2023

FOR A CONSISTENTLY DEMOCRATIC AND INTERNATIONALIST LEFT
A contribution to left renewal and transformation
We have been watching the civilian death toll in Gaza mount, in horror, day by day, for weeks on end now. We are appalled and outraged at the collective punishment meted out to Gazans by the IDF, increasing settler violence in the West Bank, and repression by the state and right wing mobs against Palestinian citizens of Israel. In the US, in Europe, in India and elsewhere, Palestine (…)

PUCL 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, Please visit our website: www.pucl.org (…)

Reviewed by KS Subramanian IPS (retd)
__0__
India’s National Security Challenges Edited by NN Vohra India International Centre, New Delhi Primus Books
2023 HB ISBN : 978-93-5852-037-8
__0__
This is a collection of articles on India’s national security, edited by N N Vohra former J& K Governor (2008-18) and Life Trustee of the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, devoted to promotion of discussion on national security and similar issues.
The Covid 19 pandemic had (…)

* Big Oil Dictating COP28 Agenda | Soma Marla
* Analysis of the Five Assembly Election Results of Dec 2023 | P. S. Jayaramu
* Manipur’s Saga of Rape / Murder & the Cops Who Let The Culprits Free | KS Subramanian
* 1967 interview with Issac Deutscher on the Arab-Israeli War

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, December 9, 2023
At the recently held world climate conference COP28 in Dubai, top executives of energy multinationals argued in favour of oil and gas and painted their credentials as climate-friendly. Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and gas are set to hit a record high in 2023 with China and India driving the big increase. The Dubai event was chaired by UAE’s top oil executive and hundreds of lobbyists from fossil (…)

Terrorism, when defined as the deliberate use of violence against civilians to make political gains, casts a broad ambit, covering the various acts of terror. The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 fits this definition perfectly, and so does the disproportionate retaliation. Though the Hamas attack is unforgivable and beyond justification, we need to accept that it did not manifest in a vacuum. It is the latest chapter in a long history of violence, power wrangling and ostracisation. (…)

December 10, 2023
After days of suspense over the fate of the INDIA alliance following the crushing defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party gave to the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh, presuming that before the coming general elections most of the leading constituents of INDIA may fall apart out of despondency, for the first time on December 8 the sight of INDIA bloc standing together behind Trinamul Congress young, firebrand woman MP Mahua Moitra, provided (…)

In the context of America’s war against Islam in the wake of 9/11 attacks, the eminent critical voice of our time, Arundhati Roy, raised a fundamental question in her article, ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’, carried in The Guardian (2001). Roy asked:
So here we have it. The equivocating distinction between civilisation and savagery, between the “massacre of innocent people” or, if you like, “a clash of civilisations” and “collateral damage.” The sophistry and fastidious algebra of (…)

COP28, the United Nation’s climate Summit is being held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 30 November to 12 December 2023. Some 200 government representatives, the signatories of Climate Agreement in 1992 and several hundred environmental organizations will take stock of the measures to limit global warming pledged in 2015 Paris Agreement.
Some 2,800 representatives of Big Oil and Gas firms are also participating as revealed by Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO). As the (…)

Now that the rescue of the workers trapped in the tunnel collapse accident in Silkyara has been successfully completed, it is time to look at the wider issue of the very difficult and hazardous conditions in which construction workers employed in very remote locations of the Himalayan region have to toil, far away from their homes.
A recent report in The Tribune (December 1 2023) by Neeraj Mohan has highlighted the poor working condition faced by nearly 400 workers from (…)