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.

IN a New Year address to the country and the world Kim Jong Un-Leader of DPRK marked the continuation of efforts for peace in the Korean region.

ENTRAPPING all intellectual discussion within a particular discourse is the commonest method that neo-liberalism uses for establishing its hegemony. There was for instance the debate recently on the question of the “autonomy” of the Reserve Bank, where one side wanted control over the RBI by the government and its coterie of “crony capitalists” while the other wanted an RBI catering to the whims and caprices of globalized finance. The question of popular or parliamentary control over the institution was simply never raised.

THE Left-Democratic Manch (LDM), Assam-a common platform of 10 political parties comprising of the CPI (M), CPI, CPI (ML), AAP, SP, NCP, RCPI, Janata Dal(S), LDP and Asom Sangrami Mancha, staged a massive 'sit-in-demonstration' at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on  December 28. Demanding immediate withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and upgradation of a flawless National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam with the inclusion of names of all the genuine Indian citizens in the final list, the demonstration was attended by several hundred protesters from Assam

IN a statement issued on December 23, prominent artists of Bengal film industry, noted that the way in which the organisers of the Ajmer Literature Festival in Rajasthan, buckling under the pressure of some militant ‘Hindutva’ groups, called off an event set to be addressed by veteran thespian Naseeruddin Shah, is a matter of great concern for all those who want to see our country strong and united rather than fragmented. The 68-year old actor was due to deliver the keynote address at the beginning of the festival on December 21.