Silent explosionsMimicPoisonous wavesEncompass the depthsOf your mind The subtletyThat fools youAnd mostIt’s, okay? Bars, a jokeDemocracies, cokeStill what skiesA childLullabiesWho are you?Do I crySighA realist must build a wallThis nigh A million tombsFor a hundred livesFascinated by leafGlitter for theTrophy wivesThe waves riseCapsize Again
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Regression and Reform: India’s Education System
In 1976, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi added the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ to the existent description of India as a ‘sovereign democratic republic’; yet, each one of these aspects has been disregarded by governments in the past as well as the present. The preamble may declare India to be a socialist country, but the nation has failed to deliver basic services such as education and healthcare to its masses. Even as capitalist a country as the US provides its populace with free public schooling. In contrast, supposedly socialist India is unable to provide education to its children. As Pranab Mukherjee, the deceased former president of India said, “education is…
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Sabka Saath? Sabka Vikas?
In a number of my previous pieces, I have opposed the current BJP regime through a three-pronged metric of ideology, leadership and policy prioritisation. However, in an attempt to come to terms with the idea that the BJP regime is an apparently democratically elected government, I have decided to assess its merit not on the basis of the aforementioned criteria, but instead on the grounds of the progress made on the very exact promises that brought Modi to power for a second term, the promises made in the 2019 BJP Manifesto.
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Indian Farm Bills and Fascism
In September of 2020, the Indian government introduced three new farm bills in a rather hopeless attempt to revolutionise Indian agriculture. Much like other controversial bills passed under the Modi regime, these too were passed in a hurry in both Houses of Parliament, allowing for little scrutiny by the opposition. The bills have caused widespread resentment amongst farmers across India, especially those of Punjab and Haryana. As the Indian government suspends internet services in the Delhi region of the protests in a characteristic move to supress any opposition, it is important to evaluate why it is that these farmers are protesting in the first place, and whether their claims in…
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Kahaan Hain Ache Din? – Rape in India
Every passing day in India sees newspapers ravaged with newfound issues and flaws that are slowly and deeply degenerating the essence of democracy from within Indian society. An unfortunate common element that a number of these issues see – be it the inefficiency of the judiciary, the degradation of the economy of the country, or the aggravation of poverty in the country – is that they have all worsened under the very regime that came to power with the pompous promise of ‘ache din’. One of these very issues that has recently come to light due to a series of disturbing events, is that of rape.
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Police Brutality in India: An Overdue Evaluation
With the Black Lives Matter movement gaining momentum in America post the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, liberal Indians have been relentless in criticising the American policing system and the subsequent inaction on the part of the Trump administration. However, the stark similarities in regime between right-wing India and conservative America hint at the idea that institutional neglect of policing systems is not an issue that is restricted to American borders. During lockdown itself India has seen several instances of grave police misconduct and brutality against migrant workers, daily wagers, vegetable vendors, street vendors and the working class.
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Defunding the Police: A Paradigm to Appeal
As America heads into the Juneteenth weekend, the circumstances that the country finds itself in could not be more conducive for reform. The protests following the uncalled-for deaths of African-Americans Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have shaken America with their fundamental aspiration to end systemic racism and rampant police brutality. An idea that was once believed to be radical beyond adoption – defunding the police – is now the resounding cry uniting the voices of Black Lives Matter protestors taking to the streets of America. While neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden seem intrigued by the proposition, defunding the police might just be the key to freedom for Americans.
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The Modi Stimulus Package: It’s Time to Bite the Bullet
As India hits 140,000 Covid-19 cases and Mr Modi’s apparently great stimulus package gets ramped into action, hopes of economic emancipation for the people are high. However, as economists have concluded, as the lower middle class and service sector workers shall agree, and as I shall elaborate, the apparently prodigious stimulus packaged announced by the Modi regime has proved to be but another hideous attempt to handle the pandemic as an image-issue as opposed to a health and economic crisis.
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Pandemics and Politics: Covid-19
With over 1,781,000 confirmed cases and approximately 108,000 deaths worldwide as of April 12, what started out as an epidemic in China, has now become possibly the world’s deadliest pandemic. The coronavirus or Covid-19, promises to not go down without a fight. As the United States of America battles the largest number of coronavirus cases at over 503,000, it has, among several other nations, declared a national emergency. Amidst crashing economies, broken supply chain for food and essentials, and lack of medical equipment, many governments acknowledge the world to be in the state of ‘war’. Having a mortality rate of 4%, and transmissibility of Ro 2.24 to 3.58, coronavirus undoubtedly…
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The Chinese Demographic Crisis: A Downward Spiral
With only 14.6 million live births in 2019, approximately 500,000 less than 2018, China’s birth rate is now the lowest it has been since 1949. This is the third consecutive year in which the birth rate has fallen. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of births in 2019 were 10.48 per 1000 people.Efforts to head off this crisis, like the removal of the one-child policy, have failed, and China is in for trouble.