Counterview

By Tersina Maria Toppo*  A protest does not always arrive as a slogan shouted from a street corner. Sometimes, it arrives on a beat. A microphone replaces the megaphone, a music video becomes a public square, and the smartphone becomes the space where a history once pushed to the margins is narrated, debated, and shared.

By A Representative   Senior activists and former political prisoners, talking with mediapersons in Dakhi, have  drawn attention to conditions inside Indian jails, even as demanding the immediate release of documentary filmmaker Vishal Singh on medical grounds, citing his deteriorating health. The press conference was held under the banner of the civil rights network,  Campaign Against State Repression (CASR).

By A Representative   Top farmers' group, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), has issued a strong warning to the Union Government against the proposed release of two gene‑edited rice varieties—DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1—arguing that the move threatens India’s seed sovereignty, farmers’ rights and the country’s long‑standing rice biodiversity. In a press statement dated 18 September 2026, the farmers’ coalition said it “strongly opposes the release of any patented seed technologies and of unsafe gene‑edited rice varieties,” and demanded that the government halt all steps toward seed multiplication and distribution before the process becomes “irreversible.”

By Bharat Dogra    A growing coalition of scientists, academics, farmers' organizations, and concerned citizens is urgently urging the Indian government to halt the planned release of two gene-edited rice varieties, citing serious risks to health, the environment, food sovereignty, and cultural heritage. This crucial intervention is not just about stopping a hazardous technology; it is about reclaiming a forgotten, sustainable path for Indian agriculture—one championed decades ago by India’s preeminent rice scientist, Dr. R.H. Richharia. The Gene-Editing Controversy and its Hidden Risks The current controversy centers on two rice varieties: Kamala (DRR Dhan 100) and Pusa DST Rice, both developed using SDN-1 and SDN-2 gene-editing technologies. Reports indicate that seed multiplication for Pusa DST Rice is already underway ahead of the winter sowing season, with a scheduled Rabi 2026 release.  The Coalition for a GM-Free India, supported by nearly 320 professor...

By Kumar Krishnan*  There are moments when the best way to assess the present is to look back at the political lives of those who inhabited a very different public culture. Jageshwar Mandal, who died on September 9, 1988, belonged to that generation. His life raises a question that contemporary Indian politics rarely asks with sufficient seriousness: What is politics for?

By Vijay Prashad   The 18th BRICS Summit, held in New Delhi on September 12–13, occurred amid an exceptional intensification of international contradictions. Wars in West Asia, unilateral sanctions, tariff barriers, and the weaponisation of finance and technology have exposed the fundamentally unequal character of the imperialist-dominated international order. Against this background, the continued expansion of BRICS reflects the desire of developing countries for greater strategic autonomy and a more democratic system of global governance. At the same time, the summit demonstrated that BRICS+ remains a heterogeneous grouping whose members differ substantially in their political alignments and economic interests.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The world stands at a critical juncture. Imperialist wars are expanding under the leadership of a hegemonic United States, and capitalism—mired in what I believe is a terminal crisis—has exhausted its capacity to offer alternatives. It has deployed every strategy at its disposal to divert and divide ordinary people. Together, imperialism and capitalism have produced a climate crisis that threatens the very existence of human beings and the planet we inhabit. In such a moment, a united left movement is not merely desirable; it is the only force capable of upholding humanity.

By Harsh Thakor*  Eighteen-year-old Amber-Rose Berry of Pringle Bay, near Cape Town, has made history as the youngest South African woman ever to swim the iconic English Channel . Coincidentally and ironically, her swim was completed exactly 100 years after Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the Channel in 1926, and during South Africa's Women's Month , 70 years after the historic women's march against the Pass Laws , which gave August its name. She follows in the footsteps of another record-breaking South African, Otto Thaning , who became the oldest person, at 73, to complete the swim in 2014. His record still stands.

Counterview News   Persistent caste discrimination , the marginalisation of Dalits , concerns over the rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples , and the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities are among the issues flagged by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its latest observations on India.