Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
EDITORIAL: MODI BLINKS, VOWS REPEAL OF BLACK LAWS; FARMERS STAND FIRM, WANT ALL DEMANDS MET
Vinod Mubayi
After an entire year of demonizing, disparaging and denigrating the year-long farmers’ struggle, the largest non-violent mass movement in world history, Modi finally blinked on November 19 and announced the government would repeal the three ‘black’ pro-corporate farm laws in the forthcoming winter session of the Indian Parliament. It is useful to recall that these laws were passed by Parliament without any consultation or debate in September last year.
Read more…AFTER REPEALING FARM LAWS, GOVT SHOULD PLAN REFORMS WHICH ACTUALLY BENEFIT FARMERS
Balsher Singh Sidhu, The Wire
On the morning of Friday, November 19, Prime Minister Modi made a surprise announcement about his government’s decision to repeal the three controversial farm laws which have been at the heart of the biggest protest India has witnessed in many decades.
Read more…FARMERS WIN ON MANY FRONTS, MEDIA FAILS ON ALL
P. Sainath, Peoples Archive of Rural India, Nov 20, 2021
What the media can never openly admit is that the largest peaceful democratic protest the world has seen in years – certainly the greatest organised at the height of the pandemic – has won a mighty victory.
Read more…AFTER VICTORY, THE FARMERS MUST NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE BIG PICTURE
Avinash Mohananey, The India Cable Nov 26, 2021
Credit should be given to the agitating farmers for taking the bull of neoliberal policy by the horns and blunting its debilitating impact. They have also unmasked the backers of big corporates in the political leadership, bureaucracy and media, not to speak of the agricultural “experts” and “economists”, of dubious competence and credentials, who support corporate agendas.
Read more…CONSTITUTION DAY: WHAT NINE PENDING CASES SAY ABOUT THE RIGHTS INDIA’S CITIZENS ENJOY
Jahnavi Sen, The Wire
New Delhi: Seventy-two years ago on this day, the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India. Two months after that, on January 26, 1950, the country’s Constitution came into effect. But how has the implementation of our constitutional rights and safeguards been going?
Read more…SLAM CAMPAIGNS, WATER CANNON, LATHICHARGE AND OTHER ELEMENTS OF PM MODI’S ‘TAPASYA’
Ismat Ara, The Wire
New Delhi: While announcing the repeal of the three contested farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made no attempt to hide his emotions. In his characteristic style, he spoke about his tapasya to improve the lives of farmers but regretted how, despite all his efforts to convince them of the benefits of the laws, he could not get “a few farmers” on board.
Read more…FRONTIER FANTASIES: ENCOUNTERS WITH XINJIANG IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN
Rana Saadullah Khan
The Karakoram Highway, completed in 1979, expanded China’s trade opportunities in Pakistan and made the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region more penetrable for the Pakistani state and military.
Read more…NAPM APPEAL:APPEAL TO JOIN PHASE-III OF THE JAN AZADI 75 CAMPAIGN
25th Nov to 10th Dec, 2021
Dear Saathis,
We join the nation in saluting the farmers’ movement, which has brought the Central Government to its knees, forcing it to retreat on the three Farm Laws, with the Prime Minister assuring a repeal in the Parliament soon.
Read more…SWEAR NOT BY THE MOON: THE CONTENTIOUS POLITICS OF LUNAR SIGHTING IN PAKISTAN
Shehroze Ahmed Shaikh
It is nearing sunset in Karachi on the hot and humid evening of Wednesday, 12 May 2021. The weather, however, has nothing to do with the residents of the city’s Gulistan-e-Jouhar neighbourhood congregating on their roofs and balconies. It is not fresh air they are looking for with their eyes peering towards the horizon, but the sleek crescent of the Shawwal moon (the new moon). The city’s polluted air, however, denies them a chance at seeing either of them.
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