2021

The Editors Guild of India
PRESS STATEMENT
June 17, 2021
The Editors Guild of India condemns the filing of First Information Reports (FIRs) by the Uttar Pradesh Police against The Wire and several other journalists, for their tweets on an assault on an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad on June 5th. In the video that was posted by those charged, the man is seen alleging that he was beaten up by some people and was forced him to chant ‘ Jai Shree Ram’.
Several media organizations and (…)

[June 18, 2021]
Gujarat Sahitya Akademi whose autonomy was wrested by the Gujarat government, which then turned it into a government institution, publishes a journal named Shabdsrushti. The June 2021 issue of Shabdsrushti carries an anonymous piece of writing titled “No, This Is Not a Poem, It Is Misuse of a ‘Poem’ for Anarchy…” on page 89. The necessary obligation of writing the author’s name is not honoured which should be deemed immoral, criminal and dangerous according to government (…)

June 17, 2021
Press Release
CPI Condemns Modi Government’s Move to split of Ordnance Factories into Seven Corporations
D. RAJA, General Secretary, Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (on June 17, 2021):
The CPI right from the beginning has been opposing the ill-designed move of the Modi government to corporatise the 220 years-old Indian Ordnance Factories consisting of 41 factories throughout the country involved in indigenously manufacturing all defence (…)

* Why Hindi Votaries Need to Shut Up | M R Narayan Swamy
* Re-Reading Hamlet Politically in Times of Covid-19 | Radhakanta Barik
* Role & Strategies of Political Parties in the Telangana Movement | Sreerupa Saha

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, June 12, 2021
We remain in the midst of a major public health crisis since March 2020 but neither the Government nor the Opposition or the Society at large seems to have become more inclined or better prepared to handle public health issues. Not only has there been a huge lack of preparedness on the health front, but also a failure to adequately respond to the major economic slowdown — with some 250 million people slipping into poverty levels and a (…)

June 9, 2021
The long-awaited decision by the Congress high command in Delhi to appoint party veteran K Sudhakaran, a sitting member of the Lok Sabha, as the next president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has come on expected lines, but is all the same a hugely consequential development.
The new president of the KPCC, K Sudhakaran, 73, is a charismatic figure in many ways — a tall stalwart of the Congress party apart, he is rich with political experience and statecraft (…)

by P S Jayaramu
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known for springing surprises. One such thing he did was to appoint Dr.Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as India’s foreign minister when he inaugurated his second innings in late May 2019. Jaishankar was the most suitable person to head the foreign ministry given his illustrious career in the Indian Foreign Service, having held prestigious assignments like that of foreign secretary and the post of Ambassador to China earlier. His innings as foreign (…)

by Gull Mohammad Wani
I understand that there is no iron curtain between you and those who would like to visit you and share their ideas about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Somehow I thought to reach you through this letter at a time when you are invested with a heavy responsibility as head of the state. Frankly, I got emboldened by the recent remarks of Prime Minister Mr Modi asking for active engagement of civil society in coping with the pandemic. In fact the (…)

IMPRESSIONS
It spoke a great deal about the Government’s concept of democracy when a journalist was charged with sedition for criticising the Government’s Covid policy. The Supreme Court had to tell the Government that it was the right of journalists to criticise, even brutally, government policies.
The judgment put it in words that must always be remembered by all, elected authorities and the public and journalists themselves. As the bench put it: The time is long past when the mere (…)

I am a South Indian born and raised in Delhi and my mother tongue is Tamil. Let me quickly add that while I am at home in English, my working language, I simply love Hindi – and I am not exaggerating one bit. I want to, however, make it very clear that I hate it when some people try to put Hindi on a higher pedestal and try to make it out as if knowing and not knowing Hindi is tantamount to being a true Indian or otherwise. If I know three languages (Hindi, Tamil and English), then my wife – (…)