By Bharat Dogra*  The recent announcement on Waheeda Rehman getting the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in the field of Indian cinema, should be widely welcomed as a fitting, if somewhat delayed, tribute to a highly talented actress who has also been the very epitome of grace.As this writer had pointed out earlier , while several great legendary actors of the post-independence golden age of Hindi cinema who made a very wide impact on society (Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand) have received the Dada Phalke Award.

By Athar Parvaiz*  It has been over a decade since 32-year-old Rafiqa (not her real name) was sold to a villager after being lured by the promise that she would be employed in the handicrafts industry of Jammu & Kashmir.

By Our Representative  The civil rights group Right to Food Campaign (RtFC) has taken strong exception to the order given by the district collector of Patan, Gujarat, to transfer all the ration cards from the Dalit Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealer to another village based on the social boycott that has been continuing against a Dalit dealer by the Thakor Community (upper caste) in Kanosan village.

By Shamsul Islam*  Respected VC of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, I hope a recent report in one of the leading English dailies of India did not misreport you when it stated that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor (VC), Santishree Pandit while speaking at a book launch function on September 17, 2023 at Pune where RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was present on the dais, said: “I am proud to be a Hindu and belong to the Sangh [RSS].”

By Our Representative  A press meet organised by the civil rights group Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) on "Crimanlizing Dissent: Voice of Political Prisoners and Need For United Struggle" saw nearly half-a-dozen human rights defenders claiming to have faced “state repression” and how they were treated on being put behind the bars for asserting their democratic right.

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  On 1 October, the world is once again observing the ‘International Day of Older Persons’. It is the 33rd commemoration of this United Nations Day. Such days are often relegated to tokenism and cosmetic exercises filled with a plethora of speeches and feel- good activities. The theme ‘Fulfilling the Promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Older Persons: Across Generations,’ however, is a challenging one -- which gives little room for the normal complacency or for a mere celebration of ‘yet another UN Day!’

By Umar Manzoor Shah*  Even after toiling hard for an entire year, Shivaji Rao, a 37-year-old farmer, would find it hard to cover the basic expenses of his family. He cultivates maize from his one-and-a-half-acre land in Telangana.

Counterview Desk  The advocacy group Coalition for a GM-Free India has urged the Supreme Court of India to pass orders to implement the unanimous recommendations of the five independent experts of the Court’s Technical Expert Committee, including the Government  of India’s experts. 

By Bharat Dogra*  A lie repeated a hundred times will not turn a lie into a truth. The big media should realize this and stop perpetuating the lie of the green revolution saving India from hunger, long after the world has awakened to the reality of how harmful the green revolution has been from the point of nutrition, food safety, environment and climate change.