2023

by Oleg Sheyn
Translated by Dan Erdman
Feb 1
If we can characterize the situation in Russia in a few words, then let us say that the country is plunging into a state of catastrophe, the scale of which will be quite comparable to 1991, perhaps even surpassing those events. Let me remind you that the trigger for the collapse of the Soviet Union was the disappearance of oil and gas revenues, which undermined the budget and completed the processes of decline that had been in development (…)

February 24, 2023
The general expectation that the first anniversary of Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine would mark the commencement of a big military offensive has been belied, going by the speeches by President Vladimir Putin and the US President Joe Biden, separated by a few hours on February 21, in Moscow and Warsaw.
Neither said anything very original. Putin cut himself loose towards the end of his speech by dropping a bombshell that Russia is suspending its (…)

Busy the bee that found 2 B stressfully working, No time now, That would be shirking Believe they’re willing Indeed a deed, their only creed Is really of helping, Deed to word, and words in deed It is Truth they’re seeking. In continuing quest, Difficulty striking Head, hand and heart to head Their selfless ways Such their way of what’s easier said. In and out and in again, It’s in my being, Them Darts do dart To give and accept is a fine art. Right action for wrong, A (…)

In days gone by I used to be A potter who would feel His fingers mould the yielding clay To patterns on his wheel; But now, through wisdom lately won, That pride has gone away, I have ceased to be the potter And have learned to be the clay. In other days I used to be A poet through whose pen Innumerable songs would come To win the hearts of men; But now, through new-got knowledge Which I hadn’t had so long, I have ceased to be the poet And have learned to be the song. I was a fashioner (…)

Press Statement issued by Shri KC Venugopal, G. Sec. I/C, Organisation
23 February, 2023
Today, a group of INC leaders were travelling on Indigo Flight No. 6E 204 from Delhi to Raipur. After we boarded, Sh. Pawan Khera was deplaned and informed that the Assam Police will be arresting him. Without providing any copy of the FIR, an arrest warrant, or a production warrant from the concerned magistrate, the Delhi Police detained Sh. Khera.
Sh. Khera was arrested on totally baseless (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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Rishi Sunak: The Rise
by Michael Ashcroft
Hachette India; Pages: 357; Price: Rs 699
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If Britain was engulfed by a majoritarian ideology, Rishi Sunak would have never become the Prime Minister.
It goes to the credit of Britain’s democracy that a young man born to Indian immigrants (a Hindu at that) defeated veterans in an overwhelmingly white constituency and finally moved into 10 Downing Street. All that mattered to the Conservatives and British voters (…)

Reviewed by Anne-Lise Boyer (University of Arizona) __0__
The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics
by Jenny Goldstein, Eric Nost, eds.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 2022. ix + 328 pp. (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4962-1715-8; (paper), ISBN 978-1-4962-3250-2
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At a time when the apparent dematerialization of economies, the hypertrophy of the digital sphere, the predominance of social networks, and the advancement of artificial intelligence value the (…)

(On February 16-17, a representative of ’Sotsialnyi Rukh’ —the Ukrainian left organization took part in the 11th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and delivered a message to: (1) to mobilise against Modi’s economic, diplomatic, and political cooperation with the state of Russia (2) to encourage the CPIML and the Indian Left to re-evaluate their positions on the Russian invasion and the Ukrainian resistance.)
The transcript of the speech is given below. (…)

* On the Legacies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Narendra Deva | Anil Nauriya
* Paresh Chattopadhyay and his time | Pradip Baksi
* Black days ahead if coal city does not change | Shatabdi Das
* Low Budgets, Inequalities Impede Educational Progress | Bharat Dogra
* Raid on BBC offices in India - Statements by the Editor’s Guild, CPI(M), CPI

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 18, 2023
Will Having More Makeup Artists Help?
Starting Dec 2022 India assumed the rotating presidency of the G20 (group of 20 most industrialized countries in the world) and this sparked a big political marketing blitz inside the country. So where ever you go in New Delhi the city is plastered with huge billboards and posters with a logo for G20 on one side and on the other side it says ‘Mother of democracy to host G20’ in a supposed reference to (…)