THESE days, not a single day goes by without the media reporting about the demolition of jhuggis (slums), by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Hundreds of homes are being razed across the capital. The reasons cited are all too familiar: the settlements are built on encroached land, are deemed unauthorised, and, on top of it, the courts have ordered their demolition.
IT may appear rather unusual to recall the inglorious sequence of events that began at midnight on June 25, 1975, with the declaration of the Internal Emergency.However, we are reminded of those immortal words of wisdom: ‘those who tend to forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.’ These words compel us to revisit that dark chapter in the history of Indian democracy.The late 1960s had dealt a blow to the Congress party’s monopoly on power, with opposition parties securing victories in several states.
ON the nationwide call of Left parties, hundreds of people gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on June 17, to express solidarity with the people of Palestine.
WEST Bengal is currently witnessing a significant surge in public dissent. Various mass organisations have come together in large numbers, demanding civil liberties, quality education, women’s safety, justice, and an end to corruption.
THE annual report of the RBI for the financial year 2024–25, signed by Governor Sanjay Malhotra, was released on May 28, 2025. On the same day, visual and online media – and print media the following day – reported the figures related to the amount transferred by the RBI to the Government of India from its reserve fund. For FY 2024–25, the RBI transferred Rs 2,68,594.07 crore to the Government of India.
AIR India’s Boeing 787-8 ‘Dreamliner’ flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick Airport in London tragically crashed almost immediately after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. All 10 crew and 232 passengers on board died, except one passenger who miraculously survived and walked away from the crash. Even more tragically, the doomed aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel mess and residential quarters.
THE Internal Emergency was declared 50 years back when I was Kerala State President of the Students’ Federation of India, and a student of Political Science in the Sree Narayana College, Kollam. Within less than a week of its declaration, we defied the Emergency and carried out a protest action in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram city, right in front of the Government Secretariat, shouting slogans like ‘Emergency in the Arabian Sea’.
GURUVAYUR is a famous temple town in Kerala. It is known for its Krishna Temple which attracts thousands of pilgrims everyday, for the 36 elephants attached to the temple that are great attractions at all the temple festivals. It is also known for the fact that one of its main entrances is named the AK Gopalan Gate in memory of the legendary Communist leader who, along with others like Comrade Krishna Pillai, led a movement for the entry of dalits and low-caste Hindus into the temple premises in 1932. Recently, Guruvayur has been in the news for other reasons. A few months ago, the Guruv
ON January 2025, the three countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger formally departed from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which these three countries had helped to found in May 1975. They had provided the legal one-year notice and so the departure was not a surprise.
THE global labour market shows some recovery in real wages after protracted stagnation punctuated by episodes of decline in the aftermath of the pandemic according to a recent ILO report. Even though wages of workers show growth in the last two years, there are important concerns regarding various dimensions of wage inequality that do not show a decline.