NB: This comment by a Bangladeshi activist on the current events has been sent with difficulty, given the government clampdown on communications. The writer has requested that it be widely circulated. Beneath it is a condensed translation of an informal report from a Facebook post by journalist Arka Bhaduri in West Bengal. DS Bangladesh police… Read More State terror in Bangladesh / Informal reports on the ground situation
Army to be deployed to keep order after demonstrators free hundreds of prisoners and country is hit by serious unrest Hannah Ellis-Petersen The Bangladeshi government has declared a national curfew and announced plans to deploy the army to tackle the country’s worst unrest in a decade, after student protesters stormed a prison and freed hundreds… Read More 105 people killed; national curfew imposed in Bangladesh after student protesters storm prison
Incensed crowd facing riot police set BTV building on fire as students demand end to discriminatory job quotas NB: What is needed now is international democratic solidarity, across frontiers, age, language and religion. Solidarity for justice, peace, and renewed communication. Stand up for the embattled students of Bangladesh. In 1971, General Yahya Khan sent tanks… Read More Fierce anti-government protests in Bangladesh, 39 dead; thousands injured
The situation was further inflamed by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who referred to the students protesting using the derogatory slur “Razakars”, meaning those who betrayed the nation by collaborating with the enemy, Pakistan, during the war of independence in 1971. “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters don’t receive quota benefits, should the grandchildren of… Read More Two die and thousands hurt in crackdown on Bangladesh student protests
Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the Lok Sabha on Monday and said the NEET is not a professional examination but a commercial exam. He charged the Modi government treats Agniveers as “use-and-throw labour”. Addressing in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks for the president’s address,… Read More Agniveer ‘use-and-throw labour’ for govt; NEET a commercial exam
An interview with United Faculty for the Common Good ROTUA LUMBANTOBING, GABRIEL WINANT, TODD WOLFSON IN THE PROMISING EARLY DAYS of the Biden Administration, there occurred a moment—brief and soon forgotten—when it seemed like we might have a chance to repair the trainwreck of the higher-ed economy. During the debate on the omnibus social and domestic… Read More Do Much More to Meet This Moment
*PSF stands in solidarity with the teachers and staff at TISS* Statement issued by Progressive Students’ Forum, Date: 29 June 2024 After repeatedly targeting its students and curbing the campus democracy, the present TISS administration, under the BJP-led union government, has unleashed an attack on its employees as well. Recently, it has been learnt that… Read More Condemn the Mass Termination of around 100 Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff at TISS under the Union Government
Both centralisation and privatisation have dismantled the future of higher education in India and the lack of moral positionality of the state has come out as a catastrophe for millions of students who aspire to follow higher education pathways. Vidyasagar Sharma Amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UGC-NEET) examination, the… Read More The Commodification of Indian Education and Loss of Moral Accountability
NB: A perceptive talk by one of India’s most experienced constitutional lawyers. I will add that there are certain grievous matters that democratic-minded persons the world over should take note of, viz., the regular deployment of mob violence and political assassination in India (as also the rest of South Asia), which has been ongoing for… Read More Indira Jaising on implications of the Modi years. Report on a talk at SOAS
This issue of Mainstream is dedicated to the memory of Karamat Ali, the most respected labour rights activist from Pakistan and a leading mover for peace in South Asia DOCUMENTS: BOOKS: IMAGE & SOUND: Editor’s Picks: http://mainstreamweekly.net/article14706.html
After the truth-shower 