“A painting is never finished - it simply stops in interesting places.”  -- Paul GardnerA HARD-WORKING woman walks with a headload of materials towards a one-rupee-coin that appears disproportionately large, making it not so easily accessible to her.This is not a scene from an emotional street play but a powerful painting by an artist, Chinnaraja.

AFTER Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Bangladesh has become the third country in our neighbourhood to become afflicted by a serious economic crisis. It has asked for a $4.5 billion loan from the IMF, apart from $1 billion from the World Bank and $2.5-3 billion from multilateral agencies and donor nations.

THE BJP-led union government announced the minimum support prices (MSP) for the Kharif Season 2023-24 on June 7, 2023 claiming that “the move is to ensure remunerative prices to growers for their produce and to encourage crop diversification”. The MSP announced is neither fair nor remunerative; it belies the hopes of the farmers and inflicts huge losses in their incomes. Let alone encouraging crop diversification, it discourages farmers from investing in agriculture.

NOTWITHSTANDING the tall claims made by the BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir about normalcy and economic development post 2019, the truth remains that there is a depressing scenario prevalent on multiple fronts in the state.First of all, there is a dire political vacuum in the state in the absence of elections and popular government. The statehood has been denied in the most unconstitutional and brazen manner. This is a blatant infringement on the basic constitutional and democratic rights of the people of the state.

THE true meaning of ‘Amrit Kaal’ is unfolding with the relentless attacks on the Muslim minorities accompanied by hate speech and glorification of Gandhiji’s killer, Godse. In Maharashtra, the Shinde-BJP government has gone on a spree of renaming cities which have Muslim names. Aurangabad has become Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Osmanabad is now Dharashiv, Ahmednagar district has been declared to be Ahilyabai Holkar Nagar. These changes were accompanied by majoritarian triumphalism and the demonising of Muslim rulers and historical figures.