2023

An Appeal Against Exclusion of Evolution from Curriculum
We, the undersigned, have learned that sweeping changes are being proposed in the CBSE curriculum in the secondary and senior secondary courses. These changes, first introduced as a temporary measure during the Corona pandemic, are being continued even when schooling has gone back to offline mode. In particular, we are concerned with the exclusion of the teaching of Darwinian evolution from the 10th standard curriculum, as seen in (…)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To: The Editor, Mainstream Weekly, http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/
16 April 2023
This is to draw your kind attention to an article that was re-published in India Today on 13th April 2023 titled “Why Keshub Mahindra declined the Padma Bhushan”. The said article was reportedly first published in the Business Today edition dated 31st March 2002. The said article has attempted to project Keshub Mahindra as a “gentleman”, who did not want to embarrass the (…)

CPI(M)
April 16, 2023
Press Statement The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Condemn Ghastly Killings in UP
The ghastly killing of Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf while in police custody and in front of the media shows that Uttar Pradesh has become a completely lawless state.
The manner in which two men were murdered in the presence of heavy police escort points towards official connivance. This must be seen in the (…)

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES 332, Patpar Ganj, Opposite Anand Lok Apartments, Mayur Vihar I, Delhi 110 091 Founder: Jayaprakash Narayan; Founding President: V M Tarkunde President: Ravi Kiran Jain; General Secretary: Dr. V. Suresh
E.mail: puclnat[at]gmail.com& pucl.natgensec[at]gmail.com
19.04.2023
Stop Encounter Killings in UP: End State lawlessness! Doubts arise about Complicity of UP Police in killing of Atiq & Ashraf Ahmed: Questions to be answered by UP Police.
1. (…)

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
17 April 2023
Release of PUDR’s Report
PUDR report on Jahangirpuri Communal Incident, Delhi, 2022 alleges bias against Muslims
One year has passed since the communal incident at Jahangirpuri on Hanuman Jayanti. PUDR is releasing a report ‘Probing the Jahangirpuri Communal Incident, Delhi, 2022: Context, Aftermath, Police Investigation & Findings’. The key finding of the report is that the investigations and prosecution case is seeking to (…)

by Evgeny Morozov *
Let’s retire this hackneyed term: while ChatGPT is good at pattern-matching, the human mind does so much more
Elon Musk and Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak have recently signed a letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of AI systems. The goal is to give society time to adapt to what the signatories describe as an “AI summer”, which they believe will ultimately benefit humanity, as long as the right guardrails are put in place. These guardrails (…)

BOOK REVIEW:
__0__
Let Us Talk About Bhabha by S P K Gupta
Pages 818 e-book price in India Rs 50 Evelyn Publishers ISBN 81-90004175
__0__
Homi Jehangir Bhabha has always been a mysterious character in science history.
The man died almost 60 years ago and had lived for more than fifty years before that. In the land of his birth, he is revered almost like a god, especially by the communal, right-wing, jingoist lot for he is ‘the father of India’s nuclear programme’, the man who (…)

* Philosophy of Neo-Liberal Education | Arup Maharatna
* Looking into the Other Side of Merit | Gyan Prakash
* The plight of ad hoc teachers at Delhi University | Garima Mani Tripathi
* Renamed Booker Prize | Devaki Jain
* A splendid dream interrupted | Jawed Naqvi

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 15, 2023
The return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021 led to a wave of outward migration, a humanitarian crisis & also the basic civil rights of Afghans have been ditched for a crude religious code determining what is considered right or wrong. Despite all the failings, the twenty-year effort at promoting education for girls and women and opening women’s participation in the economy had had some success – the number of girls (…)

by Arup Maharatna *
I
The popular notion of democracy, as we know and see it, construes inter alias that the entire adult population are impeccably equal in their right or entitlement to electing/selecting the government. But it should not be forgotten that this perfect equality of electoral right does not stem from a notion that all people are potentially equal in terms of intrinsic intellectual capabilities, talents, imaginativeness, and innate affinities. It is bountifully evident and (…)