Johanna Fernández, author of The Young Lords: A Radical History and a leading member of the movement to bring Mumia Abu-Jamal and other political prisoners home, reports on Mumia’s COVID-19 diagnosis. History is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that[Read More…]
(This is an exclusive long-form essay that aims to provide the most comprehensive and incisive understanding of West Bengal Assembly Election 2021: the ground-shifting and momentous battle in post-Independent Bengal. This is the first of three parts. ) People and culture are shaped by their particular environment: geography, surroundings and climate, along with the tides of time and[Read More…]
Joe Biden entered the White House with some inspiring yet contradictory positions on immigration and Central America. He promised to reverse Donald Trump’s draconian anti-immigrant policies while, through his “Plan to Build Security and Prosperity in Partnership with the People of Central America,” restoring “U.S. leadership in the region” that he claimed Trump had abandoned. For Central Americans, though, such[Read More…]
A BASIC UNANSWERED PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION An always basic, on-going, unanswered philosophical question is: Are human beings in the 21st century truly capable of learning how to live side-by-side one another in relative perpetual harmony with the natural world that surrounds them? From time to time over the years the historic Bowser Nature Trail, and its fragile greenbelt escarpment slope, located[Read More…]
If we must choose between civilization and barbarity we must choose civilization. But only if the injustices and atrocities of civilization do not exceed those of barbarism. If we must choose identity between eco and ego we must choose eco and celebrate the global planting of trees and enacting an end to forced mass extinctions. If we must[Read More…]
Since the end of WWII, especially since the breakup of the Soviet Union, it appears as if US political leaders feel they are trapped in a time warp and are unable to break free. They seem to believe that they must repeat the same disastrous foreign policy of regime change over and over. Since 9/11, the US has attacked or[Read More…]
The on-going crackdown in Myanmar is just now the biggest concern of those devoted to protection of democratic and human rights. The brutal crackdown by the junta unwilling to accept the strong electoral verdict in favor of Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy has already claimed 500 lives within a short period. As many as nearly[Read More…]
Recently several charges of corruption have been leveled by the repressive junta against Suu Kyi, the popular leader of Myanmar who recently led her party to a big electoral victory but is being prevented from leading a democratic government by the military. These have been firmly denied by her lawyer. Despite this, we may see more of such charges in[Read More…]
To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, It is unfortunate that we have not been able to contain the COVID virus spread and many States including the capital city of Delhi are witnessing an unusual spurt in virus cases of different mutants, some potentially dangerous. Your Ministry and several States have rightly tightened the COVID[Read More…]
“In its present form, the NRC is basically a Rs1,600 crore waste paper that drove many to suicide, made thousands of poor people poorer and be in perpetual fear of being ejected from their homes.” In the entire country, Assam is the only State having National Register of Citizens compiled, wherein more than 19 lakhs that were left out of[Read More…]
Aren’t the lotus-eaters in India in a state of blissful forgetfulness or foolish ecstasy that Blinken raised Ladakh at the Alaska talks? The NATO statement after the Ministerial didn’t contain a word on China…European allies are reluctant to be pushed into an American-led confrontation with China… *** A flurry of diplomatic activities through the past fortnight starting with the first-ever[Read More…]
Covid pandemic will remain an important chapter in India’s history. This is not only for the public health challenge it caused but it also brought out the deeply hidden flaws, biases, prejudices of the state and society. It was a mirror reflection of the state and society we are living in. The book by Harsh Mander titled “Locking down the[Read More…]
Organized religion is like organized crime. It preys on people’s weaknesses, generates huge profits for its operators and is almost impossible to eradicate-Mike Hermann The above quote is defeatist. Violence in the current day and age is regarded by most mainstream Muslims as a reaction to inequity, injustice, and disempowerment, real or perceived. Stronger nations attack weaker ones when the[Read More…]
The dense worldwide transportation network constructed by humans is now powering so-called variants (mutations) of COVID-19 across the world from their countries of origin. The British variant (called B.1.1.7), the Brazilian variant (called P.1) and the South African variant (called B.1.351) are all racing across the globe. This shouldn’t be surprising since all three are thought to be more contagious[Read More…]
Chetan Bhagat’s article “Wanted: A bill to fix Indian manufacturing” – published on March 27, 2021 by “The Times of India” – is a paradigmatic example of neoliberal oversimplification. While the article ostensibly aims to prescribe the relevant measures to be taken to convert India into an economic powerhouse, it comes off as a ham-handed screed against perceived enemies. The[Read More…]
Wasim Rizvi, the ex Chairman of Shia Waqf Board has filed a PIL in Supreme Court. It states that 26 verses of Islam should be deleted as they promote terrorism. He also says that Madrassas are giving the training for terrorism and if not stooped India will witness a huge rise in terror acts. He is also the one who[Read More…]
We live in dangerous times. Neo-fascism is on the rise in many parts of the world, combining the savagery of the market with authoritarian forms of xenophobia. The combinatorial power of individualizing cultural conformism and totalizing statism has resulted in a new “culture of silence”, intended to reduce citizens to passive spectators of the misery and suffering inflicted on others.[Read More…]
There are supposed to be systems in place, at national and international levels , for exemplary punishment in the case of serious crimes against humanity. Surely if anyone who murders one person is given very strong punishment then those who are responsible for the death of thousands ( in some cases hundreds of thousands or even millions) cannot be allowed[Read More…]
On March 03, 2021, The New Indian Express carried a news headline: ‘Falsely accused of rape, UP man freed after spending 20 years in jail’ – a very good news report indeed; he is free man finally. Then on March 06, 2021, Inquest News carried the following headline: ‘Surat court acquits 122 alleged SIMI members after 19 years of arrest’[Read More…]
The two figures strolled in the most relaxed manner, until they came upon what many up there call ‘ The Edge of Heaven’. They stood on the precipice and together peered down, below the ethers, through the stratosphere and then the clouds, until they could view the Earth. Jesus- Well my friend, isn’t that majestic, your domain? Lucifer- Yes indeed,[Read More…]
A Ministry of Education (MoE) panel has recommended that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) should be exempted from caste-based reservations in faculty appointments[1]. Out of the many categories of reservation in practice in India[2], it is only the scheduled category reservation (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Classes) that becomes a special target of attack and vilification. This[Read More…]
When Banglabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman , the first President of Bangladesh, also called the Father of the Nation and revered by millions as such, was assassinated on August 15, 1975 as a part of the wider efforts to overthrow his popular government, there were some additional aspects of this murder most foul which shocked the world. All the family members[Read More…]
Sometime, just before Monday 22 March (the day the order in response to his bail application was scheduled to be pronounced), Fr. Stan Swamy sent a communication from the confines of the Taloja Prison where he has been incarcerated for near six months now. In that communication he said, “So, we await ‘the ides of March’” From the tone of[Read More…]
Kalita Majhi, who works as a maid in four houses and earns Rs 2,500 a month, was in the news as BJP gave her the party ticket from Ausgram Assembly constituency located in Purba Burdwan district, Bengal.The district is known to be deprived of safe drinking water like so many others. Dental fluorosis (‘mottled enamel’) is a condition where[Read More…]
No sport arguably took grace and artistry to depths of regions the game of cricket did. Bowling and batting or even fielding at its best was reminiscent of poetry or a musical composition. Fast bowling was not all about agression and speed but about poetic beauty. Batting was not all bout power and technical skill but about touch art and[Read More…]
Bimal Roy is one of our most loved film directors and his legacy will continue to live on on the basis of his work. Luckily, we have amidst us his daughter Rinki Roy Bhattacharya who has done so much for us to further understand, appreciate his work by organizing numerous screenings of his films, running an active organization in his[Read More…]
Nearly 73 years after he left us, victim of an assassin’s bullets, many people grappling with the most serious problems and issues in our troubled world are increasingly realizing the great value of several essential messages Mahatma Gandhi left behind after a very eventful and even more thoughtful life. One of these relates to understanding and appreciating the great importance[Read More…]
The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC)’s observance of 29 March as “Land of the Landless: Land to the Tillers”, reminds us of the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “In reality, the toilers is the owner of what he produces. If the toilers intelligently combine, they will become an irresistible power.” Socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia had also echoed in the last[Read More…]
On 27 March, 2021, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken released a press statement wherein he said: “The United States is deeply concerned by growing signs of anti-democratic behavior and the politicization of the legal system in Bolivia in light of the recent arrest and pre-trial imprisonment of former interim government officials.” US-backed Coup Blinken’s statement is deeply hypocritical. The “former interim[Read More…]
In the recently released report, Freedom House downgraded India from free to partly free due to the atmosphere of intolerance, treatment of journalists, protestors and religious minorities. The events of 19th March at Jhansi station more than reflect this fact. On 19th March two nuns belonging to Sacred Heart congregation, who were travelling from Delhi to Odisha with two postulants, were forced[Read More…]
“…the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of this evil into what you call good…” — The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov We play with the colours of dawn, spraying the world with spring, with happiness, with birds that are willing to sing. Liturgies lace our lives with absolutes.[Read More…]
Last week, Australians found themselves delighting in another fit of cancel culture, this time in the art world. Tasmania’s Dark Mofo art festival prides itself on being gritty but the mood was very much about removing any grit to begin with. Interest centred on the project of Spanish artist Santiago Sierra, who had proposed soaking a Union Jack Flag “in[Read More…]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top adviser to the U.S. President on the coronavirus pandemic, said he did not believe that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory for studying pathogens. Dr. Fauci’s opinion appears to contradict controversial remarks made earlier on March 27, 2021 by the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Robert[Read More…]
The post-independence years are regarded by many as the golden age of Hindi cinema. The idealism of the freedom movement was still alive and this was reflected well in the films of those days. Since many Hindi films tend to be more dominated by heroes or the male lead roles, the idealist film hero figured significantly in many films and[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, in which I have tried to contrast the world that we experience today, filled with terrifying existential threats, such as catastrophic climate change, pandemics, all-destroying nuclear war, and the threat of large-scale famine, with the world that we would wish it to be. The[Read More…]
Boris Johnson’s March 16 speech before the British Parliament was reminiscent, at least in tone, to that of Chinese President Xi Jinping in October 2019, on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China. The comparison is quite apt if we remember the long-anticipated shift in Britain’s foreign policy and Johnson’s conservative Government’s pressing need to chart[Read More…]
“Ours is the cause of freedom. We’ve defeated freedom’s enemies before, and we will defeat them again… [W]e know our cause is just and our ultimate victory is assured… My fellow Americans, let’s roll.” — George W. Bush, November 8, 2001 In the immediate wake of 9/11, it fell to President George W. Bush to explain to his fellow citizens what[Read More…]
I have just watched Michael Moore’s latest Rumble podcast [1] in which he asks the question “What is it about us?” while referencing the Columbine massacre and relating it to the current set of U.S. mass murders. The subtext to the title “What is so different about Americans?” asks “Are we homicidal by nature?” While there are no truly easy[Read More…]
“One of the most delightful things about Americans is that they have absolutely no historical memory.” Zhou Enlai `In the autumn of 1862, the governments of France and Great Britain proposed to Russia, in a formal but not in an official way, the joint recognition by European powers of the independence of the Confederate States of America. My immediate answer[Read More…]
While Myanmar’s military celebrated Armed Forces Day on Saturday with a parade through the capital, the ruling junta’s security forces killed more than 100 people elsewhere throughout the country in the deadliest crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protesters since last month’s coup. According to Myanmar Now, soldiers and police had killed at least 114 people, including children, nationwide as of 9:30 pm on[Read More…]
While it has always been important to protect trees, the urgency for this has increased further in recent times of climate change. Trees play a very important role in soil and water conservation, apart from providing shelter and food to so many birds, animals and insects. Apart from their great environmental role whose value is increasing further, trees play a[Read More…]
The generally perceived attitude regarding inter-state water disputes in India has been that these should be resolved as soon as possible so that the many-sided potential of various river-valley projects can be realized as early as possible by taking up the construction of dams, canals and hydro power plants. So when the Narmada Tribunal settlement led to resolving water sharing[Read More…]
Two initiatives send the clearest signal, yet, that China may be gearing up to play a greater political role in the Middle East. Touring the region this week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi laid out five principles Middle Eastern nations would need to adopt to achieve a measure of regional stability. He called on the region’s rivals “to respect each other, uphold equity and[Read More…]
After seeing what some Democrats in Congress wish to adopt by way of taxation of the Super Rich, let me weigh in. The plan put forth by Senator Warren, Rep. Jayapal and Rep. Boyle is to tax 2% of net worth of $ 50 million to $ one billion per annum, and 3% of net worth over $ one billion[Read More…]
The centre’s estimates are flawed and give the impression that the economy has not only weathered Covid-19 but overcome pre-existing difficulties. But in reality, demand is short, dampening economic revival. Officially, the “growth in GDP during 2020-21 is estimated at -8.0 percent as compared to 4.0 percent in 2019-20”. Further, “GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q3 of 2020-21 is[Read More…]
A democratically elected government should be pleased when it faces dissent as this tells it what is going wrong with its administration and how to rectify wrongs. Instead, dissent is being handled in an imperial way by the police. Our very own Marie Antoinettes seem to be telling farmers they can’t have gur, but promise chocolates, and ask them to[Read More…]
The dominant class writes our history from their own perspective, therefore its harsh brutal and dishonest, and that’s blame on our human nature to absolve our masters. We are unaware of our entrapment in that harsh competitive society that’s bounded together by our compulsive socialness; we therefore see that setup as something of an asset as it still nurtures our[Read More…]
As election arrives in West Bengal, the political parties have declared their poll manifestos and direct cash transfers remain as a significant focus in the pre-poll promises. While the Trinamool Congress(TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) have mostly focused on cash transfers, left and congress have emphasized on human rights & democratic rights, job creation, safety of women and action[Read More…]
The ruling group of people in the country at the center, which imagines that they represent the overall socio-cultural aspiration of the ‘nation’, seem to have a perception that Tamil people have only emotional attachment with language, literature, performance arts, Jallikattu and religion. There are other dimensions that deserve close observation. The purposive negation of understanding and recognizing those dimensions[Read More…]
In any society myths play an important role. For various reasons a society and its many members have a tendency, a weakness or liking, for certain myths and want to cling on to these myths, in fact may feel a strong need to do so. Although the word myth generally has a negative connotation, to a limited extent and in[Read More…]
National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements strongly condemns the high-handed and undemocratic passing of the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021 by the Bihar Assembly, and the violence meted out to the opposing voices by the police on 23rd March. The process through which the Bill was passed, after humiliating and assaulting elected representatives, goes against all parliamentary traditions and[Read More…]
The United States of America is victim of its own propaganda. Since being founded, the USA has always depicted itself as a beacon of democracy and liberty, a land of opportunity and hope where a person can accomplish rags to riches through hard work and initiative. For many the American Dream is viewed as a reality and can we[Read More…]
A well-known Dalit scholar Gopal Guru, presently editor of the Economic and Political Weekly, once wrote that “Indian Social Science represents a pernicious divide between theoretical Brahmins and empirical Shudras’ (2002). But Shudras did not get much attention in his, otherwise useful article. He immediately shifted his argument to the question of Dalits. Nowhere he elaborated his understanding of the[Read More…]
Enjoy Enjaami, a Tamil new music-video album released early March 2021, is gaining popularity on several fronts. A rap song by Dhee ft Arivu and music composed by Santhosh Narayan and directed by Amit Krishnan is a product of Maajja, a new platform for independent artists founded by A. R. Rahman and company. The power bank of the video is[Read More…]
![Itamar Ben Gvir in Modi’in (west of Jerusalem) on Israeli election night, March 23, 2021 [Sraya Diamant/Flash90]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Israel-Election-200x150.jpg "Israeli Elections: From Ben-Gurion To Ben-Gvir, Israel Politics Are Extreme Racism And Supremacism 123")
“He is a true and honest representative of Zionism, the racist ideology that views Palestinians as nothing more than an obstacle in the path of total domination and colonization.” The “he” in the above post on Twitter by Ali Abunimah refers to Itamar Ben-Gvir, a Kahanist racist Jewish supremacist, who has just won a seat in the Israeli Knesset (parliament).[Read More…]
While surely the main concerns of the Hindi film industry have always related to entertainment as business, nevertheless there has been generally a significant space also for taking up and promoting issues of high social concern. Such a space may have been more in the early post-independence years and may have decreased with the passage of time, but surely such [Read More…]
The levels of academic freedom we have in India now, is not unknown to many of us. Accordingly, in 2020, the U.S. NGO Freedom House has down-ranked India’s academic freedom score from three to two out of a possible four, “due to rising intimidation in recent years that is aimed at controlling academic discussion of politically sensitive topics.” The abuse[Read More…]
With the hugely controversial GNCTD bill passed hastily and pushed down the opposition throat arbitrarily in a very high-handed manner ,pulling through amassing the required number of yes votes just like the three infamous farm bills, the present govt has once again floundered its astute manipulative overture in gaining an upper hand in the transfer of sweeping executive powers to[Read More…]
In September 1994, a few Indian and Pakistani social activists and professionals gathered together in Lahore, and came out with a statement stating their intention to set up a forum through which interaction could be established between the common people of the two countries. This led to the formation of the Pakistan-India-People’s – Forum -for- Peace-and-Democracy (PIPFPD). This article is[Read More…]
A new study projecting the amount of heat stress residents of the South Asia region will experience in the future finds with 2 degrees Celsius of warming, the population’s exposure to heat stress will nearly triple. Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will likely reduce that impact by half, but deadly heat stress will become commonplace across South Asia, according[Read More…]
To Shri R P Gupta Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Shri Gupta, I understand from a Down to Earth news report (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/forests/draft-amendment-to-forest-conservation-act-may-dilute-protection-to-forests-76145) that your Ministry is about to issue several crucial amendments to the Forest Conservation Act which exempt from its purview a wide range of projects (“strategic”, “linear” projects) and introduce[Read More…]
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB diagnosis and mortality in 2020 has been frightening, to say the least. Recently released WHO data shows that 1.4 million fewer people got TB care in 2020 as compared to 2019- a 21% decrease. Also over 0.5 million people died from TB in 2020 due to lack of diagnosis. Latest data by[Read More…]
African Elephants are such magnificent animals that when the IUCN press-note popped up on my email, my heart plummeted to read that they are critically endangered and endangered. The note attributes the decline over several decades due to poaching for ivory and loss of habitat. The African forest elephant is now listed as Critically Endangered and the African savanna elephant[Read More…]
On its 50th Independence Day ( March 26) Bangladesh can take well-deserved pride in the advancement in terms of several important development indicators achieved in the middle of many-sided difficulties. It is in addition also a time to recall many courageous contributions of recent decades, as courage has been much in need in several troubled phases of this land and[Read More…]
Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was not just the first President of Bangladesh. Called Banglabandhu and Father of the Nation, he had played a very courageous role in resisting domination and repression of his people, leading the Awami League to victory in 167 out of 169 seats parliamentary seats contested n 1970-71, then being imprisoned, and returning to his beloved people only[Read More…]
Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies On March 18, the world was treated to the spectacle of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sternly lecturing senior Chinese officials about the need for China to respect a “rules-based order.” The alternative, Blinken warned, is a world in which might makes right, and “that would be a far more[Read More…]
1. 75… and still alive! Just live to give; just yearn to learn! “To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.” But, can we be kind? Can we still build? Nourish… and flourish…. Take delight in a new insight? Recall old rhymes from childhood’s times? Can we be serious, not deleterious? Dialogue, not monologue? 2. 75 years Leak[Read More…]
The PayUp campaign has clawed back $22 billion from apparel companies owed to factories and workers, and they’re just getting started. In March 2020, Amanda Lee McCarty was laid off from her job. For years, she had been working in the fashion industry as a buyer and product developer. But as COVID-19 cases surged and lockdown orders were implemented across[Read More…]
If you love to read books, then in your journey as a reader you desire, at some point or other, to be part of the bookshop experience, to either own a bookshop or work in one. As a book lover, one tends to romanticize the bookselling experience. Reading the bookselling experiences of George Orwell and Shaun Bythell made me realize[Read More…]
Writing in his book “Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World”, Mike Davis describes the Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877, introduced in India when it was being ravaged by a famine, by then Viceroy Lord Lytton which “prohibited at the pain of imprisonment private relief donations that potentially interfered with the market-fixing of grain[Read More…]
I’m seated in the police Zoom briefing with other council representatives for my small seaside town in England. Our Chief Inspector is telling us about the crisis we have with soaring heroin addiction in the town. The recent surge is contributing to a general increase in crime. The next section of the briefing is about the future use of police[Read More…]
In the first two months of Joe Biden’s presidency, you could feel the country holding its breath. Sheltered in place, hidden behind masks, unsure about whether to trust in a safe-from-pandemic future, we are nonetheless beginning to open our eyes collectively. As part of this reemergence, a wider array of issues — those beyond Covid-19 — are once again starting[Read More…]
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has pulled Turkey out of an international accord designed to protect women, according to an official notice. The Council of Europe accord, better known as the Istanbul Convention, pledged to prevent, prosecute and eliminate domestic violence and promote equality. Turkey signed it in 2011, but femicide has surged there regardless in recent years. No reason was[Read More…]
With the rise of various sorts of neo-fascisms all over the world, a moralistically framed liberal response to the former’s religio-fanaticism has become common. Based on the traditional foundations of Enlightenment rationality, the liberal response sees the neo-fascist upsurge as a form of mass irrationality, superstition, mental pathology, etc. that only the renewed march of Reason can eradicate. What is[Read More…]
The lockdown that has been imposed almost a year back in the wake of COVID-19 has introduced several changes in almost every part of the world. The virus has not only resulted in damages resulting in high mortality and morbidity, but it has also made adverse qualitative changes in the lives of billions while its socio-political repercussions have devastated economies[Read More…]
Tirath Singh Rawat who took over as chief minister of Uttarakhand on March 10, 2021 is a senior cadre of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS]. He started RSS career by becoming the organizational secretary of the Uttarakhand unit of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarti Parishad (ABVP: the student appendage of the RSS), later promoted as its national secretary. He has been a[Read More…]
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi (1890—1931) had a unique position in the freedom movement of India. He was also a very great editor whose newspaper Pratap was a flag-bearer of freedom fighters as well as worker and peasant struggles. A prominent leader of the Congress Party and its head in United Provinces (roughly the Uttar Pradesh of today) , he also had[Read More…]
Some of the saddest news in India which appears with tragic regularity relates to the deaths of sewer workers caused by occupational hazards. The demand for fixing responsibility and taking strong action against those guilty of negligence has been gaining ground, as also the demand for the prompt compensatory payment as fixed by the Supreme Court. This is of course[Read More…]
Campaigners for the abolition of nuclear weapons had every reason to clink glasses with the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in January. Nuclear weapon states and their allies still persisted in calling the document unhelpful and unrealistic; the self-appointed realists have preferred the go-slow approach of disarmament, a form of moderated insanity. In[Read More…]
A Palestinian man, Atef Yousef Hanaysha, was killed by Israeli occupation forces on March 19 during a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlement expansion in Beit Dajan, near Nablus, in the northern West Bank. Although tragic, the above news reads like a routine item from occupied Palestine, where shooting and killing unarmed protesters is part of the daily reality. However,[Read More…]
Whenever and wherever there is a discourse on the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir, everyone attempts to present this dispute with their spin. India and Pakistan narrate this conflict following their national policies, but how unfortunate that some Kashmiris who, far from the truth, repeat cliché, blame each other or the whole Kashmiri leadership for the current turmoil. Every[Read More…]
Even a cursory glance at the realities which grip India today, will make one realise how grim the situation is. On every global parameter, from the happiness index to the freedom one; from democracy to economic indicators, the country has plummeted miserably and as never before. Untruth and injustice, divisiveness and discrimination, exploitation and exclusion have become the ‘new normal’![Read More…]
The All India Catholic Union, founded 101 years ago, has called upon the Prime Minister and the Home minister of India to take exemplary action against the vigilante group and the police involved in the harassment of two Sacred Heart Nuns and two student Nuns in a moving train near Jhansi. In Uttar Pradesh. The police, instead of warding off[Read More…]
The U.S. and its allies – Canada, Britain and the European Union – on Monday announced sanctions on several Chinese officials alleged to have links to what U.S. officials say is a “genocidal” campaign against Uyghur Muslims. The U.S.-led multi-national, coordinated sanctions drew condemnation and some immediate retaliatory sanctions from China. The moves offered a glimpse into the growing divide[Read More…]
Although securing freedom for workers engaged in manual scavenging and providing rehabilitation for them is supposed to be an important priority for the government, in reality progress has been very inadequate, slow and sporadic. The reasons for this are several, starting with problems relating to the proper definition and identity of workers engaged in manual scavenging. If to start with[Read More…]
On March 22nd a scene reminiscent of an inferno was created by the youth of Punjab in the conference staged by the Bharatiya Kisan Union(Ugrahan) and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union. at the grain market in Sunam ,resurrecting the spirit of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. It was of great significance that it was staged in the hometown of martyr[Read More…]
Idealist persons are a steadily decreasing component of the human species and in fact are seen is such small numbers these days that they can almost be called an endangered component of the human species. Nevertheless, and this needs to be emphasized, even in their small numbers they retain their very important role in society as they keep reminding of[Read More…]
The Biden administration continues to engage in that favourite activity White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki can only describe as “circling back”. And much circling is taking place in the context of Afghanistan. The cupboard of calamities is well stocked, with the US facing an emboldened Taliban keen to hold Washington to its word in withdrawing the last troops by[Read More…]
I am a devout Hindu but not a believer of RSS Hindutva form of Hinduism which brings about hatred of other religions. My Hindu religion has not taught me to look down on other religions and neither has it instilled in me to go about converting others to my religion because my religion is superior. Hinduism has shown me a[Read More…]
As his 67th birthday nears, and Pennsylvania political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal faces challenging and potentially fatal health crises, his legal case is still slowly winding its way through the arduous appellate court system. — New court filings for Abu-Jamal’s appeal, Workers World, March 22. Injustice is an industry in the United States of America, just like militarism and prisons. An[Read More…]
The Lion and the Eagle – The Interaction of the British and American Empires 1783-1972. Kathleen Burk. Bloomsbury, London/New York, 2018. The 200 year historical span of Kathleen Burk’s “The Lion and the Eagle” shows the changes in the interactions between the newly formed United States and its imperial drive and the ongoing imperial drive of the British. In general,[Read More…]
Welcome to the age of fear. Nothing is more corrosive of the democratic impulse than fear. Left unaddressed, it festers, eating away at our confidence and empathy. We are now firmly in a time of fear – not only of the virus, but of each other. Fear destroys solidarity. Fear forces us to turn inwards to protect ourselves and our[Read More…]
In late February, I drove to see the Trump wall in Sasabe, Arizona. As soon as I parked, a green-striped Border Patrol vehicle stationed a quarter of a mile away began to creep down the dirt road toward us. Just ahead, a dystopian “No Trespassing” sign was flapping in the wind. It was cold as I stepped out of the[Read More…]
A simple definition of democracy goes as, “Democracy is a form of government in which the rulers are elected by the people.” Baba Saheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a dynamic thinker, a speaker, a critic, an activists participated in the debates of the Indian Parliamentary system with keen interests and reached at a conclusion that the democracy is the only form[Read More…]
23rd March 2021marks the completion of 90 years of execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, who by now have got the status of supreme martyrs of Indian freedom struggle and every shade of political opinion, even when not sharing their vision of India, eulogies them for advancing their political interests, as they have, by now, become supreme symbol of[Read More…]
On World Water Day March 22 the signing of an agreement between the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for implementing the controversial Ken-Betwa Link project in drought-prone Bundelkhand region of Central India was presented as a matter of celebration, but questions are being raised asking what achievement, even less joy, there is in going ahead with a project[Read More…]
The ongoing farmers’ movement is one of the most widely discussed social movements of recent times. Despite this there is an uneasy feeling that in the middle of all the reporting, comment and discussion, we may still be missing the wood for the trees or giving less attention to some of the more basic issues. After all, we cannot forget[Read More…]
Eighty years after his death, Rabindranath Tagore continues to be written about. Any biographical or critical account of Tagore’s life and works — whether it is in Bengali, English or any other language — is noticeable and is received with reverence and respect. Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’, demonstrates the continuing universal appeal of the poet’s signature composition.[Read More…]
Twenty third March is the birth anniversary of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia. In the events organized to mark this occasion demands are often made to the government for posthumous conferment of India’s highest civilian honour i.e. Bharat Ratna on Dr. Lohia. I anticipate that this year would be no different. In a brief commentary I authored in May 2018 a[Read More…]
The Peculiar Human Gnaw has overtaken all of life Or was it always to be so? In more Halcyon days Every hunger was checked by another Until Consumption reduced nature’s maw into a tiny red sack of paroxysmal fury The First Commandment: Feed Naked Ape Even the Sun must be brought down, ever closer For the warmth of Gaia only[Read More…]
For those who have read my previous work you know how I feel about landlords, especially absentee ones… and most especially corporate ones! In the mid 1990s my new wife and I ( each with one kid ) moved from Long Island, N.Y. to Indianapolis IN. Quite candidly, we were tired of renting apartments and could not afford the high[Read More…]
About a year ago we responded to the call for a ‘self-imposed Janta Curfew’ observed on 22 March 2020 as the first attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus which had shown its presence in the country on 30 Jan 2020. This response was closely followed by the ‘Tali and Thali’ and lighting of ‘diyas’. The spread, however, continued unabated.[Read More…]
In his weakened post-1965 war state, Ayub could never hope to withstand the combined onslaught of East and West Pakistan. The campaign against him, led initially by students and industrial workers, had caught the imagination of the people. This was the last time people of the two wings were to unite on one platform. In a desperate attempt[Read More…]
Australia’s east coast is being hit by record rainfall, with flood warnings issued and a natural disaster declared for parts of New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state with 8 million people. The flooding comes in stark contrast with the devastating bushfires that struck Australia in late 2019 and early 2020, when nearly 7% of NSW land was scorched.[Read More…]
Although dam related issues of Uttarakhand have been receiving more attention at the national level, there are serious dam related concerns in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh as well. To give just one example, so many years have passed since the displacement of many villagers from the submergence area of Pong Dam, but their serious problems still continue and[Read More…]
“A nation at peace and a region in harmony are thus essential prerequisites for attainment of national security in the true spirit. No national leaders of today can ignore these factors,” said Army chief Gen Bajwa, marking a significant iteration of Pakistan’s latest security policy. “…, it is an almost universally acknowledged fact that the contemporary concept of national security[Read More…]
Debraj Mookerjee explores how syncretism permeates between the West and the East — how the two lores do meet Cultural influences travel at the speed of human imagination. In the modern world it is easy to plot the journey of cultural influences across the planet, thanks to the seamlessness created by communication technologies. The Internet links us all. But we also[Read More…]
Empires live and die by their illusions. Visions of empowerment can inspire nations to scale the heights of global hegemony. Similarly, however, illusions of omnipotence can send fading empires crashing into oblivion. So it was with Great Britain in the 1950s and so it may be with the United States today. By 1956, Britain had exploited its global empire shamelessly[Read More…]
As the number of dams particular ageing dams has increased greatly there is increasing worldwide concern regarding the safety of dams and the serious risks that go with it. However this concern will result in most useful action only if this is extended to include the safety and viability of under construction and under consideration dam projects. After all, if[Read More…]
Written by Sabha Zaidi and Neha Kumar Interview with Pragya Akhilesh in Ahmedabad, Gujarat while she is on a country Union Tour to assess the toilets in semi-urban and rural areas in India. In 2018, Trade Unionist, Pragya Akhilesh, Toilet woman of India recorded more than 10 thousand abandoned toilets in the rural areas of India where women have been[Read More…]
On the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination, the members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) presented a medal to Shusma Datt. The CEO of Spice Radio 1200 AM had launched “Hands Against Racism” on the birth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. in January, 2015. The campaign, which has entered its seventh year, coincides with Holi,[Read More…]
The population of Tribals (Scheduled Tribes) in Uttar Pradesh is 11.35 lakhs of which 80% are landless. That is why the Forest Rights Act – 2006 and Rules 2008 came into force for the empowerment of Tribals. Under this law, Tribals and non-Tribals living in a Reserve Forest area were to be given a lease of residential and agricultural[Read More…]
One of the most persistent messages being conveyed to youth is to contribute in meaningful and useful ways to the larger welfare and progress of the nation and society. However in order to be truly effective these messages need to be supported by what has been said by those persons for whom they have very high respect. When we search[Read More…]
Jai Bhim, Jai Bheem, Jay Bhim, Bhim Salam, Neela Zindabad, Ek Number, Babasaheb Zindabad, Neel Salaam, We are because he was… etc are the comments one would observe in an online social media post, on or about Ambedkar, with lot of likes and comment when posted by a noted person with following. Ambedkarties have become excessively emotional about Ambedkar, a[Read More…]
Few nations in recent decades have been targeted by a superpower the way the United States of America has subjected Syria to various forms of attack. Apart from military assaults and acts of political subversion aimed at overthrowing the government in Damascus, the US has also imposed crippling economic sanctions upon Syria, sometimes regarded as the crucible of human civilisation.[Read More…]
On 19th March I along with Ananta , social activist, Advocate Pradosh Mohanty and Adv. Gaiendra Pradhan visited the villages like Kandadhuda, Beleimunda and Ratanpur in Hemagiri Block of Sundargarh District severally affected by acute pollution by MCL coal transport since 2012. We met with villagers including women who were ill treated, beaten by the police as well as school[Read More…]
Protecting Natural Forests, Regenerating, Mimicking Old Forests to Create New Ones Today March 21 is UN International Day of Forests , also called World Forestry Day. While protection of natural forests has always been very important, at no other time was this more important than in present time with its unprecedented threat of climate change and survival crisis, many sided[Read More…]
In June 2018, the Joint Action Committee against Foreign Retail and E-commerce (JACAFRE) issued a statement on Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart. It argued that it undermines India’s economic and digital sovereignty and the livelihood of millions in India. The deal would lead to Walmart and Amazon dominating India’s e-retail sector. These two US companies would also own India’s key consumer[Read More…]
What will be our future like beyond the compelling horizon of COVID-19 Pandemic and its aftermath? Are ‘We, the People and Humanity’ going to be learning for global unity and consciousness of One Humanity to cope with immense problems arising from unpredictable socio-economic, medical, humanitarian and political imagination terrified by the dreadful threats of unknown future? Any rational answers would[Read More…]
In The German Ideology, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels stated: “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.” With the advent of neoliberalism, we have witnessed a process of ideological re-construction in which every attempt[Read More…]
Over two dozen US and international civil and human rights organizations have expressed solidarity with Dr Audrey Truschke, Associate Professor of South Asian History at Rutgers University against the ongoing systematic campaign of vilification against her including vile threats of extreme violence. In a remarkable build up of broad support for Dr. Truschke, the joint letter thanks Rutgers for unequivocally supporting[Read More…]
We should be much more cautious about the loss of such sweet friends We are aware of some losses and we take steps to prevent them. But some losses occur over a longer period of time and we realize only too late that we have lost something very precious. Such is the feeling that millions and millions of human being[Read More…]
‘Reforming capitalism’ is essentially considered an oxymoron by the academic world that is flummoxed by the ability of capitalism to re-mould, reorient and revamp itself for sustenance without losing the cardinal jus of exploitation. Post Perestroika and Glasnost[1], which eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Capitalism in the American unipolar world has triumphed in establishing a symbiotic[Read More…]
Why do the rest of us allow the British (the former genocidal colonial power) to get away with claiming the right to destroy the world if Britain comes under some sort of less than clearly defined non-nuclear attack? Is there no legal authority to sanction the UK and its officials involved in threatening Humanity – the UN Monitoring Verification and[Read More…]
To Shri R P Gupta Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Shri Gupta, Please read this letter in continuation of my earlier letter dated 19-3-2021 on imprudence on the part of your Ministry allowing ex-post facto approvals for projects coming up in violation of the CRZ notification. I have had an opportunity to[Read More…]
As the electoral drama in W.Bengal rolls on, a question that vexes many in the country is why the Prime Minister is spending so much in the elections of just one state, and on the ousting of just Chief Minister, who happens to be a lady who is actually quite popular among her people. After all there are so many[Read More…]
Two young women Sabita Mahato and Shruti Rawat are on an exciting Trans-Himalayan adventure to make the world aware of the everyday violence faced by women and girls as well as violent exploitation of Mother Earth resulting from capitalist patriarchy. They are being supported by One Billion Rising, South Asia and Young Sangat on their venture through the Campaign #RidetoRise.[Read More…]
Scottish historian Sir William Hunter (1840-1900) wrote in 1871 that “a hundred and seventy years ago (In 1700), it was almost impossible for a well-born Musalman in Bengal to become poor; at present it is almost impossible for him to continue rich.” (Ref: Iftekhar Iqbal, World Congress of Economic History, Helsinki August 2006). If Sir Hunter were to make the[Read More…]
A lot has been said about the barbaric incident of a Muslim boy being brutally beaten and denied water to drink at a temple complex near Ghaziabad. Many people expressed shock and sorrow and rightly expressed solidarity with the boy. Many said that their ‘Hinduism’ does not reflect this and that they are ashamed of the incident. Many apologised that[Read More…]
Written by Dr Md Afroz, Md Tabrez Alam Dowry in marriages is a curse for Indian society that has been haunting for a long time. This is a social curse, which has gone unchecked, though time and again it has tormented the people in general. It has become a routine affair that we come across news-reports on dowry deaths and[Read More…]
Written by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms Antisemitic* incidents are increasing in the far eastern German state of Saxony known to be stronghold of contemporary German Neo-Nazism., says the Berlin-based Report Antisemitism RIAS – a foundation that monitors antisemitism throughout Germany. Uwe Dziuballa, the owner of the Jewish restaurant “Shalom” in the former East-German’s city of Chemnitz has first hand[Read More…]
The French thinker Louis Althusser in his famous essay on ideological state apparatuses, includes trade unions (and presumably professional associations too) in his illustrative list of such ideological state apparatuses. Both Trade Unions (TUs) and Professional Associations (PAs) are usually considered politically active bodies that are alert and resistant to any misuse or abuse of state or corporate power. Althusser’s[Read More…]
25 years ago on March 17th Sri Lanka captured the coveted cricket world cup title for the first time .It exuded aura of invincibility as few teams ever did like a great emperor annexing territory after territory. A red letter day was written in cricket with an underdog triumphing for the 2nd time. We must salute them for binding or[Read More…]
The Information Technology Act, Section 79 provided that the intermediaries are not liable for the content generated by users. The text is, “an intermediary shall not be liable for any third-party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him.” This immunity is made subject to adherence of rules made by the Government. Using this authority, the Government[Read More…]
“The most toxic substance on Earth is separated from exposure to society by ½” of steel encased in a canister.” (Blanch) That eye-opener comes from renowned nuclear expert Paul Blanch in reference to spent fuel rods removed from San Onofre Nuclear Generation Plant buried near the sea on California’s southern coastline 50 miles north of San Diego. Seventy-three 20-foot tall[Read More…]
Cornel West is a very well-known African-American scholar. In fact, he should be better described as a scholar-activist, one of a rare breed of people in the world today. His advocacy of a wide variety of global issues, including that of Palestine, is well known. In fact the author of this piece first met Dr. West at a rally for[Read More…]
March 25 is the 90th death anniversary of a great freedom fighter, editor, worker and peasant leader, also deeply committed social reformer who sacrificed his life at the age of 40 while trying to stop communal violence and rescue persons from both communities trapped in it. The reference here is of course to Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, the famous editor of[Read More…]
To Shri R P Gupta Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Shri Gupta, I have just come across a disturbing news report that your Ministry has issued orders permitting industrial projects to obtain post-facto CRZ clearances (https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/mar/18/centre-allows-projects-to-obtain-post-facto-coastal-regulation-zone-clearance-2278359.html). If this report is factually correct, I am afraid that, by issuing such a[Read More…]
Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Thursday for arch rivals India and Pakistan to “bury the past” and move towards cooperation. He expressed that the U.S. had a role to play in ending regional conflict. The Pak general’s statement is an overture towards New Delhi that follows an unexpected joint ceasefire announcement last month between the two[Read More…]
In Punjab today 7 lakh Dalit families are still landless and 1,50000 belong to the poor peasantry.Lakhs of acres of land is lying vacant and unavailable. If all land was distributed every Dalit family could possess at least 4 and a half acres of land. In recent years the Krantikari Pendu Mazdoor Union has done some of the most commendable[Read More…]
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” –Pablo Picasso 1. First, he mastered the masters: From his earliest sketches at his father’s knees, Through Rembrandt, Velasquez and Goya. (El Greco and Goya he loved Almost as much as his father.) They stalked his[Read More…]
Sensible, ideal, wonderful – if you happen to be in the European Union. This is the air of confidence surrounding the March 17 proposal for a digital COVID immunity passport, or what is officially being called the Digital Green Certificate. The Digital Green Certificate is actually a bundle of three: vaccination certificates stating the brand of vaccine used, data and[Read More…]
India’s right-wing government has been deploying all the modern tools of repression against a historic farmers’ protest. Much is at stake. For the people of India, their agricultural system is about to get far more precarious. For its farmers, ruin, and bankruptcy for millions, is all but guaranteed. For the government of Narendra Modi and his elite backers, it’s a[Read More…]
When Bhagat Singh and his colleague gave the slogan of ‘ Death to Imperialism’ , they were of course more immediately concerned with British rule in India, but in addition, of course, they were very aware of the need for wider and even longer duration struggle against imperialism. In fact soon after the rapidly growing freedom struggles of several countries[Read More…]
One message of Mahatma Gandhi which has remained of enduring significance for policy makers as well as for social activists is that whenever faced with doubt and uncertainty, keep in mind the concerns of the poorest and the weakest sections and this will enable you best to resolve the doubt. In fact this is also the point on which the[Read More…]
Cold blooded murder, as they call it, sucks! When it is pre-meditated it is even worse. In Nazi Germany, once Hitler and his gang were in power, ‘ No holds were barred!’ Jewish citizens were ‘ Fair game’. Imagine Goebbels stating on their state controlled radio and television after another Brown shirt killing of a defenseless Jewish person:’ How much[Read More…]
Driven out of homeland and in search of a shore to call as one’s own- the story of every refugee fits in this framework. Termed as the most persecuted people of 21st century, life of Rohingya refugees since decades has been all about striking a balance between series of uprooting and stay planted as long as they are on the[Read More…]
Here’s one of the things I now do every morning. I go to the online Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center and check out the figures there — global coronavirus cases and deaths, U.S. coronavirus cases and deaths. And I do so the way that, not so long ago, I would have opened the sports pages and checked out the latest scores of[Read More…]
Citing a new report from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, media reports from the U.S. said there has been alarming increase of white supremacist propaganda in the U.S. Incidents of white supremacist propaganda hit an all-time high in 2020, according to the report. Anti-Semitic, racist and anti-LGBTQ+ posters, flyers and graffiti were recorded 5,125 times in 2020, according to[Read More…]
Celebration of 150th birth anniversary of the Paris Commune today which wrote a new epoch in the history of mankind taking revolutionary democracy to a magnitude unprecedented Today on March 18th we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the formation of the Paris Commune. It inaugurated or ushered a new era in history by igniting the first spark of workers self[Read More…]
The increase in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) wage rates for 2021-22 is extremely paltry (see the table). There is no increase in Kerala’s NREGA wage rate. Rajasthan’s wage rate has increased by just Re 1. In fact, for 24 states, the increase in the NREGA wage rate is less than 5 per cent. The country’s economy has[Read More…]
The term `love- jihad’ is being used by the activists of the Sangh Parivar to target inter-religious marriages between Muslim men and Hindu women. They accuse the Muslims of seducing Hindu women and converting them to Islam. But then, how would they justify the marriages between the BJP’s Muslim leaders and their Hindu wives – with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi [Read More…]
I live next to a textile mill complex from an era long-passed. Today, the old stone buildings have been reduced to rubble and the trees that surrounded them, more than 100 in number have been felled. My tired senses don’t feel the same when I look out the window and see pale-grey, concrete walls. The sound of drilling, hammering, crushing[Read More…]
Left: Dr. Nasser al-Qidwa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Yasser Arafat Foundation; Right: Hani Almasri, General Manager of Masarat Center — مركز مسارات At long last, there is a credible challenge from within to the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA), an increasingly autocratic and unpopular body that has a limited administrative function over enclaves in the Israeli occupied territories. This challenge[Read More…]
The freedom movement of India is one of the most inspiring phases of history. In this phase a very large number of people of India lived up to the highest ideals of humanity, willingly and often happily accepting the greatest hardships and making the biggest sacrifices for the sake of justice and freedom, undergoing huge sufferings to provide a better[Read More…]
Written by Bharat Dogra and Jagmohan Singh In the days to come we will be remembering the ideals and aims of Bhagat Singh and his close colleagues and fellow-maryrs a lot. Many people and leaders will be gathering to pay their homage to him and fellow-martyrs Rajguru, Sukhdev, Chandra Shekhar Azad , Jatindranath Das, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and others whose[Read More…]
India got independence from British colonial rule on 15th August 1947 after a long struggle which was inclusive and had plural dimensions. Foundation of Indian Constitution is Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Justice. The values of secularism are deeply ingrained all through and particularly in Articles 14, 19, 22, and 25. It gives us freedom of religion, to practice, preach and[Read More…]
It is outrageous from the beginning that she was arrested and prosecuted instead of investigating the physical assault against her… The sentence shows the status of the Egyptian judiciary today, which is largely in the service of the political interests of the government, rather than assisting in delivering justice.” — Amr Magdi, Egypt researcher at Human Rights Watch, Middle East Eye,[Read More…]
Vivek Gour Broome looks the personification of that nursery rhyme, “Old McDonald had a farm…” His farm west of Pune, beyond Hinjewadi in the village of Marunji, is an island of biodiversity – the crows were flying in to the shade of the trees the morning this writer visited. The farm has several different varieties of bamboo, including the thorny[Read More…]
The UK prime minister Boris Johnson has said UK plans to increase its nuclear arsenal by 40%, but China should be brought into international efforts to reduce the world stockpile of nuclear weapons. Speaking on Tuesday, as the British government published its Integrated Review of Security, Defense, Development and Foreign Policy, the UK prime minister highlighted China as posing a[Read More…]
Francisco Dominguez writes: After a full year of racist and repressive horror perpetrated by a de facto government resulting from a coup, the people of Bolivia went to the polls on October 18, 2020 and stunned their own country and the world by giving Evo Morales’ MAS-IPSP party candidate, Luis Arce, a landslide. The coup d’état that installed a racist regime led[Read More…]
The slander campaign in India was meant to vitiate the atmosphere and undermine efforts for peace and friendship, and to aid the imperialists’ trade war against china, with India as a junior partner. The National Health Commission of China on March 15 released the full transcript of a joint China-WHO press conference on the WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of[Read More…]
With resolute determination the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union representing the dalit landless agricultural labour, continues to flash the torch of resistance. The agricultural labour are merciless victims of the Agricultural bills and engripped by the ruler’s policies which patronise neo-colonial slavery. On the invitation of Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union State Committee, thousands of farm labourers men and women on[Read More…]
Recent statements made by US officials suggest that Washington will continue to pursue a hardline policy on Venezuela. The new Biden Administration, however, needs to urgently rethink its approach. US State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, remarked on February 3 that he “certainly” does not “expect this administration to be engaging directly with (President) Maduro.” Namely, Price expects that the Biden[Read More…]
Just about everyone was shocked by what happened at the Capitol building on January 6th. But as a former soldier in America’s forever wars, horrifying as the scenes were, I also found what happened strangely familiar, almost inevitable. I thought that, if only we had taken our country’s imperial history seriously, none of us would have found that day either[Read More…]
This year 2021 is widely regarded as an important year for climate change negotiations. The more obvious reason for this is of course that the 26th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change could not be held as per schedule last year due to Covid related factors and is now scheduled to be convened in[Read More…]
In many countries we see a similar worrying situation that most small and medium farmers are facing increasing problems and stress. For several of them this culminates in losing the land and independent livelihood of the family for this as well as perhaps the next generation as well. So the number of family farms and independent small farmers ( working[Read More…]
As our nation continues to be occupied by the greedy, the exploitive and the arrogant Super Rich, we need to call them out for what and WHO they are. The Rolling Stones 1968 hit song ” Sympathy for the Devil” still resonates some 53 years later. At the end of my column please read carefully Mick Jagger’s account of[Read More…]
The Covid-19 pandemic that blazed across 2020 has thrown the world into disarray. Economic damage that has triggered the breakdown of the system signals a dire need for change. As the old system is getting dismantled and global leaders jump in to fix the problems, Bitcoin is now gaining traction, increasing in price and welcoming new users everyday. Bitcoin, invented[Read More…]
A Kingly creature; now creatureless King An Empire out of breath while breathless doing Air, water, land all three commanded to remain in place and serve They wilt under the lash of gentle commerce whilst jolly plenty stumbles along in filthy blindness All living things now cringe at the gross summons of Man Yet meanwhile Gaia gathers up her furious[Read More…]
An Overview Corruption in the sense of civil and military servants and Public officials and politicians of Pakistan pocketing public funds or taking bribes is too well known and documented by in-country and international agencies, to be worthy of any unusual notice. After all, the country has had the dubious distinction of being on the top of the list of[Read More…]
Besides granting bail to Octogenarian poet Varavara Rao, one of the most important judicial actions that happened recently is grant of bail to Disha Ravi, who should be remembered on International Women’s Day of 2021. Disha and Varavara Rao were incarcerated for opposing the government’s policies, without proper evidence. The serious threat to personal liberty can only be averted with[Read More…]
Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva showed on Wednesday that his political career is far from over. Lula, as he is more commonly known, returned to address the nation after the annulment of his corruption convictions. Lula was previously known for his casual attire, including many red shirts, in honor of the Workers’ Party, which he founded in 1980. This[Read More…]
‘The Office of the President is an emergency light. It comes on automatically when there is a crisis and goes off automatically when the crisis passes,’ observed former President Ramaswamy Venkataraman in his book ‘My Presidential Years’. Whether present-day Presidents are any longer backup lights is difficult to say. Yet, diaries of past presidents sometimes give explicit account of the[Read More…]
News has surfaced about India’s richest family building a private zoo. The Ambani’s, according to this report by NDTV, are slated to build a zoo in their home state of Gujarat. The report quotes Parimal Nathwani, director of corporate affairs at Reliance as saying that the zoo is scheduled to open in 2023, and even has a rescue center to[Read More…]
Forget the global university rankings of any list. The global university promotion exercise is filled with snake oil and perfumed refuse, an effort to corrupt the unknowing and steal from the gullible. The aim here is to convince parents, potential students and academics that their institutions of white collar crime are appealing enough to warrant enrolment and employment at. Writing[Read More…]
During the Trump years, the phrase “Infrastructure Week” rang out as a sort of Groundhog Day-style punchline. What began in June 2017 as a failed effort by The Donald’s White House and a Republican Senate to focus on the desperately needed rebuilding of American infrastructure morphed into a meme and a running joke in Washington. Despite the focus in recent years on President[Read More…]
In the context of ongoing debates on dam safety and the pending legislation on this increasingly important subject, a neglected aspect is that when no harm is caused to dam structure but nevertheless large-scale damage is done by very excessive and unexpected discharge of flood water then this too should be considered an aspect of the wider understanding of[Read More…]
The Farakka Barrage Project on Ganga river has been often discussed in the context of whether this project has caused any adverse impacts in Bangladesh. Certainly there have been complaints from Bangladesh in this context. So was it a case of India promoting its interests at the cost of Bangladesh? No, there is increasing evidence of this project causing[Read More…]
Sri Lanka’s contemptuous stand regarding the UNHRC Resolutions 30/1. 34/1 and 40/1 as rejected by it has come under discussion in the current 46th Session of UNHRC which is expected to pass a final Resolution against Sri Lanka. A zero draft Resolution has been drafted by the Core members with the UK playing the leading role. This follows after the Human[Read More…]
Pakistani expatriates in the USA have developed a consensus that the genesis of what ails Pakistan can be traced to the feudal system our former colonial masters imposed on India as a corp of supporters which they continued to throw crumbs to till the very end of their rule. The colonizers declared them and their vassals martial race,and used them[Read More…]
Given the large and increasing number of dams in the world, and the fact that so many of them are ageing, the question of dam safety is getting more importance. Whenever dam safety is discussed , invariably a significant part of the discussion takes place in the form of earthquakes. However two aspects of the issue need to[Read More…]
In the middle of several increasing problems, a good news that emerged recently is that tensions of India with several neighboring countries is reducing. In fact everything is to be gained by increasing cooperation among all countries of the region. However, while there are so many areas where increasing cooperation will give good results, there is one area which should[Read More…]
In general and on average, people in the USA are supposedly the biggest drug users in the world. They are taught from practically birth that if something is wrong, there is no need to have any discomfort physically or psychologically. Just take some medicine or a bunch of medicines and your life will be alright again. Besides, you deserve happiness[Read More…]
“(T)he most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.” David Foster Wallace Bill Gates has both a new book and education campaign on mitigating climate change. Mr. Gates personifies successful, transforming innovation. His book is just coming out now but he has been following the evolution of our climate problem[Read More…]
CNBC recently produced a 17-min video about direct air capture (DAC) and corporations, specifically big oil, funding R&D operations. The video discusses the basic technology, as well as some pitfalls. Direct air capture is in early stages of developing technology to remove atmospheric CO2. (Source: Money is Pouring Into Carbon Capture Tec, But Challenges Remain, CNBC, March 3, 2021) By[Read More…]
Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies The Biden presidency is still in its early days, but it’s not too early to point to areas in the foreign policy realm where we, as progressives, have been disappointed–or even infuriated. There are one or two positive developments, such as the renewal of Obama’s New START Treaty with Russia and[Read More…]
Hilly areas with their varying heights and land categories are known for their valuable bio-diversity which should be protected. The vast Himalayan ranges including hills and valleys, plains and peaks in particular are all the more important in this context. While the tendency to introduce genetic uniformity of monocultures was unfortunate everywhere, it was all the more harmful in the[Read More…]
The Finance Minister has announced that Govt business handled by the Govt Banks i.e. Public Sector Banks will also be provided to Private Sector. Already certain Govt businesses have been slowly handed over to the new generation Private Banks. State Bank of India was handling 99% of the Govt business at one point in time. Now it has come down[Read More…]
Governor of Reserve Bank of India Shashikant Das has said that bringing petroleum products under GST will lead to initial sacrifices but will beget benefits in the long run. A report of State Bank of India has calculated that the initial loss of revenue will be to the tune of Rs one lakh crore. The question, however, remains wherefrom will[Read More…]
Neighbors are very important. They can be very good and valuable friends who can prove to be extremely helpful in difficult times. In many difficult situations a distant friend, despite best intentions, may not be able to help as much as a neighbor friend. This is well to remember in times of climate change when the threat of natural disasters[Read More…]
What is ‘dissent’? The term ‘dissent’ was first used in sixteenth century England, to refer to the opinions of those Christian sects that would not conform to the Church of England (not just Catholics but many Protestant groups too, e.g., the Dissenters, the Puritans). Needless to say, they were quickly criminalised and hunted, leading to the exodus of Puritans to[Read More…]
We used to say, “Seeing is believing.” That is no longer true about videos. Use of AI to create Deep Fakes is so powerful that most people can’t tell the difference. As time passes, the technology will develop to the extent that we will simply not be able to tell the difference between real footage and doctored or simply created[Read More…]
Written by Ali Ahmad, Aditi Verma, Francesca Giovannini A decade later, the footage of the dramatic hydrogen explosions in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, broadcast live on television—and the subsequent disruptions to livelihoods, ecosystems, and economic activities—still reverberate. In the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, several new nuclear safety institutions such as the World Association of[Read More…]
In 2016, when CEO Ata Safdar of Reckitt Benckiser, a UK-based firm, offered an apology to all those who had been affected by a toxic product that his firm sold in South Korea, an angry relative of one of the victims slapped him – an act caught on camera. RB’s toxic humidifier disinfectant had caused over 1,500 deaths, many of[Read More…]
On March 12th today, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie Anand ,made in 1971.Without doubt the film was amongst the finest, most touching or soul searching movies ever to have flashed the Bollywood screen..In my view late Rajesh Khanna as ‘Anand’ gave one of the finest performances ever on the silver screen. His co-actor Amitabh Bachchan as[Read More…]
RSS the parent organization of ruling BJP is quiet often being discussed in the public domain. While it has grown tremendously during last few years, there are attempts by many ideologues from its stable to prove that it was a major player in the freedom struggle. Rakesh Sinha, known as RSS ideologue and currently BJP MP in Rajya Sabha claims[Read More…]
Social activism has grown in India generally in conditions in which institutional support has been taken as the main source of support. However there are many reasons, including those relating to stability and durability of support, where in addition more options of community support should be considered. This can also lead to conditions in which social activists have less constraints[Read More…]
When we were finalizing the title of my latest book The Shudras–Vision for a New Path edited along with Karthik Raja Karuppusamy for Penguin, there was a serious view that the concept “Shudra” must be avoided as it is not acceptable now. The secular intellectuals in post- colonial India completely avoided caste/varna categories in teaching and writing as if they never existed[Read More…]
Andrea Sahouri, the Iowa journalist who was arrested as she reported on racial justice protests last summer, was found not guilty in a case that drew widespread condemnation from journalism and free press organizations. Sahouri, a Des Moines Register reporter, was one of just a handful of journalists whose charges stemming from coverage of the protests in the wake[Read More…]
In recent years a fierce debate has erupted in several countries regarding the impact of various free trade agreements. It is increasingly realized by people that what was publicized in glowing terms to them has turned out to be very harmful for them while some powerful interests may have gained. People are also realizing how big multinational companies often[Read More…]
You may have noticed: the Blob is back. Beneath a veneer of gender and racial diversity, the Biden national security team consists of seasoned operatives who earned their spurs in Washington long before Donald Trump showed up to spoil the party. So, if you’re looking for fresh faces at the departments of state or defense, the National Security Council or[Read More…]
During his speech in the Indian Parliament’s Lok Sabha, or Lower House, on Feb 9, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi spoke about ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’ plaguing the country, and the need to protect ourselves from it. This seems to be in reference to the expression of support for the farmers protesting around Delhi for the last two and a half[Read More…]
E A S Sarma, former secretary to the government of India, drew the attention of the finance minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman regarding the plight of 40 lakh workers who are getting a meagre sum as EPF pension. In a letter dated 22-9-2020 he clarified to the union finance minister, One of the sections of the people who seem to be[Read More…]
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue has had its fits and starts, but nothing encourages such chats than threats, actual or perceived. In 2017, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono felt that it was time that a strategic dialogue between Japan, the United States, Australia and India should be revived. The Quad, as it was termed, was on the way to becoming a[Read More…]
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey has refocused attention on the couple’s bid for financial independence, and exactly how much is needed to maintain and protect certain members of the royal court. Among other surprising disclosures, Prince Harry revealed that shortly after announcing their departure, the couple was cut off financially and lost their security detail.[Read More…]
Seed is the base of all life. Recognizing this obvious fact, farmers for well over a hundred generations and for several thousand years cared for seeds, respected seeds, and helped to promote a great diversity of seeds. Hence they had different seeds for different needs, for different weather conditions, for different kinds of land and soil. Diverse varieties of seeds[Read More…]
Many Palestinian intellectuals and political analysts find themselves in the unenviable position of having to declare a stance on whether they support or reject upcoming Palestinian elections which are scheduled for May 22 and July 30. But there are no easy answers. The long-awaited decree by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last January to hold legislative and presidential elections in[Read More…]
In many parts of the world there is a yearning on the part of farmers to break free from the increasingly exploitative grip of big business interests trying to dominate farming and food systems. As a result, despite the very worrying reality of the increasing domination of big business in many countries led by the USA, there is[Read More…]
The Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr. GN Saibaba organised a press conference at the Press Club of India in Delhi which was addressed by writer Arundhati Roy, former Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha D Raja, General Secretary of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) Muralidharan, former President of DUTA Nandita Narain,[Read More…]
What are the most stigmatized illnesses around the world? Umm…TB, HIV, Mental health issues. But have you come across people who are stigmatized because they have cancer? Do you think it exists? Well, it does. Many of us are now aware that the nation is going through an epidemiological transition, which means that there is a change in the pattern[Read More…]
India’s partition was one of the major tragedies of South Asian region. The causes for this are to be seen in the triangle formed by ‘British Policy of Divide and rule, Hindu Communalism believing in Primacy of Hindu nation and Muslim Communalism demanding formation of Pakistan. The falsehood of theory of ‘religion as the basis of Nation state’ was demonstrated[Read More…]
Perhaps it was those bright red MAGA caps or the humongous banners they waved as they marched upon the Capitol building. Perhaps it was the torches carried, so conveniently at night, and the chants of ‘ Blood and Soil’ and ‘ Jews will not replace us’ by those mostly college age young men ( and some women) in Charlottesville Virginia[Read More…]
Marking 150th anniversary of Rosa Luxemburg’s birth, this article about a great woman revolutionary thinker, writer, journalist and activist of the 20th century is being republished. Rosa was born on March 5, 1871 in Poland but grew to be the leader of the German Social Democratic Party, at that time one of the largest Marxist parties of the world. Rosa[Read More…]
The ongoing pandemic has deeply affected countries. The U.S. is no exception. Rather, impact of the pandemic on the U.S. is deeper than many countries. Three polls show a few aspects of the impact. Fewer than 10,000 A report said: One year ago, on the eve of the eventful day that signaled the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — March[Read More…]
A media report from the U.S. said: The trial of journalist Andrea Sahouri began Monday with a police officer stating that he had no choice but to arrest her during last year’s racial justice protests in Des Moines, Iowa, because she did not leave the area after he deployed pepper spray. Sahouri, a Des Moines Register public safety reporter, is[Read More…]
Left and Right. The witch finder’s army hunts each night. In stealth, the army seeps prowls, creeps under floorboards. The army, hooded and masked, takes tiny ants to task when they bite. Each bite costs the ant its Life. The witch finder’s army parades, drills. You better take sides. If you are not Left or Right, you[Read More…]
A year ago, just a few weeks before San Francisco locked itself down for the pandemic, I fell deeply in love with a 50-year-old. The object of my desire was a wooden floor loom in the window of my local thrift shop. Friends knowledgeable on such matters examined photos I took of it and assured me that all the parts were[Read More…]
Lee Camp (left) and Sivan Tal — captured from Moment of Clarity There is a “crack in the veneer that Israel can just oppress and destroy Palestinian lives forever” is how Lee Camp sums up after interviewing Sivan Tal in Moment of Clarity about the latter’s decision (along with his wife Dori) to refuse to allow his son to be conscripted in the[Read More…]
In most discussions on food and farming systems in India a concern that comes up time and again is that pressures and particular interpretations of the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can increase problems of India’s farmers and the public distribution system (PDS) for food. A large number of India’s mostly small farmers face a number of[Read More…]
Keeping in view the increasing concerns worldwide to check increasing corporate control over farming and food systems, there is a need to look more carefully at various forms of this increasing corporatization and consider carefully various ways and means of resisting this. Firstly there is the increasing trend of land grab. This can be more clearly seen in the purchase[Read More…]
Introduction Though India had a distinction of electing a woman Prime Minister in 1966 (Mrs. Indira Gandhi) and an Indian (Mrs. Vijay Laxmi Pandit) became the first woman President of the UN General Assembly in 1953, the position of women in India is very low and their rights are rarely protected. Problems like dowry, sati or self-immolation of widows, child[Read More…]
Bear with me, scrupulous historians, as I try to run through some questions and parallels between centuries that I hope will enrich the essential debate on how to confront the extreme right. As a famous German genius said, history repeats itself: first as a tragedy, then as a farce. Perhaps someone will see simple coincidences in the story I am[Read More…]
Following UK’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night, #AbolishTheMonarchy trended on Twitter. A headline in The Telegraph said on March 9, 2021: “Prince Harry has lit a slow burn stick of dynamite that will cause the greatest devastation of all.” The interview contained revelations that left viewers stunned. One of the biggest moments[Read More…]
The flame of liberation of women shimmered at its crescendo literally painting the venue red. The scenes were reminiscent of an Ocean or a deluge. Revolutionary spirit touched the very core of the souls of everyone. For 2 weeks forces were mobilised from districts of Punjab with truckloads of women hurtling in to Delhi Democratic forces must all over the[Read More…]
At a time when increasing questions about corporatization trends are being raised in India, it is useful to know that the extent of corporate control over farming and farmers ( small and medium farmers, family farms) is being increasingly questioned almost all over the world, including the USA. A widely discussed account is that of Bedabrat Pain , an ex-NASA[Read More…]
Recently the very tragic suicide of a farmer from Haryana at the protest site on Delhi border drew widespread attention. He left behind a note which stated that the demand for repealing the three contested farm laws should be accepted very soon so that the protesting farmers can return to their villages happily. This note stated that farmers are no[Read More…]
A discussion by Candice Louisa Daquin based on reading Candace Owens’ book Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation According to the author, Candace Owens: Hilaría Baldwin is NOT Spanish. Rachel Dolezal will NEVER be black. A biological man is NOT a woman. A biological female will never be a man. These people are just ‘playing pretend’ and as[Read More…]
While it is easy to blame the COVID-19 pandemic for this situation, the truth is that the global semiconductor supply chain had this coming for some time. As much as 70% of the world’s semiconductors are manufactured by just two companies, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) and Samsung. *** There’s a global shortage in semiconductors, and it’s becoming increasingly serious. The US[Read More…]
On this International Women’s Day let’s take a moment to remember one of JatiIndia’s victims, 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama from Manipur, India who was hauled out of her home at night, brutally tortured, raped and then shot dead by Indian paramilitary forces — the 17th Assam Rifles — on July 11, 2004. There were bullet wounds found in her vagina and[Read More…]
In order to understand the edicts of a religion in an objective fashion, one has to look at the norms of the times the religion was offered. Islam was offered in a tribal-mercantile milieu. Women in the tribal age were treated as children, to be chastised when necessary. Islam, reflecting its mercantile face, eased their situation by ordaining that[Read More…]
8th March, 2021: Through the Feminist Week of Resistance and Reflections (7th to 14th March), marking International Women’s Day and remembering Savitribai Phule, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) is committed to amplifying the voices of women and persons of marginalized genders, speaking from the intersections of other diverse identities and social locations as well. On Day 1, we reflect[Read More…]
On the eve of International Women’s Day, South Asian activists came together to raise their voices against gendered repression in the world’s so called largest democracy. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) on Sunday, March 7, the rally was held outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey. The demonstration was mainly focussed on the[Read More…]
On the occasion of Women’s Day, it might appear surprising to see an essay on Dog. Believe me, I had no interest in dogs till some of my close ones started taking interest in some street dogs. And I have no idea when I too was[Read More…]
Americans’ trust in the Black Lives Matter movement has fallen and their faith in local law enforcement has risen since protests demanding social justice swept the nation last year, finds an exclusive USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll. On many issues, the survey finds a chasm in the perspective between Black people and white people. A report by USA Today said: Last June,[Read More…]
Nearly 60 years have passed since the dowry abolition system legislation was passed in India but we still have the cruel reality of 20 dowry deaths a day in the country ( dowry killings, or women pushed by dowry related cruelty towards suicide). Each one of these deaths is a hugely tragic story, and it is being repeated 7000 times[Read More…]
‘Enough is enough. Your words, scandalise and lower the authority of the Court…..Propriety demands that you step down from the post of CJI without a moment of delay” – An open to letter Chief Justice of India by 4000 Women Activists. Once, while teaching the batch of law graduates (a class where ratio of female students was higher), I came[Read More…]
By now, anybody speaking about vaccine equality and equity of access must surely be coming across as slightly deranged. In the field of COVID-19, traditional proprietorial instincts remain. Add to this the disparity in terms of manufacture, bureaucracy and the nasty flavour of politics, and we would all be entitled to long draughts of cynicism. The COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global[Read More…]
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarks on a four-day visit to the Gulf, Middle Eastern leaders are either struggling to get a grip on Joe Biden’s recalibration of US policy in the region or signalling their refusal to adapt to the president’s approach. Mr. Lavrov’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar comes a week after the United[Read More…]
“That’s certainly our goal and our intention.” This was the non-committal answer given by White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, when, on February 12, she was asked by a reporter whether the new Joe Biden Administration intends to shut down the notorious Guantánamo Bay Prison by the end of the president’s first term in office. Psaki’s answer may have seemed[Read More…]
As we celebrate women’s Day every year with different themes this year theme is #chooseTochallenge so I #chooseTochallenge If marriage is a vehicle, where male and female are two equal wheels to reach the destiny of life together, if we give heavy load onto one wheel, it would surely get burst or lead to an accident damaging the whole vehicle[Read More…]
The Four Horsemen of our media apocalypse — Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, and Donald Trump — have ridden roughshod over us this past half-century leaving their hoofprints on our politics, our culture, and our lives. Two of them are gone now, but their legacies, including the News Corporation, the Fox News empire, and a gang of broadcast barbarians[Read More…]
Aristotle famously said that man was a social animal: ζῷον πολιτικόν. He also strongly implied that what distinguished man from all other animals was his rationality. Today this description seems to make more sense than ever. Human beings, contrary to the contract theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, were never lone beings in search of society. They always[Read More…]
“Since August 20, the young Red Guards of Peking, detachments of students,have taken to the streets. With the revolutionary rebel spirit of the proletariat, they have launched a furious offensive to sweep away reactionary, decadent bourgeois and feudal influences, and all old ideas, culture, customs and habits. This mounting revolutionary storm is sweeping the cities of the entire nation.Red Guards[Read More…]
The concept of the ‘Rule of Law’ is the basic structure of our constitution. It becomes imperative to observe the rule of law in order to run the country according to the constitutional provisions. However, in reality, often politicians with criminal records get elected and even become part of the government, destroying the whole idea of the rule of law.[Read More…]
The influence of Hindi film song in the life of people of India, often cutting across barriers of language and region, should never be underestimated. People keep humming Hindi film tunes all the time and remember and observe their moments of joy and sorrow, romance and rejection in terms of soulful tunes and lyrics from films. Many famous composers and[Read More…]
A Review article on the recently launched book edited by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd and Karthik Raja Karuppusamy “The Shudras–Vision For New Path” number one bestseller on Amazon India’s farmers have sustained the largest protests in modern Indian history since Mahatma Gandhi and the independence movement. While Gandhi’s Khadi dhoti appeared in media worldwide, the farmers received relatively scant attention until[Read More…]
“Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me, this is my life and if there’s a funny old person in years to come, who’s a ghost walking up and down here, it’ll be me.” These are the words of an incredible woman with an indomitable spirit, who has been an inspiration to many worldwide – Hannah Hauxwell, an English[Read More…]
Every conscientious person in the world strives for peace and harmony among the neighbours. Kashmir has been crying for it for decades. They are the worst sufferers of the hostile relations between India and Pakistan. Always terrorized, humiliated, and killed on all sides for the last seventy years, especially those families living across the Line of Control between two countries.[Read More…]
Here we will provide you with information about everything that has happened and is happening with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. We provide you a quick rundown on its contentious history, the need for starting afresh on this vital conversation about platform accountability and also an analysis of the present draft of the[Read More…]
Written by Rahul Konapur, Nachiket Gudi, Oommen John Countries across the globe have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Over the span of a year 2,320,497 lives have been lost and 106,125,682 infected as on date1. The scientific community across the globe are racing against time to administer safe and effective vaccines to save lives[Read More…]
A few nights ago, I had watched the NTV video on Probash Jibon featuring a self-made Bangladeshi born multi-billionaire Kali Pradip Chaudhuri (KPC) in Los Angeles (LA), California. His lifestyle consists of such opulence and excesses that it will be categorically approved by Mukesh Ambani, the Reliance Industries Chairman and Jay Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald’s flamboyant central character in The Great[Read More…]
The European Union has been keeping up appearances in encouraging the equitable distribution of vaccines to combat SARS-CoV-2 and its disease, COVID-19. Numerous statements speak to the need to back the COVAX scheme, to ensure equity and that no one state misses out. And EU member states could be assured of a smooth vaccine rollout, led by the EU apparatus,[Read More…]
When Marx died, he went to hell. He started organising the suffering people in hell. They started revolting. It became a big problem for the Gods. The gate between the hell and heaven were very close. The security guards of Hell and Heaven used to exchange beedies (Ganesh Beedi) and share their views on Hell and Heaven. When the Gods[Read More…]
In a complaint that was filed by the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations on December 7, 2020 against the mob violence on Madvi Muka and 27 other victims in Chhattisgarh, the SHRC, Chhattisgarh has ordered the police submission of an action taken report. The case came to light when a Hindutva mob attacked the people during the prayer that[Read More…]
Decolonizing Palestine – Hamas Between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial. Somdeep Sen. Cornell University Press, New York. 2020. A book that has a very narrowly defined title often fails to look at the larger context, either regional or global. In “Decolonizing Palestine – Hamas Between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial” Somdeep Sen succeeds surprisingly well in placing the struggles of[Read More…]
6th March, 2021: The historic and globally recognized farmers’ movement, which entered into an electrifying phase with the ‘Delhi Chalo’ Call on 26th Nov, completes 100 days today. The movement continues to challenge the notorious ‘Three Farm Acts’ that would herald unprecedented levels of corporate control over agriculture, nullifying the mandi system, diminishing the significance of the Minimum Support Prices[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Govt of India Dear Shri Gauba, It is the collective effort and a culmination of the human endeavour at the global level that has enabled the country to launch the ongoing national campaign, including the vaccination drive, against COVID. The credit should rightly go to the scientists across the world who studied the virus[Read More…]
“Who goes to the court? You go to the court and regret. It is those who can afford to take chances, like the big corporates, who approach the courts,” – former CJI Ranjan Gogoi . It is the gospel truth of the present situation. It came out from none other than former Chief Justice of India. Justice Gogoi surprised the[Read More…]
Adam and Eve descended together on this planet. They coexisted and evolved through time, struggling for domination and power constantly. Then why, after thousands of years of cohabitation women are still waiting to be empowered by the gender which arrived at the same time as them. In the race of the two sexes, have women been left behind or to[Read More…]
China’s alleged cyber-attacks on Indian power facilities is the latest sensational story featured in the Indian media, print and electronic, not to speak of the wild social media. For those who do not read the small print, it is taken for granted that the “wily Dragon” was, as usual, out to undermine India. “Misinformation refers to false or out-of-context information[Read More…]
Today on March 6th we commemorate a landmark day in the history of India being the 50th anniversary of legendary Sunil Gavaskar making his debut in test cricket. For the first time ever the immortal Sunil Gavaskar stepped on a cricket pitch to set sail for one of the most illustrious careers ever of any sportsman. What set him apart[Read More…]
A recent UN Assessment, as of February 26th 2021, regarding progress or lack thereof by the 195 nations to the Paris 2015 climate agreement is starting to look like a big bust. As described in the report, nations are not meeting their voluntary commitments to decrease carbon emissions, especially based upon the Paris ‘15 goals to decelerate CO2 emissions of[Read More…]
Why Has Humanity Been Most Cruel Towards These Creatures Who Have Served Most Selflessly? If there was a prize for guessing the name of the life form which has served humanity ( as well the overall life-nurturing conditions of our planet)in the most valuable way with the greatest continuity and most selflessly, then perhaps very few will venture to suggest[Read More…]
Those to whom we all owe substantial recompense are primarily people in the mid-south of the planet. This is because that is where the brunt of the desirable resources are and the people in the lands with these riches often barely make enough money to live. In fact they are often heavily exploited and we need to pay them back[Read More…]
The new farm laws will make it more difficult for farmers to earn an income, said R.S. Amaresh, a 65-year-old farmer from Renukapura village in Challakere taluk of Chitradurga district. ‘It is very difficult to survive as a farmer. There is no value for our crop. We have given up hope on agriculture. If it continues like this, a day[Read More…]
Farming in India has been increasingly discussed at world-level in the context of the on-going farmers’ movement in India. India has a special position as a leading country where nearly two-thirds of the population still lives in rural areas. Therefore whatever policy options it adopts in the context of farming are considered very important at world level. Hence it is[Read More…]
To dismantle a system of oppression, intensely radical politics are required. That is why any resolution to the Palestinian Nakba in the form of a unitary state cannot possibly retain the fiction that Jews world-wide are a monolith “people” who need to be in-gathered in one place, that place being a geographic territory colonized and violently seized by atheist East[Read More…]
At a glance, it may appear that the split of Arab political parties in Israel is consistent with a typical pattern of political and ideological divisions which have afflicted the Arab body politic for many years. This time, however, the reasons behind the split are quite different. As Israel readies for its fourth general elections within two years, scheduled for[Read More…]
March 5, 2021 marks the 100th Day of the sit-in of more than half a million farmers and workers and it is indeed an unthinkable affair compared to farmers’ movements that happened in the recent past. It will not be irrelevant if we probe a little bit of history to understand its uniqueness. In the past, we have seen bigger[Read More…]
The green revolution has been widely discussed and its different aspects have been highlighted by various observers according to their own understanding of emphasis and priorities. To this writer the essence of the green revolution seems to be in the following tendencies, all the more significant because these seem to be shared by technological changes in other sectors of[Read More…]
A collage of green handprints added a new dimension to an anti-racism initiative launched by Burnaby-based Spice Radio this week. The broadcasters and other team members at the station, came together to raise their voices for Indian farmers in a unique way. They not only left their handprints in green on a white sheet, but also scribbled their greetings to[Read More…]
Many of the Congress Party’s esteemed leaders in Kerala have been active in the political arena for half a century, and it is time for them to move on. Some of them have been leaders for two generations or more, depriving the opportunity to youngsters who have come[Read More…]
Of all visions accessible on this living Earth, no natural sight is more beautiful that a mother and child. If the mother and child are human (no matter of what race), they are beautiful. If mother and child are lion or tiger, horse, bison, swan, or mountain sheep, beautiful. If mother and child are bear, be they black or brown,[Read More…]
Gold has long been considered the most important form of wealth. Diamonds are another. When oil became the most widely used source of energy, then people started referring to oil as the black gold. At various times since then, different important minerals have been highlighted as being very valuable. But the more these minerals are extracted in any country, the[Read More…]
Amid the continuing farm protests, with the farmers completing almost three months camping at the borders of Delhi, the international news agency Reuters published a report based on multiple internal documents of Amazon regarding its India operations over the last few years.[2] Amazon is a global e-commerce giant, and it has already achieved close to $10 billion annual sales (value of[Read More…]
Cancel culture is a common, almost viral, term in political and social discourse these days. Basically, somebody expresses views considered to be outrageous or vile or racist or otherwise insensitive and inappropriate. In response, that person is “canceled,” perhaps losing a job or otherwise sidelined and silenced. In being deplatformed by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, for instance, this[Read More…]
It is now 19 years when Gujarat 2002 riots happened. The public memory of the nation has forgotten the event. Until has come a book Under Cover My Journey into the Darkness of Hindutva by Ashish Khetan to bring back the memories of the calamity which had overtaken the Muslims of Gujarat. In fact to be exact it was like reading the riot[Read More…]
Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies On February 25th, President Biden ordered U.S. air forces to drop seven 500-pound bombs on Iraqi forces in Syria, reportedly killing 22 people. The U.S. airstrike has predictably failed to halt rocket attacks on deeply unpopular U.S. bases in Iraq, which the Iraqi National Assembly passed a resolution to close over[Read More…]
Warnings by leading climate scientists regarding the high sensitivity of the atmosphere in response to abrupt compositional changes, such as near-doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations, are now manifest: According to Wallace Broecker, (the “father” of climate science) “The paleoclimate record shouts out to us that, far from being self-stabilizing, the Earth’s climate system is an ornery beast which overreacts to even small[Read More…]
The 46th Session of UNHRC now in progress has generated heated comments and discussions in Sri Lanka and elsewhere among Tamils as well as the Council is readying to pass a final Resolution against Sri Lanka after five tiring years which witnessed 3 Resolutions earlier.[ 30/1. 34/1, 40/1]. It is a distressing fact to note Sri Lanka’s non-implementation of most[Read More…]
Hear nothing see nothing say nothing Lied to, threatened, cheated and deceived Led up garden paths and into blind alleys Hear nothing see nothing say nothing [The 1982 song of the English band Discharge] Indian rulers-ruling classes drunk with power like their counterparts in the world have been ruthless in suppressing any opposition to their misdeeds. It has not been[Read More…]
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable-but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Ursula K. Le Guin Despite narratives of inferiority imposed by the dominant elites the peasant farmers are creating lasting landscapes of resistance, arising from a new consciousness leading to a re-opening of History.[Read More…]
Few actors ever took versatility or acting craft to such a crescendo as actor Sanjeev Kumar. He may have left us early at the young age of 47 but the stamp he left marks it’s print today and will possibly remain forever in the annals of Bollywood history.Sanjeev was simply Bollywood’s ultimate chamelion.Sanjeev Kumar traversed regions in acting almost nonone[Read More…]
Karl Marx had once remarked, “Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways. But the point however is to change it.” Although, the following narrative which I am going to pen has only one interpretation. The triumph of human will in extreme moments of crisis and the immense possibility that one is capable of churning out to face that crisis.[Read More…]
Sedition, said Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was the “prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen”. He said this in the context of the British colonial administration’s use of this section (124A) against many freedom fighters, including himself and Tilak. And while pleading guilty as charged, he said it was his[Read More…]
The papers are full of suggestions on what US President Joe Biden should do about his country’s seemingly perennial involvement in Afghanistan. None are particularly useful, in that they ignore the central premise that a nation state long mauled, molested and savaged should finally be left alone. Nonsense, say the media and political cognoscenti. The Guardian claims that he is[Read More…]
While fierce debates rage on agriculture, the very important role of food processing is often neglected. This neglect can prove very costly, as the people of Mexico discovered much to their cost a few years ago. In the early 1990s a fierce debate raged in Mexico regarding the desirability of joining ( with USA and Canada) the North American Free[Read More…]
The UN official who investigated the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi sharply criticized U.S. President Biden’s response to the killing, saying his administration’s failure to sanction Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a “dangerous” message to world leaders that they could kill dissidents and journalists with impunity. “I found it to be shocking,” Agnes Callamard, the UN special[Read More…]
Hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans rose 150% in U.S.’s largest cities last year, even as overall hate crimes decreased, according to alarming new data released Tuesday. There were 122 hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans in 16 of the U.S.’s most populous cities in 2020, according to a study of police records by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at[Read More…]
March 2, 2021 was the five year anniversary of the murder of Berta Cáceres, who opposed the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras. That date was less than one month after the deaths of dozens of people from Dam disaster in Uttarakhand, India. The two stories together tell us far more about consequences of the insatiable greed of capitalism for more[Read More…]
A man walks to the police station in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, with a severed head of his 17 years old daughter. He admitted openly that he disliked her relationship with another person. The poor girl did not have the option to ‘debate’ or discuss it with her father. This is not the first incident and cases after cases happening and[Read More…]
Amid the ongoing horror, it’s important to find ways to atone for war crimes —including reparations. Thirty years ago, when the United States launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, I was a member of the Gulf Peace Team. We were 73 people from fifteen different countries, aged 22 to 76, living in a tent camp close to Iraq’s border with[Read More…]
Written by Harshvardhan Purandare and Sandeep Pandey Ahmedabad hosts a Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram, the iconic monument where values and foundation of Indian democracy evolved through decades of Freedom movement. Now the city also hosts five star Narendra Modi stadium at Motera ground, a new monument named after our seven star prime minister. One can say, Indian democracy which grew at[Read More…]
Sometimes a particular fight weaves together so many strands of the oppressive fabric of the USA that it is difficult to figure out what is key and where to begin. Such is the case with the fight to free Bay View Newspaper editor Malik Washington from the clutches of the private, COVID-wracked “halfway-house” prison in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Systemic[Read More…]
Freedom fighter and martyr, Bhagat Singh who inspired and continues to inspire millions of Indians to fight for a democratic, secular, egalitarian Indian society and polity had declared, “Freedom is not when the rule is taken over from the white man to brown man. This is only transfer of power. Real freedom is when the person who works on land[Read More…]
What is capital? The recently deceased economist David Fleming suggests that it is comprised of financial, natural, social, material, human and scientific/cultural assets. I, myself, would add energy assets in the mix because, obviously, those who control the energy supplies of the world control the world. In fact, any country being in control of the brunt of energy supplies makes[Read More…]
The National Alliance of Journalists(NAJ) and Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ)has termed as ominous, the Union governments hastily framing of rules to monitor digital media specially taking into account manifold attacks on articles critical of the government and increasing attacks on freedom of the press and journalistic rights. Within days of the Union Government framing rules to monitor digital media,[Read More…]
China has said that the door to Xinjiang “is always open” for UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, after she claimed Muslim Uighurs are suffering arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in the area. The statement was made on Tuesday by the Chinese delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in response to comments by Bachelet claiming an independent investigation needs[Read More…]
The seriousness of climate change and the wider ecological crisis cannot be denied any more and so there is increasing pressure on big business interests and those colluding with them for more restraint. Instead of responding by making efforts for genuine change some of these powerful interests have been trying to push their projects and even policy in a direction[Read More…]
1 My world in your eyes Just a stirring inside me Finally we meet 2 Gentle spring breeze floats Open hand invites rest here Love blooms like a rose 3 Beginning to know There is something elusive Where are you hiding 4 Loving you is sweet Conning me is such great fun Laughing all the way Harriet Huddle grew[Read More…]
Because they couldn’t kill me before I was born they try to throw me off every cliff, into flames and push me into deranged arms Blame me for straying too near the edge Praise me to high heavens when I am defeated/broken/ dead Decorate my rotting corpse with candlelight vigils Call me their favourite warrior names for losing the fight[Read More…]
Written by Romana Rubeo and Ramzy Baroud On February 4, representatives from the Palestinian Movement, Hamas, visited Moscow to inform the Russian government of the latest development on the unity talks between the Islamic Movement and its Palestinian counterparts, especially Fatah. This was not the first time that Hamas’s officials traveled to Moscow on similar missions. In fact, Moscow continues[Read More…]
Just days before International Women’s Day, 4000+ eminent and concerned citizens, women’s rights and progressive groups raise a strong collective voice Deeply distressed by the regressive statements of the CJI asking a rapist to marry the victim and condoning marital rape in court on 01 March 2021, over 4000+ concerned citizens, from representatives of India’s women’s movements, progressive groups and feminists,[Read More…]
This country is in a crisis of the first order. More than half a million of us have died thanks to Covid-19. Food insecurity is on the rise, with nearly 24 million Americans going hungry, including 12 million children. Unemployment claims filed since the pandemic began have now reached 93 million. Given the level of damage to the less wealthy parts of this society,[Read More…]
Post-Disaster Rebuilding Efforts Cannot Deprive Already Marginalized Communities of Protections under Law. West Bengal Govt. must ensure fair compensation and rehabilitation to all dalit families in West Parganas, prior to land acquisition for road construction The Govt. of West Bengal has acquired 43 acres of land in Samsernagar, West 24 Parganas, to initiate construction of concrete roads on the banks[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic has been a reminder of humanity’s inherent interconnection with the natural world. At the same time, the crisis threatens to further deprioritise climate action when it is needed most urgently. Joan Herrera i Torres, former leader of the Catalan Green party, proposes an eco-social agenda for post-Covid Europe based on three key elements: protecting biodiversity, valuing the[Read More…]
Big companies are finding profit in carbon offsets market. “The value of the global market for carbon emissions offsets,” writes Frank Watson (Global carbon offsets market could be worth $200 billion by 2050: Berenberg, 13 May 2020 https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/051320-global-carbon-offsets-market-could-be-worth-200-bil-by-2050-berenberg) “could increase to $200 billion by 2050, German bank Berenberg said in a note”. Frank Watson writes: “Although now relatively small, the[Read More…]
Thailand was among the countries globally that promised last year to reduce the maximum speed limit to 30 kilometre per hour (30 kph) to reduce road traffic crashes, and thus, save lives. More importantly, the government of Thailand played a major role last year as part of the International Advisory Committee to 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held[Read More…]
The recent cataclysmic year 2020 has been a true test of our resilience, and certainly some of the most challenging of our lives and career. As many buildings temporarily closed its doors, like so many museum and cultural institutions around the world, which lead to concerned about the future, but it is also an overwhelming sense of solidarity, knowing that[Read More…]
Every power worth its portion of salt in the Levant these days seems to be doing it. On February 25, President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against Syria. The premise for the attacks was implausible. “These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq,” claimed Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, “and to ongoing threats to[Read More…]
It’s time for a fresh start for Palestine, as Prince Hassan says, but a truly fresh start, not a variant mutation of the toxic past It’s déjà vu time for Palestine; we have lived through the same fiasco before only to get bogged down in the Oslo poisoned swamp. Déjà vu washed over me as I read a letter by[Read More…]
There have been several reports about the adverse impact of high levels of meat production and consumption on food production. For example it is well recognized that seven kgs. of grain, or more, is used to produce one kg. of beef in intensive systems and at the same massive amounts of water are used, and this has a very[Read More…]
Press Release after the webinar: Decoding the Arsenal Report: The Curious Case of Questionable evidence in Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case The NIA’s ’No Malware Found’ Response to New Forensic Report Points to Ineptitude: On February 10, 2021 the Bhima Koregaon defense team filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking the release of Rona Wilson and the quashing of[Read More…]
‘Final Solution’ – an award winning, must watch documentary film by Rakesh Sharma made in 2004 is streaming on Vimeo for free until March 31. The film is about 2002 Gujarat carnage and the rise of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The film maker keeps this film open for public view at Vimeo at free of charge till March[Read More…]
The U.S. wasted billions of dollars in war-torn Afghanistan on buildings and vehicles that were either abandoned or destroyed, said a report released Monday by a U.S. government watchdog. The agency said it reviewed $7.8 billion spent since 2008 on buildings and vehicles. Only $343.2 million worth of buildings and vehicles “were maintained in good condition,” said the Special Inspector[Read More…]
India has had a closed mind, and influential sections of national opinion cling to the notion that bellicosity is the signature element of China’s approach to India. The unfortunate coincidence is that many who indulge in such seasonal tirades against China also happen to be passionate advocates of a US-Indian strategic embrace. Their hysteria dovetails into an ulterior agenda. [Read More…]
People grow up with several identities. One identity can be that of caste, another one can be that of religion , yet another one can be that of ethnicity. Some people identify themselves with the real or imaginary fame of their family or ancestors, while others tend to identify themselves very strongly with certain spiritual ( real and imaginary[Read More…]
Perspectives on the Storming of the Capitol from a Military Spouse “Are you okay?” asked a friend and military spouse in the voicemail she left me on the afternoon the mob of Trump supporters breached the Capitol so violently. At home with a new baby, her Navy reservist husband stationed in Germany, the thoughts running through her head that day[Read More…]
Indian climate activist Disha Ravi was arrested by the police on 13 February 2021. The Government of India has charged her with sedition. As is common, the case will drag on for years and she would have to attend innumerable hearings – torture in itself. Already, she has spent ten days behind bars before being bailed out on February 23.[Read More…]
The tree, shimmering in a puddle, ripples as a bird pauses for a drink. The sun peeps from behind the grey lined with silver. The river mirrors the sky replete with clouds and sunshine. Water drifts over a lifetime spanning your story and mine — narratives of our Times, of an eon that sweeps the Earth, mankind’s own[Read More…]
An MoU signed between a US company and the Government of Kerala has become a major pre-election controversy in Kerala. The plan under this MoU included deep-sea fishing through hundreds of deep-sea fishing trawlers and several mother vessels in the sea around the Kerala coast. This project is not only against the existing fisheries policy but also has a tremendous[Read More…]
Wildfire Smoke Chokes Eastern US 
Terracidal But Ignored Carbon Debt From Gas Exploitation By The World & Climate Criminal Australia 
China and Palestine: No To ‘Piecemeal Crisis Management’ 
Can China and the United States Establish Mutual Respect to Lessen Tensions? 
How Empire Fabricates Atrocities 
For Balanced Progress, Indian Railways Must Get Their Priorities Right 
Determining Scheduled Area: An Update 
The new Parliament house may be dangerously undemocratic 
Ranajit Guha: A duality of literature and history 
DIPAM’s hasty moves to disinvest the government’s residual share in HZL highly imprudent and against the public interest 
A Climate of Betrayal 
Deserving Each Other: The PGA Tour-LIV Golf Merger 
The World Economy Is Changing—the People Know, but Their Leaders Don’t 
Tribute to Chris Hani on 30th martyrdom Anniversary 
Proper Treatment of Rail Accident Victims Demands Long-term Commitment and Support 
What the Kailasa Con Job Reveals About the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh 
Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case 
The writing is on the wall: Farmers warn Parliamentarians 
The End Stage of American Empire 
End the culture of impunity and arrest accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh now 
Brasilia summit: Lula and Maduro reboot regional integration 
Steaming Ahead: Sikkim’s First Rail Project to Boost Connectivity by 2024 
Five years behind bars for five activists 
Five Years Since The First Arrests In Bhima-Koregaon Case 
Diluted Sovereignty: A Very Australian Example 
Conflict, Migration, and Demography in Russia and Its Border Regions 
Railway Safety Has Been Short of Funds, Needs Early Increase 
Notes on two recent sensations 
A shocking picture of health apathy….. 
Railway accident in Odisha- Are the Railways ready for high-speed trains? Who is to be blamed? 
Teaser of Film on Savarkar: Lies Galore 
Preserving India’s Heritage: The Power of International Collaboration for Natural and Cultural Conservation 
Looking for Home in an Overheating World – If Emissions Continue, Will We All Be Migrants Someday? 
From Ploughshares to Swords—Sudden Militarism of Those Who Once Stood for Peace 
Transreality 
Australia stands to benefit from India only if Indian democracy survives, not from rallies 
Whether Rhetoric or Serious, Arab Diplomacy Can’t Be Ignored! 
Unleashing the Power of Sports: How Sporting Events Drive Tourism Growth 
Black Panther and the need to dream for a better world 
Mexico’s Zapatistas Warn Chiapas Is on “the Verge of Civil War” 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
