Only political leadership can bring about peace in Manipur; but, the Modi government and the BJP are hog-tied by having links with both camps engaged in the violence. Bharat Bhushan Since ethnic violence began in Manipur two months ago nearly 50,000 people have been displaced, nearly 130 lives lost, and hundreds injured from both the… Read More Manipur vs Kashmir: Different strokes for different folks
Mother of Cities to me / For I was born in her gate,Between the palms and the sea / Where the world-end steamers wait Rudyard Kipling, To the City of Bombay “Few people who have criticized England from the inside have said bitterer things about her than this gutter patriot”: George Orwell IT WAS a pity that Mr.… Read More On Rudyard Kipling: by George Orwell (1942)
The failed coup by the Wagner Group has exposed the Russian president’s fatal weaknesses. By John Feffer | June 29, 2023 The former hotdog salesman rose about as high as he could. He became a caterer to the Russian elite and a confidante of the president. He led his country’s premier paramilitary force. He was one of… Read More The Beginning of the End for Putin?
NB: Is India an empire? The British Raj certainly was, and the RSS/BJP ideologues who constantly denouce the Macaulay tradition in education; don’t seem to mind the continuance of colonial police codes and the divide and rule method of governance. Do they imagine that a combination of communal ideology and colonial policing will keep them… Read More Modi preaching peace abroad as Manipur burns reinforces historical alienation of the North East
Andrew Roth The extraordinary events of the past 48 hours – Prigozhin’s armed mutiny, Putin’s call for “brutal” reprisals, an 11th-hour peace deal – might appear to have resolved themselves. The leader of the Wagner mercenary group has halted his armed mutiny and march on the Russian capital, apparently in exchange for an amnesty and… Read More Putin and Prigozhin avert bloodshed, but their feud is not over /24 hours that shook Russia
Dilip Simeon NB: This work-in-progress paper was my contribution to a conference hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bergen, Norway. The conference( May 31-June 2, 2023) was titled 200 Years of Socialism: Revisiting the Old Dilemmas: First Annual Global Research Programme on Inequality Lecture Abstract: The Bolshevik confiscation of the… Read More Militant capitalism, bad infinity, and the longing for total revolution
BY JULIA GLEDHILL AND WILLIAM D. HARTUNG While Republicans may now be “weaponizing” the political scene, the Pentagon’s weaponization story has lasted forever and a day. As TomDispatch regulars and Pentagon experts William Hartung and Julia Gledhill point out, when it comes to major purchases of weaponry (and the “investment” of taxpayer dollars in the giant weapons-making corporations that produce them),… Read More The Ultimate All-American Slush Fund
By ARNOLD R. ISAACS For many of us whose lives were touched by the Vietnam War, it’s a bit of a shock to count the years and realize that those events are now a half-century or more in the past. This year, we have been reminded of that war somewhat more frequently than in past decades,… Read More How the trauma of the Vietnam War led to the age of “alternative facts”
( Middle East Monitor ) – The chilling repercussions of the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism have been revealed in a recent report by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC). Titled “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Anti-Semitism”, the report by the independent Dutch-based organisation uncovered shocking examples of the IHRA’s… Read More Europe Ignoring Israeli War Crimes under Guise of Combating anti-Semitism: new report
NB: A noteworthy observation. A government whose ideological inclination is set like an automaton towards stoking up communal passions; and which uses its institutional power over the justice system for blatant partisan gain, is asking for trouble. Unless wiser counsels prevail, the fate of the North East is a mirror for the future. DS Shoaib… Read More From mob violence to Manipur: The past decade has weakened the Indian state
After the truth-shower 