Former prime minister Manmohan Singh had famously said that ‘minorities have the first claim on (the country’s) resources’. While this was hailed as a ‘secular’ statement, it doesn’t fit into any definition…
Mother Teresa Debate – Of Saints, Priests and Seva
[Avadhoot Bhagwan Ram Kustha Sewa Ashram reportedly treating the highest number of leprosy patients in the world] Avadhoot Bhagwan Ram Kustha Sewa Ashram reportedly treating the highest number of leprosy patients in…
Why is social media criticising Indian mainstream media: the Presstitutes Controversy
“You’re entitled to your own opinions. You’re not entitled to your own facts.” Attributed to US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Gen. V K Singh’s appellation of “presstitutes” in a Tweet caused…
Call out Muslim Phobia, debunk Islamophobia
The attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo bring to a fore fault lines in Europe. It has fuelled a European right that is calling for bans on Muslim immigrants. A major French…
Rape in India – Why it becomes a worldwide story
[Plight of Indian women is a marketing tool for the Global evangelical movement.] Rape is a terrible crime, a case where the victims are overwhelmingly women and the perpetrators overwhelmingly men. Every…
RTE Act is destructive and communal
[India needs a decentralised education model that does not impose city standards on schools in villages and tribal areas.] “India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years…
Swachh Bharat needs better governance, civic infrastructure
[With all of Narendra Modi’s good intentions, broom-wielding politicians are not going to create a swachh bharat. Instead, we need massive investment in solid and liquid waste management in India.] For the…
Love Jihad is more than just a Conspiracy Theory
The “Love Jihad” controversy has been generating more heat than light. NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain weighed in with an analysis of rape numbers by community, without normalising for relative population sizes. While Rupa Subramanya critiqued…
Communalism in Secular Constitution – Time for Reform
India needs freedom from communalism of minority-majority politics. It may be the law of unintended consequences or it may simply be the result of the climate of partition in which our Constitution…
Indian Left’s support for Palestine follows European script and history
[New Delhi: Left leaders protest against Israel’s attack on Gaza at Parliament House in New Delhi on July 18. PTI Photo by Atul Yadav] Palestine is a pivotal cause for the…