NB: India’s rulers have invented several bits of political abuse over the years, including tukde-tukde gang, and urban Naxals. Some years ago during the wave of violent ‘actions’ undertaken by the CPI (Maoist) I was often asked to join TV programs debating the issue. I was invited because having been a Naxalite cadre myself in the first phase… Read More Some uncomfortable thoughts on 'urban naxals'
The IITs have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. This time it is not about the fat pay packets their students have got in the institute placements, but about ghosts and steppe people invading, or rather not invading, Bharatvarsh. First, the ghosts. The director of an IIT posted a video on… Read More Shobhit Mahajan: Peddling of anti-scientific beliefs by academia must worry us
The farmers’ historic struggle and victory has upset not merely political arrogance but conventional wisdom in more than one way. It has shown the limitations of class analysis, and has thrown up new ideas for organizing peaceful protests in a democracy. The fact that relatively better-off farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh often led the… Read More Amit Bhaduri: The Farmers’ Protest Exposed the Limitations of Class Analysis
Investigative journalists Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times (NYT) have revealed that the cyber-weapon Pegasus was part of a $2 billion defence package the Narendra Modi government purchased from Israel in 2017. A government minister has sought to dismiss it as a motivated conspiracy by calling the highly respected NYT, “supari” media, a… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Government as hacker / Proof of Pegasus use on phones, Cyber experts tell SC panel
‘पेट पर लात मत मारिए, पेट की लात बहुत ख़राब होती है’ https://fb.watch/aOxsjVna-g/ रेलवे भर्ती में खामियों को लेकर छात्रों का बिहार बंद Bihar Bandh Highlights ‘जो छात्र घर बार छोड़कर तैयारी कर रहे हैं, उनके साथ सरकार ने दोगला व्यवहार काशी विश्वनाथ मंदिर के महंत ने मोदी, योगी पर लगाया बड़ा आरोप, सुनकर रह… Read More BBC News हिन्दी: ‘पेट पर लात मत मारिए, पेट की लात बहुत ख़राब होती है’ / रेलवे भर्ती में खामियों को लेकर छात्रों का बिहार बंद / Bihar Bandh Highlights
NB: That citizens of UP are disgusted with the ruthless, cruel and incompetent BJP regime was to be expected. Equally expected is the desperate effort of this regime to stoke up communal animus and hatred. That senior ministers of the Indian Union should try and divide Indian citizens is truly an abomination, but this is… Read More Bharat Bhushan: BJP losing the narrative in UP
NB: The criterion which makes the difference between a great man and a popular one consists in the great man’s searching for what is nobly human in the masses, to raise them by its means, whereas a merely popular man looks for what is low and brutal so as to raise himself; Rabbi J.S. Bloch; My… Read More Kautilya on disaffection among subjects / Harish Khare on rights, duties and a nervous monarch who is weakening India
Gauri Lankesh, a high-profile journalist and activist who spoke out against the rise of right-wing extremism and stood up for India’s marginalised people, was shot to death on 5 September 2017. Gauri was posthumously awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Award for her work. The trial of the 17 people being held in remand for her murder… Read More Killing the Truth: the case of Gauri Lankesh
On 15 January an unprecedented scene was witnessed in the Kashmir Press Club (KPC) when a few journalists accompanied by government forces entered into the premises and appointed themselves as the new “interim body” to look after the club affairs. Many journalists termed the incident a “coup” and condemned the arbitrary takeover of the club… Read More Junaid Kathju: Lockdown of Kashmir Press Club
If you’re wondering how deep the rot has set into our society, and how autonomous the radicalisation of even the educated sections has become, you have to look no further than the open letter written by 32 assorted retired IFS officers on the 5th of this month in response to an appeal by more than… Read More Avay Shukla: A LETTER THAT DIMINISHES THE INDIAN FOREIGN SERVICE
