2021

by Arun Srivastava
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), spearheading the farmers’ movement met with its first major setback with people of Haryana failing to carry out its directive to force their legislators to vote against the M.L. Khattar government in the March 10 vote of no confidence.
This move was widely publicised and was expected that the farmers of Haryana would enforce the decision. But with the BJP winning the trust vote with 55-32 votes it became crystal clear that the move failed. (…)

Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA)
Sh. Arvind Kejriwal Hon’ble Chief Minister 6, Flag Staff Marg, Civil Lines
New Delhi, Delhi 110054
10.3.2021
Subject: Regarding the 12 colleges 100% funded by the Delhi Government
Dear Shri Kejriwal,
We are writing to convey the anguish and anger of the teachers of Delhi University over the obdurate stance taken by you and your Government in not releasing grants to the 12 DU Colleges that are 100% funded by Delhi Government. In (…)

The Editors Guild of India [EGI]
PRESS STATEMENT
March 5th, 2021
The Editors Guild of India [EGI] is deeply concerned about the notification of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021. The Rules, issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000, fundamentally alter how publishers of news operate over the Internet and have the potential to seriously undermine media freedom in India.
They empower the Union Government to block, delete, (…)

by Sri Ayush Majumdar and Dr. Gouri Sankar Nag
The celebration of indirect democracy begins with the election and ends with another election after a gap of few years to see the electoral mandate reflecting the satisfaction of the citizenry with the work of the elected representatives in between the two elections. The Election Commission of India as mandated under Article 324 of the Indian Constitution to conduct the state legislative assembly elections and with the complementary (…)

Richard Nixon’s secrets are out. He was a skunk. Widely disliked in America and outside, he became the only US President forced to resign. Henry Kissinger, the intellectual who exploited Nixon’s lack of intellect, was a cunning operator who used his President’s weakness to show off his own strength. It was a gloomy, cynical period of history for America and the world.
Declassified White House tapes have now revealed sensational details. Nixon comes out as a racist whose personal (…)

THAT the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won four of the five by-elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) should not surprise anyone. That the BJP – which now controls MCD – drew a blank is no shocker either. That the Congress won a single seat handsomely is certainly news but that victory – more so the margin — is an ominous setback to the ruling AAP in Delhi.
Fifteen years of uninterrupted hold over MCD has taken the shine off the BJP. The North MCD and East MCD – all five (…)

by Murzban Jal
Reading D. Raja’s nostalgic recalling of the welfare state reminds one of Lenin’s celebrated statement: “none of the Marxists understood Marx!!” Lenin is writing this with the eruption of the First Imperialist World War in 1914. Kevin Anderson calls this the “crisis of world Marxism”. The crisis was that the communists who saw the essence of war as imperialist loot capitulated against the respective national governments in support of this imperialist war. The capitulation (…)

by Jawed Naqvi
March 9, 2021
THERE’s talk of peace between India and Pakistan, which should be welcomed with a tight embrace by both sides and by the world at large. If true, the move will be nothing short of a somersault for hard liners on both sides.
Not long ago, right-wing nationalists had daubed with dark paint the face of my peace activist friend Sudheendra Kulkarni as he hosted a welcome for Pakistan’s former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai. The Gandhian in (…)

The Government of India has decided to commence celebrations of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, falling on 15th August 2022, by organising Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav on 12th March 2021, the day marking the 91st anniversary of historic Dandi March launched by Mahatma Gandhi on 12th March 1930 from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi to break iniquitous salt law and achieve independence for our country. Prime Minister of India Mr. Modi launched the Mahotsav on 12th March 2021 and said that (…)

What is ‘international conspiracy’ in the political lexicon of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi is international solidarity to libertarians the world over. Mind you, Modi termed the three-month-plus-long farmers’ stir in the borders of National Capital Region in his pre-election campaign in West Bengal at Haldia during the end-February. Around the same time on 27 February Toronto Star carried a full-page advertisement, expressing solidarity with the struggling farmers and (…)