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Political wealth boom: Re-elected MPs record 110% asset surge in ten years

By Jag Jivan   The latest analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch on the self-sworn affidavits of 102 re-elected Members of Parliament between the 2014 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections reveals a striking escalation in personal wealth among India’s political class. The average assets of these MPs have more than doubled in a decade, rising from ₹15.76 crore in 2014 to ₹33.13 crore in 2024, marking a 110 percent increase. This surge underscores the widening gap between political representatives and the citizens they serve, raising urgent questions about the nexus of power, privilege, and economic inequality.  
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​'Slavery-like situations': Women gig workers rally against algorithmic control

By A Representative   ​Scores of women service partners affiliated with the Gig and Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU) gathered outside Urban Company’s Jaipur regional office today to protest what they described as exploitative working conditions and discriminatory algorithmic practices. The demonstration, led by India’s first women-led gig workers' organization, culminated in the submission of a formal memorandum of demands addressed to the company’s senior management and CEO.

Recalling Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s 'politics of dialogue' with opposing political forces

By Raqif Makhdoomi*  The political history of Jammu and Kashmir has been marked by frequent shifts, contestations, and controversies. Public memory of political leaders in the region has often been shaped less by long-term governance outcomes and more by the political conflicts and crises that defined their tenures. Electoral participation, for long periods, was driven by limited political alternatives, with voters repeatedly returning the same leadership despite unfulfilled promises, particularly those related to dignity, representation, and accountability.

Communal relations in India: Historical reflections and contemporary concerns

By Harasankar Adhikari    Debates surrounding Hindu–Muslim relations have remained a persistent feature of India’s public life both before and after Independence. Alongside challenges such as poverty, public health, population growth, and unemployment, communal relations have often been framed as a national concern, frequently addressed through political negotiation and institutional mechanisms. Observers have noted that political responses to these issues have evolved over time, sometimes generating new complexities rather than resolving underlying social tensions.

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan*  Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification. 

Poetry as political intervention: Revisiting Saroj Dutta through his collected works

By Harsh Thakor*  Brought out a year ago, “ Pledge of a Revolutionary Poet ” examines the role of poetry in articulating revolutionary politics, focusing on the life and work of Saroj Dutta . Dutta was associated with communist movements in India and was active as a political organiser and poet from the 1940s onward. He was involved with communist parties and later with the CPI(ML), where he worked in cultural and poetic initiatives following the death of Sushmita Roy Chowdhury . He supported the political line advanced by Charu Mazumdar , including its emphasis on class struggle and critique of both economic structures and cultural institutions.

Beyond China: Xi Jinping thought and working-class struggles worldwide

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  In an ideologically barren landscape of opportunistic and anti-people politics, where leadership is largely reduced to protecting the interests of crony capitalism and its modes of governance in the name of fictitious individual freedom and supercilious democracy, the ideas of Chinese President Comrade Xi Jinping offer hope in a world marked by imperialist wars, religious conflicts, and deepening capitalist economic and social crises. 

SIR's voter exclusion in Uttar Pradesh: Diluting Constitutional promise of universal suffrage

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey   When India became independent, its people were granted universal suffrage as a fundamental right, thanks to the visionary leadership of the freedom movement. Under colonial rule, the right to vote was restricted to a privileged few. After independence, this right was expanded to cover the entire adult population.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma*  As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Dalit, tribal women in Delhi commemorate Savitribai Phule, reiterate education and dignity

By A Representative  A series of community-based events marking the Jayanti of Savitribai Phule were organised across working-class and marginalised neighbourhoods of Delhi in December 2025 and early January 2026 by the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) and its women’s collective, Mahila Kaamkaji Manch (MKM). The commemorations sought to move beyond symbolic observance and instead create spaces for dialogue, reflection and collective resistance, foregrounding education as a question of rights, dignity and social transformation.