The Modi government’s insecurity is evident in its attempt to decode decades of protest as potential subversion. Those who used to accuse public protestors of using a ‘tool-kit’ now clearly want to develop a tool-kit of their own — an alternative official playbook, to deal with all future protests. Meanwhile Niti Aayog declines to furnish information about… Read More Policing Dissent – Amit Shah’s plans risk criminalising protest
First posted October 27, 2011 ‘The essay is a marvellous account of the hundreds of ways in which the Ramayana has been told, complete with examples of this narrative diversity. I can’t imagine that the vice-chancellor, a member of that urbane cohort, the Class of ’75, wanted the essay removed because he agreed with the Akhil Bharatiya… Read More Mukul Kesavan: Delhi University and the purging of Ramanujan
By Tora Agarwala in East Khasi hills, Meghalaya Excited chatter and the clattering of steel plates drown out the din of the monsoon rains: it is lunchtime in Laitsohpliah government school in the north-east Indian state of Meghalaya. The food has been cooked on-site and is free for everyone, part of India’s ambitious “midday meal”… Read More Fish mint, Himalayan chives and berry pickle: how wild ingredients are transforming school dinners in India
Senior advocate and retired Delhi High Court judge S. Muralidhar said that the courts have failed to uphold constitutional values in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. Senior advocate and retired Delhi high court judge S. Muralidhar has delivered a sharp indictment of the judiciary’s handling of communal disputes, warning that the courts have… Read More ‘Unforgivable Institutional Amnesia’: Retired HC Judge Slams Judiciary’s Handling of Communal Disputes
NB: In other words, the BJP/RSS government is now selecting the electorate. As Bertold Brecht wrote in his poem The Solution, (1953) on the East German government’s despotic ways: Perhaps the government ought to dissolve the people and elect another? DS Exercises like the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls presage a state of affairs… Read More When the State Always Doubts Your Identity; or disenfranchising India’s citizens
++++++Readers outside of India can donate here to support Mainstream Weeklyhttps://tinyurl.com/2rsy4ss6++++++ In this Issue: BOOKS IMAGE & SOUND Editor’s Picks: Books of Note: Source: MAINSTREAM
New Delhi spent decades cosying up to the US. The truth is, Washington doesn’t have allies outside the west – it has clients. What changed was that over the past quarter of a century, India’s political class began to see the US as the country’s natural partner. It was the main destination of India’s exports… Read More Blindsided by Trump, Modi is learning hard lessons about India’s place in the new world order
NB: Judicial conscience requires human backbone DS For the state, Umar Khalid and others are worse than heinous criminals All those charged with the assassination of human rights activist and journalist GAURI LANKESH (29 January 1962 – 5 September 2017) are out on bail. Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Narsinghanand and many others who stoked violence… Read More Gauri Lankesh, Dr Umar Khalid… For the state, Umar Khalid & others are worse than heinous criminals
Dilip Simeon NB: This article was published seventeen year ago. I post it now because of a need to highlight certain alarming features of our criminal justice system. The article appeared in Mail Today on June 17, 2008, and is an account of my personal experience of Indian justice. The happenings it relates were public… Read More Insult to Injury
http://www.reporters-collective.in Nitin Sethi CLICK HERE TO DONATE Hello, We promised that we will be relentless in our pursuit of seeking accountability from the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding its electoral roll purification exercise, “Special Intensive Revision”. Our latest investigation reveals 1.88 lakh cases in just39 assembly constituencies where people with the exact same name and… Read More 1.88 lakh double voters detected in ECI’s Foolproof List of 39 Bihar constituencies
After the truth-shower 