2020

March 29, 2020
The US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad apparently overreached by effusively welcoming the 21-member list announced in Kabul on Thursday by President Ashraf Ghani to engage with the Taliban in the format of the forthcoming intra-Afghan dialogue.
Khalilzad tweeted on Thursday: “I want to congratulate Afghan government, political and civi society leaders for coming together. They’ve forged an inclusive negotiating team for talks with the (…)

TRIBUTE
by Pritish Acharya
Professor Arjun Dev, a renowned Historian of our time, passed away on 29th March 2020 in Delhi. Born on 12 November 1938 at Leiah in West Punjab (present Pakistan) young Arjun with his parents had to migrate to India in 1948 after partition. He did his schooling in Ambala and graduation in History from Kirori Mal College, and Masters from Delhi University, Delhi. He joined NCERT in 1963 and worked there till his retirement in 2000.
As a Professor of History, (…)

Musings, April 1, 2020
What takes place when the rulers of the day turn a medical emergency into a human nightmare! Yes, our masses are getting subjected to the worst forms of abuse. Shots of our migrant workers and daily-wagers getting sprayed with poisonous disinfectants, walking hungry and weary and forlorn, only to be blatantly humiliated and thrashed by the lathi- yielding constables, who seem to be new rulers of the day! In fact, a Jaipur based artisan had told me in all earnestness (…)

In a highly arbitrary decision taken in 2014, the newly - elected NDA government shut down the Planning Commission and halted the process of preparing five-year plans which had continued for over six decades. Even the midterm evaluation of the 12th Plan, already in process, was not completed.
It was evident then, and has been further confirmed in the course of the experience of the last six years, that this decision is extremely harmful for the health of the economy. The efforts of giving (…)

by SR Darapuri
On March 15, Chandrashekhar Azad announced the formation of a new political party called Azad Samaj Party (ASP) which is welcome as in a democracy every citizen has the right to form his own party. But no announcement has been made about the agenda or politics of this party yet. Prima facie, so far, there has been a belief among the common people that its main aim is to do politics of Dalit Muslim alliance as seen from the conference related to the formation of the party. If (…)

by Sardar Amjad Ali, Ex-MP
Needless it to say that one of most indispensable institutions of any civilised society is judiciary. With the advent of civilisation throughout the ages all over the world people have not only become right conscious but also developed indomitable zeal to resist any aggression against their rights they acquired through relentless struggle for a better life than they have left behind.
Even an insignificant individual would not of his own free will yield to (…)

Gandhi launched his Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921-22 when Tagore was touring the West pleading for cooperation between East and West so that peace and harmony may prevail in the world. When the news of Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement reached him, he was greatly perturbed. He got the feeling that it was a negative force in Indian politics born of hatred of the West and was meant to cut off India from the West which would be a great cultural disaster. In Tagore’s words, "No in passive (…)

via: UN News
23 March 2020
In an appeal issued on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19: the common enemy that is now threatening all of humankind. “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war”, he said. “That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus (…)

Migrant footloose labour plays a dominant role in the accumulation of capital under neo-liberal capitalism on a world scale. India is no exception on this score.
In spite of its dominant role in the capitalist mode of production in contemporary India, the mode of survival and plight of migrant workers rarely gets attention in the mainstream media. Very recently, Delhi witnessed mass exodus of migrant workers to their far-flung home towns and villages as a result of loss of livelihoods (…)

by Ara Darzi
AI companies and scientists are cooperating, but they desperately need access to pharmaceutical companies’ data
The past few weeks have revealed the worst and the best in human responses to the coronavirus crisis – from the supermarket hoarders clearing the shelves to the neighbourhood groups organising help for elderly and vulnerable people.
When it comes to the pharmaceutical companies, how should we judge their response? They, after all, hold the key to ending the (…)