2021

MUSINGS
August 4, 2021
The rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl child in the capital city of the country, New Delhi, is another of those reminders that we are living in dark-barbaric-ruthless times. Nah, no human form is safe and secure, in spite of all those governmental claims that there’s that machinery to look after the welfare and well-being of the citizens. Bogus seem those hollow assurances and tall claims.
Correct me if I’m wrong but only a very small percentage of the rape (…)

by M R Narayan Swamy
Was Maxim Gorky a Stalinist stooge? Did he embrace Bolshevism fully? Was he an apologist for Stalin’s crimes against fellow Russians? The questions have dogged the eminent and controversial Soviet writer for long. More than 150 years after his birth, there are no clear answers.
Satyanarayan Sinha, an Indian revolutionary who went to Moscow to learn how to oust the British but quickly became disenchanted with the Soviet realities, met Gorky in southern Italy where the (…)

by Radhakanta Barik *
In the Bombay film world there was a Calcutta school of filmmaking. Prominent of them was Bimal Roy who had a command over each area of film making. Strong tradition of storytelling was the strength of these film makers. It depended on literary works. It did not believe in stereotype and it differs from one story to another. They did depend on cinematic language to tell the story. They had a command over each area of film making. Choreography, direction and (…)

On August 6, as the world observes Hiroshima Day (the 76th anniversary of the first-ever use of an atomic weapon in Hiroshima) , serious concerns regarding the threats from nuclear weapons are increasing in the middle of new tensions and power rivalries. We should not be misled into a false sense of security that the reduction in the number of nuclear weapons, when compared to cold war peak numbers, has increased the overall security of our world. There are several other technological and (…)

[concerned citizens oppose a Government takeover of the Sabarmati Ashram]
The Ashram
Gandhi’s Ashram at Ahmedabad, known as Sabarmati Ashram, is an unusual monument of international importance. It was Gandhi’s home from 1917 to 1930. He led the famous Dandi March from the Ashram and pledged not to return to the Ashram until independence was attained.
After the salt march, Gandhiji disbanded the Ashram as a part of the freedom struggle in 1933. After Independence Gandhi’s associates and (…)

All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (AIFUCTO)
Press Release
Patna:
02.08.2021
Prime Minister address to the nation on the first-year completion of NEP ignored ground realities
Prime Minister’s address to the nation and launching some new initiatives on the occasion of first-year completion of NEP marked a complete divorce from ground realities of our education system. The pompous assertion of NEP being an instrument of strengthening the concept (…)

DUTA Press Release, 29.7.2021
As part of his address to the nation on National Education Policy 2020, the PM today has launched Academic Bank of Credit (ABC), yet another NEP recommendation. The ABC Regulations intend to give impetus to Blended Learning Mode, allowing students to earn credits from various HEIs registered under this scheme and through SWAYAM, an online repository of courses. The student can earn up to 50% credits from outside the college/university where she/he is enrolled (…)

* The Assam-Mizoram Border Clash | Barun Das Gupta
* Pegasus – obfuscating the obvious | Upal Chakraborty
* One dream, different dreaming | Ash Narain Roy
* Marx in the MEGA | Pradip Baksi

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, July 31, 2021
Frequent events of extreme weather are likely to be the norm now and the tipping point in the climate crisis seems to be approaching …. Globally, land temperatures are about 1.2C hotter than in pre-industrial times. Governments are supposed to meet in November 2021 in Glasgow, at the Cop26 UN climate summit, to talk ways of preventing the world from heating by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Consultants from Climate change (…)

The death of seven Assam policemen in armed clashes with the Mizoram police on July 26 is deplorable. Assam has “border disputes” with Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram for a long time. This time, according to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the clash with the Mizo police ensued when the Assam police tried to prevent the encroachment of land by the Mizos in the reserved forests of the contiguous region of Barak Valley of Assam. The CM said that there was no “politics” in it. The (…)