2020

by Pratip Chattopadhyay
Roza Deshpande died on 19th September 2020. This death is an event of sorrow and grief to entire communist fraternity of our country. However the correct way to pay homage to Comrade Roza is to carry forward her mission — to redefine Dange-line in Indian politics.
Roza Deshpande, daughter of Sripad Amrit Dange and Ushatai, was born in 1929 at a time when her father was imprisoned forcibly by the British imperialist rulers on false Meerut conspiracy case. (…)

by Md. Chingiz Khan
It is not some new revelation or an instantaneous perception but an authoritative testimony that is given the green light in the state’s chronicle popularly known as Puyas that the settlement of Pangal community (local name for Muslims) in certain sectors of the state of Manipur had begun since the early period of the seventeenth century though there were ‘alleged’ claims and counterclaims of earlier settlements even before the seventeenth century by some local (…)

At the Indian International Film Festival many years ago, I saw Gulzar, Sai Paranjape and Amol Palekar huddled together. I wished Sai who I knew, but she nodded perfunctorily and I thought she was rather preoccupied discussing her next film project. Then again, the next day I saw the three in deep conversation, heads put together talking in almost hushed whispers. I watched but this time I stayed away.
Later I was invited to read my poetry at the Delhi International Literary Festival. It (…)

Since May, Sino-Indian relations have reached a stage which was succinctly summed up by our chief of air force R. K. S. Bhadauria as an “uneasy no war no peace status” Both countries have deployed infantry, artillery, tank, missiles and their respective air forces. The United States, France, Germany and Japan have made it known that they stand with India. How is the India-Russia relationship in the present context?
Ever since the US subjected Russia to harsh economic sanctions in the wake (…)

October 8, 2020
The tabling of a “bipartisan” legislation in the US Congress on October 1 reiterating American commitment to Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME) creates an extraordinary dimension to the geopolitics and military balance in the Middle East region in the downstream of the so-called Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, which was signed in Washington three weeks ago.
The bill’s short title is self-explanatory — Guaranteeing Israel’s QME (…)

by Yekaterina Sinelschikova
Kamchatka, Russia’s easternmost region, has been hit by an ecological catastrophe. Photos of lifeless marine animals strewn along the Pacific coast have been posted on social networks, and local surfers complain of nausea and eye cornea burns.
In mid-September, Kamchatka surfer Anton Morozov started experiencing strange symptoms: dry, blurred, painful, and filmy eyes, plus sore throat and swollen ligaments. Morozov had been to a surfer camp on Khalaktyrsky (…)

* Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Oct 3, 2020
* The mythology of Justice | John Dayal
* Criminal Raj in Uttar Pradesh | Barun Das Gupta
. . .

October 2 was the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi stood for truth but the leaders who are steering his country today stand for lies, all day every day.
A court has just whitewashed the crimes of leading figures behind the demolition of the 15th-century mosque in Ayodhya. The Special CBI Court in Lucknow pronounced its judgement in the —28-Year-old — Babri Masjid Demolition Case acquitting all the 32 prime accused, including the top BJP leaders L K Advani and Murli (…)

It took crooked archaeologists and cultural mythologists to give a semblance of legality to the birthplace of Ram, the god. In the process, artefacts were found deep in the foundations where once stood the Babri Mosque. The artefacts were quickly dated, carefully avoiding the Buddhist period, on their way into a bygone era when King Dashrath reigned with his four wives, the senior queen giving birth to the heir.
There was a finality to this pseudo-scientific defining of a timeline which (…)

Under the ‘benign` leadership of Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh has become a paradise for criminals in cahoots with politicians in power. Four men in Hathras had brutally raped a 19-year old dalit girl. Not only was she raped but the criminals chopped off her tongue so that she could not speak, but her spine was broken and she sustained multiple fractures on her body. That was on September 14. She was first admitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital at the Aligarh Muslim (…)