Civil servants cannot pledge to defend our Constitution and secular democracy and at the same time owe allegiance to an organisation that stands for Hindu Rashtra Constitutional Conduct Group We, former civil servants and members of the Constitutional Conduct Group, write to express our profound concern about the implications for secular democracy of the recent… Read More A violation of the Constitution
The scale of the silicosis crisis in India is staggering. A report by the Indian Council of Medical Research in 1999 estimated that, apart from 5.4 million construction workers, 3 million workers in other industries were at high risk of silica exposure. These figures are already over two decades old, but exact current estimates are… Read More Choking to Death
Ajoy Bose The BJP appears to have dug itself into a hole ahead of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. The ruling party’s plans of manipulating to its advantage the fractured political scenario both in the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu region are rapidly getting unstuck. This may end up in either handing the upper… Read More BJP’s Calculations to Get Democratic Legitimacy in J&K Are Falling Apart
The delegates invited, the agenda unveiled… indicate China’s efforts to convert Tibet (renamed recently as Xizang) into the fulcrum of sub-regional initiatives as well as to expand China’s influence… over a period of time, 7.5 million Han Chinese have come into Tibet, drastically altering the demographics of the region and making Tibetans a minority in… Read More China-Xizang Himalayan Forum: The cynical ‘sinicisation’ of Tibet
Sai Mukhesh The disinterestedly wise ought to desire the holding together of all being — Bhagavad Gita, Verse 3.25 Normal men do not know that everything is possible — David Rousset Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present — Albert Camus The liberal democratic apparatus has been imploding, and the… Read More Austerity and Managed Democracy
DOCUMENTS: BOOKS: IMAGE & SOUND: Editor’s Picks: o o Books of Note: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The brutal rape-murder of a junior doctor at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital has an inescapable geography Saikat Majumdar The brutality of rape and murder elicits a reaction that is not only ethical and political in nature. It also evokes a response that is deeply aesthetic. By aesthetic I mean that visceral reaction to… Read More Beyond the Kolkata Rape And Murder, a history of medical corruption In West Bengal
It is a fact that Modi has no experience in running a coalition government or even consulting with NDA allies. Bharat Bhushan The retreat on lateral entry to the central bureaucracy continues the new trend of U-turns by the Narendra Modi government. This is the fourth setback for the Modi government: it had to backtrack on its… Read More What explains Modi’s recent U-turns?
“Instead of maintaining an uneasy alliance with the Trinamul Congress, and remaining silent about her misdeeds, the INDIA block should dump her and come out in open confrontation with her by leading a mass movement against her… My special appeal to my friend, MP Jawahar Sirkar and the women MPs Mohua Moitra and Sagarika Ghosh… Read More Bengal’s Godmother of ruffians and racketeers
Victim’s Lawyer in #RGKarCollege case in HC: “10 years from now the accused will be acquitted. WB Police Commissioner was the CID IG when Kamduni rape & murder took place. It was his botching up on the case that Accused were ACQUITTED. He has done same gimmick to cover up this. They wanted 7 days… Read More Shocked & Speechless. Big allegations on Kolkata Police Commissioner. Victim’s Lawyer in R.G. Kar case in HC / Kolkata: The Double Rape: Dr. Kunal Sarkar
After the truth-shower 