Dilip Simeon's blog

NB : The Russian people have fought for freedom and democracy for over a century, in 1915-21 ; in the deadly struggle against Nazi invasion ; and again in the aftermath of glasnost. Putin is the inheritor of the Russian autocratic tradition, he moved easily from the KGB and membership of the Communist Party to becoming a Russian nationalist, making the post-Soviet reality just as corrupt and tyrannical as the one it superseded. This is the kind of patriotism he uses to crush the people's demand for democracy. (We are familiar with it in India). Freedom loving people the world over should support the Russian people in this new wave of struggle and repression. DS For more than a decade, the Kremlin has used every tool at its disposal to keep Russians off the streets, wielding fear and boredom to make protesting against  Vladimir Putin  seem pointless. And yet in defiant scenes on Saturday in cities across Russia, from St Petersburg to Vladivostok and even in Yakutsk, where pro...

The year 2020 has been a bad one for journalists in India. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused illness and death, and the lockdown resulted in salary cuts and loss of livelihood due to mass retrenchments effected by media houses. The killing and attacks on journalists have continued unabated. While self-censorship within the media remained an open secret, the government sought to increase regulation of the media, with media policies, funding and administrative mechanisms for online media. A sharp rise in criminal cases lodged against journalists in India for their work, with a majority of cases in BJP-ruled states, has contributed to the deterioration in the climate for free speech in India. In the last decade, 154 journalists in India were arrested, detained, interrogated or served show cause notices for their professional work and a little over 40 per cent of these instances were in 2020. Nine foreign journalists faced deportation, arrest, interrogations or were denied entry into Indi...

Press Conference Condemning Nodeep Kaur’s Arrest and Custodial Sexual Violence by Haryana Police Date: January 23 rd , 2021 (Saturday) Time: 3 pm Venue: Press Club of India (1, Raisina Road, Near Central Secretariat Metro, Windsor Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001) Campaign for the Release of Nodeep Kaur! On January 12 th , as the Kisan Andolan continued unabated, Nodeep Kaur, a 24-year-old dalit woman worker was arrested by the Haryana Police from the Kundli Industrial Area adjacent to Singhu Border. After violently dispersing a rally by workers in the area and firing at the gathered workers, the police grabbed Nodeep Kaur, took her to Kundli Police Station, filed two FIRs against her under a wide range of fabricated charges.  This was followed by brutal custodial violence by male police officers including targeting her genitals amounting to sexual violence. She is currently in judicial custody in Karnal Jail without adequate medical care. This arrest com...

Moore can breathe a sigh of relief that one of his predictions didn’t come to 100% fruition. In a  Democracy Now!  interview in December, the  Fahrenheit 11/9  filmmaker said, based on his temperature of the flyover states: “If the vote were today, I believe, he would win the electoral states that he would need, because, living out there, I will tell you, his level of support has not gone down one inch. In fact, I’d say it’s even more rabid than it was before, because they’re afraid now. They’re afraid he could lose, because they watched his behavior. So they are voracious in their appetite for Donald Trump. That’s the bad news.” President Donald Trump To America: ‘Have A Good Life, We’ll See You Soon’ Moore’s 2018 documentary  Fahrenheit 11/9  (a title flip on his Palme d’Or-winning  Fahrenheit 9/11 ) drew parallels between the rise of Adolf Hitler and Trump, the latter who he has viewed as a great threat to democracy and called “the last presiden...

If Punjab’s farmers are so prosperous then why are they leaving farming? Twelve per cent farmers have left farming and the number of small and marginal farmers has come down from five lakh in 1991 to three lakh in 2001...they have either migrated to urban areas/overseas to become labourers or sold their lands.... 9,300 farmers and 7,300 farm labourers died by suicide in 17 years in Punjab out of which 88 per cent farm suicides occurred due to heavy debt while 77 per cent of them were the small and marginal farmers... Banks charge 13% interest on loans for tractors, 4 % for cars... Punjab farmers, who have been at the helm of the agitation at Delhi borders against the Centre’s farm laws — which entered its 50th day Friday — have been called a “pampered lot” and a “major beneficiary of the MSP regime”. It has been claimed that Punjab farmers’ income is highest among the states as the purchase of their wheat and paddy is the government’s responsibility at a fixed MSP. Based on recent stud...

 People have trust issues with the government. What if they implement these laws again after a stay for a short period? We, therefore, decided to reject the proposals of the government.” ...   A statement on behalf of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of organisations spearheading the protest, released by Darshan Pal of Krantikari Kisan Union, stated: “In a full general body meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha today, the proposal put forth by the Government yesterday was rejected. A full repeal of three central farm acts and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers were reiterated as the pending demands of the movement.” 42-year old Haryana farmer dies by suicide at Tikri border The Morcha, the statement said, “pays homage to the 143 farmers who have been martyred in this movement so far… Their sacrifice will not go in vain and we will not go back without the repealing of these farm laws”. It referred to a meeting with Delhi Police officers ...

The sudden  demolition of a memorial in the Jaffna University Campus  in northern Sri Lanka to remember Tamil civilians killed during the LTTE’s last stand against the Sri Lankan Army in 2009 has brought attention to the simmering and yet unaddressed issues of post-war ethnic reconciliation, justice and accountability, as well as a political resolution of the Tamil question. The demolition triggered protests by Sri Lanka’s Tamil community in the North and East, and condemnation by Tamil diasporas and human rights groups, and from politicians in election-bound Tamil Nadu including Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin. The widespread outrage, and a hunger strike by students on the campus, seems to have taken the government by surprise. On Monday, three days after the demolition, University Vice-Chancellor S Srisathkunarajah visited the site, and promised to rebuild the memorial. The online portal of the Sri Lankan weekly Sunday Times said “ he led the...