'The law related to Agricultural Produce marketing is a death warrant' / P Sainath: Farm Bills Will Create a Vacuum That May Result in Utter Chaos

“When protestors block a road or damage it, they are branded as criminals. What if governments do the same? Are they not what they call us?” asks 70-year-old Harinder Singh Lakha, a farmer from Mehna village in Punjab’s Moga district.  Lakha is referring to the 10-feet trenches dug in the roads by the authorities to… Read More 'The law related to Agricultural Produce marketing is a death warrant' / P Sainath: Farm Bills Will Create a Vacuum That May Result in Utter Chaos

Dilip

Mukul Kesavan – Right not rabid: Respectable conservatism in the time of Trump

In these majoritarian times, some conservative pundits, embarrassed by the feral Right and keen to seem ideologically respectable, have found an all-purpose rhetorical manoeuvre which goes like this. Progressives are to blame for the enthronement of racist, communalist and majoritarian political parties because it is the left’s ‘wokeness’, its elitist disdain for the anxieties of… Read More Mukul Kesavan – Right not rabid: Respectable conservatism in the time of Trump

Dilip

Owen Bowcott: International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction

International lawyers are drafting plans for a legally-enforceable crime of ecocide – criminalising destruction of the world’s ecosystems – that is already attracting support from European countries and island nations at risk from rising sea levels. The panel coordinating the initiative is chaired by Prof Philippe Sands QC, of University College London, and Florence Mumba, a… Read More Owen Bowcott: International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction

Dilip

Book review: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi

In and around the dark recesses of the ruins of a fourteenth-century palace in Delhi, Anand Vivek Taneja finds a counterculture to the demands of today’s India. In Taneja’s view, this world of jinn veneration is more inclusive and less judgmental than the outside world and hearkens back to a fast slipping past, with elements… Read More Book review: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi

Dilip

Bharat Bhushan: Short of answers or assurances; Govt unable to handle farmer protests

NB: The RSS-led Modi Government is politically bankrupt. It has only one mental fixation: communal hatred, which is why it is now raising the bogey of Khalistan, clubbing it together with the charge of Congress-led conspiracy. (Has it forgotten than Indira Gandhi’s assassins were inspired by Khalistani ideology?). This government has only one method of… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Short of answers or assurances; Govt unable to handle farmer protests

Dilip

Silvia Marchetti – South Tyrol identity crisis: to live in Italy, but feel Austrian

They’re Italian citizens but simply don’t feel Italian. Bolzano’s local authorities estimate that German is spoken by 75% of the 510,000 inhabitants of the Alto Adige region. Locals, however, call it by its original name – South Tyrol – and many wish it were independent. Eva Klotz is a co-founder of the separatist party Süd-Tiroler Freiheit (South… Read More Silvia Marchetti – South Tyrol identity crisis: to live in Italy, but feel Austrian

Dilip

JUAN COLE: Was the assassination of a nuclear scientist a bid to kill a Biden return to Iran nuclear Deal?

Likely, the operation, whether by Israel or Saudi Arabia or both, was intended to spike tensions in US-Iranian relations so as to make it more difficult for Joe Biden to start back up the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Israel does not acknowledge its covert operations, but it seems the… Read More JUAN COLE: Was the assassination of a nuclear scientist a bid to kill a Biden return to Iran nuclear Deal?

Dilip

Robert B Reich : Beware going 'back to normal' thoughts – normal gave us Trump

Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised on Thursday in a Thanksgiving address to the nation. He was talking about life after Covid-19, but you could be forgiven if you thought he was also making a promise about life after Trump. It is almost impossible to separate the two. To the extent voters gave… Read More Robert B Reich : Beware going 'back to normal' thoughts – normal gave us Trump

Dilip

SHEKHAR GUPTA: Shambles over farmers’ protest shows Modi-Shah BJP needs a Punjab tutorial

How well does the BJP understand the politics of Punjab? The answer will be, I am afraid, very poorly. Definitely the Modi-Shah BJP does not understand Punjab, Punjabis, their politics, or even more specifically, the Sikhs. Or, they wouldn’t have dug themselves into such a hole (pun intended) over their handling of the Punjab farmers’… Read More SHEKHAR GUPTA: Shambles over farmers’ protest shows Modi-Shah BJP needs a Punjab tutorial

Dilip