Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

Subir Sinha: COVID has blurred the lines between waged, coerced and trafficked labour in India

Numerous news outlets and activist groups in India have reported an increase in trafficking, bonded labour, and slave-like working conditions in the past weeks. The two main stories were the rescue of young boys from a basement bangle factory in Rajasthan and Gujarat and the rescue of young girls from sex work and domestic servitude. Instead of seeing increases in trafficked… Read More Subir Sinha: COVID has blurred the lines between waged, coerced and trafficked labour in India

Dilip

Timothy Garton Ash: The future of liberalism

in many relatively free countries we have something close to a corporate-plutocratic-oligarchic stranglehold on the state. This needs to be broken, by democratic means, or else the electoral procedures of democracy will continue to be exploited to subvert liberalism, as populists (sometimes themselves plutocrats) stir up unhappy majorities..    Faced with creeping authoritarianism, liberals need… Read More Timothy Garton Ash: The future of liberalism

Dilip

Bharat Bhushan: The Kashmir valley has rejected PM Narendra Modi's 'Gram Swaraj'

Prime Minister Modi has described the just completed third tier local body elections to the District Development Councils (DDCs) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) as realisation of Mahatama Gandhi’s vision of “Gram Swaraj”. However, they are hardly likely to satisfy local Kashmiri aspirations for the restoration of basic democratic freedoms or dampen international criticism. The DDC’s governance mandate is… Read More Bharat Bhushan: The Kashmir valley has rejected PM Narendra Modi's 'Gram Swaraj'

Dilip

Watch/hear stinging denunciation of Modi regime and its sabotage of justice at Kisan protest

Watch Bhanu Pratap Singh‘s stinging denunciation of Modi regime and its sabotage of justice at Kisan protest.  Bhanu Pratap is an Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8-Wro34hKk Indian Farmers’ Protest – Work in progress videos Amit Bhaduri: Faces in mirror held up by farmers’ protest   Discussion on Indian Agriculture and the ongoing Kisan agitation… Read More Watch/hear stinging denunciation of Modi regime and its sabotage of justice at Kisan protest

Dilip

Avani Bansal: Raid on Mehmood Pracha’s Office: India’s Hans Litten Moment?

The Indian legal community seems to have witnessed its own ‘Hans Litten’ moment as Advocate Mehmood Pracha’s office was raided by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police this week. Hitler hated lawyers, but one lawyer whose name couldn’t even be mentioned in Hitler’s presence was that of Hans Achim Litten. He opposed the Nazis at… Read More Avani Bansal: Raid on Mehmood Pracha’s Office: India’s Hans Litten Moment?

Dilip

Chinese journalist who documented Wuhan coronavirus outbreak jailed for 4 years

An independent Chinese journalist who reported from Wuhan at the height of the initial coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years by a Shanghai court, her lawyer said Monday. Zhang Zhan, 37, was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to one of her defense lawyers Zhang Keke, who attended her hearing. The… Read More Chinese journalist who documented Wuhan coronavirus outbreak jailed for 4 years

Dilip

Austin Ratner & Nisarg Gandhi: Psychoanalysis in combatting mass non-adherence to medical advice

The USA’s failure to contain COVID-19 has been spectacular from every angle. Looked at as a case of mass non-adherence to medical advice, however, it’s unique in modern history. Never before have so many citizens had so much access to information and simultaneously protested public health recommendations with such full-throated denial of the medical facts.… Read More Austin Ratner & Nisarg Gandhi: Psychoanalysis in combatting mass non-adherence to medical advice

Dilip

Police raid on Delhi riots advocate raises alarm bells among lawyers

On Thursday, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell raided the office of Mehmood Pracha, a lawyer representing several people who are accused in the February Delhi riots. The raid, which lasted for 15 hours, relates to alleged cases of fraud. This includes allegations that Pracha had forged signatures on a notarised document as well as instigated… Read More Police raid on Delhi riots advocate raises alarm bells among lawyers

Dilip

Karima Baloch’s death leaves more questions than answers. By NAILA INAYAT

Hailing from the restive province of Balochistan and being a vocal critic of the Pakistani State on the issue of forced disappearances, Karima Mehrab had for long received threats and intimidation in Pakistan. She was forced to leave Pakistan but continued to receive threats on her life in Canada. Her uncle was killed, her home was… Read More Karima Baloch’s death leaves more questions than answers. By NAILA INAYAT

Dilip