The Desh ka Maha Tyohar has come to an end but Modi’s juggernaut rolls on. Modi wave has swept the nation (for now, let us believe that there was no tampering of EVMs etc) once again. The festival of colours, flags, symbols, masks etc is over. What was striking about this election campaign was the amount of party merchandize being[Read More…]
Even as I write, a new twitter trend #boycottSurfexcel is soaring. Depicting Hindu-Muslim unity-ish feeling the ad is now being trashed for its subservient Hindu sentiments as compared to those of Muslims; for promoting love-jihaad and being Hindu phobic. Coming in the backdrop of on-going strategic war with Pakistan, it is an understatement to say feelings of nationalism have touched[Read More…]
Today was the day many of us have been waiting for since 2013. That was the year the Supreme Court re-criminalised homosexuality. That case was set to be re-opened today with much anticipation. Petitioner for the respondents advocate Mr. Rohatgi and advocate Dattar represented the side of those appealing for reading down of IPC Section 377. In 2013 the SC[Read More…]
Former president Pranab Mukherjee gave a speech in the RSS meeting on Thursday the 7th of June in Nagpur. Now, let me clarify that this is not a speech on the speech but in fact an article on the speech/ opinions flung around, before and after the speech. When it was announced that Mukherjee had accepted the invite from the[Read More…]
Expression is possible through channels of power. Well established channels like gender, class, race, caste have for centuries aided expression of the few powerful people in this world. The underdogs express only in retaliation. That expression is of power too but of a different kind. It is of asserting oneself. Righting a wrong, it is in answer to or in[Read More…]
The past few days have been crazy for statues all across the country. I even saw one sweating with worry over his fate the day the Saffrons and the Reds clashed on the streets of Kolkata. I told him he was safe given Didi’s quick dispersal of police squads, who faced the odd predicament of manning blocks of stone over[Read More…]
What can be done of politics that is dangerous and easy? The opinion polls show that Congress and BJP are neck to neck in the upcoming Gujarat assembly polls. Will the violence of Rajsamand and similar communal politics wash off the terror of demonetization, of GST, of Una Dalits flogging, of unemployment woes of Patidars and Thakors? At the time[Read More…]
The social media is flooding with #metoo (me too) hashtags. Sexual assault survivors are using this hashtag to call out on the cancer-like spread of sexual crime in our society. This is a consequence of the disclosure of Hollywood’s larger than life (nay, God?) figure Harvey Weinstein’s sexual predatoriness . More and more actresses have publicly stated their harassment at[Read More…]
Yeh dharti hai balidaan ki. This land is of sacrifice. Yesterday PM Narendra Modi unveiled the second largest dam in the world- the Sardar Sarovar dam. This construction has been mired in controversy ever since its inception, 1961. For several years now the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has been protesting against the release of water into the dam as it[Read More…]
Coming on the heels of the explosive RBI verdict on demonetization, the outrage over Lankesh’s murder is more than just whataboutery. It speaks volumes about the elite left liberal forces and their comfortable politics. I am not among those who say that we must wait till the police investigation is through before pronouncing who’s responsible. There are too any arrows[Read More…]
The rapist is not the stranger in the night. Between pitaji ki maafi and pati ka haq most rapes in India are covered. A good portion of rapes in India happen with a known person rather than a stranger. The 2015 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data shows that in 95 percent of all rape cases, the offender knew the victim.[1] Many[Read More…]
The Attorney General has argued that citizens do not have the fundamental right to privacy. That the citizen should be open to scrutiny by the government other bodies of authority for ‘national interests’. That their body or their data is not a right of their own. The AG states that this is because the right to privacy is an[Read More…]
Amit Shah calling Gandhi a ‘chatur bania’ is all over the papers. Do you think his speech is offensive, even provocative, nay seditious? Has he crossed a certain line that pushes one into the ‘reasonable restrictions’ on Freedom of Speech Article 19a? Should he be booked under IPC Section 292 for morally corrupting and obscene speech? To find some[Read More…]
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 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 
Zelensky Faces Difficult Time In Washington D.C. 
Stumbling Towards Old Age And Looking for Someone to Lean On 
Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
“Our world is becoming unhinged”: Antonio Guterres 
How Chances of Direct War between the USA and Russia Are Increasing 
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…]
