2022

26 July 2022
The joint European Union (EU)-India press release, which provides a summary of the topics discussed during the 10th EU-India human rights dialogue which took place on 15 July 2022 in New Delhi, fails to adequately address pressing issues of security and reprisals faced by human rights defenders in India, five human rights organizations said today. The organizations expressed their disappointment in the EU’s apparent failure to raise concern about the systematic attacks on (…)

The fundamental logic of capitalist mode of production is to establish control over the labour process. How capitalism works in a social formation is a larger question. In fact, capitalism took different shapes in different geographical spaces during different periods of time. The contemporary moment of capitalism is organically linked with neoliberal paradigm of governance, which makes workers footloose to serve the interests of Capital.
The neoliberal paradigm of governance in (…)

by Bhabani Shankar Nayak *
High inflation, growing unemployment and depreciating rupee are three fundamental issues faced by Indian economy today. The educational and health infrastructure is falling apart. Human development is in the bottom of the nadir. Modi government has no plans to take responsibility to navigate Indian economy away from these crises. It is passing its responsibility on Indian people by reckless hiking of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on food and other essential (…)

The Turkish government headed by its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had pulled out of the Council of Europes Istanbul Convention (Convention) through a presidential decree issued on 20th March 2021. Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe (COE), an international organization established in 1949 and consisting of 46 member states, intended to uphold human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law in Europe based on the European Convention on Human Rights. Turkey had joined the (…)

review by M.R. Narayan Swamy
India’s Greatest Minds: Spiritual Masters, Philosophers, Reformers
by Mukunda Rao
Hachette India Pages: 499 Price: Rs 699
Even hundreds of years after his death, the Sai Baba of Shirdi (1838-1918) remains one of the most widely revered and worshipped saints by millions of Hindus, Muslims and others. Born to Hindu parents and brought up by a fakir, the compassionate saint was a harsh critic of religious orthodoxy and detested the Hindu-Muslim divide. He (…)

Sri Lanka is now witnessing a much finer version of sophisticated and camouflaged autocracy than ever before. With the ‘fleeing’ former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa now scheduled to return home on 14 August after he had fled in fear of his life, President Ranil ‘Wily Fox’ Wickremasinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena have set about running the country with an iron hand.
Their plus point is their ability to coat harsh words with reason while putting forth tough principles and (…)

by L K Sharma
Captured Conversations
The End Is Nigh
10 Downing Street
Prime Minister Anthony Boswell: Welcome to the Conservative Core Group’s crucial meeting. Great Britain is on its deathbed. We face an existential crisis.
Sir Pax Flumox-Lloyd: The communists said that for years about capitalism that marched on relentlessly.
Prime Minister: This Scepter’d Isle is endangered!
Sherman Wiseman: We have lived with this fear for long.
Prime Minister: Didn’t we lose our Empire, (…)

by Lola Kantor-Kazovsky *
Translated from Russian by Bela Nikitina
The closure of “good theatres” in Moscow (I use good here as an analogy with “good Russians” —broad-minded & liberal in spirit) is hopeless barbarism, and I understand the shocked state of those of my Moscow friends who feel that they literally “lost their home”. The ‘Rashisty’ – [a mélange of the Russians and the Fascists], among whom are also former intellectuals, feel that it is finally their time to celebrate. (…)

by Bell Hooks
Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. Yet most men do not use the word “patriarchy” in everyday life. Most men never think about patriarchy—what it means, how it is created and sustained. Many men in our nation would not be able to spell the word or pronounce it correctly. The word “patriarchy” just is not a part of their normal everyday thought or speech. Men who have heard and know the word usually (…)

* Rubber stamp or no, Murmu scores big for Adivasis | John Dayal
* 50 years of Stockholm | Swapan Kumar Sil
* Subverting Forest Rights Act 2006 To help Big corporations | Soma Marla
* Press Release by Margaret Alva
* Audio: A letter to Ukraine from Sarajevo | Aida Cerkez