Opinion
Appeal
The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.Narendra Modi’s Aversion To Live Pressers Transcends Continents
By Sushil Kutty The other day in Denmark Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of those unguarded moments, found himself ambushed by the media! The next thing you hear is Modi with a “Oh! My God!” and every media reporting how startled, vulnerable and panicked the Prime Minister appeared...
Foundational Education Requires A Paradigm Shift
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Most developing member countries (DMCs) are facing serious gaps in student learning outcomes, that the World Bank calls learning crisis. Half of the students in Grade 5 in India cannot do two-digit subtraction or read connected text, and half of the students who complete primary...
Indian Right Is Determined To Give Wrong Lessons Of Country’s History
By Krishna Jha We are passing through a phase where present stands on a distorted historicity, with shifts, and leaves the world as it never has been, or at least efforts are made in that direction. When Faiz Ahmad Faiz is removed from the course of the tenth standard,...
It Is Time For Our Courts To Be Freed Of Elitist Tendencies
By K Raveendran It is not a clamour yet, but there is growing awareness about the need for the judiciary to shed its elitist character. As both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Supreme Court chief justice NV Ramana pointed out last week at the joint conference of chief ministers...
Remembering Karl Marx And His Teachings On His 204th Birth Anniversary
By Dipankar Bhattacharya Constructing the future and settling everything for all times are not our affair… (what) we have to accomplish at present (is) ruthless criticism of all that exists, ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense...
Press Freedom In India Facing Unprecedented Crisis Since 2014
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Press freedom in India is in crisis though there are over one lakh newspapers including 36,000 weeklies and 380 TV news channels. Such an abundance of outlets conceals tendencies toward the concentration of ownership while media in politically partitioned, journalists facing violence and authoritarian pressures,...
Raj’s War Against His Cousin Uddhav Is Leading To Turmoil In Maharashtra
By Sushil Kutty May 4, Wednesday 5 am, the loudspeakers started blaring. One began, and the other followed. The first one with the ‘azaan’, the second one with the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’. It was Raj Thackeray going ahead with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ challenge to the Maha Vikas...
BJP Policies Are Meant To Marginalise The Muslims In Terms Of Economic Power
By Arun Srivastava Saffron Majoritarian politics has finally succeeded in achieving its mission of forcing the Muslims to withdraw from the mainstream life and go back to ruts. This is clearly manifest in the manner Muslims celebrated their greatest festival Eid this year. Diktat was issued by the BJP...
Ukraine Joins Afghanistan In Shaping Gulf Rivalries
By James M Dorsey The US withdrawal from Afghanistan was a geopolitical watershed. Its shockwaves continue to reverberate and are magnified by the wars in Ukraine and Yemen. Coupled with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US withdrawal removed a major obstacle to Iranian projection in Central Asia and...
Jignesh Mevani Has Been A Consistent Fighter For Dalits In Gujarat
By Harihar Swarup To Nartwar Bhai Parmar, 69, son Jingesh Mevani always seemed a bit too idealistic. “He would talk about bringing about a revolution and I would like to say such revolution happened only before 1947.” He would then say, “I am ready to go to jail. In...
American Communist W. E. B. Du Bois Was The Father Of Pan-African Socialism
By Bill V. Mullen W.E. B. Du Bois is still the most famous black American Communist in US history, and the godfather of what has been called the black radical tradition. Best remembered for his remarkable work Black Reconstruction in America, he remains a vital reference point for those...
IMF Alone Can Save Sri Lanka From Financial Collapse
By Nantoo Banerjee No external credit can save Sri Lanka from its current deep financial crisis. The country is simply not in a position to repay its huge outstanding external loans — sovereign or commercial. Tourism, tea and garments export and overseas employment are among its 22.40-million strong population’s...
Remembering The Maestro Satyajit Ray On His 101st Birth Anniversary
By Nitya Chakraborty The legend of the Indian cinema, Satyajit Ray, has crossed one more year after his centenary celebrations began on May 2 of last year. The last icon of what is termed as Bengal Renaissance, died at the age of only 71 on April 23, 1992. Though...
Time Is Ripe For Giving A Close Look At The Present Powers Of Governors
By Kalyani Shankar Once again, the role of the Governors has come to the fore after the Tamil Nadu state Assembly last week passed two bills clipping the powers of the Governor in the appointment of vice-chancellors. The harmony between the chief ministers and non -BJP ruled state governors...
India Running Fast Toward Unprecedented Extreme Heat Conditions
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Only a few days after the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) alerted that extreme heat was gripping large parts of India and Pakistan impacting hundreds of millions of people in one of the most densely populated parts of the world, the images of land surface captured...
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat Is Continuously Double Speaking These Days
By Arun Srivastava Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s assertion that violence does not benefit anybody and the society to which violence is dear is now counting its last days is a jumla like his earlier jumlas. Bhagwat often comes out with some innovative like gimmicks which he...
Courts And The Governments Have Equal Responsibility In Disposal Of Pending Cases
By Sushil Kutty Can the judiciary be absolved of responsibility in the pendency of a huge backlog of cases? CJI NV Ramana says if anybody is to blame for the mess, it’s the entire bunch of governments, from the central to the states. The question then boils down to...
Umar Khalid And Jignesh Mevani Experience The High-Handedness Of Law
By Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr One of the unfortunate recent developments has been that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party -ruled Union Government has been misusing the law much more brazenly than previous governments in general. The Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid, who had been arrested in September...
