2022

President-elect Draupadi Murmu, the first person from an indigenous peoples group to be in Rashtrapati Bhawan, has raised hopes among her 1.30 billion fellow citizens. Independent India’s 15th President may not be able to curb the corporate sector’s march into her beloved forests of central India, or ensure more constitutional posts for Scheduled Tribes, or to keep large numbers of their youth out of jail on trumped-up charges, but her ethnicity is surely a marker in the march of the (…)

by Swapan Kumar Sil *
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT is a concept.
How far it is applicable in the real world is still uncertain. But the world leaders are persistently hopeful that we will get over the crisis arising from environmental degradation and pollution by anchoring this concept.
After the industrial revolution in Europe, development and environment were never friendly to each other; yet, in 1972, the highly intrusive and consumerist nations took their first step to get together (…)

Dr. Soma Marla *
While nominating Smt. Draupadi Murmu [as a candidate in India’s Presidential Election 2022], the ruling BJP boasted a savior of tribal people. However, by proposing changes to Forest Rights Act, 2996, the government is doing quite the opposite by subverting the interests of tribal people to benefit big companies.
During the current monsoon session of Parliament, new rules are proposed to the present Forest Rights Act 2006. These changes run against the interests of (…)

In a statement on June 24, the UN-Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned,“ There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022.”
He went on to add, “2023 could be even worse.”
In a message to a meeting of representatives of several countries being held at Berlin, Mr. Guterres said that the world faces catastrophe because of the growing shortage of food caused by climate change, the pandemic, growing inequalities and on top of that the Ukraine war.
As farming takes a (…)

Their protest against misgovernance has succeeded beyond belief, but Sri Lankans appear to be a bit confused. They are of course rejoicing at the complete fall of the Rajapaksas from absolute power. Yet, one sentence in ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksas’s resignation letter has sent them thinking and thinking deeply.
“I have contributed my utmost for the country and in the future too, I will contribute for the country,” Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in his resignation letter which was (…)

BAR ASSOCIATION OF SRI LANKA
18.07.2022.
STATEMENT BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF SRI LANKA ON THE DECLARATION OF EMERGENCY
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) notes that a State of Emergency has been declared by the Acting President with effect from 18th July 2022, the third time since April 1" 2022 that the country has been placed under the same. On one such occasion the State of Emergency was rescinded by the President before any Regulations were made (…)

Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2022
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemns the latest round of unprecedented burdens imposed on the people through the GST hikes on all essential commodities such as pre-packaged rice, wheat, milk. The PB demands that these hikes be immediately rolled back.
Independent India abandoned the (…)

[Margaret Alva has been a five Term Member of Parliament in India. She is a Lawyer. Former Union Minister & Governor. Kannada Rajyotsava Awardee. She is a joint opposition candidate for the post of Vice President of India, 2022, she has issued the below press release via her Twitter account: @alva_margaret]
Margaret Alva
[July 20, 2022]
PRESS RELEASE
It is a privilege and honour to be nominated as the candidate of the joint opposition for the post of Vice President of the (…)

Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan
PRESS RELEASE: | [July 20, 2022]
On 14th July 2022, Supreme Court dismissed a writ petition filed by Himanshu Kumar and twelve other people in a 2009 case that sought an independent investigation in the extra-judicial killings of Adivasis in the villages of (then Dantewada) now Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. This came to be known as the Gompad massacre, and it includes two major incidents of violence in September and October 2009 that happened in the (…)

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathu Ram Godse. There are some people subscribing to Hindutva ideology who idolize Godse. Various leaders, and activists associated with the Hindutva ideology from time to time have portrayed Godse as a patriot. The question is Gandhi was the tallest leader of India’s freedom movement and even before India achieved independence Godse was making an attempt to kill Gandhi, so, how could Godse be a patriot? But by describing Godse as a patriot Mahatma (…)