2020

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi
Now we have started understanding between the lines of the above quotation. Some heart-rending incidents happened in recent past in the country that caused national and international indignation. A wild pregnant elephant at Palakkad village in Kerala ate a fruit, filled with firecrackers that unfortunately exploded in her mouth. She was unable to chew any food and (…)

We were a few kilometers from the Siberian city of Norilsk, where six weeks ago a huge fuel tank at a power plant ruptured, spilling thousands of tons of diesel into the river.
The owner of the plant, the Nornickel metals giant, says the spill was quickly contained, and the damage limited. Ryabinin has sacrificed his job and his family’s future in Norilsk in an attempt to lift the lid on what environmentalists have called the worst ecological catastrophe in the polar Arctic.

by Xanthe Hall
July 16, 2020
You could be excused for having missed the fact that NATO is in the process of updating its nuclear strategy, including substantial and significant steps. These include technologically more ambitious weapons that can be used more easily. This is the implementation of a decision made at the NATO Warsaw Summit in 2016 to revise nuclear strategy. In order to follow what’s going on, you have to dig deep on the internet. While this is a little easier because of (…)

What does the world spend more money on: war or health? Eva Finch, July 13, 2020 PixlParade.com

Three women are spearheading a maverick opposition campaign for next month’s presidential election in Belarus, transforming the country’s politics as they attempt to unseat Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled for 25 years.

I’ve heard that it rains fish at some places Gold at some other places. It rained muck of corruption At our places this monsoon.
Some roads in Delhi caved in The mud filled the underbridges in Mumbai. Some newly laid roads have been washed away Even the 260-crore rich Sattargarh bridge In Bihar has been swept away.
The rivers have swallowed the costly bunds The concrete roads have turned into pools of mud Houses, people, and animals are submerged Municipalities and hospitals are full (…)

Table of Contents - Mainstream, VOL LVIII No 32, New Delhi, July 25, 2020 Letter to the Readers Mainstream, Covid-19 Lockdown Edition no.18 -July 25 | The Editor When the State Fears a Poet | Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla June 25 1975/July 25 2020: Reflections on a Prison in Delhi | Uma Chakravarti Pandemic puts India in ‘precarious position’ | M. K. Bhadrakumar Covid Redefines the State | D.K. Giri Why 2020 is not 1962 | Praveen Davar DOCUMENT: Memo to Election Commission of India from (…)

The deteriorating state of democracy under the Modi Regime: The weakening of institutions of our republic began a while ago but in the post-2014 period it has become sharply pronounced. In the past few years activists, writers, lawyers championing democratic rights, civil liberties and rights of marginalised have become targets of the ruling party and the security agencies under the control of the central government. Many such people have been arrested and are languishing in jails. On (…)

Celebrated Indian poet, human rights activist, and political prisoner Varavara Rao, now eighty and in frail health, is in mortal danger of succumbing to COVID-19 if he is not released from prison, where he has been on and off since 2018 on trumped-up conspiracy charges.

These days news reports of arbitrary arrests, jails and jail conditions are a reminder of the sudden and dramatic imposition of the Emergency in 1975, when there was no recourse to legal remedy of any kind — no vakil, no daleel and no appeal — which became shorthand for the suspension of civil rights. Those who went to jail just stayed there until the end of the Emergency, when Indira Gandhi was swept out of power in the general elections of 1977. Despite substantial differences between then (…)