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The death toll brought on by floods, landslides and bridge collapses in India’s monsoon-hit state of Kerala has jumped to 70. More than 1.5 lakh people are lodged in relief camps across the state. The airport at Kochi, the busiest in Kerala, will remain closed till Saturday due to heavy rains and resultant flooding. The runway and the parking area[Read More…]
August 15, 1947 was a historical day in the eventful history of India. India got independence after a long and heroic struggle against the British colonial masters. India’s independence was also a milestone in the ongoing anti-imperialist liberation struggles world-over. In India all those who dreamt of an independent India and survived to see it happen were jubilant and despite[Read More…]
National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements has planned a Samvidhan Samman Yatra – a nationwide tour to restore and protect the core values of our Constitution and democracy. The Yatra shall commence on 2nd October 2018 from Dandi, Gujarat the place where Gandhi led his famous salt march in 1930. It will travel through various States in the country holding meetings,[Read More…]
The Khasis from Meghalaya are one of the well known tribes from North-east India. The hills of Meghalaya are inhabited by the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo tribes. The Khasi mostly inhabit the east and west Khasi hills, Ri Bhoi and Jaintia hills. They are considered to be unique as they are one of the few tribes which follow matrilineal system[Read More…]
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid was shot at by an unidentified man outside Constitution Club of India in New Delhi on Monday afternoon. Umar Khalid managed to escape unhurt. Khalid was at the venue to attend an event titled ‘Khauff Se Azaadi’, organised by an organisation named ‘United Against Hate’. Talking to reporters after being attacked, Khalid said,[Read More…]
The denigration of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PM of India and a prominent leader of the anti-colonial freedom struggle by the Hindutva gang is endless. After Gandhi, he continues to be the punching bag of the Hindutva no holds barred attacks crossing all civilized norms. In fact, the Hindu nationalists who assassinated Gandhi (January 30, 1948) also discussed whether Nehru[Read More…]
‘ Beware of false knowledge : it is more dangerous than ignorance’ George Bernard Shaw Even before official announcement of dates of elections in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh or elections to the lok sabha, campaigns, rallies and advertising have already started. Politicians are already beginning to woo voters. Parties have begun to promote fake news and disseminate[Read More…]
The Maldives has asked India to withdraw its military choppers and personnel posted in the island as the Indo-Maldives agreement has expired in June 2018. The Maldives’ ambassador in India, Ahmed Mohamed, told Reuters that two military helicopters provided by India were mainly used for medical evacuations but were no longer required as the islands had built up enough resources[Read More…]
Official Policy Of Class Collaboration But in Telangana there was a different, revolutionary line There are several aspects of Quit India Movement (QIM) noteworthy like: It was a movement that was full of contradictions: No party was united or consistent on that, neither Congress nor Communists nor others. No party could own it up or disown it in an unqualified manner.[Read More…]
The ruling dispensation in India is facing a crisis of low growth, protests by major sections of the population – farmers, youth and traders – and criticism about non fulfillment of the many promises it has made. It has announced many policies but not only is their implementation tardy, many of them are a continuation of the past policies under[Read More…]
15th August is the most cherished date in the Indian calendar .it was on this momentous day, more than seven decades back, that we were born an independent and free country .Mahatma Gandhi’s luminous leadership finally made the British Quit India in 1947. It is certainly an occasion for celebration. More than that, it is a point in a nation’s[Read More…]
As IIT Bombay students, we are proud that this institution has now stepped in its Diamond Jubilee year and has occupied a prominent place among the other well-known institutes of learning in this world. However, invitation of Mr. Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, as a guest of honour in the convocation of this year, has raised some concerns[Read More…]
India’s success story as the fastest growing economy of the world coexists with’ an insular, selfish, and antidemocratic elite in an unequal society, where “predatory forms of capitalism”, supported and promoted by the State prevail driving the poor to the wall. Recent corruption scandals in the mining and the telecom sector only serves to highlight the fact that crony capitalism and rent seeking are the main drivers of the GDP growth not innovation or entrepreneurial dynamism.
India celebrates its independence from Britain on 15 August. However, the system of British colonial dominance has been replaced by a new hegemony based on the systemic rule of transnational capital, enforced by global institutions like the World Bank and WTO. At the same time, global agribusiness corporations are stepping into the boots of the former East India Company. The[Read More…]
A friend forwarded a test by politicalcompass.org on WhatsApp the other day. It was a very interesting test, which plotted an individual’s social and economic leanings. I was very intrigued by it, and I forwarded the same to my various WhatsApp groups requesting people to share their responses. The results were very fascinating. Most people fell into the same quadrant[Read More…]
The prime minister quoted in the parliament “the decision of neem-coated urea has helped the farmers of India”no doubt without any statistical or general explanation. This was not the first time Mr. Prime Minister quoted something without documentary evidences either from governmental side, think-tank or civil society side. Let alone from the farmer’s side, who is the last one to[Read More…]
Quit India Movement [QIM] also known as ‘August Kranti’ (August Revolution) was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience Movement for which a call was given on August 7, 1942 by the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee. It was to begin on August 9 as per Gandhi’s call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Mumbai at[Read More…]
Among the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set up by UN to be achieved by 2030, quality education stands at the number four positions from the top. That means ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all is a top priority of SDGs worldwide. UN states that education is a right. It empowers individuals to[Read More…]
There are several aspects of Quit India Movement noteworthy like: It was a movement that was full of contradictions: No party was united or consistent on that, neither Congress nor Communists nor others. No party could own it up or disown it in an unqualified manner. Because, among other things, every party had differences at the top, the bottom and[Read More…]
It was Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, when he was India’s prime minister, who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan!”, in the realistic understanding that the Jawan provides national external security (since then he has also been providing internal security due to failure of governance) and the Kisan provides the nation with food security. Were Shastri alive today, it seems[Read More…]
Brijesh Thakur is the man accused of sexually abusing 34 out of 44 young women in his care as sex slaves, and terrorising 11 others to flee from another care home run by him. Aman Sharma in the Economic Times on August 1 2018 sums up the fascist reality of rape in India in his article about this man,[Read More…]
The GST is not bigger than the policy changes introduced in 1991 and hence not the biggest reform. It is not yielding more revenue to enable governments to spend more on services for the poor. Further, by damaging the unorganised sectors, it has set back output and employment in the economy rather than leading to a higher growth rate. These[Read More…]
Co-Written By Ashish Kumar Singh and Praloy Majumder A study done by Korn Ferry said that India is projected to have a skilled labour surplus of 245 million workers by 2030, mainly on the back of “vast supply of working age citizens”, even as most of the developed and developing economies are expected to grapple with talent crunch at that[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…]
They call it National Register of Citizen (NRC) but it is basically an attempt to take away the citizenship of the people on the basis of your religion. In pure political terms BJP wanted to polarise the north east through its vicious anti Muslim agenda and were finding ways to make permanent presence in the states of north east. The[Read More…]
Such mass-scale profiling has been done officially only in Germany of the Jews by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. Now, 40 lakh people in Assam have found themselves trapped in a twilight zone As many as 40 lakh people have been dropped from the “final” list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Finally, 2.9 crore people have found[Read More…]
I welcome Dr Prem Singh’s article: The era of `teaching lessons’ as a timely intervention in the current debate over how to resist the goons of the Sangh Parivar, particularly in the context of their recent attack on Swami Agnivesh. I however find a few problems with his position and the implications flowing from it. First, he seems to be upset [Read More…]
Wake Up India: Essays for Our Times – Part 2 – Chapter 2 If we draw a line with three cardinal points in it of extreme left and extreme right and centre to represent the political situation in India at the extreme right is BJP with its backers like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and other Hindu ultra right organisations and[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…]
This month marks the first anniversary of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI). Formed in Surrey, BC on July 8, 2017, IAPI was created in response to the growing attacks on religious minorities in India. Ever since the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in 2014, violence against minorities has grown in the[Read More…]
India is the country of people belonging to varied regions, religions, sects, communities, castes; etc.From the past times till date, the multiculturalism and plural ethos of this country has set a strong precedent to the world about this land of diversity. This country is the country of its natives, be it hindus ,muslims,sikhs,christians,parsis,buddhists,etc.No one can escape its identity at the[Read More…]
Respected AIMPLB members, Be it the women rallies taken out by AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board) throughout the country abruptly stopped, the sudden ” Deen Bachao, Desh bachao” rally in Patna, the announcement of Darul Qazas or the conduct of the board-member, Mr.Aijaz Qasmi, you have been quite in the news, for all the wrong reasons. The old[Read More…]
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) under the Ministry of Power has prepared an electricity generation plan for the period 2017-2027, and also has invited feedback on its draft. Such a generation plan prepared by CEA can be seen as crucial in the context of overall development of the power sector in the country because the same is intended to be[Read More…]
Forward I as part of the fact-finding team and being associated with its day-to-day work – from field work to preparation of the report – can say with confirmity that Assam is sitting on the tip of a volcano that can erupt if the injustices meted out to Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus on the basis of language and religion in[Read More…]
I recall an incident, when a young girl was kidnapped from an upper middle-class colony in South Delhi. Police were immediately deployed at the scene and within a matter of a few days, the girl was rescued and restored to her parents. News of this case stirred up the fears of residents and consequently the Resident’s Welfare Association, in a[Read More…]
When terrorists attack, the media splashes news quickly and continue to discuss at length. The politicians try to use the news for boosting their political career. But deaths due to cleaning drainage holes or potholes on roads are rarely discussed by either media or politicians. Rise in numbers The deaths due to bad roads, speed breakers, potholes, in 2015 was[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar Recently, the Government of India has decided to allow lateral entry for the post of joint secretaries of various ministries thus opening the doors to the private sector. The constitutional validity of the notification providing for lateral entry is challenged by an ex-IAS officer through a PIL in the Supreme Court on[Read More…]
The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018 attempts to dilute the independence of Central and State Information Commissioners (ICs) besides giving undue powers to the government of the day to appoint Commissioners with uncertain term and salary. The Bill intends to defeat very purpose of RTI Act 2005 besides an affront to federalism enshrined as basic feature of Indian Constitution.[Read More…]
My dog Charlie is long gone. But Charlie, who was a brown “Great indian Mongrel”, was wise in the ways of the world. He taught me a lesson in public policy I will never forget. Corruption is India’s favorite conversation topic. We love discussing it and bemoaning its all pervasiveness. We are experts at it and have all experienced it[Read More…]
According to Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, between 2014 and March, 2018, 45 people were killed in mob lynchings across nine states in India. In the latest example, a group of villagers beat to death 28-year-old Akbar Khan in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, an incident that came to light just five days after the Supreme Court urged the Center to frame a[Read More…]
On July 20th, 2018, Sh Narendra Modi led NDA government defeated No Confidence Motion moved by Sh Srinivas Kesineni of TDP which also enjoyed support of other opposition parties by margin of 199 votes. While nobody had doubts over NDA government’s ability to win the motion, debate provided a much welcome healthy discourse in the Indian political discussions among plethora[Read More…]
The thugs policing our cultural fraternity have struck again. In response to the violent threats against his family, Malayalam writer S Hareesh has now withdrawn his novel Meesa (Moustache) being serialised by Mathrubhumi, stating that he will publish it when “the climate is congenial”. Meesa is the first novel written by Hareesh, winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for[Read More…]
Although the recent attack on social activist Swami Agnivesh is being widely and strongly condemned, there are many people who, citing some earlier incidents involving Swami ji, perceive the attack as an inevitable and normal culmination. This is definitely most unfortunate. Those who do not agree with his earlier or present views and actions were, and are, absolutely free and[Read More…]
As the Lok Sabha debates the No confidence motion against the Modi government thousands of farmers from across the country marched from Mandi House to Parliament Street. The foot march was organized by All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), which is an alliance of more than 201 farmers organizations across the country, formed in late June 2017. The main[Read More…]
A Muslim man was beaten to death in Rajasthan on Friday night by villagers who accused him of cow smuggling. The police have identified the man as 28-year-old Akbar Khan. Villagers in Ramgarh saw two men with cows and attacked them, according to the police. The two were beaten up and one of them died on the spot. “Akbar Khan,[Read More…]
On July 8, 2018 An eminent economist opined in Times of India that the Central government made a mistake by enhancing the MSP of paddy crops because it goes against international competition and the laws of demand-supply. It further says that European Economic Community once made the same mistake by enhancing crop prices, for which it later had to pay[Read More…]
The penchant of development agencies for high-yielding cows has never abated. Whenever relief measures are planned for drought-affected families in villages, free quality cows are considered an important element in the official relief `packages’ or self –help schemes. I have seen in my career that whenever a drought ravages a village, the crossed Holstein and Jersey s cows arrive in[Read More…]
There is spate of lynching incidents reported from different parts of India. Many of them are attributed to fake news that is discovered much after the damage is done. The Supreme Court of India has become agog to such frightening reality and had ordered the Centre and the States government to take immediate steps to stop the dissemination of misinformation[Read More…]
2018 Nagaland State Assembly elections witnessed meteoric rise of BJP on the political platform in the state of Nagaland which set the wheel of discussions in motion regarding elections and the unsettling emergence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state politics of Nagaland on social media and other relevant platforms which have been overwhelming; as this is a phenomenon[Read More…]
The well planned digging of the footpath by supporters of Raj Thackeray outside Mantralaya shows the deeply anti-people nature of a section of the political class. Simply because the attack was not directed against human beings does not make it less sinister than recent lynchings and the assault on Swami Agnivesh. Thackeray loves expensive and fast cars and a good[Read More…]
There is news about the Tata Nano plant at Sanand rolling out just one or two cars in the past week. It is, hence, likely that the factory is shut down and in the event it could be a record; a record in the sense that what began with lots of talk of a story of success in the larger[Read More…]
Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist.
There is more to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s apparently graceful response to the Twitter trolling she has faced over her ministry’s issuance of a passport to an inter-faith couple than meets the eye. Swaraj has been the target of offensive tweets for helping Tanvi Seth, wife of Mohammad Anas Siddiqui, get her passport after an officer allegedly harassed her for not changing her name to a Muslim[Read More…]
A reference to ‘Hindu Pakistan’ by Shashi Tharoor, in a speech, sparked off another controversy across the media and political circles. The BJP seized the occasion to launch a rabble-rousing diatribe against Tharoor and the Congress. According to Tharoor, “If they (BJP) are able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha, then frankly our democratic[Read More…]
A new scheme of greater autonomy to educational institutions has been announced. Depending on their NAAC scores, institutions will be slotted in category I, II and lower. There will be less autonomy as the rank declines. Those in the highest category will have the freedom to start new courses, hire foreign faculty and pay higher emoluments to faculty, So, some[Read More…]
Char is a word that attracts instant attraction in Assamese mainstream life for all wrong reasons. They are river islands of the Brahmaputra populated by mostly Muslims of East Bengali descent for more than a century. The islands are overpopulated and devoid of all basic amenities of modern life. The inhabitants of Chars are dubbed as ‘foreigners’ or ‘Bangladeshis’ by[Read More…]
Rumour of child snatchers spread via WhatsApp has taken another life in Bidar district of Karnataka. A 32-year-old Google software engineer was beaten to death and three others, including a Qatari national, critically injured by a mob which suspected they were a group of “child lifters”. WhatsApp rumours warning villagers of child lifters has taken more than a dozen lives[Read More…]
Chapter 2 – Poverty and Class analysis with reference to 2014-2018 BJP rule (Part I) Why I have returned to write a sequel to the earlier book is basically to refute the claim that four years of BJP rule has made a difference to India, that things have become better. My first chapter that pointed out that atrocities against Dalits[Read More…]
Co-Written By- Praloy Majumder and Ashish Kumar Singh Around 12 million Indians joining the labour force every year. With millions of young people joining the labour market every month, the question everyone has is if there will be enough jobs for them. Few are asking who creates jobs. Entrepreneurship and job creation is directly proportional one does not need to[Read More…]
Sagarika Ghosh congratulated poet Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi for being the voices of progressive democratic liberal Muslims, (without trying to be Sarkari tokens for Hindu Rashtra), lighting the path for Indian Muslims and adding as if an afterthought, in fact for all citizens. Someone countered; Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi can’t be taken as representative Muslims for they have[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi paid a visit to his constituency Amethi a few days ago. Rae Bareli-Amethi have become synonymous to India National Congress (INC). Every time one utters their name in front of people who have not been there, their eyes start glittering with a hypothetical boon these two places might have got because of INC’s long rule and because of[Read More…]
A runner which gets the Medal even before participating in the race With a hazardous stick which threatens of dire consequences And a gift box of political donations which lures those in power Eager to establish hegemony over educational landscape for ever Aiming to monopolize every sphere of social and economic life For shaping the minds that serve the powers[Read More…]
India is under siege from international capital. It is on course not only to be permanently beholden to US state-corporate interests but is heading towards environmental catastrophe much faster than many may think. According to the World Bank’s lending report, based on data compiled up to 2015, India was easily the largest recipient of its loans in the history of the institution. Unsurprisingly,[Read More…]
The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility -Brooks Atkinson The Indian Civil Service represents the crème de la crème of the country’s university graduates who form the backbone of the country’s administration. Today, there are about 5,000 IAS officers who comprise this privileged club. The civil service has a hallowed past and[Read More…]
In spite of the fact that there are a number of justifications for privatisation of education, commercial consideration underpins all its good objects of imparting quality education, of course, with the availability of adequate basic facilities of premises, toilets, infrastructure, libraries, drinking water dispensers-purifiers, computers, libraries & hostels: the facilities invariably unfound in government run educational institutions primarily for lack[Read More…]
The RSS inspired trolls abusing and threatening with rape to the daughter of a woman political leader on social media is reflective of the how much we have drowned in these four years. Our Prime Minister who opens his mouth on any international event of ‘terrorism’ or a bus accident in Jhumritallaiya but rarely spoken against these threats of violence[Read More…]
With the release of the report titled ‘The most dangerous countries for Women – 2018’ by Thomson Reuters foundation which ranks India as the most unsafe country in the world, the defenders of national pride are out to argue the flaws of the report. The report was based on an expert opinion of about 548 persons which included aid and[Read More…]
If the Modi Government’s first year of its rule was marked by the burial of an important institution of national importance—the Planning Commission of India—with the launching of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), its last year in office is likely to witness another interment of a Statutory body of national importance—the University Grants Commission (UGC)—with the notification[Read More…]
Around a hundred film actors, directors, technicians, writers and activist have signed a statement condemning the decision of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) to reinstate the Malayalm movie star Dileep who is an accused in the adduction and molestation of a fellow actress. They extended their solidarity and support to the actress and demanded that an atmosphere should be[Read More…]
Wake Up, India: Essays for Our Times – Part 2. Chapter 1 – Dalits in the Spotlight during 2014- 18 BJP Rule. On 17, January 2016, Rohith Vemula died. His suicide letter became the cause of a widespread anger that again highlighted or brought to the forefront the issue of whether Dalits are treated justly or unjustly in India and[Read More…]
I Before discussing the complex subject of opposition unity, it would be appropriate to look at some obvious facts. Firstly, there exists no opposition to the neo-liberal policies that has prevailed for the past three decades in the country – none at the level of mainstream political parties, none at the level of intellectuals and ‘thinking’ class. Therefore, the[Read More…]
An internal Emergency was imposed on the country by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25-26, 1975, and it lasted for 19 months. This period is considered as ”dark times’ for Indian democratic polity. Indira Gandhi claimed that due to Jaiprakash Narayan’s call to the armed forces to disobey the ‘illegal’ orders of Congress rulers had created a situation[Read More…]
Dear Prime Minister YOU NEED TO ANSWER! As the date of election is closing by- your performance and ability to serve this country will be under much-scrutiny. You cannot accept public scrutiny- even though your bhaktas call them ‘anti-national’ or your hyper active cyber cell attack on your critiques. I am starting from your parliamentary constituency and my home town-[Read More…]
The president of India has appointed Narendra Modi as the country’s 14th prime minister on the strength of his election as the leader of the BJP parliamentary group following the BJP’s electoral victory. The acceptance of the people’s verdict always comes with the expectations that the government that follows will pursue a set of policies and programmes that will provide[Read More…]
The cult of 56 inches does not symbolize courage or strength, it portrays toxic masculinity. And toxic masculinity is not normal.It must be resisted. When Simon de Beauvoir[1] wrote about becoming women’ she was referring to the notion of social construction of a person as a woman. Similarly, masculinity is also related to the notion of becoming aman’ in a[Read More…]
Killing people on suspicion of possession or trading of beef continues unabated in India. In yet another case related to suspicion on cow slaughter, the Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh (U.P) police thrashed a meat trader Mohammad Salim Qureshi alias Munna so badly that he succumbed to injuries on Thursday after spending eight days in AIIMS. In a written complaint to[Read More…]
This is not the story of a man who once sold tea and later ‘sold’ dreams to a people and managed to reach top echleons of power in the biggest democracy in the world. This is not the story of this man and his rise from the margins of a organisation which is called the biggest cultural organisation in the[Read More…]
Over the past ten months, at least 12 persons have succumbed to hunger in Jharkhand. Instead of taking action against functionaries whose lapses have led to these deaths and measures to improve the situation of food security in the state, Jharkhand government has denied hunger as the cause of any of these deaths and absolved itself of any blame. Instead,[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…]
A Muslim man was lynched to death following a rumour of cow slaughter in a village in Pilkhua near Hapur district of western UP. The man named Kashim died in the hospital in the course of treatment. The condition of the other person is also serious. A trivial feud, where men were reportedly driving out stray cows from fields, aggravated into[Read More…]
The prominent journalist and editor, Shujaat Bukhari was leaving work when he and his two bodyguards were shot and killed. Suffice to say newspapers are the lifeblood of democracy and Indian administered Kashmir under the decades-long grip of a half-million strong security force has a questionable claim. Yet brave journalists, unafraid, write and sometimes pay the consequences. Following Mr. Bukhari’s[Read More…]
I have never liked the rhetorical politics of Arvind Kejriwal. In fact the seed that they sow in 2011 resulted in the fascist take over of this country. Kejriwal wanted the country to become a gram panchayat at the Ramleela maidan and decisions were taken on the voice vote. All the power elite of the upper caste suddenly turned revolutionary.[Read More…]
In order to make sense of the issue on the table, let us first try to arrange the events in (rough) chronological order. I. Here’s a news report carried by the ToI, June 6 web edition, which informs: <<Human rights activist Rona Jacob Wilson was arrested from South Delhi early on Wednesday [i.e. June 6 2018] in connection with the[Read More…]
“..I am afraid I have no faith in astrology and certainly I should not like to fix up national programmes in accordance with the dictates of astrologers…” Jawaharlal Nehru (In a letter to Rajendra Prasad, who had objected to January 26, 1950 as the date for inaugurating the republic on astrological grounds. Page 77, Volume 2, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography, OUP,[Read More…]
In 1947 India was divided by the foreign rulers by playing a game of divide and rule to which the religious fundamentalists fell prey. India and Pakistan since then have a checkered history and uneasy relationship sometimes climaxing in wars and violent conflagrations. While the governments prefer to maintain adversarial relationship, which now sustains certain vested interests on both sides,[Read More…]
Two Muslim men were lynched on suspicion of stealing cattle in Jharkhand’s Godda district on Wednesday morning. Residents of Dullu village caught hold of the two victims – Sirabuddin Ansari (35) and Murtaza Ansari (30) – and accused them of stealing 13 buffaloes from one Munshi Murmu on Tuesday night. “Villagers claim that that they found the missing buffaloes in[Read More…]
India is home to one-fifth of the world’s population which includes a third of the world’s poor and one-eighth of the world’s elderly. Most of them spend their whole lives as informal workers and have no retirement security other than the hope that their children will care for them in their old age. This arrangement worked well as long as[Read More…]
A critique of RSS needs to go beyond the current pattern. The contemporary liberal and left critique has been primarily targeted at their core concept of Hindutva. It is argued that Hindutva as an idea goes against the basic ethos of secularism, pluralism and ideals of the constitution. Commentaries and critics point as to how it is anti-Dalit, anti-minority and[Read More…]
The union government’s proposal of lateral entry of persons from “private sector companies, consultancy firms and international or multinational organisations”, as Joint Secretary (JS) is to “bring[ing] in fresh ideas and new approaches to governance and also to augment manpower”. [“Private sector employees can now apply for top government posts“; <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-notifies-10-positions-for-lateral-entry-as-joint-secretaries/articleshow/64527221.cms>; Economic Times, June 10, 2018]. This would be unexceptionable[Read More…]
Mr. T. Sakhrie, one of the first Naga intellectuals, a philosopher and a great Naga-nationalist leader of his era who sacrificed his life for the freedom and rights of Nagas stood true till his last breath to his ideologies and convictions which reflect in his quote that further produced verbatim. He said, “Truly we are a peculiar people.[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…]
11th of June, 2018 should be considered as the darkest day in the constitutional history of India. It is the day when BJP government through the Department of Personnel and Training opened up the doors to the prestigious ‘higher’ civil services of India to the private sector through lateral entry scheme. Central Government through its nation-wide advertisement has call for[Read More…]
The cruel lynching of two innocent and budding youth in Kacharigaon village under Dokmoka police station of Assam’s Karbi Anglong district is the harsh reminder of the state in which we are living today. In last couple of years India’s public spaces have turned into squares of mediaeval Europe in which people were publicly executed for ‘heresy’, ‘witchcraft’, for petty[Read More…]
In an era of profound distortion of news and storytelling, the most pertinent question that is being asked is; ‘what is News now’? Notwithstanding the debatable facts, the fact remains that we are witnessing new trends and upheavals in the media industry particularly transformative issues in the business of news. Today we are facing an increasing focus on the intersection[Read More…]
India’s eager quest for economic dynamism has been severely stifled by chronic corruption. The country needs to urgently modernize its institutions and end the culture of rent seeking and cutting corners if it is to allow the economic wheels to roll seamlessly. Corruption is both anti-national and anti-poor because the resources meant for poverty alleviation schemes get siphoned off by[Read More…]
BJP’s chain of defeat which started with Gorakhpur and Phoolpur in Uttar Pradesh bye elections has extended to defeat in Kairana and Noorpur. It has broken the invincibility myth of Modi and Amit Shah. If the opposition parties succeed in joining hands to get rid of unprecedented danger to basic democratic values, institutions, society, culture and civilization created during[Read More…]
Most recently,the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill has been the talk of every nook and corner of the state with people from all walks of life joining the bandwagon and raising voices against the ill-fated bill.The state has witnessed severe protest over the past few weeks and protesting slogans even beat the deep blowing horns and revving engines of lumbering trucks on[Read More…]
It is said that the India is a cradle of civilization that has been following the ‘SANATANA’ Dharma that teaches the principles of Equality and Brotherhood. Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam- ‘The Entire Earth is my Family” has been the celebrated Sanskrit verse that most of the Indians have been taught in the school. “Saare Jaha se Acha, Hindostan Hamara” has been proudly[Read More…]
Indian farmers are on a 10-day long nationwide strike demanding fair prices for their produce and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations and farm loan waivers among other things. They are throwing vegetables and pouring milk on the road the farmers are letting out their grievances. The farmers are also preventing the movement of their produce to cities. This has[Read More…]
By 2050, if current policies continue, India could have numerous mega-cities with up to 30-40 million inhabitants and just two to three hundred million people (perhaps 15-20% of the population) left in an emptied-out countryside. Given current trends in the job market, it could mean tens of millions of city-based rural migrants without much work: victims of the ill thought out policies we currently see[Read More…]
The election results in Kairana bye elections comes as a welcome development. The ideological investment made into the constituency to create a myth of the Hindu exodus due to criminal Muslim activities did not pay the electoral dividends. This is despite the Modi, Adityanath and Amit Shah Combine at the helm of campaigning and all out efforts to polarise. Neither[Read More…]
The Kannada saying “murthi chikkadaadaru keerthi doddadu” (meaning that even if the physical form is diminutive, the virtue is great), applies to Lal Bahadur Shastri who, as prime minister, led India with remarkable initiative and verve in the 1965 war against Pakistan. It was he who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”, in the full understanding that the Jawan[Read More…]
After the massive protest on 1st May (Labor Day) for “equal pay for equal work” now Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) contractual staff facing new problem, if they will not collect target amount in a day from the duty they will be punished and also will give the fine. Chandra Prakash is a bus conductor, on 16 may, he just earn[Read More…]
Kairana results have signalled to the mighty that the public can wash them out in the 2019 elections. For the first time, RSS spokes person was speaking that government’s come and go but we must protect institutions. He was defending election commission but how come the Sangh Parivar now saying this. Why is Pranab Mukherjee invited. Why did the Sangh[Read More…]
India, a complex, beautiful and enchanting land, a melting pot of innumerable cultures, religions, ethnicities and traditions. India, a society deeply rooted in tolerance, compassion and forbearance. India, a land where the legends of Akbar’s justice, Shahjahan’s love, Prithvi Raj’s valor, Chanakya’s wisdom, live in every household. India, a land which gave birth to the concept of ahinsa, a land[Read More…]
The current Government came to power with the slogans of ‘Ache Din’ and ‘Sabka saath, Sabka vikas’ in which promises of better days and an inclusive model of development was promised. Lot of public relations exercises through advertisements, interviews in government favouring news channels tried to project its ‘development’ orientation. In reality, the travel made thus far shows a different[Read More…]
After Raigad, Jaitapur (Maharashtra), Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri, Gandhamardhan, Dhinkia and Khandadhar (Odisha), Nandigram, Singur (West Bengal), Dandakaranya, Raipur (Chhatishgarh), Jharkhand’s Saranda, MP’s Singrouli, Kovvada, Sompeta (Andhra Pradesh) and Koodankulam and Neduvasal (Tamil Nadu), the recent unfortunate events at the copper smelter plant of Sterlite Industries at Tuticorin bring out the basic issue back to the table. Can the state agencies and[Read More…]
The world’s investment leader, Warren Buffett, once said, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you realise who has been swimming naked”. When the banking system hit the rocks and the tide turned, the naked were caught disrobed. Similarly, sometimes it takes a pitch-black economy to reveal who and what in the financial firmament really shines. It is only[Read More…]
In what could be a bombshell in Indian journalism Cobrapost, an investigative news portal on Friday May 25 posted ‘sting’ videos to show executives of media houses discussing lucrative offers to promote communal content and criticise Opposition leaders In more than 30 videos posted Cobrapost showed virtually all major media outlets falling over each other to accept lucrative offers to[Read More…]
The mystery of the police firing in Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) has deepened with the emergence of a video in which snipers are seen shooting from atop a vehiccle at the crowd. 12 protesters died in the shooting on Tuesday ,May 22, 2018. They were on a protest march demanding the closure of Sterlite Copper, a Vedanta group copper smelter unit in[Read More…]
With the resignation of the BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister just before a trust vote Karnataka’s political cliffhanger might have ended, at least for time being, but the power and role of Governor in the formation of a government in the eventof a fractured verdict willcontinue to be debated for some time to come. The validity of the[Read More…]
This reflective piece is the second within a week. It comes out of anguish and a search for political relevance in times such as this. It also comes as a response to queries from friends overseas. Theatre of the Absurd: The 19th of May 2018 was the culmination of a Theatre of the Absurdin Karnataka, performed at the VidhanaSoudha in[Read More…]
In a recent case at Uttarakhand High Court at the end of April 2018 a person accused under the Indian Penal Code of cheating, of being party to a criminal conspiracy, of wrongfully confining a person, of receiving and detaining against his will a person as a slave, and also of rendering his services for purposes of transplantation and[Read More…]
UDALGURI,Assam ,May 21: The Adivasi community of state whose fate remains locked decades after the Britshers left them in tea gardens of state are plagued with innumerous socio-economic hardships. In the ‘labour lines’ of tea gardens, in Udalguri of Assam merriment begins as soon as the sun goes down. There is not much by way of entertainment so ‘making merry’[Read More…]
It was yet another dark day for people living on the bloody line dividing Jammu and Kashmir. On Friday, fire-spewing mortar guns that have been thunderously roaring like man eaters for past seventy years devoured ten more human beingsand wounded dozens critically- perhaps disabled for life. Four civilians including a husband and wife and a Border Security Soldier where killed[Read More…]
UDALGURI,Assam,May 20: Though the Britishers left the nation, and India attained independence, one community whose fate remained locked and unchanged decades after decades, are the Adivasi community brought for working in tea gardens of Assam.They continue to remain under the grip of deprivation, humiliation and exploitation by the tea garden companies, their authority members and even the government.Besides numerous socio-political,[Read More…]
A Muslim man accused of killing a cow was beaten to death by a mob in central India, police said Sunday, the latest vigilante murder over the animal considered sacred by Hindus. Siraj Khan, a 45-year-old tailor, was attacked in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh state early Friday and died at the scene, local police official Arvind Tiwari told[Read More…]
Today further decline of democracy in India was prevented when Mr. Yeddyurappa the BJP CM in Karnataka resigned even not facing the trust vote due to lack of sufficient support. Mr. B S Yeddyurappa was administered oath of Chief Minister ship two days back when Governor invited him to form the government rejecting the claim of JD-S and Congress which[Read More…]
Despite the spectacular strides made in economic growth and having a technological boom, India still continues to struggle to attain freedom from hunger. It is bearing witness to a triple burden of malnutrition—the coexistence of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition. According to the Economic Survey (2017-18), child and maternal malnutrition posed the most challenging health risk of our times. India[Read More…]
Sanitation is the key to proper hygiene, which is essential for a health and safety of the public. India’s record, especially when it comes to sanitation, has been abysmal so far. According to the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Report (2017), more than half of the open defecation that occurs anywhere in the world[Read More…]
Despite all the tall claims of development by authorities in India, the data from Government bodies shows that there are little, if any, improvements in tackling alarmingly high levels of malnutrition. Add to this the worrisome fact of a sharp increase in the indebtedness of households and the situation becomes even bleaker. The data from the National Family Health Survey[Read More…]
‘Why call comedians to comedy shows in TV, when these BJP leaders can put up a far better show?’ That is one of the social media trolls which have been doing the rounds about BJP leaders in Kerala whose histrionics on primetime TV news debates have spawned an avalanche of memes and trolls. Satire-happy social media users attest that[Read More…]
BJP has almost sealed victory in Karnataka state assembly election, giving a thumping beating to the Congress party. With the vitory in Karnataka the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has found a foothold in South India. Vidya Bhushan Rawat analyses the reasons for the BJP victory and what lies ahead for India As a nation these are defining moments.[Read More…]
The recently launched Ayushman Bharat, also known as the National Health Protection Scheme (or even Modicare in popular parlance!) has two objectives — first, creating a network of health and wellness centers to bring all-inclusive primary healthcare close to the community, and secondly, providing insurance cover to 40 per cent of India’s population, that is most deprived, for secondary and[Read More…]
No other fascist organization, in the present world, can beat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in demagogy, double-speak and unabashed use of conspiracies. A leading Indian English daily, in the aftermath of 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, candidly wrote that in case of the RSS, what George Orwell termed as “doublespeak” would be an understatement.[i] It stands true always in[Read More…]
Mohammad Gulzar (48), a resident of Nai Basti, Jamia Nagar, was a small time horse cart rider, until a few months ago. He earned enough to feed his family. But a rare disease to his horse Glanders affected his livelihood badly. After wandering for days in search of work, he now works as a laborer, hardly managing to garner two[Read More…]
Why are the people of so rightly called third world countries still falling in tarp of deceitful, shrewd,and criminal, politicians, sold-out, hate-mongering, unethical media houses and journalists? Common people understand, and experience, both in theory and in practice, that most of the politicians irrespective of their party affiliations are demagogues, merciless looters, potential murderers, and rapists with no real[Read More…]
Co-Wriiten by Ila Kazmi & Arpita Singh Days after a devastating fire broke out in an illegal shoe factory – which killed 4 workers among two minors- in Raj Park Sultanpuri, nothing has changed on the ground as unauthorized factories in the residential area continue to operate. One can find dilapidated buildings from where these illegal small-scale factories operate, raising questions[Read More…]
Privatisation of many sectors has become a routine affair. Construction of roads, supply of electricity, means of transportation, etc have been handed over to contractors, firms, private individuals for maintaining and development. Recently, there has been a proposal to hand over ‘ Red Fort’ to Dalmia Bharat to upkeep and improve facilities as part of ‘ Adopt a Heritage ‘[Read More…]
On coming 10 May is the 161th anniversary of 1857 – the country’s First War of Independence. 10th May 1857 is the day when the brave Indian soldiers first raised the war-cry for independence against the British regime. To secure freedom for the country by breaking the chains of slavery, on 10th May the soldiers started from Meerut, reaching Delhi[Read More…]
Recent unrest broke out at Aligarh Muslim University is nothing but the sheer display of impunity granted to right-wing vigilante groups by none other than ruling dispensation of BJP/RSS, both in the state of Uttar Pradesh and at the centre. Since the advent of this government, the activities of vigilante Hindutva outfits like Hindu Yuva Vahini and likens have been[Read More…]
Interacting with media during a tour of Lingayat and Dalit mutts in central Karnataka, Amit Shah, the national President of BJP began making allegations against the current Siddaramaiah government. “ Recently, a Supreme Court judge said if ever there was a competition for the most corrupt government, then Yeddyurappa government will get number one..” shocking Yedurappa who was seated near[Read More…]
Now that the Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has dismissed the proposal submitted by some seventy -odd Opposition legislators to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra, the debate over the issue has to be extended beyond the legalese of the arguments in which our eminent jurists had been indulging all these months, into the arena of commonsense arguments where[Read More…]
A group of over 100 journalists and other professionals related to online media today wrote to the Information & Broadcasting minister Smriti Irani to express their concerns over the ministry’s proposal to extend traditional broadcasting rules and restrictions to the Internet. The journalists include both veterans of the industry like Raghav Bahl, MK Venu, Madhu Trehan, Nalini Singh, Paranjoy Guha[Read More…]
The CAG’s reporttabled in Delhi Legislative Assembly on April 3 has thrown a volley of harsh questions at the ruling AamAdmi Party. The report has highlighted the stark corruption prevalent in the National Capital’s public distribution system (PDS). PDS has been grappling with innumerable problems including faulty Adhaar linkages and failure in verification of biometric data. The National Food[Read More…]
JOHAR TISS/ ADIVASI STUDENTS’ FORUM’S (ASF) STATEMENT TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 67th Day of STRIKE Our Struggle Continues… The results for the various M.A. programs at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for 2018-2020 batch was declared yesterday (27th April 2018), and with it the institute has made it very clear to discontinue its policy of adjusting the Hostel[Read More…]
Modi’s biggest contribution to India is teaching it to hate. It seems to be finally dawning on the people that “Modistan” is the same as “Rogistan”. As the BJP wins election after election to now rule 21 states in India, victory galas and revelry should swamp party cadres. Instead, what have the BJP and its Sangh ideologues ushered in? The[Read More…]
Potentially a game changing digital technology, the use of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin as a viable alternative to the national currencies like Dollar or Rupee, has largely been seen by countries across the world –with India being no exception- as a danger to the existing government-centralized economic system. With contention over use of crypto-currencies as a medium of exchange, Finance Minister[Read More…]
Forgetting the relationship between education and society and ignoring the required engagement between thinker theorists and innovators on one side and society on the other, the governments, legislators and people hypnotized by the neoliberal economy have came to an understanding that commericialisation/marketisation of education from first grade to PhD is the best way forward not for any appreciable societal transformations[Read More…]
Some self-styled Indian patriots settled in UK have launched a petition seeking action against those who tore the Indian national flag recently. The incident happened during protests against visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The protests were mainly organized by groups representing religious minorities in India that feel threatened under the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government[Read More…]
He had forbidden us to call him ‘Justice Sachar’. So I began to call him Sachar Saheb. Four days after his death, I sit down to write this tribute. The personality of Sachar Saheb was like a masterpiece, epic in its dimensions. A classic personality in this absurd period! In a tribute like this, written for the media, there is[Read More…]
Venkadarath Saritha, a 30-year-old contractual bus driver with Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has not taken a day off from her work from last three months – not even on Sundays. She drives a bus for eight hours daily and repercussions of not turning up on duty include a cut from her already meager salary. Saritha is among 12,000 contractual employees[Read More…]
The busting of the Hindutva racket who tried to foment communal tension in Kerala in the name of the ‘People’s Hartal’ on 16th of this month has sent shock waves through Kerala society. The hartal was called through Whatsapp groups to protest the gruesome rape and murder of the Kathua minor girl. Since the sponsors remained anonymous, no organisation claimed[Read More…]
Dr Kafeel Khan who managed to save the lives of a number of children in the last August’s Gorakhpur hopital tragedy where 63 children died within a span of five days for a lack of supply of oxygen cylinders has written a heart rending letter from jail, where he is lodged without bail for the last seven months. In the[Read More…]
The exchange of banters between the outgoing veteran Congress MP Renuka Chaudhury and India’s Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu in the Rajya Sabha, during the ceremony to bid farewell to her and other retiring MPs , has taken an ugly turn. In her farewell speech Renuka Chaudhury while addressing Naidu (who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman), in a self-deprecating humorous vein [Read More…]
A black week for our venerated democratic institutions got a tad darker on Friday. In a whirlwind 5 days we have witnessed acquittals of murder convicts, votives of militant hate and architects of massacre. With the second ever impeachment motion against a Supreme Court Judge, no less the Chief Justice himself (first ever), the country stands at a precipice, an[Read More…]
The social ferment presently being witnessed all over India and abroad, where the Indian diaspora has spread out, is the background in which Modi has set out on his latest whistle-stop tours abroad.The month of April has been very restive, with country-wide Bandh call on 2nd April by the Dalits who constitute about 17% of India’s population. This was followed[Read More…]
The recent UGC move to grant autonomous status to 62 educational institutions have been hailed in various quarters. MHRD has praised it and have equated the move to grant autonomous status to Universities with “New economic policies of 1991”. The new move has been[Read More…]
Through the title I don’t want to shed a sense of pessimism about the future of Jawaharlal Nehru University, instead my attempt is to lay bare the context which is indeed very frustrating and demotivating. Also, being in the campus from the last two year it seemed to me that somewhere down the line a crisis is also emanating from[Read More…]
People’s Tribunal on Attack on Educational Institutions was held at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, on April 11-13, 2018. The tribunal was organised by the People’s Commission on Shrinking Democratic Space in India (PCSDS). The jury panel of the tribunal comprisedJustice (Retd.) Hosbet Suresh, Justice (Retd.) B.G. Kolse Patil, Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Dr. Uma Chakravarty, Prof. T.K. Oommen,[Read More…]
The Challenge is to rise above this hatred and divisiveness and create a new narrative of courage, beauty of diverse life and love. It seems that we as a nation, in India, are experiencing a free fall to some unimaginable abyss. Every day brings news of ever more grisly, convoluted crimes planned not by some petty dirty criminals, but far[Read More…]
When hate invades the human mind, there is no limit to brutal atrocity. On April 10, a Guardian story showed a video in which there is cheering as an Israeli sniper shoots an unarmed Palestinian a considerable distance away. Shown on TV in Israel, it has been the subject of some introspective debate. Then there is news from Kashmir to[Read More…]
Even the establishment media ultimately could not underplay the Farmers’ March from Nasik to Mumbai in March 2018. And not long ago we saw the Farmers’ Strike in Maharashtra; that happened in June 2017. All the pictures those protests presented showed a queer image of Maharashtra, a state which is set to be a Trillion $ economy by 2025 [[1]][Read More…]
So, this summer as the sun blazes all over,there will be scorching political heat as well.The much awaited poll bugle in Karnataka has been blown and preparations for the showdown are on. We will be witnessing an intensely fought poll battle in the recent times.Political parties are in full swing to prepare the ground and this battle of throne[Read More…]
In the face of increasing attacks on democratic space including higher education institutions, students’ bodies, teachers and civil rights activists, a number of civil society organisations have come together to form PCSDS. This Commission is holding its first people’s tribunal on attack on educational institutions from 11th April to 13th April where over 120 testimonies of students and professors will[Read More…]
The Fifteenth Finance Commission’s (FFC) Terms of Reference (ToR) have generated a lot of criticism across a wide spectrum of thinking, especially among the South Indian states. The States which have already been affected with the winding up of the Planning Commission, as well as with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, are up in[Read More…]
Mid-day Meal Workers in Assam are up in arms against the privatisation of the mid-day meals scheme for schools in the State and demanding better pay As we went up the narrow steps to the CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Union) office in Chandmari in Guwahati, we were ushered into a room with no natural light, and could vaguely make[Read More…]
Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led regime took charge of Jawaharlal Nehru University by appointing M. Jagadesh Kumar as its new vice-chancellor, it has demonized this prestigious university as a “den of anti-nationals”. Other Hindutva blows included attempts to dismantle its secular and progressive character, accelerate the already ongoing privatization and scuttle the already shrinking democratic and dissenting spaces. Moreover,[Read More…]
It was with a combination of dismay, delight and amusement that I watched the following two minute spoof because in an offhand way, it reminded of my own government’s lies (and for which many naive voters fall every time that there is going to be a new election for particular government offices). After watching the spoof, I imagined my own[Read More…]
Students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai have demonstrated an unprecedented protest in the history of their institute campuses at Mumbai, Guwahati, Tuljapur and Hyderabad. TISS is a deemed to be university as per University Act 1954 (3 of 1956) No. F,1122/62U2 fully funded by University Grants Commission (UGC) /Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India[Read More…]
Protests that swept north India have cost five lives today as Dalit groups tried to enforce an all-India shutdown over a Supreme Court order. In Madhya Pradesh, four people died during clashes and a man was killed in firing in Rajasthan’s Alwat. Violence was also reported from parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Punjab came to a standstill[Read More…]
In recent days, South Indian leaders including Karnataka CM, K Siddaramiah and Andhra Pradesh CM, Chandrababu Naidu (others include DMK working president MK Stalin, Jana Sena Leader Pawan Kalyan) have spoken in one voice against the 15th Finance Commission — arguing that it is unfair to South Indian states. The bone of contention is a directive, in the terms of reference, given to the Finance[Read More…]
The present Indian state is treating JNU as an occupied territory. State-sponsored violence and molestation against the students call for a #metoo moment against the state. Co-Written by Amrita Datta and Arani Basu A piece of land with people – young and old, vibrant, thinking beings. Police posts in and around the land. Random police raids of homes of these[Read More…]
Co-Written by Amit Kumar & Skand Priya Ever since the MHRD made its intentions clear to grant autonomous status to institutions of higher education as a result of which 60 institutions have already been granted autonomy including 5 central universities and 21 state universities, teachers’ movement at University of Delhi has become extremely charged and committed in its fight to[Read More…]
(Even though digitisation of various services has helped a lot yet it has adversely affected personal privacy) The Facebook/Analytica scam has shaken the digital world. There are allegations about the use of personal data during last US elections. According to the expose the information about people is being collected, stored and processed to produce psychographic profiles that can judge peoples’[Read More…]
“In general, the rural moneylender as a species has proved surprisingly resilient, even in countries such as India and Indonesia where it has been a declared objective of state intervention in financial markets to suppress him.” — Hulme and Mosley, Finance Against Poverty A sense of deep despair runs through the lives of farmers in India. They have lost[Read More…]
Fake news is a sort of propaganda intended to mislead the audience; a kind of yellow journalism. Propaganda or fake news is not a new thing in the digital age. Power struggle between Octavian and Anthony wasaccompanied with the propaganda; Maulavi Muhammad Baqar was martyred for his spirited struggle against the British propaganda. Even, peeping in tothe religious echelons, we[Read More…]
When it comes to plundering of public spaces for the benefit the builder lobby, there is not much to choose in Mahrashtra between the Shiv Sena-BJP combine or the Congress parties. In the year 2005 during the Congress rule, Ganesh Naik, environment and forest minister, openly talked of the need to sell public spaces. That these were very scarce in[Read More…]
Muslims are second largest religious community after Hindus in India,accounting about fifteen percent of the total population. As a Muslim community they are second only to Indonesia. They are present in every region of India, in thestate of Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Asam and in Kerala they are substantial in number. But when viewed as per representation in different[Read More…]
The students of the public school systems in India are lagging massively behind in terms of learning outcomes according to the National Achievement Survey (NAS), conducted by National Council for Education and Research (NCERT). The numbers are especially stark in Mathematics with national averages of 64%, 54% and 42% at Class 3rd, 5th and 8th levels according to an Indian[Read More…]
Data is being acquired without much thought as to its security or end-use. Take for instance, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) collecting the names, mobile numbers and e-mail IDs of 1.3 million young boys and girls so that the PM can interact with them via the Narendra Modi App. [“For chat with PM Modi, NCC collects mobile, email IDs of[Read More…]
The country’s largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), has closed as many as 41.16 lakh savings accounts between April-January in the current fiscal year for not maintaining the minimum balance, reveals an RTI query. Between April and November 2017, the bank had netted a windfall of Rs 1,771.67 crore, more than its second-quarter profit, from customers for non-maintenance[Read More…]
Police brutally attacked a peaceful march dubbed as “Long March” organised by JNU Teachers’ Association and the JNU Students’ Union near INA market New Delhi yesterday. Many students were injured. The police detained 23 students. The protest was organised against various issues inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) including privatisation of education, scuttling of reservation and demanding suspension of Professor[Read More…]
This 23rd March (2018) is the 86th anniversary of the martyrdom of three great revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. They were hanged for the crime to overthrow the alien British rule in India. The colonial rulers like elsewhere thought that with the physical elimination of these freedom fighters their ideas and dreams of a democratic-secular and egalitarian independent India[Read More…]
The martyrdom of Bhagat Sing, Rajguru and Sukhdev on March 23, 1931is great milestone in the glorious history of India’s freedom struggle against the colonial rule. These contemporary documents show how Periyar, Dr. Ambedkar and even Jinnah supported the struggle of these revolutionaries. It is to be noted that the Hindutva gang ruling India today which claims to be the[Read More…]
The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a right wing Hindu nationalist political party in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, released a Hindu New Year calendar which says that Taj Mahal along with several mosques and monuments from the Mughal era, are “Hindu Temples,” Times of India reported Monday (March 19). The calendar refers to Taj Mahal as “Tejo[Read More…]
Elections are the festival of democracies and the same holds true for India, the world’s largest democracy. Indians, after achieving independence from the British colonialism, have been exercising their voting rights to choose their representatives through the means of elections, held at regular intervals. The period of emergency from 1975 to 1977 being the only exception to this much-extolled fact[Read More…]
Ensuring Citizen Safety through Law Enforcement and thereby ending Everyday Violence is a Prerequisite to End Poverty in India Violence in society at macro level is manifested in multiple forms such as genocide, wars, ethnic cleansing, attacks prompted by religious bigotry, and heinous acts of terrorism.Some thinkers include state led violence against civil resistance also in this category. Such[Read More…]
Second of three interviews from the cradle of the revolutionary uprising Aneek, an independent, radical Baanglaa monthly from Kolkata, India, in its 53rd years of publication, interviewed three leaders of the Naxalbari Uprising. The leaders with working class background were organizing armed struggle of the poor-landless peasantry in the Naxalbari region since the earliest days of the revolutionary initiative. Following[Read More…]
Memorandum submitted to union commerce minister and agriculture minister To Shri. Suresh Prabhu Honorable Minister for Commerce and Industry Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi 11017, India Sir, Sub : An appeal to take forward the WTO negotiations on fisheries This is in relation to multi-ministerial meeting in New Delhi on the 19th and 20th of March, 2018 by the Ministry of[Read More…]
In 1919 Charles Ponzi, a clerk in Boston, suckered Americans with a scheme that is now identified with his name. At a time when interest rates stood at 5 percent, Ponzi offered investors a 50 percent return in just 45 days. The pitch was to buy postal coupons—used for buying foreign stamps, in a particular country, and then capitalize[Read More…]
99 Smart Cities, and an investment of Rs. 1,91,155 of which 80% funds are being spent on a mere 9% population of a city in the Area BAsed Development component of the project. Housing for all by 2022 of which foundation lies in concept of slum free city. Is this how we are heading towards an inclusive, participative and[Read More…]
Delhi (15 March): Today people from 14 states testified about their situation of hunger and unemployment in a national public hearing at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, organised by the Right to Food Campaign. These testimonies were heard by a panel comprising of activists, journalists, lawyers, legislators, scholars and trade union leaders. Denial of ration to eligible households The hearing began[Read More…]
The day before the 90th Academy Awards, a friend from the academia called me with a suggestion. He was adamant. “You know that the Churchill Movie will win some awards and you should have an article ready to publish before the announcement,” he admonished. I agreed but failed to produce it in time. Strangely enough, I wrote a lot in[Read More…]
Does a career in the Indian civil service mean a life of ‘public service’? It is a puzzling question given the sloth and the thickets of red-tapism that have eroded the bureaucracy. Moreover, the way events have been unfolding, most will tend to agree that all it means is a lifetime of serving the most despicable lot of politicians[Read More…]
The spectacular red flag , disciplined march of farmers spearheaded by the kisan wing of the Communist party of India (M), and other Left organizations in Maharashtra has galvanized public opinion. The week-long march which reached Mumbai on March 12 is a great morale booster for the Left. The images of sore feet of women and men trudging nearly 180[Read More…]
A farmers’ march in India has triumphed, for now. Countercurrents (Countercurrents.org), an e-journal from southern India, headlines on March 12, 2018: “Historic Victory for Farmers of Maharashtra”. The victory is in Mumbai, India’s financial-heart, hundreds of kilometers west of Tripura, an industrially less-developed state, where, only days ago, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) experienced massive rightist assault, and, rightists,[Read More…]
We, the Adivasi Students at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai strongly reject the Plan of Action for GoI-PMS students (dated – 3rd March 2018) and (dated – 10th March 2018). According to the proposal under Section IV: Admission for the academic year 2018-2019 of (1) ST/SC Students eligible for GoI-PMS for Masters Programme – the eligible SC/ST students have[Read More…]
New Delhi / Mumbai March 12: Seven days after the Kisan Long March of 50,000 small and marginal farmers have finally resulted in a positive outcome with Maharashtra government accepting all the demands raised by All India Kisan Sabha. National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) congratulates the struggle of the farmers and adivasis and hopes that the Fadnavis government will[Read More…]
The farmers in Maharashtra won a historic victory after 50,000 farmers threatened to siege the state assembly. The Devendra Fadnavis government of Maharashtra has agreed to the demands of protesting farmers. A committee has been set up, which will consider all aspects of their demands, which includes loan waiver, free electricity and a higher price for their produce.The government has[Read More…]
A new chief minister has sworn in Tripura. Obviously, BJP also played the same politics by selecting the Bengali immigrant as chief minister of the state as the CPM has been doing. In the din of despicable and condemnable attack on Lenin’s statue, the larger issues that these results have thrown have been ignored deliberately. Normally, the elections in the[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…]
A historic ralley of over 35,000 farmers which started from Nashik district will surround the Maharashtra Assembly tomorrow demanding loan waivers and other just demands. They walked about 180 km over the last five days. They entered Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra today and are camping at KJ Somaiya Ground in Sion. The farmer contingent, including tribal cultivators, led by[Read More…]
Do not provoke them to another Muthanga; Do not commit them as cannon fodder to the Maoists. In the light of the cries of agony from the tribal hamlets of Kerala, the last instance of which is the brutal murder of Madhu, the hungry forest dweller of Attappadi, in the Palaghat district of Kerala that has shocked mainstream sensibilities, civil[Read More…]
As the vandalisation of the statues of the Great Indian leaders continue the integration of the soul of India is under threat. PM has strongly condemned and warned against such low acts and all true Indians fail to understand why is this happening?. This is really un understandable that Indian society has still not learnt to respect its leaders; whatsoever[Read More…]
How Billionaires Celebrate Naxalbari@50(And some other sides of the Half Truth they showed) A bare bodied mason, whose name was given as some Murmu, stood outside Kanu Sanyal’s home, “a single room hut thatched with corrugated tin… in a dilapidated condition… portion of the roof has cracked; sun-rays light up the room where his books, notepads and clothes lay in[Read More…]
India produces enough food to meet the needs of its entire population yet, it is unable to feed millions of them, especially women and children. India ranks 100th among 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017, where it has consistently ranked poorly. Despite the fact that every twelfth Indian has to sleep on an empty stomach, the[Read More…]
The reprehensible acts by the Tripura Hindutva goons of razing statues of Lenin who led the greatest October Socialist Revolution in 1917 and was the only head of a state (USSR) who supported the Indian freedom struggle, should not surprise anybody. Large number of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Chandershekhar Azad, Ashfaqullah adopted socialism as their creed and died[Read More…]
This beats even Hema Malini’s absurd observation in the wake of the fire in the Kamala mill compound in Mumbai last December in which 14 people mainly from affluent families were killed. She blamed it on the influx of people from outside for the city’s problems. That was bad enough for a BJP MP and popular film actor. But at[Read More…]
The saffron forces find their foothold in North-eastern states in recent elections to Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. This new found sense of power pushes them towards acts of vandalism of statues. It starts with Lenin in Tripura. This is later followed by Periyar Rama Swamy in Tamilnadu and Ambedkar in Uttar Pradesh. There can be no doubt that ideological differences[Read More…]
The right wing Sangh Parivar elements are on a statue destroying spree in India. Just hours after Lenin’s statue was toppled in Tripura after BJP’s historic victory there, statue of Dravidian icon and social reformer EVR Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar was vandalised in Tamil Nadu. The vandalisation came after a top BJP national secretary H Raja posted on Facebook[Read More…]
Tripura, an eastern-India state, is experiencing post-election violence, which is completely a rightist onslaught on its opposition political activists, the progressives. The onslaught has not spared a statue, a statue of Lenin; and thus it has confirmed the onslaught’s political character: extreme rightist; and extreme right is extreme anti-working classes; and working classes are the biggest segment of people. Thus,[Read More…]
Tripura elections results have come and the obituaries of left in general and the CPI (M) in particular are being written. BJP, in alliance with a secessionist outfit IPFT is going to form the next government in the state. BJP has, apart from other factors, utilized massive deployment of money and other resources to influence the elections. The BJP[Read More…]
Lynching of Madhu in Attappadi shocked the conscience of Indian society. #ApologyMadhu hashtags went viral on social media. We have to go beyond hashtags and look for the real reasons why Madhu was murdered for allegedly stealing some rice and chilly powder. It is two decades since the Aadivaasi in Kerala lost his right to self-rule. It is time to[Read More…]
The BJP and its ally – the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) – have won the 2018 elections to the Tripura state legislature. The alliance of the BJP and the IPFT will now form a government. The Left It is the first time in twenty-five years that Tripura, a state of four million people in India’s northeast, will be[Read More…]
A popular adage claims that the history of the world would have taken a different discourse had it been penned down by women, tribals, blacks and the colonised. Over a period of time after plethora of initiatives and struggle by various academicians, activists and the interested section of the society, there has been a substantial space created, though inviting ire[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar Society, SOAS, condemns the casteist onslaught on Dalit, Adivasi and OBC students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) campuses across India by denying them access to Post Matric Scholarship. We stand in solidarity with TISS students who have been resisting this systematic stripping of their rights since last year. The protest has intensified in the last[Read More…]
The world’s great philanthropist and investment leader, Warren Buffett, once said, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you realise who has been swimming naked”. Well, it’s the ebb of the tide for many of India’s high-flying crony capitalists like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as they find themselves caught in an ignominious buff. Their diamonds may have sparkled[Read More…]
Since February 21, 2018 students at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India (TISS) have been striking against the changes in the Government of India–Post Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS), which leads to the withdrawal of scholarship of students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Despite regular threats by the TISS administration, students belonging to different[Read More…]
Trafficking[1] of humans for the purpose of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation is an organized crime. Currently, India does not have a comprehensive and strong anti-human-trafficking law. As a result, the Indian police sometimes depends onImmoral Traffic Prevention Act, sometimes Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and some other times a few existing labor lawsto deal with the[Read More…]
India is home to one-fifth of the world’s population which includes a third of the world’s poor and one-eighth of the world’s elderly. Several million of them who spend their whole lives as informal workers have no retirement security other than the hope that their children will care for them in their old age. This arrangement worked well as[Read More…]
The Aligarh Muslim University’s administration is busy preparing the ground to grandly welcome the President of India Shri Ramnath Kovind as the Chief Guest of the 65th convocation of the university to be held on 7th March. AMU will be dressed in a bridal gown and tiny lights all over the corner will add charm. The University Road which[Read More…]
Today in Delhi there was a demonstration call given by BAPSA at Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in support of TISS Students. While the protesting students were detained at Parliament Street Police Station for no reason as such (some were injured, roughed up), but thankfully the police incharge at the end allowed (and helped) us to meet the ministry.[Read More…]
To The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Government of India Shastri Bhawan, C-Wing, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road New Delhi – 110 011 February 28, 2018 REGARDING DEMANDS OF STUDENTS OF TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Dear Madam/Sir, We, the students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences writing this to seek your urgent attention to the protests going on since[Read More…]
One can understand the BJP suppressing the involvement of its drunken leader in the killing of nine school children and injuring 20 other children in broad daylight in Bihar last week. But why did a large section of the media join in suppressing the news while it gave saturation coverage to the death of film star Sridevi ?. We are[Read More…]
A Solidarity Statement signed by more than 150 persons including activists, academicians, TISS-alumni, scholars, intellectuals, journalist, writers, teachers, lawyers, artists, filmmakers, students, researchers, professionals and others concerned citizens has supported the students movements and their rightful demands in all the four campuses of TISS. Radhika Vemula, the mother of former Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohith Vemula – who was institutionally[Read More…]
When I joined Tata Institute of Social Sciences (hereon TISS) in 2014 to pursue Masters in Development Policy, Planning and Practice from its Tuljapur campus, one thing which struck me was the considerable number of students coming from lower class and caste background or from other marginalized communities unlike many other ‘elite’ social sciences Institutions in India. As I hailed[Read More…]
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) state government of Yogi Adityanath continued allowing police encounters since BJP came to power in the state in March 2017, Caravan News of India reported Monday (Feb. 26, 2018). In 10 months of its regime, the state police conducted 1038 encounters killing 32 alleged criminals, and the Yogi government has officially boasted of these killings.[Read More…]
Pity the rich, wrote American popular comedian Will Durst recently in a satirical vein. They face too many problems. No body robs the poor but the rich are always afraid of robbers. But actually the rich rob the poor. He then went on to refer to the rich as open cancer sores on the face of society. One was reminded[Read More…]
Microfinance continues to thrive despite being under fire from legions of critics. One plausible reason for the lingering faith in the power of microfinance is that it provides a convenient strategy for investors to demonstrate that they are active fighters against poverty and are trying to save the poor while making a substantial amount of money from them. It is built[Read More…]
Amid cacophonies of blowing horns and revving engines of lumbering trucks on the national highways 37 and 31 and the deafening whistles of diesel locomotives across the state, one could easily hear the hues and cries of the most Bengali speaking people in Assam.For them the new year began with utter suspense as millions of Assamese woke up to a[Read More…]
If the representative you vote for is on the basis of his or her financial strength, then do not worry. You deserve a corrupt government – a government which will loot all your rights. Many honest and sincere candidates have been elected in this country in the past history. However, there is a drastic decline in the ratio of[Read More…]
It has been three days the students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and its various campuses located in different parts of the country are boycotting their classes as part of a larger protest. In Hyderabad, one of the off-centres of TISS, I have been witnessing this as the culmination of accumulated anger and frustration of the students.[Read More…]
0. Preface: Main thrust of this paper lies in justification of Proportional Representation (PR) for all segments of the society at all levels in all spheres of power on the basis of definition of democracy. In the political arena this (PR) can be achieved with the help of list-Proportional-Representation (list-PR) system of election. Initially the suggested changes will need to[Read More…]
Otherwise, it seems improbable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi known for his penchant for photogenic tele-shoots with visiting foreign dignitaries should miss the opportunity offered by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a week-long visit to India from February 17 (2018). On his first visit to India, Mr Trudeau was received in the country by a junior agriculture minister.[Read More…]
Heartiest Congratulations to the Govt of India. They have allowed the second billionaire who has done the biggest fraud of India to leave the country. Where are those who are charged with the responsibility of keeping an eye on the financial institutions in the country, like the revenue intelligence wings in Banks, RBI, ED and others? Why the Government[Read More…]
[This article is in response to the essay, ‘Don’t Foist Fear Onto Nationalism’, by C.K Saji Narayan published in Outlook’s Republic Day special issue.] The ideologues of the RSS clan are working overtime to create a narrative of latter’s participation in India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle. This project got impetus after the electoral victory in 2014 of RSS/BJP which was celebrated[Read More…]