Leaflet by leaflet, a few aging activists fight India’s tide of bigotry

To respect God and to pretend to do that for votes are two different things: Vipin Kumar Tripathi Sameer Yasir One recent morning, Roop Rekha Verma, an 80-year-old peace activist and former university leader, walked through a north Indian neighborhood prone to sectarian strife and parked herself near a tea shop. From her sling bag,… Read More Leaflet by leaflet, a few aging activists fight India’s tide of bigotry

Significance of Modi’s meditation at Kanyakumari

Narendra Modi deliberately combines Hindu rituals in his public persona for the political purpose of appealing to the Hindu masses. Bharat Bhushan Opposition parties have objected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to meditate at Dhyan Mandapam at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, and have approached the Election Commission of India to ban any telecast of… Read More Significance of Modi’s meditation at Kanyakumari

US Supreme Court is Driven by Christian Theocracy

Millions of Evangelicals have “anointed” Trump as their modern day King Cyrus, despite his deeply UN-Christian lifestyle. Why? Because he promised them to end legal access to abortion in the US, which is all they care about as a fast-track toward Christian theocracy in the US… Six of the nine SCOTUS justices are devout, ideological Catholics,… Read More US Supreme Court is Driven by Christian Theocracy

What is behind Modi’s campaign doublespeak?

Narendra Modi’s communally provocative statements are important in spreading an anti-Muslim animus among the electorate, especially among Dalits whom the BJP fears might vote along with the minorities against the BJP Bharat Bhushan In his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a reporter “the day I do Hindu-Muslim, I will be unworthy of… Read More What is behind Modi’s campaign doublespeak?

Election memories

My voting life began in a republic deformed by the Emergency and Mrs Gandhi’s experiments in communalism. Her party’s complicity in the pogrom of Sikhs created precedents that changed the republic forever Mukul Kesavan I’ve lived continuously in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency for the last sixty years. My parents were employed by the government… Read More Election memories

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging

NB: The Iranian regime is a tyrannical theocracy, which permits no criticism, no deviation from so-called divinely sanctioned modes of behaviour. To punish people with flogging and imprisonment for speaking truth about corruption is itself a criminal act. It should never be forgotten that the regime’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa for the execution… Read More Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging