Suggested reading outside Bodhi

The Hindu: India's god laws fail the test of reason
In 864 CE, the great physician, Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakaria al-Razi, wrote: “The miracles of the prophets are imposters or belong to the domain of pious legend. The teachings of religions are contrary to the one truth: the proof of this is that they contradict one another. It is tradition and lazy custom that have led men to trust their religious leaders. Religions are the sole cause of the wars which ravage humanity; they are hostile to philosophical speculation and to scientific research. The alleged holy scriptures are books without values”. Praveen Swami writes.

1 week

Nation of Change: "There are Marxists in India?" Economist Prabhat Patnaik on the Global Crisis
Patnaik said that neither of the two most obvious responses to the financial crisis -- creating a surrogate global state to impose controls on finance, or “delinking” a nation’s economy from the global finance system -- are in the cards now.

3 weeks

Pragoti: EMS and the Caste Question: A Response
Ramakumar responds to Manash Bhattacharjee’s article on Indian Marxists and caste in Outlook, titled 'The Left's Untouchable'. The outlook article is inclined to attack the organised Left than to make any objective analysis. Gross misinterpretations of Marxist writings on caste would only help divide the united movement against caste in India. Ambedkar himself argued that the Russian revolution would indeed be second stage of human liberation, next to French. These important meeting points should be taken further to open up of spaces where Marxists respectful of Ambedkar and Ambedkarites interested in Marx can integrate their movements. The evolution of a united movement should not be allowed to be weakened by spreading falsehoods and misinterpreting positions.

3 weeks

Dillipost: അലൂവാലിയയും അത്ഭുതവിളക്കും
കഴിക്കാന്‍ ഭക്ഷണമില്ലെന്നു പറഞ്ഞ ജനങ്ങളോട് കേക്ക് തിന്നാന്‍ ആവശ്യപ്പെട്ട ഫ്രഞ്ച് രാജപത്നി ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഒരൊറ്റപ്പെട്ട പ്രതിഭാസമൊന്നുല്ല. ജനാധിപത്യ ഇന്ത്യയുടെ യോജനാ ഭവനിലും, എന്തിന് പ്രധാന മന്ത്രിയുടെ ആപ്പീസില്‍ പോലും നിരവധി മേരി അന്റോയിനെറ്റിമാരെ ഇന്നു കാണാന്‍ കഴിയും. ദൗര്‍ഭാഗ്യവശാല്‍ കൊട്ടാരംവാസികള്‍ പറയുന്നതു അതുപോലെ വിഴുങ്ങാനാണ് ‘ജനപ്രിയ’ മാധ്യമങ്ങള്‍ക്കും പൊതുപണ്ഡിതര്‍ക്കും താത്പര്യം. അതിന്റെ അഹങ്കാരത്തിലാണ് ഇന്ത്യ പോലൊരു രാജ്യത്ത്, നഗരങ്ങള്‍ക്കപ്പുറത്ത് കൊള്ളാവുന്ന സര്‍ക്കാര്‍ ആശുപത്രികള്‍ പോലുമില്ലാത്ത ഈ രാജ്യത്ത്, കേവലം ഇരുപതു രൂപ ചിലവാക്കാന്‍ കഴിയുന്നവര്‍ ദരിദ്രരല്ലെന്ന് പറയാന്‍ ഭരണകൂടത്തിനാകുന്നത്. ദരിദ്രരുടെ എണ്ണം കൃത്രിമമായി വെട്ടിക്കുറച്ചത് ദാരിദ്ര്യം കുറച്ചു എന്നു മേനി നടിക്കാന്‍ വേണ്ടി മാത്രമല്ല. അതിന്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനത്തില്‍ കൂടുതല്‍ മനുഷ്യത്വവിരുദ്ധമായ സാമ്പത്തിക നയങ്ങള്‍ നടപ്പാക്കാന്‍ വേണ്ടി കൂടിയാണ്. അതിനായി മന്‍മോഹന്‍ സര്‍ക്കാരിന്റെ കയ്യിലുള്ള അത്ഭുത വിളക്കാണ് ആസൂത്രണ കമ്മിഷന്‍. അലൂവാലിയ മന്‍മോഹന്റെ അലാവുദീനും.

8 weeks

Outlook Magazine: Capitalism: A Ghost Story
Arundhati Roy writes about corporate foundations and NGOs, the cardinals of corporate gospel. "Corporate-endowed foundations administer, trade and channelise their power and place their chessmen on the chessboard, through a system of elite clubs and think-tanks, whose members overlap and move in and out through the revolving doors."

8 weeks

The Asian Age: Budgeting for a class bias
The mantra of inclusion repeated in the Budget is rhetoric. The Budget aims at withdrawing the state further from public provisioning to the poor, and leaving them in the lurch at the marketplace.

8 weeks

The New York Review of Books: Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong
The threat of climate change is an increasingly important environmental issue for the globe. Prof. William Nordhaus exposes climate skeptics mistakes and offers his perspective on findings of current climate science and market-based approaches to address climate change

9 weeks

EPW: Prabhat Patnaik responds to comments to "The Left in decline"
The “filth and the muck” that surrounds them is bound to attach itself to the communist party, but it cannot run away from it in order to remain pure. It just has to painstakingly cleanse itself of the “filth and the muck”. It can do so only if it is continuously imbued with the perspective of transcending capitalism, if it continuously examines itself and all its actions from this perspective, “if it epistemologically places itself outside the system”. Prabhat Patnaik clarifies that “empiri­cisation”, the term he used in his previous article, as a process of negation of this epistemological exteriority.

10 weeks

Dillipost: ഗുജറാത്തില്‍ നിന്നുള്ള പെരുംനുണകള്‍
പുതുഗുജറാത്ത് മാതൃകയുടെ മേന്മകളായി പലരും ചൂണ്ടിക്കാട്ടിയ മേഖലകളാണ് വൈദ്യുതി, റോഡ്, ദലിത്-ആദിവാസി വിഭാഗങ്ങളുടെ വികസനം, കാര്‍ഷിക മേഖലയുടെ വളര്‍ച്ച എന്നിവ. ഈ മേഖലകളില്‍ ഉണ്ടായി എന്നു പറയപ്പെടുന്ന വികസനത്തിന്റെ യാഥാര്‍ത്ഥ്യം എന്താണ്, ആ വികസന മുന്നേറ്റങ്ങള്‍ ആരെയാണ് ലക്ഷ്യം വച്ചത് തുടങ്ങിയവ ഓരോരോ കേസുകളായി എടുത്തു പരിശോധിച്ച് പുതുഗുജറാത്ത്‌ എന്ന പെരുംനുണയുടെ ചുരുളുകള്‍ അഴിക്കുന്നു ലേഖകര്‍.

11 weeks

The Nature: Scientists attempt to correct themselves in faster-than-light neutrino measurement
The OPERA collaboration, which made headlines in September with the revolutionary claim that it had clocked neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light, has identified two possible sources of error in its experiment. If true, its initial result would have violated Einstein’s special theory of relativity, a cornerstone of modern physics.

12 weeks

The Hindu: State may privatize water supply
The State looks all set to privatise water supply with an Ordinance to create Kerala State Water Regulatory Authority. According to an official in the KWA, there have been moves already that led to the indication of privatisation in the water sector. Setting up a regulatory authority is an important tool that facilitates it, he said.

13 weeks

The Hindu: Capitalism and the production of poverty
T.G. Narayanan Memorial Lecture by Prof. Utsa Patnaik on capitalism and the production of poverty

14 weeks

ദേശാഭിമാനി: സാംസ്കാരികരംഗത്ത് പ്രതി രോധമുഖങ്ങള്‍ തുറക്കണം
സമാന്തരമായി ധാരാളം പ്രസിദ്ധീകരണങ്ങള്‍ കൊണ്ടുവരാന്‍ നമുക്കു കഴിയണം. വലിയ കോര്‍പറേറ്റ് പ്രസിദ്ധീകരണങ്ങളും മാളുകളും നമുക്ക് യാതൊരു പിന്തുണയും തരില്ല. അവിടെ നമുക്ക് പ്രവേശനവും ലഭിക്കാനിടയില്ല. മാധ്യമങ്ങള്‍ എതിരാണെന്നു പറഞ്ഞിരുന്നിട്ടും കാര്യമില്ല. ഒരു സമാന്തര പ്രതിരോധം, ഫലപ്രദമായ മറ്റൊരു പ്രകാശന സൗകര്യം അതാണ് പ്രധാനം - മാര്‍ക്സിസം എന്നും ഒരു പ്രതിരോധ രീതിയാണ്. രാഷ്ട്രീയ മുന്നേറ്റം കൊണ്ട് നിങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് ഒരതിരുവരെ പ്രതിരോധനിര തീര്‍ക്കുകയും നിര്‍ണായകശക്തി ആകുകയും ചെയ്യാം. അതേസമയം ആശയപരമായ മേല്‍ക്കൈയും ഒപ്പംതന്നെ നമുക്ക് നേടേണ്ടതായിട്ടുണ്ട്.

15 weeks

Frontline: Shining Ecuador
So it can be done, after all. Tax revenues can be increased, by enforcing proper tax collection and cracking down on evasion. Big companies – both domestic and multinational – can be disciplined without adversely affecting investment or GDP growth. The increased public revenues can be used for more public provision in necessary areas to ensure the social and economic rights of citizens. All this is clearly possible, even for a small country operating with several constraints in the globally integrated world.

15 weeks

Hindustan Times: No shortcuts, please
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke at the Indian Science Congress on January 3 and on January 10, released a report by some NGOs and corporates on the status of hunger and malnutrition in the country. Though the two speeches were on divergent issues, put together, they convey a disturbing approach towards realising India's potential, writes Sitaram Yechury

17 weeks

Monthly Review: Food as a commodity
Although food is mostly plentiful, malnutrition is still common. The contradiction between plentiful global food supplies and widespread malnutrition and hunger arises primarily from food being considered a commodity, just like any other, says Fred Magdoff in Monthly Review.

17 weeks

The Hindu: 42 per cent of Indian children are underweight
The findings – contained in the Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report by the Naandi Foundation – based on a survey conducted on more than one lakh children across six states reveal that 59 per cent of them suffer from moderate to severe stunting, hinting at severe malnutrition among children. The findings were described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a “national shame”.

18 weeks

The New York Times: Internet Access Is Not a Human Right
There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things, says Google's Vint Cerf.

19 weeks

Pragoti: Lies, damned lies, and statistics: On Arvind Panagariya’s Kerala adventure
It may suit the political convictions of the Columbia Professor to criticise Kerala’s development experience from his free-market perspective; he is also free to argue that Kerala’s is not a “state-led success” and that its “left-of-centre governments” did not contribute to its success. However, while doing so, one expects a modicum of rigour in argument. Sadly, Panagariya’s piece falls flat, both in its historical grasp and statistical rigour.

19 weeks

The Hindu: FDI in Retail: Legitimising an inhumane discourse
Promoting FDI in retail is based on the presumption that distress for some section should be acceptable because of the benefits that would accrue to other sections of society. It is instructive here to recollect the rhetorical question that Gandhiji had asked: If “my brother” the weaver is out of work because of imported cloth, then how can I be better off by it? The humaneness of this discourse was the foundation upon which our anti-colonial struggle was built, and we came into being as a nation. The current official discourse constitutes a rejection of it. Prabhat Patnaik further explains why it is even antithetical to conventional economic theories also.

20 weeks

Ceasefire: PLO embrace of Hamas could signal paradigm shift
Generally speaking, the inter-Palestinian reconciliation talks have become the new peace "process” – all process, no peace. But since the ongoing Egyptian revolution successfully dispatched ex-dictator Hosni Mubarak, there seems to have been a substantive shift. Hamas could join the Palestine Liberation Organisation for the first time. Asa Winstanley writes on these new dynamics.

20 weeks

Socialist Review: "The union is a shield and our sword is the strike" - Socialists elected to Egyptian Doctors' Union
Radical leftist candidates won major successes in recent elections to Egypt's Doctors' Union, long a bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mohammed Shafiq, an organiser of this electoral campaign and a doctor at Manshiyet al-Bakri hospital in Cairo speaks to Socialist Review

20 weeks

Guardian: History will remember Bradley Manning better
Since his arrest, Manning has been in solitary confinement, for much of the time in Quantico, Virginia, under conditions so harsh that the UN special rapporteur on torture is investigating. Many believe the US government is trying to break Manning in order to use him in its expected case of espionage against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. It also sends a dramatic message to any potential whistle-blower: "We will destroy you."

21 weeks

Counter Currents: The Indian Land Grab In Africa
Indian companies venturing abroad is always regarded as a healthy trend, an indicator of India's new-found economic status. But little is known about how these companies are flexing their imperalistic muscles in poorer countries, grabbing the land and giving little in return. A report ‘India’s Role in the New Global Farmland Grab’ by researcher Rick Rowden brings forth these atrocities which are shockingly similar to what India used to blame rich western countires for.

21 weeks

Monthly Review: Civil Society, NGOs, and the Public Sphere
Civil society is a fiction, just as the state that is put in opposition to it -- all without class determinations in liberal theory. To democratize is to decommodify, to affirm the public sphere to the detriment of the commercial sphere. To democratize is to strengthen the role of citizens to the detriment of the role of consumers. To democratize is to bring democratization into the very heart of the state.

22 weeks

Frontline: Tyranny of finance
European leaders have explicitly been giving preference to the appeasement of financial markets over the requirements of political democracy. Jayati Ghosh writes on how European leaders explicitly placed the appeasement of financial markets over the requirements of political democracy.

22 weeks

Macroscan: Multinational Retail Firms in India
The Indian government's sudden decision to allow hitherto prohibited foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail as well as full ownership in single-brand retail generated huge public outcry, to the extent that the government was forced to pause. Jayati Ghosh writes on FDI in Retail in Macroscan.

22 weeks

Counter Currents: Corporate Lobbying Gaining Strength In India
Crores of rupees have been spent over the past few years by some of the big multinational corporations to seek an entry into India. What may appear to be economic decisions taken by the government often turn out to be the result of intense lobbying by foreign companies. Besides Wal-Mart Stores, the coffee shop giant Starbucks has been lobbying in India seeking 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail. As per a disclosure statement it made before the American Senate, the company had spent more than Rs 1-crore in the first 6 months of 2011, for “market opening initiatives in India.”

23 weeks

Malayal.am: മലയാളിയുടെ സ്വര്‍­ണ്ണഭ്രമത്തിന്റെ രാഷ്ട്രീയമാനങ്ങള്‍
മറ്റേ­തെ­ങ്കി­ലും ഉല്‍­പ്പാ­ദ­ന­മേ­ഖ­ല­ക­ളില്‍ ഉപ­യോ­ഗ­പ്പെ­ടേ­ണ്ട ലക്ഷ­ക്ക­ണ­ക്കി­ന് കോ­ടി രൂ­പ­യാ­ണ് കേ­ര­ള­ത്തി­ലെ ബാ­ങ്ക് ലോ­ക്ക­റു­ക­ളില്‍ സ്വര്‍­ണ്ണമെന്ന മുടക്കാ­ച­ര­ക്കാ­യി കി­ട­ക്കു­ന്ന­ത്. സമ്പ­ദ്‌­വ്യ­വ­സ്ഥ­യില്‍ പണം നിര്‍­വ്വ­ഹി­ക്കേ­ണ്ട ചാ­ക്രി­ക­മായ മു­ന്നേ­റ്റ­ത്തി­ന്റെ പങ്ക് വാ­സ്ത­വ­ത്തില്‍ തട­സ്സ­പ്പെ­ടു­ക­യാ­ണ് ഇത് മൂലം സംഭവിക്കുന്നത്‌. മലയാളിയുടെ സ്വര്‍­ണ്ണഭ്രമത്തിന്റെ രാഷ്ട്രീയമാനങ്ങള്‍ വിശദീകരിക്കുന്നു ലേഖകന്‍.

23 weeks

Macroscan: Retrogression in Retail
There is little to justify the rushed decision to open up to FDI in retail. As of now the retail chain works well, there are no noticeable shortages, and a large and diverse country is well serviced. None but the government argues that FDI in retail is a remedy for the relentless inflation the country faces. The weak segment of the supply chain is the public distribution system created to ensure remunerative prices for farmers and reasonable prices for consumers. That and productivity enhancing public investment are what need the government's attention.

24 weeks

Counter Currents: ‘Finish Capitalism' Movement In The United States
The wages of imperialist countries are still much higher than the wages of the backward and under-developed countries. But now for maintaining their profit the imperialists are physically transferring their factories to under-developed countries where wages are incomparably cheaper, thus forcing their own workers out of employment. This is happening continuously and on an increasingly higher scale. This undoubtedly is the social and material base of the ‘ Occupy Wall Street ' movement and cries of ‘We are the 99%' and ‘Finish capitalism'.

24 weeks

ദേശാഭിമാനി: ലോകത്തെ എങ്ങനെ മാറ്റാം
എറിക് ഹോബ്സ്ബാമിന്റെ "ലോകത്തെ എങ്ങനെ മാറ്റാം: മാര്‍ക്സിന്റെയും മാര്‍ക്സിസത്തിന്റെയും വൃത്താന്തങ്ങള്‍" എന്ന പുസ്തകത്തെ കുറിച്ചുള്ള കുറിപ്പ്. മാര്‍ക്സില്‍ നിന്ന് പ്രചോദനവും പ്രത്യയശാസ്ത്രസ്ഥൈര്യവും കൈവരിച്ച ഹോബ്സ്ബാം മാര്‍ക്സിസത്തിന്റെ ഉല്‍പ്പത്തിയും വളര്‍ച്ചയും സ്വാധീനവും തളര്‍ച്ചയും വിലയിരുത്തി സമകാലിക ആഗോള പരിസരത്തില്‍ അതിന്റെ പുനരുജ്ജീവനത്തിന്റെ ആവശ്യകത സ്പഷ്ടമാക്കുകയാണ് ഈ രചനയിലൂടെ.

24 weeks

Brecht Forum: A New Economic Strategy
The full text of the acceptance speech by Dr. Jayati Ghosh, at the award function of the ILO Decent Work Research Prize, 2010. The Prize was awarded to Dr. Ghosh in recognition of her major scholarly contributions to the analysis of socio-economic relationships and policy instruments for the advancement of decent work.

24 weeks

NewsClick: Prakash Karat on "20 Years after Fall of USSR"
Prakash Karat: "When we talk of socialism today, we must be clear about something. Which is that there is no going back to the socialism of 20th century. (...) [But] fight against imperialism will remain in the socialism of 21st century."

25 weeks

Democracy Now!: Propaganda Used Ahead of Iraq War Is Now Being Reused over Iran’s Nuke Program
In his latest article for The New Yorker blog, titled "Iran and the IAEA," Pulitzer award winning journalist Seymour Hersh argues the recent IAEA report is a "political document," not a scientific study. "They [JSOC] found nothing. Nothing. No evidence of any weaponization," Hersh says. "In other words, no evidence of a facility to build the bomb. They have facilities to enrich, but not separate facilities to build the bomb. This is simply a fact."

25 weeks

Dillipost: ഭൂനയവും തൊഴിലാളിവര്‍ഗവും
ഭൂമിയുടെ ഉപയുക്തതയുടെ കാര്യത്തില്‍ സാമൂഹ്യ കാഴ്ചപ്പാടോടെ സാമൂഹ്യ നിയന്ത്രണത്തോടെ സാമൂഹ്യ പങ്കാളിത്തത്തോടെയുള്ള നയം പ്രാവര്‍ത്തികമാക്കുന്നില്ലെങ്കില്‍ ഭക്ഷ്യ പ്രതിസന്ധി ആസന്നമാകുന്ന ഈ കാലത്ത്, ‘എന്റെ തുണ്ട് ഭൂമി കിട്ടിയില്ല’ എന്ന രീതിയില്‍ തുണ്ടുവത്കരണ വാദം വീണ്ടും സാമൂഹ്യനീതിയുടെ ന്യായമായ മുദ്രാവാക്യമായി ഉയര്‍ത്തപ്പെടുന്ന കാലത്ത്, ഏറ്റവും ആപത്കരമായ പ്രവണതയായി ഭൂ ഉടമസ്ഥത സംബന്ധിച്ച രണ്ടു സ്വഭാവങ്ങള്‍ വളരും—റിയല്‍ എസ്റ്റേറ്റുകാരുടെയും കുത്തകകളുടെയും ആവശ്യത്തിനായുള്ള ഭൂസമാഹരണവും, അന്തിമമായി അവരുടെ മുതല വായിലേക്ക് പോകുന്ന ശേഷിക്കുന്ന സംഘടിത കാര്‍ഷിക ഭൂമിയുടെ തുണ്ടുവത്കരണവും.

26 weeks

Hindustan Times: Shelter from the storm
Like the earlier effort to overcome the crisis by converting corporate insolvencies into sovereign insolvencies laid the seeds of the current crisis, the current prescription of seeking to emerge from this crisis by meeting the costs of sovereign debt by imposing greater burdens on the people is laying the seeds of another deeper crisis - writes Sitaram Yechury.

26 weeks

Outlook Magazine: Putting Growth In Its Place
India’s recent development experience includes both spectacular success as well as massive failure. The growth record is very impressive, and provides an important basis for all-round development, not least by generating more public revenue (about four times as much today, in real terms, as in 1990). But there has also been a failure to ensure that rapid growth translates into better living conditions for the Indian people. It is not that they have not improved at all, but the pace of improvement has been very slow—even slower than in Bangladesh or Nepal. There is probably no other example in the history of world development of an economy growing so fast for so long with such limited results in terms of broad-based social progress.

27 weeks

Guardian: Greece, home of democracy, deprived of a vote
The idea that the Greek people might directly be able to decide their future terrified leaders across Europe and around the world. Financial markets panicked, sending stocks plummeting and bond yields soaring.

27 weeks

Monthly Review: The Global Reserve Army of Labor and the New Imperialism
The new imperialism of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries is thus characterized, at the top of the world system, by the domination of monopoly-finance capital, and, at the bottom, by the emergence of a massive global reserve army of labor. The result of this immense polarization, is an augmentation of the “imperialist rent” extracted from the South through the integration of low-wage, highly exploited workers into capitalist production.

27 weeks

The Hindu: Don’t take people’s sentiments for granted: Supreme Court to Agnivesh
The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its displeasure at Swami Agnivesh's reported remarks made in Jammu and Kashmir recently that the Amarnath Yatra was a “fraud in the name of religion.”

27 weeks

Wikileaks: Banking Blockade on WikiLeaks
An arbitrary financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union destroying 95% of its revenue, while the US government itself found that there were no lawful grounds to add WikiLeaks to a US financial blockade.

28 weeks

The Hindu: The richness of the Ramayana, the poverty of a University
Romila Thapar, the foremost authority on early Indian history, speaks about the decision by Academic Council of Delhi University to drop A.K. Ramanujan's celebrated essay on the Ramayana, its adverse consequences for scholarship and knowledge, and the efforts by vested interests to project one version of Hindu cultural heritage and religious tradition over all others.

28 weeks

Hindustan Times: Das Capitalism
The PM and his advisers could do well to reconsider and reverse the trend of providing over Rs. 5 lakh crore as tax concessions to the rich, as revealed in the last two Budget documents. If, instead, these monies were invested in public works projects, this would have built the much-needed infrastructure while generating large-scale employment, thus, vastly enlarging people’s purchasing power.

30 weeks

The Nation: Gandhi and South Africa
Prof. Martha Nussbaum reviews Joseph Lelyveld’s book "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India" and controversy surrounding it

30 weeks

The Hindu: The Other Half - Citizens, not 'naukranis'
This Deepavali, will the woman who cleans your house and cooks for you be able to celebrate the festival with her family, or will she be cooking and washing dishes as you celebrate with your family and friends? Rarely does this question cross the minds of the majority of people who employ domestic help. Yet, the 3,000 domestic workers who gathered for a public hearing in Jaipur last month reminded us about precisely this reality: “We run two homes, yours and ours”, they said. “Can any of you in society do without our labour?” How easily we forget that these women also have their own homes to run even as they manage ours.

30 weeks

: The Occupied Wall St Journal
The Occupied Wall St Journal from the streets of New York

31 weeks

Workers' Forum: നിര്മല് മാധവ് - ഇടതുപക്ഷത്തിനു പറയാനുള്ളത്
നിര്മാല് മാധവ് എന്ന വിദ്യാ‍ര്ത്ഥിയുടെ പ്രവേശനവുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട് നടന്ന നഗ്നമായ ചട്ടലംഘനത്തെ വിദ്യാര്ത്ഥി യുടെ പഠിക്കാനുള്ള ആഗ്രഹം, മാനുഷിക പരിഗണന തുടങ്ങിയ സുന്ദരപദാവലികളുടെയും, വൈകാരികമായ അഭിനയത്തിലൂന്നിയ ചാനല് പ്രകടങ്ങളിലൂടെയും ന്യായീകരിക്കാനുള്ള ശ്രമം ഒരു വശത്ത് നടക്കുന്നു. മറുവശത്ത് ഒരു വിദ്യാര്ത്ഥി സംഘടന ഈ ചട്ടലംഘനത്തിനെതിരെ നടത്തിയ പോരാട്ടത്തെ നുണപ്രചരങ്ങളിലൂടെ നിസ്സാരവല്ക്കിരിക്കാനുള്ള ശ്രമവും നടക്കുന്നു. അതിന്റെ കൂട്ടത്തില് പോലീസ് നടപടിയിലെ നിയമവിരുദ്ധത ചര്ച്ചാനവിഷയമാകാതെ ഇരിക്കാനും അപ്രസക്തമായ കാര്യങ്ങള് മുഖ്യവിഷയമായി കൈകാര്യം ചെയ്യാനും ഉള്ള വലതുപക്ഷത്തിന്റെ ശ്രമവും ദൃശ്യമാണ്.

31 weeks

The Hindu: State to pursue PPP model in a big way
The Government of Kerala proposes to pursue the public-private participation (PPP) model in a big way to attract private investment in different sectors of the State economy during the 12th Five Year Plan.

31 weeks

The Hindu: The five-legged elephant
On September 28, 1991, Shankar Guha Niyogi put aside his copy of Lenin on Trade Unions and Revolutions, and fell asleep under a mosquito net in his room on the ground floor of an apartment in the Bhilai industrial township. In the early hours of the morning, a young man rode up to the house, looked in through the bedroom's well-lit window and shot him dead.

33 weeks

The Hindu: How little can a person live on?
Unfortunately, the neo-liberal policymakers today ask the wrong question: “How can we reduce the food subsidy?” and not the right question: “How can we lift the masses of India from the current level of the lowest food consumption in the world, even lower than the least developed countries?”

33 weeks

Naalaamidam: മാധ്യമങ്ങള്‍ റിലയന്‍സ് അഴിമതി വിഴുങ്ങിയ വിധം
ടൈംസ് നൌ മുഖ്യപത്രാധിപര്‍ അര്‍ണബ് ഗോസ്വാമി റിലയന്‍സിന്റെ അഴിമതി കണ്ട മട്ട് നടിച്ചില്ല. സി.എന്‍.എന്‍ -ഐ.ബി.എന്നിന്റെ രാജ്ദീപ് സര്‍ദേശായി, സാധ്യമാകുന്നതില്‍ വെച്ചേറ്റവും സംക്ഷിപ്തമായി തട്ടിപ്പ് സംബന്ധിച്ച സി.എ.ജി റിപ്പോര്‍ട്ട് വാര്‍ത്ത അവതരിപ്പിച്ച് മറ്റ് പ്രധാന വാര്‍ത്തകളിലേക്ക് ക്വിക്ക് ലുക്കിനു പോയി. എന്‍.ഡി.ടി.വി റിലയന്‍സിനെതിരായ സി.എ.ജി റിപ്പോര്‍ട്ട് സ്പര്‍ശിച്ചതേയില്ല- എന്‍. പത്മനാഭന്‍ എഴുതുന്നു.

33 weeks

The Hindu: The Union Cabinet gets healthier
The worse off the poor become, the healthier our Ministers get.

34 weeks

The Hindu: How Tripura overcame insurgency
Tripura scripted a story of triumph over insurgency and conflict-resolution, and demonstrated that insurgency was not an insurmountable phenomenon. What was needed to tackle it was a well-crafted, multi-dimensional strategy, a positive mindset, resolute will, the right vision and direction, sagacious, honest and credible leadership, sincerity of intent, creative responses to the challenge, even socio-economic-infrastructure dispensation to all sections of society, and modulated and humane combat operations intertwined with psychological operations to set a change in the psyche of the turbulent mind. The ex-Governor of Tripura writes in The Hindu.

34 weeks

Boston Review: The Responsibility of Intellectuals, Redux
What are the obligations of intellectuals in this day and age, asks Noam Chomsky. Intellectuals are typically privileged—merely an observation about usage of the term. Privilege yields opportunity, and opportunity confers responsibilities. An individual then has choices.

36 weeks

Naalaamidam: ജനാധിപത്യകാലത്തെ രാജഭക്തി അശ്ലീലമാണ്
നാം ചരിത്രമെന്നു പഠിക്കുന്നത് രാജാക്കന്‍മാര്‍ ചെല്ലും ചെലവും കൊടുത്തു നിര്‍ത്തിയവര്‍ എഴുതിപ്പിടിപ്പിച്ച വാഴ്ത്തു പാട്ടുകളാണ്. ഈ ചരിത്രം മാറ്റപ്പെടണം. ജനാധിപത്യത്തിനു ചേരാത്ത രാജഭക്തി വലിച്ചെറിയപ്പെടണം. വി.എസ് ഉയര്‍ത്തിയ വാദങ്ങളുടെ പശ്ചാത്തലത്തില്‍ മലയാളിയുടെ ചരിത്രബോധത്തെ നിശിതമായി വിചാരണ ചെയ്യുന്നു, യുവചരിത്രകാരന്‍മാരില്‍ ശ്രദ്ധേയനായ ജസ്റ്റിന്‍ മാത്യു

36 weeks

Malayal.am: വാര്‍ത്ത നട്ടുതുടങ്ങുമ്പോളറിയുക, പാര്‍ട്ടി സമ്മേളനം വരവായി
സി­പി­എ­മ്മില്‍ പാര്‍­ട്ടി­സ­മ്മേ­ള­നം അടു­ത്തു­വെ­ന്നു് അറി­യ­ണ­മെ­ങ്കില്‍ പണ്ടു കേ­ര­ള­ത്തി­ലെ ചു­വ­രു­കള്‍ നോ­ക്ക­ണ­മാ­യി­രു­ന്നു. ചു­വ­രായ ചു­വ­രെ­ല്ലാം സമ്മേ­ള­ന­വി­ശേ­ഷ­വു­മാ­യി നി­റ­യും. ഇന്നി­പ്പോള്‍ ആ പാ­ടി­ല്ല. പത്ര­ങ്ങ­ളില്‍ വരു­ന്ന വാര്‍­ത്ത­കള്‍ നോ­ക്കി­യാല്‍ മതി­.

37 weeks

Open Magazine: Devil’s Own Country for Women
Kerala’s men are turning moral policemen. Couples are interrogated by random strangers, even beaten up and arrested. Shahina KK writes.

38 weeks

The Hindu: Messianism versus democracy
The substitution of one man for the people, and the reduction of the people's role merely to being supporters and cheerleaders for one man's actions, is antithetical to democracy. Prabhat Patnaik writes in Hindu on the Anna Hazare led movement against corruption.

38 weeks

The New York Times: India's Selective Rage Over Corruption
The anti-corruption movement has the simplicity of a third-rate fable. There are the good guys (the reformers and the average Indian citizen) and the bad guys (the politicians). But the real story is not a fable but art cinema. Indians have a deep and complicated relationship with corruption. As in any long marriage, it is not clear whether they are happily or unhappily married. The country’s economic system is fused with many strands of corruption and organized systems of tax evasion. The middle class is very much a part of this. Most Indians have paid a bribe. Most Indian businesses cannot survive or remain competitive without stashing away undeclared earnings. Almost everybody who has sold a house has taken one part of the payment in cash and evaded tax on it. Yet, the branding of corruption is so powerful that Indians moan the moment they hear the word. The comic hypocrisy of it all was best evident in the past few months as the anti-corruption movement gathered unprecedented middle-class support.

39 weeks