2024

* Interrogating a Case of Rape and Murder | Arup Kumar Sen
* State, No State, or the Missing State | Ajay Mishra & Shraddha Rishi
* Austerity and Managed Democracy | Sai Mukhesh
* India’s palm oil plans wreak havoc on the ground | Ravi Chellam
* The Truth about Kronstadt | Marie Isidine

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, August 24, 2024
The recent visit of India’s Prime Minister to war-torn Ukraine is good news and that the PM paid homage to children killed in the war and offered medical, and humanitarian assistance and firmed-up bilateral agreements is also good. India’s abstention on certain votes at the UN condemning Russia’s violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine has been jarring. Now, reports showcasing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ukraine (…)

Abstract: The genealogy of indicator calls the ‘modern fact’ as a form of knowledge. The modern fact is the basis to the ways westerns has come to know the world. Numbers are the epitome of the modern facts because they seem to be simple description of phenomena and to resists the biases. Numbers have become they seem to be free of interpretation and be neutral. The question is how does quantification contribute to systematic knowledge about the world. Establishing the understanding of (…)

August 7, 2024
The push for large-scale monoculture plantations of oil palm is taking a toll on the environment and on people’s economic and social security.
In late July, an unusual newspaper headline did the rounds: "If India gives land, we will work together to produce palm oil here, says visiting Malaysian Minister."
Foreign politicians do not often ask the country they are visiting to give land, in particular for cultivating a plant which produces oil seeds.
In this case, the (…)

[There has been a long wait for government formation after the second round of legislative elections held on July 7, 2024, in France. The suspense continues and the left-wing ’Popular Front’ coalition with the most seats in Parliament after the snap legislative elections of 2024 is still hoping that Lucie Castets its prime ministerial candidate will be invited to form the Government. This note and footnotes have been added for better comprehension —Editor Mainstream]
o o
While everyone’s (…)

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war began in late February 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which President Putin described as ‘special military operations’ to demitarise and denazify Ukraine’, claiming Russia has no design to occupy the country. The Russian invasion was also a counter to Ukraine’s plan to join NATO with the intention of encircling Russia. The international community, under the leadership of the United States, did not accept the Russian justifications for war and (…)

The sequence of events that have been happening in our neighbouring country Bangladesh for the last two weeks has made the Hindutva organisations of India very happy. And they are using the Bangladesh incident as a cover to polarise India on the basis of religious polarisation. This is against the Constitution of our country and is also against the traditions of our country. If, by such an act, India is dragged on the path of Bangladesh knowingly or unknowingly, then the situation of 78 (…)

The 15-month-old Congress Government in Karnataka with a very comfortable majority of 136 members out of total 220 member State Assembly is facing one of the worst crises not because of the massive BJP-JDS opposition campaign but with the Karnataka Governor taking an extra-constitutional and illegal action by giving permission to prosecute the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with three private persons complaining against him.
In an extra Constitutional move , Thaawar Chand Gehlot, the (…)

22 August 2024
What’s changed after the gruesome murder and rape of the 31 year old doctor in Kolkata? Rapes and sexual assaults are continuing… one after another. In the last one week news reports of rape and sexual assault cases have come in from Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra…Mind you, these are the reported cases. What about the hundreds of cases or incidents which go unreported!
Tell me, where are we heading in this state of complete perversion and utter anarchy, (…)

The recent brutal event of rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata has created shock waves across the nation. On August 18, 2024, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of “alleged rape and murder incident of a trainee doctor in R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and related issues.”. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, D. Y. Chandrachud, will hear the case on August 20, 2024.
The role of the Hospital (…)