of injury to the mind, which sometimes goes un-noticed. Through the years of modern warfare, it has shown to affect the human mind to worse degree than it was imagined. During the[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Going against the tide: The Changing mindset in Jana, Jharkhand

Going against the tide: The Changing mindset in Jana, Jharkhand

Co-Written by Bibhubanta Barad. Parijat Ghosh and Dibyendu Chaudhuri Introduction It was a sunny summer morning in 2017. Self Help Group (SHG) members of Jana[1] congregated beneath the tamarind tree, their usual meeting place.  Some men also were sitting there and the SHG members were taking loan to purchase inorganic fertilizers and hybrid seeds. They were discussing whether they would[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Netanyahu vs Gantz: Gaza Escalation as Reflection of Israel’s Political Rivalry

Netanyahu vs Gantz: Gaza Escalation as Reflection of Israel’s Political Rivalry

Only recently, the Palestinian group, Hamas, and Israel seemed close to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement, where Hamas would release several Israeli soldiers held in Gaza while Israel would set free an unspecified number of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons. Instead of the much-anticipated announcement of some kind of a deal, on August 10, Israeli bombs began falling on[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Schumpeter, the Luddites, and the Post-COVID Workforce

Schumpeter, the Luddites, and the Post-COVID Workforce

This is not a commercial. But if you happen to find yourself in Abu Dhabi at this moment, and are planning to take a flight back home to Delhi, you might be advised to try Etihad Airways, especially in these pandemic times. To check in via their ‘Fit to Fly’ application, just stand in front of the monitor, remove your[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Sound Advice to Facebook Cheif Zuckerberg on hiring practices 

Sound Advice to Facebook Cheif Zuckerberg on hiring practices 

Religious discrimination is on the rise across the world and must be contained before it harms businesses and our social progress. A religiously or politically prejudiced employee can affect others’ morale, cause a lot of headaches, bring lawsuits, and affect the organization’s ability to function cohesively. He or she can waste the CEO’s time and the precious resources defending and[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Social Activist and Academic Shoma Sen is In Jail On Flimsy Grounds and Must Be Released

Social Activist and Academic Shoma Sen is In Jail On Flimsy Grounds and Must Be Released

Shoma Sen was arrested on June 6, 2018, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for charges which include inciting violence, being involved in raising funds for the banned CPI (Maoist) party and harbouring its fugitive members. Prof Sen is a highly vocal and committed women’s rights activist who has been involved with a wide range of social and political causes.[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
A Poet,Goutam Sen, a City, Kolkata, and a Footballer, Pradip Kumar Banerjee

A Poet,Goutam Sen, a City, Kolkata, and a Footballer, Pradip Kumar Banerjee

Review of “A Poet, a City and a Footballer” “Men, music, light, landscape, color and motion brought into one integral whole by a single piercing emotion, by a single theme and idea – this is the aim of modern cinematography.”  Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898-1948)[1] Introduction A/ Musical foreword The movie begins with a song of Rabindranath Tagore, a song interpreted[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
GEMS Missionaries Severely Beaten in Jharkhand for Praying for the Sick

GEMS Missionaries Severely Beaten in Jharkhand for Praying for the Sick

Sanjeet and  Siddharth of PEACE 1 Zone were brutally beaten by Bajrang Dal members near Chatra, when they were invited by a believer to pray for his unwell relative. Mr. Lakhan is a believer of GEMS Church at Garhwa and he took Bro. Sanjeet and Bro. Siddharth on 22nd August 2020, to a village Kharik (which is 7 kms away[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Photo by Sudharak Olwe / https://sudharakolwe.com/insearch.html

Manual Scavenging in India: Caste Privileges and the Continuing Search for the ‘Ideal Bhangi’

Co-Written by Aseem Hasnain, Abhilasha Srivastava and Avinav Kumar Sudharak Olwe’s photographs of conservancy workers in Mumbai are heartbreaking. They depict the lives and work of sanitation workers, as much as they reflect the fundamental nature of our society. In this haunting image a young adult is standing neck deep in an open bubbling drain, underground, both literally and metaphorically.[Read More…]

by 27/08/2020 3 comments Annihilate Caste
Democracy Is Important But Is It Working?

Democracy Is Important But Is It Working?

If you think that democracy is about ‘government of the people by the people and for the people’, you are dead wrong, not these days. The way democracy has evolved in recent years in both developed as well as in developing countries, it has become more of a system that may be, just may be ‘of the people’ and to[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Israel Will Never Allow Pakistan Have Access To UAE’s F-35

Israel Will Never Allow Pakistan Have Access To UAE’s F-35

When US made UAE and Israel to normalise their bi-lateral relations, on August 14, 2020, within ten days when the flames of Beirut, Lebanon had not even got doused, the under-cut deal which was made was that US would sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to UAE, and which, obviously, sent alarm bells in Tel Aviv and Israel PM Benjamin[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Chasing the Light by Oliver Stone

Chasing the Light by Oliver Stone

Like the wandering and rascally Odysseus upon whom he models his life, Oliver Stone is “double-minded” in the most profound and illuminating ways.  The title of his fantastic new memoir is a case in point.  “One of the first basic lessons in filming,” he writes, “is chasing the light.  Without it, you have nothing – no exposure that can be[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
“The Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism” and We

“The Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism” and We

India, the largest parliamentary democracy in the world, celebrated its 73rd Independence Day on Saturday, August 15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per the protocol, addressed the 1.3 billion people of the country from the Red Fort in Delhi. In his speech, he promised to bring universal health cards, provide internet access, through optical fibre lines, to all villages across[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Greenpeace volunteers fly Peace Doves, bearing messages of peace, "No More Hiroshima", "Yes to Peace",  "No to Rokkasho" in Japanese and in English, beside the A-Bomb Dome Memorial in Hiroshima. 
Greenpeace renews their calls for peace and make this anniversary a message to world leaders to make real their commitments to nuclear disarmament, including the Japanese government to abandon plans to produce nuclear weapons.

Catholics Against Nukes: Archbishop Wester’s Hiroshima Vigil

In what is a turn-up for the books, a senior voice of the Catholic Church made something of an impression this month that did not incite scandal, hot rage, or the commencement of an investigation.  It did, however, agitate a few editors.  Archbishop John C. Wester of San Fe, in speaking at the online Hiroshima Day vigil, had put up[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Revisiting Hiroshima: The Last Cherry Blossom

Revisiting Hiroshima: The Last Cherry Blossom

On August 6, 1945, at 8.15 am, an atom bomb was dropped at Hiroshima to end World War II. Archana Mohan takes us on a journey through a novel which gives the story of before and after the bombing & currently lauded and promoted by the United Nations for peacekeeping. Title: The Last Cherry Blossom Author: Kathleen Burkinshaw When a book opens with[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Factory Schools from Industrial Revolution to Modern Universities

Factory Schools from Industrial Revolution to Modern Universities

How did factory schools develop? Why did factory school develop?  What does factory schools do? What is the relevance of factory schools today? The answers to these questions come from the history of factory schools, which reveals its immense impact not only on our educational system but also on our society, culture, economy, politics and individual lives. The historical perspectives[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Understanding the War Industry

Understanding the War Industry

Understanding the War Industry. Christian Sorensen. Clarity Press, Atlanta, Georgia. 2020. For reader’s wondering about the state of the U.S. economy this work by Christian Sorensen provides a small encyclopedic compendium of information relating the war industry to the overall U.S. economy and U.S. foreign and domestic policies in many spheres. He states his main ideas clearly and plainly and[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
 Light vs. Darkness’: What to Expect from the US Presidential Election

 Light vs. Darkness’: What to Expect from the US Presidential Election

Ideology: Mobilizing the Popular Base under Neoliberalism In his acceptance speech for president, Joe Biden framed the election in moral terms, stating: “I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness.” He then went on to ask voters to judge him and Trump not by rhetorical promises, but their deeds. Both Trump and Biden have a public record[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Robot Generals: Will They Make Better Decisions Than Humans — Or Worse?

Robot Generals: Will They Make Better Decisions Than Humans — Or Worse?

With Covid-19 incapacitating startling numbers of U.S. service members and modern weapons proving increasingly lethal, the American military is relying ever more frequently on intelligent robots to conduct hazardous combat operations. Such devices, known in the military as “autonomous weapons systems,” include robotic sentries, battlefield-surveillance drones, and autonomous submarines. So far, in other words, robotic devices are merely replacing standard weaponry on conventional battlefields.[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia humiliates Pakistan

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia humiliates Pakistan

  The political developments in Gulf-region are leaving no scope to imagination  that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is now working as an extended-arm of US, which is what is an extension of Israel.  Israel is the new super-power of the Gulf-region and has successfully raised a false-hoax of ‘rising-Iran’, to squeeze Arab-states into submission to Israel, after the[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Friends and family of Sudha Bharadwaj raise serious concerns over her health condition and seek her early release on bail

Friends and family of Sudha Bharadwaj raise serious concerns over her health condition and seek her early release on bail

Keeping under trials in prison for two years deliberately stalling bail opportunities, with no effort for beginning the trial instead exposing them to serious health condition is a gross violation of rights of prisoners. This is further heightened in times of a global pandemic given the crowded situation in prisons. Sudha Bharadwaj has been incarcerated along with eleven others falsely[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 1 comment Human Rights
How the Impact of the Hiroshima Blast Lingers

How the Impact of the Hiroshima Blast Lingers

The best introduction to Kathleen Burkinshaw is that she a humanitarian. She wrote a novel that has been taken up by The United Nations as a part of its peacekeeping effort. She has been actively participating in efforts to ban nuclear weapons, including presenting with Nobel Laureates. Kathleen Burkinshaw, the author of The Last Cherry Blossom, a book that is in[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Burnaby proclaims Jaswant Singh Khalra Day

Burnaby proclaims Jaswant Singh Khalra Day

Close to the 25th martyrdom day of a prominent human rights activist of India, one of the municipalities in Greater Vancouver has made a proclamation to recognize the circumstances that led to his murder. Jaswant Singh Khalra was investigating the extra judicial killings of Sikh political activists in Punjab, when he was kidnapped by the police on September 6, 1995,[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Kancha Ilaiah can have his theories, but without falsehood

Kancha Ilaiah can have his theories, but without falsehood

This is with reference to the article,“Can Brahmins Bring Revolution: An Assessment Through The Prism Of Tarimela Nagi Reddy” by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd — CC, August 18, 2020. I am not a writer. Not a leader or political activist. I am above my sixties, an ordinary citizen who earnestly wants that my country and society should be more democratic and[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 3 comments Life/Philosophy
Release Sharjeel Usmani

Release Sharjeel Usmani

It has been more than one month since Sharjeel Usmani, National secretary of Fraternity Movement and Anti-CAA Activist imprisoned in Aligarh Jail. He was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police from his house in Azamgarh on 8th July 2020. On that day, 5 people claimed to be from the Crime Branch detained him without an arrest warrant or memo and[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
 People Who Are in Denial About Coronavirus

 People Who Are in Denial About Coronavirus

There are basically two different policy-approaches to the coronavirus problem: One is the passive approach, waiting for ‘herd immunity’ to develop naturally. And the other is the active approach, in which the Government does take action — not just wait while the most-vulnerable individuals die off from the disease. The “herd immunity” approach is libertarian; it assumes that “let nature[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 1 comment World
Make a difference to someone

Make a difference to someone

DIFFERENTIATE. Why ‘Differentiate’? Because differentiation creates Brand Brand inspires Loyalty Loyalty enables Influence Success is directly proportionate to influence. Five things to keep in mind: 1.      Always be thankful. It is true that we succeed by our own efforts but it is good to remember that some of them were made standing on someone else’s shoulders.  And they helped us when they didn’t need us[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
USA’s Militarization of Latin America

USA’s Militarization of Latin America

Maj. Gen. Andrew Croft, the commander of 12th Air Force, wrote on 22 August: “I have seen an increasingly contested strategic space where Beijing and Moscow are aggressively investing time and resources in Latin America to support their authoritarian models of governance. The Air Force must reinforce the strength of our longstanding commitment to the Western Hemisphere. We lose ground when we[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Morality and Immorality in Contemporary Politics

Morality and Immorality in Contemporary Politics

In the world of ideology free zone of politics, the question ‘of morality and immorality in popular and mainstream political traditions’ is becoming irrelevant. The incompetent governments, helpless states, visionless leadership, directionless politics, weak judiciaries and compliant media organisations are the net output of amoral and illiberal politics.  The moral critique of political system does not yield any electoral dividends[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Prison System Around The World Needs a Reform; It Has No Place in Democratic Nations in Current State

The Prison System Around The World Needs a Reform; It Has No Place in Democratic Nations in Current State

The debate about the prison system is nothing new. There are thousands of articles, studies and papers related to this particular subject. The central aim of this article is to continue the discussion on the questions like social basis of crime, failure of current system in place to deal with crime, and the long standing demand of a reformative prison[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 1 comment Human Rights
Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Just a little pinprick There’ll be no more, ah But you may feel a little sick Can you stand up? I do believe it’s working, good That’ll keep you going through the show Come on it’s time to go There is no pain you are receding A distant ship, smoke on the horizon You are only coming through in waves[Read More…]

by 25/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
To build immunity we need exposure To trees, plants, clean air

To build immunity we need exposure To trees, plants, clean air

This is important for developing immunity to Covid and other infections and build resistance. Researchers are now pointing out the manifold benefits of rewilding of Nature for human health and well-being. This means we need to expose ourselves to more bio diversity, be in touch with a wide variety of plant life, not just manicured, artificial lawns. According to Jacob[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Revisiting Tamhane’s ‘Court’ in the post-Covid moment

Revisiting Tamhane’s ‘Court’ in the post-Covid moment

With Chaitanya Tamhane’s second film, The Disciple, headed to the Venice International Film Festival in September, it may be worthwhile recalling, Court, his first film that bagged the National Award for Best Feature Film in 2015. As we live through the COVID moment witnessing the targetting of students, teachers, and poets, Court’s damning testimony of caste oppression and its tribute[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Ignore at your peril: Palestine ranks high in Arab public opinion

Ignore at your peril: Palestine ranks high in Arab public opinion

Rare polling of public opinion in Saudi Arabia suggests that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be more sensitive to domestic public opinion on foreign policy issues such as Palestine than he lets on. The polling also indicates that a substantial number of Saudis is empathetic to protest as a vehicle for political change. The poll conducted on behalf of[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 1 comment World
In search of the common man

In search of the common man

Every time I returned to Mumbai, I looked forward to reading the pocket-cartoons of RK Laxman. Though everything changes around him, the common man, with his studied silence witnessing twists and turns, had looked the same for decades, in the pocket cartoon of THE TIMES OF INDIA front page.  It gave me a sense of permanence. Every time I made[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
The Light of Mahatma Gandhi and Prashant Bhushan

The Light of Mahatma Gandhi and Prashant Bhushan

I venture to make this statement not in any way in extenuation of the penalty to be awarded against me, but to show that I have disregarded the order served upon me not for want of respect or lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Champaran Satyagraha[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 1 comment India
Is NEP doing enough for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs)?

Is NEP doing enough for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs)?

 NEP(2020) sets out high ideals for quality learning indicators for ensuring inclusive and equitable education keeping in view 2030 sustainable development goals. On the basis of robust consultation with different stakeholders it aspires for a great equalizer for economically and socially diverse set of groups. While the document recognizes the underrepresented concerns of Socially and Economically Disadvantaged groups (SEDGs), economists[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
COVID-19 Makes A Strong Case For Affordable Housing

COVID-19 Makes A Strong Case For Affordable Housing

Among the many challenges that have gained urgency in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, housing requires a highly creative response. The huge exodus from cities to villages was necessitated on account of lack of proper housing in cities. Expanding access to affordable housing is essential not just for equitable development but also social stability. When residents don’t have proper[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Congress’s old darbaris uncomfortable with Rahul Gandhi’s Return

Congress’s old darbaris uncomfortable with Rahul Gandhi’s Return

The letter writers in the Congress party are nothing but all those who benefited by the Darbari politics of the party. They are comfortable in the current situation and dont want any radical ideological shift of the party. Most of them would be happy with their Rajya Sabha seats or party leaders without taking Modi and RSS head on. This[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Partition of India: Dalits in the midst of Communal Violence and Language Controversy 

Partition of India: Dalits in the midst of Communal Violence and Language Controversy 

Historiography of the Partition of India and historical narratives generally focuses on violence among religious groups, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. In these narratives, Dalits, more often than not, find themselves being silenced, where they are treated as a subset of Hindus or Sikhs. It is a general notion that Dalits were not targeted for their caste identity but only for[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Dara Shukoh: Where would we be if he were King

Dara Shukoh: Where would we be if he were King

Title: Dara Shukoh: The Man who would be King Author: Avik Chanda Publisher: Harper Collins, 2019 Scanning the list of books already written on Dara Shukoh, I wondered why the author had chosen to write yet another book about Dara Shukoh, but that was before I came across Avik Chanda’s impressive work. A magnificent tome, it is richly palimpsestic and[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Hymn for a Broken Empire: Republican National Security Officials for Biden

Hymn for a Broken Empire: Republican National Security Officials for Biden

If fodder is needed for the argument that a Deep State is running wild and determined to depose President Donald J. Trump, this will surely help.  In a statement by self-titled “former Republican National Security Officials”, a hand-on-heart allegiance is made to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.  The authors are intent on moving the incumbent out of office, “profoundly concerned[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Responding To Voter Suppression, Understanding Manipulated Elections

Responding To Voter Suppression, Understanding Manipulated Elections

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Voter suppression in the 2020 election has become a topic of great concern. In reality, voter suppression has been part of US politics since the founding of the country. The oligarchs who wrote the US Constitution enabled voter suppression by not including the right to vote in it and only allowing white male property owners[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 ‘People of the Cave’: Palestinians Take Their Fight for Justice to the Mountains 

 ‘People of the Cave’: Palestinians Take Their Fight for Justice to the Mountains 

Palestinians are not going anywhere. This is the gist of seven decades of Palestinian struggle against Zionist colonialism. The proof? The story of Ahmed Amarneh. Amarneh, a 30-year-old civil engineer from the northern West Bank village of Farasin, lives with his family in a cave. For many years, the Amarneh family has attempted to build a proper home, but their[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
 How to Remember a Feminist Movement That Hasn’t Ended

 How to Remember a Feminist Movement That Hasn’t Ended

On August 26, 2020, Alice in Wonderland will get some company. She will be joined in New York City’s Central Park by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth, the first statues there of women who, unlike Alice, actually existed. The monument is a gift to the park from Monumental Women, a non-profit organization formed in 2014. The group has[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
For Secular Atheists, Adopting The Language Of Religion Is Fraud

For Secular Atheists, Adopting The Language Of Religion Is Fraud

Yogendra Yadav recently wrote about how secularism gave up the language of religion. He blamed secular English-speaking elites for not talking in terms of the cultural metaphors that common Indian could relate with. I understand where he is coming from. But I object to both to the diagnosis of the problem that English-speaking elites are secular while masses are communal. [Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Woman is looking at a man communicating with her rom a monitor standing on the table before her. Woman has a tablet, potted plant and red cup of coffee are on the table before her. Blank bulletin board is hanging on the wall.

Teaching Crisis and Teachers’ Role in Times of Covid-19 Pandemic

The global Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented change in all walks of life. It has clutched different sectors and overthrown people around the world to a new social and economic crisis. Education is one of them, due to the pandemic around 1.52 billion students stranded at home and over 60.2 million teachers remain out of schools (UN Secretary-General, 2020,[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
‘The Museum of Broken Tea Cups’

‘The Museum of Broken Tea Cups’

  What do we expect from an author who is a story teller, an international development strategist and a gender policy specialist? A lot to be sure. A Master’s degree holder in Public Administration from Harvard University, an equal   grade in International Relations from the University of Warwick, a policymaker Health, Nutrition and Gender portfolios with the Government of India[Read More…]

by 24/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
 Was Qassem Soleimani Killed to Avenge Saudi Oil Installations Attack?

 Was Qassem Soleimani Killed to Avenge Saudi Oil Installations Attack?

A joint American-Israeli program [1], involving a series of short-of-war clandestine strikes, aimed at taking out the most prominent generals of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and targeting Iran’s power stations, industrial infrastructure, and missile and nuclear facilities has been going on since early this year when commander of IRGC’s Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in a[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Men wearing protective masks walk as they carry bags, amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Nizamuddin, area of New Delhi, India, March 31,  2020. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Tablighi Jamaat was made “scapegoat”: Media downplays Bombay High Court ruling

The mainstream media — particularly Hindi newspapers — has again concealed, underreported and suppressed the Bombay High Court ruling. In its Friday judgment, the High Court has said that Tablighi Jamaat was made “scapegoat” during the corona pandemic. It has also quashed the FIR against 29 foreigners and 7 Indian nationals who are associated with the twentieth century Muslim reformist[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Original image courtesy : Vikar Syed

Kashmir; craving for democracy

Jammu and Kashmir, downgraded to UT status a year before, is battling on two fronts; one Corona virus and second restoration of democracy. The virus cases are rising day by day with more and more deaths reported .In this fight warriors are fighting, even some consumed by the death. Restoration of democracy has hit roadblocks at various levels. Kashmir has[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Corporate Social Media in India: Sell Hate, Enjoy Profit

Corporate Social Media in India: Sell Hate, Enjoy Profit

The bias that social media platforms such as Facebook display reflect their own world-view as much as it does the regimes they support. A few gave the appearance of being truly psychopathic individuals. The mass of others were ragged and illiterate peasants easily roused to hatred of the Tutsi. Perhaps the most sinister people I met were the educated political[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 1 comment India
China And The Decline Of US Power

China And The Decline Of US Power

Constant attacks by some US elites on China will, according to some observers, diminish and disappear once the US presidential election is over in November 2020. This is unlikely to happen for at least two reasons. One, the issues that underscore the targeting of China are fundamental in nature and go beyond elections and personalities. Two, at the root of[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 1 comment World
Trainloads of Stories

Trainloads of Stories

In the days of my early manhood, a south Calcutta theatre called Menoka used to show Malayalam or Tamil films on Sunday mornings. Since the early years of the 20th century, Tamils have been in residence in south Calcutta, usually as office-workers, thereby giving to this area a second name – Chhota Madras (Madras in miniature). Malayalees are more recent[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Ertugrul Ghazi: That Turkish Storm     

Ertugrul Ghazi: That Turkish Storm     

Don’t watch Ertugrul. Yawn. Another list of do’s and don’ts, we did what we do best. We paid no heed. But this time there was a difference. The decree to ‘unwatch’ Ertugrul came from the two camps that are  normally rabidly opposed to each other, the fundamentalists and the liberals. The two and two really made four,  this time. Parvez[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
State-Sponsored Pogroms Against The Tamils In Sri Lanka And Need For A UN Supervised Referendum In Tamil Homeland

State-Sponsored Pogroms Against The Tamils In Sri Lanka And Need For A UN Supervised Referendum In Tamil Homeland

It is high time and urgent need for the United Nations, UNHRC, ICC and the International Community to find remedial justice to the oppressed Tamils in Sri Lanka. The following facts prove beyond doubt that there was an institutionalized and systematic genocide of Tamils from independence in 1948. Disfranchisement of plantation workers of Indian origin .Within a year of independence, in[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Hate Speech On Facebook Leads To Attack On 72 Year Old Christian In Karnataka

Hate Speech On Facebook Leads To Attack On 72 Year Old Christian In Karnataka

An unwarranted attack on a 72-year-old Christian man influenced by a hate speech made on Facebook was reported to Persecution Relief by a source who wishes to stay anonymous. The following is the information we received. *Anand is a faithful leader at our church and conducts weekly cell group meetings at different homes. He is 72 years old and also[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Telangana’s Dalit -Adivasi Scholars Struggle to Access Overseas Scholarships

Telangana’s Dalit -Adivasi Scholars Struggle to Access Overseas Scholarships

Co-Written by Ashok Danavath and Sanjeev Gumpenapalli State governments and the Centre have been advancing scholarships to students from marginalised social groups so that they can pursue higher education abroad. There is tremendous enthusiasm among Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, minority and backward students for overseas education. These scholarships are meant to promote diversity and ensure equal opportunities for them. However, of late,[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
In which direction the Indian Supreme Court sees itself heading?

In which direction the Indian Supreme Court sees itself heading?

On Aug 14, 2020, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra found two tweets by lawyer and social activist Prashant Bhushan amounting to “serious contempt of court”. One of his tweets was about the role of the last four Chief Justices of India, and the other about the current CJI riding an expensive motorcycle while the court was in[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Old Lady in the Window

The Old Lady in the Window

There are so many diverse memories to a mind that has traveled through the decades like an endless wind. Being a ‘baby boomer’ who just cannot accept the utter surreal bad aftertaste of our current comic book empire, one desires to retreat into the distant past. This past of course had its own times of despair, but for a youth[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Dalit patriarchy- is the concept sustainable?

Dalit patriarchy- is the concept sustainable?

Feminism arose as a counterpose to patriarchy. Dalit feminism can presuppose both Dalit patriarchy and ‘Brahmin’ feminism. Before we venture into defining Dalit patriarchy we must be clear about what patriarchy is and how does it sustain. Sans theoretical sophistication, patriarchy is a social institution benefiting men and harmful to women. Counterposing this, feminism is an ideology/movement that stands for[Read More…]

by 23/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
National Call of Action to Observe Kandhamal Memorial Day

National Call of Action to Observe Kandhamal Memorial Day

We hope you remember the diabolic attacks on christians in Kandhamal/Odisha in two consecutive years 2007 & 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence Day, India witnessed the organized communal attacks on Christians, the biggest in the history of India during the last three centuries, that spread to different parts of Odisha and other states. Over 395 churches[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
A Year Of Economic Turmoil in Kashmir

A Year Of Economic Turmoil in Kashmir

A year since reading down of Article 370, J-K’s economy is in crisis. In August last year a complete communication blackout and lockdown was enforced after BJP-led Central government scrapped Article 370 and suspended J-K’s constitution. The state was put under complete lockdown, thousands of more troops were flown in and tourists were asked to leave the state with immediate[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Reckoning Is Ought To Be Tough With China

The Reckoning Is Ought To Be Tough With China

The developments in world polity took to a storm when on August 14, 2020, United Arab Emirates(UAE) and Israel decided to normalise their relations 1 , with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) forcing Pakistan to repay its 1 billion USD loan and stopping oil supplies on deferred loan to it,  which Pakistan repaid after China provided with 1 billion USD[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 1 comment India
Climate change under gender lens

Climate change under gender lens

Countries in the Asia Pacific region are in the forefront of bearing the onslaught of climate change. During the last three decades 45% of the world’s natural disasters have occurred in this region, which is vulnerable to floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, storms and tsunamis. While climate change affects everyone but impacts of climate change related events are not gender neutral.[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Punjab crisis is the result of “unfinished agenda of Partition”: Jaspal Singh Sidhu

Punjab crisis is the result of “unfinished agenda of Partition”: Jaspal Singh Sidhu

  Veteran journalist and author Jaspal Singh Sidhu has argued that the Punjab crisis of the 19070s and 1980s is the result of “the unfinished agenda of Partition”. Explaining his argument, Sidhu says that the Sikh community in India supported the Congress at the time of Partition, believing the “pledges” of the grand old party. The promises were made that[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Lying  Mainstream Media Ignore Expert New 9/11 WTC7 Demolition Report

Lying  Mainstream Media Ignore Expert New 9/11 WTC7 Demolition Report

3 engineering experts from the University of Alaska Fairbanks have produced a detailed report entitled “A structural reevaluation of the collapse of World Trade Center 7” that concludes that “the collapse of WTC 7 was a global failure involving the near-simultaneous failure of all columns in the building” i.e. by explosive demolition and not by fire as asserted by the[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
From Protecting Voting Rights to Honoring Veterans, The Post Office Is An Essential Service

From Protecting Voting Rights to Honoring Veterans, The Post Office Is An Essential Service

The capacity of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide mail services that generations of Americans have relied on has been severely weakened by the Trump administration. The assault on the Postal Service has only grown stronger and more brazen in recent weeks. We know by Trump’s own admission that his targeting of the agency is by design and[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Construction of Church stalled by fanatics in Odisha

Construction of Church stalled by fanatics in Odisha

Villagers influenced by fanatics have ganged up against a local Church opposing the construction of a Church building at a village in the Indian state of Odisha. They are threatening to demolish the Church building, claiming that it has angered the gods of their village. “The Sarpanch and the villagers were completely aware of the construction work ever since it[Read More…]

by 22/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
‘Palestine is Still the Issue’: UN Vote Exposes, Isolates Canada

‘Palestine is Still the Issue’: UN Vote Exposes, Isolates Canada

Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo The notion that ‘Canada is better’, especially when compared with US foreign policy, has persisted for many years. Recent events at the United Nations have, however, exposed the true nature of Canada’s global position, particularly in the matter of its blind and unconditional support for Israel. On June 17, Canada lost its second[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 1 comment Palestine
The Fault Dear Citizens….

The Fault Dear Citizens….

” … Is not in our stars but in ourselves”. Paraphrased right out of Shakespeare ( Julius Caesar) you have it in a nutshell, for all of you, like myself, who actually vote. It seems that during each and every major election cycle the masters of empire make sure to give you choices as if right out of those old[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 1 comment World
The Historic Bastardization of “Freedom” in the US

The Historic Bastardization of “Freedom” in the US

The bastardization of liberty and freedom is nothing new in the United States. It extends far beyond the recent “Liberate” protests in response to pandemic lockdowns, the result of which have borne fruit in an earlier than predicted second wave of Covid-19. It is not confined to just the 21st century, during which all three presidents have directed acts of[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 1 comment World
Why the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill could lead to a revolution of the imagination

Why the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill could lead to a revolution of the imagination

One of the few rays of hopeful sunshine in the UK’s currently bleak political landscape is the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. In fact, I feel like it is such a vitally important development that I want to use this article to urge you to get behind it, while also offering a rather different perspective on why I feel it matters[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Whose India?

Whose India?

The Indian war of independence was motivated by a few ideologies. Accordingly, there were different and distinct dreams of the future India, like Secular India, Hindu India, Muslim India, Dalit India and Socialist India. These dreams remain objectives of different kinds of political and social mobilizations in the country even today, though to different extent. The outcome of this vertical[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 1 comment India
Belarus is calming down after days of protest and EU plans to impose sanction

Belarus is calming down after days of protest and EU plans to impose sanction

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has stepped up efforts to reassert his control after 10 days of street protests and strikes triggered by disputed elections. Lukashenko says he has given orders to end the unrest in the capital Minsk. The move signaled an escalation just as European Union (EU) leaders agreed to impose sanctions at a virtual summit. The President of[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Send in the Clowns for the Circus Is in Town

Send in the Clowns for the Circus Is in Town

Don’t bother, they’re here, already performing in the center ring under the big top owned and operated by The Umbrella People. Trump, Biden, Pence, Harris, and their clownish sidekicks, Pompeo, Michelle Obama, et al., are performing daily under the umbrella’s shadowy protection. For The Umbrella People run a three-ring circus, and although their clowns pop out of separate tiny cars[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, GAZA STRIP - MAY 15:  Palestinian refugee Mohamad Mahmoud Al-Arja, 80, from the Rafah refugee camp, holds up a key allegedly from his house in Beer AI-saba, now located in Israeli, during a rally May 15, 2007 the in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza strip. Palestinians are marking May 15, as Nakba Day or Catastrophe Day, as the 59th anniversary of the al-Nakba, the day the Israeli state was created in 1948.  (Photo by Getty Images)

How Israel wages war on Palestinian history

Nazareth: When the Palestinian actor Mohammed Bakri made a documentary about Jenin in 2002 – filming immediately after the Israeli army had completed rampaging through the West Bank city, leaving death and destruction in its wake – he chose an unusual narrator for the opening scene: a mute Palestinian youth. Jenin had been sealed off from the world for nearly[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
P L Mimroth: Taking legal aid to the grassroots

P L Mimroth: Taking legal aid to the grassroots

In the early years of 1990s, India saw a political turmoil as V P Singh government unleashed Mandal Commission report and a social and political unity among the Dalit backward community started building up at different levels. The protests against Mandal commission reports in the cities of North India were actually not against the OBCs but against the Dalits. The[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Bamboo Bridge To Growth

A Bamboo Bridge To Growth

Melghat is a forest tract nestled in the Satpura range in eastern Maharashtra. It is inhabited by indigenous people like the Korkus, Gond and Bhilalas, who are bravely defending their verdant world against the ravages of modern commerce. Melghat has been in the news for several years for its lethal malnourishment, which had been claiming lives of hundreds of children[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
In lieu of Interpretation: A Tribute to Razak Kottakal

In lieu of Interpretation: A Tribute to Razak Kottakal

I started photographing rickshaw pullers in Manipur, who veil their faces so as not to disclose their identity as a rickshaw puller, even to their fiancé. Because they consider plying rickshaw is a low profile job. Now it has become a routine practice in Manipur, veiling the faces. My documentation of the rickshaw pullers in Imphal, the capital city of[Read More…]

by 21/08/2020 2 comments Arts/Literature
 The “Great” Reopening Or Setting America’s Schools Up to Fail

 The “Great” Reopening Or Setting America’s Schools Up to Fail

Seventeen years ago, against the advice of my parents, I decided to become a public school teacher. Once I did, both my mother and father, educators themselves, warned me that choosing to teach was to invite attacks from those who viewed the profession with derision and contempt. They advised me to stay strong and push through when budgets were cut,[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Understanding The Dalit Struggle For Identity In Gujarat

Understanding The Dalit Struggle For Identity In Gujarat

ABSTRACT The recent incidents of Dalit oppression in Gujarat has got the attention of the entire country. Gujarat though known for its development and progress is still ruled by feudal laws, where sporting a moustache, wearing goggles, watching Garba, or even riding a bike offends the upper caste pride in this day and age. In nearly 50% of villages in[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Politics

Politics

A masquerade of ugly traits Chasing citizens of ordinary values, A parade of dirty linens Messing up the environment, Heaps of confusion Troubling the land. Politics, the pillar of karma Canonizing, canalizing, cabalistic too Beams of fetish columns Streams of radiation Rays of fraudulent hopes. Politics, dirty, stinking, inhumane Bearing stamps of hardship Bits and bits of flesh Pounding bones[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Pandemic-pain in Kuwait and Oman: Salary withheld and wine served

Pandemic-pain in Kuwait and Oman: Salary withheld and wine served

Kuwait has not enough cash to cover state salaries beyond October. And, Dubai again has loosened laws governing alcohol sales and possession of liquor. These developments are due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fall in oil price. A Bloomberg report – “Kuwait Can’t Pay Salaries Beyond October, Minister Tells Parliament” – on August 19, 2020 said: Kuwait has 2[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Panaji: BJP President Amit Shah address BJP supporters in Panaji, Goa on Saturday. PTI Photo(PTI8_20_2016_000228A)

Rest Assured, HM’s Recovery Is Assured

HM has been reportedly readmitted to the hospital for post-COVID care (and continues to work from there).  Even as the whole country is praying for his speedy recovery, Sarkari facts and statements issued ad infinitum should give him a reason to cheer viz: The recovery rate for COVID-19 has improved and reached 73.64 % because of ‘active intervention treatment strategies’.[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
I do not ask for mercy, I do not appeal to magnanimity: Prashant Bhushan

I do not ask for mercy, I do not appeal to magnanimity: Prashant Bhushan

I have gone through the judgment of this Hon’ble Court. I am pained that I have been held guilty of committing contempt of the Court whose majesty I have tried to uphold — not as a courtier or cheerleader but as a humble guard – for over three decades, at some personal and professional cost. I am pained, not because[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 1 comment India
Tentacles of an Octopus; the Pride and Prejudice of Nationalism

Tentacles of an Octopus; the Pride and Prejudice of Nationalism

 Nationalism is like a jellyfish that can take on new forms, but of late in India it has become more like an octopus, spreading its menacing tentacles, arbitrarily declaring some as ‘anti national’ others more intimidating, for being a threat to ‘national security’ which invariably ends up in slapping of law of sedition against the person whose only offence might[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Can India be a secular republic without being socialist?

Can India be a secular republic without being socialist?

The event of Bhoomi Poojanof of Ram-Mandir in Ayodhya on 5 August 2020 marks the beginning of the politico-social endorsement of majority communalism in the country. In the articles/news stories/editorials/party releases/comments etc. written with reference to the Constitution and the Republic of India on this subject, one common thing could be discerned. That is, no intellectual or leader has accepted[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Hunger Crisis in Guatemala

The Hunger Crisis in Guatemala

A report released by Oxfam in July 2020 states, “COVID-19 is deepening the hunger crisis in the world’s hunger hotspots and creating new epicentres of hunger across the globe. By the end of the year 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to COVID-19, potentially more than will die from the disease itself.” Like other regions in the world,[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Israel-UAE Bonhomie: The Dangers Ahead

Israel-UAE Bonhomie: The Dangers Ahead

Even when the flames of the blasts of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon 1 on August 4, 2020, had not doused, where death and destruction,  misfortune and misery has become the fate of Lebanese , that Arab states should have run to share the grief and started to investigate ‘who is responsible’ for the blasts,  as Michel Aoun, the Lebanon[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Mrinal Sen: Pioneering A Movement

Mrinal Sen: Pioneering A Movement

It is difficult not to miss the irony in the timing of Mrinal Sen’s passing on, roughly coinciding as it did with the fiftieth anniversary of perhaps his best-known film, BhuvanShome. It is generally agreed that it is with this film that the seminal movement called ‘New Indian Cinema’ began. The movement was an ideological/political body of work that questioned[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The Adani Group’s Penchant for Controversial Projects Seem Unstoppable

The Adani Group’s Penchant for Controversial Projects Seem Unstoppable

Reports on the Adani group’s projects worldwide show massive illegalities, ecological and environmental destruction, human rights violation, tax evasion, money laundering and corruption.  An ongoing coal based thermal power project in India which will supply its entire power to Bangladesh and import coal from Adani’s Carmichael mines in Australia, points to crony capitalism, exploitation, corruption and violation of laws. Who[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
“DV Rao the father of the theory and practice of agrarian revolution in India” : Anand Teltumbde

“DV Rao the father of the theory and practice of agrarian revolution in India” : Anand Teltumbde

  Kancha Ilaiah Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd wrote an article titled  “Can Brahmins Bring Revolution: An Assessment Through The Prism Of Tarimela Nagi Reddy”. (countercurrents.org, August 18, 2020). https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/can-brahmins-bring-revolution-an-assessment-through-the-prism-of-tarimela-nagi-reddy/ It is not based on facts, and is prejudiced by his theories. He is free to have his theories, but truth should not be a casualty in the process. As a mediaperson[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Greenland Succumbs

Greenland Succumbs

Since the turn of the new century, every aspect of climate change has gone ballistic, up, up, and away, not looking back, leaving the 20th century fairly harmless, but only on a relative basis, especially as compared to the rip-snorting 21st century. It’s a whole new ballgame, starting with this new century. Society is witnessing a great acceleration of climate[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Lure of Hindutva fascism in India

Lure of Hindutva fascism in India

The feudal character of Indian society and Brahmanical Hindu religious order based on caste has become a fertile ground for the growth of Hindutva fascism in India. The seed of Hindutva fascism was germinated with the establishment of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the “National Volunteers Organisation” in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Mr Hedgewar’s mentor Dr B.S. Moonje was fascinated and[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 1 comment India
UP Government Exposes Its Insecurity

UP Government Exposes Its Insecurity

            One would wonder why after such a show of triumphalism at the foundation laying ceremony of grand Ram temple on 5th August in Ayodhya the Uttar Pradesh government would stoop so low to put a lock outside the Aam Admi Party office in Lucknow. What makes it feel insecure? After all, AAP is an outsider in UP politics. The[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 1 comment India
The momentum of protest in Belarus getting lost

The momentum of protest in Belarus getting lost

Momentum for factory strikes is winding down. Only a few days ago Belarus was boiling with opposition led protests and strike while the Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims the opposition’s program has failed. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against foreign interference in Belarus while the European Union has expressed concern with the situation in the[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The day justice got cooked

The day justice got cooked

The Chief Chaddis smirked, stroking his little beard menacingly. This was the moment he and his fellow Chaddis had waited for and chewed so much cud over. They had finally got their prey – the Black Sheep, now trapped in a corner from where he could not escape. The Black Sheep, popularly known as Beep Beep to his friends, had[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
‘Black Lives Matter’: Slavery, race and the ideology in the historical context

‘Black Lives Matter’: Slavery, race and the ideology in the historical context

Like communalism, Brahmanism (casteism) and the gender, the Race, is also not an attribute of biology but an ideology that is constructed, reconstructed, nurtured and perpetuated in the day-to-day life experiences and intellectual discourses. A sense of superiority or supremacy is one of the key elements of the hegemony. In the colonial era, the European colonizers harbored the illusory sense[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
A report on India’s state of environment

A report on India’s state of environment

A report said: “Siberia, the proverbial coldest place, […] is experiencing record warm temperatures, melting sea ice, and massive wildfires — changes to the environment that even the scientists most urgently tracking the climate crisis didn’t expect to see for another several decades.” (Bridget Read, “The Arctic is on fire, and we should all be terrified”, The Cut, July 6,[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Janta Parliament calls on urgent action for ecological security

Janta Parliament calls on urgent action for ecological security

Given the inability or unwillingness of the government to convene a monsoon session of parliament in time, people’s movements and groups are organizing an online Janta Parliament with 11 thematic sessions various public interest issues from 16-21st August. Today, in the Environment session of the Janta Parliament, about 30 speakers from various parts of India presented their views on the[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Tribute to late Comrade Darshan Singh Dusang on 20th death anniversary

Tribute to late Comrade Darshan Singh Dusang on 20th death anniversary

On August 19th the Indian Communist revolutionary camp commemorates the 20th death anniversary of legendary Comrade Darshan Singh Dusang who was one of the greatest torchbearers of the Indian Communist Movement. Few comrades shimmered the spark of Naxalbari with as much unflinching determination as Comrade Darshan Dusang. In the gravest circumstances, he never looked dead and buried and resurrected Mao’s[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Claim your anti-caste intersectional feminism: A Dalit woman’s reflections on feminism

Claim your anti-caste intersectional feminism: A Dalit woman’s reflections on feminism

I have had the privilege to learn from a diverse group of active individuals and communities from marginalized locations. These interactions have pushed me to think further and critically. My reflections are a product of years of discomfort and dilemmas I have grappled with, as a Dalit woman with a multifaceted identity that inherent disadvantages but also newly acquired privileges.[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Was Shaheen Bagh Movement Scripted by BJP?

Was Shaheen Bagh Movement Scripted by BJP?

Aam Admi Party, rather Arvind Kejriwal’s party on 17th August accused the BJP of sponsoring the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh, “The BJP won some seats from the North-East in Assembly polls because of Shaheen Bagh, creating a gap between Hindus and Muslims. In Delhi, the BJP rose from 18% to 38% due to Shaheen Bagh.” As a proof they[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Americans Can Imagine How Non-Nazi Germans Felt As Their Soldiers Murderously Invaded 22 Nations 

Americans Can Imagine How Non-Nazi Germans Felt As Their Soldiers Murderously Invaded 22 Nations 

Germans witnessed their radio and newspapers hail the Nazi invasion and occupation of most of Europe while praising fallen German soldiers for their service to the fatherland; a fatherland representing the world’s most wondrously superior people. Sounds similar to the indiscriminate praise monolithic US corporate media heaps upon exceptionally marvelous and righteous USA and her many proud invasions and occupations.[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Tribute to Rajiv Gandhi: A Champion of ‘Panchayati Raj’

Tribute to Rajiv Gandhi: A Champion of ‘Panchayati Raj’

“We are on the threshold of a mighty revolution…it is a revolution that will bring democracy to the doorsteps of crores of Indians”, Rajiv Gandhi once said. To empower India’s people, especially the long-neglected masses in the rural villages, Rajiv Gandhi championed the cause of Panchayati Raj. It is one of the many reforms that would radically change the nation’s[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 1 comment India
Elderly Woman, Daughter-in-Law and Son Savagely Attacked by Fanatics in Madhya Pradesh

Elderly Woman, Daughter-in-Law and Son Savagely Attacked by Fanatics in Madhya Pradesh

A 72-year-old woman, her son and daughter-in-law were mercilessly beaten to a state of unconsciousness by religious fanatics in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The elderly mother was left with a broken hand while the head injuries that her son sustained required stitches. “Early in the morning, on the 14th of August, my mother and wife were busy with[Read More…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Donald Trump Is Losing His Tech War with Xi Jinping

 Donald Trump Is Losing His Tech War with Xi Jinping

For the Trump administration’s senior officials, it’s been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president’s blame game about “the invisible Chinese virus” as it spreads wildly across the U.S. When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop. Between the end of June and the end[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 1 comment World
Indigenous People of Mexico Fight More Than Pandemic

Indigenous People of Mexico Fight More Than Pandemic

In Mexico, the intensity of the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing. With more than 480,000 cases and 50,000 deaths (third largest number of Covid-19 deaths), the country is staggering under the Coronavirus pandemic. While the entire country is experiencing the impact of the pandemic, indigenous communities represent the demographic section hardest hit by health catastrophe. Data from Coneval, the national government’s[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Hands off Lebanon: Macron’s Self-serving ‘New Pact’ Must Be Shunned  

Hands off Lebanon: Macron’s Self-serving ‘New Pact’ Must Be Shunned  

French President, Emmanuel Macron, is in no position to pontificate to Lebanon about the need for political and economic reforms. Just as thousands of Lebanese took to the streets of Beirut demanding “revenge” against the ruling classes, the French people have relentlessly been doing the same; both peoples have been met with police violence and arrests. Following the August 4[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Can Brahmins Bring Revolution: An Assessment Through The Prism Of Tarimela Nagi Reddy

Can Brahmins Bring Revolution: An Assessment Through The Prism Of Tarimela Nagi Reddy

What is known as Devulapally Venkateswar Rao (DVR) defenders team, attacked my recent article on Usaa Barber. One of their objects was to assert that DVR, a vegetarian conservative Brahmin, who pretended to be a revolutionary is intellectually superior to the Shudra communist intellectual Tarimela Nagi (TN) Reddy. I take this attack as the appropriate occasion to compare and contrast[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Our Race Against the Clock to Affirm Water as a Human Right

Our Race Against the Clock to Affirm Water as a Human Right

On the ten year anniversary of the United Nations historic vote to recognize water as a basic human right, Barlow reflects on where we go from here. A demonstrator holds a sign during a Detroit water shutoffs rally in 2014. (Photo: uusc4all/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Ten years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution affirming that water and sanitation[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Greenland’s melting ice sheet has passed the point of no return

Greenland’s melting ice sheet has passed the point of no return

Greenland’s ice sheet, — the world’s second-largest ice body, would continue to lose ice even if global temperatures stop rising, and it may have passed a point of no return, setting it on an irreversible path to complete disappearance, according to scientists at Ohio State University. Snowfall that normally replenishes Greenland’s glaciers each year can no longer keep up with[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The U.S. coronavirus death toll of 170,000 is a ‘success story,’ says Jared Kushner

The U.S. coronavirus death toll of 170,000 is a ‘success story,’ says Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner, the U.S. president Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, once again gave a bullish assessment of the U.S.s’ coronavirus response on television, despite the nation leading the world in cases and deaths. The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser doubled down on comments from April, where he called the U.S. administration’s efforts a “great success story” and that the[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 1 comment World
Trust Deficit in Modinomics

Trust Deficit in Modinomics

The revival of vibrant Indian economy depends on rebuilding public trust in economic systems and institutions based on inclusive politics and peaceful social coexistence in India. The prolong geopolitical disputes with neighbours and self-inflicted communal conflicts are pushing Indian economy and society to uncertainties, which breed distrust and undermines economic growth and development. The pervasive inequalities help to accelerate the[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The dominance of Aaya Ram Gaya Ram in Indian politics leading to the last rite of democracy

The dominance of Aaya Ram Gaya Ram in Indian politics leading to the last rite of democracy

One more state government is about to collapse due to the tactical activities of Aaya Ram- Gaya Ram’s. In Rajasthan, the 18-month-old Congress government could be ousted any day. Exactly four months ago, the state government led by Kamal Nath, a veteran Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, had collapsed in the same way. In Rajasthan, another experienced Congress leader, Ashok[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Self-Help Groups Light The Path In Pandemic Times

Self-Help Groups Light The Path In Pandemic Times

Empowering women has long been viewed as the solution to many global problems. Societies that prioritize women’s empowerment show better development indices, and are better governed, more stable and less prone to violence. In contrast, societies that constrain women’s educational and employment opportunities, and that deny women an equal political voice, are poorer and more prone to corruption. This year[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Google’s Open Letter: Fighting Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code

Google’s Open Letter: Fighting Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code

Tech giants tend to cast thin veils over threats regarding government regulations.  They are also particularly concerned by those more public spirited ones, the sort supposedly made for the broader interest.  Google has given us an example of this in an open letter published on August 17 to all Australians – the generosity that comes with transparency – that does[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Playing With Fire: China Fuels Middle East Arms Race

Playing With Fire: China Fuels Middle East Arms Race

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, with Saudi King Salman during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 16, 2017. (Lintao Zhang Pool Photo via AP) Unfettered Chinese support for Saudi Arabia’s so far peaceful nuclear energy program risks fueling a burgeoning Middle East arms race amid concerns that the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Review Cruelty or Humanity by Stuart Rees

 Review Cruelty or Humanity by Stuart Rees

Cruelty or Humanity  by Em.Prof. Stuart Rees, is essential reading in our present tumult and bedlam of human cruelty. Rees is a stalwart man of peace; he is the founder of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and of the prestigious Sydney Peace Foundation and Cruelty or Humanity is his unflinching Summa Pax propelled[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
The General Neurosis of our Times

The General Neurosis of our Times

“About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times.” -Carl Jung I thought I knew what depression looked like.  It looked like locked rooms and phone calls which were never answered back. An incapacity to socialize,[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The first emancipation

The first emancipation

Co-Written by Alan Johnstone and Stephen Shenfield Dramatic news spreads among the slaves. Their masters are at war! They are told that their masters’ enemies are also theirs. But some doubt whether that is true. Might not their masters’ enemies be their friends? Soon it is rumored that any slave who crosses the lines into enemy-held territory goes free. A scene from the[Read More…]

by 18/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
D & D Amerika

D & D Amerika

Coming from Brooklyn, NYC, and having a dad who was both a longshoreman and bookmaker, this writer knows a ‘ thing or two about a thing or two’ concerning the mob. In colloquial terms when someone knows something about an illegal act and keeps his or her mouth shut, they call that D & D or ‘ Deaf and Dumb’.[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 1 comment World
Over Hundred Citizens Sign Statement In Solidarity With Prashant Bhushan

Over Hundred Citizens Sign Statement In Solidarity With Prashant Bhushan

On the eve of the 73rd year of independence of our nation, the highest constitutional court of the country, The Supreme Court of India felt offended by couple of words tweeted by Sri Prashant Bhusan a responsible citizen of the country while exercising his fundamental rights guaranteed by the same Constitution which the Hon’ble Court has been entrusted to uphold.[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Christians Locked Inside A Church By Fanatics In Karanataka

Christians Locked Inside A Church By Fanatics In Karanataka

More than 60 Christians including women and children were locked up inside their Church building by a mob of over 50 religious fanatics in Davangere, Karnataka. 2 policemen dressed in civil dress were also present during this mob attack that took place on the 16th of August 2020 at 10:30 am. “Our Church gathered together for the Sunday Worship service[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Death Valley hits 130°F, possibly the highest heat on Earth in over a century

Death Valley hits 130°F, possibly the highest heat on Earth in over a century

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park. Temperatures in Death Valley in the U.S. skyrocketed to a blistering 130°F (54.4-degree Celsius) on Sunday. Possibly, it is the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913. If the National Weather Service’s recording is correct, it would also be among the top-three highest temperatures to have ever been measured in Death[Read More…]

Clashes across U.S. cities

Clashes across U.S. cities

Far-right demonstrators, counter-protesters and police clashed in a number of states in the U.S. The series of clashes between far-right militia, pro-Confederacy groups, and anti-fascist (Antifa) counter-protesters erupted across the U.S. on Saturday. Mostly peaceful protests against racial injustice have been ongoing for weeks following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day. Clashes between opposing groups have also occurred.[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Turkey And Greece-Israel Heading For A Showdown

Turkey And Greece-Israel Heading For A Showdown

There are conflict zones or rather war-zones fast developing in the world right now. India is facing Pakistan in Kashmir, China in Ladakh and China is facing US, Japan, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan in its South China sea, Middle-East is on the boil since a long time, precisely after Iraq was torn to pieces, thereafter Syria became the target where[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Politically Correct

Politically Correct

Masked at the face of evil Turning blind eye to reality, Clapping for killers And feeding murderers, Everyone is politically correct. Political leaders appoint touts and thugs Religious leaders ordain Judas, Cultural leaders erase history Social leaders act nude and promiscuous, Traditional leaders title vagabonds Educational leaders burn certificates, Because they want to be politically correct. Judas kissed Jesus Jesus[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Hero of Our Times?

Hero of Our Times?

How does a poet respond to the situation of a city under siege? For a poet, a crisis can trigger a tenacious journey even in the midst of a siege. The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s Memory for Forgetfulness tracks the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which Beirut, where he lived, was bombed. “Beirut, [is] surrounded by Israeli tanks and official Arab paralysis,” he wrote. Beirut is holding on to its nerves as it strives to “protect the radiance of its meaning as the capital[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
COVID-19 Underscores Importance Of Local Planning

COVID-19 Underscores Importance Of Local Planning

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves -Lao Tzu This pandemic has inflicted the greatest pain on those who had already been rendered most vulnerable, spurring great hardship and growing unease among low income families and micro businesses. It has uncovered existing[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The New Hindutva – An outline of the new avatar of Hindu nationalism

The New Hindutva – An outline of the new avatar of Hindu nationalism

The BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP,  Swapan Dasgupta, in an opinion piece titled The rise of the proud, global Hindu which appeared after the Aug 5 Bhoomi Pujan at Ayodhya, mentioned  “the new Hindutva” that seems to have emerged in recent times. He contrasted it with the older Hindutva, identified with V. D. Savarker, describing that as “too ideological for popular[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Foiled in the Security Council: The United States, Extending Arms Embargoes and Iran

Foiled in the Security Council: The United States, Extending Arms Embargoes and Iran

There are no official policing authorities as such when it comes to international relations.  Realists imagine a jungle of states, the preyed upon and the predators, a grim state of affairs moderated by alliances, agreements and understandings. But there is one body whose resolutions are recognised as having binding force: the Security Council, that most powerful of creatures in that[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Pakistan and India’s Leaders Mark Freedom from British Colonialism: But Masses look for Navigational Change

Pakistan and India’s Leaders Mark Freedom from British Colonialism: But Masses look for Navigational Change

British imperialism was not accidental but a planned scheme of things to perpetuate its cultural and political dominance over the weak and most vulnerable people of the globe. Its aims were no different in the Sub-Continent of India-Pakistan. The immediate focal aim was to destroy the existing culture of the established Mughal Empire and divide and rule the whole of[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
The Kiss in the Time of SARS-CoV-19

The Kiss in the Time of SARS-CoV-19

For Suda J., who lives in M’rira (Tunisia) I dare not ask a kiss; I dare not beg a smile; [. . . ] No, no, the utmost share Of my desire, shall be Only to kiss that air, That lately kissed thee. Robert Herrick, To Electra, 23. What is it that we just love about an embrace and why[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Xi Jinping’s ugly double face needs to be unmasked

Xi Jinping’s ugly double face needs to be unmasked

A “state”, according to Max Weber, is “a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory” (WEBER, M.: “Politics as a Vocation” in GERTH, H.H.; WRIGHT, Mills, C. (eds.): From Marx Weber: essays in sociology, London, Routledge, 1991 [1948], p. 78). A “nation”, on the other hand, according to Montserrat[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
How Billionaires Took Over Liberalism and Destroyed It

How Billionaires Took Over Liberalism and Destroyed It

They’ve done it via the ‘news’-media — their propaganda-operations. So, this is about how billionaires do that; how they’ve done it. Ever since at least the time of Thucydides in the 5th century BC, the wealthiest have ruled, and did it by conquest and plunder. The acquisition of exceptional wealth was by theft: it was coercion, which could be either[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Globally Governments Gang-up with AstraZeneca; Indemnifying It Against COVID-19 Vaccine Dangers!

Globally Governments Gang-up with AstraZeneca; Indemnifying It Against COVID-19 Vaccine Dangers!

“Cancel all … agreements that compromise the fundamental interests of the Indian people, particularly those imposed on behalf of global corporations …” A People’s Manifesto for Ecological Democracy by Countercurrents Collective Oxford University, England backed by the British Government in collaboration with multinational drug corporation AstraZeneca (British, Swedish origin) is reported to have completed Phase-1, II trials of its newly-discovered[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
A sad day in the history of Independent India

A sad day in the history of Independent India

Ground breaking ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya at the very site where Babri Masjid once stood was regrettable for more than one reason. This event was made possible by a dubious verdict of the Supreme Court of India, a verdict that went against many of its own findings. Supreme Court ruled that the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Israel – UAE Bonhomie

The Israel – UAE Bonhomie

The improbable and unprecedented has happened. United Arab Emirates (UAE) has declared to normalise relations with the state of Israel on August 14, 2020 1 , after a phone-call between the trio- US president Donald Trump, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE crown prince Zayed Al Nahyan sealed it through, sending shock waves throughout the world, apart from the general[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Climate crisis: Two million Californians went dark

Climate crisis: Two million Californians went dark

Two million Californians experienced rolling blackouts Friday night after officials declared a Stage 3 energy emergency due to a statewide heat wave. The last time California was in a Stage 3 emergency was in 2001. At that time, the state was in the middle of a very different type of energy crisis – and the governor lost his job over[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Media, covering PM Modi’s Independence Day Speech, turns hyper-nationalist 

Media, covering PM Modi’s Independence Day Speech, turns hyper-nationalist 

Several newspapers have struck a hyper-nationalist tone while covering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day. The highlights of his speech, in the media’s coverage, were his “fitting” reply to “trickster” (chalbaaz) China and warning to Pakistan. Hindi Daily Dainik Jagran (National, August 16, p. 1) sensationally reports the PM’s address. “On 74th[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Animal Farm of Indian Right Wing

Animal Farm of Indian Right Wing

 17 August: On the 75th anniversary of a classic  work Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903–21 January 1950), known to all of us by his pen name George Orwell, described the source of the idea of setting the book on a farm: “I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
The other side of American Exceptionalism

The other side of American Exceptionalism

Dyed-in-the-wool patriots know that the United States of America is God’s gift to the world. Policymakers have risen the story to doctrinal status. It’s referred to as American Exceptionalism, and it basically means if we say it or do it, it’s ok. It’s a nice thing to be backed up with this doctrine when you have ambitious plans for the[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 The Bangladesh Crisis: Growth Without Development, Youth Bulge, and Degeneration 

 The Bangladesh Crisis: Growth Without Development, Youth Bulge, and Degeneration 

In view of the prevalent political deadlock, growth-oriented economic development, or growth-without-development – which is simultaneously stagnating and misleading due to inflated GDP growth estimate by the Government – and the absence of the rule of law and accountability of the government, especially since 2007, Bangladesh finds itself in a political cul-de-sac. Why so? The prevalent stalemate under a one-party[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 1 comment South Asia
Original image courtesy : Vikar Syed

Kashmir Dispute: A Result Of Broken Promises

In the words of JL Nehru, “Kashmir is not commodity for sale or to be bartered. It has an individual existence and its people must be the final arbiters of their future”. As on this week Pakistan and India are celebrating 73 years of their Independence. The partition of Indian subcontinent in 1947 witnessed the end of the British Colonial[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
When The PM’s Rama Is Different From That Of RSS/BJP

When The PM’s Rama Is Different From That Of RSS/BJP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not just in his personal capacity, but in his capacity as the Prime Minister of 130 crore Indians quite unexpectedly re-defined Rama totally in a different way than how the RSS/BJP have shown him to us for the last thirty years since 1989. He did that at Ayodhya and at the Ramajanma Bhoomi temple Bhoomi poojan[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Tricolour

The Tricolour

A 40 kg silver brick overrides the threat of the grim Saffron coronal rim that explodes in the stomach of a fever-ravaged populace   Hunger floods the Green challenging it to celebrate internecine borders crimsoned by the wheel, the sickle, the crescent   Hatred bubbles under hooded jobless seekers of truth. Jails clang with differences between Left and Right.  [Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 3 comments Arts/Literature
Patching up livelihoods of folk artistes in Corona times

Patching up livelihoods of folk artistes in Corona times

As the Covid-19 lockdown kicked in March, Bangalore and most other cities in India witnessed an exodus of migrant workers returning to their homes in northern and eastern India, by every conceivable means including by cycle and by walking, with women carrying their small children. But there were some people who could not even leave, because they were not migrant[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
George Floyd murder site

Anti-Racist Uprising In Minneapolis Infiltrated By Extreme-Right Hooligans

Text and photos: Andre Vltchek (Reportage from Minneapolis) The city of Minneapolis is where it all began. It is where the last drop fell on the surface of a proverbial overflowing lake, causing the dam to burst, consequently starting to destroy the foundations of the empire. A death of just one single man can, under certain dreadful circumstances, put into[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Is it the Legal Terror of Sondergerichte and Volksgerichtshof or the Supreme Court of Democratic India?

Is it the Legal Terror of Sondergerichte and Volksgerichtshof or the Supreme Court of Democratic India?

  The Nazi regime in Germany has established the Sondergericht (summary courts or special courts) and Volksgerichtshof (special people’s court) outside the constitutional framework. The objectives of these totalitarian courts were to destroy internal opposition to Adolf Hitler’s mission in dominating and establishing absolute control over German state, government, culture and society. The legal systems were destroyed and reconstructed to support[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
How Not To Write Obituaries : Kancha Ilaiah Sets A Negative Example

How Not To Write Obituaries : Kancha Ilaiah Sets A Negative Example

“Usaa, The Greatest Revolutionary Barber After Upali, Died of COVID-19”, is the title of an obituary by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, (countercurrents.org, August 4,2020, “a long-time associate of Usaa Barber, Political Theorist and Author”. It begins thus : “Usaa Barber (Uppumavuluri Sambashivarao) (1951-2020)- a well-known social reformer, anti-caste ideologue and anti-brahminism fighter succumbed to COVID-19 on 25th July 2020.” Then it[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 3 comments Life/Philosophy
Sivakasi, An Unlimited scourge

Sivakasi, An Unlimited scourge

 Sivakasi is a curse, a blight, an abomination that India could do without. Here, workers, especially children, are routinely killed or scarred for life in fires and explosions while making crackers and bombs to feed the fireworks industry. A devastation in Sivakasi, 700 kilometres from Chennai, on September 5, 2012, claimed 54 lives. Between January 2011 and September 2012, there[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Condemn NIA summons to Delhi University professors Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan!

Condemn NIA summons to Delhi University professors Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan!

Stop the witch-hunt of academics and activists in the name of Bhima Koregaon! Immediately release all political prisoners! The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the summons by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan, faculty members in Delhi University, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case yesterday. Following the recent arrest of Delhi[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
In Denial: Australia, Human Rights and Climate Change

In Denial: Australia, Human Rights and Climate Change

When the complaint was lodged in May 2019, there was a sense of the audacious about it.  Eight Torres Strait Islanders had taken the trouble to petition the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee, citing climate change and Australian violations as their main concern.  Australia, they claimed, had violated their fundamental rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
THIS IS for YOU

THIS IS for YOU

Wherever on this distressed and yet magnificent Earth you live, this is for you. Right here, right now: Let’s be open and honest before one another.  Please.  Look at the world without illusions, without hiding, without trying to escape.  Don’t be crippled by confusion or disgust.  Don’t allow yourself to lose your natural born goodness and become infected with internal[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Apartheid UAE Recognizes Apartheid Israel – Will Apartheid Saudi Arabia Follow?

Apartheid UAE Recognizes Apartheid Israel – Will Apartheid Saudi Arabia Follow?

On 14 August 2020 the Australian ABC radio and TV news announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to recognize Israel and exchange ambassadors with what the ABC described as “the Jewish State”. Not only was this descriptive  false and anti-Arab anti-Semitic (Arabs are 50.3% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel) it was also grossly anti-Jewish anti-Semitic (all[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Pandemic and Withering Away of the Working Classes in India

The Pandemic and Withering Away of the Working Classes in India

The ordeals of the migrants and other working classes are not going to end if they survive from the COVID-19. The central and state governments are making sweeping changes to the labour laws to lure capital investments. There is no ideological difference between the BJP and Congress party when it comes to assault on rights of labourers. Both these national[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Secular India needs to adopt Buddha’s Idea of Egalitarianism rather than the Ram Rajya on the occasion of 74th Independence Day 

Secular India needs to adopt Buddha’s Idea of Egalitarianism rather than the Ram Rajya on the occasion of 74th Independence Day 

 The secular and democratic India has now completed 74 years of its political journey. It is now important to deliberate and reflects on what went wrong in the experiment of Indian’s secular democratic polity. The fact cannot be denied that India had got political freedom in 1947 after the long-drawn anti-colonial struggle launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.  However,[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
BC Punjabi Press Club condemns attack on three journalists in Delhi

BC Punjabi Press Club condemns attack on three journalists in Delhi

The Punjabi Press Club of British Columbia (PPCBC) has come out with a strong statement against assaults on three reporters by the supporters of ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. The August 11 incident happened in New Delhi, the national capital of the world’s so-called largest democracy. Three journalists, including one Sikh, one Muslim and an unidentified[Read More…]

by 15/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
A People’s Manifesto for Ecological Democracy

A People’s Manifesto for Ecological Democracy

Our planet is not a lump of inanimate matter circling the sun every year, providing humans free lodging, boarding and endless resources to exploit recklessly. She is a living, breathing, sentient Being, to be treated with love, care and deep respect. Revered in all ancient cultures around the world as Pachamama, Gaia, Bhumi or Mother Earth – She gives us generously but her respect needs to be earned too.

MLA Ravi Kahlon writes to UN to raise his concerns over Kashmir

MLA Ravi Kahlon writes to UN to raise his concerns over Kashmir

Close to the first anniversary of the scrapping of special constitutional rights given to Indian-occupied Kashmir, a North Delta legislator is seeking global intervention into the matter. Ravi Kahlon, who is known for his strong advocacy for human rights and social justice, has written to the United Nations on behalf of his constituents, who had raised concerns about the plight[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Draconian Power Of `Contempt Of Court’

The Draconian Power Of `Contempt Of Court’

The People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL) is dismayed and disappointed over a Full Bench decision of the Supreme Court holding Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Advocate, guilty of criminal contempt of court for a set of tweets which the court felt “undermines the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the Chief Justice of India[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Don’t be Hoodwinked by Trump’s UAE-Israel “Peace Deal”

 Don’t be Hoodwinked by Trump’s UAE-Israel “Peace Deal”

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold “HUGE breakthrough today,” crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new Israel-UAE partnership[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 1 comment World
U.S. President Donald Trump departs at the end of a news conference in New York, U.S. September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC1297B30D30

A president is called “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man”

Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, has released a foreword to his new book in which he calls the president “a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,” and accuses him of cheating in the 2016 presidential election. Cohen also makes reference to “golden showers in a sex club in Vegas,” without specifically stating[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Tension in the eastern Mediterranean as Erdogan threatens  

Tension in the eastern Mediterranean as Erdogan threatens  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened reprisals if anyone attacks the ship surveying disputed waters in the Mediterranean for oil and gas, after two French jets flew nearby during an exercise with the Greek fleet. “We said that if you attack our Oruc Reis you will pay a high price, and they got their first answer today,” Erdogan said[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
India To Face China-Pakistan ‘Hand in Hand’ in Mountains and Oceans

India To Face China-Pakistan ‘Hand in Hand’ in Mountains and Oceans

The China-Pakistan ‘hand in hand’ against India has now come all out in the open after the USNews.com 1 on August 6, 2020, published an elaborate report as to how China and Pakistan have started an unprecedented intelligence sharing in an attempt to secure Beijing influence in Afghanistan at the expense of US government which is now to withdraw from[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Credit-Wikimedia Commons

Avoiding World War III in the Caucasus

  “The Caucasus is Ground Zero in the New Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.” I wrote that several years ago, and it’s still true, particularly after Christian Armenia decisively repulsed a mid-July attack by Muslim Azerbaijan. Perhaps dozens of Azeris died in the battles, including a major-general, colonel, and two majors.  Armenia reported far fewer deaths and captured[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 1 comment World
Covid-19: past, present and future

Covid-19: past, present and future

The current pandemic continues to have a large negative impact on most aspects of our lives. Over 20.6 million have been infected and almost 750,000 have died worldwide (about 5.3 million infections and over 168,000 deaths in the US) due to this pandemic. Besides these horrific impacts, this pandemic has also made clearer the failure of the bipartisan neoliberal economic[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
My Alibi – A revolutionary’s manifesto

My Alibi – A revolutionary’s manifesto

Kazi Nazrul Islam Translation © 2020 Monish Chatterjee [A YouTube recitation by the poet’s son, Kazi Sabyasachi: I am the poet of now, not of the Nuevo future Call me poetic, call me prosaic, I accept with nary a word. Some tell me, “Your place is with the earth-bound, The mortal – why do we not witness emerging From your[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
Shaping India’s Future on her 74th Independence Day  

Shaping India’s Future on her 74th Independence Day  

India is one of the first nations on the earth to practice Pluralism, i.e., respecting others’ otherness. While the Hindu ethos considers the world as one family, also known as Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum, the Islamic, Christian, and other traditions also subscribe to the idea that we originated from a single couple. Together, these values ‘had’ contributed to India’s post-independence political stability.[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
India’s Tryst With Independence

India’s Tryst With Independence

15th August is the most cherished date in the Indian calendar. it was on this momentous day that we were born an independent and free country. Mahatma Gandhi’s luminous leadership finally made the British Quit India in 1947. It is certainly an occasion for celebration. More than that, it is a point in a nation’s journey when we need to[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Three Women And A Minor Girl Dragged Out On Street And Stoned In Haryana

Three Women And A Minor Girl Dragged Out On Street And Stoned In Haryana

Four Christian women including a minor girl were dragged out on the street and mercilessly beaten up by religious fanatics in the Indian state of Haryana. The severity of the attack was such that it left one woman with a broken leg, one with stitches to her forehead and two others unconscious with severe head and body injuries. “I was[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
I was born a bad person and my fellow savarnas, so were you all

I was born a bad person and my fellow savarnas, so were you all

I was born a bania, a savarna or upper-caste, and that is why I was born a bad person. Let me explain. I am part of that minority for whom the benefits of the caste system far outweigh the costs (if there are any costs at all except for making me lazy, stupid, selfish, and arrogant by making everything in[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 3 comments Annihilate Caste
Chile’s Mapuche Conflict

Chile’s Mapuche Conflict

On 1 August, 2020, a group of civilians, in complicity with the Chilean national police force or the carabineros and right-wing hoodlums, violently attacked Mapuche community members who were on a hunger strike in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Araucania. The attack was strategic, organized and preplanned with the occupied town halls of Ercilla and Traiguén also being attacked, Mapuche women and children being[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Screening of the Documentary “Fabricated” by K.P.Sasi

Screening of the Documentary “Fabricated” by K.P.Sasi

Ethical media practices have constantly engaged with creating more space for under-privileged, and under-represented voices. With the advent of the pandemic, social distancing, and the necessary isolation of quarantines and containment zones, representing and communicating the common man’s woes and perspective has become a daunting, but doubly urgent,task. This is especially exacerbated when those in power take advantage of the[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The Celebration of Rahat Indori

The Celebration of Rahat Indori

Rahat Quraishi was so enamoured of painting that he was able to turn it into a profession. He was also solicitous about Urdu poetry. “Poetry and painting are like twin-sisters,” he says in his biographical short film A Glimpse of Jashn-e-Rahat, “and I believe we all carry different people inside us.” Born to Rafatullah Qureshi, a cloth mill worker, in[Read More…]

by 14/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
It is all in the game: Sports, gender equality and human rights

It is all in the game: Sports, gender equality and human rights

Undoubtedly, sports and physical activities are essential for our mental and physical wellbeing. But how can a sport help in addressing sexual and reproductive health issues of the youth, and social ills like sexual and other forms of gender-based violence? It looks somewhat incredible. Well Grassroot Soccer, an adolescent health organization, seems to be doing exactly that. It has leveraged[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Blood and Soil!

Blood and Soil!

In the 1970 film Patton, we see a scene where two battle worn soldiers marching along the road are passed by a jeep carrying General Patton. One guy looks and then says ” There goes old ‘ Blood and guts.’ ” The other soldier smirks and answers ” Yeah, OUR blood and HIS guts!” So it is for the Super[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 1 comment World
Educate the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs!

Educate the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs!

National Campaign to Educate the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs! Post them the Preamble to the Indian Constitution! Campaign Starts on 15th August 2020! For the last two months the national capital New Delhi has witnessed a very curious phenomenon. Of a steady stream of professors, students, filmmakers, feminists, Gandhians and human rights activists called by the Delhi Police’s Special[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Biden Wins-Then What?

Biden Wins-Then What?

Assume Joe Biden wins the presidency. Assume as well that he genuinely intends to repair the damage our country has sustained since we declared ourselves history’s “Indispensable Nation,” compounded by the traumatic events of 2020 that demolished whatever remnants of that claim survived. Assume, that is, that this aging career politician and creature of the Washington establishment really intends to salvage something[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Original image courtesy : Vikar Syed

Jammu & Kashmir: One Year after Abrogation of Article 370- Increasing Alienation, Relentless Repression, Simmering Conflict

PUCL appeals that the Government of India urgently listen to the people of J&K, initiate dialogue and restore peace  Withdraw the police state: Restore freedom and democracy in the region   Part A: Overview   It has been over a year since 5th August, 2019, when Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister abruptly introduced a Constitutional Amendment in the Indian[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Record numbers of U.S. citizens are giving up their U.S. citizenship

Record numbers of U.S. citizens are giving up their U.S. citizenship

Record numbers of U.S. citizens are renouncing their citizenship according to numbers reported by a New York accountancy firm. Bambridge Accountants reports that 5,816 people gave up U.S. citizenship in the first half of 2020 — a 1,210 per cent increase on the previous six months in which only 444 cases were recorded. The first two quarters of 2020 also rank as having[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Cow-dung, Diamonds and Rust: On the state of modern Indian science

Cow-dung, Diamonds and Rust: On the state of modern Indian science

“Aryabhata rejected the story of a daanava (demon) named Rahu swallowing the sun or his tail Ketu covering the moon during eclipses. Eclipses occurred due to shadows, he said, and he did not see any shadow of a tail! Brahmagupta, who came more than a century later, was a great mathematician himself but did not agree with Aryabhata about rejecting[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Puri Temple Waits For Redressal Of Documented Historic Wrong!

Puri Temple Waits For Redressal Of Documented Historic Wrong!

The RSS-BJP government of India led by a seasoned RSS whole-timer, Narendra Modi has miserably failed in providing basic amenities, employment, education, security and peace to 138 crores of Indians (out of which approximately 80% are Hindus ) but on last August 5, he had a joyous news to share with the people of the country. While laying the foundation[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Politics of War: What is Israel’s Endgame in Lebanon and Syria? 

The Politics of War: What is Israel’s Endgame in Lebanon and Syria? 

On August 4, hours before a massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued an ominous warning to Lebanon. “We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this,” Netanyahu said during an official tour of a military facility in central Israel. Netanyahu’s warning[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 The Attack on Science—Part of the Deadly Class War on Workers’ Health and Environment

 The Attack on Science—Part of the Deadly Class War on Workers’ Health and Environment

The application of scientific knowledge has been embraced by industry as a means of enriching owners for over two hundred years. Science is knowledge of the natural and social world gained through observation and experimentation based on evidence. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century had a profound impact on workers’ diseases.  Rapid technological progress and industrial growth led to crowded,[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Saudi Arabia is normalizing relations with Israel?

Saudi Arabia is normalizing relations with Israel?

A drama series telecast on the Saudi-controlled MBC during the holy month of Ramadan is being seen as a clear signal from Saudi Arabia about its growing ties with Israel, the Brussels Times said Tuesday. The TV series, ‘Umm Haroun’ (mother of Aaron), begins with a long monologue in Hebrew, in which a Jewish character says “we are the Gulf[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Understandings

Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Understandings

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) is one of the greatest French thinkers. A polemical and witty essayist, a metaphysician of subjectivity, a political activist, a revolutionary political theorist, a humanistic novelist, a didactic playwright, his genius lies in his powers of philosophical synthesis and the genre breaching breadth of his imagination. The last philosopher to be discussed at some length, Jean-Paul Sartre,[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
People’s Manifesto on Social Justice and Human Rights

People’s Manifesto on Social Justice and Human Rights

Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey, Shreekumar, Shiva Shankar, R. Ramachandran, Lubna Sarwath, Mansee Bal Bhargava and Rajeev Yadav Equality, Liberty and Justice lay the foundation of Indian Constitution for the citizens of India. Beyond the Indian Constitution document’s explicit mention of it, a real picture on the ground is different and that a large section of the communities are implicitly treated[Read More…]

by 13/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Freakish Arctic Fires Alarmingly Intensify

Freakish Arctic Fires Alarmingly Intensify

NASA satellite images of fires in eastern Siberia depict an inferno of monstrous proportions, nothing in modern history compares. And, as of July, it’s intensifying. Should people be concerned? Answer: Yes, and double yes. According to Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts: “What has been surprising[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Lebanon’s government steps down following the Beirut blast and people’s protest

Lebanon’s government steps down following the Beirut blast and people’s protest

Lebanon’s government stepped down on Monday night, less than a week after a massive explosion in Beirut killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 6000, sparking days of violent protests. Prime Minister Hassan Diab addressed the nation, announcing his resignation and that of his government in the wake of the blast, which he called a “disaster beyond measure.”[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
How the Guardian betrayed not only Corbyn but the last vestiges of British democracy

How the Guardian betrayed not only Corbyn but the last vestiges of British democracy

It is simply astonishing that the first attempt by the Guardian – the only major British newspaper styling itself as on the liberal-left – to properly examine the contents of a devastating internal Labour party report leaked in April is taking place nearly four months after the 860-page report first came to light. If you are a Labour party member,[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Imagine

Imagine

Did the caveman laugh? Did he have a toothache? The cheering thing for him would have been, he would not have to visit a dentist. Or, is that a cheering thought for me? And he would continue in pain while his tooth rotted and fell! And mine gets pulled out or repaired by a dentist peering into my numb anaesthetised[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
PM Modi’s never ending bogus farm promises

PM Modi’s never ending bogus farm promises

The farmer’s job is to cultivate and harvest. Not to construct grain silos. Prime Minister Modi on Aug 09, 2020 launched a new financing scheme under the Rs. 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund meant for setting up storage and processing facilities, which will help farmers get higher prices for their crops, according to the government statement. “The scheme will[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Kashmir’s One Year Nightmare Without Article 370 

 Kashmir’s One Year Nightmare Without Article 370 

What would George Orwell have made of the Kashmir situation in 2020? Mr. Orwell’s prophetic work on extensive government over-reach, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviours has resonance to life in Kashmir today. In Kashmir,  Indian state exists in a kind of sadomasochistic relationship that pins down an entire population to perpetuate its power. Since August[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Covid-19 and Maternal health in India

Covid-19 and Maternal health in India

The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019    (COVID-19) outbreaks a global pandemic. In India, during the last six months had a tough time for everyone as government had announced the lockdown in the month of March because of day by day increasing in the number of cases of coronavirus. Pregnant women have more stress about the effects[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
New Education Policy : India Takes a Great Leap Backwards

New Education Policy : India Takes a Great Leap Backwards

The document is exclusionary, reactionary and promotes conformism aimed at serving the interests of capitalism. In a document like the New Education Policy, one must distinguish platitudes from new provisions, including the dropping of old platitudes. Thus, phrases like “education is a public good”, “6 per cent of GDP should be earmarked for education” are just platitudes, unless some concrete[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Israel Threatens Pakistan and Saudi Arabia Ditches Pakistan on Kashmir

Israel Threatens Pakistan and Saudi Arabia Ditches Pakistan on Kashmir

The day when Lebanon blasts occurred i.e. August 4, 2020, the same day a news was floated that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is clandestinely pursuing a nuclear-agenda with the help of China 1, only three days later on August 7, 2020, another  headline donned the world media that the KSA Crown Prince MbS  on October 15, 2018, had sent[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Anganwadi Workers Test Their Resilience In The Pandemic

Anganwadi Workers Test Their Resilience In The Pandemic

 During my professional engagement with rural India, I found that one of the most useful resources at the grassroots level was an Anganwadi worker. I would always begin my village exploration with a visit to an Anganwadi and would be rewarded with a finer introduction to the local community. I have always regarded Anganwadi workers as the most efficient last-mile[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Macron Lectures Lebanon: The Condescending Politics of Aid

Macron Lectures Lebanon: The Condescending Politics of Aid

The explosion in a Beirut portside warehouse containing over 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate on August 4 has done its bit to light more fires under Lebanon’s ruling powers.  With the blast still bloodily fresh and traumatic – the destruction of the city’s port with over two hundred deaths and thousands injured – promises of assistance and messages of solidarity[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 1 comment World
Covid-19 and the Health Crisis in Latin America

Covid-19 and the Health Crisis in Latin America

Latin America has surpassed more than 5 million Covid-19 cases to overtake North America, with 4.8 million Covid-19 cases, as the region worst-hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. This astronomic increase in Covid-19 cases has been accompanied by a corresponding economic catastrophe of great magnitude. According to a United Nations Policy Brief entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”, “Parts of Latin America and[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Lost at Sea: Left Liberals Have No Party

Lost at Sea: Left Liberals Have No Party

I wrote this article over four years ago in 2016 for the purpose of challenging left liberals to face the fact that they have no party. In re-reading it today, everything I said in the original article remains true. In fact, the Democratic Party has leaned even further to the right over the last four years. In the face of uprisings of[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Something In the Air

Something In the Air

A 1969 song written and sung by John ‘ Speedy ‘ Keen of the group Thunderclap Newman fits too well today… much too well: Call out the instigators Because there’s something in the air We’ve got to get together sooner or later Because the revolution’s here and you know it’s right And you know that it’s right We’ve got to[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 1 comment World
Human Cost of Silence

Human Cost of Silence

In a haunting memoir, Piera Sonnino has narrated her devastating experience as a twenty-two-year Italian Jewish woman. She lost her parents and three brothers in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. She is the only holocaust survivor in her family. Her memoir, ‘This has happened: An Italian Family in Auschwitz’ provides a moving account of unspeakable evils of Nazism. The[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Corporate As Predator, State As Accomplice

Corporate As Predator, State As Accomplice

W.H. Auden, the British poet, once wrote that many lives have been lived without love, but none without water – or words to that effect. Auden couldn’t possibly have written about the utter necessity of water without thinking of the billions and trillions of farming families who contributed since time immemorial to the making of human cultures and civilizations. If[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Draconian Laws and Suppression of Dissidents

Draconian Laws and Suppression of Dissidents

To the world India is known as the largest democracy in the world. If you considered holding elections at regular interval as the only criteria of being a democracy you can give this tag. But, the dismal condition of freedom of speech and the right to dissent in the country is a real cause of concern for the activists and[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
 Will War with Iran Be Trump’s Election Eve Shocker?

 Will War with Iran Be Trump’s Election Eve Shocker?

Was Donald Trump’s January 3rd drone assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering Cold War between the United States and Iran into a hot war in the weeks before an American presidential election? Of course, there’s no way to know, but behind by double digits in most national polls and flanked by ultra-hawkish Secretary of State[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Democratise Roads, Govt dare not call us Urban Naxals

Democratise Roads, Govt dare not call us Urban Naxals

Here is an opportunity to stress the demand for democratisation of road space. The government dare not accuse the activists of being urban Naxals because its own guidelines in the wake of Covid suggest creating more space on roads for bicycles and pedestrians. Various studies conducted by the ministry of housing and urban affairs MoHUA show that about 16-57% of[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Abrogation Of Article 370 Came Up After Paying the High Cost

Abrogation Of Article 370 Came Up After Paying the High Cost

It was 5th August, last year, when Narendra Modi led Bhartiya Janta party (BJP) government stripped off special status of erstwhile state. It was done in the pretext of development, good governance, and peace. It was argued that abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A will open the floodgates for development and prosperity. The former princely state was bifurcated into two[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Journalists struggle for press freedom in Kashmir

 Journalists struggle for press freedom in Kashmir

‘Freedom of press’ means the right to print and publish without any interference from the state or any other public authority. But this, Freedom, like other freedoms, cannot be absolute but is subject to well-known exceptions acknowledge in the public interests, Which in India are enumerated in Article 19 of the constitution. Press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir is under[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
John Was More Naked Than Adam

John Was More Naked Than Adam

Hell is not God’s idea, I believe. I also believe that John Abraham and God had an erratic relationship with each other. But then, why the hell didn’t John invest in full the coins that God had entrusted him so dearly ? I first met John when I was a fresh graduate and a culture -vulture apprentice at Kochi. One[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
We Need to Change Our COVID-19 Strategy

We Need to Change Our COVID-19 Strategy

We would like to think that we can eliminate COVID-19, but doing so is far from certain. The medical system has not been successful in eliminating HIV/AIDS or influenza; the situation with COVID-19 may be similar. We are discovering that people with COVID-19 are extremely hard to identify because a significant share of infections are very mild or completely without[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Don’t Stigmatise the Nuke! Opponents of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

Don’t Stigmatise the Nuke! Opponents of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

It would seem a logical step, at least from an existential perspective: to ban something so utterly horrendous to life; to forbid its use in any circumstances, whatever rationale employed to justify its use. But the nuclear weapon has its admirers.  There are those who continue to worship its sovereign properties, and those who leave gifts at the shrine of[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
A demonstrator holds a sign during an Extinction Rebellion action in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo: julian meehan/flickr/cc)

Scores Of Huge Realities Resolutely Ignored By Mendacious, US Lackey Mainstream Australia

Readers of progressive Alternative Media such as Countercurrents are regularly made aware of major realities that are either totally or largely ignored by One Percenter-, UK- and US-dominated Anglosphere Mainstream media. This mendacious perversion represents a major threat to the citizens of the prosperous Anglosphere countries and to Humanity as a whole. Set out here are scores of huge realities[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Ilina Sen As We Knew Her: A Tribute from WSS

Ilina Sen As We Knew Her: A Tribute from WSS

Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) deeply mourns the passing away of Ilina Sen on August 9 in Kolkata. Ilina, 69, was a feminist activist, teacher, researcher and writer passionately involved with the women’s movement in India. Be it through activist work or classroom pedagogy, conferences or rallies, Ilina’s  deep engagement with women’s struggles in Madhya Pradesh and[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Remembrances and Confessions

Remembrances and Confessions

“Life is everywhere, life is in ourselves, not outside.” (Dostoevsky, just after his death sentence was commuted) Vision from the metal cubicle circling over the shores of southeastern Sicily seems to encompass the entire Mediterranean world,  the spatial unity of which world atlases confirm: Sicily, now just beneath us and to the West, Africa fixed to the South, Greece and[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Rising Binod Culture

The Rising Binod Culture

This morning when I opened Facebook, my newsfeed was swarmed with people sharing the same monosyllabic status update. They were writing Binod, a male given name popular in Asia, and people in the comment section were leaving Binod in the comments. When I switched to Twitter, Binod was trending at number 3. My curiosity was picking up speed. To my[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Ilina Sen (January 29, 1951-August 9, 2020)

Ilina Sen (January 29, 1951-August 9, 2020)

Why do good people have to suffer? This is a question mankind has been facing for thousands of years. Our Hindu religion has the answer, ‘because of sins committed in the previous birth’. Obviously people like us can not accept this. While the news of Ilina’s death last night brought a host of memories and sadness in me, this question[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Commemorations of the Bhima Koregaon Battle Are a Reminder that Colonialism in India Predates the Arrival of the British

Commemorations of the Bhima Koregaon Battle Are a Reminder that Colonialism in India Predates the Arrival of the British

The Bhima Koregaon battle took place on 1 January 1818 between a contingent of the East India Company army mainly consisting of soldiers belonging to the Mahar caste (one of the many “untouchable” castes in India whose members are today known as Dalits) and the army of the Peshwas, who were the rulers of the Maratha confederacy. The Peshwa army[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Modi’s India has lost Kashmir

Modi’s India has lost Kashmir

 While ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured people that the time had now come when gold would grow instead of grass, milk canals would flow in exchange for water in the rivers and springs and the skies would sight flight of Kashmiris not the birds. Article 370 of the[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Revive the Role of Trust in Economy and Politics

Revive the Role of Trust in Economy and Politics

The pandemic driven lockdowns have triggered worldwide growth of unemployment, hunger, homelessness and poverty. The speed of economic descent in world economy is extraordinary. The world is sleep walking into greater economic depression of the century and its impacts will reverberate for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led economic crisis has been used by ruling and non-ruling classes to reconfigured the[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
An Arab Autumn 2.0 Awaits To Happen

An Arab Autumn 2.0 Awaits To Happen

 The purported Arab Spring 2.0 which I would say as Arab Autumn 2.0 has begun, and the bad omens are writ large, as not even a week has passed, that Lebanon is seething against its government, after the mushroom cloud of blast had enveloped it on August 4, 2020, which was foretold by Simpson Cartoon 1 in advance, and all[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Article 370 & Kashmiri Women: The fading spectacle of empowerment and emancipation

Article 370 & Kashmiri Women: The fading spectacle of empowerment and emancipation

There is no chance for welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. Liberty is the first condition of growth. It should encompass all aspects whether political or economic. The inner structure of liberty is a double helix: One strand – political freedom – spirally in tandem with other strand – economic freedom. Any disruption then makes[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Bollywood Star Survives COVID, But Stokes India’s Lynching Pandemic

Bollywood Star Survives COVID, But Stokes India’s Lynching Pandemic

This Eid, as India’s latest known lynching target Lukman Khan fought for his life, India’s most famous film star Amitabh Bachchan promised mob violence against a Twitter heckler. In Gurgaon, the shining IT satellite of India’s capital, Lukman Khan was pulled from his vehicle, abused, and bludgeoned with a hammer for allegedly transporting beef. While being assaulted, he’s heard on video explaining that he was transporting buffalo meat, not cow[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 1 comment India
Free image download: https://pixabay.com/de

It Could Have Been Different – My World and (Unfortunately) Welcome to It

Let me be blunt. This wasn’t the world I imagined for my denouement. Not faintly. Of course, I can’t claim I ever really imagined such a place. Who, in their youth, considers their death and the world that might accompany it, the one you might leave behind for younger generations? I’m 76 now. True, if I were lucky (or perhaps[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Sri Preston Kulkarni’s RSS Problem

Sri Preston Kulkarni’s RSS Problem

US leadership of India’s fascist movement backs Texas Democrat In August 2019, Congressman Khanna charted a new course for the Indian-American diaspora when he commented on reportage about Tulsi Gabbard’s RSS links, stating: “It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, and Christians.”[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Ram Temple Celebration in Modi-fied India

The Ram Temple Celebration in Modi-fied India

Last week, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, dressed like a priest-king in a saffron scarf and a silver crown performed a sacred ritual in the Ayodhya to found a new Hindu temple on a site where, for hundreds of years, the historic Babri Masjid (mosque) once stood. The state-sponsored ceremony was meant to show the transformation of India from[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
“At Ayodhya, On Unity in Diversity of 300 Ramayanas, PM Modi Bows before Scholar A. K. Ramanujan” 

“At Ayodhya, On Unity in Diversity of 300 Ramayanas, PM Modi Bows before Scholar A. K. Ramanujan” 

While listening to PM Modi at Ayodhya, over TV the other day, dilating confidently on the theme of “unity in diversity” ( including a BIG LIE) with regard to the existence of many Ramayanas, I was thinking where has this non-scholar ( mildly put ) plagiarised his material from? Later , I was reminded of the great scholar, poet, folklorist,[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 2 comments India
70 Years Of Constitutional Rights Denied To 20 Millions Indian Dalit Christians

70 Years Of Constitutional Rights Denied To 20 Millions Indian Dalit Christians

“Commission for Minority Religion and Linguistic Minority” known as “Misra Commission” was setup by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government in 2005 to study and report on socio-economic condition of Christians and Muslims converted from Scheduled Caste origins. The Justice Misra Commission report was submitted on May 22, 2007. Since then UPA Government has delayed to give its consent that Supreme[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims await justice: 70 Years of Discrimination based on Religion

Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims await justice: 70 Years of Discrimination based on Religion

Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims observe August 10th across the country as a day to highlight and protest the denial of the fundamental constitutional rights to them for the last seventy years! When India became a Republic, we resolved as a nation to secure Justice, Equality, Liberty and Dignity for all our citizens. Members of castes worst affected from centuries[Read More…]

by 10/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Attack on Indigenous Rights in Brazil

The Attack on Indigenous Rights in Brazil

On 5 August, 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to institute measures aimed at protecting indigenous people from the Covid-19 pandemic. This ruling is the legal recognition of the totally disastrous anti-indigenous policies of the Bolsonaro government. Like other indigenous people living in the Peruvian jungles, eastern Bolivia, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Colombian Amazon, Brazilian collectivities[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Fascism: Classical and present form – differ only in method and strategy

Fascism: Classical and present form – differ only in method and strategy

In recent times, the term ‘fascism’ has become so widely used that it has become difficult to define it precisely. It is often used as a metaphor by the fiercest critics of any politics. Historically, however, fascism refers to extreme right-wing, anti-democratic, ultranationalism that spread rapidly through Europe between the two world wars. Though it is commonly associated with Adolf[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India, Editor's Picks
Media, instead of faulting PM Modi for Bhoomi pooja, chants Jai Shri Ram 

Media, instead of faulting PM Modi for Bhoomi pooja, chants Jai Shri Ram 

The mainstream media — particularly Hindi newspapers — instead of critiquing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for performing Bhoomi pooja (groundbreaking) of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, is chanting Jai Shri Ram. It has again failed to uphold the constitutional principle of secularism. On August 6, a day after Bhoomi pooja ceremony, almost all Hindi newspapers carried pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 1 comment India
Pushing GMO Crops Into India: Experts Debunk High-Level Claims of Bt Cotton Success

Pushing GMO Crops Into India: Experts Debunk High-Level Claims of Bt Cotton Success

On 6 July 2020, an article extolling the benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops appeared on the BloombergQuint website based on an interview with Dr Ramesh Chand, a member of the key Indian Government think tank Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) . On 17 July, another piece that placed a positive spin on GM crops and gene editing[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Social Stigmatisation of Covid 19 Patients

Social Stigmatisation of Covid 19 Patients

Co-Written by Abass Rather & Aqib Yousuf Ever since the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic, the fear of getting infected was always there. No matter how courageous one pretends to be. Everyone utilised all resources to save themselves from it in the first stage of it and in the first lockdown period. As the days progressed, different stories among the[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Growing up as a girl in rural India: What does it mean?

Growing up as a girl in rural India: What does it mean?

  Adolescence or teenage is that critical phase when one transitions from childhood to adulthood. It is marked by important biological changes and the onset of puberty. This ‘growing up’ is also about experiencing the joys and challenges of youth. However, for many girls especially those living in rural India, growing up in patriarchal socio-cultural set ups also signifies the[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 1 comment Patriarchy
5th August, 2020 and thereafter

5th August, 2020 and thereafter

Sixth December, 1992 – The day India lost its secular character and opted for majoritarionism as its ruling philosophy. The quilt of India made from its myriad beliefs, religions, languages, customs and traditions was torn to shreds by an insane crowd of zealous fanatics egged on by a short-sighted selfish leadership of Bhartiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh.[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Selective Maritime Rules: The United States, Diego Garcia and International Law

Selective Maritime Rules: The United States, Diego Garcia and International Law

There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People’s Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations.  In July, Mike Pompeo released a statement putting any uncertain minds at ease on where Washington stood on the matter. “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Beirut Blast

Beirut Blast

Four days after the Beirut Blast of 4th August 2020, the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, has attempted to explain what caused the largest explosion since the end of the Second World War. He attributes it to either the accidental ignition of 2750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate ( AN) stored in a warehouse at Beirut port or a planned attack by[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Lebanon: The Beirut Blast, Destabilisation, Chaos, an attempt at Regime change

Lebanon: The Beirut Blast, Destabilisation, Chaos, an attempt at Regime change

An attempted coup d’etat is underway in Lebanon. Another orchestrated colour revolution being attempted, as rioters turn violent, takeover government buildings, burn documents & properties. The target is regime change, or worse an outright religio-sectarian Civil War, which for long has been a US-Israeli-Saudi plan to destroy Lebanon. Interference by US & France in the immediate aftermath of the terror[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Food Security In India – An Analysis

 Food Security In India – An Analysis

Food is the basic need and fundamental right of every human being. The United Nations (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25,1948) used an ecological perspective rooted in social justice to define “right to food”. It emphasizes ” quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumers belong, and[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Indian Christians Call Upon The Government To Protect The Minorities And The Marginalised

Indian Christians Call Upon The Government To Protect The Minorities And The Marginalised

Indian Christians for Democracy, Solidarity Statement As Indian Christians we have always and continue to uphold the Constitutional Values of our country, as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic and Republic. We believe in, and practice, the Principles of Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, enshrined in the Constitution. Christians as individuals and their institutions have been in the forefront in times[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
On Community Control of Police: An interview with M Adams

On Community Control of Police: An interview with M Adams

The nationwide uprising against police brutality has completely changed the conversation around policing and safety. The demand to defund police which would have been deemed unthinkable in the mainstream not long ago, but are now being taken up as official policy in towns and cities across the country. At this moment, it is crucial to expand the conversation to include[Read More…]

by 09/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Philosophers Of Patience

Philosophers Of Patience

            Fifty two years ago, on 20th August, Russian tanks moved into Prague to suppress what has passed into history as the ‘Spring of 1968’ when artists, intellectuals, public personalities and reforms-minded politicians joined hands in an attempt to secure freedom of expression. Among the sufferers was the great long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek, who was dismissed from his senior position[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
US Anyhow Want CPEC/BRI Dead

US Anyhow Want CPEC/BRI Dead

  There seems to be a different wind blowing from US as President Donald Trump is gearing to meet to his November 2020 elections,  and has dropped a signal, that its greatest and oldest ally in Middle-East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) , has been accused of pursuing a nuclear-dream which can never be accepted by Israel-which unofficially has more[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Vaccinate This….But!!

 Vaccinate This….But!!

Anyone who was raised in Brooklyn, NYC, like this writer, knows how humongous and diverse this ‘ The Garden Spot of the World ‘  has always been. Each section of our over 3 million populated borough  ( a joke in itself to not have Brooklyn as its own city)  was filled with a unique myriad of ethnicities . Many times,[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 1 comment World
 NAPM expresses Solidarity with Adv Prashant Bhushan

 NAPM expresses Solidarity with Adv Prashant Bhushan

National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) expresses its concern at the initiation of contempt proceedings against human rights activist and advocate Mr. Prashant Bhushan, by the Supreme Court of India (SC), in respect of two of his tweets. The tweets are worth restating, if only to remind ourselves about the absurdity and unfairness of the criminal proceedings against Mr. Bhushan.[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Understanding the Spirit of Quit India Movement

Understanding the Spirit of Quit India Movement

The 78th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, famously known as the August Revolution in the history of India’s freedom movement, falls on August 9, 2020. The movement was inspired by the intense desire of freedom of the Indian people. According to a letter written by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia to the Viceroy Linlithgow, the British government had killed fifty[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Such A Temple Would Not Have Been Acceptable To Ram And Should Not Be Acceptable To A Common Hindu

Such A Temple Would Not Have Been Acceptable To Ram And Should Not Be Acceptable To A Common Hindu

Co-Written by Arundhati Dhuru and Sandeep Pandey Ram has been described as Maryada Purushottam, the most virtuous among men. He left his kingdom merely because he didn’t want to hurt the sentiments of his step mother and went on a 14 years exile. It was not in his character to enter into a dispute. He had to enter into a[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Democracy is not about Detention and Suppressing Dissent: Release political prisoners and restore trust

Democracy is not about Detention and Suppressing Dissent: Release political prisoners and restore trust

It has been one year now since Article 370 abrogation done undemocratically and immorally by Government of India where thousands of persons including prominent political leaders were pushed behind walls over the night because the largest democracy of world feared that these political leaders have a base in population which was required to be cut to avoid any dissent ,[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The World on Fire

The World on Fire

Massive uncontrolled unprecedented wild fires are consuming portions of the Amazon rainforest and several regions of the Arctic. Somebody somewhere must be asking why all of a sudden in unison, all over creation, two of the planets largest ecosystems are going up in smoke. It’s eerily spine chilling. “Major fires have hit the Amazon and the Arctic for the second[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The Likud Conspiracy: Israel in the Throes of a Major Political Crisis

The Likud Conspiracy: Israel in the Throes of a Major Political Crisis

Protests against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have raged on for weeks, turning violent sometimes. Israelis are furious at their government’s mediocre response to the coronavirus pandemic, especially as COVID-19 disease is experiencing a massive surge throughout the country. Netanyahu warned protesters, thousands of whom have been rallying outside his residence in Jerusalem, against “anarchy (and) violence”. Scenes of utter[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Foiled at Toronto: The Tiger Squad’s Canadian Outing

Foiled at Toronto: The Tiger Squad’s Canadian Outing

Silencing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was a feat of primeval brutality that sent a shudder through even the most hardened officials.  The House of Saud, and in particular certain members of it, had gotten a taste for blood. Soon after Khashoggi’s slicing and dicing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the hands of a specially assembled hit[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Is Indian Big data collection for Israel’s Covid-19 Rapid Test kits development ethical?

Is Indian Big data collection for Israel’s Covid-19 Rapid Test kits development ethical?

In India recently, there is all the hype in mainstream media about a probable 30 second rapid COVID-19 detection system by collaboration of DRDO with the Israeli military R&D. Reportedly, there are four developments that are planned to be tested: Online voice test along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Breath analyser based on Terahertz waves along with AI Isothermal test using[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Human Rights: Feminism Inside The Womb

Human Rights: Feminism Inside The Womb

Fidelity could not just be about sex. I picture to myself as an activist young woman, bright, ambitious. Because, your womb has taken a precious stead in the universe. Sometimes, I think not to come out from this place. But, your love doesn’t let me stay inside your womb. Because, you want to show something that you have already been[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Two Language formula –mother tongue and English medium best suits

Two Language formula –mother tongue and English medium best suits

Language policy in NEP is not suitable to present context. The overemphasis of Hindi and Sanskrit in proposed three-language policy, and withdrawal of English from primary level, in National Education policy 2020 will be impacting over non-Hindi speaking states. If executed, the language burden will be more on students of these states and additional burden on students of linguistic and[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 1 comment India
India-China Border Conflict: Need For A change In Attitude Of Indian Polity

India-China Border Conflict: Need For A change In Attitude Of Indian Polity

The Galwan valley violent clash on June 15th in the eastern Ladakh borders of India and China, has triggered an emotionally charged situation in the country.  With the hike in military activity and occasional clashes occurring between two militaries in Pangong Tso (lake) area from May 5th this year, the peace and tranquillity at borders of India and China was[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 2 comments India
 A nuclear-free world is crucial for sustainable development

 A nuclear-free world is crucial for sustainable development

Co-Written by Anjali Roy, Ankit Kumar, Anurag Ratan, KS Lakshmi Naraayan, Kaustubh Jain and Sartaj Singh “Most people are completely, blissfully ignorant about the situation, and those of us who believe in sustainable development are not able to do anything”, this is how Dr SP Udayakumar describes the current situation relating to nuclear power and its uses throughout the world.[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Documentary Evidence of the Betrayal of Quit India Movement by Savarkar, Syama Prasad Mukherjee and RSS

Documentary Evidence of the Betrayal of Quit India Movement by Savarkar, Syama Prasad Mukherjee and RSS

On the eve of 78th anniversary of the glorious Quit India Movement [QIM] we must evaluate the role of the Hindutva gang in India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle. QIM also known as ‘August Kranti’ (August Revolution) was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience Movement for which a call was given on August 7, 1942 by the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee.[Read More…]

by 08/08/2020 1 comment India
Narendra Modi acted like king and God in Ayodhya

Narendra Modi acted like king and God in Ayodhya

One of the memorable productions of Ebrahim Alkazi was Dharmavir Bharati’s Hindi play Andha Yug whose title and theme are so relevant to the dark times we live in. It was directed by the doyen of Indian theatre in 1963 against the backdrop of Purana Quila, the fort, and was witnessed by Jawaharlal Nehru. The story hints at the perils[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Beirut Will Take Decades To Rebuild

Beirut Will Take Decades To Rebuild

Lebanon, the Switzerland of Middle-East and its capital Beirut-the Paris of Middle-East, a house to 2.4 million people 1 , out of 6.8 2 million in whole of Lebanon , are smothered by blasts on August 4, 2020, by 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate kept in a waterfront warehouse at a port in Beirut, killing 135 people, leaving more than[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 India towards a police-state?

 India towards a police-state?

(1) “Members of the police shall exercise their functions, powers and duties as impartial servants of the general public and the Government of the day. … No member of the police may be ordered or forced to exercise his other functions or powers or deploy police resources to promote or undermine any political party or interest group, or any member[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
NHRC Awards Compensation For Human Rights Defenders Wrongly Booked And Illegally Arrested

NHRC Awards Compensation For Human Rights Defenders Wrongly Booked And Illegally Arrested

PUCL Welcomes the NHRC directions to the Chhattisgarh Government, Ordering one lakh rupees compensation to those wrongly booked and illegally arrested. The PUCL welcomes the decision of the NHRC against the State of Chhattisgarh on its complaint number 667/33/20/2016 filed in 2016, which directs the Government of Chhattisgarh to pay compensation of Rs. one lakh each, to 13 members of[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Death From the Sky: Hiroshima and Normalised Atrocities

Death From the Sky: Hiroshima and Normalised Atrocities

When US President Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by another on Nagasaki a few days later, he was not acting as an agent untethered from history.  In the wheels of his wearied mind lay the battered Marines who, despite being victorious, had received sanguinary lashings at Iwo[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 1 comment World
 An open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada from a survivor of the Hiroshima A-Bombing

 An open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada from a survivor of the Hiroshima A-Bombing

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Dear Prime Minister Trudeau: As a Hiroshima survivor, I was honoured to jointly accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. With the approaching 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 1 comment World
Is Independent Muslim Students’ Politics Possible in Higher Educational Institutions?

Is Independent Muslim Students’ Politics Possible in Higher Educational Institutions?

Co-Written by Shamsher Alam and Mohammad Niyaz Ahmad In common-sense perspective, students of university and college are being considered as monolithic category. The advocators of students’ politics also credence to the same thought. However, they overlook that students are not a macro unit. They are very much divided on the line of castes, class, region, ideology and most importantly religion.[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
In Defence Of Committees For Defence of Political Prisoners

In Defence Of Committees For Defence of Political Prisoners

After Prof. G. N. Saibaba’s arrest a 17-person Committee for the Defence and Release of Saibaba was constituted to expedite his bail and also that all his legal and constitutional rights stay protected. With the arrest of Prof. Hany Babu, member of this Committee on 28 July, 2020 and the subsequent raid on 2 August, 2020 at his house by[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Are Central Universities Modern-Day Agraharams?

Are Central Universities Modern-Day Agraharams?

Will we ever know the category-wise distribution of vice chancellors of the forty central universities located across the country? Thanks to the rules governing these universities, and those of the University Grants Commission, there is no such record. This form of “castelessness” at the top is coupled with marginal representation of teachers from socially and physically marginalised sections. Be it[Read More…]

by 07/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Beirut Goes Up In Smoke

Beirut Goes Up In Smoke

To see Beirut and its port area with a huge mushroom cloud hanging above is a truly surreal sight. But what is not surreal in battered Lebanese capital? A big part of the downtown looks flattened, thoroughly ruined. One of my Japanese friends based in Beirut exclaimed: “It looks like Hiroshima!” It does. Who is behind the carnage? What really[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Reversal

Reversal

With survival at stake, can weapon makers change course? Today, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the atomic attack on Hiroshima, should be a day for quiet introspection. I recall a summer morning following the U.S. 2003 “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq when the segment of the Chicago River flowing past the headquarters of the world’s second largest defense contractor, Boeing,[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
War and Pandemic Journalism

War and Pandemic Journalism

  The struggle against Covid-19 has often been compared to fighting a war. Much of this rhetoric is bombast, but the similarities between the struggle against the virus and against human enemies are real enough. War reporting and pandemic reporting likewise have much in common because, in both cases, journalists are dealing with and describing matters of life and death.[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Criminalization of Dalit Thought and Action

Criminalization of Dalit Thought and Action

Assertion of Dalits and consciousness that began flowering in the second half of twentieth century was not to create submissive Dalits to any force of oppression. Its intention was very clear. Dalits said out loud that they had enough. They declared out loud that from then on, they would fight for their rights, dignity, history, culture, power and property. The[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
India’s Composite Culture and Muslim Stalwarts

India’s Composite Culture and Muslim Stalwarts

Contrary to present impression that Muslims are separatists due to whom the partition of India took place, the truth is that majority of Muslims contributed to freedom movement and upheld India’s composite culture in equal measure. The partition process, mainly due to British policy of ‘divide and rule’ well assisted by Hindu and Muslim communalists is being hidden from the[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
COVID-19 In Kerala And The Rest Of The World: The Dangerously Lethal And A Surprisingly Benign Images Of SARS-COV-2?

COVID-19 In Kerala And The Rest Of The World: The Dangerously Lethal And A Surprisingly Benign Images Of SARS-COV-2?

As on 6th August 2020, the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19)  has affected 213 countries and territories around the world infecting over 19 million people of whom 0.7 million died. The US is on top with 5 million cases and 163,000 death. Brazil and India holds the second and third slots with 2.9 and 2 million cases. In terms of infection rates, Qatar,[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Our Planet Missed Opportunity To Unite And Fight Side-By-Side Against The Pandemic

 Our Planet Missed Opportunity To Unite And Fight Side-By-Side Against The Pandemic

It is time to stop irresponsible finger-pointing. All over the world, as this essay is being written, well over 17 million COVID-19 cases have been reported, and 676,000 people died. And instead of concentrating on serious research, trying to save human lives and attempting to stop the global calamity, ‘residents’ of the White House are spending all the energy on[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 2 comments World
Raise, Don’t Stabilize and Don’t Reduce Social Costs

Raise, Don’t Stabilize and Don’t Reduce Social Costs

The on-going Black Lives Matter protests are beyond incredible. Pandemic rages. And yet week after week people courageously persist. Duration unprecedented. Intensity amazing. The protests are inspiring. But what is the underlying logic? Where are the protests headed? Indeed, stepping back just a bit, what is the purpose of any activist protest? Set aside that tiny numbers engage for fun[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Hope from the field – Amicable Hindu Muslim Collaboration

Hope from the field – Amicable Hindu Muslim Collaboration

 Co-Written by Supriya Joshi, Vishal Kumar and Sandeep Pandey India is one the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations of the world. It has a syncretic culture and people have learned to live together respecting each other’s beliefs. However, in the recent past, communal politics has been used extensively for mobilizing voters. This has led to extreme communal polarisation and[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Big Tech Antics: The Data Robber Barons Appear Before Congress

Big Tech Antics: The Data Robber Barons Appear Before Congress

Silicon Valley continues to sprawl in influence, and its modern robber barons bestride the globe with a confidence verging on contempt.  The technology giants that mark that region of California are praised as “virtuosos of ingenuity,” to use Steve Forbes’ words, “creating and supplying products and services that were once unimaginable and that have been enabling us to survive the[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Feeling blue

Rising Suicidal Tendencies Among Teenagers

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults worldwide. Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan. Studies from India consistently document the highest suicide rates in the world, and the majority of completed suicides had been[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Peace process in Afghanistan: En route to failure?

Peace process in Afghanistan: En route to failure?

The ongoing peace process provided an opportunity for Afghan factions to unite and undo all the wrongs committed against them in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the internal strife of Afghanis has again prevailed over this opportunity. Explicitly, compelled by the upcoming election promise, the US wishes to withdraw forces from Afghanistan. China and Pakistan are earnestly pushing the peace[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Original image courtesy : Vikar Syed

We the People Remember — 365 Days of Violation of Constitutional Commitment to Our Sisters and Brothers in J&K

August 5, 2020 marks a year since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir, and the loss of its statehood. In effect, it is the first anniversary of the violation of our Constitutional commitment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. How is this anniversary being marked officially? According to news reports, through an imposition of[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Congress party’s ‘Contribution’ to build Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Congress party’s ‘Contribution’ to build Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Those who expect political class to be a ‘revolutionary’ and ‘radically’ ‘secular’ live in great illusion and should form their ‘own’ outfits which their own families will not support. Intellectualism and politics, frankly do not go together. Politics is sentiments, emotions and all the Saas-Bahu masala that we love to watch on TV screens. The reason why I am writing[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Day After – A few questions for Indian Muslims to ponder over

The Day After – A few questions for Indian Muslims to ponder over

It boggles my mind, astonished to observe as to how those Indian Muslims who support Erdogan on the Hagia Sophia, oppose Modi on Ram Mandir? How do you oppose a Hindu Rashtra here, whilst welcoming Islamic states abroad, where Muslims are in a majority? Thus it is often said that, where Muslims are in a minority they demand & support[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
EIA: Environment Impact Assessment

EIA: Environment Impact Assessment

E Urbanization and industrialization has taken over the world in the name of development , which lead to a rapid decline in our environmental treasure. In order to curtail this environmental depletion, the Government has introduced an assessment that controls the utilization, acquisition, and usage of natural resources by employing the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). This assessment is mandatory for[Read More…]

The Life & Legacy Of Abdul Bari

The Life & Legacy Of Abdul Bari

   Currently, the impression that things can be made to happen even without the participation of the working class is being sought to be furthered by employers and managements. What to speak of marginalization, it is the evaporization of the worker from public consciousness that is being attempted. Just visualize the surrealistic pilgrim’s progress that we have covered in the[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
‘We stand with Kashmir’

‘We stand with Kashmir’

Solidarity of poets, writers, advocates and of different political and human rights organisation to the struggle of people of Kashmir for autonomy Since the abrogation of Article 370 and subsequent declaration of Kashmir as the union territory of India on 5th August 2019, the lives of the people of Kashmir have gone from bad to worse. Around 34000 Kashmiris, including[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Christians Forced To Conduct Non-Christian Funeral And Renounce Faith In Jharkhand

Christians Forced To Conduct Non-Christian Funeral And Renounce Faith In Jharkhand

Religious Radicals prevented a bereaved Christian family from burying their dead at a village in Jharkhand. They told the family that they could perform the last rites of 52-year-old *Vilas Singh, if it was done recognizing the religious beliefs of the village. Persecution Relief spoke to the nephew of the deceased, *Ramu Singh. He explained that his late uncle was[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Constitutional Positions should not be misused for Political gains – Cultural, Socio- Political , and Religious leaders

Constitutional Positions should not be misused for Political gains – Cultural, Socio- Political , and Religious leaders

Thiruvananthapuram: In a joint statement prominent individuals from sociopolitical , cultural and religious spheres of Kerala called on those adorning constitutional positions to stay away from the groundbreaking ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya . The occasion should not be misused for narrow political gains. Prime Minister of India, a secular country, Governor and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh should[Read More…]

by 06/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Sangh Parivar Has Won

The Sangh Parivar Has Won

All India People’s Front’s Political Resolution When the Hon’ble Supreme Court gave a verdict on the Ram Mandir / Babri Masjid dispute, the democratic civil society, despite agreeing / disagreeing with it, had expressed the desire that a dispute be resolved and now the political establishment will not try to mix religion and politics. It will try to solve the[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 1 comment India
The-N- Discourse: In-group and Out-group Debate

The-N- Discourse: In-group and Out-group Debate

Nepotism as a culture is being seasoned in forms of cronyism, favouritism, as it knocks backs calibre and worth and leaves behind a collegium apparatus. We discern nepotism in Bollywood as it is exhibited in the spotlight for one and all to catch sight of. But the existent and the historical process of nepotism that has engendered exceptional levels of[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Indian Republic Transformed into Formal Brahmanic Hindu Republic

Indian Republic Transformed into Formal Brahmanic Hindu Republic

Chandigarh, 5 August (2020) With Hindutva forces pursuing of the upper-caste Brahmanic ideology for over a century aiming to reshape India into a Hindu Nation, the Democratic-Secular Indian Republic today stands formally transformed into a Hindu Rashtra as Prime Minister Modi laid down a 40-kg silver brick at the foundation, marking the beginning of Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The Sikh[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Political leaders must learn from Pandit Nehru

Political leaders must learn from Pandit Nehru

Grand foundation laying ceremony at Ayodhya is a blow to the secular credentials of India. The fact that 3 constitutional dignitaries PM, UP CM and UP Governor, tasked with duty to protect and preserve the constitution, attended a religious ceremony is attack on constitutional values. This is in clear disregard with the oath which they take, “ to bear true[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 3 comments India
 Kashmir Caged: One Year Since Arbitrary Abrogation of Article 370

 Kashmir Caged: One Year Since Arbitrary Abrogation of Article 370

NAPM Stands with the Resistance of the People of Jammu & Kashmir:  Struggle to End Oppression, Militarization & Corporate Loot must continue 5th August, 2020 marks the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which took away the political autonomy of the only Muslim majority state in the country, severely jeopardized the future of the[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Overture of Categories and the Amendment of Article 370: A year into the nation’s ‘reverie’

Overture of Categories and the Amendment of Article 370: A year into the nation’s ‘reverie’

If one is to turn back the clock to September 1964, the inevitability of memory regarding a discussion over a bill introduced by Prakash Vir Shastri, an independent member in Lok Sabha comes to mind. The bill proposed the abrogation of article 370 and Vir Shastri, then the Bijnor MP, had introduced the bill a few months after Sheikh Abdullah,[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Rana Ayyub: An Epitome Of Bravery

Rana Ayyub: An Epitome Of Bravery

While I’m writing this, Rana Ayyub might be distributing relief packages and serving the poor, helpless and needy somewhere in India. She is not just a journalist but a humanitarian and an activist par human rights defender. She is fearless, brave and staunch democratic advocate. Since covid lockdown, rana ayub has travelled thousands of miles, visited thousands of homes and[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
A Warning: What Is Modi’s Future Plan?

A Warning: What Is Modi’s Future Plan?

Modi is a shrewd, calculating and ambitious man. He was not in politics till he was 51 when he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Prior to that he was a nobody in the BJP. But he outmanouverd his mentor Advani and became Prime Minister and sent the old guards to oblivion. He has the ability to outsmart his opponents[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 1 comment India
One Nation-One Education System: Should It Be Endorsed In India?

One Nation-One Education System: Should It Be Endorsed In India?

Education is the most powerful weapon to produce desirable changes in our society, and in order to drive the nation towards greater accomplishments, it is important to furnish quality education to all of its citizens. The education system in India is one of the world’s largest sectors and after Independence, the country has passed through many reforms right from 10+2+3[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
“Never again”: In remembrance of August 6, 1945

“Never again”: In remembrance of August 6, 1945

A mother and child, dressed in traditional clothing, sit on the ground amid rubble and burnt trees, Hiroshima, Japan, December 1945; some four months after the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on the city. (Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) On August 6th, in Hiroshima, Japan, people will gather at the Peace Memorial, or A-Bomb Dome[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Hey Ram India and Jai Sri Ram Congress

Hey Ram India and Jai Sri Ram Congress

‘Hey Ram’ were the last words of Mahatma Gandhi; the father of the nation. He uttered these words on 30th of January 1948 while taking bullets from his assassin; a Hindutva terrorist called Nathuram Godse. The Hindutva politics of hate filled bullets from the Beretta automatic pistol that killed Mahatma Gandhi. This was the first onslaught on the secular and[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Apartheid or One State: Has Jordan Broken a Political Taboo? 

Apartheid or One State: Has Jordan Broken a Political Taboo? 

What will it take for the idea of a two-state solution, which was hardly practical to begin with, to be completely abandoned? Every realistic assessment of the situation on the ground indicates, with palpable clarity, that there can never be a viable Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Politically, the idea is also untenable. Those who[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Jailed Indian scholar denied the opportunity to see his dying mother

Jailed Indian scholar denied the opportunity to see his dying mother

If the insensitivity being shown by the Indian state towards a physically challenged former Delhi University Professor is any indication, the government of the world’s so called largest democracy lacks compassion. Wheelchair bound G.N. Saibaba, who is ninety percent disabled below the waist, is incarcerated after being convicted for life after being branded as Maoist sympathizer. He is among several[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Families of three Christian brothers brutally attacked and left homeless by mob in Jharkhand

Families of three Christian brothers brutally attacked and left homeless by mob in Jharkhand

In yet another horrific case of Christian persecution, a Christian family was mercilessly beaten up by a mob of raging religious fanatics in the Indian state of Jharkhand. The mob of over 40 fanatics led by the village headman not only assaulted the family but savagely vandalized their home and belongings, falsely accusing the family of converting villagers to Christianity.[Read More…]

by 05/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Military Is Sick

The Military Is Sick

A Navy Spouse’s Take on Why We’re Not Getting Better American military personnel are getting sick in significant numbers in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. As The New York Times reported in a piece buried in the back pages of its July 21st edition, “The infection rate in the services has tripled over the past six weeks as the United States military has[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Dems are Determined to Have Trump Re-Elected

 Dems are Determined to Have Trump Re-Elected

This article arose from disbelief at South Carolina Congressman James E. Clyburn’s awkward response to one of President Trump’s ridiculous and mendacious tweets. The Democratic Party is engaged in “déjà vu,” committed to getting Trump elected again. Vice-president selection. What are the qualifications for this vice-president? Should be able to replace the president. Contrary to accepted notion that the vice-president[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Through Sanctions On Iran US To Target CPEC And BRI

Through Sanctions On Iran US To Target CPEC And BRI

It was to be only for naives, not to have expected US to throw a spanner into the Iran-China 400 billion USD ‘trade and military’ deal , for 25 years on July 13, 2020 1 , as US would do everything to scuttle the deal , and as expected, the sanctions came, rather more sanctions came, thick and fast on[Read More…]

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One Year in the Abyss: Voices from Kashmir

One Year in the Abyss: Voices from Kashmir

On Aug 5, 2019, the abrogation of Art 370 and Art 35A of the Indian Constitution struck a body blow to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, dismembering the state into two union territories and dissolving the meagre protection the people of the state had over their land. In the midst of the most massive military presence, the complete shutdown[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Israel bombs targets in southern Syria amid tensions

Israel bombs targets in southern Syria amid tensions

Citing the Israeli military media reports from Jerusalem said: Israeli fighter jets and attack helicopters struck military targets in southern Syria belonging to the Syrian army Monday night, hours after thwarting an infiltration attempt from Syria by suspected militants trying to plant explosives. In a rare statement acknowledging strikes in neighboring Syria, the Israeli army said the targets included “observation[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Vadh/Annihilation Of The Indian Republic

The Vadh/Annihilation Of The Indian Republic

The sovereign-democratic Indian Republic came into existence on January 26, 1950 coinciding with the promulgation of a historic constitution which in its Preamble declared its firm commitment to “JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Ayodhya And Tilt In The ‘Idea Of India’

Ayodhya And Tilt In The ‘Idea Of India’

C.L.R. James, a prominent Trinidadian Historian, and Socialist, is well known for his contribution to the historiography of the study of events. He once said, “An artistic, a social event does not reflect the age. It is the age”. These words reflect the influential role that certain events can have on the course of a nation’s history and its people.[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
If Gandhi can feature on UK money, when will non-Brahmin radicals on ours?   

If Gandhi can feature on UK money, when will non-Brahmin radicals on ours?   

Early on Monday morning Telegraph brought us a story that Mahatma Gandhi is all set to become the first non-white to feature on the UK money. The Royal Mint Advisory Committee has taken this decision following a campaign in the UK. The campaign advocates giving space to black, Asian, and ethnic minorities (BAME) on the British money in recognition of their “profound[Read More…]

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DU Professor Apoorvanand Questioned By Delhi Police, Phone Seized

DU Professor Apoorvanand Questioned By Delhi Police, Phone Seized

Delhi University professor Apoorvanand was questioned on Monday by Delhi police in connection with Delhi riots. Apoorvanand said his phone was seized for investigation and he spent five hours with the police. Apoorvanand, who teaches Hindi at Delhi University, urged the police to conduct a thorough, just and fair investigation into the violence. This is the full text of Apoorvanand’s[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
How to Market Traditional Art and Protect Heritage at the Same Time

How to Market Traditional Art and Protect Heritage at the Same Time

Some years ago, a local bakery chain in Kerala started making traditional snacks. The one that caught my attention was the Neyyappam, the ghee-fried cake that later made the news during the Android N naming campaign. My first response was that of joy- at being able to revive childhood memories that were getting lost due to busier lifestyles. But while[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Capitalist Philanthropy: A Means of Circumventing the State?

Capitalist Philanthropy: A Means of Circumventing the State?

On March 13, 2019, Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited and the third richest man in India (according to the Hurun India Rich List1) made an unusual announcement. The announcement was that he would set aside Rs 53,000 crore of his wealth for philanthropy. As a signatory to “Giving Pledge,” the philanthropic project started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet,[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Condemn the raid on the house of Dr Hany Babu

Condemn the raid on the house of Dr Hany Babu

Press Statement by Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr G N Saibaba The Committee for the Defence and Release of G N Saibaba strongly condemns the unwarranted raid on 2nd August 2020 by officers of the National Intelligence Agency, on the house of Dr Hany Babu, a member of the Committee. Dr Babu was arrested on the 28th[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Power Elite Has Always Run Amerika

The Power Elite Has Always Run Amerika

Sociologist  C. Wright Mills wrote a book in 1956 that (sadly) still resonates today. In his book ‘ The Power Elite’ Mills focused on groups and individuals who help to control this Republic for countless generations: the “Metropolitan 400”: members of historically notable local families in the principal American cities, generally represented on the Social Register “Celebrities”: prominent entertainers and[Read More…]

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Newness In Dealing With Life’s Challenges

Newness In Dealing With Life’s Challenges

Life has meaning when there is happiness. Everything that happens brings something new. The more the mind is tuned to see and appreciate this truth, happiness lasts, whatever the situation may be. The one who is constantly happy is able to creatively use all the resources in the right way and also makes others happy. When we are able to[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Usaa, The Greatest Revolutionary Barber After Upali, Died of COVID-19

Usaa, The Greatest Revolutionary Barber After Upali, Died of COVID-19

Usaa Barber (Uppumavuluri Sambashivarao) (1951-2020)- a well-known social reformer, anti-caste ideologue and anti-brahminism fighter succumbed to COVID-19 on 25th July 2020. He died because of the Indian medical system that could not reach to a stage where it could meet the challenge posed by the new coronavirus. After Savitribai Phule and her son Dr.Yashwantharao died of Bubonic Plague in 1898,[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Why Justice S. K. Kaul Must Recuse from Hearing Kashmir Petitions

Why Justice S. K. Kaul Must Recuse from Hearing Kashmir Petitions

One year has passed since the right wing Hindutva forces in power at the centre – which thrives on ruling by shock and awe – betrayed the people of Kashmir. In the aftermath of the events on 5 August, 2019 and with the entire valley locked up and all the leaders arrested (many are still under detention) the only hope[Read More…]

by 04/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Hiroshima 75: The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence!

Hiroshima 75: The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence!

The human race stands on the verge of nuclear self-extinction as a species, and with it will die most, if not all, forms of intelligent life on the planet earth. Any attempt to dispel the ideology of nuclearism and its attendant myth propounding the legality of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence must directly come to grips with the fact that[Read More…]

by 03/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Hiroshima Spring

Hiroshima Spring

“…how beset we were with what…we had been taught….”                          –Kenneth Patchen.   A poem for voices, with shakuhachi and koto…. (Sound of shakuhachi, a wooden flute–as though the instrument itself is breathing…and crying….)   The Pilgrim Under the flush of cherry, in air as mild as breath, by the Ota’s tributary– five crooked fingers reaching into the Inland Sea–[Read More…]

by 03/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
 Can Israelis broaden their protests beyond Netanyahu?

 Can Israelis broaden their protests beyond Netanyahu?

Demonstrations have yet to draw a connection between Netanyahu’s personal abuses of office and the systemic corruption of Israeli politics, with the occupation its beating heart Nazareth: Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife – a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging. For weeks, Jerusalem and[Read More…]

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U.S. Cold War China Policy Will Isolate the U.S, Not China

U.S. Cold War China Policy Will Isolate the U.S, Not China

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies Credit: CODEPINK  Tensions between the United States and China are rising as the U.S. election nears, with tit-for-tat consulate closures, new U.S. sanctions and no less than three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups prowling the seas around China. But it is the United States that has initiated each new escalation in[Read More…]

by 03/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Crushed by the State

Crushed by the State

Co-Written by Dr Karen Gabriel and P K Vijayan Gokarakonda Suryavathi died of grief on the afternoon of 01 August 2020, at 1.40 pm. Of course the medical cause of her death – high-grade Non-Hodgkinson’s Lymphoma – will be cited incontrovertibly in all official documents. But those of us who have known the tale from the teller, and from those[Read More…]

by 03/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Indian Matchmaking: Decoding India’s love affair with arranged marriages

Indian Matchmaking: Decoding India’s love affair with arranged marriages

Indian Matchmaking, Netflix’s recent show on arranged marriages in elite families, has spawned countless memes and conspiracy theories. It has also put the spotlight on reality shows and how they spin a particular narrative at the cost of others. The show seems to be tailor-made for a western audience and portrays arranged marriages in a positive way while underplaying issues[Read More…]

by 03/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Diaries of Life, Death and Life Anew – Enduring Legacy of Bangladesh Liberation Cinema

Diaries of Life, Death and Life Anew – Enduring Legacy of Bangladesh Liberation Cinema

(This essay is in commemoration of the birth centenary this year of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation; and the fiftieth anniversary of the making of Zahir Raihan’s Stop Genocide, with which the history of short filmmaking in Bangladesh begins.) A road accident on August 19, 2011, robbed Bangladesh of its most exceptional filmmaker, and this writer[Read More…]

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