THE Supreme Court’s dismissal in May 2025 of a petition seeking to enforce the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal should be welcomed. The apex court rightly held that it cannot compel states to implement the NEP and may only intervene if the policy's implementation or non-implementation violates citizens’ fundamental rights.
ON June 18, under the banner of the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO), a militant yet peaceful public demonstration was held on the outskirts of Azad Maidan in Mumbai to express the solidarity of Mumbai’s citizens with Palestine and to demand an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
AS Israel attacks Iran, we are now watching a dangerous moment in West Asia. Netanyahu has been claiming for the last 33 years that Iran is close to making a nuclear bomb. He even showed the world a cartoon graphic from 13 years back in the UN about how Iran was only a few months from the bomb. Yet again, the same statement, Iran is a few months from the bomb, is being used for its war against Iran. Each time, the attempt was to get the US to join Israel in destroying Iran, not because Iran was building a nuclear weapon but to remove any possible challenge in West Asia.
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’.