Dilip Simeon's blog

NB: This is yet another terrible tragedy in the 50-year history of Naxalism. It will achieve nothing aside from adding momentum to the spiral of violence. The consequences of the brutal waste of human life in the name of an ever-receding 'people's democratic revolution' can be summed up: lifelong trauma for the families of the dead; more repression unleashed upon the civilian population; a handle for the government to attack journalists and lawyers doing their jobs; further onslaughts on democratic organisations struggling for various popular causes; and steady erosion of constitutional governance. As regards human rights, resistance to communal politics & preservation of democracy, what has been achieved by decades of 'armed struggle'? Has there been progress or regression?   Is it not clear  that a section of the Indian ruling class is working hard to destroy democracy? India does not need a violent revolution to overthrow the constitution, but a non-vio...

The global pushback from governments against civil society is ‘an emergency’, says the head of a worldwide network of NGOs Danny Sriskandarajah is charged with the job of looking out for countries where governments are cracking down on NGOs or on grassroots groups. Two years ago his organisation  Civicus  launched a monitor which tracks threats or infringements of the right to freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, both for grassroots, voluntary organisations, and for the larger professionalised NGOs.  “In the last four years things have changed so dramatically,” he says. “In 2013 we would be issuing press statements or alerts about Russia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, countries where you’d expect to see this sort of thing. But over the last few years we’ve been issuing alarms about the UK, US, Hungary and Poland. What’s begun to emerge is that we really think there is a global emergency around civil space, that for a variety of reasons gov...

The Trump White House approaches language with the same roughshod entitlement he’s applying to the presidency. His sloppy lies and vague promises must not stop us holding him to account..  If Trump never makes a statement of commitment, Trump supporters never have to confront what they really voted for With only a week left of his first 100 days in office – traditionally a milestone for American presidents – Donald Trump sat down with the Associated Press to reflect on his accomplishments (sic) and preemptively brag about future ones. This remarkable artefact,  a transcript of which AP then released in full , captures, more than any other piece of media (except perhaps  Trump’s Twitter feed ), the unifying ethos of the Trump White House:  weaponised  nonsense. The interview is deep, pure, tangy,  umami  Trump. I felt like I was reading one of those children’s stories in which a villain’s soul is written into a book and imprisoned there for eve...

A Citizen Stands With Victim Of Communal Bullying Last week, Comrade Santosh Roy, National Secretary of AICCTU and a long-standing leader of the DTC Workers’ Unity Centre, was traveling on the violet line of the Delhi metro. Opposite him, two young men were seated on the senior citizens’ seats. A senior citizen (who appeared to be Muslim because he had a beard and no moustache) came up to the young men and asked one of them to allow him to sit. The young men refused. When the senior citizen asked them again, the young men told him, “This seat is for Hindustanis not for Pakistanis like you. If you want a seat go to Pakistan and get it there.”    मुकेश कुमार - हम क्यों चलें जाएं पाकिस्तान? Comrade Roy got up promptly and told the young men to apologize for their hate speech, and also to give the seat to the senior citizen. Some other young men came to the support of the two abusive young men, one of whom caught Comrade Roy by the collar and told him also to “Go to Paki...

Should Bangladesh’s foundational ideology be secular Bengali nationalism or Islamic nationalism ? This is a question that has bedevilled the country since it gained independence in 1971. The word secularism itself was part of its original Constitution, only to be removed in 1977, and then reinstated in 2010.  The latest battleground for this war is an unlikely one. Bangladesh’s Islamists are angry that the compound of the country’s Supreme Court has a statue of Lady Justice. The very existence of an idol goes against Islam’s strictures, they argue. The country’s secularists, under attack for some time now, are mostly silent. As a result, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in what could be considered an instance of appeasing the Islamists, has hinted at having the statue removed,  reported  the  Daily Star . Lady Justice:  The statue, which was erected outside the Bangladesh Supreme Court in December, depicts the Greek goddess of justice, Themis, holding a sword ...

NB : The Bajrang Dal and VHP are fronts of the RSS. We can see what respect they have for the law, and what they plan to do to the Indian constitution. It is utter hypocrisy for the Modi government to criticise Maoist violence when their parent organisation is unleashing controlled mobs as and when they like. It is clear that these musclemen believe the BJP victory in UP is a license to run riot, because they are assured of political protection. Let us see whether the BJP's leaders have any use even for the mask of respect for law. Judges, magistrates and IPS/IAS officers can curb this hooliganism, but it will require courage and a willingness to remember their oath of office, which many senior elected representatives have forgotten. India is not the fiefdom of a private army. DS In Shocking Videos Of Cow Vigilante Attack, Jammu Family Begs For Mercy Agra violence: 14 arrested after attack on police stations Fourteen persons were arrested by the police on Sunday after a case...

The quiet, lovely medieval towns and soft, rolling hills covered with orchards and vineyards of south-west  France  are an unlikely setting for a citizens’ uprising. Yet just days before the presidential election, conversations with the inhabitants of this once leftwing region, stretching from the city of Toulouse to the rural settings of the Tarn-et-Garonne, offer a glimpse into France’s mood of rage and confusion. Popular resentment, fears and frustrations set the stage for a major political upheaval, almost 60 years after De Gaulle founded the country’s Fifth Republic. France is a republican quasi-monarchy. Its institutions are centred on the president. But what is at stake in this vote isn’t just the choice of a personality, nor only an economic or political programme. The very essence of France’s democracy hangs in the balance, as well as the survival of the 60-year-old European project. Much of what is at work resembles the trends that produced Brexit in Britain and...