Mainstream Weekly

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• Lessons from a tale of two reforms | Sarma & Sunder

  12 February 2022, by Atul Sarma

  by Atul Sarma Shyam Sunder*
  The Modi government at last climbed down to repeal the three farm laws on November 29, 2021 that provoked more than a year-long farmers’ protest starting from August 9, 2020. The protest allegedly took a toll of 600 human lives and public and famers’ loss of ₹ 5000 crore as estimated by a study conducted by two economists associated with the Panjabi University at Patiala. The study also found that contrary to the claim that big farmers are the protesters at (…)

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  The arrest of Fahad Shah in Kashmir - Statement from Editor’s Guild of India

  12 February 2022

  The Editors Guild of India
  PRESS STATEMENT
  February 6th , 2022
  The Editors Guild of India strongly condemns the arrest of Fahad Shah, the editor of the Kashmir Walla, on February 4, 2022, on the specious ground of “glorifying terrorist activities, spreading fake news & inciting general public for creating [law and order] situation,” as per a police statement post his arrest.
  Shah had been questioned four days earlier for his reporting on a deadly police raid in Pulwama in late (…)

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  Carricature: Lata Mangeshkar (1929-2022) | J Vellur

  12 February 2022, by Jayaraj Vellur

• The Letting Go | Badri Raina

  12 February 2022, by Badri Raina

  (February 10, 2022)
  o o
  Then there are times
  when the will to abandon course
  overwhelms
  the thin stream of reason,
  thwarted without let by ever new
  sophistries of cul-de sac.
  What energies the custodians
  of unreason pack.
  Yet, what is new about this lament?
  I reach back
  To that first dour of Urban Naxals
  Of ancient Greece—
  A mentor of the name of Socrates—
  and, askance at the tenacity of argument,
  lash body and mind
  to further assays of rational intent.
  I see that (…)

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  Photo of Playwright Arthur Miller after the reversal of his conviction for contempt on refusing to name alleged Communist writers to House Un-American Activities Committee in Aug 1958

  12 February 2022

  1958: Arthur Miller cleared of contempt | BBC
  Washington’s Court of Appeals has quashed playwright Arthur Miller’s conviction for contempt of Congress after a two-year legal battle.
  In May last year, a judge convicted Mr Miller for refusing to tell the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) the names of alleged Communist writers with whom he attended five or six meetings in New York in 1947.
  [ . . . ] (…)

• Afghan Women: Speech of Hodda Khamosh at European Parliament

  12 February 2022

  01/02/2022
  Ladies and gentlemen,
  Before I begin my speech, please join me in taking twenty seconds of silence to pause and honor the sacrifices of women of Afghanistan and all atrocities they have gone through in their resistance against the repression of the Taliban.
  Greeting Ladies and gentlemen,
  I am here to represent the women’s protest movement in Afghanistan. As we speak, my country Afghanistan is going through its most severe stage of economic collapse, getting the country (…)

• Trucker convoy protest in Ottawa inspires right-wing activists globally | Nathan VanderKlippe

  12 February 2022

  by Nathan VanderKlippe
  The Globe and Mail
  Canadian truckers and their horn-blaring supporters have become darlings of conservative activists around the world, inspiring copycat actions in Europe and worries of the same in the U.S.
  Nothing attracts attention like success, and for those watching outside Canada, the 11-day long protest in Ottawa has become a must-watch spectacle, and a template for action.
  On far-right and extremist social-media groups in the United States, the Canadian (…)

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  Video: Oxfam Inequality Report, Piketty & New India | Midweek Matters 43 - Parakala Prabhakar

  12 February 2022

  Play
  Oxfam Inequality Report, Piketty & New India || Midweek Matters 43 || Parakala Prabhakar by Parakala Prabhakar https://youtu.be/0KCzu1KpDxI

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  Audio: Let Us Believe in the Dawn of the Cold Season | Iran’s beloved iconoclastic feminist poet, Forugh Farrokhzad (1935 - 1967)

  12 February 2022

  Let Us Believe in the Dawn of the Cold Season
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013hcr
  Maryam Zohdi introduces the life and work of Iran’s beloved iconoclastic feminist poet, Forugh Farrokhzad (1935 - 1967). Her work, her life and her tragic death aged just 32.
  With contributions from Ebrahim Golestan, Farzaneh Milani and Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak.
  Translations by Sholeh Wolpe, Farzaneh Milani and Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak.
  Readings by Shahrbanou Nilou.
  With thanks to Nasser Saffarian, BBC (…)

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  Video: The Pink Panther in "Put Put, Pink"

  12 February 2022

  Play
  The Pink Panther in "Put Put, Pink" by Official Pink Panther https://youtu.be/16YG9qZQIJE