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.BJP Cannot Stop Mamata From Campaigning For Hindu Votes
By Sushil Kutty After 2011, probably the fiercest political-electoral dangal will be witnessed in West Bengal, which has never been a state for the faint-hearted or the lily-livered. If the communists wrote the rules on bloody elections, Mamata’s Trinamool fine-tuned them. A decade later, it’s the BJP which is...
Imran Khan’s Political Woes Mount After Defeat Of Its Senate Nominee
By Sankar Ray Political pyrotechnics in Pakistan touched a high point with the decisive victory of three-time Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan People’s Party, pulling a shock victory defeating the ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. It raised the PPP strength in the 100-seat Pakistan Senate,...
Former Civil Servants Urge Change In Procedures For Electronic Evidence
By Satyaki Chakraborty The revelation that the Bhim Koregaon case accused Rona Wilson’s computer had incriminating documents planted by outsiders created furore few weeks back and the lawyers as also human rights activists demanded a thorough investigation into the whole episode. Rona had also moved the Bombay High Court...
American Rescue Act Has A Big Message For Political Parties
By John Wojcik Ever since the days of the Ronald Reagan presidency, the defining narrative in Washington has been that big government is an unruly animal that has to be tamed. With the passage of the American Rescue Act in the Senate and signing of it into law by...
Former Brazilian President Lula May Stage A Spectacular Comeback
By Steve Sweeney Former Brazilian president LuizInacio Lula da Silva could be set for a comeback after the Supreme Court sensationally quashed his convictions for corruption on Monday. The ruling, which annulled all four of Lula’s convictions, paves the way for the leftist to challenge far-right President Jair Bolsonaro...
State Assembly Polls Pose Challenge To Both National And Regional Parties
By Kalyani Shankar The upcoming Assembly elections to five states, three of which are in the South, will go a long way in shaping most regional and national parties’ political future. The polls are crucial for the three national parties, the Congress, BJP, and the left and the...
BPF Joining Is Sure To Benefit The Congress-Led Grand Alliance In Assam
By Sagarneel Sinha Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) leaving the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was only a matter of time as the latter clearly stated that it won’t renew its alliance with the former. The saffron party allied with United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) — BPF’s...
Farmers And Workers May Upset BJP’s Electoral Prospect
By Gyan Pathak Farmers and workers have started joining hands against the BJP which is seen by most of them as their enemy no.1. The agitating farmers’ unions against the three farm laws and the 10 central trade unions against the four labour codes have decided to launch...
Left-Congress Alliance In Bengal Facing Issues Over Abbas Siddiqui
By Arun Srivastava The Brigade rally organised by the left parties and the Congress on Sunday was indeed massive. This was for the first time that the Left and the Congress held a joint election rally in Kolkata in recent years. But equally, this was the first occasion...
Three Month Old Farmers Struggle Gets Massive Global Support
By Sankar Ray An unprecedented gesture of international solidarity with the three-month long farmers’ struggle is eloquently reflected in an 800-plus word statement by over hundred labour, community and civil society organisations the world over through a full-page advertisement in Toronto Star on 27 February in English and...
Are The New It Rules The Next Sedition Law?
By Siddharth Ganguly On Thursday, February 25th, the government notified new rules under the Information Technology (IT) Act dubbed the ‘Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code’. These rules introduced a number of guidelines for social media and Over The Top (OTT) platforms which make such companies...
Time For A National Movement Against Privatisation Of CPSEs
By Nitya Chakraborty Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally laid bare his grand programme of dismantling the central public sector in the country which laid the foundation of the core sector industries i soon after the Indian planning started after independence. Last week in his address on disinvestment...
Many Pitfalls Of The BJP’s Overkill in West Bengal
By Amulya Ganguli In all elections, every contestant wants to win. The desire is all the greater for the BJP in West Bengal because it has not only been an outsider in the state with a minimal social and political presence till now, but also politically untouchable,...
Both Oli And Prachanda Are Wooing Nepali Congress For Support
By Barun Das Gupta Trouble is dogging the beleaguered Nepal Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli at every step. Two factions of his Nepal Communist Party (NCP), one led by himself and the other by his arch rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias ‘Prachanda’ are on the verge...
More Sound Than Substance In Cbi Notice On Rujira Naroola Banerjee
By Nantoo Banerjee The CBI investigations into a possible connection of Rujira Naroola Banerjee, wife of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool Party’s Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee, with the ongoing coal mining scandal in the state and money trail may have more to...
Congress Leadership Has To Establish Accord With G-23 Rebels
By Arun Srivastava It would be wrong to construe that the G-8 meeting in Jammu was a summit of the Congress rebels or show of strength by the Congress dissidents or an exercise to grand old party. Congress has witnessed many splits in the past but this meeting...
New Media rules: an Over the Top Distraction?
By Vickram Crishna The government has, for decades, been attempting to impose constraints upon independent media. At the same time, the right to freedom of speech has always been subjected to the individual vagaries of administrators and judges while interpreting how the limitations described in the Constitution should...
Tamil Nadu Looks Headed For A Non-Traditional Poll
By S Sethuraman The schedule of 2021 state polls has been notified on the heels of another round of project announcements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tamil Nadu on a second visit to the State on February 25. The same day, he launched BJP poll campaign for...
