Dilip Simeon's blog

“Ultimately, you look at the global economy that we've created over the last 40 years, the neoliberal global economy – that's what’s driving climate change. And no wonder, because the logic at the heart of that economy is that there is no right more important than the right to make profit..." NB : An excellent article. Nothing short of mass global civil disobedience and satyagraha will make a difference. The world's political systems have degenerated into tyrannical plutocracies. Power-hungry con-men rule over us with intimidation and open defiance of the laws and constitutions that brought them to power. They use religion, culture and nation-worship to prevent us from confronting the most dangerous situation humanity has faced since the invention of the atom bomb. The differences between all our governments is skin-deep; the truth is that our state systems are either lawless, or giving way rapidly to lawlessness - and that the only master they recognise is corporate c...

NB : Aaron Sorkin's film The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a tribute to the people of conscience who resisted the imperialist war on Vietnam. I salute the comrades of our generation for whom the struggle of the Vietnamese people was an emblem of human solidarity against injustice. Over 3 million Vietnamese were killed, and over 58,000 Americans. It is time to launch an international campaign against militaristic culture and the glorification of warfare. It is time to work for peace.  DS Hear my voice, hear my dreams Let us make a world, world, in which in I believe Hear my words, hear my cries Let me see a change through these eyes You may think I won't be heard Still I raise this hand, spread this word These words of fire, of hope and desire And now I'll let them free Hear my voice, hear my dreams Let us make a world in which in we believe In which we believe Hear my words, hear my choice Hear my voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnY9_DXMBis Daniel J. Berrigan, Defia...

Where is the central repository of the leaked information located, and who controls it?    While it is par for the course for governments in India to put political opponents, media persons and diplomats under surveillance, the recent use of Israeli-origin Pegasus software may be particularly egregious. Its plug-and-play spyware converts a mobile phone into a surveillance device.  The latest Pegasus leaks leave little doubt that its use has undermined India’s democratic institutions. This includes the judiciary, Election Commission, the Parliamentary Opposition, Cabinet of ministers, and media. However one important ramification of the Pegasus spyware seems to have escaped the debate: the possibility that national security could be compromised if the intelligence gathered by Pegasus were available to a third country.  By using Pegasus could the Modi government inadvertently have opened itself to strategic blackmail? Would not the organisation that has the list of targ...

NB : The cruelty of this regime is staggering in its implications. Not only does it seek to punish and intimidate its critics by manipulating the justice system for blatantly partisan ends; it also seeks to create and use an atmosphere of fear to intimidate the judiciary. How else may we understand the manner in which the mysterious deaths of Judge Loya and his friends was swept under the carpet by CJI Deepak Mishra? Do the judges really think that the continued incarceration of an  84 year-old Jesuit Father  with Parkinson's disease and hearing difficulties  is essential to national security?  Why has Fr Swamy's normal bail petition been kept pending for months? Is the NIA the personal vigilante force of the Home Minister? Do they want Fr Swamy and the other Bhima-Koregaon accused to perish in custody? Let every decent person in India and abroad think about the depths to which Indian justice has descended. What a disgrace, what a shame. DS Father Stan Swamy , the 8...

सहज मिले सो दूध सम , मांगा मिले सो पानि   //  कह कबीर वह रक्त सम , जामें एंचातानि    -  Dissent from designated spaces. In keeping with the line and length being maintained by it for some time now, the Supreme Court bowled one more ‘doosara’ on October 7, while ruling on the Shaheen Bagh protests. Justices Sanjay Kishen Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari pronounced, “Democracy and dissent go hand in hand, but then the demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone”. This has turned out to be a philosophical contortion of tortuous proportions which has left many a commentator puzzled. It is like ruling that any batter hitting a sixer can perforce do it only from standing within the crease. Or like drawing the good old patriarchal ‘Lakshman rekha’ that sought to restrain Sita within her designated space. The sheer banality of it has the feel of currency from ATMs or milk from automated dispensers. But, like with currenc...

NB : Sanjay Tickoo is one of the bravest members of civil society in India and has been raising his voice against the injustice and negligence suffered by Pandits in the Kashmir Valley for over two decades. Despite the terrible hardships that his community has experienced, he never allowed any communal bitterness to enter his soul. It is a tragedy that this humble family man has had to take recourse to a hunger strike to make the deaf hear. All those who care about democracy and justice should raise their voices and see to it that he can end his hunger strike with dignity. Salaam my friend. Dilip Fast-unto-Death against Disaster Management Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (DMRR & R) Department, UT of JK at Ganesh Mandir, Ganpatyaar, Habba Kadal, Srinagar from 20.09.2020.  Fast-unto-Death enters day 7.  Medical Condition of Shri. Sanjay K. Tickoo, President, KPSS: Physical Weakness, Immune system very very low, B.P. Fluctuating Shri. Sandeep Koul also joined Pr...

Remember when there was a plot to assassinate the prime minister but somehow only one pro-government private news channel had the mega-breaking-exclusive-explosive details? What do you mean, which time? Every time those fine PR executives think it’s time to distract from the government’s giant cockups.  Anyway, I wish for the PM to remain safe, so I suggest they start frisking the peacocks. I hope you have all seen that painful prime ministerial video featuring peacocks, only some of which were birds, and one of which changed its plumage six times in the course of one minute and forty-seven seconds.  Peacocks seem to be the only living things around the PM, besides the television crew that choreographs his every unguarded moment, whether it is meditating in a cave, doing yoga, or feeding other peacocks. But threat perception is a serious business, and it’s best not to get complacent. If his Twitter account could be so easily hacked, it’s probably just a matter of time before a...

May 1968 and June 1989 are two of the most significant months of the historical period after the second World War. In fact 1968 and 1989 in their entirety witnessed a sequence of world changing events. They were both the high watermark of the cold war and the beginning of its end, with the re-ordering of the global balance of power. They saw unmanageable political crises unfold in the Western capitalist world as well as in the Soviet bloc and the People’s Republic of China. 1968 was the height of the Vietnam war, that most deeply affected my generation, and 1989 was when both the PRC and the USSR were shaken to their foundations.  And here is a description of  America today: It's been five decades since 1968, and things are somehow worse These events were crowded and there is much to say. One term that I have used to describe them is  ideological implosion -  this is also linked to the collapse of legitimacy .  In this sense the events of '68 led inex...