A recent report by the Reporters’ Collective (RC) drew widespread public attention to anomalies in faculty recruitment in Jawaharlal Nehru University, considered one of India’s best public universities, especially for postgraduate studies and research. The RC expose detailed seven instances where the recruitment process was marked by gross and deliberate violation of the rules. The real story, however, is neither limited to these seven cases, nor about them specifically.

THERE is a zing in the air. There is no denying that a changed mood is very much palpable. The silence that concealed the growing disquiet and restlessness has ultimately cracked. There can be no doubt that the almost forty day long struggle of the young people against the brazen irregularities in the conduct of centralised admission tests have acted as a trigger for this. In the process, the generational awakening has led to the meltdown of fear and the explosion of collective courage.

Collectorates across Andhra Pradesh reverberated with demands from Dalits, who are often perceived as soft-spoken, seeking solutions to long-pending issues concerning land, house sites, employment, education, healthcare and basic amenities. Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) national leader V Srinivasa Rao announced that a ‘Chalo Amaravati’ protest would be organised in December if the government failed to resolve the issues within three months.

THE signs of decay and decrepitude of a dying capitalism are all too evident at present. This of course is not the first time that the system is showing such signs; it had done so in the period between 1914 and 1945, which had confirmed Lenin’s prognostication of its being a moribund system. The difference between then and now consists in the response of the system to the crisis that had engulfed it. 

The CPI(M) staged a major protest in Agartala on August 17 against abnormally high electricity bills, steep tariff increases and the forced installation of smart meters, warning the Tripura government that people would not tolerate the use of technology to mislead or exploit consumers.