Counterview

By Rajkumar Sinha*  Tamil Nadu’s contemporary politics has witnessed a historic shift. Breaking the decades-long dominance of the two major Dravidian parties — Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam — actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, emerged as the single largest force by winning 107 seats in the 234-member Assembly. Tamil Nadu Governor R. N. Ravi had initially declined Vijay’s claim to form the government, despite the TVK founder meeting the Governor twice and requesting an invitation to establish the administration. A petition was also filed in the Supreme Court challenging the delay in inviting Vijay to form the government. In a parliamentary democracy governed by the Constitution, whether a party or coalition commands a majority can ultimately be tested only on the floor of the House.

By A Representative    A growing national debate over India’s expanding AI and data centre infrastructure has intensified, even as noted power and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma urged the Union government and state authorities to exercise “high level due diligence” before approving large-scale nuclear energy projects aimed at meeting rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centres .

By Ravi Ranjan*   The Radcliffe Line , drawn in 1947 by a British lawyer who had never previously visited the Indian subcontinent, remains one of the most violent cartographic acts of the twentieth century. Yet its violence was not merely territorial. As Tarun Bhatnagar 's story " Grandmother, Multan and Touch and Go " demonstrates with extraordinary subtlety, the line fractured something far more intimate than maps or political boundaries—it tore through the fabric of memory, language, domestic intimacy, and the human soul.

By Harsh Thakor*  When Jean-Paul Sartre died in Paris on April 15, 1980, the left lost one of its most uncompromising voices. He was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist and anti‑imperialist militant – but above all, a thinker who refused to let theory sit apart from revolutionary action. Decades later, in a world still healing from colonial wars and capitalist alienation, Sartre’s example endures. The mid‑century meeting between Marxism and existentialism , which he did more than anyone to forge, remains vital today. Far from being a relic, Sartre’s insistence that we can always choose to act – even under crushing structures – keeps his work a beacon for the left.

By Rajiv Shah   A comprehensive new study examining 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods across India has uncovered deep patterns of residential segregation and systematic inequality in access to public services, with findings that researchers say rival the scale of racial segregation in the United States.

By A Representative   A group of scientists and academics under the banner of Scientists for People has submitted a detailed representation to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority alleging major scientific and environmental lapses in the appraisal of hyperscale data centre projects in Telangana, including projects linked to Amazon Data Services and CtrlS. The representation, dated May 8, 2026, was addressed to SEIAA Chairperson Dr. G. Sabita Reddy and raises concerns over environmental clearances granted to large-scale data centre facilities in Raviryal, Chandanvelly, Meerkhanpet, Peddavedu and Manchanpally.