Friends and fellow writers, The social and political scenario of our beloved country is worsening with every passing day. Right wing forces have polarized nation in the name of religion, caste and ethnicity for political gains. Dissent is systematically crushed and rational thinkers and writers are threatened and brutally killed in broad daylight. The central and state governments don’t show any eagerness to hold and punish murderers of Narendra Dabholkar, Comrade Govind Pansare and Prof Kalburgi. The State is seemingly hesitant and hiding behind various excuses from banning organizations, which had reportedly played clandestine role in heinous crimes.
'Deepa Nishant, an Assistant Professor in Malayalam department of Sree Kerala Varma College is the most hated person for the ABVP students and their parent right-wing groups in Kerala. Deepa, who is also a writer, had made a Facebook post supporting the "beef festival" protest organised by the SFI students in her college.
'If untamed inflation, cries of corruption and impunity of ministers with serious criminal cases were not enough to give us a feel of continuity with the last government, the new Indian PM’s foreign visits would definitely provide us with the familiar air of the Congress government. On the sidelines of the ongoing BRICS meet, Modi has invited Vladimir Putin for a visit to Koodankulam in December this year when the second reactor in Koodankulam is supposed to be started.
'Protests against the situation in Gaza have been held in Delhi yesterday, (Sunday, 13th July, and today, 14th July, in the morning). Yesterday, on Sunday morning, there was a peaceful protest in front of the Israeli Embassy – this came out of a call for protest by individuals. Yesterday, about a hundred odd people, including many young people, had gathered. I was present at this gathering. Some people made statements condemning the Israeli state’s aggression against the Palestinian people. The Delhi Police was present, but did not try to disrupt or disturb the protest.
"A morphed photo of a Goa minister in a pink swimsuit, posted on Facebook, has provoked a First Information Report (FIR), the first step in the filing of formal charges, against a man from Goa who lives in America. The photo, which was posted on Facebook last week, has gone viral. The minister featured in the photo is Sudin Dhavalikar, who heads the Public Works Department and recently declared that bikinis should be banned on Goa's beaches. Other advice from him included "Young girls wearing short skirts in nightclubs are a threat to the Goan culture.
"As many as 13 NGOs today came together and announced the formation of an "agitation committee" to protest the Jaipur Development Authority's (JDA) decision to seal the Rajasthan Samagra Seva Sangh premises. The committee would fight to get the land belonging to Rajasthan Samagra Seva Sangh (RSSS) back, social and political activist Aruna Roy said today in a press conference here...
'The Armed Forces Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act (AFSPA) has come into focus recently even as Manipur has made an advance in its case against Irom Sharmila, who has been on an indefinite hunger strike demanding the repeal of the AFSPA. Even as a Manipur court finds prima facie evidence of attempt to commit suicide against her we have an occasion to ponder over the AFSPA, over its necessity or the lack thereof and its relevance to a democratic country like ours.
'The first blow was the new BJP government’s unilateral decision to raise the wall of the Narmada Dam by 17 metres, something the Narmada Bachao Andolan’s spearhead Medha Patkar has had been fighting for years. Now it appears the government is set to clamp down on the NGOs that are active in opposing big business. Patkar spoke to Prachi Pinglay-Plumber. Excerpts from the interview:...
We do not take foreign funds as ours is a movement not an NGO. We get free legal services from lawyers, we take old computers and furniture and we work on very little money.
"Of late, there’s been a lot of whining about the new climate of intolerance that has followed the coronation of Narendra Modi as India’s new king, or if you will, India’s new prime minister (the technical term for ‘king’ in a parliamentary democracy). This never-ending whining about the repression of dissent—almost all of it from people with a known or unknown track record of Modi-bashing—has to stop. And it has to stop now—before it becomes necessary to repress it.
