2023

December 26, 2023
Indian diplomacy is ending 2023 with a momentous turnaround. What began as a course correction necessitated by the torrential flow of events in West Asia is assuming strategic overtones.
Truly, the aberration in India’s policies can be traced to the UPA rule (2004-2014) but it is under the period since then 2014 that they accentuated phenomenally and began creating contradictions undermining national interests. This aberration also led to a serious erosion of India’s (…)

Dr. Mohini Giri, former chairperson of the National Commission for Women and presently the chairperson of an NGO, Guild for Service which she had set up in 1979, died on 19th December of this month at the age of 85 years only a few days she would have attained the age of 86 years on 15th January 2024. She was ailing for some time, but she continued to guide the Guild and many activities close to her heart and domain of expertise, till her demise. Dr Giri or Mohiniji as she is fondly known to (…)

Israel has a huge manufacturing base in India together with massive import/export trade. India is one of Israel’s largest trading partners. We need to call on the people of our country to boycott all Israeli products and companies to lend support to the Palestinians and counter Zionist fascism.
The following are some products either owned by Israel or with a strong Israeli connection which should be boycotted: Pepsico, Coca Cola, Sprite, Milo, Oral B, Energiser, Maggie, Kit Kat, Barbie, (…)

September 1, 2023
Socialism now needs to add a critical analysis of capitalism’s micro-level organization inside workplaces and households to its macro-level analyses
The real left is not the caricature crafted by the U.S. right. Alongside parallel right-wing political formations abroad, that caricature tries hard to revive and recycle Cold War demonizations no matter how far-fetched. Nor is the real left what Democratic Party leaders and their foreign counterparts try hard to dismiss as (…)

17 December 2023
Centralised kitchen in midday meals a big flop, students fed up – Survey of schools exposes the truth
Khadya Suraksha Jan Adhikar Manch, Pashchimi Singhbhum
Khadya Suraksha Jan Adhikar Manch, Pashchimi Singhbhum today released the report (attached) of its survey of the centralised kitchen system started for midday meals in government schools of four blocks (Sadar, Jhinkpani, Khuntpani, Tantnagar) of West Singhbhum district (Jharkhand). A public discussion on the (…)

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES 332, Patpar Ganj, Opp. Anand Lok Apartments, (Gate No. 2), Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi 110 091
Founder: Jayaprakash Narayan; Founding President: V M Tarkunde President: Ms. Kavita Srivastava (Rajasthan); General Secretary: V Suresh (Tamil Nadu); E.mail:puclnat[at]gmail.com, www.pucl.org (…)

Book Review


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Phantom Lovers: Two Novellas by Achala Moulik
Niyogi Books
2023 | 384 Pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8196405332 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8196405335
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The author, a civil servant-scholar, has the gift for writing about human love in the midst of violence and conflict. The volume contains two moving ‘novellas’; one on India titled ‘With Fate Conspire’ and the other on Afghanistan titled Wait!
The author’s Note on the first novella draws from Rabindranath Tagore’s dance (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Emily Laurent-Monaghan
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Pleasure Erased: The Clitoris Unthought by Catherine Malabou
Polity 2022. 150 pp. ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509549935 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509549931
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Unlike ‘woman’ or ‘sex’, the clitoris is not an overdetermined signifier. On the contrary, in Pleasure Erased, Catherine Malabou argues that the clitoris, despite its forcible erasure, persists, waiting to be thought. Arguably one of the most dynamic philosophers thinking today, Malabou (…)

* New Constitution: A Fig Leaf for Hindu Rashtra | Vijay Kumar
* Diplomatic blow to India as Biden turns down invite | M K Bhadrakumar
* On High-Interest Microfinance by NBFCs | S S Sangwan
* Climate Crisis, Human Suffering, & Hope | S N Tripathy
* Sri Lanka: The Future of Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism | Shashik Silva & Ammaarah Nilafdeen

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, 16 Dec 2023
The 28th United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates just concluded on Dec 13, 2023. This conference was crowded with technocrats & lobbyists, and dealers from the Carbon trading market, and salesmen of unimaginably expensive technical fantasies of Carbon Capture and Storage (estimated to cost some 30 trillion dollars) to fix the Climate crisis …… . Countries most vulnerable to climate disasters tried (…)