That mushroom cloud Gopalkrishna Gandhi Published 23.07.2 https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/that-mushroom-cloud-some-thoughts-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-pokhran-ii/cid/1953898
Today, one does not hear voices from civil society talking of the nuclear threat or, for that matter, of biological and chemical threats to the world. Disarmament is a piety in conference agendas

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Election Commissioners' Appointment Bill: Impact on independence of Election Commission of India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA6bpln-XAQ
चुनाव आयुक्तों की नियुक्ति विधेयक- चुनाव आयोग की स्वतंत्रता पर प्रभाव

Justice Madan Lokur, Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India
Prashant Bhushan, advocate, Supreme Court of India
SY Quraishi, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India
Sanjay Kumar, Professor, CSDS Delhi
MG Devasahayam, former IAS officer
Anjali Bhardwaj, Satark Nagrik Sangathan

Being the 5th largest economy 'impressive,' but per capita income must also rise, says ex-RBI Governor  https://www.deccanherald.com/business/being-the-5th-largest-economy-impressive-but-per-capita-income-must-also-rise-says-ex-rbi-governor-2689078  16 September 2023 Rangarajan said post Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, there is a need to lay down a clear roadmap for India’s future development and the first and foremost task is to raise the growth rate.... In 2020, India’s rank with respect to per capita income was 142 out of 197 countries.  According to calculations, he said, if the country achieves a seven per cent rate of growth continuously over the next two decades and more, it will make a substantial change to the level of the economy and India may almost touch the status of a developed economy. India needs to absorb the new technologies.. though the new technologies may lower the employment elasticity with respect to output

Is R&AW the new Mossad? India’s image turns from ‘soft State’ to hard under Modi and Doval https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/is-raw-the-new-mossad-indias-image-turns-from-soft-state-to-hard-under-modi-and-doval-13144392.html  Abhijit Majumder September 20, 2023

The new ‘hard State’ label is a byproduct of National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval’s ‘defensive offence’ doctrine, in which you go and attack the place where the offence is coming from. As NSA, he set his doctrine into motion with a terse but eloquent warning to Pakistan: “You do one more Mumbai, you lose Balochistan.”

And from the beginning of Narendra Modi’s prime ministership, we have witnessed defensive offence in motion. The 2015 Myanmar cross-border operation against Naga militants, the 2016 post-Uri attack surgical strike across the LoC, and Balakot airstrike of 2019 after the Pulwama terror attack were a dramatic departure from India’s former policy of masochistic restraint.

Caste, the cancer afflicting Sanatan Dharma https://www.allindiansmatter.in/caste-the-cancer-afflicting-sanatan-dharma/ But when Udhayanidhi Stalin points out how Sanatan Dharma has been corrupted, all of us are annoyed. How dare he call for its eradication? Ambedkar called for the ‘Annihilation of Caste’. Bapu too, in his own gentle manner, called for it. None of them called for a genocide of Hindus or the upper castes. Let’s not allow sanghis and bhakts fool us into believing it.

All reformers warned about the danger institutionalised oppression poses to the existence of Sanatan Dharma but we have not heeded the warnings. What is being sought to be eradicated is Varna Vyavastha and the prejudices it instils in all of us and the oppression which is its very creed. That cancer afflicting Sanatan Dharma must be eradicated. Otherwise, one day, it will ensure the demise of Sanatan Dharma itself.

  On the Hindutva Narrative - Discussion after screening of "who killed Gandhi"
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A35gQbrGhf8

Canada’s Startling Claim Punctuates Tension With India Over Separatists NYT 19-9-2023 https://dnyuz.com/2023/09/19/canadas-startling-claim-punctuates-tension-with-india-over-separatists/ The allegation that India was involved in the killing of a Sikh leader in Canada came after New Delhi had accused Western countries of inaction on secessionist groups.

 India’s response has been a reflection, in part, of domestic politics. The Indian government has long maintained that the Khalistan cause carries little support in Punjab. Yet governing-party officials painted the Sikh-dominated farmers’ movement of 2020 and 2021, the biggest
challenge to Mr. Modi’s decade-long rule, with the same broad “secessionist” brush they have applied to extremist Sikh elements abroad.

Adjournments nibble away at personal liberty, UAPA consumes youth: https://theleaflet.in/adjournments-nibble-away-at-personal-liberty-uapa-consumes-youth-umar-khalid-completes-three-years-in-prison/
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi·September 19, 2023 Umar Khalid completes three years in prison

Between 2016 to 2019, 5,922 persons were arrested under the UAPA and only 132 have been convicted. Of those arrested in 2018–20 under the UAPA, 53 percent are persons below thirty years of age, as per the statistics of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Access to justice is really all about the right to be heard. However, Khalid has become a victim of the court’s constant adjournments, unannounced recusals and the prosecution counsel’s unavailability.

The Supreme Court will have to navigate its way through a seventeen-thousand-page chargesheet filed against Khalid and hundreds of witnesses to impart justice to a scholar. When the Supreme Court came to the rescue of journalists Teesta Setalvad and Arnab Goswami saying “deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many”, should not three years of youth be enough for the court to at least give a fair hearing to Khalid?

Women’s Reservation: Modi’s masterstroke could alter poll dynamics in 150 Lok Sabha seats  Parimal Peeyush September 19, 2023  https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/womens-reservation-modis-masterstroke-could-alter-poll-dynamics-in-150-lok-sabha-seats/3248665/
The role played by women has been crucial to the BJP’s performances in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019. The Women’s Reservation Bill can significantly add to that momentum.
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States like Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Goa, were among 12 states, accounting for 200 Lok Sabha seats, where women registered higher voter turnout than men. In all these states, barring Tamil Nadu (39) and Kerala (20), the BJP secured emphatic wins in the 2019 general elections that saw the party bag 303 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.

Much of this emphatic victory was attributed to the crucial role played by women voters in the elections. As per CSDS data, the BJP polled 37 per cent of the total votes in 2019, with women accounting for over 36 per cent of those votes.

Gujarat flood: Govt’s decision to close Narmada Gates for Modi’s ‘birthday wishes’ triggered ‘man-made’ disaster, says Opposition https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/gujarat-flood-govts-decision-to-close-narmada-gates-for-modis-birthday-wishes-triggered-man-made-disaster-says-opposition/3247311/ The opposition parties, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have named this disaster as “man-made disaster” for deliberately opening 23 gates out of 30 of Sardar Sarovar dam. September 18, 2023

The Opposition parties – Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – have named this disaster as “man-made disaster” for deliberately opening 23 gates out of 30 of Sardar Sarovar dam causing a difficult time for Gujarat. So far, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued 37 people trapped in the floodwaters of Dhami river in Aravalli district’s Demai village and almost 10,000 people have been shifted to safer areas.

Pal Ambaliya, chairman of the Gujarat Kisan Congress, the farmers’ wing of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) said, “In doing that, vested interests have certainly been protected but scores of people had to suffer large-scale damage. For example, farmers of Saurashtra, Kutch and north Gujarat regions had been longing for water for the past one month. But they were not given water because they (the government) were waiting for September 17.”