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…]
This year has been one of the toughest. With the raging pandemic, climate crisis, wars, the failure in Glasgow….. We also have moments to celebrate with the victory of the farmers in India which was totally ignored by the mainstream media and they even tarnished the fighting farmers image and intent. We toil day and night for the betterment of[Read More…]
Dear Authors and Readers of Countercurrents, You may all know Sheshu Babu an author for CC for long time. Most of our old authors may have received at least one thoughtful comment from him. In the early days, he used to read all CC articles and post a thoughtful comment for each article. Then one day, another CC author Emily[Read More…]
When I founded Countercurrents.org in 2002, Disha Ravi who was arrested for sedition yesterday was a two-year-old toddler. In 2002, the CO2 level in the atmosphere was 370 ppm. Now it is 415 ppm. In just 19 years CO2 levels increased by just over 2ppm/year. The level of cumulative greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including Methane, Nitrous Oxide etc is[Read More…]
The COVID-19 has taught us that we are in an emergency. In 2019 a teenager named Greta Thumberg was crying hoarse that we are in an emergency and no one was listening. It’s time for us to take stock of the matter. Which is the greater emergency, this COVID-19 emergency or the climate emergency that Greta Thumberg was warning about?[Read More…]
I see a lot of peace building efforts in North East Delhi which was the hub of the recent riots. If these peace building measures happened before the riots the riots would not have happened! Too late too little! We have to be proactive. We should not wait for something untoward to happen to engage in peace building activities. The[Read More…]
In spite of a full fledged campaign based on hate politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) failed to win the coveted Delhi state elections. Aam Aadmi Party (Common Peopl’s party) or AAP led by incumbent Chief Minister Aravind Kejriwal won 63 out of 70 seats. BJP managed to get seven seats while Congress drew a blank. While[Read More…]
Someone demolished my house. I went to court to get justice. The court ordered that the demolisher can build house in the place where my house stood. As a consolation I’ve been allotted some land. Is this justice? This is a fictitious scenario, but not dissimilar to what happened to Rama Janmabhumi – Babri Masjid that was delivered in the[Read More…]
We lost Gauri Lankesh to terrorism on 5th September 2017. This terrorism has a context. In this article I’ll be trying to put Gauri’s martyrdom into global context. When I started Countercurrents.org in 2002, the CO2 level in atmosphere was 370 ppm (parts per million). 17 years later now it is at 420 ppm. Recently scientists released a data that[Read More…]
It won’t be an exaggeration to say Kashmir is the worst conflict area in the world. Look anywhere else in the world where there are conflicts, there is no communication crack down. From Gaza to West Papua, from Hong Kong to the Yellow Vests in France….. the world knows what’s happening there. However in Jammu and Kashmir of India, we[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi has finally resigned. His resignation letter is a brutally frank one. In this letter he has confessed of being betrayed by his party mates and fighting a lonely battle. He has also pointed out the institutional takeover of the fascist Sangh Parivar. He also committed to work towards an inclusive India as a loyal party member. In close[Read More…]
Eid Mubarak! I’m writing this article on the eve of Eid. Two weeks after the Modi 2.0 government was installed in India. When the election results came out on May 23 I was baffled. How come a government which put India through enormous pain through its anti-people policies like Demonetisation which killed over 200 people and destroying small scale industries[Read More…]
The Sri Lanka Easter bombings that killed more than 350 people including foreign nationals raise several pertinent questions Why did the bombings received far less foreign media coverage than Christ Church terrorist attack and Notre Dame fire? Why was the intelligence warning which came on April 4 was ignored and even withheld according to Sri Lankan minister Lakshman Kiriella It[Read More…]
It’s exam time in India. A time of deep tension for students and parents. All that you’ve learnt in a year will have to reproduced in a two hour written exam and the student will be assessed by what she has written in those two hours. If you fail to answer a few questions you’ll be at a loss and[Read More…]
Last night my 11 year old son asked me, “Abba, if war breaks out between India and Pakistan can we go to some other country? What will we do if they drop a nuclear bomb?” I told him that it’s not possible to go to another country. They won’t accept us. However, I assured him that there will be no[Read More…]
When Kashmiris are being attacked across India, let me telly you a story about Kashmiriyat. Last summer I was in Kashmir with my family. We were coming back from Sonamarg. The road to Sonamarg goes through Zojila Pass, one of the highest motorable road in the world. It’s a desert land for dozens of kilometers. Even in summer the temperature[Read More…]
The Pulwama attack is not a time for revenge as is already happening in many parts of the country. Yesterday, vehicles from Kashmir valley were attacked and set on sire. Curfew was declared in Jammu. Today, students from Kashmir valley were attacked in different parts of the country. Let me make it clear at the outset that Kashmiris in general[Read More…]
Remember what happened to the Indian telecom sector after Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Mobile was launched? Jio offered dirt cheap call and data tariff. It destroyed many telecom companies. Some disappeared for ever, some merged to stay afloat. Government has advised the state run BSNL to think about the possibility of closing down! Same thing is going to happen in Cable[Read More…]
India is going through a phase of unparalleled hatred to one another according to their religion, caste, culture, linguistic affiliation etc. It need not be that way. We are all human beings with common origins. It’s history that divided us. We can break these human made barriers if we accept that we are one family. Hundreds of thousands of Indians[Read More…]
This is a speech I prepared to deliver at the Solidarity Media Awards This award was bestowed upon Countercurrents.org and me for the courageous interventions in human rights and citizen’s rights. Let me make it very clear, I do not have any such claims. I’m doing whatever little I can in my limited capacity for humanity and other species on[Read More…]
The ongoing #MeToo revelations have rattled the Kerala society and taken down some names with it. Prominent among them are veteran journalist and resident of The Hindu in Kerala, C.Gouridasan Nair, the co-founder and secretary of India’s Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Riyas Komu and poet A. Ayyappan. Gouridasan Nair was relieved of his duties and forced to go on leave after Delhi[Read More…]
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the agitation to prevent entry to women of all ages to Sabarimala temple as per the order of Supreme Court of India is an ‘upper caste conspiracy’. No one has made more truer statement and realistic assessment about the situation in Sabarimala than the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister also categorically stated[Read More…]
The only code of law for Hindus is Manu Smriti. IX.3 of Manu Smriti says “Na stree svaatantryam arhati” (a woman does not deserve freedom). Manu Smriti is the code of the four fold Varna system, namely Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Shudra. Hinduism is in fact is rooted in this pyramidal varna system, Brahmins being at the top. Manu Smriti[Read More…]
A month has passed since the mammoth Kerala floods. I’ve travelled through many flood affected areas and talked to many affected people. The loss is huge many of them are irreparable. Even after one month many people haven’t come out of the psychological trauma caused by the floods. Many say they feel a heaviness in their heart. They feel weak[Read More…]
In the light of the devastating floods of 2018 many people are coming forward with suggestions for the future of Kerala’s development. I too came up with a ten point agenda for Kerala. 1. All Dams in the Western Ghats, including Mullaperiyar Dam should be decommissioned 2. Determine the Flood Zone of the Rivers 3. All homes created in the[Read More…]
On August 6 a team of climate scientists led by Will Steffen of Australian National University published a paper in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Science and issued a stern warning to humanity. The paper which has come to be known as “Hothouse Earth” warns, “We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System[Read More…]
Naomi Klein coined the term ‘Disaster Capitalism’. After the devastating flood of Kerala the fascist BJP and their parent organisation RSS are coining a new term, ‘Disaster Fascism’. It’s nothing new to them. This is a tried and tested method for them. Awaaz – South Asia Watch Ltd in a report pointed out in a report, titled ”In Bad Faith?[Read More…]
When 12 boys and their coach were trapped in a Thailand cave, the international community rose up as one. Thai Navy Seal took up the lead in rescuing the kids. Several international agencies sent in their experts to support the rescue operations. Tesla chief Elon Musk took his mini-submarine to the rescue operation’s command centre. It was all over news[Read More…]
Kerala floods will turn into a calamity of unimaginable proportions if help is not forthcoming warned Saji Cheiyan MLA, law maker from Chengannur of Pathanamthitta district. He warned that at least ten thousand people will die from starvation if more rescue teams and supplies are not deployed in the area by tomorrow morning. He said that at least 50,000 food[Read More…]
A few days ago Countercurrents.org published a petition by Avaaz. Its first few lines read this way, In a few days, India will delete as many as 7 million Muslims in Assam State from its master list of “citizens” because they speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God. Husbands, wives, and children could be torn apart and left[Read More…]
It is a well known fact that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has scant respect for democratic processes. He rarely attends the parliament. He has spent more days abroad than in the parliament. In the last four years he has made several times more public speeches than he gave in the parliament. He has never addressed a press conference as[Read More…]
When Mohammad Akhlakh was lynched in Dadri in 2015 on the suspicion of possessing beef, first in a series of dozens of such lynchings since then, Prof. Shah Alam Khan an Orthopaedics surgen in the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) wrote a short article in Countercurrents.org. The title of the article was arresting “The Color Of Human[Read More…]
John Scales Avery is one of the most important voices of our times today. I had the honour of interviewing him last year. https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/15/interview-with-john-scales-avery-one-of-the-greatest-living-intellectuals-on-earth/ He cares so much for the health of the planet and worries about a calamity that’s facing humanity, and all other species on earth. He has written a lot for Countercurrents.org. He has collected all his[Read More…]
Elippathayam (The Rat Trap) is a 1981 Malayalam film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It tells the story of a man trapped within himself unable to understand the changes taking place around him. It seems Indian Cinema also is caught in rat trap. No, it would be a bit flattering for Indian Cinema to use the rat trap metaphor.[Read More…]
The cat is out of the bag. The data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proves that as was predicted Narendra Modi’s demonetisation was a ‘monumental disaster’. The data shows that 99 % of the demonetised currencies returned to the system. Of the 15.44 lakh crore demonetised money, 15.28 lakh crore returned to the banks. A simple question rises,[Read More…]
The morning papers bring me the news that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world. Actually he overtook Bill Gates for a few hours on Thursday as the richest person on earth as the Amazon share prices rose. Bill Gates regained his position as the richest person later in the day. So what the[Read More…]
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has launched a private security firm “Parakram Suraksha Private Ltd’. The aim of the company ensuring security and developing military instinct. According to Acharya Balakrishna, CEO of Ramdev’s Patanjali, “Security is a very important issue either for a man or a woman. Our aim is to prepare individuals for self and country’s security and for this[Read More…]
The second book from Countercurrents.org publishing is out. It is a book on the cow politics in India and the resultant lynchings that’s happening around the country. It is titled “The Political Economy Of Beef Ban”. This volume contains 57 articles on beef and the politics around it, how it has affected the social fabric of India and the people,[Read More…]
Our call for #An Hour For Communal Harmony has got wonderful response from around the country. As our first event, blood and organ donation camps will be held in major cities/towns in India in the first week of August. New Delhi, Kolkotta, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Trivandurm, Kochi, Calicut have come on board. The slogan of the campaign is “India United[Read More…]
What happened in Baduria and Basirhat of West Bengal is a warning. What is happening in Darjeeling is a warning. What is happening in Jammu and Kashmir is a warning. When people are getting lynched for their food choices, it is a warning. What is happening to dalits, adivasis and other minorities in present day India is a warning. Can you[Read More…]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Israel. It is a historical visit. It is the first time an Indian Prime Minister is visiting Israel. Putting aside all protocol norms Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Ben-Gurion Airport to welcome Modi. Let’s step back and take a broader view of this historical visit. The Israeli Knesset (parliament) recently passed[Read More…]
Junaid this is for you. Junaid this is to assure you that your death will not go in vain. You are a martyr for the idea of India. You are not a martyr in the conventional sense, that you laid down your life with full consciousness of what you are doing. But your life was snatched away from you in[Read More…]
When I was in school we used to say a pledge in the morning assembly. It began this way, “India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters….”. This was the India we dreamed of when we were children. But, is this the India we are living now? Distressing news are coming from all around India. From Kashmir[Read More…]
We are all star dust. From the searing hot liquid magma inside the earth to the dying polar bears in the arctic, from the rainbow in the sky to the enigmatic Mona Lisa, from the first microbe to the most powerful man on earth are made up of star dust. We are all connected. Human beings in their unbridled hubris[Read More…]
The Economic Times reported that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi told party leaders from minority communities in Karnataka to be prepared for polarisation efforts by the BJP in the run-up to the 2018 assembly polls. According to the report he said “We need to be ready to take on polarisation of Hindu votes in the upcoming elections.Let us be very[Read More…]
I have a facebook group. It is called “Life in India is cheap, Damn cheap”. I started the group after seeing the death stunts of a circus group without any protection gears in a local festival. Yes, hundreds of thousands of lives in India are lost which could have been prevented if government took proper measures to tackle it. As[Read More…]
The new rule notified under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act of 1960 banning cattle trade across India is clear encroachment of states’ rights. It will end federalism and will be a death knell for farmers. It is a virtual beef ban across India and also will destroy the livelihood of millions of farmers. The states have to[Read More…]
On the third anniversary of Narendra Modi government, the government of India dealt a death blow to Indian farmers and its federal structure by bringing severe restrictions on cattle trade, virtually enforcing a cow slaughter ban across India. The new rule was issued by the ministry of environment. The environment ministry’s eight-page rule also bans setting of animal markets within[Read More…]
Today is Ambedkar Jayanti. It would be appropriate to take a re-look at Ambedkar’s idea of nationalism in the face of virulent Hindutva nationalism in India and also on the global context
I’m at the home of one of the greatest living intellectuals on earth. In the cold, windy Copenhagen weather as we ring the bell John Scales Avery opens the door and welcomes me and my friend John Graversgaard warmly into his home. He serves us coffee and we talk. I’m stunned by his humility and breadth of knowledge. John Avery[Read More…]
The weather here in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark is always shifting. It’s rainy and windy now. In another minute the sun would be out giving a little respite to the cold of this late winter or early spring weather. Come rain or sunshine they are outside the parliament house in Copenhagen, protesting against the involvement of Danish troops in[Read More…]
I’m not a hot off the shelf book reader. Most of the books I read are suggestions from my friends or found during my reading or research. When Teesta Setalvad’s memoir “Foot Soldier of the Constitution” appeared I simply could not resist. Her indomitable spirit in spite all the wild allegations, smearing of reputation, false cases, public humiliation, personal attacks[Read More…]
A dear friend of mine from USA sent me this mail regarding the demonetisation in India. Somebody in your country needs to organize something like Gandhi’s salt march against the monetary situation. They need to go to government sites and protest peacefully. Look at Boston. If we can do this, so can people in India! Mobilize, I recommend! This is[Read More…]
I read George Orwell’s ‘1984’ in 1985 when I was a 15 year old. Although the ‘Big Brother’ appearing on screens to announce what people should be doing looked like a science fiction in an 80s India, it made a nightmarish impact on me, even when I was awake. As a 15 year old I never thought that it could[Read More…]
Political analyst Devinder Sharma tweeted that angry farmers in Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh are dumping tomato on highways. The reason? They are getting 50 rupees for a 100 kg batch of tomato. That means they are getting 50 paise for a kilogram of tomato. Ironically, 50 paise is practically out of circulation in India. Angry farmers in Ramgarh dist in[Read More…]
Perumbavoor in Central Kerala is a mini India. Migrant workers from all over India come to this place looking for work. Workers from many states who get paid around Rs 200 for a day’s work in their home states, get around Rs 1000 as wage here. Sunday is a busy day in Perumbavoor. Workers who get their weekly pay and[Read More…]
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani was all praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘demonetisation’ drive at the launch of his e-payment wallet Jio Money, yesterday. Ironically it was also the first pay day after ‘demonetisation’ that is for the salaried class which makes up about 20 % of India’s population. Still it was total mayhem. Long queues, no cash in[Read More…]
At the stroke of midnight November 9, 2016, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi imposed an undeclared economic emergency on India. With a stroke of pen he wiped out Rs 15 lakh crores in cash from the system. What prompted this drastic step? What will be the fall out of the action for Indian economy is a billion dollar question.
India’s beef ban politics has taken a turn for the bizarre with Haryana police have started collecting samples of Biryani sold in Mewat district, the states only Muslim dominated district. The biryani checks are taking place days ahead of Eid festival. The biryani checks have taken many by surprise asking whether the police should be focusing on other crimes in[Read More…]
Today is the 8th anniversary of Kandhamal pogrom. When we look back on one of the worst communal violence against Christian communities in the history of modern India, what lessons can be learnt? In 2015 August, I was in Kandhamal on the 7th anniversary of the Kandhamal pogrom. When I marched with a sea of people through the streets of[Read More…]
A BJP local leader in Karnataka who was transporting cows in a vehicle died after he was attacked allegedly by right wing Hindutva group called Hindu Jagrana Vedike. Praveen Poojary, 29, was traveling with a friend Akshay Devadiga when they were stopped and thrashed by men. Poojary died of his injuries in hospital four hours after the assault. Devadiga is[Read More…]
It’s over a year since I wrote a note of this sort. So many things happened in this period, some good, some very bad. Global warming is alarmingly tottering on the very dangerous mark. The past year so record breaking monthly heat records, disastrous floods, droughts and storms. 400 ppm is the new normal now. The resource wars have broken[Read More…]
Kandhamal is not a new subject to me. Countercurrents.org had published an article on 2nd November 2003 by Angana Chatterjee “Orissa: A Gujarat In The making”. It was five years before the worst communal violence against Christians in modern India happened in Kandhamal in 2008 in which 93 people were killed, over 350 churches and worship places which belonged to[Read More…]
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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…]
