Dilip Simeon's blog

This is the latest thread in conspiracy theory that the police is weaving around the incident. We have completely forgotten the origin of the case. It was the large-scale violence on the participants, mostly Dalits at Bhima Koregaon near Pune, which warranted investigation and action. But the alleged instigators and organisers of that massive violence are roaming free. They seem to be shielded by the feeling of honour that the prime minister has for at least one of them... Instead, the police has turned the whole case on its head by “unearthing” a conspiracy to assassinate the prime minister Bhima Koregaon case: DU professor Hany Babu booked for sedition, home searched The Pune police has confiscated Babu’s computer and hard drive, in which his academic work is stored. Now, his social media account and other contacts are with the police. The police did not even have a search warrant... It is complete lawlessness from the keepers of the law  My father called to inform me that...

NB : Cheers to the strikers! May the force be with you!  DS Millions of people around the world are expected to take part in what could be the largest climate protest in history. British students are preparing to walk out of lessons and lectures and adults are being encouraged to join them as they strike.  Protests inspired by the teenage Swedish activist  Greta Thunberg  are planned in around 150 countries as people demand world leaders take immediate action to limit the harmful effects of manmade climate change ahead of a environmental summit at the  United Nations  in  New York  on Monday, as the UN General Assembly opens.... https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-climate-strike-live-protests-greta-thunberg-speech-demonstrations-a9112986.html Biggest climate demonstrations in history // George Monbiot: For the sake of life on Earth, we must put a limit on wealth

The US and  Canada  have lost more than one in four birds – a total of three billion – since 1970, culminating in what scientists who published a new study are calling a “widespread ecological crisis”. Researchers observed a 29% decline in bird populations across diverse groups and habitats – from songbirds such as meadowlarks to long-distance migratory birds such as swallows and backyard birds like sparrows. “Multiple, independent lines of evidence show a massive reduction in the abundance of birds,” said Ken Rosenberg, the study’s lead author and a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy. Co-author Adam Smith from Environment and Climate Change Canada called the findings a “wake-up call”. The population losses are consistent with what scientists have counted among  insects  and  amphibians . The study, published today in the journal Science, did not analyze the reason for the drop. But around the world, bi...

A U.S. drone attack killed 30 pine nut farmers and wounded at least 40 others in Afghanistan Wednesday night, the latest killing of innocent civilians by American forces as the “war on terror” enters its 19th year. The farmers had just finished work and were sitting by a fire when the strike happened, according to tribal elder Malik Rahat Gul. “Some of us managed to escape, some were injured, but many were killed,” said farm laborer Juma Gul. Reuters   reported  that there may be more farmers missing:  Haidar Khan, who owns the pine nut fields, said about 150 workers were there for harvesting, with some still missing as well as the confirmed dead and injured.  A survivor of the drone strike said about 200 laborers were sleeping in five tents pitched near the farm when the attack happened. In a statement, Colonel Sonny Leggett, the spokesman for the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, said the attack was aimed at “Da’esh (IS) terrorists in Nan...

One option for Trump, now he knows Netanyahu’s fate, would be to turn on the Saudis, whose intelligence men chopped off poor  Jamal Khashoggi ’s head a year ago and did other unmentionable things to him before disposing of him down a consulate drain, fountain or sink. Just what did the Saudi crown prince know about this abysmal, disgraceful affair? And let me add another question: was Khashoggi’s face turned towards Mecca when he was buried? Perhaps Mike Pompeo could actually ask Mohamed bin Salman, smiling broadly when he met him on Wednesday, what he knows about this gruesome killing of a very old friend of mine? The Saudis are our allies – the Brits are still sponsoring them – and they tell us that the drone strikes by the Houthis/Iranians were “a test of global will”. And was our response to Khashoggi’s murder also a test of global will? ..   I was surprised, these hot few days in the Middle East, that no one – not Iran, not America, no...

Betwa Sharma: Angry Farmers Won’t Sell Apples To NAFED Addled, Govt Takes Mandi Keys The  Narendra Modi  government has tasked the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) with the task of procuring this season’s apple crop in a belated attempt to contain the fallout of the Indian government’s continued siege of the valley. But officials concede that the scheme has few takers at present. “Of course, this is not normal,” a government official said. “We are reaching out, but farmers are not responding.” The largest fruit and vegetable wholesale market, or mandi, in Srinagar stands deserted, with Kashmiri growers saying they would not bring their fruit to the mandi to protest the government’s de facto suspension of civil rights in the region.  The administration has responded by putting pressure on traders to open the market, to the extent of confiscating the keys to the mandi. Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The regime reveals itself ...

NB : Cheers to the strikers! May the force be with you! DS From London to New York City and from Perth to Paris, climate activists will take part in a  global general strike  on Friday in what is expected to be the biggest day of climate demonstrations in the planet's history. The Global Climate Strike is the  third  in a worldwide series of  climate rallies   organized by school students, and led by 16-year-old  Greta Thunberg . Global climate strike Greta Thunberg & school students lead climate crisis protest: live updates But it is not just young people taking part this month, with labor and humanitarian groups, environmental organizations and employees of some of the world's biggest brands also set to participate. According to Swedish schoolgirl Thunberg, who is in New York ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit on September 23, around 4,638 events have been organized in 139 countries. By going on strike on September 20 --...