JANUARY 1, 2019: It was no wall, literally it was a fortress. Tens of thousands of women gathered on the western side of National Highway to imprint a new history. The women’s wall became multilayer fortress in through all districts on the first day of 2019. The wall became a fortress of humanity, equality and unity. All sections of women comprising of agricultural workers, teachers, nurses, Kudumbashree women, coir and cashew workers, students and prominent writers, artists, actors joined the women’s wall.

The Prime Minister has fired his first salvo for the 2019 general elections through a set-up interview with news agency ANI. He claimed that 2018 has been a ‘shining year’ for India! The electoral results of the 2004; following the Vajpayee claim of “shining India” is there for all to see. PM Modi seems to be reading the ‘writing on the wall’!  In an interaction lasting more than one and half hours, the PM did not even once refer to the promises that he and the BJP made to the Indian people in 2014 and why even a single one of them has not been delivered so far.

THIRTY years ago the well-known political activist and a stalwart of street theatre Safdar Hashmi was brutally attacked while he and his colleagues belonging to the street theatre group Jan Natya Manch, were performing a play in a worker's colony near Sahibabad.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statements on January 2,2019CPI(M) Congratulates the Women of KeralaTHE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) extends its warm greetings and congratulations to the women of Kerala and to all the 176 social and mass organisations for the historic `Women’s Wall’ on January 1.The women’s wall with over 55 lakh women participants cutting across caste/community divide and from all walks of life, gave a strong message of unity to uphold the values of the Kerala renaissance for women’s rights and social refor

THE rise of hate crimes in India – cow-related violence and lynchings – has been coupled with extensive use of social media. While fake news and fake videos have often helped spark communal violence, they have also been “celebratory” in nature: participants bragging about being a part of the mob involved in the lynchings and the violence.For a number of commentators, it is the tool – social media and therefore technology – that is the root of the disease of communal violence and mob lynching, not the political forces behind the violence.