In the 3–4 months before the Covid pandemic set in early 2020, potato prices were ruling high at around Rs.30–35 per kg in the retail markets. India’s potato farmers who had raised their rabi crop in November 2019 had high hopes of making a good income. But the unexpected lockdown declared on 24 March 2020 resulted in a very sharp[Read More…]
While the Ukrainian people bear the lethal brunt of Russia’s invasion, shockwaves from that war threaten to worsen other crises across the planet. The emergency that loomed largest before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began — the heating of the Earth’s climate — is now looming larger still. The reason is simple enough: a war-induced rush to boost oil and[Read More…]
At the time of a huge corporate assault to get clearance for Bt brinjal GM ( Genetically Modified) crop, farmers and civil society had joined hands together to resist this and the Environment Minister of the then UPA government Jairam Ramesh had bravely resisted all pressures while announcing a moratorium on this GM food crop, a decision which won[Read More…]
The recently released movie ‘RRR’ is being received well across the country. The movie is based on two revolutionary tribal leaders namely Alluri Sitaramaraju and Komaram Bheem. While both lived in different geographies and had never met, the movie builds on the assumption of what would have happened had both lived at the same time, met and fought together. A[Read More…]
The Kremlin indicated on Wednesday that all of Russia’s energy and commodity exports could be priced in roubles, toughening President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to make the West feel the pain of the sanctions it imposed for the invasion of Ukraine. In the strongest signal yet that Russia could be preparing an even tougher response to the West’s sanctions, Russia’s top[Read More…]
For the world’s vulnerable populations already reeling from one of the worst economic shocks and an unprecedented hunger and livelihoods crisis resulting from the Covid-19 lockdowns, Russia’s war in Ukraine poses an existential threat. In this two part series researcher Sajai Jose looks at the way food production across the globe is set to fall due to supply chain disruptions[Read More…]
Introduction Symptomatic of the intensification of the US-led Cold War in the first two decades of the 21st century, the Russian war in Ukraine was a point of contention for military integration of former Soviet republics by the US and its Western European allies which welcomed and encouraged the conflict in 2022 in part to test the Atlantic Alliance’s solidarity[Read More…]
“The water is back,” one family member would announce in a mix of excitement and panic, often very late at night. The moment such an announcement was made, my whole family would start running in all directions to fill every tank, container or bottle that could possibly be filled. Quite often, the water would last for a few minutes, leaving[Read More…]
For more than two decades, Koch-controlled foundations spent more than $160 million to stymie government action on climate change. The U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee kicked off its investigation of the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long climate change disinformation campaign last fall by inviting top executives from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell to testify about their role and subpoenaing their[Read More…]
Obscenities occupy the annals of State behaviour, revolting reminders about what governments can do. One of Australia’s most pronounced and undeniable obscenities is its continuing effort to gut and empty international refugee law of its relevant foundations. Instead of being treated as a scandal, populists and governments the world over have expressed admiration, even envy: If they can get away[Read More…]
In moving from Nazareth back to the UK, I have stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire [This is a transcript of a talk I gave to Bath Friends of Palestine on 25 February 2022.] Since I arrived with my family in the UK last summer, I have been repeatedly asked: “Why choose Bristol as your[Read More…]
SATHI, a Pune-based NGO, has brought out a compendium of 23 testimonies from patients or their kin, documenting price gouging by private hospitals in Maharashtra. The report, ‘Patients’ voices during the pandemic: Stories and analysis of rights violations and overcharging by private hospitals’, documents the fact that hospitals blatantly disregarded government price capping, and regulatory bodies seemed all to have[Read More…]
For the world’s vulnerable populations already reeling from one of the worst economic shocks and an unprecedented hunger and livelihoods crisis resulting from the Covid-19 lockdowns, Russia’s war in Ukraine poses an existential threat. In this two part series researcher Sajai Jose looks at the way food production across the globe is set to fall due to supply chain[Read More…]
Citing Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation to the talks with Ukraine, an Istanbul, March 29 datelined media report said: Russia has suggested a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, be organized concurrently with the initialing of a bilateral treaty by the two countries’ foreign ministers. “After today’s meaningful conversation, we[Read More…]
The Savarkar rehabilitation project is taking newer forms. The latest attempt [‘How Savarkar fought for a casteless society’, The Indian Express, 28-02-2022] by the Savarkarites is to claim that “He had imagined a nation free of malevolent social evils such as caste cruelty, Untouchability, and injustice towards women. He advocated a casteless society based on notions of social justice coupled[Read More…]
The “Unwinnable War” Last week, the UN secretary-general António Guterres said that the Ukraine war is “….unwinnable” and this is true but sadly, there seems to be no letup in the war, not yet. In the meantime, Russia’s relentless bombing has reduced Ukraine into a pile of rubbles and turned Ukraine into a non-functioning state! On the other hand, Russia’s[Read More…]
Despite being voiced aggressively, “Ukraine-Diplomacy” exercised by the so-called friends of this country has so far shown virtually no sign of ending sufferings of Ukrainians and of Ukraine-crisis. This certainly demands deliberation on nature of “diplomacy” at play and its apparent failure. True, innocent citizens must not suffer at the cost of what major powers desire. Violence of any nature[Read More…]
A Short Philosophical One-Act Play The Place: Hades (World of Shadows) Medea: In that eye within which I saw a world reduced I engendered a treacly venom so strong that love itself was sick with weakness and fear for the sipping of it Jason: It was not your love for me that caused you to eternally burn and to presently[Read More…]
The call for a 2 day national level strike by workers given by 10 central trade unions and other supporting organizations in India drew a strong response by over 200 million ( 20 crore) workers on March 28 and 29, according to organizers. These workers included those from ports and mines, railways and transport, banking and insurance, refineries and telecom,[Read More…]
What do a six-year-old in the United States and an 85-year-old in Russia have in common besides being on opposite sides of a war? They’re both feeling the strain of a warming planet. “Is the earth going to get so hot that we can’t survive?” my young son asked me last summer as we plodded through the woods behind our[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
Review of “Essay Competition” Sponsored by ‘Anti-Dowry Movement” BACKGROUND OF THE ESSAY COMPETITION This year An Inter collegiate Essay competition for College students across Maharashtra State was sponsored on 1st January 2022, by ‘Anti Dowry Movement’. It involved students from all Sr. Colleges (All Faculties) affiliated to most of the Universities in Maharashtra. Holding such competitions annually are regular[Read More…]
Dear Shri Pinarayi Vijayan Ji, A few years ago, I attended a wedding somewhere between Thiruvalla and Changanassery. Soon after the reception, an elderly person approached me. After some initial pleasantries, he asked me where my car was parked. I told him that I came by bus. The moment I said this, he disappeared from there. I have two explanations[Read More…]
Climate disaster seems a distant threat One reason why the Glasgow Climate conference failed so miserably to produce urgently needed climate action was that humans tend to react to what is close to them. Money to pay the rent is urgent, while a climate catastrophe seems to be a distant threat. Cultural inertia A second reason is cultural inertia. All[Read More…]
East Antarctica, often times referred to as “the final frontier of global warming,” is making headlines once again. A few weeks ago East Antarctica’s temperatures soared by 50F to 90F above normal. (Ref: Antarctica Crushes Records, March 23, 2022) A couple of weeks later East Antarctica’s Conger Ice Shelf (1,200 sq km) completely collapsed and two additional calving events occurred[Read More…]
The shifting world order is a more realistic prospect after the Russian invasion of Ukraine than in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008 which destabilized the neoliberal globalization model and weakened the US as the unipolar hegemonic power. Although the convergence of long-term structural decline in the US as a core economy and simultaneous Chinese ascendancy has been[Read More…]
1. Putin! Putin! There’s really no disputin’! You’re a liar and a louse And you look like a mouse! Get out of our House! This House we call “Earth”! That’s ours from our birth! Don’t kill the babies With your kind of rabies! We’ve been thru this before— This plague we call “War”! The generals praise… While Earth rots and[Read More…]
The war in Ukraine has placed U.S. and NATO policy toward Russia under a spotlight, highlighting how the United States and its allies have expanded NATO right up to Russia’s borders, backed a coup and now a proxy war in Ukraine, imposed waves of economic sanctions, and launched a debilitating trillion-dollar arms race. The explicit goal is to pressure, weaken[Read More…]
A representative of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described signatories to the Budapest Memorandum as a reason Ukraine is at war, citing their failure to hold up their end of the agreement. “They signed their obligation to protect Ukraine, to provide the security and safety,” Fedir Venislavsky, President Zelenskyy’s representative to Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, told Fox News. “Which means when Ukraine[Read More…]
Israel’s balancing act in the Russia-Ukraine war is likely to falter soon, simply because the resulting NATO-Russia conflict is expected to last for years, not weeks or months. Eventually, Israel would have to make a choice. Alas, whatever that choice may be, Israel will stand to lose. From the first day of the war, Israel somehow became involved. Top Israeli[Read More…]
With a month long conflict between Russia and Ukraine, several theses have been proposed by authors, experts and scholars. Here, Dmitry Kochegurov presents four different ones adding to the ongoing discussions. Position №1. «Calm era of stability» The 2000s – early 2010s without exaggeration will be remembered by Russian Millennials as one of the most economically successful and attractive periods[Read More…]
Since Russia carried out its brutal, unjust invasion of Ukraine, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben has been pumping out rationales in op-ed pieces and media appearances for supporting the U.S. and its West European allies as they ramp up military assistance to Ukraine and their economic warfare and military preparations against Russia, in the name of going green –[Read More…]
The New York Times continues to selectively promote news that fits the Establishment narrative. The NYT portrays the nine-year sentence of the Russian “opposition leader” Aleksei Navalny to a high-security prison as a travesty of justice. Was it unjust? If so, justice must be demanded. What I can comment on is a factual inaccuracy by the NYT: Navalny is not the[Read More…]
NATOstan: she’s looking at YOU. A Roma untermensch packaged by Ukrainian “democracy”. The above picture and text is from a tweet by Pepe Escobar. Is this what you are supporting? That’s great. I am not. I have never been to the territory of the Russian Federation nor of Ukraine; but; I don’t need to; because there is no way I[Read More…]
Joe Burns’ new book says only workers can save the labor movement (Part One) I have only started reading Joe Burns’ new book, Class Struggle Unionism, but I feel a need to report on some important ideas that he introduces in Chapter Three, titled “Beyond Labor Liberalism.” There is a trend in the labor movement that is often called, somewhat[Read More…]
At a time when the Russian invasion of Ukraine has faced a lot of well-justified criticism, a different yet related question also needs to be raised. Would Ukraine have become such a serious crisis point if the USA had sincerely adopted a policy of peace towards Russia during the last 35 years or so? Revisit Russia of three decades back.[Read More…]
Sri Lanka’s defiance and delaying tactics in implementing its own undertakings and several UNHRC Resolutions by demanding extensions and lame excuses to implement these in good faith and in time. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet mentioned some of the incidents under the section on “Impunity in emblematic cases” in her annual report to the UN Human[Read More…]
Without doubt Bhagat Singh was one of the greatest ever revolutionaries who chalked out a genuine revolutionary anti-colonial programme and not the Indian National Congress. He pioneered the formation of an organisation charting out a programme opposing landlordism, capitalism and imperialism. Today with Hindutva fascism at ascendancy .Bhagat Singh has also been utilised as a symbol by RSS forces[Read More…]
by Sandeep Pandey, Vikrant Singh, Pawan Singh and Devesh Patel Even though Yogi Adityanath is now back as Chief Minister, the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results can at best be taken with a pinch of salt. The general mood during the campaign was for change. People wanted the Bhartiya Janata Party government to go. People belonging to communities other[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
The entire city is smelling of burnt human flesh all are smelling same – the flesh of the children, pregnant women and newly wed couple. We learnt today fire does not know how to differ bones It burns all – old bones and young bones in the same vigor. In an auditorium in Kolkata the city of the Babus all[Read More…]
Major weapon of sectarian nationalism is to spread misconceptions and create hate against the religious minorities. This process which has been going on since long has now got a new tool, a film, “Kashmir Files”. As such misconceptions against minorities are based on half truths, selective truths, lies and this film is another addition to that. The slogans-misconceptions against religious[Read More…]
When involved in war, those who feel like benefactors are bound to congratulate the gun toting initiators. If you so happen to be on the losing end, sentiments are rather different. Complicity and cause in murder come to mind. The late US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will always be tied with the appallingly named humanitarian war in Kosovo in[Read More…]
To Shri Bhagwant Mann Chief Minister Punjab Dear Shri Mann, Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you on taking over as the Chief Minister of Punjab. I am sure that your government will help open a new chapter in the politics of the State for the good of the people. In the federal framework in which the Centre and[Read More…]
The Western world rightly deplores the war criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine but simultaneously ignores the horrendous impact of (a) bloody US invasions of 52 countries since WW2, and (b) the US application of deadly sanctions against numerous countries. The most shocking victims today of this US-imposed mass murder are starving Afghanistan and starving Yemen, but the Developing World faces[Read More…]
Yuvaraj, at the Madurai district court, was recently, on 5th March, 2022, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder (in June, 2015) of Gokulraj , for being friends with a young woman of a ‘higher’ (OBC) caste, whose ‘honor’ was sought to be protected by murdering the dalit-born engineering graduate. The convict Yuvaraj, a leader of a brazen caste mafia[Read More…]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in many respects, is a Delphic institution whose reports are a function of political discretion as it provides justification for nation/state policies that are seldom fulfilled, e.g., only a handful of the 193 signatory nations to Paris ’15 have met commitments. This scandalous outright failure at a dicey time for the climate system[Read More…]
On March 16, 2022, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev delivered his State of the Nation address in Nur-Sultan. Most of Tokayev’s speech was about the political reforms in Kazakhstan he had either accomplished or planned to advance, after he had promised them as redress to January’s political unrest and protests against the Kazakh government. He also addressed the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on Kazakhstan during his[Read More…]
The Modi government’s indifference to the plight of the poor is now pathological. The Indian government’s rhetoric about ‘Amrit Kaal,’ an era of plenty, masks a consistent denial of the fact that the country is caught in a spiralling hunger and livelihoods crisis, the worst in its independent history, and one largely created by official policies. The 2022-2023 Union Budget[Read More…]
A Reuters report said: The Biden administration, seeking to deter China from aiding sanctions-hit Russia, on Wednesday warned Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by sanctions, help Moscow evade export controls or process its banned financial transactions. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that G7 countries would soon announce a unified response to make[Read More…]
The recent Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election has once again exposed the continuing decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In this, the BSP has got only one seat and it has been badly wiped out while Mayawati claimed to form the government with an absolute majority. In this election, the vote percentage of BSP has come down from 22.3%[Read More…]
Reports of women joining far-right movements have vexed many feminist scholars across the world. Their presence in neo-fascist neo-Nazi movements raised many questions insofar as such movements tend to denigrate their basic rights. However, scholars agree that these are not new issues. There are studies that shed insights into how Italian women were cooped in the fascist programmes and how[Read More…]
Around 2000 years ago Seneca the Younger said: “We are mad not only individually but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?” In 1880, General William Tecumseh Sherman said: “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is[Read More…]
War is never inevitable, despite what the masters of war say. But what is inevitable are the relentless propaganda, censorship and disinformation disseminated by the mainstream media, politicians and pundits in the ongoing coverage of the war in Ukraine. In the last few months, the corporate-owned MSM and social networks have been working overtime to spread Cold War propaganda against[Read More…]
While Russia’s original and shifting objectives in Ukraine remain unclear, the Kremlin is increasingly wary of a publicized, drawn-out conflict. A potential intervention by its military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), could give Russia a diplomatic victory and an acceptable path to de-escalating its campaign if it can leverage its influence over member states effectively. Russia’s attempts to[Read More…]
On March 21, 2022, Gilbert Achcar – a Professor at SOAS University of London – published a note on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, openly wishing for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) victory. He enthusiastically expressed his support for Western arms deliveries to Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia, which not only impact the well-being of the Russian people by blocking[Read More…]
Once a popular leader, Er. Rashid has almost disappeared from news, particularly from mainstream media. Rashid comes from Langate area of Kupwara, a border district in Kashmir valley . Rashid was arrested in 2019 at the time of repeal of Article 370 by NIA in a terror funding case for which he had been questioned in 2017 also. When Rashid[Read More…]
Gujarat Government’s decision to incorporate Bhagavad Gita as a compulsory text for the students of class VI to XII have already brought up several arguments. On one hand, a few scholars are of the opinion that it is nothing but a step toward fulfilling the dreams of Hindu Rashtra, on the other a few have rightly pointed out the ‘obscurantist[Read More…]
The September 2021 Scientific American included a description by the editors of the deplorable state of disaster relief in the US. They traced the root cause of problems with relief programs as their “focus on restoring private property,” which results in little attention to those “with the least capacity to deal with disasters.” The book Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change[Read More…]
“We are anonymous because we fear retaliation.” This sentence was part of a letter signed by 500 Google employees last October, in which they decried their company’s direct support for the Israeli government and military. In their letter, the signatories protested a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Israeli government which provides cloud services for[Read More…]
Three years after the end of World War II, diplomat George Kennan outlined the challenges the country faced this way: “We have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships[Read More…]
Yogi Adityanath, a monk turned politician is set to return as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. He will be taking the oath for the second consecutive chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh on March 25. BJP has comfortably managed to script a jubilant victory in the recently concluded legislative elections in Uttar Pradesh. BJP with its allies got two-thirds of the[Read More…]
The first woman US Secretary of State has passed away at the age of 84. Madeleine Albright lost her battle with cancer on March 23, three days after the anniversary of Chittisinghpura massacre on March 20, 2000, 22 years ago, when then-US President Bill Clinton was visiting India, 36 Sikhs were gunned down in Kashmir. Those deaths still remain a[Read More…]
On March 25 is observed the death anniversary of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, a great editor, a highly dedicated freedom fighter and a lifelong crusader for justice and freedom who sacrificed his life at a young age of 41 in 1931 while trying to stop communal violence and rescue trapped people. His death in Kanpur, the central place of his work[Read More…]
A Washington Post report (As allies meet, splits emerge in NATO about how to deter Russia) said: As President Biden landed in Brussels on Wednesday splits were emerging within NATO and in Washington about how to deter the Kremlin from further escalation. Allied leaders are discussing whether it is best to keep Russia guessing about what will trigger a bigger[Read More…]
On 28 February 2022 former US government official John B. Bellinger III wrote an article for the US Council on Foreign Relations entitled “How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Violates International Law” (published online at https://www.cfr.org/article/how-russias-invasion-ukraine-violates-international-law). While John B. Bellinger III is correct to declare that Russia’s use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine is prima[Read More…]
Pointing fingers won’t help—an attitude shift is what the world needs now. The old long war in Afghanistan has barely ended and already there is a new one, this time in Europe. Most governments, the media, and the United Nations General Assembly reached a consensus quickly: the contemptible aggressor is Vladimir Putin. Public opinion strongly supports Ukraine. Large demonstrations form[Read More…]
Witness to Killing and Destruction – Ukraine fast becoming the Epic Centre of Cataclysm Cynicism about politics is endemic across all cultures. When intelligent people think and plan war, it negates the very human nature of reasoned mind at peace within its own consciousness and balanced tranquility. The earth trembles with continuous shelling and bombing, sirens sound alarms of coming[Read More…]
The angel of death with a man’s face; the mother of life comforting children. Here is where we are a planet shaken by war. People riven. We come to a turning point in the guilty history of crime. We gather to listen to witnessing voices of blood and corpses. Every one of us, deliberately or[Read More…]
(Mahatmajir Proti) Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926-1947) Translated © 2022 from the Bengali by Monish R Chatterjee Of our teeming 400 million, I too am one, I know Abruptly in the airwaves I’ve heard the pronouncement – The great moment in my life has arrived, instantly wiping away All apprehension and cowardice. The drumbeats of exultation Ring out in my bloodstream: [Read More…]
For a few weeks on February , Delhi witnessed the unusual phenomena of getting mind blowing discounts on liquor. Shops were advising buy one get one type offers , enticing people to not just buy more but drink more. The liquor business in Delhi was till recently run by the local government which ran shady looking shops colloquially called thekas.[Read More…]
Extreme climate hits Antarctica, smashing records, shocking scientists as temperatures soar 50F to 90F degrees above normal. Welcome to climate change’s newest upheaval. But, don’t talk to the scientists about it. They’re speechless. But, they do tweet: “Antarctic climatology has been rewritten,” tweeted Stefano Di Battista, Antarctic researcher (Source: It’s 70 Degrees Warmer Than Normal in Eastern Antarctica. Scientists are[Read More…]
The cultural vandals and iconoclasts have been busy of late, removing Russians from the stables at short notice and demanding what might be called a necessary affirmation of disloyalty. It’s all good to talk about world peace and the resolution of disputes, but that will hardly do for the flag bearing choirs who have discovered their object of evil. Do[Read More…]
Mallu Swarajyam, a fighter of Telangana pesant armed struggle (1946-51 ) lived up to 91 years and breathed her last in Hyderabad on March 19, 2022. *** Her father wanted to name her Samrajyam in praise of British empire. Her mother Chokkamma thought in her own away, and gave an independent name, ‘Swarajyam,‘ (the self-rule). Those were the days[Read More…]
Current mean greenhouse gas concentrations have reached a level similar to those of the Miocene (5.3 – 23 million years ago) when average temperatures exceeded 4 degrees Celsius and, while terrestrial adversaries keep pushing the Earth toward wars and a possible nuclear catastrophe, looming in the background are increasing heat waves, extreme fires and flood events, manifesting the huge calamity[Read More…]
Vietnam and Malaysia did not support the anti-Russian sanctions and agreed to remain neutral towards the Ukraine crisis, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told reporters Tuesday after his visit to Hanoi. “We discussed the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and agreed that Malaysia and Vietnam will remain neutral on this issue,” he said according to the Bernama news agency. “As for sanctions[Read More…]
by William D. Hartung, Taylor Giorno and Nick Cleveland-Stout A growing chorus of pundits and policymakers has suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new Cold War. If so, that means trillions of additional dollars for the Pentagon in the years to come coupled with a more aggressive military posture in every corner of the world. Before this country succumbs to calls for[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
The merging of four distinct public bodies under one single umbrella, controlled by one single ministry under one single minister whose most infamous utterance just before the outbreak of deadly violence in Delhi in 2019 was “Shoot the Bastards” (a loose translation of “Goli Maaro Salon Ko”) would have been alarming in of itself. What is more alarming is that[Read More…]
Since its emergence from the Anna Hazare movement against corruption in Delhi in 2012 the Aam Aadmi Party (APP) has remained on the positive side of Hindutva. Now after defeating the ruling Congress in the assembly polls of Punjab AAP publically claimed that it has become the replacement of Congress in the state but would also do so at the[Read More…]
by Bharat Dogra, Jagmohan Singh and Madhu Dogra It is often said that those who excel brilliantly at a very young age or else make big sacrifices at such an age are inspired by close family members or relatives. This can be very clearly seen in the inspirational impact of several members of the extended family or joint family[Read More…]
This article is dedicated to all those who lost their lives to world’s most deadly infectious disease – TB – and to those who defeated it Is it not shocking that an ancient disease that has been with human since long before the recorded history, and is preventable and treatable, still kills around 1.5 million people every year? Molecular analysis[Read More…]
Movies and books have often portrayed World War III as either the final chapter of the human epoch or as a new but primitive restart for those who survive the nuclear conflagration. We cannot know if such prophesies will ultimately come true. For now World War III appears to have started with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but without nuclear missiles[Read More…]
I have just completed 50 years as an independent writer. This is no news for a world busy with big things, but democracy needs truly independent, unbiased journalists and in this context my experiences of five decades have some relevance. At the more obvious level, I could contribute about ten thousand articles/reports, and four hundred books and booklets in Hindi[Read More…]
In a good number of Western states, the ruling classes, former and current, have lost their heads. Bugbear and boogieman Vladimir Putin’s efforts in Ukraine have lent themselves to some rather extreme suggestions, ranging from assassination to potential war crimes trials. This is not to say that the Russian leader has nothing to account for. As ever, it all depends[Read More…]
The ghastly blockade and bombardment of Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is now entering its eighth year. The United Nations’ goal was to raise more than $4.2 billion for the people of war-torn Yemen by March 15. But when that deadline rolled around, just $1.3 billion had come in. “I am deeply disappointed,” said Jan[Read More…]
How the tables have turned. A high-level US delegation visited Venezuela on March 5, hoping to repair economic ties with Caracas. Venezuela, one of the world’s poorest countries partly due to US-Western sanctions is, for once, in the driving seat, capable of alleviating an impending US energy crisis if dialogue with Washington continues to move forward. Technically, Venezuela is not[Read More…]
With the invasion of Ukraine, the international campaign against Russia seems to have surpassed the levels of anti-Communist and anti-Soviet Union hysteria of the Cold War era. In addition to economic sanctions, there is pressure against Russian athletes and artists. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, for example, has had her concerts canceled and has been virtually banned from theaters in Western[Read More…]
The war in Ukraine has delivered a shock to global energy markets. Now the planet is facing a deeper crisis: a shortage of food. A New York Times report (March 20, 2022) on global food crisis due to the Ukraine war said: ‘A crucial portion of the world’s wheat, corn and barley is trapped in Russia and Ukraine because of the[Read More…]
The OverSeas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or; OF-BJP, is fairly big in the United Kingdom, and more so in the United States of America. It surprisingly even has a huge number of followers in the United Arab Emirates. You can visit them at their official online information portal at http://ofbjp.bjp.org/ and read up all about their plans and[Read More…]
This article owes nothing to philosopher Nietzsche except a faint echo of the title of his celebrated work,TWILIGHT OF THE GODS,suggesting a similar crisis and detour of European spiritual culture as its icons were getting brittle after reigning supreme for a century. Nietzsche promises to go to them with a hammer.I have no such pretensions.I am only referring to the[Read More…]
Those Who Contribute the Least to Climate Change Suffer the Most Greenville, CA — Snow began falling on December 24th, big fluffy flakes that made lace on mittens before melting. Within hours it had coated the ashes, the brick chimneys that the flames had left behind, and the jagged remains of roofs strewn across my burned-out town. White mounds soon[Read More…]
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says the first priority of his administration during the Persian New Year is boosting employment and creating new jobs. He made the remarks in his New Year message aired live from the Grand Mosque of the southwestern Iranian port city of Khorramshahr on Sunday evening. “My first Nowruz message as the servant of the public is[Read More…]
The Covid-19 pandemic spurred a rush in the Indian middle class to get health insurance policies. The Indian government too came up with some new health insurance instruments exclusively to address Covid care—but they remained tokenistic in nature and were nowhere near the scale of response required to tackle the health care challenges posed by the pandemic. Health insurance in[Read More…]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Madam Michael Bachelet’s Report on Sri Lanka submitted on 24th February 2022 for discussion is fully welcome which is also endorsed by the Sri Lankan Tamils and Tamil politicians due to its frank and forthright exposure with no mincing of words. This article analyses some of her recommendations and observations to justify and support[Read More…]
To watch Japanese television news, including numerous news specials, is to be reminded morning, noon and night of the war in the Ukraine and the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Needless to say, there is nothing wrong with this inasmuch as the suffering, death and destruction caused by the war is all too real and ought to be of concern[Read More…]
Car-free Sundays in cities, working from home up to three days a week and using cost-efficient public transport – are just some of the recommendations made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to the world. The 10-point action plan aims at cutting back on oil consumption “in the face of the emerging global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of[Read More…]
The Houthis have rejected the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) offer to broker comprehensive peace talks in Riyadh between the warring factions. The six-member GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The Houthis said they would not attend talks in Riyadh, because Saudi Arabia cannot be a mediator or host since it’s a party in the[Read More…]
In November last year the Indian government launched its ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ Covid-19 inoculation campaign to increase vaccination coverage nationwide. Under the campaign health workers would go door-to-door to vaccinate people eligible for the second dose and also those who have not taken the first dose. The idea was to cover all those Indians who had been left behind in earlier vaccination[Read More…]
The Covid-19 pandemic spurred a rush in the Indian middle class to get health insurance policies. The Indian government too came up with some new health insurance instruments exclusively to address Covid care—but they remained tokenistic in nature and were nowhere near the scale of response required to tackle the health care challenges posed by the pandemic. Health insurance in[Read More…]
During 2011, NATO bombed a path to Tripoli to help its proxy forces on the ground oust Gaddafi. Tens of thousands lost their lives and much of Libya’s social fabric and infrastructure lay in ruins. The 2016 article appearing in Foreign Policy Journal ‘Hillary Emails Reveal True Motive for Libyan Intervention’ exposed why Libya was targeted. Gaddafi was murdered and his plans[Read More…]
We should expose how ‘Kashmir Files’ movie is an advertisement of the Hindutva propaganda machine to tarnish the image of Muslims of Kashmir, give a crushing blow to all credibility to the right of self-determination of Kashmiri people and sow the seeds of a Hindu Rashtra for the saffron brigade to sharpen it’s fangs. It jeopardises Hindu-Muslim fraternity. Its projection[Read More…]
Feminism today occupies a substantially larger place in the popular imagination than it did in the past. While those who identified the “F word” were commonly viewed with apprehension, this appears to be progressively fading. What was once perceived as taboo has recently become a trendy subject of interest within popular culture, from woke hash-tags and tote bags to celebrities[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of culture in the Middke Ages. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/03/Lives-in-the-Middle-Ages-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf How the Middle Ages are defined The Western Roman Empire fell to the attacks of Germanic tribes in 476. The[Read More…]
Ukraine scene is confusing the West. Today’s Washington Post main headline said: Zelensky’s end game a mystery to the West Mixed signals about the status of a peace deal have heightened anxiety about the trajectory of the talks The Washington Post report said: ‘“There are people in Ukraine who say ‘we don’t want to hear about talks, we want to[Read More…]
When the United States stole $7 billion from Afghanistan on February 11, that was no mere crime of robbery. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity that condemns possibly millions of Afghans to starvation. In short, prelude to genocide. Biden prevaricates about his excuse for this outright theft of Afghan funds, namely compensating the 9/11 victims. The[Read More…]
While the Ukraine crisis may put some strain on the Chinese-Russian relationship, it has also spurred deeper collaboration between them. Based on a shared desire to undermine the United States’ global order, their constructive partnership will not only endure the blowback from the Ukrainian invasion but is likely to expand. With the world’s attention focused on Ukraine in the weeks[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young It is undeniable that traditional labor relations have changed fundamentally since digitization has entered workplaces converting parts of capitalism into platform capitalism. This marks one of the biggest challenges for organized labor in recent years. Two significant waves of corporate restructuring have been triggered by the introduction of new digital technologies. The first wave[Read More…]
Each tree is considered to be a conserver of water, so it is extremely strange that a leading project in India widely publicized to reduce water shortages of a drought-prone area is supposed to start with the axing of 2.3 million trees, besides badly disrupting wild life including tigers in a protected zone and displacing thousands of villagers. The claims[Read More…]
Three weeks into the Ukraine war, all of the sides involved are taking ever greater risks. The hitherto unthinkable, a nuclear exchange in Europe, is being openly considered and built up as a threat. Voices of caution, restraint and appeals to reason have largely fallen silent. Despite the looming catastrophe, NATO is not prepared to compromise. In a televised speech[Read More…]
The Hindu right wing forces are planning for a while to make the Bhagavad Gita as a national scripture and access to absolute state power is allowing them to fulfil their long-time dream. The decision of the Gujarat government to incorporate the Bhagavad Gita within the school syllabus for Class-6 to class-12 students from 2022-23 academic year is a dangerous[Read More…]
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday blamed NATO for the war in Ukraine and said he would resist calls to condemn Russia, in comments that cast doubt over whether he would be accepted by Ukraine or the West as a mediator. “The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and[Read More…]
To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, I have requested you time and again to get the whole matter concerning the use of Pegasus spyware in several States in India properly investigated. My last letter was sent to you on 22-7-2021 (https://countercurrents.org/2021/07/pegasus-spyware-need-for-thorough-investigation/) As I have pointed out, several States in India (AP, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra etc.) had apparently[Read More…]
He’s our very own emperor from hell, an updated version of Nero who, in legend, burned down Rome on a whim, though ours prefers drowning Washington. Why, just the other day, Donald Trump — and you knew perfectly well who I meant — bent the ears of 250 top Republican donors for 84 minutes. Among other things, he assured those all-American[Read More…]
I read and re-read Michael Gove’s official letter to civil society on Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis, detailing several facets of “Homes for Ukraine.” I’ve been hoping for a system that will eliminate contracts with profit-making organisations that currently house asylum seekers. I argue for a system that empowers communities, individuals, and non-profit organisations to take a more active role in the[Read More…]
Great reformers are not normally found in theocratic monarchies. Despite assertions to the contrary, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remains archaic in the way it deals with its opponents. In its penal system, executions remain standard fare. With liberal democratic countries fixated with the Ukraine conflict and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, it was prudent for Saudi authorities to capitalise. On March[Read More…]
“Transforming Universities in the Midst of Global Crisis: A University for the Common Good” by Professor Richard Hil, Professor Kristen Lyons, and Fern Thompsett calls for a radical transformation of our universities in the face of worsening global crises. From a scientific perspective this book has great merit because it demands such radical change at time when neoliberal and Trumpist[Read More…]
by Ashish Kumar Singh & Margarita Denisnova Minaeva The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by both the houses of parliament in July 2019. The opposition parties had been arguing against the proposed changes in the Right to Information Act of 2005 through this amendment. The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act, 2005) came in existence after a long movement against transparency and accountability in governance.[Read More…]
Ukraine conflict is changing many issues around the world including NATO’s force stance in Europe. An AP report said: On Wednesday, lamenting Russia’s “brutal invasion” of Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Europe’s biggest land war in decades will “change our security environment” and will have “long-lasting consequences for our security, and for all NATO allies.” In talks at[Read More…]
To Shri Pinarayi Vijayan Chief Minister Kerala Dear Shri Vijayan, I wish to compliment the Kerala Legislative Assembly for unanimously passing a resolution voicing concern over the Centre’s move to sell its equity in the LIC to stock market investors and urging the Centre to retain the institution as a wholly government-owned CPSE, considering that it has played a key[Read More…]
by Rishikesh Nagdawane, Kanad Jambhulkar and Vicky Nandgaye The film is inspired by the former sports teacher Vijay Barse from Hislop College. It is a socio-pic (see Mangesh Dahiwale’s wall[1]) because it combines Vijay Borade’s (Amitabh Bacchan) life and mission with the lives and sufferings of city-slum young people. As a result, it can be viewed as a socio-pic. The[Read More…]
As the Russian military’s aggression against Ukraine remains bogged down in the face of Ukrainian resistance and poor logistics, attention has turned to the invasion’s greater effects on the global economy. Given that global supply chains are still sluggish and with the specter of further COVID variants already haunting world trade, the war in Ukraine has[Read More…]
On Monday, 14 March, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a “hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system” in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine. Guterres said: “Food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing. Supply chains are being disrupted. And the costs and delays of transportation of imported goods – when available – are at[Read More…]
Wars disturb and delude. The Ukraine conflict is no exception. Misinformation is cantering through press accounts and media dispatches with feverish spread. Fear that a nuclear option might be deployed makes teeth chatter. And the Russian President Vladimir Putin is being treated as a Botox Hitler-incarnate, a figure worthy of assassination. The idea of forcing Putin into the grave certainly[Read More…]
A new global geopolitical game is in formation, and the Middle East, as is often the case, will be directly impacted by it in terms of possible new alliances and resulting power paradigms. While it is too early to fully appreciate the impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war on the region, it is obvious that some countries are placed in[Read More…]
Numerologists tell you that 19 is 1 + 9 which equals the powerful # 1 , or new beginnings. Well, 19 years ago on March 19, coincidentally, my nation orchestrated the most horrific deed since God knows when. The illegal and immoral attack, invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq really upset the world’s applecart. The carpet bombing of Baghdad and[Read More…]
The Barefoot College, which has emerged as one of the most creative institutions in the field of rural development, discussed and admired at world level as a symbol of the often hidden but great abilities of ordinary people, particularly women and weaker sections, is completing 50 years of its eventful journey this year. Its experiences are important in the context[Read More…]
The ongoing Ukraine conflict got extra look with a mayor in Ukraine, who appeared heroic. Later, it was found that the mayor was ultranationalist. A Yahoo report (Ukrainian mayor, heralded by many, is ultranationalist, by Ben Adler, Senior Editor, Tue, March 15, 2022, 10:18 PM, https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukrainian-mayor-heralded-by-many-is-ultranationalist-161819300.html) said: ‘It was an especially inspiring story of Ukrainian bravery, in a war replete[Read More…]
Even while a draconian lockdown was underway in late March 2020, and as thousands of migrant workers and their emaciated families escaped the pandemic in a helpless long march on miscellaneous highways, hungry and thirsty and holding tattered sacks as their only belongings, and even as the upper and middle classes in the affluent zones of Noida and Delhi, or,[Read More…]
The conflict in Ukraine is multi-faceted and not a black and white clash. For example, it can be a conflict between the brothers or a kind of civil war because of the two peoples’ interaction with each other throughout history. Without ignoring that a significant part of the Ukrainian people, especially in western Ukraine, have negative feelings towards Russia, something,[Read More…]
In the year 2021 methane (CH4) concentration in the atmosphere exceeded 1,900 ppb for the first time in human history recorded by Global Monitoring Laboratory, Earth System Research Laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That level of 1,900 ppb is triple the pre-industrial level of 700 ppb. Furthermore, it is suddenly mysteriously accelerating over just the past 13 years.[Read More…]
The movie ‘The Kashmir Files’ by Vivkek Agnihotri is being propagated by the BJP supporters. BJP run state governments is encouraging people to watch the movie. It is being depicted as one which shows the pains of the Kashmiri Pandits. The movie might be well made technically and actors might have lived to the characters. Commentaries on factual errors has[Read More…]
No doubt, the first casualty of war is Truth. And the main task of killing the truth is carried out by propaganda warriors. The rulers, with the assistance of “Goebbels”, give orders, which in the practical fields are implemented by the media. Nowadays, social media are playing an ever-increasing role. Who can deny that in propaganda affairs the West is[Read More…]
In certain quarters in this country, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has generated enthusiasm for a new cold war. At the New York Times, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have been described as “children of the [old] Cold War” now involved in a “face off,” an “eyeball to eyeball” confrontation harkening back to John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev contesting Berlin and Cuba in[Read More…]
During the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Turkey, which took place from March 11 to March 13, 2022, the Kyrgyz Republic’s Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev told Helga Maria Schmid, the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), that his country would be happy to host Russian-Ukrainian talks and serve as the “mediator for re-establishment of peace and mutual understanding” between[Read More…]
by Tzeporah Berman and Ina-Maria Shikongo The growing global outcry against the destruction caused by the oil and gas industry has pushed leaders to address their actions to fight the resulting climate and ecological crisis. Yet, the divergence between the ‘climate champion’ rhetoric—which was on full display at last year’s COP26 conference—and leaders’ concrete climate commitments needs to be scrutinized and put to test. The[Read More…]
Slogans like ‘every life matters’ sound so clichéd and hollow when we see the ground reality in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia armed conflict: healthcare workers, healthcare facilities and transport are getting mercilessly attacked causing immediate and long-term damages as well as menacingly threatening the progress made on right to health in the past decades. Former Secretary General of the United Nations[Read More…]
Is history being converted into a bomb factory? How does it promote the culture of hate? Does it fall us apart to embroil in violent communal skirmishes, riots and bloodshed? How can we differentiate between genuine and false histories? The answer to these questions is furnished by the following discourse. The truthful historical knowledge has become too scarce to be[Read More…]
In March 2020, just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, all that 16-year-old Zubeida Ali, a student in Lalwadi village of Rajasthan’s Tonk district wanted most was to be the first in her family to pass the 10th class exam and become a teacher. Little did she know that her life goal would have to be put on pause. A[Read More…]
Privacy continues to be the most frequent excuse for stonewalling the information questions. In Maharashtra, the State Information Commissioner (SIC) directed the public authority to give information to an applicant about the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) report. While the government approached the High Court to reverse the SIC order, the applicant wanted the High Court through a separate writ petition to[Read More…]
The Karnataka High Court in its order has held that wearing of hijab is not essential to the practice of Islam; that College Development Committees (CDCs) have a right to prescribe a uniform; and that Muslim girls must comply with whatever uniform is prescribed by their college. 1. We, the undersigned organizations working for women’s rights and democratic rights, note[Read More…]
The United Nations chief warned Monday that the war in Ukraine is holding “a sword of Damocles” over the global economy, especially poor developing countries that face skyrocketing food, fuel and fertilizer prices and are now seeing their breadbasket “being bombed.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that “Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower[Read More…]
To Shri Sushil Chandra Chief Election Commissioner Election Commission of India (ECI) Shri Rajiv Kumar Election Commissioner Election Commission of India (ECI) Shri Anup Chandra Pandey Election Commissioner Election Commission of India (ECI) Dear S/Shri Satish Chandra, Rajiv Kumar, Pandey, I refer to the report of the Citizens’ Commission on Elections (CCE), chaired by Justice Madan B Lokur. I wonder whether the[Read More…]
Recently former legislator of Himachal Pradesh Bambar Thakur has made a strong indictment of indiscriminate and illegal tree felling at various places in Bilaspur District. He has pointed out very specific sites where such felling of trees has taken place. He has also alleged that when local persons have drawn attention to such felling no action has been taken and[Read More…]
On 10th March,2022, the Punjab State Assembly Election results were declared and the oldest Congress party got only 18 seats. Ms. Sonia Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress (INC) could not assess the Dalit voters properly that constitutes almost 32 percent( Census 2011) in the state. Ms. Sonia Gandhi and her advisors, sycophants could also not even assess the[Read More…]
The Kyiv Independent reports on Monday, 14 March, that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy proposes meeting President Putin in Jerusalem. This is what Mr. Zelenskyy told foreign journalists on March 12. He had suggested to Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, to act as intermediary. See this https://kyivindependent.com/uncategorized/zelensky-proposes-meeting-putin-in-jerusalem/ At the time of this writing no date has been set for the Putin –[Read More…]
Julian Assange, even as he is being judicially and procedurally tormented, has braved every legal hoop in his effort to avoid extradition to the United States. Kept and caged in Belmarsh throughout this farce of judicial history, he risks being extradited to face 18 charges, 17 based on the US Espionage Act of 1917. District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser initially[Read More…]
The poll outcome in five states have gladdened many and disappointed others with BJP’s extremely impressive performance but it is also a complete failure of the opposition parties particularly Congress and BSP. The results have also exposed the embedded media. It is not merely Modi Bhakts but there is a ‘big’ anti Modi anti Yogi industry which gained enormously since[Read More…]
Respected Com. Kanam Rajendran All of us, the signatories of this open letter, are well-wishers of Kerala and activists involved in the social, political, cultural, educational and environmental fields in the state. By tradition, we belong to Communist families, and take pride in that lineage too. What provokes us to write this letter is our anxiety over the present condition[Read More…]
The assembly elections results of UP, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Manipur and Goa have given victory to BJP in 4 states and AAP has come to power in Punjab. In Punjab AAP seems have won as there was a serious in fighting in Congress and the SAD’s poor record of the past. In Goa BJP was greatly helped in overcoming incumbency by[Read More…]
The results of Term 1 exam of class X have been declared. As a student myself, I can intensely feel how the educational atmosphere is laden with the brute bulkiness of marks-mania. Toppers have got 100% marks, and this has naturally created an ugly scenario where each student’s worth is measured vis-à-vis this standard. While schools are garlanding the toppers[Read More…]
Anti-war protests are continuing in Russia, despite aggressive police repression and a battery of new laws criminalizing opposition to the war in Ukraine. According to the Russian-language human rights project OVD-Info, which receives funding from the European Commission, 668 people had been detained in 36 cities as of the end of the day yesterday. The previous weekend saw around 10 times as many[Read More…]
It’s a tragic truth that some people are willing to inflict unfathomable suffering and death for the sake of power and wealth. From Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to the push for continued climate-altering fossil fuel expansion, selfish gain means more to some than the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren and those yet to be born. Take the decades-spanning efforts[Read More…]
Информация взята с портала «Научная Россия» (https://scientificrussia.ru/) We, members of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, appeal to scientists from Russia and all over the world. The long-term confrontation in Ukraine, accompanied by the death and deprivation of civilians, has grown into an acute military conflict. We consider it extremely important through the negotiation process to achieve a[Read More…]
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied, Action Speaks Louder Than Words TO THE ATTENTION OF: UNITED NATIONS, UNHRC, SECURITY COUNCIL AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY It is a high time and urgent need for the United Nations, UNHRC, ICC and the International Community to find remedial justice to the oppressed Tamils in Sri Lanka. The following facts prove beyond doubt that there[Read More…]
There it is and it cannot be wished away.The Congress has come a cropper for the THIRD time,and someone must take responsibility for it. We have heard for the third time the tired plea that the people’s verdict had been accepted with humility. Some noted commentators have said that Rahul Gandhi et al must now leave politics and retire to[Read More…]
We are all losers in this conflict. It didn’t have to come to this. If leaders and policymakers had shown some wisdom and understanding over the last few decades, things never would have reached this point. In fairness, a few of them did, only to be overridden by the short-sighted, the greedy, the arrogant, the ignorant, the power-hungry and the[Read More…]
Russian forces on Sunday bombed a Ukrainian military facility located just 22 miles from the border of NATO member Poland, killing at least 35 people and injuring dozens more. Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the facility hosted NATO drills and U.S. troops used it to train Ukrainian forces on the deployment of anti-tank missiles and other weaponry. The base has been described as “a vital link in[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, I understand that the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has further reduced the interest rate on beneficiaries’ deposits from 8.5% during 2020-21 to 8.1% during 2021-22, adversely affecting more than 7 crores of EPFO subscribers (https://www.livemint.com/news/epf-interest-rate-for-2021-22-reduced-to-8-1-lowest-since-197778-11647069646411.html). The rate of interest fixed by the EPFO for 2021-22 is the lowest since 1977-78.[Read More…]
Seedy, compromised and creepy, the surveillance machine of Facebook, now operating under the broader fold of its parent company Meta Platforms, is currently giving out the very signals that it was condemned for doing before: encourage discussions on hating a group and certain figures, while spreading the bad word to everyone else to do so. The Russian Federation, President Vladimir[Read More…]
The Ukrainian president’s suggestion that peace talks with Russia held in Jerusalem should be ridiculous. He does not want the Russians to occupy his country, so he calls for a meeting in an already occupied country. This, In addition to the fact that the Ukrainian president is Zionist par excellence and supported the Zionist state in its recent war on[Read More…]
In a Globalised World, when we see images of the conflict that is currently occurring in Ukraine on our News Feeds, Whatsapp Groups, Telegram Twitter and Instagram; as well as ofcourse on our TeleVision sets; we tend to lose sight of the human element and how close it could have been us instead. We sit far away and analyse it,[Read More…]
A sense of complacency has crept in the hearts and minds of people who otherwise have been wary of contracting COVID in the last three years. People are setting out for travel, arranging and participating in social functions and, in a nutshell going about their normal lives. In the meanwhile, speculations are also rife about an impending fourth wave of COVID. Chandrakant Lahariya, vaccines, public policy and[Read More…]
This paper was read as a Plenary Lecture at the 44th Indian Social Science Congress, held at Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, March 15-19, 2021, and is part of the Proceedings of the Congress. The world of Homo Sapiens For most of the Second Millennium CE onwards, humans in most societies have viewed the world around them as human-centric. This assumed “superiority”[Read More…]
It is the largest employer in India and eighth largest in the world. It is also the fourth longest railway network in the world sprawling out to a total length of 70,000 kms. It runs 21,000 trains and carries 23 million passengers and 3 million tonnes of freight per day. What was the multi-faceted impact of the Covid pandemic[Read More…]
A thick cloud is now shrouding Ukraine, once a part of the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Sufferings of about two million people from Ukraine are now overwhelming all around the world, as sufferings of refugees in many parts of the globe always pain humanity. There’s the dark cloud of a confrontation over the land. The darkness of[Read More…]
It was over 50 years back that over 20,000 families living in villages of Kangra region were asked to leave their beautiful settlements to make way for Pong Dam constructed on Beas river in Himachal Pradesh. The land here was so fertile that it produced bountiful diverse crops without using any chemical fertilizers and pesticides. So people were very, very[Read More…]
Foreign Minister G.L. Pieris’s speech at the 49th Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is impeccably laced with web of lies and littered with hollow and empty promises and empty undertakings having been cleverly woven to cover up the truths and mislead the United Nations, UNHRC and International Community. Undoubtedly there will be few buyers of his labored[Read More…]
NAPM extends solidarity to villagers of Gondalpura Struggling to Protect their Farms, Forests and Biodiversity 12th March, 2022: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) extends solidarity to the villagers protesting since many months against Adani’s proposed mine at the Gondalpura coal block in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. It is distressing that both the Centre and the State have paid no heed to[Read More…]
What kind of Swachh Bharat and modern urbanisation we are creating ? Let us start with Bandra suburban station in Mumbai, one of the oldest and prized heritage stone buildings, with its red tile roof. A perfectly functioning toilet for men and women here was demolished recently and now there is no toilet, urinal of any kind on any[Read More…]
According to Fermi’s Paradox the apparent absence to date of observable extra-terrestrial intelligent life suggests the lifetime of technological civilizations may not be long, consistent with Carl Sagan’s estimate of relatively short life span of intelligent species which discover the means of self-annihilation. As the nuclear arms race began to escalate again in the late 1970s, Sagan became increasingly concerned[Read More…]
The West has rightly and vigorously responded to the evil and war criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine but it hypocritically ignores US, US Alliance and Apartheid Israeli invasions of numerous countries in living memory. In vain one cries “All men are created equal” and that “Black, brown, non-European and Palestinian lives matter”. Set out below is a quantitative analysis to[Read More…]
Not only is it possible to switch to renewables, but it’s also cheaper and would make economies less vulnerable. Yet, bizarrely, politicians and the fossil fuel industry, who are using the war on Ukraine to justify high gas prices, are now calling for more oil to be produced. Long used to cheap gas at the pump, Americans are experiencing serious[Read More…]
In a global atmosphere dominated by war hysteria, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s call for peace in Ukraine has been sidelined. On March 7, 2022, he said that “those who provoked this conflict with decades of non-compliance with agreements, with decades of threats against Russia, with decades of preparing plans for the extension of NATO are the first ones who are[Read More…]
In less than two weeks will be the chilling anniversary of probably the most heinous act by my nation of pre-emptive war against another nation. March 19th, 2003 when this writer awoke for breakfast I was greeted by all the cable news networks’ subtly celebrating our carpet bombing attack on Iraq. As Baghdad was in flames elements of our 177,000[Read More…]
Two days after Russia attacked Ukraine and the day before Vladimir Putin put Russia on nuclear alert, I wrote a little article whose first sentence was: “Not wanting to sound hyperbolic, but I am starting to conclude that the nuclear madmen running the U.S./NATO New Cold War they started decades ago are itching to start a nuclear war with Russia.” It was[Read More…]
The setting – A 12 by 12 all-purpose one-room rundown chawl in a crowded suburb of Central Mumbai. The residents – An auto rickshaw driver, Manu Shukla, and his parents. The milieu – A crowded, dark, noisy, smoky bar where Shukla and his friends hang out late evenings after a hard day’s labor, to bond over beer and banter. Conversations[Read More…]
Ambedkar is a man of our times. From RSS to communists all are busy including Ambedkar in their programs. It is a fact that Ambedkar is more popular among Indian people now, than during his life times. Starting from Indian ruling class at the top to the working masses below, attention has been drawn towards Ambedkar. This is an anachronism.[Read More…]
‘Society does not consist of individuals, but express the sum of interrelations, the relationships within which this individual stand’- Karl Marx. The interrelation of individuals and the production process was defined by Karl Marx in his analysis of Superstructure. The industrial revolution and the state of the global economy during the 17th century incited Marx to give the analysis of[Read More…]
The place where I live in is predominantly a Bengali refugee area. It would be no exaggeration if one calls it a Bangal Para. Bengalis[Read More…]
by Madhubrota Chatterjee and Kaibalyapati Mishra The themes for International Women’s Day have always been evident to link gender equality with every sphere of societal concerns. This year’s (2022) theme proposed by the UN is “Gender Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, throwing light on the climate crisis and its vulnerabilities majorly exposed to women[Read More…]
While the pandemic has brought distress to all sections of people, the poor and vulnerable sections have suffered the most in this phase, not just from the disease directly but including the impact of policy measures like prolonged lockouts which caused huge unemployment and loss of income. The urgency of discussing this issue particularly from the perspective of weaker sections[Read More…]
The results of recently held assembly elections in five states of India should worry us. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – which has emerged as a third alternative to the BJP and the opposition Congress Party – won with a brute majority, taking close to 90 seats out of the total 117. However, the ruling right wing Hindu[Read More…]
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in the Struggle over Eurasia Just as the relentless grinding of the earth’s tectonic plates produces earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, so the endless superpower struggle for dominance over Eurasia is fraught with tensions and armed conflict. Beneath the visible outbreak of war in Ukraine and the U.S.-Chinese naval standoff in the South China Sea, there[Read More…]
Bengal was the province where English rulers had initial impact. The Bengalis were influenced by the British rule more than any other area of the country. The East India Company established its capital at Calcutta in 1773. The upper caste, the Bhadra Bengali people were attracted towards English culture and they were thinking that English education, English culture were superior.[Read More…]
Assembly elections in five states are over and results declared. However, several questions have surfaced which perhaps need to be considered seriously. This isn’t simply related to speculations voiced about faulty nature of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Several strong messages conveyed by these results need to be perhaps paid serious attention. Though Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has returned to power[Read More…]
by Sabin Iqbal and K.M. Seethi A few years back, an analysis that appeared in the Harvard Business Review showed that women were grossly underrepresented in the media across the world and that they only appeared “in a quarter of television, radio, and print news.” Quoting a report, a group of Harvard behavioural scientists said that women constituted “a mere[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
In what was touted as a semifinal before the national elections in 2024 in India, the assembly elections in five states including the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, the right wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is set to form government four out of the five states. Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party is set to retain the State of[Read More…]
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies Russian President Putin has claimed that he ordered the invasion of Ukraine to “denazify” its government, while Western officials, such as former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul, have called this pure propaganda, insisting, “There are no Nazis in Ukraine.” In the context of the Russian invasion, the post-2014 Ukrainian government’s problematic relations[Read More…]
A key factor that explains Vladimir Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine is traditional Russian imperialism. Throughout the world’s long and bloody history, other powerful territories (and, later, nations) expanded their lands through imperial conquest, including Rome, China, Spain, France, Britain, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Russia was no exception. Beginning with the small principality of Moscow in 1300, Russia[Read More…]
War and the Deep State Russia’s military attack on Ukraine starting 24 February 2022, is war. Whether or not countries are actually involved in war, war is always justified by one or more parties to the conflict, and condemned as unjustified by one or more parties. Both sides of the conflict and opinion have their arguments and “facts”, which are[Read More…]
Israel’s war on Palestinian sports is as old as the Israeli state itself. For Palestinians, sports is a critical aspect of their popular culture, and since Palestinian culture itself is a target for the ongoing Israeli attack on Palestinian life in all of its manifestations, sports and athletes have been purposely targeted as well. Yet, the world’s main football governing[Read More…]
We expect authoritarian governments to lie, and anti-racist Jewish American writer I .F. Stone famously opined that “Governments lie”. However the Australian Coalition Government under PM Scott Morrison has adopted blatant, in-your-face lying and falsehood to an extraordinary, Orwellian and Trumpist degree as revealed by Bernard Keane in his scathing book “Lies and Falsehoods. The Morrison Government and the new[Read More…]
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic. Two years into the pandemic, Asia continues to see disparities in access to vaccines which has prolonged the pandemic for Asians and deepened existing inequalities across the region. Members of the Peoples Vaccine Alliance (PVA)-Asia called upon governments to invest in public healthcare services and ensure[Read More…]
Extreme religious or anti-religious engagement of the ruling political forces in modern times would have serious negative consequences for the society as whole and the state apparatus. The Russian experience shows this very clearly. The communist phase of Russia was completely anti-religion. Now Putin’s Russia is deeply associated with the Orthodox Church that suffered a lot during the communist regime. Vladimir[Read More…]
11 year old Ruby (name changed) never saw the face of any school. Because her father is a poor farmer cultivating one bigha of land and mother Hansa Devi works as a labourer under the MNREGA or national employment guarantee scheme. That’s why the parents leave Ruby at home to take care of their two younger siblings. Early in the[Read More…]
Morality in Political Discourse in India This is a three part article and each part is complete in itself. Therefore each part is being published with the same title. The Introduction will be repeated in each part for the sake of making it complete in itself. PART III KEBAB ‘We are, therefore, largely a drinking, smoking and meat-eating people’! Dr.[Read More…]
Dividing the world into worthy and unworthy victims is a tactic used to justify our crimes and demonize our enemies. Conflicts will not be solved until all nations abide by international law and all victims are deemed worthy. Rulers divide the world into worthy and unworthy victims, those we are allowed to pity, such as Ukrainians enduring the hell of modern[Read More…]
Incidents following the Ukraine Crisis are developing dramatically. The world markets are also bearing the Crisis’ brunt. A report by The New York Times said: A digital barricade went up between Russia and the world. Both Russian authorities and multinational internet companies built the wall with breathtaking speed. And the moves have ruptured an open internet. TikTok and Netflix are[Read More…]
The war between Russia and Ukraine began much before February 24, 2022—the date provided by the Ukrainian government, NATO and the United States for the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to Dmitry Kovalevich, a journalist and a member of a now-banned communist organization in Ukraine, the war actually started in the spring of 2014 and has never[Read More…]
The disappearances and killings of Baloch activists living in Pakistan and abroad under mysterious circumstances have made headlines in recent years. The surge in cases relating to these “enforced disappearances” highlights the urgency for Pakistan to resolve the grievances felt by the people of the region as it tries to forge an identity away from the U.S. and looks to China for its future[Read More…]
“I liked history better when it was in the past.” There are several implications of this kind of statement. For people living in benign territories, ones that are not subject to corporate or military subjugation, history is the past, the written record of what has happened while life continues on its usual path. For others history is what is occurring[Read More…]
In recent days, experts have begun laying out the potential hardships the Russian invasion of Ukraine might inflict here in the United States, thousands and thousands of miles from the battle zone. As former White House national security official Richard Clarke bluntly put it, “Russia will bring the war to our homeland.” He pointed to potential damage in two particular realms, possible[Read More…]
On the International Women’s day, Bharti Kisan Union(Ekta Ugrahan) staged massive women conferences at 11places in 10 districts of Punjab, in which tens of thousands of women participated. State president of the Union, Joginder Singh Ugrahan and General Secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan informed the press that at all these places the Conferences were organised and led on the initiative[Read More…]
A Protest was undertaken by Lok Sangram Morcha, in Punjab in Nature Park in Moga district on March 5th protesting the War in Ukraine. The front is a conglomeration of revolutionary democratic mass organizations, adhering towards Communist revolutionary line. Even if not more than around 400 persons it was impactful in raising the consciousness of the basic masses on the[Read More…]
The theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is, “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, gender equality in context to climate crisis and management is one of the major concerns of the twenty-first century. Its impacts vary amongst regions, generations, age, income groups, and gender. Over recent years, expanding concern about the climate change has had a widespread effect on[Read More…]
ONE I was shown Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s Fandry for my course in media and cultural studies at TISS and then I went and watched Sairat with my friends in a theatre. It was impossible for me to get my family to watch either of these movies. One of the reasons was that these movies were in Marathi while my family[Read More…]
Indian society has been suffering the violence of many types. Two of these the communal violence and acts of terror have shaken the very humane ethos of our society from last few decades. Communal violence which began during colonial period has by now assumed the form of a majoritarian violence directed against religious minorities. During colonial period both types of[Read More…]
With four parameters, the gender gap in 156 nations was studied in 2021. It says it will take 135.6 years to bridge the gender gap worldwide… India is at 140th rank among 156 nations. It has slipped 28 places.. It is unfortunate that India was rated as one of the most dangerous places for women in the world.. The problem[Read More…]
When Government itself Does Not Have Any Qualms in rationalising Drona Mindset [H]istory has come to a stage when the moral man, the complete man, is more and more giving way, almost without knowing it, to make room for the . . .commercial man, the man of limited purpose. This process, aided by the wonderful progress in science, is assuming[Read More…]
Our Generation’s Challenge. Our generational challenge is out in the open. The events set in motion from the videos humiliating Muslims[1] in Hindi Belt last summer to Haridwar Dharma Sansads[2] to the ongoing segregation in schools of Karnataka to spread of denial of education to students on basis of hijab or turban, this challenge is obvious and self-evident. People often[Read More…]
While conducting an interactive session last Sunday at a local youth club on the eve of Science day, I was astonished at the kind of queries my next generation put forth. I was up for a discussion on topics ranging from the ‘Raman Effect’ up to recent advances in medical sciences but definitely not prepared to tackle issues like plastic[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
No war is a one-sided affair. There is no sound to one hand clapping. Russia’s assault on Ukraine is an unambiguously bad thing. But it didn’t happen in a vacuum. In order to solve the problem, we have to first understand the context in which it occurred, and the part that the U.S. played in its happening. The Big Bang in[Read More…]
Grain prices were rising before the Ukraine conflict. But recent days have seen unprecedented further gains as two of the world’s biggest producers, Russia and Ukraine, are at war. Wheat closed in Chicago at the highest price ever on Monday. Benchmark corn and soybean futures have each surged by 26% this year. Those kinds of increases in food-staple commodities have been associated with social unrest throughout history.[Read More…]
American left Afghanistan and consequently the Taliban took over a bankrupt nation in August 31, 2021. The United States never succeeded in inducing good governance in Afghanistan or persuading Pakistan to stop its multifaceted support for the Taliban. US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions, announcing that a substantial portion of Afghanistan’s official reserves amounting $4.9 billion held in liquid assets[Read More…]
On 27 February this year, in Maharashtra, about 40 thousand doses of Covid vaccine were dumped in the garbage can. Not only this, in the next five days, a further 240,000 doses of the vaccine were wasted. The reason behind the dumping of the Covid vaccine doses on such a large scale is because of they have remained unused past[Read More…]
On the International Women’s Day today Global Call To Action Against Poverty (GCAP), a global civil society campaign working in 58 countries, in a statement expresses deep concern over the war in Ukraine and especially the security and survival of women and girls in Ukraine and in all conflict-affected countries like Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan. Women and girls are facing[Read More…]
“Everyone’s entitled to live their life as they want to”, there can be no truer words. These are the words of Margaret Gallagher, a woman who has lived all her life without the basic amenities of modern daily living, out of choice not necessity. Born on 26th January, 1942, Margaret is eighty years old, never married and lives in[Read More…]
Even some of the most publicized programs fall far short of funds required for proper implementation Recent times have been extremely difficult for weaker sections in India due to not just the pandemic but several highly adverse policy decisions as well. Within weaker sections it is often the women who suffer more and face the most difficulties and distress in[Read More…]
Working with Russian academics and institutions. The attack upon Ukraine by Russia. These are two features playing out heavily in university discussions. As typifies such chitchat, nuance features rather less than cant and sanctimony. As writer and lecturer Paolo Nori of Milano-Bicocca University stated after discovering that his course on Fyodor Dostoevsky would be cancelled in response to the war,[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young The advent of Tim Berners-Lee’s newly coded Internet has not only given us Google with 86.9bn site visitors per month, wearables transmitting our heartbeats to profit making so-called “health” corporations, and Apps like Tinder, the Internet has also changed our cities and how we order the food we eat. It converted our cities into[Read More…]
The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography. By: Marcello Musto Marcello Musto’s The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography provides an illuminating glance at the work and life of Karl Marx during the most unexamined period of his life. Musto’s oscillation between Marx’s work and life provides readers with both an intellectual allurement towards research in[Read More…]
Morality in Political Discourse in India This is a three part article and each part is complete in itself. Therefore each part is being published with the same title. The Introduction will be repeated in each part for the sake of making it complete in itself. PART II SHABAB ‘We are, therefore, largely a drinking, smoking and meat-eating people’! Dr.[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
In an effort to forestall the eruption of significant popular opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Putin government is systematically banning news outlets and social media platforms in the country. The government is simultaneously cracking down on still as of yet small anti-war protests in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other cities. On Friday, Russia’s federal agency for information technology[Read More…]
Ukraine and Russia should negotiate an agreement to protect plant personnel and allow safe shift changes as well as emergency preparedness and response activities. Russian troops in Ukraine seized Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant Friday after shelling set part of the complex on fire, ringing alarm bells around the world of a potential nuclear disaster. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of waging[Read More…]
NAM has a new resonance in the fast-changing world In recent times the world situation has changed very swiftly, with the world getting closer and closer to getting divided between two blocks, one led by Russia and China, and the other led by the USA and its NATO allies. Other countries may face various pressures from one or the other[Read More…]
Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, after some slight hesitancy Japan joined the European Union, the US, and other countries in both condemning Russia’s military invasion and placing strong economic sanctions on Russia. However, even while condemning Russia, a group of conservative politicians, headed by former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, saw an opportunity the pursue what has long been[Read More…]
Values for U.S. oil soared Sunday evening, driving prices above $125 a barrel in electronic trade as discussions about a ban on Russian oil heated up following the Ukraine crisis. Oil prices have soared to the highest level since 2008 after the U.S. said it was discussing a potential embargo on Russian supplies with its allies. Brent crude – the[Read More…]
Never trust anything that comes out of a politician’s mouth in an election year. Pledges are made to be broken; promises are made to seduce, not convince. When the subject matter involves fictional submarines, even greater care should be taken. The prolonged, costly nightmare of Australia’s submarine policy took another turn on March 6. The Defence Minister Peter Dutton could[Read More…]
Ukraine, Taiwan, and Other Flashpoints in a New Age of Geopolitics Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely described as the beginning of a new cold war, much like the old one in both its cast of characters and ideological nature. “In the contest between democracy and autocracy, between sovereignty and subjugation, make no mistake — freedom will prevail,” President[Read More…]
Morality in Political Discourse in India This is a three part article and each part is complete in itself. Therefore each part is being published with the same title. The Introduction will be repeated in each part for the sake of making it complete in itself. PART I SHARAB ‘We are, therefore, largely a drinking, smoking and meat-eating people’! Dr.[Read More…]
Book Review: ROHINGYA REFUGEE CRISIS IN MYANMAR: ETHNIC CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION (Palgrave Macmillan) Edited by: Kudret Bülbül, Md. Nazmul Islam & Md. Sajid Khan Considering the current situation of crisis, the publication of the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Myanmar: Ethnic Conflict and Resolution is very timely and something that was required. The editors of the book, Kudret Bülbül, Md. Nazmul[Read More…]
Media reports said: Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that Ukrainian statehood is in jeopardy and likened the West’s sanctions on Russia to “declaring war,” while a promised cease-fire in the besieged port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror. Putin continued to pin the blame for the war squarely on the Ukrainian leadership and slammed their resistance to the invasion. “If[Read More…]
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, unwittingly admitted today that the operation of Metro railway network in India is a failure. He was inaugurating short stretches of two Metro lines in Pune. He appealed to people to travel by the Metro. It was in the tone of desperation of a salesman who knows the product is expensive and does not meet real[Read More…]
Russian invasion on Ukraine has resulted in global outcry against Vladimir Putin and his regime. There are protests and sanctions against Russia. United Nations has passed resolutions where many nations including China, India, Pakistan have abstained and refused to toe to the western line. The UN Human Rights Committee is forming a commission of inquiry against Russian War crime. UN[Read More…]
India’s political pundits have now started thinking about what will be the possible fate of the Hindutva politics, if the UP electoral outcomes will not be in favour of the BJP? This election is now considered as a historic in nature and its result will have the national impact (ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha). More importantly, the elections results will[Read More…]
It is the largest employer in India and eighth largest in the world. It is also the fourth longest railway network in the world sprawling out to a total length of 70,000 kms. It runs 21,000 trains and carries 23 million passengers and 3 million tonnes of freight per day. What was the multi-faceted impact of the Covid pandemic on[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, Earlier, I had written two letters to you (https://www.moneylife.in/article/lic-ipo-gross-underestimated-valuation-put-it-on-hold-says-eas-sarma/66146.html, https://countercurrents.org/2022/01/cpse-disinvestment-valuation-approach-flawed/) about the flawed approach to valuing the LIC for listing it in the stock markets and the injustice meted out to millions of small policy holders, with a view to grant undue benefits to a handful of speculative,[Read More…]
Rational Leaders Think of People, not Egoism In an age of Reason, the cause of humanity calls for peace, freedom and respect for human dignity. In a hybrid geo-political culture – part human and part vulture, we are witnessing a forgotten wisdom of human courage and foresight to stand for the protection of human rights, state sovereignty and national freedom[Read More…]
A lesson from Ukraine crisis- Decentralisation can help greatly to correct the mismatch between need and availability of medical personnel As thousands of medical students from India have recently faced extreme difficulties and risks in Ukraine, a lot of attention has been drawn to the anomaly of a very large number of Indian medical students going to study in difficult[Read More…]
Finally, France will be leaving Mali, nearly a decade after the original military intervention in 2013. The repercussions of this decision will hardly be confined to this West African nation, but will likely spread to the entirety of the Sahel Region; in fact, the whole of Africa. France’s decision to end its military presence in Mali – carried out in[Read More…]
10 Weeks – In Between Returning from Delhi Border 11.12.2021 and Going to Polling Booths 20.02.2022 Millions will be waiting for the results of the elections to the five state assemblies out of which three took part in the farmers movement: Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Gigabytes of comments from ‘Experts’ will pour out. And there will again be a[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
US and EU responding with escalation instead of pushing for a political settlement Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 is illegal according to international law. It is a war crime. Putin arguably still had diplomatic options open to him. Everyone who is anti-war must condemn this attack. At the same time, it was not unprovoked. Further, the US is[Read More…]
The assembly elections of five, which lasted for about a month, are going to end. Only last phase of the elections is left in Uttar Pradesh to be held on March 7. Much of the debate during the elections was lost to accusations and counter-accusations between the parties and leaders. In the debate on election issues that appeared in newspapers,[Read More…]
In recent times urban poor households have faced great difficulties due to the pandemic as well as loss of livelihoods and income. In such times they need help and certainly nothing should be done which will increase their difficulties. So it is really very disturbing to know that thousands of hut and slum dwellers have been recently threatened by[Read More…]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change –IPCC- has issued its direst warning of all-time: “Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly.” Additionally, they readily admit to overly conservative predictions: “Many impacts will be more severe than originally predicted.” (Source: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report, 2022) The crowning blow of this heavy-hitting report is a chilling[Read More…]
In the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change’s twenty sixth Conference of Parties (COP is an annual inter-governmental meetings held to discuss and negotiate climate agreements) held in Glasgow in November 2021, the meeting’s President Alok Sharma, UN Secretary General António Guterres and other top leaders repeatedly chanted “Keep 1.5oC alive,” to make it the best-known mantra of the[Read More…]
Image by Thomas Homer-Dixon The second part of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) has just been released and “climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages”. The Working Group 11 report focuses upon local as well as global impacts[Read More…]
For the past 1390 days, the elderly mothers and relatives have been engaged in a series of struggles, especially amid the great epidemic threat, “78 parents of the missing relatives have lost their lives in the ongoing series of struggles for justice, “The 78 parents who fought for justice with us in past years are not with us today. The[Read More…]
Very significant gains were achieved by construction workers of India in the form of two laws enacted in 1996 for their social security and welfare. Then for over two decades another phase of struggle had to continue for their implementation in the right spirit. By the year 2018 again there were significant successes in the form of decisions of Supreme[Read More…]
Caught amid the war are thousands of Indian students, a majority of these medical students. A large number of students go to Ukraine who are in the news these days. Others go elsewhere. There are several reasons as we will see. Many, though not all degrees\ are recognised across the world, including by the World Health Organization (WHO), European Union,[Read More…]
The recent appalling Russian invasion of Ukraine must be condemned. It’s yet another atrocious aggression in a long series of violations of international law by several countries including the US, Britain, Russia and Israel. It is terribly disappointing that humanity has failed to advance beyond the use of warfare (military, economic and cyber) to settle problems. Lobbying by the[Read More…]
Eat this. There is not much time for eating. We fight and food is scarce and getting scarcer. Maybe this is our last supper? Perhaps the world is ending? This shattered bone-bread is bodies of our people – fallen, falling bread crumbs and scattered black seeds of sunflowers. Citizens who are dismembered sleep now, never to waken[Read More…]
In the context of modern European political conflicts and conflict resolutions, the name of Crimea is very much on the surface, resonant not just for the last few years but actually centuries. This short piece takes a brief look at the strategically important peninsula and takes the readers back through its rocky history as well as its beautiful literary and[Read More…]
Karnataka Government has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Assembly despite stiff opposition from civil society and political parties. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the upper house to be made into a law. The Anti-Conversion Laws affect Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Women. It restricts the rights of an Indian citizen to choose one’s religion. It violates[Read More…]
On incidents centering Ukraine, media reports said: French President Emmanuel Macron thinks “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine after talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. A senior French official said Macron’s warning came after the two leaders spoke for 90 minutes, which did not yield any diplomatic progress. The official said Putin was determined to carry[Read More…]
“These people are not people we are used to… these people are Europeans.” – Kiril Petkov, Bulgarian Prime Minister, Associated Press, March 1, 2022 In the history of accepting refugees, countries have shown more than an erratic streak. Universal human characteristics have often been overlooked in favour of the particular: race, cultural habits, religion. Even immigration nations, such as the[Read More…]
Western media simplifies the conflict in Ukraine in ways that divide us. But what if instead, we chose to unite against those who profit from all wars throughout the world? I figured something out after tossing and turning all night. We on the left often make the mistake of still looking upon Russia as a somewhat socialist enterprise. Of course,[Read More…]
Since the end of World War II, the US and its allies have been directly responsible for 81 percent of all unjust wars, illegal occupations of countries, civilian deaths, violations of human rights, destruction of entire nations like Vietnam, Cambodia, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and many more. So, the most embarrassing question for the US and its allies is[Read More…]
We live on a planet in motion, a world of collision and drift. This was once an Earth of super-continents — Gondwana, Rodinia, Pangea. The eastern seaboard of the United States sidled up against West Africa, while Antarctica cozied up to the opposite side of the African continent. But nothing in this world lasts and the tectonic plates covering the planet are always in[Read More…]
It is well-nigh impossible to obtain accurate information in a country where data is routinely fudged or camouflaged, be it the number of deaths due to the killer virus, or, be it the tragic index of poverty and mass unemployment. However, some figures have been trickling in from various sources, and from this scattered realm of statistics one can figure[Read More…]
That was at what time, our mother said, “we were working out on a journey with friends and relatives.” We were joyful. We departed by picking lonesome paths, that carried eerie charge. I was but eight. Mother said, people walked all the way through wars. It was in contrast to whatever we conceived it to be. We did not[Read More…]
A very important issue of international relations on which open and free discussion is often avoided relates to the extent to which maintenance of worldwide domination of US dollar is important for the USA and the extent to which it is reflected in US policy. Transparency and unbiased discussion on this issue is clearly very important. The period[Read More…]
On the complaint of a BJP MP, two newspapers got a notice from the Privileges Committee of Parliament for alleged ‘breach’ of privilege, for the comments published on the PM’s speech in Parliament. Earlier, the TRS moved a motion of Privilege against the PM, for his remark on the passage of bifurcation Bill to divide AP. What is a privilege,[Read More…]
In the world as it has come to be, certain gestures are obligatory while equivalent ones are not. We are trained to have what can be deemed as inconsistent responses to paired events which are for the most part similar, even identical. It is a fool’s errand to expect consistency and an exhausting routine to demand it. Asking for it,[Read More…]
The United Nations is a global organization that brings together its member states to confront common challenges, manage shared responsibilities and exercise collective action in an enduring “quest for a peaceful world.” One of the main purposes of the United Nations is to maintain world peace and security. At present there are 193 member states in the UN. Of the[Read More…]
“Our people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change. Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone now. Many ecosystems are at the point of no return now. The facts are undeniable,” Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) remarked in unveiling the latest international report on the impacts of climate change. “This abdication[Read More…]
Protection of the Ganga river is one of those tasks in which the government can achieve great success with the enthusisastic involvement of people. Then why is it that success has so far proved so elusive? The available data for Varanasi, the most prioritized place for Ganga protection, reveals that in terms of the essential parameters which define acceptable water[Read More…]
National prerogative should be on minimizing social and economic inequalities instead of the current thrust on clipping cultural codes. Dress Code – Uniformity and Inclusion in Educational Institutions Barack Obama as President of the US in 2008 had flown to England to make an address to the world leaders of G-20 countries. President and First Lady Michelle Obama were also invited by Queen[Read More…]
The guilty can be devious in concealing their crimes, and their role in them. The greater the crime, the more devious the strategy of deception. The breaking of international law, and the breaching of convention, is a field replete with such figures. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has presented a particularly odious grouping, a good number of them neoconservatives, a[Read More…]
Surprise and horror have defined the reaction to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine. That’s likely because although the intervention has followed the contours of a modern land war, it has also marked a break with the past in a number of ways. The world has become used to military interventions by the United States. This is, however, not a[Read More…]
In April 1941, four years before he was to become President and eight months before the United States entered World War II, Senator Harry Truman of Missouri reacted to the news that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union: “If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia; and if that Russia is winning, we ought[Read More…]
Can Israel be pressured? Or is Tel Aviv the only exception to the global political order in which every country, big or small, is subjected to pressures and subsequent change in attitude and behavior? Several events, in recent days, bring the question of Israel’s legal and moral accountability to the fore. On February 21, Israel’s Nature and Park Authority decided[Read More…]
Govt raising burden on a large section of people, while easing taxes on super-rich On June 10, 2008, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization. On November 26, 2007, the UN General Assembly declared that 20th February will be celebrated every year as the World Day of Social Justice, also known[Read More…]
All through human history there has been a quest for understanding what really constitutes betterment of human beings, indeed of all inhabitants of our planet. This quest still continues, at higher levels of sophistication, with one major difference. There is now increasing recognition that major environmental problems, accumulation of weapons of mass destruction and some other issues have combined to[Read More…]
As Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections draw to a close, a wind of change seems to be blowing through the state. Initially it was thought that because of farmers movement the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance will dominate Bharatiya Janata Party only in western UP. Although revival of SP had begun much before the elections but it was believed that BJP[Read More…]
With Russia’s attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the activities of the governments of various countries, all global institutions including the United Nations, embassies, media, subject experts etc. is firmly focused on the Russia-Ukraine war. After the Second World War, European leaders agreed that in the future, the soil of Europe would be kept free from wars. This happened[Read More…]
To Thiru M K Stalin Chief Minister Tamilnadu Dear Thiru Stalin, In your recently released book, Ungalil Oruvan (One Amongst You), you have highlighted, among others, the necessity for the States to come together to protect the equitable federal framework in which the Centre and the States should function. On the occasion of the book release, as per news reports, you have[Read More…]
Racist Ukraine coverage in mainstream Western media. Notice the racist overtones. 1. BBC “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed” – Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze 2. CBS News “This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan…This is a relatively civilised, relatively European city” – CBS foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata 3.[Read More…]
Many incidents are developing centering Ukraine, which are largely ignored by a major part of media. But these incidents help understand the real picture centering Ukraine. Racism Against Students A Rolling Stone report (‘Ugly, Unprofessional’: International Students Describe Racism at the Ukrainian Border, March 2, 2022) said: Since Thursday, Feb. 24, more than 660,000 people have fled Ukraine, according to the U.N.[Read More…]
“World Tour of Wars” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is both illegal and immoral. While Russia’s concern that Ukraine’s decision to join NATO which also included the prospect of NATO setting up a missile base in Ukraine, 100 miles from Russia’s border, is genuine, this by no means is a justification for invading Ukraine. Russia should have continued to explore other[Read More…]
Putin is the most criticized person in western countries today. Repeated criticism of the invasion unleashed by him is justified, both because of the enormous distress caused to the people of Ukraine and the very serious threats posed to world peace and stability. Mass protests against Ukraine’s invasion in several western countries are therefore justified. However the interests of world[Read More…]
For people in Ukraine, the horror is just beginning. Hiding from bombardment in their basements, they will soon face hunger and then epidemics… And above them, on the streets – explosions, fire, the thunder of tanks, the whistle of bullets, the debris of fallen buildings, the cries of the wounded and dying, the foul smell of unburied corpses. But who[Read More…]
“Footfalls echo in the memory/ Down the passage which we did not take/ Towards the door we never opened/ Into the rose-garden.” (T. S. Eliot; from, “Four Quartets”) 1. Recent, shattering world events, have prompted me to check my files to reconsider any past references I’d made to Ukraine. I found a short note to a correspondent/friend from about 10[Read More…]
Congress Party vice president, Rahul Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha that this country is a union of states, not a nation. Rahul Gandhi raised this issue in his speech in Parliament. He also said that there is no concept of nation in the constitution. And he also said that the culture, language and history of each state is different.[Read More…]
Advice from JFK to President Biden Dear Mr. President: I send greetings from the other side — and no, I don’t mean the other side of the aisle. I refer to the place where old politicians go to make amends for their sins. Apart from our shared Catholicism and affinity for sunglasses, I suspect you and I don’t have a[Read More…]
The Adivasis of India have been trying to protect their lands and assert their collective right to self-determination since India’s Independence and long before. The Pathalgadi movement is the most powerful recent mass expression of self-determination, which is presumably why its participants have been terrorized and criminalized by the Indian state. This also why it is vital that more and[Read More…]
This unfamiliar term means ‘Scence of Place Names’ and traces origins and histories of place-names.The current saffron craze for changes in place-names purportedly associated with Muslim rule actually plays havoc with Toponymy,and by association,with history Originating in a thirst for revenge against alleged ‘historical wrongs/injustices’, this mania actually sins against history.Colonial rulers sometimes failed to pronounce native names correctly,and changed[Read More…]
The re-arrest of Fahad Shah, Editor of The Kashmir Walla, in politically motivated cases is another sign of the deepening crackdown on media freedom in Kashmir. Fahad Shah, a prominent Kashmiri journalist, was arrested on 4 February under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and other offences including sedition for allegedly “uploading anti-national content, including photographs, videos and posts[Read More…]
Oh Yemen, I’m sorry That No one remembers you That You are not White That You are not Christian That You were attacked by the “good guys” I know you have solidarity With the people Of Ukraine Even if No one remembers you
Both the Russian occupation of Ukraine and the Apartheid Israeli occupation of Palestine are wrong, violate international law, and have been hugely destructive. However a racist and specifically anti-Arab anti-Semitic West (the Anglosphere, NATO and the EU) utterly ignores the Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine while quite rightly condemning and sanctioning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. This[Read More…]
The economy of the impoverished Mallah or boatmen community living in various villages of Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh (UP) received a major jolt during Covid times. Many are stuck in a non-ending cycle of debt or have lost their precious valuables to local lenders. Majid Mallah of Imrana village told Covid Response Watch, “Covid – 19 shook us completely when markets were[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which discusses the ways in which giant corporations control both governments and media, thus undermining democracy. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/02/Corporations-Versus-Democracy-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Corporate oligarchy versus democracy As Professor Noam Chomsky has pointed out, greed and[Read More…]
The basic international law One of the most fundamental rules of international is that States are prohibited from using force to resolve their international disputes. Any State that uses force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another State violates this solemn rule of international law. Applying this rule, the use of force by Russia against Ukraine is an[Read More…]
No matter if the U.S. agreed or disagreed with Russia’s requests, Ukraine was a big loser, and the preferred solution was to cut its losses. U.S. and its allies enabled Ukraine and Russian suffering and had the U.S. (not its allies) gain a pyrrhic victory – the war will debilitate Russia’s prestige and the sanctions will debilitate Russia’s economy, circumstances that benefit[Read More…]
In a country expert in killing off mammal species at a rate exceeding that of others (to be fair, there are so many more to destroy, with more to come), Australians now face the prospect that the koala, one of its most singularly recognisable animals, has its days numbered. Divergent attitudes to such animal species, notably indigenous ones, has been[Read More…]
by Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff Our addiction to plastic is having negative effects all along the food chain. Editor’s note: Every year Project Censored publishes the “State of the Free Press,” which highlights important news stories that the corporate media insufficiently covered and takes the temperature of press freedom and integrity. The project’s student researchers work with faculty advisers at college[Read More…]
The possibility of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—or the Iran nuclear deal—being revived, though difficult, seems to have brightened in February 2022. The U.S. may now also believe that the potential loss of Russian natural gas and oil due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war needs to be offset by Iran returning to the global oil market. The nuclear deal could have been accomplished[Read More…]
In the middle of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections the Bhartiya Janta Party published a full front page advertisement a day before and on the day of polling for fourth and fifth phase. This advertisement is basically electoral promises. According to Section 126 of the Representation of Peoples Act all campaigning must stop 48 hours before the conclusion of polling.[Read More…]
Global Leaders Plead for Peace in Ukraine at UN 
Ghosts of the Past: For Israel, War on UNESCO is an Existential Battle 
Keeping Cattle on Public Land Is Bad for People, Cows, Wildlife, and the Planet 
The United States in the World: Making Sense of the Past Forty Years (1981-2023) 
Canadian Youth At Risk and the Discrimination of Marginalized Demographics 
While Searching Worldwide for Terrorists, Uncle Sam Should Also Look in a Mirror 
American Abrams tanks roll into Ukraine 
An open letter to JNU VC – Your association with RSS defies humanism, anti-colonial struggle Indian democracy! 
From Education to Incarceration 
Tunakataa! Saying ‘No’ to Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya 
Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States 
Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
USA’s Wars Took 12 Million Lives in The Last 25 Years 
US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
75,000 Climate Protesters Marched In New York With Demand To End Fossil Fuels 
On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
