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.Trump’s Actions Are Pushing For A Mideast War
By John Wojcik While President Donald Trump has pulled out of Iran nuke deal, a leader of the secular left in Iran says Trump is stepping up plans for an attack on that country which could trigger a devastating regional war with horrific implications for world peace. ...
Rahul Gandhi Takes A Bad Song To Make It Better
By Sushil Kutty The cat (Rahul Gandhi) is among the pigeons (BJP). The day after Rahul said he is ready to become “Prime Minister”, sitting PM Narendra Modi spoke of the “impudence of the immature”, of the “naamdar with the temerity to betray his own alliance”. Is the...
Jinnah Deserves Our Sympathy, Not Derision
By Amulya Ganguli Eighty years after Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s portrait was put up in Aligarh Muslim University, the BJP’s electoral compulsions in Karnataka have made the saffron apparatchiki call for its removal. The delayed reaction is typical of the Hindutva camp. Its devotion for Lord Ram, for...
Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments
Supreme Court refuses to stay the infamous SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act judgment– The Supreme Court refused to stay its March 20 judgment on diluting the stringency of the POA, on an application of recall of the judgment filed by the Union of India. The Attorney General argued that...
Petitions Seeking Live Streaming Of Court Proceedings Being Heard
By Amritananda Chakravorty The Supreme Court is currently hearing a bunch of petitions filed by lawyers and organisations seeking live streaming and recording of the proceedings of the Apex Court, thereby pushing for greater transparency in judicial proceedings as well as raising public awareness on important questions of...
Modi Makes Karnataka Poll Acid Test For 2019
By S. Sethuraman The stakes are so high for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deny the Congress, his arch-enemy, a second successive term in Karnataka – the only Southern state within the saffron grasp, if Kannadigas fall for his tantrums all the way. If the Modi vituperative...
The Intellectual Right Is Striving To Find Its Feet
Aditya Aamir The hunt for the ‘real core Hindu’ is on. Somebody ‘right’ asked the other day: ‘Will the real core Hindu please stand up?’ So far nobody has stood up. Resident Indian National Congress leader in Pakistan Mani Shankar Aiyar is not ‘real core Hindu’. He told...
Chengannur By-Election: CPI(M) Has A Slight Edge
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Campaigning for the Chengannur Assembly by-election has slipped into top gear with the polling date less than three weeks away. The by-election has been necessitated by the death of sitting MLA K K Ramachandran Nair of the CPI(M). The constituency is...
Diamond-Studded Trouble For Siddy And Modi
By Sushil Kutty A journalist friend got a gift a decade ago – an Emporio-Armani wrist watch which went round his wrist like a dream. One evening it went flying off his wrist into the four-deep raucous crowd lined up around the dance floor at the neighbourhood...
Karl Marx Was Hostile To Rigid Dogmas
By Conor McCarthy Two hundred years have passed since the birth of Karl Marx. Few historical figures of any kind have been so influential ‑ surely no thinker has. Yet many now would dismiss his ideas as outdated, as flawed, as tending towards totalitarianism. Why should we remember...
Setting The Stage For Modi-Mayawati Face-Off
By Aditya Aamir ‘Could Mayawati be the next PM?’ NDTV tweeted Sunday after Dr Pronoy Roy asked the question to Mayawati at a JD(S) rally in Karnataka. The BSP supremo smiled. Two JD(S) leaders on the stage with Mayawati smiled. Close Up it looked like a Colgate commercial!...
Banking Scam: A Drag On Indian Economy
By K R Sudhaman A humongous problem that is being brushed under the carpet in India is the grave sickness in the banking industry, particularly the public sector banks. In fact, the banking scam is far bigger and widespread than coal scam or 2G spectrum scam. Diamond merchant...
Free Trade Pacts May Put Import-Led India Into Deep Trouble
By Nantoo Bnerjee NITI Aayog’s warning that India should rethink about joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) forum could not have come at a more appropriate time. The government’s key think-tank had reportedly argued, in a note on free trade agreements (FTAs) and their costs to highly...
Electrification Is More Than Putting Poles And Wires
By Gyan Pathak ‘Electrification’ of India was completed on April 28, 2018, according to a tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which claimed the government has ‘fulfilled a commitment’. However, the subsequent government clarifications revealed that there were several villages ‘not-electrified’ and electrification work was in progress. As...
Karl Marx Is Back With Vengeance
By C.J. Atkins Marx is back. For his 200th birthday, the socialist revolutionary’s bearded image is popping up everywhere. Books, seminars, and conferences devoted to his legacy and enduring relevance abound across the capitalist world—from Brooklyn to London to Berlin—as well as in the countries which still declare...
Gallup Survey Calls The Pakoda Bluff
By K Raveendran Conclusions of a global survey on jobs by Gallup are set to further embarrass the Modi government in the ‘pakoda’ debate. And the timing of the report provides least comfort to the government as its record in creating new jobs is facing scrutiny in an...
Marxism Is The Only Potent Power For Change
By Sitaram Yechury Marxism is unique in the sense that it can be transcended only when its agenda is realised; the agenda of realising a classless Communist social order. Specifically under capitalism, its understanding of capitalism is alone thorough enough for it to comprehend the historical possibilities that...
Battle Royale For Karnataka Peaks As Poll Day Nears
By Harihar Swarup The campaign in Karnataka Assembly elections has touched a new low with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi descending to personal level. Such a low level of campaign has never been before seen. In no-holds-barred attack on each other, neither Modi nor...
