2020

Resumption of nuclear explosive testing is absolutely unacceptable. Even discussing nuclear testing again is dangerously destabilizing. Yet according to news reports1 such discussions have recently been held in the Trump White House. US resumption of nuclear testing would lead to testing by other states – possibly China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and DPRK. It would accelerate the emerging nuclear arms race, and damage prospects for nuclear arms control negotiations.

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. - Chinua Achebe by Ronnie Kasrils
Integrity and defence of the truth, whatever the personal cost, was a choice Denis Goldberg made from a tender age, and stuck to throughout his life. It is said that a life lived with integrity, served in a struggle for freedom and equality of all, is as a light unto the nations. Denis joins that pantheon of stars in the firmament.
His parents settled in South Africa, from (…)

by Arun Srivastava
May Day, the day which symbolises the unity of the workers and their political and economic empowerment has been buried under the debris of the labour reforms carried out by Modi’s saffron government on the plea of fighting coronavirus.
This year’s May Day has been most excruciating occasion for workers. While this year they could not celebrate this day, Modi and his cohorts used the pandemic to vilify them and moved a step forward in the direction of furthering (…)

Far away from his native village,
deep in the south,
he was making both ends meet,
working as a labourer in a factory
situated at the outskirts of the city.
Suddenly a killer virus
came from nowhere,
spreading its murderous fangs,
darkening the whole atmosphere,
causing lockdowns everywhere.
Jobless, shelterless, he walked
on sore foot for several days,
managed to reach home,
hoping a relief from his miseries.
But it was short-lived.
A devastating cyclone as if close
on (…)

by Sri Hari Mangalam
INTRODUCTION
“Privacy is not an entitlement; it is an absolute pre requisite”—Marlon Brando
The current day and age sees’ an explosion of technological advancements. The rapid growth of the applied sciences industries and new innovations in the communications and developments sectors has significantly changed our daily lives. However, the ever-changing technological set ups have led to various gaps in the legal framework, allowing space for misuse. Various (…)

MAINSTREAM, VOL LVIII NO 23, NEW DELHI, MAY 23, 2020 - Contents: 1. Letter to Readers - Mainstream 23 May 2020 - Lockdown Edition no9 2. Um-Phoon Exposed Man’s Helplessness Before Nature’s Fury | Barun Das Gupta 3. Exodus as resistance | Ajaz Ashraf 4. It’s a Hobson’s choice for labour | C.Raghu 5. Economy Rhyme Cartoon | Ajith 6. Bond | AK Das 7. Mazdoors face tragedy / Conversions to Hinduism / Eid in Nizamuddin | Humra Quraishi 8. Criticism Cannot be Sedition | TJS George 9. Lockdown (…)

Super-cyclone Amphan of 21 May 2020 has caused serious damage to land and life in Eastern India and Bangladesh. Why the massive devastation in Bengal and Bangladesh after the cyclone has found practically no coverage on national television is quite disturbing. The disaster to the ecologically sensitive zone of the Sundarbans is an international calamity and the state of West Bengal has rightly demanded that given the scale of damage (estimated to be over 10 billion dollars) it should be (…)

Super-cyclone Um-Phoon that hit southern Bengal on May 20 at a velocity of 160 kilometres per hour left a trail of death and devastation behind. It is south Bengal – East and West Medinipur and South and North 24-Parganas — which had to bear the brunt of Nature’s fury at its worst. West Bengal has not witnessed devastation at such a wide scale in recent memory.
Standing crops were destroyed, houses, especially mud houses, were razed to the ground. The death toll, however, remained (…)

May 18, 2020
by Ajaz Ashraf | Mumbai
Bob Marley’s imagining of leaving a corrupted Babylon for the fatherland in his song Exodus, is today the reality of lakhs of migrant workers rejecting the Indian state and returning home
Migrants walking home to Madhya Pradesh seen on the highway. Pic/sameer markande It is possible you recalled the lyrics of Exodus, the song that reggae singer Bob Marley belted with such élan, as you watched lakhs of migrant workers trudge from cities to villages, (…)

by Chittarvu Raghu Suspension of crucial labour laws for varying lengths of time by some of the states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya (…)