Tag: current affairs – India

Jadavpur University ragging row: A failure to safeguard higher education institutions

Despite official campaigns against the practice, ragging has never been an issue in campus politics. Far less does it figure in the larger political arena, where ideological debates are similarly oblivious to gender discrimination, hate crimes, all generated by the same psychopathology of violence linked to the exercise of power Supriya Chaudhuri On the night… Read More Jadavpur University ragging row: A failure to safeguard higher education institutions

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Manipur to Mewat: Empowering the mob, disempowering the State

The shift in nomenclature from Amrit Kaal to Kartavya Kaal has been marked by a complete dereliction of duty by the country’s top political leadership Sushant Singh From Manipur to Mewat, Narendra Modi’s new India doesn’t portray a pretty picture. It is a holy mess. The shift in nomenclature from Amrit Kaal (auspicious period) to… Read More Manipur to Mewat: Empowering the mob, disempowering the State

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Ahead of the 2024 Elections, the BJP-RSS Is Setting the Ideological Stage

Anand K. Sahay To understand the direction in which the country is being propelled by the powers that be, we should consider the recent no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha (August 8-10, 2023) not in isolation, but in the context of the happenings of the past fortnight or so, and a likely scenario for… Read More Ahead of the 2024 Elections, the BJP-RSS Is Setting the Ideological Stage

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NRI Businessman Seeded Idea of Corporatising Agriculture

http://www.reporters-collective.in Picture this: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during an election rally in the remote corner of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, speaks about his dream of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. A BJP-friendly NRI businessman sitting in the US with no background in farming or agriculture has a brain wave. He writes a letter with a… Read More NRI Businessman Seeded Idea of Corporatising Agriculture

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Vilification of Assam Rifles is a calculated move for revenge

The connivance of the state and Union government in letting the violence spiral out of control and not adequately utilising the available instruments of the central government, especially the Army and the Assam Rifles, seems deliberate, irresponsible and extremely dangerous in terms of national security.  LT GENERAL PRAKASH MENON The Assam Rifles is a central paramilitary force… Read More Vilification of Assam Rifles is a calculated move for revenge

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As our 76th Independence Day approaches, revisiting ‘Indian Ideas of Freedom’

Ramachandra Guha In his landmark book, Dennis Dalton had originally examined the approaches of Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Gandhi, and Tagore. In the early 1980s, while a doctoral student in Calcutta, I read a brilliant essay by the American scholar, Dennis Dalton, on the evolution of Gandhi’s views on caste. This was published in an edited volume… Read More As our 76th Independence Day approaches, revisiting ‘Indian Ideas of Freedom’

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What the 2023 Monsoon Session of Parliament Tells Us About the State of Governance

Deepanshu Mohan Waves of parliamentary theatrics define the disjointed operative functionalities of Indian democracy.  For watchers and observers of session proceedings, repetitive adjournments, an ecosystem of chaos, protests in and outside the chambers of the house, bias and favouritism among House speakers against opposition party parliamentarians have all become a part of an unusual norm.… Read More What the 2023 Monsoon Session of Parliament Tells Us About the State of Governance

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Kautilya’s observations on the causes of discontent in a polity

Impoverishment, greed, and disaffection, he says, are engendered when the king: 1/ ignores the good [people] and favours the wicked; 2/ causes harm by new unrighteous practices; 3/ neglects the observation of the proper and righteous practices; 4/ suppresses dharma and propagates adharma; 5/ does what ought not to be done and fails to do… Read More Kautilya’s observations on the causes of discontent in a polity

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