Nayantara Sahgal’s Speech She Wasn’t Allowed to Deliver

Nayantara Sahgal (91) is a renowned Indian writer, and winner of the 1986 Sahitya Akademi Award. She returned her award in October 2015, to protest the “growing intolerance” in the country and silence from institutions like the Sahitya Akademi. She was to inaugurate the 92nd Marathi Sahitya Sammelan on January 11, 2019, but the organisers…

How to React to Stupidity at the Science Congress

Correlation is not causation—but it’s really hard to set aside the fact that India’s ruling party has empowered a clutch of people to vocalise their pseudoscientific beliefs without fear of ridicule, leave alone consequence. When you hear a person in any kind of leadership position utter unscientific, ahistorical nonsense, you used to be able to…

Amid Institutional Decline

Allegations of interference in major institutions have been the big news of late. The ongoing fracas in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has got out of hand, with the two top officials in the chain of command accusing each other of corruption. The recent pronouncements in the Supreme Court do not promise an early…

Some Implications of Verdict on Aadhaar Act

Some Implications of Verdict on Aadhaar Act Introduction While the verdict of the 5-Judge Constitution Bench of Supreme Court on Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)’s Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar number database project being implemented by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Aadhaar Act 2016 and indiscriminate metadata collection of Indian residents is 1448…

60 Years of Defending Cuba Against a Barbarous Empire

60 Years of Defending Cuba Against a Barbarous Empire (Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.) When Fidel Castro triumphantly announced the people’s victory on January 1, 1959, it had been barely 15 years since the United States had savagely bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This atrocity marked the passage of the baton of barbarism…

Rafale Negotiations: PMO Compromised Defence Ministry’s Position

Rafale Negotiations: PMO Compromised Defence Ministry’s Position In what could trigger yet another political storm over the Rafale controversy, fresh facts have surfaced with regard to the procedures adopted by the Narendra Modi government while clearing the purchase of 36 aircraft.   Highly placed sources have confirmed to The Wire that it is officially recorded…

The Yellow Vest Movement

The Yellow Vest Movement Nothing shows the crisis of neoliberal capitalism more clearly than the popular uprising in France that is occurring under the banner of the “Yellow Vest” movement. Thousands are congregating in Paris over week-ends to protest against the intolerable burdens being imposed upon them in the name of “austerity” and to demand…