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• Vande Mataram Debate Exposes BJP and Modi’s Shallow Understanding of Freedom Struggle | Aswini K Ray

  20 December 2025

  When New Delhi was gasping for breath because of very severe air pollution and the bomb blast near Red Fort killing seven people, also blasted the "Modi Doctrine" against cross-border terrorism, India’s Parliament spent ten costly hours debating the issue of "NationalSong", Vande Mataram, composed by Bankim Chandra and the " National Anthem", Jana Gana by Tagore. That debate took place on the initiative of the BJP, which was not interested in dealing with the more pressing issue of air (…)

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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, Dec 13, 2025

  13 December 2025

  * Tribute to Baba Adhav | Bharat Dogra
  * The Sanchar Saathi Moment: From Telecom Safety to State Surveillance | Alka S. Yadav
  * Palestine: Harvesting olives under the occupation - a day in the West Bank | Uri Weltmann

• The Sanchar Saathi Moment: From Telecom Safety to State Surveillance | Alka S. Yadav

  13 December 2025

  The Sanchar Saathi is the latest episode in the saga of Indian digital governance. It showcases a big shift from welfare-oriented digital platforms to more structural forms of state surveillance. Concerns about constitutional accountability and citizen autonomy have been raised. Sanchar Saathi came up at a time when digital governance is slowly changing everyday interactions with the state. Most public services these days employ some form of identification or verification. The centre of (…)

• Are B.R. Gavai’s Comments on Creamy Layer Justified? | Patta Venkateswarlu

  13 December 2025

  A discussion is underway regarding the remarks made by former Chief Justice of India, B.R. Gavai, suggesting that the creamy layer principle should also apply to reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC). Such comments are nothing new. The argument that reservations should be based on economic criteria rather than caste has been made by upper castes for a very long time. Now, the fact that even Justice B.R. Gavai

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  Baba Adhav is No More but his Life and Work Will Always Remain an Inspiration for Those Working for Justice and Equality | Bharat Dogra

  13 December 2025, by Bharat Dogra

  [fond noir][blanc]TRIBUTEblanc]fond noir]
  Baba Adhav passed away at the age of 96 on Monday December 8. As one of the most successful organizers of workers from poorest and largely unorganized sections of society Baba Advav became a legend in his lifetime. The inspirational impact of the struggles he led and motivated is very wide.
  One of the important reasons for this success was his very high personal integrity and deep commitment to the cause of workers which has been admired by (…)

• Manufacturing Steel, Manufacturing Chaos: On the Capitalist Pressure to Extract in Odisha - Part 2 | Ranjana Padhi

  13 December 2025

  This article is in two parts. Part One was published in the December 6 issue.

• Drivers, Dynamics, and Policy Responses Shaping India

  13 December 2025, by S N Tripathy

  India

• Inequality In India Is Among The Highest In The World, Says World Inequality Lab | Gyan Pathak

  13 December 2025

  by Dr. Gyan Pathak
  (India Press Agency, December 12, 2025) Only five months after the Union Government had boasted in July 2025 that India was among the world

• Developing Nations Successfully Resisted Grab of Plant Seeds By Global Agribusiness | Soma Marla

  13 December 2025, by Soma S. Marla

  The 11th session of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) held November 2025 in Lima, Peru attempted to handover all genetic resources of developing Southern nations to global seed agribusiness. Thanks to active resistance from united South this malicious attempt was temporarily thwarted.
  Like water, air, soil and seeds are commons owned by community. Since the beginning of civilization and advent of farming, (…)

• Africa Hosts, But Global Leadership Falters | Sabba Choudhary

  13 December 2025