2022

Text of Open Statement on Bar Gene in GM Mustard
Date: 10th Dec., 2022
We introduce ourselves as scientists, having expertise in the various advanced disciplines of biology, plant breeding and environmental science and who have been following the arguments unfolding in the Hon’ble Supreme Court on the matter of Genetically Modified Mustard. There, the question has come up as to whether or not GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 is an herbicide tolerant crop.
In Bar-Barnase-Barstar system, the Bar (…)

BOOK REVIEW
__0__
In Search of the Divine:
Living Histories of Sufism in India
by Rana Safvi
Hachette India
Pages: 415; Price: Rs 599 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9393701113
__0__
Orthodox Muslims may look down upon Sufism as blasphemy but writer-scholar Rana Safvi asserts that Prophet Muhammud was the first Sufi and the first link of all Sufi orders or silsilas.
In a claim that could raise the hackles of many Muslims, Safvi says that it is from the Prophet’s own behaviour that Sufis (…)

Book Review
Border Nation
A Story of Migration
by Leah Cowan
Pluto Press, London
2021 ISBN 978 0 7453 4107 1 (Paperback) __0__
The UK’s border regulations and migration conundrums take a heavy verbal beating from Leah Cowan. The book Border Nation, a very challenging read, rich with examples, useful references and contemporary allusions, is Cowan’s first book. In this book, Cowan, a British citizen and former Politics Editor at gal-dem (an online magazine and media platform run (…)

* Poverty, Inequality has risen in the Modi Years | K N Ninan
* Misplaced Claims of India Being the Mother of Democracy | S N Sahu
* Somalia’s Long Journey from Prosperity to Hunger | Bharat Dogra
* Albert Einstein on God, in his letter to Erik Gutkind (1954)
* Concern over Death Penalty for protestors in Iran | IDPD

Letter to the Readers, December 3, December 10, 2022
The big COP27 Climate jamboree with its 30,000 jet set delegates just ended in the Egyptian beach resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh (otherwise popular with Russian tourists). Climate and civil society activists at the conference faced some intimidation, harassment from the heavy handed Egyptian security and secret service, leading to a statement from prominent UN special rapporteurs to the Human Rights Council. The conference was marked by (…)

[article updated on Dec 10, 2022]
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s victory in Gujarat Assembly Elections in view of its defeat in Himachal Pradesh as well as polls of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) certainly send contrary messages about this party’s hold in these three domains. While BJP has returned to power in Gujarat, it has failed to in Himachal Pradesh and has lost MCD polls after around 15 years. As expected, numerous speculations are being voiced about these election results. (…)

by K N Ninan *
Despite becoming the fifth largest economy in the world, India continues to have the largest concentration of the world’s poor estimated at 159.8 to 192.8 million people in 2020 using the international poverty line of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) $ 2.15 as per a recent World Bank report (World Bank 2022).
Official estimates of poverty and inequality in India are based on the results of the household Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) of the National Sample Survey (NSS). (…)

“Tum bilkul hum jaise nikle tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley ab tak kahan chhupe the bhai voh moorkhta, voh ghaamarpan jis mein hum ne sadi ganwai aakhir pahunchi dwaar tumhaarey arre badhai bohot badhai —Pakistani poet Fehmida Riyaz after Babri Masjid demolition.
Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the symbol of non-violence, secularism and religious tolerance in what was then known as North West Frontier Province (NWFP) died in the era of General Ziaul Haq’s Islamised and Jehadised (…)

by P. S. Jayaramu
November 28, 2022
India accepted the Presidency of the G20 at the recently concluded summit at Bali, Indonesia. This is both an opportunity for India to project its leadership of the Global South as well as a challenge, as the Indian leadership will have to, in the next one year, use its diplomatic skills to bring on board the developed nations in the group towards working for solutions to the numerous issues ranging from the Ukraine war and its impact on the world at (…)

The recent campaigns of the BJP for the impending assembly elections in Gujarat enlightens us about the contemporary paradigm of BJP politics. Preaching hate against the Muslim community is an organic part of this paradigm of politics. This is embedded in the hate/ ‘peace’ speech of the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah at an election rally in the Kheda district: “...such a lesson was taught in 2002” to “those engaging in communal riots” in Gujarat that it led to “akhand shanti” (eternal peace) (…)