Shillong-based filmmaker Tarun Bhartiya has returned his national award, ‘the Rajat Kamal’, in solidarity with other authors and filmmakers who are protesting the growing intolerance in the country. The state is rapidly becoming a ‘Hindutva Reich’ he asserted. Bhartiya, writing to President Pranab Mukherjee, explained why he’s decided to return the national award for best […]
New Delhi: Is the Jawharlal Nehru University next on the radar for a ‘socio-political and cultural cleansing’? After the Film and Television Institute, is JNU going to see a takeover bid by RSS backed ‘academics’? An RSS aligned weekly has described Jawaharlal Nehru University as a hub of “anti-national” lobbies, in an obvious attempt to […]
[DHAKA] A new US-supported study carried out in Bangladesh has linked low or moderate exposure to arsenic in drinking water is a risk factor for pneumonia in under-five children. This study is significant for India as well, because it shares the groundwater arsenic contamination problem. Findings of the study, jointly conducted by the International Centre […]
New Delhi: Now the Modi government has trained its guns on the ICSE board and affiliated schools. Why? Apparently there are some in the new dispensation who feel that its time to destroy these ‘eitist’ board run by ‘Christian’ Managements, (Actually Anglo-Indian, but do the rights of micro-minorities matter nowadays?) The human resource development ministry […]
New Delhi: It’s a first. Nepal appears to have stood up to what it sees as the Modi government’s bullying tactics, and has bought petrol fuel from China after 40 long years. India’s strategic establishment was scrambling this evening to counter Nepal’s biggest diplomatic swerve away from New Delhi in years after Kathmandu inked a […]
PATNA, Bihar:People living in Patliputra Colony, did you know that the 2011 census has a section exclusively devoted to you? Since I live in the Patliputra area, it was really interesting to read what the census says about Patliputra colony! So here goes: Patliputra Colony belongs to ward no.1 , Patna rural subdivision in Patna […]
AGARTALA (Tripura): While divisive forces in certain parts of India attempt to cause rifts between Hindus and Muslims, in Tripura one saw several places where the Durga puja in Tripura were organised by the Muslim community. And this is not new, but very ordinary. The big budget puja of the ‘Blood Drop’ club in the […]
While India keeps patting its own back claiming we are a ‘tolerant’ nation, small sister Nepal is the trail-blazer when it comes to protection of ‘minuscule minorities.’ It has firmly rooted for the legal rights of LGBTI people in South Asia. In 2007, Nepal was the first (and so far only) country in South Asia to decriminalise […]
ITANAGAR, Arunachal Pradesh – The centre appears to be gung ho about imposing huge hydel projects on the hilly regions, and exploiting the people of Arunachal Pradesh to the fullest. If the UPA government tried to do this slowly, quietly marking fertile lands and villages to drown, the NDA or rather BJP government has no […]
On Saturday, there was a curious kind of ‘protest’ held for about three hours at the JP roundabout opposite Patna’s Maurya Hotel. A dozen or so people sat fairly quietly under a capony, ‘gently’ raising their voices against the growing intolerance and polarisation in India. The banner they huddled under was, “Bihar Intellectual Forum.” This […]
For a decade, Orthodox priest Artyom Vechelkovsky taught at a religious seminary in the city of Samara. He says that his colleagues knew that he was gay, but accepted him and valued his work. But in the current climate of rising antigay sentiment in Russia, church officials suddenly decided to dismiss him, according to a […]
Fifty four African countries will participate in the third India-Africa Forum Summit to be held in New Delhi later this month. The IAFS is expected to result in a deeper engagement between India and Africa. Today, India and Africa need each other more than ever before. Out of 189 countries, only 63 are expected to […]
