2022

Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, GOI (GEAC) has permitted on Oct.18 the environmental release of genetically-modified (GM) mustard. Being the first food crop, expert studies question the environmental, biosafety and human health risks associated with hasty government approval. Gory experience of GM cotton, which resulted in havoc and farmer suicides in cotton fields during the last decade and half only benefited Monsanto and other Agribussiness MNCs.
What is GM mustard (…)

by Vikash Narain Rai *
Religion and nationalism may be touted as their sweet allies but it is the politics of hate that has all along defined the strident march of Hindutva forces to power. In this context, it is remarkable how the unprecedented crowd support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has consistently and successfully pitted Hindustan against Hate-istan. To an optimist, it is a point of no return. Really?
Almost half way through the longest (…)

by Arun Srivastava
RSS leaders and Narendra Modi are not at all worried of rejuvenation and survival of Congress, it is the threat of Rahul Gandhi giving a new left of centre ideological line to the Congress that has really shaken their confidence in accomplishing their mission.
Only a week back outlining the ideological structure of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi in the midst of Yatra in Telangana, said the ‘Hate project of RSS’ had not only weakened the country but was also antithetical to (…)

by Amrendu Kumar Singh*
Introduction
‘Freebies’ have always been part and parcel of India’s political economy of development, better known as ‘subsidies’ in the traditional sense when a large segment of society and public economy were often subsidised. However, with the introduction of market reforms since early nineties and ushering of liberalization, privatization and globalisation (LPG), many areas that were traditionally benefitting from the largesse in the name of subsidies came to (…)

2 November 2022
Human life in sheer peril!
In the midst of shrill developmental promises by the politicians of the day, bridges are collapsing, structures tumbling-crumbling-falling apart, flood fury spreading havoc, poisonous gases leaking, men and women and children subjected to all possible violent attacks and tortures.
In fact, last week we were once again reminded of those dark times when two young teenaged boys were tied to a vehicle in a particular locale in Madhya (…)

by Abdullah Zahid with Beena Sarwar The drama began well before the start of the Fourth Asma Jahangir Conference on ‘Crisis of Constitutionalism in South Asia’, held last weekend in Lahore.
When Steven Butler of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) landed in Pakistan for the conference, he found himself detained for eight hours at the airport.
The detention appeared to be the “result of a breakdown in communication” between the Pakistan government and the interior ministry that (…)

The possibility of the use of nuclear weapons, intentional or on the basis of misunderstandings which can result in a situation of high-tensions and escalating tensions continuing for a long time, has been repeatedly and increasingly held out in recent times. In this context various scenarios have been presented by several eminent experts almost all of which reveal a very alarming situation of enormous destruction arising from it. Now in addition to this, the possibility of the use of (…)

by Andrea L P Pirro *
Abstract: This contribution makes the case for a shift in boundaries between the (populist) radical right and the extreme right, arguing for the systematic use of the term far right’. The significance of a deliberately generic but fundamentally meaningful concept such as far right is motivated by the growing links between illiberal-democratic (‘radical right’)and anti-democratic (‘extreme right’) collective actors. This begs considering the conceptual grounds for (…)

The former president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, has won the country’s presidential election by an incredibly narrow margin of 50.90% of the vote against his right-wing rival and incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro’s 49.10%.
When Lula stepped down as president in 2010, he was enjoying the approval of 80% of the Brazilian people. How Lula came to lose his carisma makes a complicated story. He attributed it entirely to the ground reality that he was fighting (…)

All India Kisan Sabha
kisansabha[at]gmail.com, New Delhi-1
Press Release 31.10.2022
News reports have misrepresented comments of AIKS General Secretary Hannan Mollah on GM Mustard and given an impression that the All India Kisan Sabha is welcoming the GEAC decision. These reports have wrongly conveyed an impression that AIKS is in a tearing hurry to welcome GM Mustard.
The AIKS has noted that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has given a green signal to production (…)