Counterview

By Neha Desai  The renewed protests against large hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh, particularly the proposed 11,000-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), are being driven by a combination of environmental concerns, indigenous land rights, questions over consultation and the sheer scale of the state’s planned hydropower expansion.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The history of tribal leaders' sacrifices for the nation's freedom, spanning 1857 to 1947, is a revolutionary chapter of Indian history. The story of India's freedom struggle is not confined to the battles fought in big cities, capitals, and among political leadership alone — it is equally the history of countless battles fought in forests, mountains, and villages, where tribal communities gave everything they had to protect their land, forests, culture, self-respect, and freedom. 

By Kumar Krishnan*  A farmer standing beside a dry canal does not measure water in million acre-feet. He measures it by the crop wilting in his field, the diesel he has spent running a pump and the number of days he has waited for water that was supposed to arrive through the canal.

By A Representative   The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly criticised Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for remarks made in the Supreme Court today during the hearing of a petition filed by Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna. Krishna has challenged the amendment to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act that extends to the "National Song" the same legal protection given to the National Anthem, as well as government circulars mandating the singing of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram, including verses with religious imagery, at official functions.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ*  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is overwhelming us today! AI, as we all know, is about communication, information, data mining, and much more. It shapes the way we think and even determines our behavioural patterns and much more.

By Ramindu Perera  This 21 September marked the second anniversary of Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power (NPP) government, a political movement led by the left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Two years ago, the NPP candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka secured a dramatic victory in a three-cornered Presidential election and emerged as the first-ever left-wing leader in Sri Lankan political history to hold the country’s highest office.

By Carlos Ron   On 20 September 2006, Hugo Chávez stepped up to the granite podium of the United Nations General Assembly. A day earlier, from that exact same spot, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, had spoken. Chávez crossed himself, said that the room still smelled of sulphur, and the hall burst into laughter and applause. It was not the speech Chávez had originally intended to give, but rather the direct result of the deep indignation caused by hearing Bush speak as if he owned the world. The major media of the North latched onto the sulphur phrase and have tried to caricature it. But it is the rest of his intervention that remains fully relevant, 20 years later.

By A Representative   An Ahmedabad-based citizens' group calling itself Abad Amdavad has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning that Ahmedabad is nowhere near ready to host the Commonwealth Games 2030, and that the city's civic condition may embarrass the nation unless urgent, structural reforms are pushed through within the next four years. 

By A Representative   Welcoming the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation's nationwide public health alert and formal ban against unauthorised skin-lightening cosmetics containing excessive levels of heavy metals, a top advocacy group has  urged the regulator to widen the scope of the ban to cover all such products still openly sold in India.