Dilip Simeon's blog

An “in conversation” event with Nandini Sundar, Professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. Topics covered will include recent protest movements, arrests of academics, journalists and activists, and the future of dissent in India. Introduction: Dr Gerald Roche, Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe Asia Speakers: Professor Nandini Sundar, Sociology, Delhi School of Economics Dr Ian Woolford, Hindi Studies, La Trobe University Protest, Dissent, and the Struggle for Justice in India | La Trobe Asia

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, on Tuesday rejected the Union government’s committee on Minimum Support Price, or MSP, reported PTI. The body, which spearheaded the protest against the now-repealed farm laws, said that the “so-called farmer leaders” who supported the legislations are members of the panel. Farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar told PTI that the government has included leaders who did not have anything to do with the farm law protests. The Minimum Support Price is the rate at which the government buys farm produce and is based on a calculation of at least one-and-a-half times the cost of production incurred by farmers. Market rates for many crops are usually well below the Minimum Support Price.Farmer leaders have been demanding that the minimum support price guarantee be extended to all produce, not just rice and wheat. The committee on Minimum Support Price was formed on Monday, eight months after the Centre promised to set up such a panel as i...

Protesters broke into the Sri Lankan leader's official residence in Colombo on Saturday as more than 100,000 amassed outside, according to police, calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign over his handling of the country's economic crisis.  Video broadcast on Sri Lankan television and on social media showed protesters enter President's House -- Rajapaksa's office and residence in the commercial capital -- after breaking through security cordons placed by police. Images show demonstrators inside the building and hanging banners from the balcony, as well as swimming in the residence's pool. Rajapaksa is not at the site and has been moved elsewhere, security officials told CNN. It is unclear how many security personnel are present at the location.... https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/09/asia/sri-lanka-protest-president-saturday-intl-hnk/index.html PM Wickremesinghe willing to resign, make way for all-party govt to take over Protesters take over President Rajap...

Article 14 of the Constitution of India reads: “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” Article 14  is an excellent portal, reflecting the best traditions of Indian journalism. I wholeheartedly commend it to readers. Here are some representative articles India’s Proposed New Privacy Law Will Make The Right To Privacy Hard To Enforce If Verdicts Favour Govt, Judges Can Get Top Jobs: Study Debunking a Myth: Only 17 Political Parties Of 105 In EC List Got Electoral Bonds. Muslims & Dalits Face The Worst Residential Segregation & Discrimination In Urban Cities, Study Confirms India’s Unemployment Crisis: The Distress Is Worse Than The Data Suggest   Beaten, Abused By Inmates & Labelled A ‘Terrorist’, Former Lawyer On Bail In Delhi Riots Case Expresses Faith In Constitution   ‘In Karnataka, Cultural Practices Basavanna Fought Against Are Getting Reintroduced’ ...

NB: It seems there's no difference between the totalitarian fantasies of 'leftist' and 'rightist' governments. DS Dozens of feminist groups in Nicaragua that provide crucial support to vulnerable women have been labelled “foreign agents” and outlawed by the government, meaning they can no longer operate. Reproductive healthcare services, shelters for survivors of gender violence, and loans and training for peasant women – to cite just a few activities run by feminist groups – are vanishing as a result of the government ban, say activists. “It’s a delusion of absolute control,” says María Teresa Blandón, a sociologist and prominent feminist who coordinates one of the affected groups, La Corriente . The authorities “know there is critical thinking, a defence for human rights and a democratic vocation in feminist organisations," she told openDemocracy. Last month, the Nicaraguan National Assembly – which is controlled by the ruling party, the Sandinista National L...

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the Socialist Alternative (SA) party have, for nearly a decade, waged one of the most effective battles against the city’s moneyed elites. She and the SA have adopted a series of unorthodox methods to fight the ruling oligarchs and, in that confrontation, exposed the Democratic Party leadership as craven tools of the billionaire class. Her success is one that should be closely studied and replicated in city after city if we are to dismantle corporate tyranny. Sawant , who lives on $40,000 of her $140,000 salary and places the rest into a political fund that she uses for social justice campaigns, helped lead the fight in 2014 that made Seattle the first major American city to mandate a $15 an hour minimum wage. Following a three-year struggle against Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, she and her allies pushed through a tax on big business that increased city revenues by an estimated $231 million a year. She was part of the movemen...

A group of millionaires have joined protests against the World Economic Forum gathering of the business and political elite in Davos , Switzerland, demanding that governments “tax us now” to tackle the burgeoning gulf between rich and poor.  The unlikely protesters, who describe themselves as “patriotic millionaires” , called on world leaders attending the annual conference on Sunday to immediately introduce fresh taxes on the wealthy in order to tackle the “cost of living scandal playing out in multiple nations around the world”. The charity Oxfam recently said rising inequality could push as many as 263 million more people into extreme poverty in 2022, reversing decades of progress. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/22/millionaires-join-davos-protests-demanding-tax-us-now-taxation-wealthy-cost-of-living-crisis Walter Benjamin: Capitalism as Religion (1921) Noam Chomsky: Internationalism or Extinction (Universalizing Resistance) Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexis...

A decade of resistance against mining activity, displacement, and deforestation met with defeat on April 6, when the Chhattisgarh government gave its final assent for felling of trees and commencement of mining activity in Hasdeo in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Back in 2011, the gram sabha (village assembly) of Ghatbarra village in the Hasdeo Arand forests passed a resolution opposing coal mining in the forests. Over ten years later, villagers in the area are determined to press on with their protests, calling on the government to halt the wanton destruction of India’s forest tracts. The Hasdeo Arand region in Chhattisgarh’s northern district of Sarguja is one of the largest blocks of forests in central India. It extends over 170,000 hectares and its forests are home to over 350 species of animals . Running through Hasdeo and its adjacent villages is the Hasdeo River – the lifeline of this under-attack forest region. While the region houses great biodiversity, t...

Security forces in Russia have detained over 4,000 anti-war protesters across the country. The figure is from an independent protest monitor. Police have arrested people in several Russian cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg. They warned that organizers and participants in demonstrations will face charges. Authorities have imposed restrictions on protests citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutsche...   For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twf5ee73F1s Why we need a new spirit of internationalism. By EDWY PLENEL; March 4, 2022 Noam Chomsky: Internationalism or Extinction (Universalizing Resistance) Thousands arrested across Russia at anti-war protests Police detained more than 4,300 people on Sunday at Russia-wide protests against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an independent protest monitoring group. Thousands of protesters chanted “No to war!” and “Shame on you!”,...

  Gogannamattam Village (16°26'23.67"N, 81°57'3.13"E) located on the bank of Vainatheya which is a tributary of River Godavari. On the west side of the village flows river Vainatheya which opens up at nearby coast into Bay of Bengal. This creates a unique estuary from the coast where large area of Mangrove patches was formed. On the date of 25-01-2022 excavators started excavating the soil and forming an approach road to enter the Mangrove patch (16°25'55.62"N, 81°57'14.41"E). Villagers of Gogannamattam village after knowing the information of excavation activity had rushed to the destruction site. Excavators had formed an approach   road and uprooted the mangrove trees on the site. Villagers obstructed the destruction of Mangrove trees and the excavation activity was stopped. Excavators had destroyed several trees   in the area which belong to the Mangrove species. Biodiversity: Mangroves in this region supports as life line for many Bird specie...

In a 30-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Sunita Viswanath explained why her organization played a lead role, alongside 16 other civil society organisations in the US, in lobbying the US Congress against the treatment of Muslims and minorities in India on the 12th and 26th of January. She said she did this because “the world needs to understand something is wrong in India … India is on a very dangerous path”.  Speaking further about the two Congressional briefings on India’s treatment of Muslims which she organised, she said: “We are US citizens. We have the power to influence and move US lawmakers and the Biden Administration to speak out.” She added, “it hasn’t happened enough”. See / hear the interview :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7I5KlJbhLA Why is the Indian Media Erasing Hindus for Human Rights from the Republic Day Story? काशी विश्वनाथ मंदि र के महंत ने मोदी , योगी पर लगाया बड़ा आरोप , सुनकर रह जाएंगे हैरान ! Javed Anand: What is at sta...

The farmers’ historic struggle and victory has upset not merely political arrogance but conventional wisdom in more than one way. It has shown the limitations of class analysis, and has thrown up new ideas for organizing peaceful protests in a democracy.  The fact that relatively better-off farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh often led the movement should teach us the lesson that class position is not always the determining factor. When pushed to the wall, dissent spread across all classes in the entire agricultural sector and inequality within agriculture became less important. Conditions were created for a movement based on an unprecedented solidarity. We witnessed this as small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers — mostly Dalits — as well as men and women cutting across caste, gender, religion and region joined the movement. That the better-off farmers had greater economic staying power was an advantage. To this was added the nature of agricultural a...

‘पेट पर लात मत मारिए, पेट की लात बहुत ख़राब होती है’ https://fb.watch/aOxsjVna-g/ रेलवे भर्ती में खामियों को लेकर छात्रों का बिहार बंद Bihar Bandh Highlights 'जो छात्र घर बार छोड़कर तैयारी कर रहे हैं, उनके साथ सरकार ने दोगला व्यवहार काशी विश्वनाथ मंदिर के महंत ने मोदी, योगी पर लगाया बड़ा आरोप, सुनकर रह जाएंगे हैरान!  https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=29cV_cz7RIk पंकज श्रीवास्तव से टकराई रिपोर्टर, फिर जो हुआ वो खुद देख लीजिए Bharat Bhushan: BJP losing the narrative in UP Bharat Bhushan - 'Entire political science' lesson: Peoples' power trumps people in power Bharat Bhushan: Burden of bigotry may break Indian democracy's back Bharat Bhushan - Incitement to violence: When will Supreme Court take note? Bharat Bhushan - Save the Election Commission: Common electoral roll can wait Bharat Bhushan: Frontier of warfare? Wrong to securitise civil society discourse Election Commission responsible for spreading Covid-19, should probably be booked for murder: Madras HC // Bharat...

 After three years and three months in prison, Bhima-Koregaon accused and undertrial Sudha Bharadwaj was granted bail in December 2021 by the Bombay High Court on a technical ground. The human rights lawyer and law professor talked to us about her time in prison, the state of legal aid for forgotten undertrials, the need for courts to address congested prisons, particularly in the pandemic, and her plans to rebuild her life as a lawyer and a mother, as she grappled with bail conditions which prevent her from leaving Mumbai and Thane. “I love this country, I love the people of Chhattisgarh, and I have no regrets,” 60-year-old advocate Sudha Bharadwaj told  Article 14 , weeks after she was granted  bail  by the Bombay High Court in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Arrested on 28 August 2018, Bharadwaj is among 16 ‘Bhima-Koregaon accused’ - lawyers, human rights activists, writers and academics - charged under 10 sections of the  Indian Penal Code , 1860,...