The message flashed on my phone informing death of a Delhi University, Philosophy Assistant Professor, Samarveer Singh ‘by suicide’ in his rented accommodation near the University! I did not know Samarveer. But that is not important! I was surprised, why would an Assistant Professor with Delhi University, (the second-best job in India, the first being Indian Army), employed with presumably[Read More…]
As the weeks long birthday festivity of the leadership is rejoiced country wide, the covid is still raging. The carnival is in line with the post covid decisions and actions of the leadership demonstrating a pursuit of personal power and glory instead of national interest in the times of disease and death. The national interest, a term synonymous with the[Read More…]
As we celebrate the International Human Rights Day, it is worthwhile to ask if a missing soldier of the country has any of rights that we commemorate with fanfare. This might sound an insulting query in a country which swears by the breath, life, and death of its soldiers. This is rightly so, for, the soldier is the cream of[Read More…]
As we celebrate another birth anniversary of the father of the nation, it is worth recognising that the thinkers, writers, and activists are valuable for a society. Gandhi represented all of these, leaving a mark on the humanity that even his enemies find hard to deny. Some argue that it was the matter of time and Independence would have come[Read More…]
As we commemorate suspension of democracy during emergency in 1975, it is disturbing to note that police are on spree to arrest and detain people and send them to jail as arbitrarily as then. Police knock at the door of journalists and social activists ; one can be charged for airing views on television, or posting comments on social media.[Read More…]
The supreme court has extended the house arrest of five human rights activists who were arrested last week. However, when the case comes before it on 12th September, it would be a enormous service to nation if it could reflect on the larger picture of the country in which human rights activists are branded, framed, arrested and sent to jail[Read More…]
The Credibility of India’s top institutions has lately suffered affecting governance and democracy in the country. Its strong indication came in the form of the impeachment motion against the chief justice of India which was rejected by the Vice president and was subsequently challenged in the highest Court. When the case challenging legality of the vice president’s action came before[Read More…]
It is a common refrain in the country that news has declined in content and quality. Social media is full of debate on the issue since innovations like the paid news and scandals like Radia tape. A common thread of concern is that the media is scandalizing, preaching and serving the masses a low comedy in the name of[Read More…]
More than hundred military veterans wrote to the prime minister last week dissenting growing violence against people in the country. Earlier, last month, thousands of people in several cities protested against the widespread incidence of mob violence against Muslims and Dalits. According to IndiaSpend, a data journalism website, 38 people have been killed in 61 attacks since Narendra Modi[Read More…]
The country is experiencing a spate of violence with cases of lynching in different parts of India. The citizen is hapless and government is unresponsive betraying its authoritarian tendencies rooted in its ideology. Over a couple of decades , BJP has grown on vigilante politics rooted in ideology of RSS and Hindutva, a distorted interpretation of Hinduism which is[Read More…]
The recent summoning of Chhattisgarh officials by the National Human Rights Commissions (NHRC) for abuse of power is significant due to the expectations from human rights protection institutions in the country to deliver on their mandate. However, concerned officials may never appear before the commission to explain their conduct indicating a steep decline in human rights protection regime in the[Read More…]
Pink and Akira, two recent Bollywood hit films, depict an ugly reality of the police in India. It seems much has not changed in country for the last ten years since the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh case ordered in September 2006 that the police must be made functionally autonomous and accountable by enacting new police laws. After 1947, Indian[Read More…]
As India celebrates its anniversary of independence from the British rule it, is worthwhile to ask when the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur will get freedom from the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act 1958 (AFSPA) which is no less than being living under the colonial rule. The law that the British conceived in the wake of quit[Read More…]
The recent Chennai High court judgment concerning the writer Perumal Murugan is a requisite addition to the Indian jurisprudence as it underlines the relationship between the writer and society, which has lately suffered from grave confusion. Permual Murugan was hauled up in the court of law for describing a cultural practice of Tamil Nadu through a novel Madhurobhagan, published in[Read More…]
Last month, Hyderabad police registered a case against Prof. Kancha Ilaiah for writing an article in a Telugu daily, entitled ‘Is God not a democrat’? The article questioned inequality in society and discussed concept of god. For doing so the professor was reproached for insulting sentiments of a community and charged for promoting enmity between different religious groups under section[Read More…]
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From the Contemporary History of the Balkans: Greece and Slavo-Macedonians (1913-1993) 
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The Unholy Origins of Castes in India 
Union Health Ministry placing a cap on new medical colleges in States on the basis of the population criterion violates federalism 
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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! 
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Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
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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 
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…]
