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.RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat Speaks Once Again With A Forked Tongue
By P. Sudhir What is one to make of RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech regarding the raking up of new temple/mosque disputes? In his speech in Pune on December 19, Bhagwat disapproved of the raking up of new temple/mosque disputes. He said that Ram temple was a matter of...
Trump Is Bent On Beating Putin In Expansionism, Come 2025
By Anjan Roy From the early indications so far available, the New Year—2025— is all set to be tumultuous for all nations. India must be wary and take every possible caution and steps to navigate the forthcoming year of uncertainty. The USA, with its sheer size and weight in...
Shyam Benegal, A Filmmaker With The Common Man’s Take On Life
By Tirthankar Mitra Even at the risk of uttering a cliché, filmmaker Shyam Benegal was in a class of his own. A path-breaker, he took his audience to places where they had never been before. And this is no sweetener to enhance the reputation of a man who is...
The Spectre Of Anti-Communism Is Once Again Haunting North America
By John Wojcik The United States Congress has recently passed a horrific piece of legislation calling for the infusion into the nation’s public school system of a curriculum that teaches middle and high school students about the alleged evils of communism, including the absurd claim that communists have killed...
BNS’s Black-And-White Treatment Of A Rainbow Of Masculinities
By Aishwarya Avraj In 2024, India introduced a legal reform with the implementation of three new criminal laws, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BNA) (criminal laws) replacing the existing Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860; Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973...
Restoring Global Credibility Of India’s NHRC Is Going To Be Tough
By Dr. Gyan Pathak India’s National Human Rights Commission has been losing its global credibility very fast. Since June 1, 2024, the post of NHRC Chairperson has been lying vacant and its re-accreditation with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) was deferred for 12 months, for...
Shah’s Ambedkar Statement Negates The Sacrifices Of Freedom Fighters
By Dr. Arun Mitra Perplexed with Amit Shah’s statement on Dr Ambedkar in the Parliament, the drama created by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the entrance gate of the Parliament and later registering an FIR against Rahul Gandhi was a very low level and reprehensible act with the...
Bhagwat Faces War Of Survival With Modi-Led Saffronites
By Arun Srivastava RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat is desperate to fix the soup he has landed in. His advice to Hindu society to refrain from raking up temple-mosque is part of this course-correction exercise. While suggesting to neo-Hindutva crusaders to refrain from raking up such issues, Bhagwat also cautioned...
Babasaheb Ambedkar Lives On In The Generations Who Came After Him
By Krishna Jha He was found dead in his cell in the prison where he was brought just two days before his exams started. The reports said he died of shock from multiple injuries. His fault was that he belonged to a Dalit family and wanted to be like...
Yellow Taxis Of Kolkata At The End Of Their Road
By Tirthankar Mitra Introduced in the 1960s, the yellow Ambassador taxis, which had come to be synonymous with Kolkata, are at the end of the road. Come March, 2025 most of this nearly 7,000 fleet will be off the road following a Supreme Court order of 2009 together with...
Land, Democratic Protests And ‘Unlawful’ Activities In Chhattisgarh
By Radhika Chitkara On November 8, 2024, the Chhattisgarh government issued a gazette notification declaring the Moolvasi Bachao Manch (MBM) as an ‘unlawful organisation’ under its Special Public Security Act (CSPSA). Like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, the CSPSA empowers the government to proscribe organisations which, in...
Labour Militancy Erupts In New York In Runup To The Holidays
By Taryn Fivek In the run-up to the holiday season, the diverse, working-class New York City borough of Queens seemed to suddenly erupt with labour militancy. Both the Amazon Teamsters and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) took action on December 19 to demand the same thing: that management...
New RBI Governor Has Limited Role To Play In Stabilising The Rupee
By Nantoo Banerjee It will be unfair to expect much from the new Reserve Bank governor, Sanjay Malhotra, a career bureaucrat and former revenue secretary, in terms of delivery of key functions of a central bank chief such as controlling inflation, stabilizing domestic currency, foreign exchange control and lifting...
Vengeance At The Heart Of BJP’s FIR Against LoP Rahul Gandhi
By Sushil Kutty The Winter Session of Parliament went its way after days of pandemonium. Some would say to a “wintery end”, what with the ice-cold vibes between the Modi government and the Opposition led by LoP Rahul Gandhi, especially after the BJP-led NDA government filed an FIR against...
Decoding Dissanayake’s India Visit: Are Delhi-Colombo Ties Back On Track?
By Girish Linganna Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s recent trip (15-17th Dec 2024) to India is an important moment in strengthening the ties between the two neighbouring countries. This visit highlights the growing bond and cooperation between India and Sri Lanka. This was his first official trip abroad...
Centre’s ‘One Nation One Poll’ Bill May Not Pass The Opposition Test
By Kalyani Shankar The introduction of the controversial bill, ‘One Nation One Poll,’ has created more hullabaloo than acceptance. The BJP has been talking about it, but now after introducing it has sent it to the joint select committee of the Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a...
India Yet To Meet Forest Cover Goal, 35 Years After National Forest Policy
By Dr. Gyan Pathak India is still struggling to meet the target of the National Forest Policy set 35 years ago in 1988. In 2023, it could attain a forest and tree cover of only 25.17 percent against the target of a minimum one-third (33.3 percent) of the total...
Saudi Arabia And United States May Part Ways Over Security Agreement
By Asad Mirza As the Biden administration prepares to relinquish power next month, it may leave without accomplishing a much-discussed diplomatic goal: the normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, accompanied by a formal US security agreement with Saudi Arabia. The future of a formal US-Saudi security agreement...
