2022

Navaid Hamid, President of the AIMMM, (All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat) a federation of various Muslim organisations, is one of the first to have raised “concern” as he puts across, after the newly-elected President of India, Droupadi Murmu, did not mention names any of the Muslim freedom fighters in her first address to the nation after being sworn in as a President of India.
To quote Navaid Hamid on this: “It’s nothing but unfortunate that the President Murmu’s address (…)

by Anand Chandrasekhar
The Café de la Couronne along with Hotel Bristol in Geneva were favoured hangouts for anti-colonial activists and foreign agents by courtesy
A forgotten episode in India’s struggle for Independence is revisited by new books that underline Switzerland’s role as a strategic location for revolutionaries, anarchists and foreign agents.
“He is the most dangerous conspirator in or out of India. He’s done more harm than all the rest put together. You know that there is (…)

BOOK REVIEW __0__
Periyar: A Study in Political Atheism by Karthick Ram Manoharan
Orient BlackSwan March 2022 Pages: 133; Price: Rs 225 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9354421679 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9354421679
Believe it or not, it was Periyar’s pilgrimage to one of the holiest places of Hinduism that converted him into the religion’s inveterate enemy. Another irony is that though Periyar is revered in Tamil Nadu, the appeal of gods and religion remains firmly entrenched in the state.
E.V. Ramasamy (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State by Josy Joseph
Context-Westland 2021 Rs 454 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9390679532 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9390679539
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I WAS TALKING to a journalist friend across a 5G spectrum 2000 km away, asking her to pick up the July issue of the Caravan magazine that features the Rise and Fall of the NIA. She said, ‘I am really scared. Fall does not mean it does not exist’.
The subject had come up in the context of an interview she had (…)

The Right to Food Campaign is very concerned over media reports coming from different parts of the country regarding denial of rations to people if they do not purchase the tiranga (national flag) under the Har Ghar Tiranga Abhiyan on the occasion of 75th year of Independence.

Joint statement by organisations
Release prisoners on completion of jail term, decriminalise inadvertent border crossings, especially for fisherfolk and minors
[July 31, 2022]
Kalu Vira, a fisherman from India incarcerated in Pakistan died at a hospital in Karachi on 6 July 2022. He had completed his jail term in December 2021, and his nationality had been verified.
After his passing, it took over 10 days for the Pakistan authorities to inform the Indian High Commission about the (…)

08th August 2022
Press Release by CTUs, Sectoral Independent Sectoral Federations and Associations
That ELECTRICITY (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is a prescription for privatizing electricity distribution, is a known fact. That is why the Samyukt Kisan Morcha has demanded that the Bill should be scrapped. The National Co-ordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) have taken pains over the entire past year to explain to the ordinary people how Electricity will become (…)

It is now 77th year of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. The human race is now facing a new danger of the use of nuclear weapons. Carrying on the aggression against Ukraine, President Putin of Russia is repeating a nuclear threat. Along with Russia, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are maintaining and consolidating their “nuclear deterrents.” From Hiroshima which suffered the indescribable damage of the nuclear weapons and (…)

by Suraj Budathoki Sapan News 9 Aug 2022: Bhutan’s much-touted happiness rating lies atop a bed of pain. The pain of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin. I know, because I am one of them.
I come from an average working class family that lived in Bhutan for generations, with no interest or involvement in politics. My community, known in Bhutan as Lhotshampa, has traditionally lived in the south of the country.
In 1989, Bhutan conducted a national census and revoked our citizenship after (…)

by Guy B. Marks, UNSW in Sydney
Emissions that meet air-quality standards still cause illness and early death. Planning decisions need to help drive down exposure.
It might seem reasonable to think air pollution is only a problem when the sky is thick with brown smog. But a new study is further proof the problem starts much earlier – and well below the minimum air-quality standards.
Worse, the research shows the negative effects increase most rapidly at lower levels of exposure. And (…)