Spectacle Sans Substance

Union Budget 2018-19 turns out to be an exercise that carries forward the use of hyperbole on which the Narendra Modi regime rests. Two major welfare measures, minimum support price for farmers and health care for the poor, have been announced with fanfare but with no plan to implement them as policy. 

Train Of Neglect

Jaitley’s Budget offers little to railway passengers or businesses and is marked by a singular failure to address the deep faults in the system that have a critical bearing on safety. 

Intense Battle

Meghalaya is all set to witness a close contest between the ruling Congress and a BJP-regional parties combine.

Guided By Passion

The Justice Karnan case has highlighted again the urgent need to amend the law and procedure on the exercise of suo motu contempt proceedings by the Supreme Court and High Courts

A Controversial Career

Since his elevation as a judge to the Madras High Court in 2001, Justice C.S. Karnan has been involved in many a controversy relating to allegations of discrimination against him because he is a Dalit.

Despair And Unrest in Mexico

There is anger in Mexico over the violence that snuffs out lives but does not get investigated. However, there is little hope that the state will act. 

Rural Revolt

Farmers in the BJP-ruled States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, distressed by demonetisation and government inaction, rise in revolt and spoil the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious third anniversary celebrations.

Diminishing Returns

Farmers’ organisations in Punjab and Haryana are determined to continue their agitation.

Turning Sour?

India’s thriving dairy sector, which provides farmers with an alternative source of income, is beset by challenges, including the government’s new restrictive rules on cattle trade.

March Of Hindu Rashtra

The rise in violence against Muslims across the country in the name of gau raksha is full of dire portent when seen against the subtle push the Central and the BJP-ruled State governments are giving to the idea of Hindu Rashtra.

Debating Secularism

Secularism is a priceless objective to strive for and defend given the grim challenges it faces from non-state actors, often with the connivance of the state.

Symbolic Contest

The opposition fails to put up a show of unity ahead of the presidential election, while the BJP attempts to foil the criticism about its uppercaste preferences by choosing a Dalit candidate. 

Taxing Times

The launch of the Goods and Services Tax amidst great fanfare, but without adequate preparation, marks a continuum with demonetisation and threatens the viability of millions of small and medium enterprises. 

Hatred Unleashed

In the past three years, mob violence, including lynching, particularly by cow vigilantes, has almost become a strategy to intimidate Muslims.

Promise of dignity

The new Mental Health Care Bill is more humane in its approach than previous laws and has provisions that give the mentally ill a degree of autonomy.

Out Of The Four Walls

Care for the mentally ill should look beyond the “madhouse” and towards inclusive communities with a place for persons with psychosocial disabilities. BY RADHIKA ALKAZI AND AMBA SALELKAR.

Ghosts of the Past

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives to find a solution to the Kashmir unrest may have little effect in the absence of a concrete plan to restore the Kashmiri people’s faith in New Delhi.

A Fight for their Land

The mounting opposition to land acquisition for the Mallanasagar project, which threatens to submerge 14 villages, is turning out to be the first serious political challenge to Telangana Chief Minister. 

Misadventure in Yemen

The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting a losing battle in Yemen, and Riyadh’s own economic problems make a long-running war there unsustainable.

The Myth of Growth

Economic growth in the last 25 years after liberalisation has been riding on a credit bubble. It has not made the manufacturing or exports sector robust, unlike in other high-growth economies. Nor has it delivered any benefits to those steeped in poverty and deprivation.

All In The Name Of News

In the out-and-out corporate media environment that exists today, market-friendly value systems are a natural consequence and crony capitalist behaviour by media luminaries is par for the course. 

Cold War cloud

The NATO summit in Warsaw reinforces its collective defence strategy with Russia and China as its targets. 

Ambedkarites And The Left Should Come Together 

Interview with Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani.

Narrative Battles

Competing historical narratives about the Anglo-Maratha battle at Bhima Koregaon may have ensured that the memory of the 200-year-old battle remains permanently disputed, but they have also led to a renewed self-assertion by Dalit communities.

Insidious Fault Lines

Behind the apparent Maratha-Dalit rift in the Koregaon Bhima clashes lies a more sinister mobilisation by Hindutva fringe groups that tap into Maratha grievances.

Threat From Within

Vacancies in the Central Information Commission, the backlog of applications and the attempts to weaken the RTI Act raise fresh concerns about the government’s commitment to transparency.

BJP: All is not well

The Bharatiya Janata Party is in a state of flux with party veterans poised to become the rallying point for forces opposed to the  authority of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, particularly in the wake of the party’s defeat in  the Bihar Assembly elections. 

G20 Summit: Terror Trumps Economy

It was hoped that the leaders at the G20 summit in Turkey would find a way out of the global slowdown in growth, but the events in Paris left them little time for that.

Economic War In Venezuela: Setback For Chavistas

Amid falling oil prices in a worsening economy and an “economic war” being waged by the private sector against the government, Venezuela’s United Socialist Party loses the National Assembly elections.

Horror Behind Bars

An exhaustive report based on inspection of Bihar’s 58 prisons tellingly brings to light the denial of the basic human rights of prisoners in the State and points to the need for prison reforms across the country.