Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
Greetings for the New Year!
EDITORIAL: AS 2024 DAWNS, INDIA SETS FIRM ON AUTOCRATIC COURSE
Vinod Mubayi
India has recently been dubbed an “electoral autocracy.” As 2024 arrives, the autocracy portion of that description acquires greater significance as every organ of the state from the police to the nominally independent investigative agencies, to the two national legislative bodies are being constantly weaponized by the ruling regime to target, attack and disempower all forms of dissent, whether political, social, or even cultural.
Read more…ISRAEL KILLED THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN IN GAZA. HOW CAN SO MANY ISRAELIS REMAIN INDIFFERENT?
Amira Hass
The Gaza Strip is gradually being erased, along with its families, its people, its children, their smiles and laughter. What enables the majority of Jewish Israelis to support this systematic and mass erasure?
Read more…INDIA TARGETS APPLE OVER ITS PHONE HACKING NOTIFICATIONS
Gerry Shih and Joseph Menn
A day after Apple warned independent Indian journalists and opposition party politicians in October that government hackers may have tried to break into their iPhones, officials under Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly took action — against Apple.
Read more…IN BANGLADESH’S SHAM ELECTION, THE ONLY REAL CONTEST IS GEOPOLITICAL
Kamal Ahmed
On 7 January, Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is set to claim re-election in what some observers have called “staged polling”, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has termed a “dummy election” and The Economist has described as a “farce”. Desperate to avoid a genuine democratic exercise, Hasina’s government has preemptively removed its only real challenger from the field. More than twenty thousand BNP activists are behind bars, as are key BNP leaders, and the opposition party has decided to boycott the election rather than contest an unfair vote.
Read more…RECOLONISING YOUNG MINDS VIA NEP
Prabhat Patnaik
Imperialist hegemony over the Third World is exercised not just through arms and economic might but also through the hegemony of ideas, by making the victims see the world the way imperialism wants them to see it. A pre-requisite for freedom in the Third World, therefore, is to shake off this colonisation of the mind, and to seek truth beyond the distortions of imperialism.
Read more…MUZZLING THE PRESS
Kalpana Sharma
According to the 2023 report of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index fell from 150 out of 180 countries to 161, a drop of 11 points within one year. What does this noticeable decline mean on the ground, in how media and journalists function, and what readers and viewers are served as news? And what are the actions of the government that have contributed to this decline?
Read more…THE BJP’S FAR-FETCHED CONSPIRACY THEORIES ARE ENDANGERING THE SAFETY OF INDIANS ABROAD
Raju Rajagopal
The assassination of a Canadian Sikh citizen – allegedly at the behest of the Narendra Modi government – and its alleged plot to kill an American Sikh citizen are sending shock waves across the Sikh community and the larger Indian diaspora. Many believe that these two instances are merely the tip of the iceberg in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to silence critics abroad, which now includes frontal attacks on Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).
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