By Carlos Ron, Vijay Prashad   The United States has agreed with Iran to cease hostilities for two weeks. The illegal US and Israeli imposed war has not ended but has a break, although not in Lebanon which was supposed to be part of the deal. Just before the ceasefire was announced, the Iranian authorities released a ten-point peace plan that promises far more than a cessation of hostilities; it is, in fact, a grand bargain for peace across West Asia (US President Donald Trump initially said of this plan that he believes “it is a workable basis on which to negotiate,” and then supposedly threw 'it in the garbage' a few hours later). The United States has, apparently, drafted a fifteen-point plan, but this has not been released to the public.

By A Representative   The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Indian chapter of the People’s Health Movement , has issued a revised approach paper on HPV vaccination in India, calling for “evidence-based, ethical, and people-centred policy and implementation.” The paper, re-drafted after consultations on March 25 and incorporating inputs from health activists and women’s groups, stresses that while HPV vaccination has strong scientific backing, its public health value will depend on how it is implemented.  

By A Representative   A formal complaint has been lodged with the Election Commission of India over alleged large-scale and arbitrary deletions of voter names in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The letter, dated 9 April 2026 and addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner, comes from Kirity Roy , Secretary of Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) and National Convenor of the Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity (PACTI). It highlights what are described as unlawful exclusions in the 07 Dinhata Assembly Constituency , particularly affecting marginalized border communities .

By Ravi Ranjan*   In the landscape of contemporary Hindi poetry, Vinod Kumar Shukla ’s poem The Rose Grown in the Courtyard of Three Metres of Fragrance occupies an extraordinary place. At first glance, its images—a courtyard of fragrance, a rose on a collar—seem tender, even romantic. But these images quickly tighten into something sharper: a coat stitched from perfume, a transparent garment worn over an old, torn shirt. Shukla writes: “I cut three metres of fragrance / and prepared a coat for myself.” With this single magical gesture, he transforms an abstract sensation into a material object, and in doing so, exposes the economic and psychological crisis of the lower-middle class. The poem becomes a sociological narrative of late-capitalist cruelty, disguised as a surreal fable.

By Harsh Thakor*  Shane Warne, who sadly succumbed to a heart attack in 2022, resurrected and redefined the art of leg-spin bowling, lifting it from relative obscurity to transcendent heights. In all probability, Warne was the greatest leg-spinner—and perhaps the finest spin bowler—of all time. Arguably, he also had a strong case for being the best bowler ever and among the greatest cricketers since Bradman and Sobers. Warne elevated the game to a higher dimension; no other spinner so perfectly embodied the craft or functioned with such machine-like precision.

By Harsh Thakor*  A convention organised by the Democratic Front Against Operation Green Hunt , Punjab, was held to mark April 8 as a day opposing what participants described as “draconian laws” and to commemorate the legacy of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru . Speakers at the event referred to the historical incident in which the revolutionaries threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1929 to protest colonial legislation. The gathering focused on issues relating to alleged rights violations in tribal areas and called for the release of imprisoned intellectuals, activists, and convicts who, according to organisers, have completed their sentences but remain in custody.

By Nava Thakuria*  Assam goes to the single-phase polling on 9 April 2026, where 2.50 crore registered voters (including 5.75 lakh young/first-time voters) will exercise their franchise to elect 126 representatives for the State legislative assembly. Under the guidelines of the Election Commission of India , all types of campaigning came to an end 48 hours prior to voting, and the authority urged all candidates, political parties, and media outlets to strictly follow the rules. 

By A Representative   The advocacy group Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) has raised concerns over what it describes as misleading advertising of ultra-processed food products (UPFs), particularly those high in sugar, fat and salt, calling for stricter regulations and an end to such promotions across media platforms.

By A Representative   In a significant escalation of the ongoing institutional conflict at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) and the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) released the "Report of the Public Inquiry against Professor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit" during a high-profile campus meeting.