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31 March , 2016

Illegitimate Biometric Identification Projects Compromise
Sovereignty Of Nations In South Asia

By Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties

Is it a coincidence that the similar schemes are unfolding in South Asia? Isn’t there a design behind persuading and compelling developing countries to biometrically profile their citizens? Is it too early to infer that international bankers, UN agencies and western military alliances wish to create profiles in their biometric and electronic database for coercive use of social control measures? Is it not true that uninformed citizens, parliamentarians and gullible government agencies are too eager to be profiled and tracked through an online database? Would freedom fighters have approved of mass surveillance by any national or transnational agency? Is it not clear that UN agencies, World Bank Group, transnational intelligence companies and military alliances are working in tandem to create the bio-electronic database of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi as per their pre-determined design? Is this design structured to safeguard the interest of present and future generation?

Intifada For Dummies: Why A Popular Uprising Is Yet To Take Off?
By Ramzy Baroud

This might be the most difficult Intifada yet; for never before did Palestinians find themselves so leaderless, yet so ready to break free. The outcome of this tension, will not only define this whole generation, as it defined my generation of the 1987 Intifada, but it will define the future of Palestine altogether

30 March , 2016

How Israel Makes Money From Blockading Gaza
By Ryan Rodrick Beiler

A new report released by UK-based Corporate Watch brings the voices of the Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers to the debate over how the BDS movement can best resist Israeli exploitation of their land and labor. Corporate Watch’s report, titled, “Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets,” focuses on two of the most vulnerable segments of Palestinian society: residents of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley

Why We Have A Wage Inequality Problem
By Gail Tverberg

The current low prices of fossil fuels make the current situation particularly worrisome, because the low prices could lead to lower fossil fuel production, and hence reduce world GDP because of the connection between energy consumption and GDP growth. Low oil prices could also push the world economy downward, due to increasing defaults on energy sector loans and adverse impacts on economies of oil exporters

Intelligence Accounts Raise More Questions On Origins of Brussels, Paris Attacks
By Alex Lantier

Accounts of US and European intelligence’s monitoring of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) make ever clearer that the key ingredient in ISIS terror attacks in Brussels and last year in Paris was the support of factions of the NATO countries’ intelligence apparatus for ISIS in the war in Syria

Islamist Terror In The East And West: Lahore, Paris, Brussels And Beyond
By Taj Hashmi

Although Islamist or separatist terror groups bomb and kill hundreds of people in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Turkey, or Afghanistan on a regular basis, yet they hardly make headlines in Western media; and the news about these attacks disappear from Western media in hours. This is, however, not the case with any terror attack in the West – in London or Boston, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris, or Brussels. Unless people and media in the West equally empathise and sympathise with all terror victims, and do something positive to counter terrorism everywhere, there is little hope for durable peace and understanding in the world

Steel Crisis: Sold Down The River By Tata
By Alec Thraves

If the fight to save Port Talbot and all their other steel plants across the country is to succeed, both the Westminster and Welsh governments need to nationalise Tata steel now. Trade unions across Tata steel should urgently convene a national meeting of shop stewards to organise this campaign for nationalisation with compensation only on the basis of proven need, linking up with the tens of thousands in the communities indirectly affected by these potential job losses

Reading UoH Student Movement
By Dillip Kumar Dash

There has been several attempts to demoralize the movement led by Joint Action Committee for Social Justice of University of Hyderaba (UoH) since the incident of vandalism on VC’s bizarre return. Before judging the movement by reading into those particular acts, one must look through a pretext to it

Dynamics Of Bengal Politics
By Afroz Alam

Recently, the state has witnessed the articulation of Dalit voice through the Matua Mahasangha. Come what may, the articulation of autonomous voice of lower castes and other indigenous groups like Gorkha, Lepcha, Limbu, Bhutia, Rajbangshis, Santhals, Gonds and Ugra Khatriyas are certainly the most important emerging trend in the state politics. Any attempt to ignore such voices will help the right-wing BJP in fulfilling its dream project of winning Bengal if not this time then in years to come

Struggle Of Caurem Village In Goa And State Repression
By Vasudha Sawaiker

The attack on Ravindra Velip while in Judicial Custody speaks of the manner in which the Mining Lobby and State Nexus work to suppress youth leaders who do not toe their line. This is not the first time that such an attack has been made on a youth in Caurem. In May 2011, Nilesh Gaonkar, another anti-mining activist from Caurem was attacked with an iron rod while on his way to work. In October 2013, the National Human Rights Commission directed the Goa government to pay monetary relief of Rs. 5000/- each to 737 villagers for police brutalities on protesting tribal villagers

Freedom Festival In Chhattisgarh
Press Release

Chhattisgarh Nagrik Samyukta Sangarsh Samiti is organising "Freedom Festival" at Lokayan Bhawan, Rajbandha Maidan, Press Complex, Raipur, Chhattisgarh from April 8-14, 2016

29 March , 2016

Cuba’s Sustainable Agriculture At Risk In U.S. Thaw
By Miguel Altieri

President Obama’s trip to Cuba this week accelerated the warming of U.S.-Cuban relations. Many people in both countries believe that normalizing relations will spur investment that can help Cuba develop its economy and improve life for its citizens. Cuba’s small farmers control only 25 percent of the nation’s agricultural land but produce over 65 percent of the country’s food, contributing significantly to the island’s sovereignity. Their agroecological achievements represent a true legacy of Cuba’s revolution. U.S. investment could cause harm to Cuba's agroecology

The Climate Wars: Trench Warfare or Blitzkrieg?
By Ugo Bardi

Clearly, something has changed in 2014 that has led to a remarkable change in the discourse on the relation of climate and economic growth, with a very large growth (around 700%) of people having an attitude defined as "positive" toward climate change. At first sight, it looks good: this is not trench warfare, it is a true blitzkrieg

U.S. Still Demands Assad’s Removal In Syria
By Eric Zuesse

American involvement in the political process in Syria is unwelcomed, if not loathed, by the Syrian people. They don’t want the U.S. to continue supporting the jihadists who are destroying their country; and they also don’t want the U.S. dictating that Bashar al-Assad will stop being their leader

In A Pornified Culture, Even 'Smashing Patriarchy' Is A Fetish
By Mickey Z.

If we men want to live up to self-anointed labels like activist, revolutionary, radical, ally, and comrade, the path is clear. We are required to do almost all of the initial work and make (by far) the biggest changes and commitments. If we care about justice and liberation as much as we claim we do, now is the time to look in the mirror, to call ourselves out, to check our egos and our masculinity programming at the door, and to make what appear to be major sacrifices

The Tyranny Of Triple Talaq
By Moin Qazi

It may come as a shock to numerous Muslims and others, the Qur’an does not prescribe this form of divorce at all.It is not just Indian Muslim women who are suffering. In some countries in the Middle East and Malaysia, mobile devices have been used to end marriages by simply texting talaq, talaq, talaq. And before the advent of mobile devices, there were instances when telephone calls, snail mail and even telegrams were used to communicate divorce

Dear Sectarian Left- It’s Time To Fight Fascists In Power, Not Kanhaiya Kumar
By Samar

1984 Sikh riots are fundamentally different from 2002 Gujarat Pogrom, reportedly said Kanhaiya Kumar, president of JNUSU as per ever suspect Indian media. He also asserted that Emergency is different from Fascism. Lo and behold, self-designated champions of Sectarian Left were out baying for his blood, as if waiting in the wings for that only

Kanhaiya Kumar And The “We Can” Moment In Vijayawada
By Vijaya Kumar Marla

“Let us come together, put aside the differences of the past and start talking to the people about their problems in a jargon which they understand.” Kanhaiya Kumar's appeal struck a chord with the thousands who were listening to him in rapt attention. There was a thunderous applause of approval. Having seen for the last 45 years how the various Left groups fought pitched battles among themselves, it was a pleasant feeling for me to see them sitting together and listening to a young man, young enough to be their son, urging them to bury the past differences and come together to fight the bigger enemy. I have seen leaders of various Left groups embracing each other and recalling the good old days when as young men, they fought together under one flag

RSS : Legacy Of Arrogance
By Nagesh Chaudhari

Ex RSS Bouddhik Pramukh, Mr, M G Vaidya has written an article, One culture one nation' (Indian Express, 24th March ’16.) He says Hindu is not a religion but dharma and dharma has no equivalent term in English. This gimmick is to stress imaginary superiority to the word Hindu. It's an old RSS rut

Is Chhattisgarh A ‘Police State’ Of Democratic India?
By Pushkar Raj

While the police arrested 60,279 persons in 2007 (before the new police Act came into operation), it initiated police action against 7, 39,435 people in 2014 - a twelve times jump. Out of these 1, 44,017 people were served with the bail-able warrant and 81,329 were sent to jail under non-bail able warrant. 4, 88,366 people were made to come to the police station for questioning (National Crime Research Bureau Report, 2008, 2014)

Kashmir Cancer Alarm
By Sheikh Umar Ahmad

The Cancer incidences in Kashmir have raised to an alarmingly unstoppable situation with experts sensing a cancer catastroph in the next coming decade. The unprecedent rise in Cancer cases this year & doubling since last eight years send message down to experts and administrators to find causes and to curb this growing concern in the valley. This situation is taking all by a surprise with more and more people being diagonosed with one or the other form of Cancer

Syracuse University And SUNY-ESF Stand In Solidarity With HCU
By Concerned Faculty And Alumni

Statement of Solidarity with Student Protestors at Hyderabad Central University and Mumbai

Rohith Vemula's Murder And Questions Thereafter:
Through People's Resistance .. Towards Azadi

By Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, Mumbai

Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, Mumbai, Maharashtra, organising a meeting Saturday, 2nd April 2016 at Ambedkar Bhavan, Gokuldas Pasta Lane, Near Chitra Theater, Dadar (East), Mumbai. from 1 pm to 9 pm

28 March , 2016

At Least 65 Killed In Suicide Attack On Children's Park In Lahore
By Countercurrents.org

A suicide bomb attack in a crowded children's park in the Pakistan city of Lahore killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 300 people. Most of the dead are women and children. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the attack and said that it was aimed at Christians celebrating Easter holiday

Pakistan: Suicide Bomber Attacked Christians On Easter Sunday
By Aftab Alexander Mughal

This was not the first suicide attack on Christians in Pakistan, they have continuously under attack by terrorist groups because of their faith. According to Minority Concern, around 21 people were killed and more than 80 injured on 14 March last year, in two suicide attacks by Taliban at two churches in Youhanabad, a Christian neighbourhood in Lahore. After a year on, not even a single person has been brought to justice. On 23 September 2013, Taliban suicide bombers attacked the All Saints Church in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in which more than 80 were killed, and about 120 people were injured. The majority of them were women and children

Historic City Of Palmyra Falls To Syrian Government Forces
By Thomas Gaist

Syrian government forces retook the city of Palmyra from mercenaries affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Sunday, advancing on the city and retaking its historic ancient ruins under air cover from Russian war planes

Head In The Sanders Up Hillary Creek Without A Trump Card
By Linh Dinh

No presidential candidate should be taken seriously unless he or she addresses these basic concerns

The US-NATO War In Syria And The Brussels Terror Attacks
By Alex Lantier

As revelations mount of police foreknowledge of the March 22 Brussels bombings, the central question that is emerging is why the security forces of Belgium and its NATO allies did not move to stop the attacks. That the Belgian state had detailed prior knowledge of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) network that carried out the bombings is emerging in numerous press reports

Islamic State And The Paris And Brussels Bombings
By Nauman Sadiq

After that reversal of policy in Syria by the Western powers and the subsequent Russian military intervention on the side of the Shi’a regime, the momentum of Sunni jihadists’ expansion in Syria has stalled and they now feel that their Western allies have committed a treachery against the Sunni jihadists’ cause; that’s why, they feel bitter and they are once again up in arms to seek revenge for this betrayal. November 2015 Paris attacks and March 2016 Brussels bombings are a sequel of the gory drama being played in the Middle East and North Africa region

In The Aftermath Of Brussels - World Needs Peace
And Global Justice; Not More Militarism

By Ranjan Solomon

There is hope and that hope must be built around a vision for a peace rooted in justice. It’s also about claiming the right to say “NO” to war and injustice. It is about asserting: “Another world is possible… because this brave new world is in the womb of her mother waiting to be born”

ISIS' Main Enemy Is Saudi Arabia Not Israel
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

So far, the Israel security establishment doesn't see ISIS and the other terrorist groups in Syria as an existential threat to its security. On the contrary, Israel treats wounded jihadist fighters in its hospitals and sends them back to the battlefield. The Israeli leadership still considers Iran and its affiliate Hezbollah the largest threat to Israel's security. According to an article published in the 22nd issue of its mouthpiece "Al-Naba" titled: "Beit Al-Maqdis", Israel doesn't have to worry, because the jihadists from ISIS have first to topple all the infidel Arab regimes before they will tackle Israel

Global Agribusiness, Dependency And The Marginalisation Of Self-Sufficiency,
Organic Farming And Agroecology

By Colin Todhunter

Is organic-based farming merely a niche model of agriculture that is not capable of feeding the global population? Or does it have a major role to play? In addressing these questions, it would be useful to consider a selection of relevant literature to see what it says about the role of organic farming, how this model of agriculture impacts farmers and whether or not it can actually feed the global population

"Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" Abandoned For Forced Asylum
By Maya Evans

This month, French authorities (supported and funded by the UK government to the current balance of £62 million) have been demolishing the 'Jungle,’ a toxic wasteland on the edge of Calais. Formerly a landfill site, 4 km² it is now populated by approximately 5,000 refugees who have been pushed there over the past year. A remarkable community of 15 nationalities adhering to various faiths comprises the Jungle. Residents have formed a network of shops and restaurants which, along with hamams and barber shops contribute to a micro-economy within the encampment. Community infrastructure now includes schools, mosques, churches and clinics

U.S. Leaders Are Hucksters
By Eric Zuesse

Huckster-politicians and their friends just thrive in such an environment. Like U.S. President Obama himself says, “The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation.” All other nations are ‘dispensable.’ That’s something which Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton, might equally say. But, of course, none of them would be “pandering.” They don’t do that — just ask them, and they’ll tell you they don’t (like Trump just did)

Kozhikod HoU Protesters Charged With Section 153
By Countercurrents.org

The police action against students protesting in Kozhikod, Kerala against the police crack down in University of Hyderabad (HoU) raises grave questions about the functioning of democracy in India. On 26th March Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) Kozhikod District Committee took out a march to Head Post Office. Protesting activists, including the girls, were brutally beaten up by the Police without any provocation and then arrested.Now an FIR has been registered under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code.It is codemnable that a mere protest showing solidarity to the students of HoU has been termed as 'rioting' or intent to cause riot. It's a mockery of the criminal justice system of India

Kozhikod HoU Protest: The FIR Is Fabricated
By Shamseer Ibrahim

Seventeen students are currently under remand of out which two are hospitalised. They have been charged (crime# 323/16), under Section 143, 144, 145, 147, 148, 153, 283, 354, 332, 353 of IPC out of which three are non-bailable offences. As per police reports, no public property has been damaged or destroyed and this is proof of the fact that the protest was peaceful. There were no police barricades at the venue of the protest site and the police used force directly against the students without trying to block or stop the protest march. The police have fabricated reports that police personnel including female police personnel were beaten and injured by the protesters

Academics Condemn Police Brutality in HoU

A letter signed by academics from all over India condemning the attack on students and faculty at UoH and demanding the removal of the VC. More than 150 of the foremost academics and professors of India, including the Padma Bhushan physicist Ashoke Sen, has written a letter to the Chancellor of University of Hyderabad, Dr. C. Rangarajan, condemning the police brutality on students and faculty members and demanding the release of the arrested students and faculty members and the removal of Appa Rao as the VC

End Casteist - Fascist Attacks On Students of University of Hyderabad Now!
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

The National Alliance of People’s Movements is shocked at the brutality that has been meted out to the students and faculty of University of Hyderabad (UoH).We condemn, in the strongest possible words, the violence unleashed on the peaceful protesters on the 22nd March, followed by arrests of 27 students and 2 faculty members

AMU Stands In Solidarity With UoH
By People for People (AMU) & All India Students Association (AISA)

The students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh has organized today a Protest March from Maulana Azad Library to Baab-e-Syed (AMU) as a solidarity act with the ongoing nationwide protests against the state motivated excesses on protesting students of University of Hyderbad (UoH)

27 March , 2016

International Outrage Over State Violence In UoH
By Concerned World Citizens

Over 300 academicians, activists, artists and writers condemn the state violence and unlawful detention of faculty and student protesters of the University of Hyderabad

Uday Bhanu Said "They Kicked Me On My Testicles"
By P Victor Vijay Kumar

Uday Bhanu, the Dalit scholar from University of Hyderabad, who was brutally beaten up by the police for the crime of preparing food for his fellow students during the siege of the university

Why And What Happened In University of Hyderabad
By Omkar Nadh

It was true that the situation was tense but if we were to ask for an answer ‘who was responsible for creating such a situation’? It was undoubtedly Prof.Apparao. Why was he so desperate to occupy the chair? What prevented him from waiting till the report of judicial committee is out? Why did he mobilise students ‘inside his guest house’? Why Executive Committee and Deans meeting was planned in a non-administrative place and why were selected group of students present where the meeting was taking place? Did the VC at least bother to talk to the democratically elected Students’ Union of the University before he wanted to resume the office? What is his respect for the democratic institutions of the University and what moral right does he have to occupy the chair?
Mr.Apparao had no answers to these questions; instead the only answer he could give was to subject students demanding Justice for Rohit Vemula to brutal police repression

Will You Yell Back At History You Meant To Do Better? It Wasn’t Just You?
By Suprabha Seshan

I’m panicking that no matter the perspective, the real world, which includes our lungs, hearts and kidneys, and the lungs, hearts and kidneys of our children and our children’s children, and the cells, tissues and organs of every life form, as well as the living earth, is being poisoned to death, and that too many of us are in denial. Too many of us refuse the connection between land, water, air, plants, animals, climate and our own viability. I’m panicking that the worldwide amphibian die-off, the worldwide fish die-off, the worldwide bee die-off, the vulture die-off, and the big mammal die-off, will soon be followed by the worldwide human die-off

Of Chipko And Other Fables
By Sarosh Ali

The story of the receding Gaumukh Glacier, the source of the Ganges, is known as a mystery to all. But an association with the broader environmental crisis, like also the lack of snow and rain this year, seems farfetched to most of us. Only people well rooted in nature can hear its sigh. So it is incumbent to look at things from the perspective of these people. It was only a few decades ago that they rose to push the environmental onslaught of deforestation back through a collective movement. In order to gauge the present realities, it is important to understand the legacy of struggles like Chipko and many others and life in the hills in general

Russia And America, One Hundred Years Face To Face
By Gaither Stewart

Average citizens of the West, especially of the USA, know little and understand less of Russia’s history. To the great majority of Westerners, Russia is a mysterious and forbidding land somewhere in the East which poses a threat to the world which it aims at dominating. Therefore, I have summarized here some aspects of that long history in order to amplify and elucidate Russia’s possible role in the “difficult period of international relations”, of which Lavrov speaks so clearly and rationally

26 March , 2016

Kakrapar Nuclear Accident Enters Third Week,Lethal Gamble Continues
By Dr. Surendra Gadekar

Even days after the incident, the accident is not fully under control. Heavy water and ordinary water is still coming out from some unknown tubes. The reactor is in a cold shutdown state, but the reactor building is still cordoned off. Only workers with “Green” clearance are allowed to go in. The entry of casual workers (more than 80% of the whole workforce) is still not allowed. Although construction work at units 3 and 4 is still continuing. Contractors are being asked to get workers with Green clearance to come and work in Kakrapar

Initial Report Gathered At Cherlapally Jail From Arrested HoU Students
By Prasheel Anand Banpur

The arrested students were beaten continuously by the police while being transported from one police station to another, their phones were snatched, not given any information regarding their arrest or where they were being taken. The FIR and cases filed without intimation and knowledge of the arrested students; All the time during the arrest the arrested students were abused constantly, humiliated, and were called insulting names and labelled as naxalites and vandals. When asked why they are being treated as if they were hardcore criminals, the police replied that they were anti-nationals and that they had no Human Rights. They reiterated that all their Human Rights had collapsed and no negotiation was possible. The two professors were slapped repeatedly, their shirts torn and were humiliated in the worst of ways regarding their profession and duties

A Fig Leaf Called ‘Vandalism By UoH Students’
Statement By SC and ST Faculty Forum and Concerned Teachers of University of Hyderabad

For the past three days the news media has been circulating widely, stories about ‘vandalism’ by students of the University of Hyderabad that led to the police crackdown. Surprisingly little information is actually there on the actual context, timing, duration and nature of the vandalism. It appears that the claim that a group of students indulged in acts of vandalism is enough to justify a full scale war on the entire campus community of over 4000 students. Yet this charge of vandalism is no more than a fig leaf

Why UoH Escaped The Delhi Media?
By Mithilesh Kumar

Let us now look at what Delhi media actually is. They are corporates every single one of them. They are profit making and profit maximizing units. It is the news which is the commodity. All of these are not novel arguments. Let us see how slowly and stealthily the terms of debate are set by the channels

 

Rare or Routine? Video Captures 'Cold-Blooded Execution' By Israeli Soldier
By Jon Queally

The release of video footage showing the extrajudicial killing of a wounded Palestinian man on Thursday has led to the arrest of the Israeli Defense Force soldier who pulled the trigger, but rights groups say the documented incident only confirms their warnings regarding how the Israeli military routinely behaves in the Occupied Palestinian Territories when cameras are not rolling

The Occupation Of The American Mind
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

An excellent film has just been released from the public relations war in the United States and the manipulation of the American mind by the Israeli Hasbara Ministry (Propaganda Ministry) with the massive help of the media. But anyone who waits for a media conspiracy will be thoroughly disappointed. The film explains why the conflict could drag on for almost seven decades, not to speak of the Zionist incursion into Palestine since the end of the 19th Century. The film makes also crystal-clear that without the massive help and support of the different U. S. governments Israel couldn't have sustained its brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people

The Difference Between Baghdad And Brussels
By Tom Engelhardt

I was struck by this story overnight. A suicide bomber hits a soccer stadium near Baghdad with a death toll similar to that in Brussels recently (29 in Baghdad to 31 in the Belgium capital). The difference, however, is striking. You're not hearing about this strike 24 hours a day. Extra police aren't pouring into American facilities. Hysteria is not the mode of the media. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are not talking about banning Muslims here or patrolling American Muslim neighborhoods. The world is clearly not particularly endangered by this set of deaths. They portend nothing

Scandal Mounts Over Failure By Belgian Police To Halt Brussels Attacks
By Alex Lantier

Friday saw a series of stunning new revelations of inexplicable lapses of Belgian and allied security forces that helped terrorists evade detection prior to the March 22 Brussels attacks. After the constitution of an all-party parliamentary commission of inquiry Thursday night, a government crisis is emerging in Belgium, which hosts the headquarters of both the European Union and the NATO military alliance. The new revelations involved both the individuals who carried out the Brussels bombings, which cost 31 lives and wounded 270, and Salah Abdeslam, who participated in the November 13 attacks in Paris and was captured by police only on March 18, four months after fleeing to Brussels

Trench Warfare In The Climate Wars: No Victory In Sight
By Ugo Bardi

trench warfare in the first world war didn't last forever. At some point, one of the two sides couldn't take it anymore and had to concede. Could something like that occur for the climate war? Possibly, yes. Indeed, many of us have been hoping for an event so major and so evident that the danger of global warming could not be denied anymore; the equivalent of a "decisive battle" in war. But even facing extreme events, reality can always be denied when ideological polarization takes hold. For the time being, we remain locked in trench warfare

Vast Majority Of Yemen Population Without Reliable Food, Water And Sanitation
By Thomas Gaist

More than 80 percent of the Yemeni population is confronting a desperate humanitarian catastrophe as the US-backed Saudi war against Yemen, launched in March 2015 as “Operation Decisive Storm,” enters its second year. Half of Yemen’s 22 provincial divisions face famine conditions. Some 20 million Yemenis are without reliable access to the most basic goods and services, including food, water and sanitation. More than 2.5 million have been displaced, 6,400 killed, and 30,000 wounded during the Saudi-led campaign, according to the latest UN statistics

America’s Election And Its Inability To Alter The Nation’s Deadly Course
By John Chuckman

America is engaged in another of its sprawling and costly national election campaigns. A few of the events, such as the New Hampshire primary or the Iowa Caucus, I’m sure have participants seeing themselves as Thomas Jefferson’s sturdy yeomen doing their civic duty. But such humble and misty-eyed tableaux can be deceiving for the big picture is quite disturbing, including, as it does, billions of dollars spent and a lot of noise generated about things which will not change in any outcome

JatiIndia: A Flag Of Atrocities Caste, Present And Future
By Priti Gulati Cox

The title for this series of painted flags, Jatiindia,is my name for the country of India, a nation of jatis(castes). India still practices this worst form of social exclusion in the world, now more violently than ever in this neoliberal age. In this new series of Jatiindia features Vinay Sirohi, Shaista Hameed & Danish Farooq and Lingaram Kodopi

The Death Of History
By Suraj Kumar Thube

Looking at the present controversy regarding the removing of Mughals from textbooks, something that is wildly trending on social media, one cannot help but feel that the historicising of this diversity is under immense threat. Juxtapose this with the mindless hounding of eminent historian Sheldon Pollock for supposedly denigrating the Hindu civilisation in his monumental project under the Murty classical library of India, it is increasingly clear that an alternative interpretation of the ancient past is wantonly censured without giving a fair hearing to the same

Bangladesh People’s Liberation: Rising Up With Arms In 1971
By Farooque Chowdhury

The Bangladesh people’s rebellion included deny the state’s authority and rise up with arms in 1971; and it cemented base of the people’s march to liberation, an eternal yearning of all the exploited and deprived, of all the victims of inequality and injustice, of all bombarded with lies, deceptions and hypocrisy in all ages, epochs and periods. In the people’s march to liberation, the rising and rebellion in 1971 embolden the rationale to the right to fight against all forms of bondage, deprivation, dishonor, exploitation, hypocrisy, ignorance, indignity, inequality, injustice, lies, oppression, suppression and tyranny

Early And Accurate Diagnosis Of TB And Lung Cancer Vital:
No Excuse For Misdiagnosis!

By Bobby Ramakant

Early and accurate diagnosis is a public health imperative for both diseases of epidemic proportions in Asia Pacific: tuberculosis (TB) and lung cancer. But since TB of the lungs (pulmonary TB) imitates lung cancer in many aspects including risk factors, symptoms, signs and radiographic findings, often misdiagnosis has a serious public health consequence!

25 March , 2016

24 Students, 2 Faculty And 1 Media Person
Arrested In UoH Denied Basic Legal Rights

By Joint Action Committee for Social Justice

Lawyers and members of human rights organizations approached the University and were denied entry to campus. When they contact the students about the same from the gate, the students were told by the campus security that they would have to go the VC Appa Rao Podile if they wanted lawyers to enter the campus so students could access their legal right to counsel, but they refused to give this in writing. We request all the supporters of the struggle for Justice for Rohith to raise their voice about the cruel and inhumane torture of students, faculty and media people

Delhi Media, Why The Silence On UoH?
By Preeti Raghunath

I am only voicing the concerns of many students at the University of Hyderabad (UoH/HCU). This is a delayed reaction since I did feel that perhaps we would eventually get media coverage that is worthy of the kind of situation that HCU is in. I did feel that this was a momentary lapse on the part of the otherwise Breaking-News-hungry news channels

Russian Documentary Shows ISIS Documents Of Turkey’s Assistance
By Eric Zuesse

Russian Television is starting a series of documentaries showing captured ISIS documents, and Turkish-border-stamped passports of ISIS fighters. The initial news-report also refers to a ‘fatwa’ that allegedly allows infidels to be killed to supply fresh organs for transplantation into severely injured ISIS fighters

Events In Brussels Observed From A Spaceship
By Andre Vltchek

If some intelligent extraterrestrial beings were circling over our planet in their spaceship, monitoring for decades and centuries all that has been and is taking place on its surface, they would, most likely, be horrified by our brutality, and shocked by the countless contradictions, double standards and inconsistencies

The Failure Of Democracy – American And Other
By David Anderson

This essay challenges the founding principle of the American constitutional form of government; expressed in the sanctity of human liberty and freedom. It makes the case that “liberty and freedom” as it is so defined in the American constitution and its amendments has now in this Anthropocene period become an intractable obstacle working against the survival of our species on this planet. It states the reason. It is a form of government that allows expression and gives power to the worst of the psychotic self

Trumpian Deportation Fantasies And American Realities
By Tanya Golash-Boza

Should Donald Trump or Ted Cruz win the presidency, they are guaranteed to make life hell for millions of undocumented human beings living in and working extremely hard in this country, and their plans would fail dismally -- but that failure would undoubtedly prove to be a horror all its own

The Tragic Plight Of Aafia Siddiqui
By Ali Mohsin

While the cruel treatment meted out to Pakistanis in the Gulf countries has been highlighted by the media, the petition filed by the JPP also brings to mind what is perhaps the most notorious example of the Pakistani state’s impotence when it comes to defending the rights of its citizens overseas: the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

Obscured American: Manon The Aspiring School Counselor
By Linh Dinh

Next Obscured American profile will be of Manon, Friendly Lounge bartender, punk band singer and aspiring school counselor

The Art Of The Deal? More Of The Same!
By Mateo Pimentel

For the unthinking, skim-milk conservatism in the US, the poster child for racially charged populism happens to be Trump this election cycle, who also happens to be the likely Republican presidential candidate. What he shares in common with his party members like Brewer is certainly more than just a line of racist, capitalist succession of governance.But what they all share in his ultra-nationalist rhetoric that panders to groups whose oppression they have propagated for years, and to whose false consciousness Trump now pays lip service

Review Of “The Occupation Of The American Mind:
Israel’s Public Relations War In The United States”

By Robert Jensen

In the conflict over the land of Palestine, Israel’s overpowering military superiority has produced decisive battlefield victories. But just as crucial to Israeli dominance in that region is its supremacy in the U.S. news media, which is captured in the title of an important new film from the Media Education Foundation, “The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States.”

An Open Letter To Prime Ministers Of India And Pakistan By A Kashmiri
By Farooq Hussain Dar

It sounds a bit odd but I dare to write an open letter to the otherwise called custodians' of India and Pakistan. I am referring to none but Mr. Modi Ji and Mr. Nawaz Sharif Ji. I would love to remind you that people of both the countries have given you an opportune time to work for the welfare of people, nevertheless, it seems a distant mirage keeping the present pace of talks in view

Remembering Fr.Bernard Digal Who Washed Women's Feet
20 Years Before The Pope Did

By Fr. Ajaya Kumar Singh

Kandhamal Martyr Fr.Bernard Digal had washed the feet of women in Kandhamal in 1996 as a gesture of equality and service. If Fr.Bernard were to be there today, he would have been well pleased that he was ahead of times. Sadly Fr. Bernard was killed in the Kandhamal pogrom unleashed by Hindutva fascists in 2008

Statement In Solidarity With The Ongoing Movement At University Of Hyderabad
By Concerned Citizens

We, the undersigned, unequivocally condemn police action in and around University of Hyderabad, from the 22 of March onwards. We criticize extreme police brutality, lathi charge, threats of rape and verbal abuse done to the students and faculty members of UoH

24 March , 2016

Messes Reopened As A Huge Relief To Students, Emergency Like Situation Still Prevails In University of Hyderabad
By Countercurrents.org

As a big relief to student community besieged inside the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus messes were opened in their hostels this morning. It was apparently opened after students decided to approach the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) as their basic right to food and water were denied. Gates of the university are closed and free movement of students is denied. Some 3500 students are trapped inside the campus. An emergency like situation still prevails in the campus with huge police force roaming the campus and internet and all communication to the outside the world cut off. Media persons are denied access to the campus. Students fear that there will be another brutal police action against them soon

Stop Police Brutality On Hyderabad University Students, Now!: AHRC
By Asian Human Rights Commission

The Asian Human Rights Commission unequivocally condemns the barbarities that have been committed on the students, and urges the government of India to back off from the campus now. Furthermore, Vice Chancellor P. Appa Rao should not be permitted to resume charge until the completion of a fair and impartial investigation.The Commission also asks that the government fix command responsibility for yesterday’s action, and prosecute and punishe those responsible

Belgian Authorities Had “Precise Intelligence Warnings” Of Brussels Bombings
By Stéphane Hugues & Alex Lantier

The day after the mass bombings in Brussels that killed 34 people and wounded another 230, it emerged that Belgian authorities had specific forewarnings of the attack and had already last year identified the men who carried out the assault as Islamist terrorists. These reports raise the most serious questions as to how and why Belgian and allied intelligence agencies allowed the Brussels bombings to occur. Intelligence agencies have at their disposal sophisticated spying techniques capable of tracking virtually all cell phone and Internet activity. Claims that the attack occurred because Belgian and allied intelligence agencies somehow failed to “connect the dots” are simply not believable

Israel Copies Turkey's Takeover Of The Press
By Eric Zuesse

On March 11th, Israel shut down and arrested the top people at Palestine Today TV, but, because that station has offices not only in Ramallah in the West Bank but in Lebanon, it continues broadcasting despite the Israeli regime's efforts

If Syria Is To Fall, Others Will Follow: The Pandora’s Box Of Federalism
By Ramzy Baroud

It is safe to say that after five years of war in Syria, the conflict is entering into a new phase. No, not a political resolution, but a grand political game that could divide the country into several entities, according to sectarian lines. If that takes place, it will bode badly, not only for Syria alone, but the whole region. Division would then become the buzzword according to which all current conflicts would be expected to be settled. While Russia’s motives behind the withdrawal are yet to be clarified, the intrinsic link between it and the current talks, in which dividing Syria into a federations have been placed on the agenda, is unmistakable

NAFTA And Obama’s Proposed ‘Trade’ Deals Are UnConstitutional
By Eric Zuesse

Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court will have to decide whether the term “treaty” in the U.S. Constitution means “international agreement,” and whether “international agreement” means “treaty.” If they rule that those two are not synonymous, then the U.S. Constitution will be dead — in the sense that it will then be gone

Manufacturing Emotive Issues: Bharat Mata Ki Jai
And hurling 'Anti Nationalism' For Dissent

By Ram Puniyani

It's only by keeping up emotive issues alive that society can be polarized on one hand and the issues related to deeper societal concerns can be kept at bay. Such emotive issues are used to distract the social forces from the core issues of the downtrodden sections of the society. In contemporary times the types of concern raised by Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar have drawn the focus to the real issues of dalits, farmers suicide, betrayal of promises by Modi Sarkar to name a few. With Bharat Mata Ki Jai the emotive pitch is on the peak along with attempts to erase Rohith Vemula from public memory

Who Really Is An Antinational?
By Shobha R

Who exactly is antinational? Lets not jump up and give our own interpretations. Instead, let us look at our constitution for some answers. Our constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights to its citizens. If you fight to ensure that the rights guaranteed to you is upheld, there invariably can be people, especially those in powerful positions, who are not going to like it. Does this make you antinational? Well, its seems so

Stop Surveillance And Harassment Of Kashmiri Students!
By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights expresses its outrage at the harassment and arrest of Kashmiri students in Mewar University, Rajasthan, and other educational institutions, amidst an intensifying surveillance of Kashmiris across the country

BJP Fuelling Kashmir Militancy
By Mohammad Ashraf

The recent actions of BJP Government have driven Kashmiri youth to a corner which is fuelling the new wave of militancy

Caste, The Hound Still Hungry With Lips Jutting Out
By V. Maharathi

In this caste-driven society, women are equally ill-treated and denied the legal rights. The so-called savioursof Hindu religion don’t give a damn about the continuous harassment and murders of Dalits and women which now and then make headlines in the dailies and afterwards sink into oblivion

23 March , 2016

NO FOOD ! NO WATER ! In University of Hyderabad
By Countercurrents.org

If you have any contacts in Hyderabad who can organise drop of food packs and water bottles at the entrance of HCU (University of Hyderabad) please request them to do the same. Students will come collect it.

Emergency Like Situation In University of Hyderabad
By The Joint Action Committee for Social Justice

The moment Podile Apparao entered the campus, the first thing that happened was absolute internet shut down for students. Then they closed down the messes, water and sanitation. It was a precondition for a VC like Apparao to first take away the food, drinking water, sanitation and internet to resume his office. After an entire day of lathi charge, physical and sexual assault on us, we slept without food and water; today we are cooking together and preparing our own food. Apparao has suspended all classes until Monday

"Telangana Police Spearheaded The Brutal Attack In University Of Hyderabad"
Open Letter By Sitaram Yechury

Full text of the letter addressed by CPI(M) General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury addressed to the Telangana Chief Minister, Shri K Chandrasekar Rao today on the brutal attack on students and faculty members of Hyderabad Central University

Condemn The Police Action On UoH, Release The students
And Withdraw Police Forces From The Campus

By Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee

This committee received information that large numbers of students are missing, many are injured severely and several students and a few faculty members are detained by the police. The police even threatened the female students of sexual assault, passed sexist and racial comments apart from dragging them. VC Appa Rao with the nexus of police stopped the supply of water, closed the messes, cut off the electricity and internet services. In this second phase of HCU fight of justice for Rohith Vemula, there is clear indication that this time the Telangana government is providing all logistic support to the central government and VC Appa Rao, so that this movement cannot spread all over Telangana state. Now the situation at HCU is dangerous and the lives of students and faculty are under threat. All the fundamental rights of the students are snatched away; there is no space for democratic rights

CPDR Condemns The Brutal Police Attack On The Dalit Students
And Faculty At Hyderabad Central University

By Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR)

Yesterday, on 22 March 2016, the Hyderabad Police brutally attacked the students and faculty of the Hyderabad Central University who protested against resumption of Appa Rao Poddile, Vice Chancellor. Many students and two faculty members were badly injured in the police attack. Some 36 students along with two professors, K Y Ratnam and Tathagat Sengupta were taken into custody, the whereabouts of them remains unknown till today

Condemn Police Brutality On Students And Teachers In University of Hyderabad
By Peoples Union For Democratic Rights

PUDR strongly condemns the brutal police action unleashed on students and teachers at the University of Hyderabad campus on 22nd March 2016. This took place when students were protesting against the return of the Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Poddile to the campus after he had gone on leave following the suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in January. Prof. Appa Rao, along with Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others, is one of the main accused in the case for abetment of Rohith’s suicide and has also been criticised in the past for his anti-Dalit attitudes

Remembering Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev And Rajguru
By Maanvender Singh

On 23 March, 1931 three men Sukhdev, Rajguru and Bhagat Singh were hanged to death. Among them Bhagat Singh still remains the most celebrated and respected figure for the current generation. However the figure itself is deliberately distorted and mostly misrepresented.The episode of Bhagat Singh in Indian independence struggle is reduced to the story of heroic sacrifice that he made for the nation and very little effort has been made to unravel his revolutionary ideas and motives. Similarly his treatment in popular media has been mostly dramatic, and creates a persona of a macho man with hat on his head and pistol in his hand, who unlike Gandhi responds British with violence. However what is most ironical is the recent claim laid by the BJP-RSS over the legacy of Bhagat Singh. This comes from an organization that has not produced even a single freedom fighter. Therefore there is a need to liberate Bhagat Singh from these different versions that political parties and historians have produced conveniently to suite their own kind of nationalism

Bhagat Singh, Martyrdom Tradition And The Hindutva Gang
By Shamsul Islam

During the NDA regime when its two senior swayamsewaks, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishan Advani ruled the country, it made the astonishing claim that Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, founder of the RSS met Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev in 1925 and continued attending meetings with these revolutionaries and even provided shelter to Rajguru in 1927 when he was underground after killing Sanders. And in 2007 first time in history, the Hindi organ of the RSS, Panchjanya came out with a special issue on Bhagat Singh. It is to be noted that in the whole pre-Partition literature of RSS we do not find even a single reference to these martyrs. In fact the RSS literature is full of anecdotes showing its indifference to revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh

Ambedkar On Bhagatsingh
By Anand Teltumbde

Ambedkar did not write on the revolutionary movement of Bhagat Singh but has written an editorial note titled "Three Victims" when they were hanged. Though it does not speak about their struggle, much less politics, it explains how their execution was influenced by political expediency back home. I provide herewith its translation as it may be of interest to many a student of Ambedkar besides its historical value

Attack In Brussels Ignites World Outrage But The suffering Of Others Don’t
By Mirza Arif Beg

A barrage of images, editorials, and opinion pieces was unleashed upon us as it is usually done when a western country comes under attack. Attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the brutal massacre of Parisians is nowhere to be downplayed and in fact shouldn’t be at any cost. Paris attacks had kept the first pages of leading newspapers occupied for at least three initial days and we could expect the same again with regard to Brussels attacks. However, leading news organizations such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian are yet to publish their first editorial dedicated to the attacks in Ankara and Grand Bassam

Obama’s Cuba Speech: “Democratic” Veneer For US Capitalist Invasion
By Bill Van Auken

Obama’s speech itself, a 38-minute address to a hand-picked audience at Havana’s Teatro Nacional, seemed interminable, loaded with banalities, random phrases in Spanish, hackneyed anecdotes and sanctimonious lies about the glories of US capitalism and its “dollar democracy.”

US Presidential Candidates Bow Before AIPAC
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

Every year, it's the same beat-up story. The pro-Israel Zionist lobby AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) invites to its annual convention and all the top knobs in Washington show up. This year, it was the turn of the American presidential candidates to go on the AIPAC pilgrimage, except for Bernie Sanders. Trump, Clinton, Cruz and Kasich were all thrilled to bits about Israel. They outbid each other in their subservience to Israel. Sanders, the only Jew in the race, did not show up and scathingly criticized the Israeli government for its occupation and its "disproportionate responses to being attacked"

A History Of Silencing Israeli Army Whistleblowers – From 1948 Until Today
By Jonathan Cook

It is hard not to see parallels between the cover-ups of 1948 and those of today. Breaking the Silence’s disclosures, especially those relating to Israel’s series of attacks on Gaza, each of which has left hundreds of civilians dead, similarly give the lie to the army’s continuing claims of ethical behaviour

Our Socioeconomic System Is Killing Us
By Lionel Anet

We are now so close to an unliveable planet, that it has become in everyone’s interest to have an economy that function for us instead of working for an alien economy, as we are doing now. If we achieve that it will also automatically transform an exploitative economy to a cooperative economy that works within and as a part of nature. That means we will not only have cooperative social economy globally but cooperative with nature, which should save today young ones and give us all something worthwhile to achieve

Mumbai To Bastar : People's Struggles Against State Repression And Dictatorship
By Bastar Solidarity Network, Mumbai

The Bastar Division of Chhattisgarh has seen intense militarization ever since counter-insurgency operations were unleashed against the Maoists under the purview of the State. Villages have been plundered, houses burnt and countless locals have been killed, ‘encountered’ or otherwise driven away from their homesteads into crowded and roadside cabins-(ill)maintained by the State. As a part of the ongoing and severe escalation of state-sponsored violence, it was declared on February 2016 that a team of ‘local-fighters’ mostly renegade and surrendered Maoists shall be armed and trained rapidly and deployed for counter-insurgency, which shows how a Salwa-Judum like situation is in continuation, in direct mockery of the Supreme Court of India’s order

Impact Assessment Of Welfare Schemes In Vidarbha
By Shubhda Chaudhary

The policies that have greatly aggravated the agrarian crisis and peasant indebtedness include reversal of land reforms in order to give large tracts of land to corporates, slashing of subsidies on all agricultural inputs like fertilizers and diesel, removal of quantitative restrictions on foreign agricultural imports. Other factors include decline in public expenditure on agriculture, irrigation and rural development, invasion of MNCs in agriculture, leading to big rise in costs of all inputs, privatization of irrigation and power projects, leading to much higher costs, crunch in institutional credit to farmers, thus boosting rapacious money-lenders. There has also been serious weakening of agricultural research and development and extension systems

Nationalism Is An Obstacle To Reason Like Dirt In A Clogged Drain
By Pratap Antony

What India needs is less nationalism and more unification. More pluralism, more cohesion and more national integration. What we need is a policy of ‘live and let live’. A policy that lights up our path to unification and integration of communities, religions, regions, classes and castes. We need politicians who would kindle incandescent lights of reason - of wisdom and understanding, and banish this darkness

22 March , 2016

Another Journalist Arrested In Chhattisgarh
By Countercurrents.org

Police high handedness against human rights activists and journalists continue in Chhattisgarh. In the latest incident the police picked up journalist Prabhat Singh working with Patrika. He earlier worked with etv from Dantewada. Yesterday morning he posted on Facebook how Inspector General Of Police Bastar Range Srp Kalluri crafted his ouster from ETV. Dantewada SP denied any such act carried out by Dantewada police. He said direct action was taken by Jagdalpur (Bastar) police

End The Harassment And Intimidation Of Soni Sori,
Lingaram Kodopi And Others: IndiaMattersUK

By IndiaMattersUK

IndiaMattersUK calls on the Chhattisgarh Government in India and the state’s police, in particular Inspector General (IG) of Police Bastar Range SRP Kalluri, to end the harassment and intimidation of Lingaram Kodopi, Soni Sori and other victims of violation and abuse and guarantee their safety

US Presidential Candidates Give Warmongering Speeches
Backing Israel At AIPAC Conference

By Barry Grey

Four of the five candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations sought to outdo one another in pledging unqualified support for Israel and issuing threats against Iran and its allies in appearances Monday before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the US

European Union-Turkey Deal To Expel Refugees Comes Into Force
By Jordan Shilton

The deal struck last Friday between the European Union’s 28 heads of government and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to facilitate the mass deportation of refugees arriving in Greece came into force on Sunday. The agreement, negotiated at a special two-day summit with the authoritarian Turkish regime, aims to seal off Europe’s borders to the millions of desperate people fleeing war and social misery produced by a series of wars and military interventions led by the imperialist powers. It represents a flagrant violation of international law by effectively abolishing the right to asylum, leaving the refugees at the mercy of the Turkish government

The Tree That Replaced Auschwitz: Latehar And Signs Of Our Times
By Mithilesh Kumar

Auschwitz is now a museum that reminds us of the horrors humanity is capable of. That tree perhaps one day will be cut down or felled by lightning or by itself but it will always remind us in its anonymity that we are living in a time when we can’t even erect a memorial for those innocent lives that have been massacred. There will be no nail marks. And maybe from this realization we have to learn new expressions, new vocabulary of resistance that strongly challenges the state that has failed its citizens

Islamic Resistance To Imperialism
Book Review By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

Islam challenges the two major premises of Western imperial world domination: "Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes its laws." (Mayer Rothschild) "War is the continuation of policy by other means." (Carl von Clausewitz). These geopolitical "laws" underlie modern capitalism that Islam rejects. Both theses cited in Eric Walberg's previous book "Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games". The challenge of these hypotheses by Islamic resistance movements and states like Iran to imperialism in the 21st century is exemplified in the author's newest book "Islamic Resistance to Imperialism"

21 March , 2016

Rape And Sexual Violence Against Adivasi Women Continue In Chhattisgarh
By Women Against Sexual Violence And State Repression (WSS)

Security forces continue to unleash indescribable sexual violence against Adivasi women, including rape and molestation, in the name of anti-naxal combing operation in Chatisgarh. We are publishing two fact finding reports done by Women Against Sexual Violence And State Repression (WSS) in two different parts of Chhattisgarh. "Nendra held captive by State Forces" describes loot and plunder, sexual violence, rapes, and physical assault between the 11th and 14th of January 2016 in Nendra, a village in the Usur Block of Bijapur District. The second report "The Violent Truth of Anti-Naxal Operations in South Chhattisgarh (The case of villages on the border of Sukma and Dantewada) " follows the same pattern of violence but describes a bizarre incident when women's "breasts were squeezed and nipples pinched with the assumption that if they were not lactating mothers, they would be Naxalites. When a woman was not lactating, she was taunted saying that they could help her conceive"

Does Bharat Mata Approve Of Beef Lynchings?
By Samar

The picture showing two Muslims – one of them a teenaged boy – hanging by a tree in Latehar, Jharkhand is going to haunt the Republic for a long time. Nothing indicts the failure of a criminal justice system like a lynch mob. Whether they may seem to reflect righteous anger or not, whether they operate by design or default, lynch mobs prove that the State has lost sole control over coercive power, the cornerstone of maintaining law and order

While The Arctic Superheats, Pipeline Wars Continue
By John Scales Avery

It is disturbing to see how little effect the the earth's present critical climate emergency has on the behaviour of politicians and the mass media. Recent data show that the earth is heating much faster than expected, and that this is most pronounced in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. An extremely dangerous methane hydrate feedback loop could be initiated by melting permafrost and by the warming Arctic seas. This feedback loop could lead to uncontrollable and catastrophic climate change. But although the use of fossil fuels must stop within one or two decades if a planetary disaster is to be avoided, pipline wars continue as usual

America Cannot Be Great Again
By Linh Dinh

Our ruling elites know the global economy is keeling, and that’s why they’re preparing for war. When there’s less to go around, only the most vicious will eat. Most Americans don’t realize they’ve been living way beyond their means for decades. With record debts, the US is in fact the poorest country on earth, but this is not evident since we have a global goon squad called the United States military. Keeping nearly the entire world in line, we can demand goods with our fiat money. Even Bernie Sanders knows this, and that’s why he’s basically a support-the-troops and anti-Russia kind of guy

The Crusade In Favour Of GMO: Falsehoods And Vilification Will Not Fool The Public
By Colin Todhunter

The smear campaigns engaged in by pro-GMO economic neoliberal crusaders are intended to denigrate all criticism of GMOs in the eyes of the public, from wherever it comes. By attacking KRTK, Entine doesn’t destroy or undermine the logic and facts upon which critics of GM base their arguments, including those of Rachel Parent. If anything, this type of hit piece, laced with the usual misrepresentations about the efficacy, safety and reality of GM, indicates a certain desperation and demonstrates a failure to convince the public about the need for GM

White Feminists/Black Blobs
By Mara Ahmed

The struggle against patriarchy, that’s what I kept coming back to - how it is twofold for women who belong to disenfranchised communities. On the one hand we must contend with white men in suits, with long histories of imperial profiteering, sitting calmly in boardrooms, instituting laws that control the Maghrebian woman’s body. We have white women who in their haste to diagnose oppression, marginalize further by dehumanizing and isolating what is not in line with their ideas of female emancipation. Then we have the struggle within our own communities, where patriarchy, conservative tradition, and autocratic political structures have brewed a lethal mix. These factors are not disconnected from history and global politics of course. Saudi Arabia is a particularly good example of how the West remains complicit in the repression of Arab self-expression. Close military ties between the United States and the Saudi regime ensure just that

Nation And Its Violences
By Sanjay Kumar

Democratic politics would play into Hindutva's plans if it tries to prove itself to be a better example of nationalist politics. Democracy does not exist for the nation, nation exists for democracy. The importance of someone like Kanhaiya Kumar lies precisely in this. His narrative, centered around the slogan of azadi presents an alternate framework, which is quotidian, resonates with the everyday experiences of Indians, and is sufficiently suffused with political values to give them subjective resources to fight for a better life. India desperately needs many more of such narratives. Otherwise, history shows that societies which get sucked into the black hole of fascism, get out of it only after wholesale disasters

Book Review - Hindu Hriday Samrat
By Suraj Kumar Thube

There is normally a sense that a biography of a towering personality, especially after his or her death, suddenly generates some sort of excitement among a section of readers . It happens to gain much traction if it is to be a politician for some reason. Sujata Anandan's captivating new book titled " Hindu Hriday Samrat" on the enigma that was Balasaheb Thackeray, falls in that list. With a wealth of experience of tracking the rise and fall of the Shiv Sena over the years, the writer does a fine job of reproducing certain key incidents and events of Bal Thackeray's life and the overall impact it had on shaping "Mumbai's" identity in general

The Lynch Mob Of Latehar
By Peoples Union For Democratic Rights

In the early hours of 18th March 2016, Mohammad Majloom Ansari (35) and Inayahtullah Khan (12) were found hanging from a tree in the Balumath forest area in Latehar, Jharkhand. Residents of Balugoan and Nawada villages, Ansari and young Khan were on their way to the weekly cattle fair with their eight buffaloes when they were stopped, thrashed, strangled and hanged by a lynch mob. So far the police has arrested 5 men and is on the lookout for three others. It has also clamped S.144 IPC in Balumath in a bid to quell communal tensions. Surprisingly, till now, the police has been reluctant to question the Latehar Gau Raksha Samiti even though one of the accused, Mithilesh Prasad Sahu, is a known member of the organization

People’s Movements In India And Bangladesh Join Hands To Save Sunderbans,
Support Extended To The Struggle Against Rampal Coal Power Project In Bangladesh

By National Alliance of People’s Movements

In yet another major initiative strengthening people-to-people cooperation between South Asian nations, people’s movements in India joined hands with their Bangladesh counterparts to save the Sunderbans. This was declared in Delhi by a delegation of 11 senior activists who took part in the Long March organized by National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and started from Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka on March 10 to Kathakhali Morh, Bagherhat district, Bangladesh – a distance of 250 kms from the capital

20 March , 2016

European Union And Turkey Reach Deal To Seal Borders And Expel Refugees
By Jordan Shilton

A summit between the 28 European Union (EU) heads of government and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu produced an agreement in Brussels aimed at hermetically sealing off Europe’s borders to the millions of refugees fleeing war zones in the Middle East and North Africa. Unveiling the deal after two days of talks, EU Council President Donald Tusk declared it would apply to refugees arriving in Greece after March 20. Refugees arriving on the Greek islands by crossing the Aegean Sea will be returned to Turkey, following the completion of a farcical asylum procedure in Greece. In exchange, the EU pledged to accept one Syrian refugee via legal means for every Syrian sent back to Turkey from Greece. This process will commence on April 4

Soros-Obama-Merkel-Erdogan Win Control Of Europe
By Eric Zuesse

On Friday, March 18th, a combined effort by George Soros, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, and Tayyip Erdogan, has arranged to get the EU to abandon previously sacrosanct fundamental human rights of refugees, and to transfer $6B+ to Turkey, in return for placing the refugee burden onto Turkey and getting Turkey to cooperate so as to assist the breakup of Syria, which will enable a gas-pipeline and an oil-pipeline to be built through Syria to enable Qatar’s gas and Saudi Arabia’s oil to be pipelined through Syria into the EU, so as to replace Russian oil and gas, which now fuel the EU

Patriarchy, ISIS And Female Slaves
By Mahfuz Quazi

The ISIS has been running a full-fledged and organized system of enslaving their captives as spoils. Hordes of women have been herded off in looted Hajj(pilgrimage) buses to the cities of Mosul and Raqqa, to their makeshift slave markets for the purpose of being bought and sold like cheap second hand garments no one has any use for, in exchange of arms, money and even cigarettes

Kurdistan - Turkey’s Kosovo
By Prof. Vladislav B. Sotirović

A blast caused by a suicide car bombing hit the centre of Ankara on Sunday evening (March 13th, 2016) resulting in over a hundred casualties. The Turkish authorities were very quick to announce the identity of the suicide person: A Kurdish woman in close relation with the Kurdistan Workers Party. Nevertheless, this terror act in Ankara, followed by a new one on March 19th in Istanbul, once again opened the “Kurdish Question” which is in direct connection with the question of Kurdistan’s independence and terrorism as the political instrument in the realization of the national projects and ultimate goals

Trumpism: It Did Happen Here, And It’s Happening Here Again
By Mickey Z.

The media-fueled rise of Trumpism has re-emboldened racists and white supremacists all across God’s Country™. To view this phenomenon as some form of low brow entertainment spectacle is to betray one’s lack of historical context. For some Americans to flippantly talk of moving to Canada is a betrayal to all those without the resources to leave or fight back or earn justice. To trot out the classic “it can’t happen here” is to ignore that it’s already happened here many times and, in some cases, never stopped happening

One Pound Capitalism, A Pinch Of Democracy, And The Not-So-Holy Buffalo
By Priti Gulati Cox

The series "One Pound Capitalism, a Pinch of Democracy" brings to our elite dinner tables meals that highlight issues exposing the extreme consequences of neoliberal policies that are disproportionately affecting the daily lives of Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, and other marginalized people. The type and quantity of each ingredient used and the presentation of a meal is determined by choosing key statistics that are embedded in the issue being conveyed, converting that to a measurement, and then using it in the recipe. Indeed, there may be a dish or two that tastes somewhat strange, with an ingredient or two out of whack. But that’s intentional. This recipe is designed around the issue of India simultaneously holding the title of the #1 beef exporter in the world and the title of the #1 beef-ban murderer in the world

Modi’s Sufiana Kalam And Owaisis’s Venom
By Sazzad Hussain

While appeals like Modi’s bring some glimmers of hope, hatemongers like Owaisi always play spoilsports. His bellicose speech on ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, aimed at creating religious polarization for the next year’s UP polls, could justify the majoritarian mantra. However, as termed by eminent poet Javed Akhtar, Owaisi represents the very different cultural spaces of some Indian Muslims, that as stated above, are non-Sufi and homogenous created in a ghettoised world following state’s failure to contain religious violence. Let’s hope that the wider world of Sufism would be imbibed by all the stakeholders of our nation to make India awesome

India Needs A Welfare State Not Elite State:
Why Slashing Of Rates On Small Savings?

By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

NDA government has reduced the interest rates on small saving schemes Kisan Vikas Patra and others, mainly G- Sec securities and Public Provident Fund in huge manner thereby affecting a large section of the Indian middle class. The government had indicated about such steps in its Economic Survey which was presented before the Annual Financial Statement. The government has charted a path where the neo liberal policies are now becoming a norm. this may be debated whether such policies are in the interests of the common people or not, one thing is explicit that government is keen to seal the leakages as it has clarified in its Economic Survey but the reduction of the interest rates which directly affects the old age persons, pensioners and the people with the low income is not a right step

Does India Need A Militant Hindutva?
By Shubhda Chaudhary

Militant Hindutva does not have any future in India. Any form of fundamentalism has its own decay, with time. The same fate would be met with the RSS and other organizations when they continue to harp on a tune which, one day, they would realize, would cause their own demise. The India of today is cerebral, it thinks, it questions, it debates. It does not ridicule

The Double Standards Of RSS
By Suraj Kumar Thube

M S Golwalkar's reservations on accepting the Indian constitution verbatim at his time, as he points out in his Bunch of Thoughts, is constitutive of the non committal nature of the Sangh mentality to accept it as the most supreme legal text of this land. It will be interesting to know what the young RSS sympathisers feel about this dichotomy and where they envision themselves of standing in this larger debate. Do they have an open mind in choosing between the two - one which envisions a socially egalitarian idea of Indian citizenry and the other that represents modern hate

Umar Khalid And Anirban Bhattacharya Return To JNU’s Freedom Square
By Shubhda Chaudhary

The entire campus of JNU resonated with the slogans of ‘Azaadi’ on 18th March when Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, charged with the draconian laws of criminal conspiracy and sedition finally got interim bail and headed towards their university. The entire campus erupted in a Holi-like celebration It was an infectious moment of solidarity, zeal and fervor, as the student fraternity was finally able to earn ‘justice’ from how obnoxiously the university has been targeted by the state and media trials

19 March , 2016

Beef Ban Hysteria Raises Its Ugly Head Again:
Two Men Lynched To Death In Jharkhand

By Countercurrents.org

The 'beef ban hysteria' whipped up by hindutva fundamentalists has claimed two more lives. Accroding to Times of India, two Muslim men herding eight buffaloes on their way to a local Friday market were bashed up and hanged to death from a tree by unknown assailants at Balumath forests in Latehar district, of Jharkhand state of India, in the wee hours on Friday. The buffaloes were freed by the men and locals claimed the assailants were Hindu radicals. "The sight suggested that the two of them were subjected to extreme levels of brutality. It means that the assailants were moved by extreme hatred," a police officer said.

The Illegal Arrest Of Debaranjan Sarangi
By Biswapriya Kanungo & Trijeeb Nanda

In the early morning of 18th March 2016, Debaranjan Sarangi, a Human Rights Activist, was picked up by plainclothes police from the Kucheipadar village of Rayagada District, Odisha. Debaranjan was in Kucheipadar to attain a funeral ceremony of one of his friends’ father. The police claims of arresting Debaranjan while executing a non-bailable warrant issued by the court of JMFC, Kashipur, in pursuance of a criminal case registered in the Tikri police station of Raygada District in 2005. Everyone including his advocate was clueless about the whereabouts of Debaranjan, till he was produced before the court of JMFC, Kashipur, in the evening. Without considering his bail application the court extended his remand till 22nd March 2016

ABVP Attacks Lecture On Bhagat Singh By Prof. Chaman Lal
By Vidya

After the initial attack by ABVP goons, we reorganized, resisted and pushed back the goons. The police surrounded us but did not stop the ABVP. Prof. ChamanLal,after being introduced by Dr. Vikas Gupta, began his talk. He started by highlighting the lack of democratic space in the university and how Bhagat Singh would have viewed those disrupting such programmes as stooges of colonial and imperialist powers. He invoked the words of Bhagat Singh to reiterate the meaning of fighting for the country. The ABVP goons who had beensloganeering now openly threatened Prof. ChamanLal and all those who had gathered – ‘jobhagatsingh ki raah chalega, who afzalki maut marega’, ‘deshkegaddaronko, golimaarosaalonko’. Prof. ChamanLal responded with slogans of ‘inquilabzindabad’. Once again, this time the police took exception to this and the SHO directly confronted Prof. ChamanLal and told him to mind what he says

Bail To Umar Khalid And Anirban Welcome, But Questions On Justice Remain
By Samar

The bail finally granted to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya is welcome. Despite the media gaze, it took almost a month for the students, who are accused of sedition on flimsy grounds, to be released. This showcases the nature of Indian Magistracy, and yet the repeated rejection of their bail plea would not shock anyone for whom the Indian judicial system is old hat

Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted
Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores

By Dr Gideon Polya

The latest shocking global temperature data indicate that it is now too late to avoid a catastrophic plus 2 degrees Centigrade temperature rise. Annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution per se is a flawed measure of national culpability for this because it ignores rich countries outsourcing industrial pollution to China, and impoverished countries compelled to pollute to barely survive. A better measure of culpability is weighted annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution taking relative per capita income into account, this revealing that the worst polluters on this basis include the rich Anglosphere countries of the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland

Our Economic Growth System Is Reaching Limits In A Strange Way
By Gail Tverberg

If a person doesn’t understand what the problem is, it is easy to come to the wrong conclusion. Part of our problem is that we need a growing amount of net energy, per capita, to keep the economy from collapsing. Part of our problem is that entropy problems such as rising debt, increased pollution, and increasing complexity tend to bring the system down, even when we seem to have plenty of energy supplies. These are the two big problems we are facing that few people recognize

How Obama And Congressional Republicans Intend To Pass TPP Into Law —
After The November Elections

By Eric Zuesse

TPP, and perhaps TTIP and TISA, will be voted on after the elections and will almost certainly be passed into law; and, if Bernie Sanders will have been elected as President, he will do everything possible to undo them. Clinton almost certainly will not. Trump is a big question-mark

Right To Be A Coward
By Waqas Farooq Kuttay

The February 09 event at JNU which got enough media attention still remains the talk of the day. It was alleged that there were some outsiders notably Kashmiri students who raised the anti-India slogans. A few days back, I had a discussion with my friends over the dreadful possibilities which those ‘allegedly involved students’ would have faced if caught by the police or if they came to spotlight. My friends sturdily maintained that they should have gone into hiding but I strongly discarded the idea. My friends stuck to their position forwarding a different set of arguments that I countered. I don’t know which set of arguments are right or wrong. I am just writing it down

18 March , 2016

Dr Saibal Jana Arrested In Chhattisgarh
By Countercurrents.org

Dr Saibal Jana, chief physician of Shaheed Hospital at Dalli Rajhara, Chhattisgarh has been arrested. He was picked up late at night by Chhattisgarh police. The hospital was founded Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha led by Late Shankar Guha Niyogi and run by money collected from the workers of the area. Dr. Jena's arrest comes close on the heels of the acid attack on Soni Sori and harrassment of her relatives

Should International Law Supersede Superstition In The 21st Century?
By William A. Cook

Does Yahweh’s Liberation of the Jews from Egypt Justify Israel’s Oppression and Occupation of Palestine?

The Ecomodernist Manifesto Is A Program For Genocide And Ecocide
By Derrick Jensen

Far from attempting to ‘decouple’ our well-being from that of the planet – which this culture has been trying to do for a few thousand years now, to the detriment of everyone this culture encounters – we need to recognize and remember that our own well-being has always been intimately dependent on the health of the planet. And those of us who care about life on the planet must stop those who are currently remaking – read, killing – this planet that is our only home

GMO And The Right To Know: But What's Hidden Beneath The Label?
By Colin Todhunter

Mandatory labelling would be a good idea. People should know what they are eating, But GMO has a serious credibility problem. No amount of labelling can hide that

Obscured American: Vern The Vietnam Vet
By Linh Dinh

I just don’t feel that America needs to be the policeman of the world. You saw what happened with the Iraq War. It was bad information. We’re here in the middle of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. All that crap that comes out of the East and Far East… pick up your shit and do something for yourself!

'Bharat Mata' of RSS Is Not Our Democratic-Secular India
By Shamsul Islam

It is as true as the sun light that ‘Bharat Mata’ of RSS is not which came into being on August 15, 1947. ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ in fact, is the slogan with which RSS oath (pratigya) ends. It is mandatory for all members of RSS to take this oath once a year. It is to be noted that in the functioning of RSS this oath apart from prayer (prarthana) are the two texts which express total commitment to the building and nurturing a Hindu Rashtra (nation)

Nation And Nationalism As Metaphors
By V.Krishna Ananth

Those who have gone berserk, only because they all have been assured that they will not be `dealt’ with under the law to beat up media-persons and students and using expletives against the teachers in JNU and elsewhere, are guilty of treating our nation as weak and incapable of taking dissent. Chanting Vande Mataram was indeed an act of dissent and brave men and women did that knowing they would be sent to jail for that. But then, it does not make one a nationalist to shout that in times we live in. And the nation and nationalism today will have to be seen in another context and not be reduced to a police-state sponsored act! The point is that the nation and our nationalism is not as fragile as it is made out that a few slogan shouters can bring it down. If it was so, we would have crumbled long ago. It did not happen and will not happen only if we as a nation agree to disagree; in other words learn to put up with dissent

North Korea Punished For Helping To Liberate Africa
Text and Photos By Andre Vltchek

Like Cuba, North Korea dared to step onthe toes of Western colonialism and imperialism. Sacrificing its sons and daughters, it helped to liberate many African countries, and it provided assistance to the most progressive forces on the most plundered and devastated continent. This is one thing that the West never forgives

The “Grand Inquisition” Of The UN’s “Commission Of Inquiry”
On Human Rights In Eritrea

By Daniel Wedi Korbaria

It was a clumsy attempt by the UN’s “Commission of Inquiry” (COI) on Eritrea’s human rights situation, to make the world believe that its fantasy on Eritrea was reality, and that this “reality” is no longer a comedy but a tragedy. Suddenly, the "hearsay" has become indisputable facts, the witnesses of dubious origin have become the only "voices of truth," and its 550 witnesses have weighed more than the six million of the remaining Eritrean population

Bulldozing Public Hearing On Bhadradri Thermal Power Plant
Press Release

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) takes strong exception to the manner in which the environmental public hearing was held on 17th March for the proposed 1080 MW Bhadradri Thermal Power Plant near Manuguru in Khammam district. The Telangana government has sought to, and managed to, bulldoze the public hearing by whatever means

What Does It Take To Beat Drug-Resistant TB?
By Shobha Shukla

I met Lucy in Khayelishta (near Cape Town) on the bright sunny morning of 4th December 2015 - just two days after she had celebrated the 10th birthday of her lovely daughter. A cured multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB survivor, her face glowed with the happiness and pride of winning her battle against two dreadful diseases

17 March , 2016

I Live In A Nation That's More Father (Land) Than
Mother (Land).. So Where's Bharat Mata?

By Surabhi Singh

I live in a nation that is much less a mother (land) and more of a father (land). A German feminist scholar has correctly said that women are the last colony. Their bodies, sexuality, reproductive capacity, labour capacity are still colonised. So, if I may ask, where do I find my position as a daughter or mother of the nation? In fact, where do I begin to question this colonial master and a national father? Unless I get the answer I refuse to say “Bharat Mata ki Jai.”

The Mass Rape Of The Bosnian Women Was Genocide!
By Professor Francis A. Boyle

Even the Nazis during World War II did not engage in the mass and systematic rape of women as a technique of warfare, though the Japanese came very close to it against Chinese women during the Second World War. Bosnia was appalling! It seemed to me that what was going on there was not just rape – which in times of war is a war crime -- but that what was going on there was genocide. Outright genocide! So I decided to argue that the mass rape of the Bosnian women was genocide to the World Court

On Burning Ground: The Human Cost Of India’s Push to Produce More Coal
By Fred Pearce

Many fear the climatic consequences of India’s drive for coal-powered growth. Other major coal mining nations like the United States and China are cutting back on burning the dirtiest of the fossil fuels. But India, the world’s third largest coal producer and fourth largest greenhouse-gas emitter, stood out as a climate bad guy at the United Nations’ climate talks in Paris in December. It has set itself on an energy growth path that will increase emissions by an estimated 60 percent by 2030

Edward W. Said On Orientalism
By Gaither Stewart

Edward Said wrote a new preface for the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of his classic book, ORIENTALISM, originally published in the USA by Random House in 1978. In the following pages I have quoted some of the author’s major thoughts and added my own ideas about Said’s preface written in 2003 for the last Vintage Books edition of his magnificent work

Why BDS Cannot Lose: A Moral Threshold To Combat Racism In Israel
By Ramzy Baroud

A foray of condemnations of the boycott of Israel seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Calls from Western governments, originating from the UK, the US, Canada and others, to criminalize the boycott of Israel have hardly slowed down the momentum of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). On the contrary, it has accelerated

Tribal Rights, Mining And Gram Sabha:
Tribals Have Power To Reject Vedanta Bauxite Mining

By Zubair Nazeer & Rahul Chimurkar

The recent attack on tribal rights is in the form of a new interlocutory application filed by the Odisha government before the apex court on 25th February, 2016. The application has been moved by the state run miner OMC (Odisha Mining Corporation) to challenge the landmark Vedanta bauxite mine judgement of the Supreme Court. The application claims that Forest Rights Act and its rules do not require any consent from the Gram Sabha for use of forestlands if government decides that the rights of people have been settled. The OMC has made this claim on the basis of several arguments

There Is No Honour In Killing
By Maanvender Singh

On 13 March, 2016, a similar crime was committed in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, where a young couple was attacked publicly by group of hired men; resulting in the death of 22 year old V. Shankar and causing serious head injuries to his wife Kausalya. This brutal action was carried out on the direction of Shankar’s father-in law who was unhappy with the marriage, as Shankar was a dalit and the family belonged to a much forward Thevar community. The fact finding team that visited the crime scene, pointed out that the murder was pre- planned and Shankar was under the constant threat from his in -laws, highlighting to yet another case of honor killing

Rains Become A Nightmare!
By Mohammad Ashraf

Once welcome as a boon from the Gods, the rains these days give nightmares to the people!

16 March , 2016

Ayush RTI Story Journalist Released, Told To Report Back In The Morning
By The Milli Gazette Online

Kotla Mubarakpur police station, where journalist Pushp Sharma was being interrogated after he was picked up by a police force from his home in Lajpat Nagar at 6:30 pm this evening, allowed him to go home at 10:30 pm, with the instruction that he must report at the police station tomorrow at 10 am with all the papers relevant to his story about the AYUSH ministry

Did Kanhaiya Kumar Make This Statement? The Damage Is Already Done!
By Mithilesh Kumar

Yesterday, there was a protest march to demand the release of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya and other demands. Incidentally, both students have now been again sent to 14 days judicial custody. The JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar who faces rustication gave the list of demands and this is how it was quoted on the website of NDTV: "We want the resignation of Smriti Irani, dropping of sedition charges, the release of two students from jail, no interferences in the university's autonomy and a law against caste politics in colleges," Mr Kumar told NDTV. This is a statement which has to be taken very seriously

Historic Opportunity To Strengthen Democratic Bahujan Left Forces
By VidyaBhushan Rawat

Now, Kanhaiyya want a law against ‘caste politics’ which is very dangerous. One does not know what he meant but if caste politics is just what Dalit Bahujans are doing then Kanhaiyya is returning to the politics of rhetoric suited to brahmanical interests and must be countered. The new Bahujan left must build a collaborative leadership of diverse sections of society and refuse to glorify one individual as messiah, which is nothing but dictatorial attitude. Kanhaiyya Kumar and others have been wronged by Indian state and must be supported but it does not mean we accept their political philosophy or utterings as gospel truth

Russia’s Military Aims Achieved, Putin Switches To Diplomacy
By Paul Craig Roberts

Having stripped the Islamic State of offensive capability and liberated Syria from the Washington-supported terrorists, Putin has now shifted to diplomacy. If peace fails in Syria, the failure cannot be blamed on Russia

The Global Refugee Crisis: Humanity's Last Call
For A Culture Of Sharing And Cooperation

By Rajesh Makwana

The real crisis is not the influx of refugees to Europe per se but a toxic combination of destabilising foreign policy agendas, economic austerity and the rise of right-wing nationalism, which is likely to push the world further into social and political chaos in the months ahead

How Resilient Is The Nuclear Taboo Today?
By Rizwana Abbasi

A new taboo against proliferation will help secure the existing taboo against use and would pave the way to establish the ultimate and decisive step of a taboo against the possession of nuclear weapons

Budget 2016-17: As If Children Matter
By Joseph Anthony Gathia

Earlier the Economic Survey 2015-16 and now the Budget 2016-17 gave impression that deprived sections of our country are going to get fair treatment but a careful analysis shows that there is crafty shift in resource mobilisation and the onus of the development funding has been shifted to the state governments , especially for health, nutrition, and education, which is likely to impact children who are 36.6 per cent of India’s total population . Let us examine two important sectors: health and education in relation to the Economic Survey 2015-16 and the Budget 2016-17

Stop The Aggressive Villification Against Nivedita Menon
By Shubhda Chaudhary

The recent target of burgeoning epileptic paroxysm of ABVP has been JNU’s Professor Nivedita Menon who took a teach-in lecture titled ‘Nation, as a daily plebiscite’. Already defamed for fabricating video footages, the intellect-less hedonistic agenda of ABVP has resurfaced again to defame the professor, branding her as ‘anti-national’ and starting a vitriolic and obnoxious social media troll again her ‘Right to Dissent’ and ‘Freedom of Speech and Expression’. Menon, whose lecture in Hindi, explained how one nationality cannot curb the multiple national aspirations of the people is being victimized for her views on Kashmir, Manipur, Chattisgarh and other sensitive political boundaries

Solidarity Letter From Indian Workers’ Association Great Britain
Press Release

Indian Workers’ Association, Great Britain continues to stand firmly with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and strongly condemns the attempts by the Indian state and the Hindutva forces to stifle the voices of democratic dissent, disagreement and discourse in the campuses. We congratulate the students and the faculty for standing unitedly and firmly at a time when assaults on democratic rights is taking place across India on various sections of the people

15 March , 2016

After Gauhar Raza, Nivedita Menon: Who Next?
By Subhash Gatade

Whether all the leading public intellectuals of our times have suddenly decided to go for a break – now that Kanhaiya Kumar is out of jail – or are thinking that the impending storm would peter away on its own. Anyone who has closely followed the public hounding of two of the finest human beings of our times – Prof Nivedita Menon and Gauhar Raza – and the silence which has followed with it would understand what does that mean

The Climate Emergency: Time To Switch To Panic Mode?
By Ugo Bardi

The latest temperature data have broken all records. At best, this is an especially large oscillation and the climate system will be soon back on track; following the predictions of the models - maybe to be retouched to take into account faster climbing temperatures. A worst, it is an indication that the system is going out of control and moving to a new climate state faster than anyone could have imagined

U.S. Government Blames 9/11 On Iran, Fines Iran $10.5B; Iran Refuses To Pay
By Eric Zuesse

On March 14th, Iran announced that it will never pay the $10.5B that a U.S. court demanded it pay for the 9/11 attacks. The same Bill-Clinton-appointed judge who had ruled, on 29 September 2015, that Saudi Arabia has sovereign immunity for 9/11 and so can't be sued for it, ruled recently, on March 9th that Iran doesn't have sovereign immunity and fined Iran $10.5 billion to be paid to 9/11 victims and insurers; but, on March 14, Iran's Foreign Ministry said Iran won't pay, because, as the Ministry's spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari put it, "The ruling is ludicrous and absurd to the point that it makes a mockery of the principle of justice while [it] further tarnishes the US judiciary's reputation.” 

Moral Haemorrhage From The Wound Of Palestine
By Vacy Vlazna

Going way beyond hypocrisy to blatant abuse of the Australian national value of a ‘fair go’, the Australian government is withholding a visa for Ali Abunimah’s tour of Australia. With no war crimes, crimes against humanity, home demolitions, land grabs, apartheid policies, assassination and extrajudicial killings on his record, Abunimah, a highly respected journalist and champion of Palestinian political and human rights is being denied his lawful right to enter Australia

The History Of Hollywood: Propaganda For White Supremacy At Home
And US Militarism Abroad

By Garikai Chengu

White terrorism founded America, built the nation through slavery, and continues to be the nation's largest domestic terrorist threat. From Redface, to Blackface, to Yellowface, to Brownface, Hollywood's long and torrid history of white supremacy through their depiction of other races as dangerous or inferior has been a pillar of American racism at home and an integral weapon for American militarism abroad

Pentagon Excess Has Fueled A Civil-Military Crisis
By Gregory D. Foster

Humpty Dumpty posed the question to Alice in Through the Looking Glass of whether words are to be the masters of men or men the masters of words by determining their meaning. Similarly must we ask whether an institution, the military, supposedly endowed with supernal character by objective circumstances, is to master us, or we to master it by determining for ourselves what it properly is and does

America's Laughable ‘News' Media
By Eric Zuesse

As of Friday March 4th, democracy ended in Turkey, but you'd hardly have known it by reading the international ‘news' at the major (and at most of the minor) U.S.-based ‘news' sites, as of around 4PM Eastern time in the U.S., nearly a day after the event. Nor has it been announced even now, ten days after that historic event occurred

America's Gestapo: The FBI's Reign Of Terror
By John W. Whitehead

This is how freedom falls, and tyrants come to power. Secret police. Secret courts. Secret government agencies. Surveillance. Intimidation. Harassment. Torture. Brutality. Widespread corruption. Entrapment. Indoctrination. These are the hallmarks of every authoritarian regime from the Roman Empire to modern-day America. Yet it's the secret police—tasked with silencing dissidents, ensuring compliance, and maintaining a climate of fear—who sound the death knell for freedom in every age

Understanding Self-Hatred In World Affairs
By Robert J. Burrowes

If you have ever wondered why the global elite hoards their wealth instead of using it to help break down the violence and injustice in our world, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred. If you have ever wondered why weapons manufacturers make weapons to kill other living beings and destroy the Earth, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred. If you have ever wondered why politicians serve elite interests, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred

Frivolity, Indian Judiciary’s Real Crisis, Not Backlog
By Samar

There is a “crisis of credibility” for sure. But, the crisis is not in the numbers. It is in what the numbers represent about the past, and about what continues in routine today. The Chief Justice would do well to stop frivolous cases from accumulating now. However, nothing short of a radical re-engineering of India’s justice institutions will solve the crisis, to create a system where the Judiciary itself stops violating the rights and dignity of the people, and equality before law can be enforced and followed

Malice Is Not Critique: A Rejoinder To Suhas Munshi
By Mithilesh Kumar

Suhas Munshi in an article on Catch News(“Left Drops Kashmir: Did Kanhaiya Kumar leave his Azadi in jail?”) has purportedly critiqued the alleged betrayal by Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNUSU president. According to Munshi, the student leader has betrayed those political causes which made him the poster boy of the entire liberal spectrum. He has betrayed the cause of Kashmir and Manipur; to the slogan of Azadi and the rest of it. Munshi does not seek the causes of this betrayal in the personality of Kumar which is a very sound method

14 March , 2016

February Smashes Earth's All-Time Global Heat Record By A Jaw-Dropping Margin
By Jeff Masters & Bob Henson

On Saturday, NASA dropped a bombshell of a climate report. February 2016 has soared past all rivals as the warmest seasonally adjusted month in more than a century of global recordkeeping. NASA’s analysis showed that February ran 1.35°C (2.43°F) above the 1951-1980 global average for the month, as can be seen in the list of monthly anomalies going back to 1880. The previous record was set just last month, as January 2016 came in 1.14°C above the 1951-1980 average for the month. In other words, February has dispensed with this one-month-old record by a full 0.21°C (0.38°F)--an extraordinary margin to beat a monthly world temperature record by

Dear Sisters, They Are Killing Our Trees
By Geetha and friends

Dear Sisters, I am Geetha, the Chieftain of the Vazhachal tribal settlement of Kadar Tribes people living in the Vazhachal- Athirapilly forests in Chalakudy river side located in the Thrissur district of Kerala. I had written to you a few months back when there was threat of giving Environmental Clearance to the Athirapally Hydroelectric Project by the Environmental Appraisal Committee for River Valley and Hydroelectric projects. Now we face the threat of losing all trees in the submergible area as Government of Kerala has asked the Forest Department to mark the trees and assess their seigniorage value

Feeding The Bank Balance or Feeding The World:
GMOs, Development And The Politics of Unhappiness

By Colin Todhunter

There is much rhetoric about a brave new world of crops engineered to eradicate disease, boost yields, fight pests and adapt to climatic conditions (etc), but the reality is hundreds of thousands of farmers in India have killed themselves as a result of economic distress. Many of these suicides are directly linked to GM, while many are also associated with wider issues, such as the growing of cash crops for export and the exposure to international markets and trade rules which serve the interests of global agribusiness

What If Hitchcock Got It All Backwards In 'The Birds?'
By Mickey Z.

This astounding disconnect is the root of so many current problems. The natural world, seen as inferior, goes conveniently misunderstood as humanity's necrophilic "progress" cuts a broad swath through our shared eco-systems. In such a scenario, denial and justification become crucial

“Militarized” Refugees - A Success Story
By Jim Miles

It could well be true that there are militarized refugees in the EU arriving from the Middle East, but the source is certainly not the Syrian government nor the Russian military. If there is a source one only need examine the actions of Turkey over the past several months to realize that Turkey is the initiative behind the migration. For Turkey it is an effort to blackmail the EU and NATO into supporting Turkey’s goals in the Middle East which is essentially to establish a new mini-Caliphate supported by ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Media Manufacture Narrative Of U.S. Benevolence Towards Cuba
By Matt Peppe

The notion that the U.S. government's new relationship will bring about positive societal changes in Cuba should be disposed of, along with the imperialist mindset that assumes such an outcome is even possible. U.S. policy should be judged by the extent which the U.S. government stops trying to influence politics in Cuba and lets the island develop independent of any outside pressure

On “World Cultures” And Godmen
By Raja Swamy

What “world cultures” and “dharma” in either case convey is the notion that a section of the parasitic upper castes who coalesce around godmen and spiritual gurus on the one hand, and harbor a staunchly supremacist politics of Brahmanism and Hindutva on the other, are attempting to subvert real questions of diversity and inclusion – questions made all the more urgent precisely as a result of this growing supremacist movement which threatens to further assault Indians of non-upper caste Hindu persuasions – by fronting a false chimera of inclusion and worldly communal amity. This is the ideological import of the so called “world cultures” event in Delhi

Statement In Support of Nivedita Menon And Gauhar Raza
By Corcerned Citizens

We, the undersigned, unequivocally condemn the unwarranted attacks against Prof. Nivedita Menon by Zee News and IBN 7 and Mr. Gauhar Raza by Zee News. Prof. Menon is an acclaimed political scientist and writer whose work and integrity are respected all over the world. Her contributions to the women's movement and gender justice through her writing and participation have been very significant. Mr. Raza is a reputed scientist, poet and filmmaker, who has worked in a sustained way for peace and amity. The two channels have engaged in irresponsible and unethical attacks based on video clips taken out of context, creating an atmosphere of threat, intimidation and incitement to violence. Three false cases have been filed against Prof. Menon in this media-created environment of shrill jingoism

13 March , 2016

India’s Former Nuclear Regulator Says, Govt Might Be Hiding
A Serious Accident Underway In Gujarat

By Kumar Sundaram

The retired chief of India’s nuclear regulator, Dr. A Gopalakrishnan has sent out an urgent note in which he has cautioned that a ‘loss of coolant accident(LOCA)’ might be underway in Gujarat’s Kakrapar Nuclear Power Station(KAPS). A LOCA accidents is the most serious accident that can happen in nuclear plants and it might lead to the meltdown of the reactor fuel core

America's Election Is The Biggest Threat To The Aristocracy
And Biggest Opportunity For U.S. Voters, Since At Least 1932

By Eric Zuesse

The historical significance of the 2016 U.S. Presidential contest isn’t yet generally recognized. Consider the evidence regarding this historical significance, in the links that will be provided here, and from which the argument here is constructed

Donald Trump’s Rhetoric Horrifies American Muslims
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Seven-million strong American Muslim community is alarmed at the mounting anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric by Republican Presidential hopefuls, particularly leading GOP candidate Donald Trump. An unprecedented wave of Islamophobia is now sweeping the United States as the Republican Party has become the epicenter of Islamophobia this election season

Media Monsters: Militarism, Violence, And Cruelty In Children's Culture
By Heidi Tilney Kramer

We are undergoing a paradigm shift of monumental proportions wherein some are awakening to possibilities on a dimming horizon. Doing so has never been more imperative because our very survival depends on seeing what is true: that we are more alike than we are different and that the "have nots" have a my-voice-matters stake in which way life proceeds. It is time for us, "the 99%," to stand against the media and political giants engaged in separating us from one another. God bless the whole world:NO EXCEPTIONS

“Last” Days Of Maduro, And A Coup Is In The Offing In Venezuela:
MSM Prognostications

By Farooque Chowdhury

It would have been nice for the world system had Maduro, the president of Venezuela and the arch enemy of the system, failed. But Maduro has failed to fail. He is still holding high the standard of Bolivarian revolution. But the world system is in dire need of his failures. To facilitate much desired failure, the mainstream media (MSM) intensify propaganda of all sorts against Maduro. Two MSM headings are thus born: The last days of Maduro, and a coup is in the offing in Venezuela

Some Books And Articles On Peace
By John Scales Avery

Here are some links to John Scales Avery's books and articles related to peace and to the search for solutions to global problems

How Aadhaar Neglects Personal Privacy And National Security
By S.G.Vombatkere

Genuine national interest may dictate that laws on data/digital privacy protection and cyber security be urgently enacted and linked with the Aadhaar Bill, before it becomes operational in the public sphere

World Culture Festival Raises Several Ethical Questions
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

All Indians value their environment. India was the first country in the world where the first environmental movement led by Amrita Devi was launched against the royalty of the Jodhpur king. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his Art of Living foundation MUST learn some environmental ethics from these GREAT women of the country. In this background none should be allowed to be made bigger than the environmental parameters and all should follow the basic premises of the environmental ethics. IT IS OUR FUNDAMENTAL DUTY. There is no need to be prideful for anyone as history judges all in a critical manner

Why Intellectuals Need The Party? : Submissions To Makrand Paranjpe
By Mithilesh Kumar

The point I am trying to make here is that the form of a party and its need in a radical and revolutionary struggle came at a certain historical moment. If Paranjpe does not feel any need to be associated with a party he has to also demonstrate that the historical moment of party is now over. The task would then be to think about these new forms and see if the new forms are actually novel or are they simply old or a hybrid. This is one way of understanding the transition in politics that we are witnessing now

Why Kanhaiya Kumar’s Bail Order Is No Exception
To The ‘Strange Ways Of Indian Judiciary’

By Radhakrishnan Puthenveetil

The purpose of having judges in courts is to find solutions to legal and social problems; but if the judges themselves become problems, who will find the solutions? Stated differently, if law is an ass, what could be its ambience, what of its abhorrent practitioners and their victims in society?

A Letter Of Support To Students Of JNU From St. Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore

We are alarmed and concerned at the situation in your campus, especially about the attack on the democratically elected student representatives of the University and the arrest of student leaders that followed. We appreciate your courage for standing up against state repression and propaganda politics of the fascist forces at the helm of power at the moment in the country. This note is to express our solidarity with your struggles for the protection of democratic values and constitutional principles

12 March , 2016

A Major Leak In India’s Nuclear Plant On Fukushima’s 5th Anniversary
By Kumar Sundaram

The Unit-1 of the the Kakrapar nuclear power plant in India’s Gujarat state underwent an accident 11th March, morning at 9.00 am. The operator of the nuclear plant, the govt-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), has declared an on-site emergency even as it has said there is no release or radioactivity in the accident. The NPCIL has said the leak happened in the Primary Heat Transport System. The NDTV news report has called it a major heavy water leak

Why I Bought Four Syrian Children Off A Beirut Street
By Franklin Lamb

This observer confesses to having purchased four children near Ramlet el Baida beach recently from a stressed –out Syrian woman. I am not sure if she was as she appeared to be or was from one of human trafficking gangs which operate widely these days in Lebanon as they market Syrian children or vulnerable adult women. The vendor woman claimed to have been the four children’s neighbor in Aleppo and that the they (two five year old twin girls, a boy about one year and a few months and his bigger brother eight years old-shown in the photo below on this observer’s motorbike a few days after he bought them) lost their parents in the war

Dealing With The European Refugee Crisis
By Iqbal Alimohamed

In an unjust world, wars will happen and there will always be the unfortunate victims. If legal channels are not available to asylum seekers to secure passage to third countries, and their resentment grows, they risk exploitation by traffickers and, worse still, by criminal gangs and terrorists, such as ISIS. Our overarching sense of humanity should impel us, our civil societies and our leaders to give succour to these victims by protecting them and giving them hope, even as the international community pursues parallel efforts for the attainment of durable peace in the conflict zones

American Exceptionalism Presents An Election Made In Hell
By William Blum

If the American presidential election winds up with Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump, and my passport is confiscated, and I’m somehow FORCED to choose one or the other, or I’m PAID to do so, paid well … I would vote for Trump

Bloody US Establishment Honors Wife Of 'The Great Facilitator'
Of The Murder of 1/2 Million Central Americans

By Jay Janson

In week long show of pseudo-Christian reverence, the profitably genocidal criminal US establishment has had its controlled news media and government use the passing of a former first lady to promote the stature of a simple minded, good-for-billionaires, US President, who got away without being prosecuted for overseeing the brutal death of at least a half million men, women and children in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua during his eight years in office

Jean-Claude Juncker Damns Obama’s Plan For Ukraine
By Eric Zuesse

Jean-Claude Juncker, the most powerful person in Europe, the chief of the European Commission and therefore Europe’s closest equivalent to America’s President, said, in a little-noticed comment on March 3rd, "Ukraine will definitely not be able to become a member of the EU in the next 20-25 years, and not of NATO either.” The article reporting this, at europeonline.magazine, also observed that, "The commission, the EU‘s executive, plays a leading role in accession negotiations between the bloc and aspiring members."

Understanding The fundamental Roots Of Conflict And Suffering
In Israel/Palestine: An Interview With Rich Forer

By Katie Miranda

Rich Forer is a former member of AIPAC who has orthodox relatives living in West Bank settlements. Still, after a dramatic spiritual awakening in 2006, he was transformed into an advocate for Palestinian rights. He is the author of Breakthrough: Transforming Fear into Compassion A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict which presents an important viewpoint that is all but ignored in the Palestine solidarity movement. I chose to interview him after reading Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth which taught me the concept of how “ego-identification” drives conflict between individuals and nations. In Rich’s book and his interviews online he discusses “ego identification” in the framework of Israel/Palestine. I cannot emphasize how important Rich’s “psycho-spiritual roots of conflict” are towards understanding why Israel-identifiers think and behave the way they do. We can take the easy route and brush them off as crazy and racist. It’s much harder to look at the roots and even to identify similar qualities in ourselves

A Debacle In Pakistan, A Lesson For Bangladesh
By Taj Hashmi

Islamist extremism does not drop from the heavens or sprout up from the ground. Secular leaders – over the years – prepare the groundwork for Islamist takeover, terrorism, or insurgency through corruption, despotism, hypocrisy and opportunism. This has happened in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Bangladesh can’t remain immune to Islamist extremism, for an indefinite period. Since Islamism is an ideology-driven extremist ideology – not a law-and-order-problem – even highly efficient police and military are no match for Islamist extremism. Pakistan’s experience should be an eye-opener. Bangladesh must realize neither opportunistic politics nor political hypocrisy, but democracy and the rule of law are the only anti-dotes to Islamist extremism

Why Men In Uniform Enjoying Legal Impunity For Rapes Should Not Shock Us..
By Surabhi Singh

The soldiers are not alien entity. Neither are they born as rapists or killers. We make them that, by exhorting religion, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Manusmirti, Shariya- each one of them, anti-women, anti-Dalits, anti-Adivasi

“Special Refugees” And India’s Obsession With Detention
By Sreekumar Kodiyath

On 5th May, 2014 nine refugees arrived from Sri Lanka by boat on the shores of Tamilnadu and were promptly taken by the infamous Q-Branch of Tamil Nadu police to the erstwhile transit camp for Sri Lankan refugees, a highly guarded facility in Mandapam of Tamil Nadu. A relic of the post Rajiv Gandhi Assassination days, the special refugee camps now exist as an instrument for harassment and oppression of the refugees in regular camps by the Q-Branch of Tamil Nadu Police

If Buildings Can Be Regularized, Why Not Slums?
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

The Maharashtra government’s decision to regularize 2 lakh illegal buildings in the urban areas of the state without mentioning slums has again shown its apathetic attitude towards its poor citizens. Large number of slum dwellers living in Mumbai without documentary proof that they have been lived there before the year 2000, live under constant threat of eviction

11 March , 2016

Soni Sori: The Face Of Mother India
By Priti Gulati Cox

The democracy-like substance being rubbed here and there on the Indian countryside, its peoples, birds, animals, is slowly morphing into a giant, dark ash-pile, sinking right in the heart of mineral rich Mother India. But she's not giving up. This mother India is never still. She is always moving. Fearless. The coward state and its cronies will stop at nothing in their efforts to crush Mother India and her fearless mothers and daughters. But she still moves protecting her soil, her forests, her endangered wild Buffalo, her Hill Mynah, and all the living creatures. This is her Memorandum of Understanding with our dying planet

Soni Sori's Younger Sister Dhaneshwari Markam Has Been Abducted
By Countercurrents.org

Soni Sori's younger sister Dhaneshwari Markam has been abducted. Soni Sori had informed the police of the threat to her younger sister. The police had gone Dhaneshwari's hostel yesterday to interrogate her. She is married to Ajay Markam, who was picked up yesterday. Soni Sori had also informed Inspector General of Police of Bastar direct life threat to her father today

Women Of The Soil
By Sushmita Verma

The fire that you
Throw on our faces
Rekindles our burning desire
Of writing our names
Names on the walls
Like bad omen
A bad omen for all you conspire

IMF Issues New Warning On Global Economy
By Nick Beams

The International Monetary Fund warned this week of a further weakening of the global economy following the release of figures showing a significant decline in Chinese and global trade. In a major speech to the National Association for Business Economics in Washington on Tuesday, the first deputy managing director of the IMF, David Lipton, said that it was “most disconcerting” that the rise in “risk aversion” was leading to a “sharp retrenchment in global capital and trade flows.”

Hillary Clinton’s Destruction Of Emails Was A Federal Crime
By Eric Zuesse

What Secretary Clinton did was evidence-tampering and thus a federal crime, but to expect it to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, or even at all, would seem to be unlikely. It might be, in the American system, permissible crime

Ahwazi Community In Belgium Protest EU’s Silence On
Ongoing Human Rights Abuses In Al-Ahwaz

By Rahim Hamid

Ahwazi Arab community held a protest in Brussels, the Belgian capital, before the European Parliament and its institutions on Thursday, March 10, 2016 to denounce the continuous silence of the European Union regarding the appalling human rights violations that are ongoing in Al-Ahwaz

Palm Oil And GM Mustard: A Marriage Made In Hell
By Colin Todhunter

One of the main (bogus) arguments put forward in favour of GM mustard is that India needs to reduce its imports of edible oils and that GM will give an underproductive indigenous edible oils sector a much-needed boost. While it is clear that India’s imports of edible oils have indeed increased, this is not as a result of an underperforming home-grown sector

Isn’t The Public Services Funded By Tax Payers
When It Comes To The Godman Industry?

By Yadul Krishna

The art of living is now spreading out the message that the art of misusing army is also a part of their ‘living’

Fleeing Mallya Rakes Up The Deep Rot In Indian Democracy
By Asian Human Rights Commission

“Let media bosses not forget help, favours, accommodation that I have provided over several years which are documented. Now lies to gain TRP?” [sic] It is this tweet that makes the rot in the body politic of the country so obvious. The corruption plaguing the political class and corporations of the country has been notorious for long. The only doubts possible in this regard were if there was not even one single honest person/entity among them

Police Issue Notice To 18 More Students Of FTII
By Students' Association FTII

The police were on FTII campus today to issue notices to the 12 students who had applied for anticipatory bail earlier and also against 18 more students named by the administration. 35 students, including the five who were arrested, have to go to court in a few days and expect to have charge sheets issued against them.

Prof. Gautam Gaynendera: Adieu! To A Noble Soul
By Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Bhat

A teacher by profession Prof. Gautam Gaynendera, a great sociologist besides a noble human being never talked or spoke of secularism but practiced it and always left a lesson for his companions and fellows. His sad demise is really a great loss and the space his departure created can never be occupied

UK Meeting To Form 'Coalition Against State Repression In lndia'
By Concerned Citizens

A group of concerned citizens are organising a meeting 'Coalition Against State Repression in lndia' to consider what UK citizens can do about the alarming levels of state violence and repression in India that is being witnessed today

10 March , 2016

Kanhaiya Kumar Attacked Inside JNU Campus
By Countercurrents.org

JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar was ttacked on JNU campus allegedly by an outsider today evening. The attacker entered the campus and attacked Kanhaiya Kumar when he was going to attend an evening class. Kanhaiya Kumar is reportedly safe and the attacker has been detained by fellow students

Arnab Goswami And Sudhir Chaudhary Must Claim Responsibility
For Attack On Kanhaiya Kumar And Reward The Attacker

By Samar

Not so dear Sudhir Chaudhary and Arnab Goswami, I am sure that both of you would be very happy today. You have a big reason for the happiness, after all. It is not everyday that self-designated champions of a very violent and bigoted mutant of nationalism find someone responding to their call. You must be happy for your increased reach, it is not only lumpens organized in this or that Senas or Dals who carry out your orders. You must be happy for your message is spreading to loners, as it appears for now, and finding Vijay Chaudhary, a Ghaziabad resident travelling all the way to JNU to teach ‘traitor’ Kanhaiya a lesson

Refugee Bloodlines: America And Europe Can't Be Hypocrites Any Longer
By William Hawes

In 2015, approximately 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in the European Union. Estimates show an expected similar or higher amount for this year, in the range of 1.5-2 million. Over 3,000 refugees died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015. Conditions are simply brutal for those who do make it to the EU. In Greece and Hungary, refugees wait patiently as surveillance is increased, checkpoints and fences multiply, militarized police battalions patrol, and razor wire is strung up on their way to their destinations

Western Reporter In Syria Finds U.S.-Backed Fighters Are Jihadists
By Eric Zuesse

Eva Bartlett, an independent journalist who is the first Western reporter who has travelled through the areas of Syria that have been freed from jihadist control by the Syrian government with Russian air-support, is reporting, at the sott.net website, that everyone she speaks with has stories of horror to tell, and that in many instances the jihadists who were inflicting the horrors were U.S.-armed and backed, basically supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey — often “al-Nusra,” the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. As Seymour Hersh and others have reported, the U.S. has worked with the Sauds, Qatar, and Turkey, to get men and weapons to al-Nusra

Politics Not As Usual: Is This The Age Of American Fascism?
By Ramzy Baroud

Regardless of the outcome of the American presidential primaries, or even the result of the general elections next November, a frightening phenomenon is under way. The US has decidedly moved to the Right, in fact the Ultra-Right; class differences are more pronounced than ever before, thanks to decades of neoliberal policies, the kind of capitalism that has concentrated the wealth in even fewer hands; racism is on the rise and the unmistakable signs of fascism are evident whenever Donald Trump holds a campaign rally

The War Of The Sexes: The Origins Of Gender Inequality
By Ugo Bardi

The story of Scheherazade of the 1001 Arabian Nights is the quintessence of the "war of the sexes" and of how women tend to lose it. It is said that King Shahryar would have a new lover every night and every morning he would have her killed. He stopped only when Scheherazade started telling him stories. It shows, among other things, that males behave much better when they listen to females

How We “Make In India”: Is It By Bulldozing The Education System?
By By Rakesh S

Is the attack on India's higher educational system an attempt to create cheap labour for the corporates to expand its base in India?

Emergence Of A New Left or A New Turn By The Old: Some Propositions
On Recent Movements In India

By Mithilesh Kumar

Is this current phase emergence of New Left or just the old mainstream left taking a new turn. The contingent answer is that it is the latter for the contradiction in the praxis of the former has yet to play out. Also, there is the small matter of radical/revolutionary left who now are grappling with the problem of how to do class politics by eschewing populism. It is the dilemma that has wracked the left and continue to do so. At least, this has not changed

The Death Of Two Airlines
By B.F. Firos

Two decades ago we saw the demise of another carrier: East West Airlines, promoted by the Wahid brothers from Kerala. The meteoric rise and melancholic fall of East West remains etched in India’s aviation history with the avant-garde entrepreneurship of its managing director Thakiyudeen Wahid. If Kingfisher died because of the corporate skullduggery by its owner, East West died after its promoter Thakiyudeen succumbed to a spray of bullets

Escalate The struggle Against The Anti-Worker, Anti-Peasant
And Anti-National Program Of The Ruling Class!

Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India

Workers, peasants, women and youth – We constitute India! We are her master!

Kashmir’s Missing Kings And Queens!
By M.Ashraf

Kashmir in ancient times was ruled by Kings and Queens who were born to be so and in the recent times we have had democratically elected Kings but right now we have none!

Mandal Commision At 25: Silver Jubilee Of Bahujan Politics
Press Release By Solidarity Youth Movement

Solidarity Youth Movement organized a campaign titled ‘India will outlive the Sangh’. A seminar organised in this regard carried title, Mandal Commission @25: quarter century of Bahujan Politics. It was held on 6th February 2016 at Kozhikode. Thinker and dalit activist Professor Kancha Ilaiya inaugurated the seminar. He called for the joint efforts to ensure the representation of all the communities in education, job and power

09 March , 2016

When Nationalism And Free Speech Bow Before A Double “Shri” Godman
By Countercurrents.org

In the past few months the country saw raging debate on nationalism, free speech and tax payers’ money being misused on educational institutions like JNU and seditions charges filed on students and even Rohith Vemula's suicide. The justification for all these was given as that the free speech we enjoy in India was provided by the brave soldiers guarding the national borders. Now our brave soldiers are forced into the mundane task of building bridges for the “Shri Shri” event, the question naturally comes to our mind is that are we degrading our soldiers by depriving them from their primary duty of guarding the borders so that we all can have free speech? Are we paying our tax money, which of course is being used to pay the salary of our brave soldiers, to build bridges for a private ceremony organized by a self styled god man? The Nation demands an Answer

Syria’s Truce Bodes Well For Salvaging Our Cultural Heritage
By Franklin Lamb

If the truce holds and the war ends, there are many reasons to believe it will have helped save our cultural heritage in Syria. And that its protection, preservation and restoration will begin in earnest

China: Crisis Set To Deepen
By Socialistworld.net

The coal industry has shed 890,000 jobs in the past two years, according to Ernan Cui, a Beijing-based analyst at researcher Gavekal Dragonomics. This is almost 15 percent of the total workforce in coal mining. In the same period, 550,000 workers were laid off in the steel industry. In January, the State Council took a decision to close a further 4,600 coal mines

This Is How Corruption Works: A Hillary Clinton Example
By Eric Zuesse

Hillary Clinton approved the construction in South Africa of the world's two largest coal-fired power-plants, and helped them get Export-Import Bank financing (U.S. taxpayer backing); then, some of her friends received construction contracts to build them. This was revealed by Itai Vardi in a terrific investigative news report at the desmog blog, on March 7th. Here's an abbreviated version of it, courtesy of that extraordinary fine news-site

Australian And Western Mainstream Media Ignore Massive
And Deadly Western Child Abuse In War And Peace

By Dr Gideon Polya

Australians are quite rightly upset because the Catholic Church hierarchy failed to act to expose and stop long-term, egregious child sexual abuse of about 40,000 Australian children by Catholic Church personnel. However look-the-other-way Australia resolutely ignores 4.4 million Australians adults who have been sexually abused as children, and the deaths this century of 11.9 million under-5 year old infants and 15.8 million avoidable deaths (half of children) in Muslim countries being war criminally violated by pro-Zionist, pro-Apartheid Israel, US lackey Australia

Alexandria: How Christianity Destroyed The Pagan Culture Of The Hellenistic World
By Gaither Stewart

I have long dreamed of the ancient city of Alexandria on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, only 1200 miles east-south-east of my home in Rome, and only 400 miles west of the city of Damascus. The two cities, once the conscience of humanity and conservatory of its finest accomplishments, have both been maimed or destroyed by zealous religious fundamentalists and western meddling in this distant world the West does not even try to understand. The two cities epitomize both the zenith of the sublimity of human genius and the nadir of human fanaticism. I personally would hope to see both before the last vestiges, the last disconnected fragments of what they once represented, cease to be forever

Why Does The West Hate North Korea?
By Andre Vltchek

New sanctions, and once again, new US-ROK military exercises right next door; new intimidations and new insults. For no other reason than because the country that never attacked anyone, is still determined to defend itself against appalling military, economic and propaganda provocations

Arab World And The Refugees: Could The Arab Leaders See The Mirror?
By Mahboob A Khawaja

After the Palestinian refugees, why are there millions of more Arab refugees displaced and drowning in the Aegean sea? Who will deal with the pressing problems of life and deaths facing the Arab masses? Who will deal with restoration of peace, normalcy and conflict management? Do these leaders have any moral and intellectual capacity to extend security and sense of protection to the helpless people? Rationality is replaced by insanity. The coward and sadistic Arab rulers preoccupied with their greed and need are crossing the limits of the Laws of the Nature in killing the innocent masses just because they demands rights, human dignity and a voice to reason the unreason. Time and history are not on the side of the authoritarian dictators doomed to be crushed by the power of reason and political imagination of the new generation of Arab people

Obscured American: Tony The Cook
By Linh Dinh

Tony is my neighbor, and just about each afternoon, you’ll find him at the far end of the bar in Friendly. By evening, he might drag his scrawny ass to The Dive, a block and a half away. Fifty-five-years-old, Tony is a cook in an Italian restaurant. There are always five guys in the kitchen, but no matter the shift, Tony is the only white dude. Everybody else is Mexican

BDS India Convention Calls For Total Boycott Of Israel
Press Release

An appeal for the total boycott of Israel was made at the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions(BDS) India Convention held on 6 March 2016 at New Delhi’s Gandhi Peace Foundation as a mark of protest against the apartheid policies and the genocidal campaign of Israel against Palestine

The Myth And Reality Of Smart Cities And Governance
By Vidyadhar Date

Mr Modi wants to spend nearly one lakh crore rupees for the proposed high speed railway link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. But look at the hypocrisy and inefficiency. Look at the state of the Bandra terminus in Mumbai from where currently trains leave for Ahmedabad. There is not even a proper access to the Terminus . In fact, its access has become more difficult

08 March , 2016

Celebrating International Women's Day
By Mousumi Roy

The history of the world is littered with heroic liberation movements. A given "people" win the right to be free of oppression by another "people". How often have we equated "people" with men. How often have liberation movements served only to liberate men. There are lots of "liberated countries" but too often the liberation stops short of liberating the women. Sad. Women DO cry on occasion. Women do fall in love on occasion. Men fall in love with women on occasion. Well, what are we to do? Become robots? Let’s get real

Indian Women Debate On The Right To Pray This Women’s Day
By Shubhda Chaudhary

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, Indian women are still fighting for the Right to Pray. On 7th March, Activist Trupti Desai along with other members of her Bhumata Brigade almost 30 km away from the Trimbakeshwar temple. The brigade was marching towards the temple in Nashik to enter into its inner sanctum, to oppose the decades-long ban on the entry of women

Rethinking Feminism In India On International Women’s Day
By Surabhi Singh

As we prepare our speeches and blogs around the next International women’s Day, we have to ask ourselves- whose story are we telling, and who needs to be the new age story teller? Maybe, its time to question the politics around feminism in India and whether, we want the term “feminism” broadened to include the subaltern voices. Give the Lioness her turn to write her story.. so the Hunter is not glorified anymore

US Airstrike Massacres 150 In Somalia
By Joseph Kishore

US military airstrikes launched in Somalia over the weekend killed more than 150 people. The attack took place at what the US Pentagon yesterday said was an al-Shabaab training camp about 120 miles north of the country’s capital, Mogadishu

How Most Aid To The Palestinians Ends Up In Israel’s Coffers
By Jonathan Cook

Shir Hever, an Israeli economist who has spent years piecing together the murky economics of the occupation, recently published a report that makes shocking reading. Like others, he believes international aid has allowed Israel to avoid footing the bill for its decades-old occuption. But he goes further. His astonishing conclusion – one that may surprise Israel’s settlers – is that at least 78 per cent of humanitarian aid intended for Palestinians ends up in Israel’s coffers. The sums involved are huge

Violence On The Factory Farm: How Not To Feed The World
By Colin Todhunter

The amount of meat humans eat is immense. In 1965, 10 billion livestock animals were slaughtered each year. That number is now over 55 billion. Factory farming is the fastest growing method of animal production worldwide. While industrialised nations dominate this form of farming, developing countries are rapidly expanding and intensifying their production systems

Obama, Putin And The U.S. Election
By Thomas Riggins

Why is Obama deliberately stirring up old Cold War tensions with Russia by ordering saber rattling by the Pentagon and our puppet military alliance Nato? Professor Steven Cohen, writing in The Nation (2-29-16) says Obama is escalating the tensions with Russia in an unprecedented manner not seen since the days of Nazi Germany. These hostile actions are being basically ignored by the mass media and none of the presidential candidates in either party have addressed them in the debates except indirectly (Sanders and Clinton supporting NATO, Trump mentioning he wants to make a "deal" with Putin)

Just Shut Up And Vote: The Futility Of Representative Government
In An Age Of Robber Barons

By John W. Whitehead

Remember, there is power in numbers. There are 319 million of us in this country. Imagine what we could accomplish if we actually worked together, presented a united front, and spoke with one voice? The police state wouldn’t stand a chance

The Global Pie, Who Get To Eat It And The Ones Left Behind
By Sarosh Ali

This period will be known for something called as the 'refugee crisis'. The top down international discourse through the developed nations taking center-stage, and with necessary skepticism towards them, the other side of the coin may also just be 'globalization of cheap labor'. One thing that strongly hints toward this is the strong leaning of the mainstream media to focus upon the immigration to the rich countries, that is actually miniscule as compared to the mass displacement and redistribution of people within the third world

Hate As Harmony: Law And Order Under Saffrons
By Subhash Gatade

What does someone do in the winter of one’s own life when you discover that the values you cherished, the principles for which you fought for have suddenly lost their meaning and the world before you is turning upside down ? Perhaps you express your anguish to your near and dear ones or write a letter about the deteriorating situation around you in your favourite newspaper or as a last resort appeal to the custodians of the constitution that how you are ‘forced to hang your head in shame’

Happy or Hapless: Dalit Students With Dalit Professors
By B. Prabakaran

Rohit vemula’s ‘social death’ has had disastrous upshot on students, scholars, professors and the Dalits in general across the state by opening doors, for having debates, to understand the plight of Dalit students, who study Masters and Ph.D, at the higher educational institutions of India. My friend and the research scholar who is pursuing his doctorate in Chennai wrote an article, which briefly speaks of the general circumstances of Dalit students, recently in leading English daily. According to him, even Dalit professors humiliate Dalit students more than non-dalit professors. What extent the statement is honest? Is it true or merely a jargon? The readers, especially non-dalits, who had read the column, would have been perplexed

07 March , 2016

'LIVING ON THE EDGE': Climate Change Force Two Thirds Population
Out Of Ghoramara Island In The Sunderbans

Photo Essay By Tanmoy Bhaduri

Ghoramara Island which is losing is terrain by the day to the rising seas as a result of climate change. Two thirds of its population have already moved out of the island. It is located in the Sunderban area in the Bay of Bengal about 150 km south of Kolkata. Not less than half of its landmass has been submerged under water in the last 50 years

The Other Side Of The Global Crisis: Entropy And The Collapse Of Civilizations
By Jacopo Simonetta

In the coming decades, entropy will be a much challenging problem than that of the energy supply. Only a drastic reduction in the energy input could save the biosphere. But this is a high price to pay because a reduction of energy flow means necessarily a reduction of complexity and information stored inside the human sub-system. It means misery and death for the human population, although it means also hope for the future one. So, new civilizations will appear but, in order for that to occur, the present civilization will have to collapse fast enough to leave a livable planet to our descendants

Top Drillers Shut Down U.S. Fracking Operations As Oil Prices Continue To Tank
By Steve Horn

It was a tumultuous week in the world of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for shale oil and gas, with a few of the biggest companies in the U.S. announcing temporary shutdowns at their drilling operations in various areas until oil prices rise again from the ashes. Among them: Chesapeake Energy, Continental Resources and Whiting Petroleum. Chesapeake formerly sat as the second most prolific fracker in the U.S. behind ExxonMobil, while Continental has been hailed by many as the “King of the Bakken” shale basin located primarily in North Dakota

Refugees Face Disastrous Conditions In Greece
By Katerina Selin

As European governments move to seal their external borders, tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to Europe are trapped in Greece, leading to a rapidly escalating humanitarian catastrophe. Each day hundreds of refugees risk the dangerous journey from their war-torn countries in the Middle East via Turkey and the Mediterranean to Greece. Most of them are trying to get to Western Europe via the Balkan route. In late February, the Macedonian government closed its border to Greece for the transit of refugees. Since then, the number of refugees in Greece has risen to over 30,000. According to the Greek state television ERT, last Thursday there were some 25,000 refugees on the Greek mainland and nearly 7,000 on the Aegean islands

Unite In Defence Of The Rights Of Women And The Rights Of All People!
By Communist Ghadar Party of India

As we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March, the struggle of women has advanced to such an extent that no state can claim to be a democracy and not recognize that women have the same rights as men, by virtue of being human. In addition, they also have specific rights by virtue of their role in human reproduction. In our country and other capitalist countries, the recognition of women’s rights remains a formality. It remains nothing but empty words on paper, which does not satisfy the needs of women. Women are demanding that the society and State must ensure that their rights are protected both by law and in practice

North Korea And The Nuclear Question
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar

In the ultimate analysis, the real challenge confronting North Korea and South Korea; China and Japan; Russia and the United States is not so much North Korea’s posturing or the efficacy of UN sanctions. The only way to dissuade countries outside the formal ‘nuclear weapons club’ from acquiring nuclear weapons is to ensure that ALL states without exception eliminate their nuclear weapons stockpiles and refrain from manufacturing nuclear weapons and indeed, all weapons of mass destruction. It is utterly hypocritical of the US or Russia or China to demand that North Korea refrain from nuclear testing when none of the big powers is making any move towards total nuclear disarmament

Destroying A Dam Is Terrorism (except when it isn’t)
By Mickey Z.

Fast-forward to modern-day Iraq: ISIS, which has replaced Osama as Public Enemy #1 (during a presidential election year, no less), rules Mosul and there just so happens to be a crumbling dam nearby

Psychosocial Implications Of Armed Struggle In Kashmir
By Sheikh Umar Ahmad

The ongoing violence, the constant threat and poor future perspective put a heavy strain on the natural coping mechanisms of the people in Kashmir. A lot of people suffer from stress (normal or related to traumatic event), high amount of psychosocial problems (substance abuse, distrust) are registered and disorders like anxiety, mood and post-traumatic disorders are mounting. Most of the mental pain is presented as physical (somatization). Mental health experts in the state’s summer capital, Srinagar, said that there has been a staggering increase in the number of stress and trauma related cases in the Kashmir valley and these psychological problems have also given rise to general health problems like diabetes, cardiac problems and hypertension

Mumbai Students Too Give Us Hope
By Vidyadhar Date

Students from Mumbai too give us hope for the future. There was a large and very enthusiastic turnout of students in the last two days, on March 5 and 6 at the Y.B. Chavan Centre at a conference Celebrating Freedom and Pluralism in Defence of Secularism. The gathering was inspired by the student protests in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi and Kanhaiya against police repression and it was felt that any impending attack on the next target, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai would be resisted. There were a large number of students from TISS, IIT and other colleges including some from interior Maharashtra

Kanhaiya-Is Left’s Aam Admi Emerging?
By Dr Adfar Shah

Who made him the hero and what gave him the stature he is at now is known to one and all. I can only say sometimes blunders committed out of power are beautiful and useful and this time Kanhaiya is the beneficiary. We need some universal good to be achieved in India and for that the leaders like him are needed as we have been living in a culture of rhetoric, religion, fringe mentality, muscular power and cult and dynasty politics but need a democracy that encourages debate and discourse on everything including the sedition itself

A Call To Boycott, Divesment & Sanction Israel From India
By Shubhda Chaudhary

An appeal for the total boycott of Israel was made today at the BDS India convention held here as a mark of protest against the apartheid policies and the genocidal campaign of Israel against Palestine. The intellectuals and activists from different parts of country who attended the Boycott, Divesment, Sanctions (BDS) India convention organised by 'Indian people in Solidarity with Palestine' demanded the cancellation of the proposed visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Israel

06 March , 2016

The Mercury Doesn’t Lie: We’ve Hit A Troubling
Climate Change Milestone

By Bill McKibben

Across the northern hemisphere, the temperature, if only for a few hours, apparently crossed a line: it was more than two degrees Celsius above “normal” for the first time in recorded history and likely for the first time in the course of human civilization. That’s important because the governments of the world have set two degrees Celsius as the must-not-cross red line that, theoretically, we’re doing all we can to avoid. And it’s important because most of the hemisphere has not really had a winter

Oregon Makes History With Legislation To Replace Coal With Clean Energy
By Mary Anne Hitt

On Wednesday, the Oregon state legislature passed a bill that is one of most significant actions ever taken in the United States on climate change and clean energy. The bill, titled the “Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan", will move Oregon completely off coal by 2030 - including phasing out coal power being imported into the state on the grid - and ensure that most of that power is replaced by clean energy by doubling the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50 percent by 2040. It was passed with bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats, and it’s an historic victory for climate and clean energy leadership

Why Democratic Party Foreign Policy Fails And Will Continue To Fail
By Richard Falk

Not only is the Democratic Party failing the nation by its refusal to meet the modest first principle of Florence Nightingale—‘do no harm’—but it is not rising to the deeper and more dangerous threats to future wellbeing and sustainability directed at the nation and the ecological health of the planet, and also of menace to peoples everywhere. What the United States does and does not do reverberates across the globe. Political responsibility in the 21st century does not stop at the border, and certainly is not fulfilled by walls and drones. If political parties cannot protect us, then it is up to the people to mount the barricades

After JNU, BJP’s Next Target Is Allahabad University
By Shubhda Chaudhary

If we are rejoicing over the interim bail of Kanhaiya, BJP’s next victim Richa Singh, the Allahabad University students’ union president, is being harassed and perhaps, on the brink of facing expulsion. Richa, the first ever woman president of the University since Independence is facing the flak, but why? Her first ‘sin’ was that she launched a massive agitation against the entry of Yogi Adityanath, BJP's Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur in November 2015 to inaugurate a new building in Allahabad University. So, that is where it all started. The ABVP, which has been finding it tough to come to terms with a female winning the post of president, has been up in arms against her right from day one when she got elected

A Church Vandalised In Raipur And Believers Assaulted
By Chhattisgarh Nagrik Samyukta Sangarsh Samiti

Chhattisgarh Nagrik Samyukta Sangarsh Samiti strongly condemns the vandalisation of Church and subsequent assault on the church members in Kachana near Raipur city, Chhatisgarh. The attack happened around 11 am today (March 6, 2016) allegedly by members of Bajrang Dal. The Pastor Ankush Bareyekar approached the Vidhan Sabha thana where the police after a long delay registered the FIR

CPDR Condemns The Open Threats To Kanhaiya Kumar
And Demands Immediate Arrest Of The Culprits

Press Release

Today certain Kuldeep Varshney, Badaun district chief of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha has openly announced a "prize money" of Rs 5 lakh to anyone who "cuts off the tongue" of Jawaharalal Nehru University (JNU) students' union presidnet Kanhaiya Kumar. He had temerity to appear on television and boast of his threat. Posters reportedly in the name of Purvanchal Sena were seen at various places across the national capital offering Rs 11 lakh to "kill" the JNU student leader

The Discontents Of A Seditious Nation
By Karen Gabriel & P K Vijayan

The wording of Section 124A of the IPC is a delight for any government, since it explicitly protects the ‘government established by law in India’ and not either the nation as a whole or even the state in its entirety – just the government of the day. Thus, any criticism of the government of the day, or of its ‘measures’, or of its ‘administrative or other action’, that may be perceived to excite, or attempt to excite, ‘hatred, contempt or disaffection’ towards the government, can attract this law

JNU Crisis: Need For Crystallizing Questions Than Supplying Whole Sale Answers
By Dr Adfar Shah

The monster of media trial in everything in this democratic country, along with the efforts to turn the huge and archaic term like sedition to common sense and everyday use and communalizing academic spaces is becoming a dangerous trend with undesirable ramifications. For a section of media perhaps everything in the country has become Deshdroh and every student is Desh Drohi but the social realities are different and anger, emotion and mistakes or confusion cannot be sedition all at once

The Idea Of India: Whose Idea Of Which India?
By S.G.Vombatkere

In furtherance of defining “national”, the ABVP called on retired soldiers (Veterans) to join them in meetings and marches under the national flag, in various places across the country. This is perfectly legal because a Veteran is at liberty to join any religious, social or political association according to his wish and choice. But, and here is a capital BUT, the strong existing organic bond between the retired and the serving soldier can very easily cause serving soldiers to begin taking sides on the basis of religion. This will irrevocably destroy the secular nature of the strictly apolitical Indian military, bringing it under the influence of religious leaders, and compromising its control by the civilian government. This (hopefully un-thought-out) move of BJP can easily slip into a situation like in Islamic Republics in India's neighbourhood, where the military is virtually under the control of the mullahs. This would definitely be violative of the Constitution of India, which defined India as a secular Republic, even before the word was inserted into its Preamble in 1976

Report On The Ongoing Struggle And Repression At Honda
Motorcycles And Scooters Factory Tapukara

By Workers Solidarity Centre

The struggle of 3000 Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) workers of Tapukara plant in Alwar, situated at Haryana-Rajasthan border, in the face of brutal repression from the management-police-administration side, has emerged as an important and intense workers struggle at the present time. As the workers saw commonality and forged unity across internal segmentation, initiated the process of Union formation on 6 August 2015 and submitted a collective Charter of Demand on 14 December 2015, they faced attacks in various forms. It included a criminal conspiracy by the Management to suppress the workers collectivity and Union process using deceitful legal and manifestly illegal means via labour department and the Court, transfer-suspension-termination of Union leaders and retrenchment of around 800 active contract workers

U.S. Supplies ISIS Through Turkey
By Eric Zuesse

On Friday, March 4th, the leading opposition newspaper in Turkey, Zaman, was taken over by the Government; and on March 5th, one of the other opposition newspapers, Cumhuriyet, reported that Zaman's separate news-service to other news-media, Cihan News Agency, has now also been disabled on the Internet. (Anyone who goes to the site obtains an error-message.) The Turkish Government is trying to prevent the Turkish public from knowing that Turkey has been serving as the transit-route by which the U.S. government and its allied Arab oil monarchies (especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar) have been supplying foreign jihadists and weapons (largely U.S. but paid for with Saudi funds) into Syria to oust Bashar al-Assad from power

05 March , 2016

Erdogan Takes Over Zaman: Democracy Ends In Turkey
By Eric Zuesse

The Turkish police entered the editorial offices of critical newspaper Zaman on Friday night. Accompanying videos there showed a police-state in which ‘security’ forces stormed through a crowd of protesters (readers of the newspaper) outside, into Turkey’s leading opposition newspaper, which is also Turkey’s leading English-language newspaper, Zaman, and arrested staffers there, taking them away, to who-knows-what fates

Justice Demanded Following Assassination Of Berta Cáceres
By Nika Knight

More than 50 humanitarian and environmental groups from around the world called on Friday for an independent international investigation into the assassination of Honduran Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, who was murdered in her sleep at 1am on Thursday by two unknown assailants

Hillary Clinton Caused The Hell In Honduras
By Eric Zuesse

The murder in Honduras on March 3rd of the global prize-winning environmental activist Berta Cáceres is one of the current achievements (though indirect) of Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s decision in 2009 to allow the newly-installed coup-regime in that country to solidify and remain in power

Emergence Of Aggressive Nationalism In India
By Shubhda Chaudhary

What we are witnessing now is the emergence of aggressive nationalism in India, which is baseless and very deluding. It endows greater voice and strength to people who have a mob mentality, ready to harass others with odious comments for the sake for defending the image of ‘Mother India’, in the process demeaning their own identity. The manner in which JNU had been ‘othered’ as an ‘Island of Dissent’ is very traumatizing, painting all the students of the campus in an ‘anti-national’ rhetoric. Any form of dissent is given so much of importance, creating a hullabaloo as if the ‘India of India is very fragile’

The Left Too Fall Into The Nationalist Trap
By Saswat Pattanayak

Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest was unfortunate and so his release on bail is a great relief. But beyond that, to seek revolutionary potential in the hoopla surrounding it, is to miss the point entirely. Competing for authentic nationalism to legitimize an oppressive power structure is not what the Communists do. Quite the opposite

JNU Movement: Dastan-e-Absence
By Khatija Khader

Many authors have written about JNU as a critical and self-reflective space, a space that derives intellectual meanings out of debates and discussion, acknowledgement and engagement with various thoughts across the colour spectrum. However, now that the President of JNUSU has been released on bail and through unrelenting national, transnational and international solidarities, a broader consensus against Hindutva is emerging, it is time to ask if this movement led by JNU can integrate – not co-opt – the plurality of metaphors that can constitute various nationalisms or alternative visions. This is an important question, and a historic responsibility, that has been offered to JNU

Scourge Of The Scoundrels
By Anand Teltumbde

People lazily compare the situation with what prevailed in 1930s and 40s in Germany and Italy, when the storm troopers of Hitler and black-shirts of Mussolini beat up people on roads. But what is happening in India lately portends worse than Nazism and fascism. Because, the state today is far more powerful than Hitler’s or Mussolini’s, laced with technologies of precision surveillance and most importantly, matured to use liberal façade of democracy with fascist content not to show up ripples of repression anywhere

Who Is Soni Sori And What Does She Stand For?
By Parijata Bhardwaj

As Soni now receives treatment it becomes important for us to not only get to know Soni Sori but also understand what she stands for and why the State is afraid of her

Biometric Aadhaar Bill Is An Exercise In “Colorable Legislation”
By Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties

Fearing rejection of controversial biometric Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016[1] like The National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010, Union Finance Minister introduced the former as a Money Bill on March 3, 2016 in an exercise which is a fraud on the Constitution. It is a stark case of “cololorable” legislation in its essence. The ulterior motive is to legitimize the controversial “Aadhaar platform”

AMU Centres: Present And - Past Tense
By Dr. Anwar Khursheed

The AMU virtually becomes sandwich in case of these centres; first we were pressed to establish them and now the same MHRD is bent upon to close them or if not so then create a situation of their slow death. The initial financial proposal was of Rs. 1400 Crore for Malappuram and Murshidabad Centres but as ever the dubious Congress sanctioned Rs. 349.55 Crore in XII five year plan and till date only Rs. 130 Crore is released. Only one year is left in this plan and the present government is in no mood to give anything more

Bhagat Singh
By Periyar E.V.Ramasami

The 1930s, especially the firt half of the decade, proved to be one of radical discontent in India. In the Tamil context, the Self-respect movement of E V Ramasamy Periyar urged forth a politics that brought together communist and anti-caste ideologies. It is in this context that this editorial in the Self-respect weekly, Kudiarasu (The Republic) ought to be read. It was written at a time when Periyar consistently and rigorously criticised Gandhi and the Congress – for their attempts to both mitigate the effect of and recoup socialism, the Poona Pact and their reliance on Indian capitalists. Bhagat Singh’s Why Am I an Atheist was translated into Tamil and published by the Self-respect movement during this period – and this resulted in the translator Jeevanandham and the publisher E V Krishnasamy being jailed

South Korea And The Art Of Collaboration
By Andre Vltchek

If raw, naked propaganda makes you sick, stay away from South Korea (ROK)!

Hundreds Attend Ahwazi Rights Demonstration In Stockholm
By Rahim Hamid

Hundreds of supporters of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz participated in a mass demonstration in front of the Iranian Embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on Friday, to express their solidarity with the Ahwazi Arab people and condemn the Iranian regime’s aggression against Ahwaz

04 March , 2016

A Student Uprising In India
By Shubhda Chaudhary

India is witnessing something similar like the Arab Spring. The youth of India, well-educated and rational, is all geared up to demand freedom from oppression, to exercise the right to dissent and to carve out their own identity which is not a neo-liberal product. It started with protests in FTII and occupy UGC movement. The sad 'institutional murder' of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in University of Hyderabad ignited it further and it raged furiously when JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others were arrested on sedition charges. India is going through a historical moment and leading this revolution are the students of India

 

Full Video: Kanhaiya Kumar Speaking In JNU After Release

Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Kanhaiya Kumar who was released from jail Thursday on bail received a hero's welcome at the campus on Thursday evening. In a defiant speech, he took shots at the government tearing into charges of sedition against him and said he had faith in India's Constitution and democracy. Here is the full video of his speech

Bail-Order For Bailed Student Leader Worrisome
By Asian Human Rights Commission

In the Kanhaiya case too, there is a pressing need for the remarks of the judge to be expunged so that the law can take its own course, in a free and fair manner. Without restraint in their orders, judges can negatively impact the entire body politic of the republic

Mother India And Her Infantilization Programme: Taming A Recalcitrant Son
By Mithilesh Kumar

Our courts decidedly have a penchant for quoting literary pieces in their precedent shattering path blazing judgments. Learned as our justices are Shakespeare, Milton, Hume, Rousseau and others come tumbling down their pen nibs to immortalize the piece of paper on which a citizen’s life (or death) permanently etched. However, when a bail verdict begins with that most iconic song of the most patriotic film made by the champion of that nationalism which only sees black and white then we know that particular verdict is going to change our hard held views on nation, patriotism etc. Yes, of course, the bail verdict is of the JNUSU president arrested on charges of sedition and the song mere desh ki dharti

JatiIndia: A Flag of Atrocities Caste, Present And Future
By Priti Gulati Cox

I have chosen Rohit’s story as the first of this series of painted flags, JatiIndia: A Flag of Atrocities Caste, Present and Future. And for all of them, I have chosen saffron as the color of the top bar, to symbolize long-existing casteism, now more open and feverish with resurgent hindutva politics. I have chosen blue for the middle bar, because it is the color historically adopted by the Dalit movement; however, in my flags it will signify all of India's oppressed people. I have chosen green for the bottom bar, to symbolize India's ecological foundations, which are endangered by the ideology of neoliberalism and defended by our Adivasis and other oppressed people. The circular image in the center of each flag will signify a target viewed through a weapon's saffron (indicating right-wing nationalism) crosshairs. Between the past and present this serieswill go back and forth in no particular order bringing forward some of the targeted faces of resistance that have challenged the stagnant ideology of exclusion of the world’s largest hypocrisy

Nobel-Prize-Winning Economist Condemns Obama's ‘Trade' Deals
By Eric Zuesse

The Nobel-Prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank, and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the U.S. President, Joseph Stiglitz, went to England to warn the British public, and Parliament, that “no democracy” can support U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed trade-deals, because all of these have a feature built into them, called Investor State Dispute Resolution, or ISDS, which will establish a supra-national authority that gives international corporations the power to sue any signatory nation that introduces new or increased economic regulations regarding product-safety, the environment, workers' rights, or anything else that the corporation alleges lowers the corporation's profits

Art Of The Deal Politics, Billionaires’ Wars, And The Decline Of America
By Jon Kofas

Is Trump a reflection of America, at least a segment of the population that has proved it wants him as the next president, or is he a historical accident, an aberration from the norm in politics? Despite both Republican and Democrat, conservative, liberal and leftist critics that Trump is not a reflection of the American mainstream, the astonishing results of the primary voting process reveal a very different story for a man who could easily win the nomination. This would be especially the case if the Republican Party establishment owned by billionaires like Trump supports his candidacy instead of undermining it in every respect possible

Saudi Prince: We Support Israel In Palestinian War
By Shubhda Chaudhary

Saudi Prince and entrepreneur, al-Waleed bin Talal made a startling statement to Kuwaiti Al Qabas daily stating that ‘Saudi Arabia must reconsider its regional commitments and devise a new strategy to combat Iran’s increasing influence in Gulf States by forging a Defense pact with Tel Aviv.’ It would deter any possible Iranian moves in the light of unfolding developments in the Syria and Moscow’s military intervention. He openly stated that ‘I will side with the Jewish nation and its democratic aspirations in case of outbreak of a Palestinian Intifada( uprising) and i shall exert all my influence to break any ominous Arab initiatives set to condemn Tel Aviv , because I deem the Arab-Israeli entente and future friendship necessary to impede the Iranian dangerous encroachment.

Poisoned, Marginalised, Bankrupt And Dead: The Role Of Agroecology
In Resisting The Corporate Stranglehold On Food And Agriculture

By Colin Todhunter

It is becoming increasingly apparent that food and agriculture across the world is in crisis. Food is becoming denutrified, unhealthy and poisoned with chemicals and diets are becoming less diverse. There is a loss of plant and insect diversity, which threatens food security, soils are being degraded, water tables polluted and depleted and smallholder farmers, so vital to global food production, are being squeezed off their land and out of farming. A minority of the global population has access to so much food than it can afford to waste much of it, while food poverty and inequality have become a fact of life for hundreds of millions

Iranian Regime’s Torture, Abuse Of Political Prisoners Continues
By Rahim Hamid

Despite Iran’s continuing imprisonment of large numbers of political activists, dissidents and journalists, Ali Asghar Jahangir, the regime’s prisons chief, claims that there are no political prisoners in the country. How did the regime magically make the countless political prisoners in its jails disappear? By the simple means of failing to define any ‘political’ offences within its legal system. Instead, detained dissidents, journalists, artists, campaigners and activists face charges such as ‘endangering national security’ or ‘enmity to God’, with brutal torture being a standard means of coercing confessions, and death sentences for these ‘crimes’ being routine

Maharashtra Cabinet On Disaster Tour To Curb Farmer Suicides
By Samar

The government of Maharashtra has finally woken up to the agrarian crisis that has, according to official statistics, already ensnared the lives of 124 farmers in the state in the first 45 days of the year. Awoken, the government has decided to take action. And, the action that the government has decided to take is to send its Council of Ministers on a tour of three of the worst hit districts: Beed, Osmanabad, and Latur. Anyone who knows anything about the farmer suicides and the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra, actually, any sensible person anywhere, would be flummoxed at the absurdity of the plan of action. But, not the Maharashtra government. Nothing can faze these leaders. There is no flummoxing them

Capital Punishment Is Premeditated Murder
By Pratap Antony

Premeditated murder - Murder is against the law. This is a fundamental law based upon our sense of morality. A human should not take the life of another because it violates a natural right to life. Therefore whenever the State takes a life with the death penalty, we all are party to the killing. We all are responsible for the immoral act of taking a life. We get away with murder!

Police High Handedness In Mumbai For Standing With JNU
Press Release

Ten persons arrested in Mumbai for organising a march in support of JNU

03 March , 2016

Bail To Kanhaiya Kumar: Some Troubling Questions
By Shubhda Chaudhary

The 6-month bail to Kanhaiya is just to cool down the situation and nothing beyond it. This kind of judicial machinery puts a lot of pressure on students who have the right to dissent and raise voices against the government. It is preposterous and this aggressive nationalism is bound to get more vicious in the coming days

Honorable Judge, Bacteria Are Antibiotic Resistant Too!
By CPI (Mohammad Rafi)

The Honorable High Court Judge who invoked the use of antibiotics to treat the 'infection' of anti-nationalism, while granting Kanhaiya Kumar bail, has obviously never heard of the growing global phenomenon of antibiotic resistance. The higher the dose, higher the resistance because bacteria are our planet's oldest and most important living organisms. They are not going to just curl up and die because we humans treat them as 'enemies'. Resistance is a fundamental characteristic of all forms of life and will always be. She and others of her ilk should perhaps watch this 10 minute video to learn more about antibiotics, infection and resistance

New Arctic Battlelines Drawn As Industry Exploits Fragile Seas
By Lauren McCauley

Rapidly melting Arctic ice has opened up enormous swaths of this pristine and ecologically significant landscape to dangerous industrial threats. And as officials meet this week to hammer out new rules that could potentially protect the region, environmental groups are warning that the area known as the "Arctic Galapagos" is already in grave danger

Regional Climate Change And National Responsibilities
By James Hansen & Makiko Sato

A carbon fee can be initiated by a few major economic powers and spread to most nations via border duties on fossil-fuel-derived products from non-participating nations and fee rebates to domestic manufacturers for goods shipped to non-participating nations. Issues raised by 'coercive cooperation' implicit in border adjustments will be subdued, once the severity and urgency of the climate threat is widely appreciated, by realization that fossil fuels cannot be phased out if some countries are allowed to export products made with untaxed fossil fuels. Developing countries have rights, recognized in the concept of common but differentiated responsibilities, and leverage to achieve economic assistance, which should be tied to the improved agricultural and forestry practices needed to limit trace gas emissions and store more carbon in the soil and biosphere. Finally, international cooperation in generating more affordable carbon-free energies is needed, or economic development in many nations will continue to be based on fossil fuels, despite pollution and climate impacts

Why Democrats' Super-Tuesday Results Aren't Conclusive
By Eric Zuesse

Hillary Clinton won, on Tuesday March 1st, six (6) states that aren't even in contest for the November general election for the U.S. Presidency, but which are considered to be already in the bag for the given state's dominant political Party to win in the general election: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Texas. The Democratic Presidential nominee (regardless whether Clinton or Sanders) will get zero Electoral College votes from any of those states except Massachusetts, which is the only one of the states that's going to be voting for the Democratic nominee on November 8th. However, since that's also a state which will vote for the Democratic nominee regardless of whether it's Clinton or Sanders, her victories in all six of those states mean zero regarding the candidate's ability to win the general election — the Electoral College

Who Is My Neighbour?
By John Scales Avery

Each week, all over the world, congregations assemble and are addressed by their leaders on ethical issues. But all too often there is no mention of the astonishing and shameful contradiction between the institution of war (especially the doctrine of “massive retaliation”), and the principle of universal human brotherhood, loving and forgiving one’s enemies, and returning good for evil

‘Plan B’ – Not An Enigma: Why The West Is Keen On Dividing The Arabs
By Ramzy Baroud

What is truly interesting is that, despite the lack of a pan-Arab vision in Arab countries that experienced popular revolts five years ago, few events in modern history has brought the Arabs together like the chants of freedom in Tunis, the cries of victories in Egypt and screams of pain in Yemen and Syria. It is that very collective identity, often unspoken but felt, that drives millions of Arabs to hold on to however faint a hope that their nations will survive the ongoing onslaught and prospective western division

Former UK Ambassador To Syria: U.S./UK Policy On Syria Is Doomed, Even Corrupt
By Eric Zuesse

Peter Ford, who was the UK's Ambassador in Syria during 2003-2006, was asked by the BBC in their “The Big Questions” interview on February 14th, whether the current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would have to be a part of the solution in that country after the war is over, and Ambassador Ford said: “I think sadly, but inevitably, he is. Realistically, Assad is not going to be overthrown. This becomes more clear with every day that passes. Western analysts have been indulging in wishful thinking for 5 years; it's time to get real, we owe it to the Syrian people to be much more realistic and hard headed about this. The West has to stop propping up the so-called ‘moderate opposition', which is not moderate at all.”

Are We Living In An Undeclared State Of Emergency?
Statement By Cocerned Citizens

It seems that an undeclared state of emergency is sought to be imposed upon us: a series of seemingly unconnected events across the country, in universities (most recently in Hyderabad and Delhi), factory premises and court halls, our streets and over large parts of the countryside, bear this out. We would like to draw wider attention, in particular, to recent disturbing developments in Jagdalpur, Bastar, that have been somewhat overshadowed by events in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

God’s Own Children
By Mohammad Ashraf

There was a time when children with birth defects like mental retardation, vision and hearing defects, deformed limbs and so on were considered a liability and were mostly neglected and left to die. The first change was change in the nomenclature while referring to them. They are now called the specially challenged children or children with special needs

02 March , 2016

Where Is S A R Geelani? Why The Silence?
By Shubhda Chaudhary

As the uproar continues over the arrest of JNUSU President Kanhaiya, the media and politicians have been palpably silent regarding the arrest of Professor S A R Geelani on sedition charges. His arrest comes after he organized an event at Press Club of India regarding the hanging of Afzal Guru on February 10. “Not a single protest has taken place in Delhi for my father. No one wants to talk about him. Why?” asks Nusrat, daughter of Professor Geelani who is currently in Tihar jail. Mr. Geelani’s family resides in a nondescript south-east Delhi society. His two children, Atif and Nusrat, are pursuing law, a conscious choice they made after his arrest in 2001. The s most humiliating factor is the silence which the media and politicians have exercised regarding the arrest of Geelani, as if it is immaterial and does not need any kind of debate

Dalit-Bahujan Perspective On The Mahishasura Debate
By Braj Ranjan Mani

The ruling party’s despicable invocation of Mahishasura and Durga legend in Parliament recently and its castigation of the JNU students who organised Mahishasura Martyrday Day as a case of depravity and treason represents the belligerent brahmanic politics of the RSS-BJP that wants to muzzle all dissenting voices of dalit-bahujans. Such politics reduces arguments to bluff and history to myths in order to equate brahmanism with nationalism so that the dalit-bahujans can be kept enslaved to the historical frauds. But things are changing now, as a new generation of dalit-bahujans, inspired by the emancipatory ideology of Phule, Ambedkar and Periyar, are rereading history and rejecting the brahmanic deception that passes off as Indian history. This is the backdrop in which the raging debate over the Mahisha-Durga myth should be grappled and grasped

Asatyameva Jayate: Long Live Joseph Goebbels
By Anand Teltumbde

The strategy is to use Goebbles’ methods more intensely and deploy storm troopers to execute it. Satyamev Jayate etc. are part of this Goebblesque theorem; the Hindutva camp never cared for what truth is. As its history shows, this strategy alone has worked for it. The last elections may be taken as exception in face of the listless performance of the UPA 2 and dilapidated organization of the opposition. With BJP’s non-performance, the situation has come full circle to normalcy, warranting the use of weapons in its arsenal. The year ahead is going to see some calamitous spells of this strategy in terms of communal conflagrations, the scientists of Gujarat Laboratories being at the helm!

JNU, The Theatre And The Tradition Of Dissent
By Vidyadhar Date

As for dubbing people as anti-national by the Hindu right, it has been at it for some time. I just found a copy of my front page report in the Times of India of 1993 in which Mahatma Gandhi was repeatedly denounced as a traitor at a meeting in Mumbai held to pay tributes to Gandhiji’s killer Nathuram Godse on his death anniversary. I was the only journalist present at the meeting and some of the hateful observations I heard were chilling then and these making a chilling reading now. The speakers included Gopal Godse, younger brother of Nathuram and a co-conspirator in the murder trial, S.G. Shevade, who went about with the title Dharmabhushan and Charudatta Aphale who used to deliver sermons on the life of Nathuram

An Essential Citizen’s Guide To The Truth About GM Crops And Food
Book Review By Colin Todhunter

“Many who defend the use of GMO crops and foods claim that there is no evidence that any GMO is harmful to health or the environment. But this is wrong. There is plenty of sound empirical evidence of such harm, presented by qualified scientists in peer-reviewed literature. This book is a succinct summary and documentation of that evidence.”

Hillary Clinton Is A Psychopath And A War Criminal: Prof. Francis Boyle
Dialogos Radio Interviews Prof. Francis Boyle

The transcript of Dialogos Radio’s interview with international lawyer and professor Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois. This interview aired on their broadcasts for the week of February 18-24, 2016

Chinese Slowdown Continues Amid Plans For Major Job Cuts
By Nick Beams

Further evidence of the slowdown in the Chinese economy has emerged, with activity in both manufacturing and services falling to their lowest levels since the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. The official purchasing managers’ index in manufacturing dropped to 49 in February from 49.8 the previous month—50 indicates the boundary between expansion and contraction. The PMI for the services sector dropped to 52.7 last month, its lowest level since December 2008

How The Ulema Are Perpetuating Male Hegemony In The Name Of Islam
By Zakia Soman & Noorjehan Safia Niaz

The self-appointed custodians of Islam are doing the greatest disservice to Islam and Muslims, women especially

01 March , 2016

The Union Budget Betrayed Farmers And Other Marginalised Sections
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

The majority of population of India expected a required support from this year’s budget; they needed it because of unprecedented consecutive years of drought which accelerated the farmer’s suicide in absence of Govt. immediate support. It was expected because of Prime Minister’s consecutive three farmers’ rallies, announcing big support to them. But the budgetary allocation once again proved all the promises as ‘Jumlas’ (platitudes) only, which the present government keeps spreading time to time for electoral benefits

India's 2016-17 Budget Reflects A Mirage For Universal Health
By Dr Sandeep Pandey & Bobby Ramakant

India's draft National Health Policy 2015 was riddled with privatisation bid and it is no surprise that 2016-2017 budget too takes that agenda forward. Also earlier this month Indian government indicated its intent to exit from hospital 'sector' (along with Air India). The vision of universal healthcare coverage - which leaves no one behind - can only be achieved from robust and well-funded public health system which is not running on cost-to-cost or for-profit motives. This is why privatisation of public health system is not only weakening it but also jeopardizing access to healthcare for most in need

When Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Khattar Broke Down And Wept:
An Open Letter

CPI(MR) Press Release

In this moment of sorrow you are undergoing if you can seriously introspect on the consequences of your own political ideology and activities for the welfare of fellow citizens and the country it will surely make you a better Hindu. More importantly it will also make you a better human being. I sincerely hope you will take this letter in the right spirit and not as another instance of scoring political points as the time for such games well past and without a genuine change of direction we as a nation are surely doomed

Why “FRATRICIDE” Is The Middle Name Of Mining Giants Across The World?
By Surabhi Singh

The hounding and subsequent ouster of lawyers of Jagdalpur Legal Aide, jailing of journalists Santosh Yadav, Somaru Nag, ouster of BBC journalist Alok Putul and Journalist and Human Rights Activist Malini Subramanium. The attack of Soni Sori, right afterwards was just another move in the chessboard. No witnesses, no testimonies and no war crimes. Since then, thirty more Adivasis have surrendered themselves as wanted Maoists, sixteen more have been killed in “encounters with police” and Vedanta has bagged a mining lease for gold in Bagbahara. So, “Fratricide” after all is the middle name for “Mining” in this world. The rest? Well, pick a word from the war dictionary across the world- They are all the same

Iranian Elections Strengthen Rouhani’s Hand
By Keith Jones

The elections held in Iran last Friday have strengthened the faction of the Islamic Republic’s bourgeois ruling elite that favours speedy rapprochement with Washington and has spearheaded the push for neo-liberal restructuring. This faction is led by Iran’s current President Hassan Rouhani, and by his longtime mentor, former two-term President Hashemi Rafsanjani. Making clear where its sympathies lie, the Western media invariably dubs this the “moderate” or “reformist” faction

Nor A Lender Be : Hillary Clinton, Liberal Virtue, And The Cult Of The Microloan
By Thomas Frank

From Thomas Frank’s new book "Listen, Liberal!" published this month by Metropolitan Books

Clinton-Bush Hardliner Attacks Congress For Blocking Invasion Of Syria
By Eric Zuesse

In a Huffington Post interview on February 23rd, the Clinton-Bush former head of the NSA and CIA, and defender of their use of waterboarding, and of their violating the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (both of which types of legal violations he says are necessary in order to keep Americans safe), accused Congress of being gutless: “Congress didn't step up and authorize the use of military force” to invade Syria. Michael Hayden said this in a video clip at Huffington Post Live, where the context of what he was saying was left ambiguous, but it concerned only the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, so his comment there was gratuitous

Reality Check: No Matter Who Wins The White House,
The New Boss Will Be The Same As The Old Boss

By John W. Whitehead

If there is to be any hope of restoring our freedoms and reclaiming control over our government, it will rest not with the politicians but with the people themselves. When all is said and done, each American will have to decide for themselves whether they prefer dangerous freedom to peaceful slavery. One thing is for sure: the reassurance ritual of voting is not going to advance freedom one iota

Ambedkar On Bhagatsingh
By Anand Teltumbde

Ambedkar did not write on the revolutionary movement of Bhagat Singh but has written an editorial note titled "Three Victims" when they were hanged. Though it does not speak about their struggle, much less politics, it explains how their execution was influenced by political expediency back home. I provide herewith its translation as it may be of interest to many a student of Ambedkar besides its historical value

When A Protest March Creates Ripple In Northeast India
By Nava Thakuria

The Guwahatians devotedly responded to the call of Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) for the protest march condemning the anti-national advocates that emerged from different higher educational institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jadavpur University etc in the recent past

KESARI YA HARA? Let’s Find Out The Color In Which You Shall Bleed..
By Suvi Jain

To fight for one’s very basic rights, like the right to breathe in a peaceful-space as those in the valley do, or may be to be able to differ from the government and its ideologies, or to protest-for and demand a fresh enactment or a re-check on a case which was wrongly-upheld long-back in a rush, so that the country never faces such an ignorance of justice, might offend somebody’s interest, but it cannot be treated as a misuse of liberty or deviation towards the anti-national side from what is perceived to be the side of the nationals

Lies Never Triumph
By Imran Khan

What can be understood out of JNU controversy and Rohit Vemulla’s suicide is that the situation in India for minority and marginalised is bleak and the space for dissenting voice is fading. What can also be observed is that, different versions of nationalism are being constantly patronised by different political ideologies and each remain busy in imposing it’s version of nationalism on the other. In such a situation, individual liberty, freedom of thought and expression and right to dissent is put to walls. If such a situation is allowed to continue it will lead to extreme polarisation in India

 



 



 

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