By Mohd Ziyaullah Khan*  This Republic Day , the Rang De Basanti , starring Aamir Khan , completed 20 years since its release. I first watched it in a single-screen theatre in my city—at a time when multiplexes were only just beginning to appear and our town was still waiting for one. It remains my favourite film, and I often revisit it on OTT platforms or television around Independence Day or Republic Day, when the air is thick with rehearsed patriotism. A few days ago, I noticed it streaming again on Jio Hotstar . Released in 2006, it is a film I have watched many times over the years. Yet, like all powerful cinema, returning to it at different stages of life offers a different experience. Twenty years ago, I found it deeply inspiring. In 2026, watching it again felt suffocating. At its core, the film follows a group of Delhi University friends who challenge the might of the central government after one of their own, a flight lieutenant, is killed in a MiG aircraft crash alleged...

By A Representative   In a direct response to the rising polarization surrounding India’s street dog population, a high-level coalition of parliamentarians, legal experts, and civil society leaders gathered in the capital to propose a unified national framework for humane animal management. The emergency deliberations were sparked by a recent Suo Moto judgment that has significantly deepened the divide between animal welfare advocates and those calling for the removal of community dogs, a tension that has recently escalated into reported violence against both animals and their caretakers in states like Telangana.

By Bharat Dogra  Traditionally, wells have been a vital source of water for villages across India. Over the years, however, the repair and renovation of many traditional wells has been neglected, leading to their disuse in several rural communities. This neglect has also created serious safety risks, with wandering cattle—and at times even children—falling into wells whose protective walls have collapsed or which have been left in a state of disrepair.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

By A Representative   The University of Delhi's Office of the Proctor issued an order today prohibiting all public meetings, processions, demonstrations, and protests within the university campus for a period of one month, drawing immediate criticism from student activists and civil liberties advocates who have called it a direct assault on constitutional freedoms. Wonders Right to Education activist Mitra Ranjan, why shouldn't the order be seen as contradicting the need for democratisation of people's rights, university campuses and education and an attack on freedom of expression.

By Ravi Ranjan*  In an age where human connections have become increasingly precarious, Hindi poet Kumar Ambuj's poem 'Vyavdhan' (Interruption) emerges as a profound meditation on the transformed nature of love and loneliness. The poem presents a paradoxical emotional landscape where the arrival of a beloved person is no longer a cause for unbridled celebration but is perceived as an obstruction to a carefully cultivated habit of living alone. This reading explores how the poem captures the existential crisis of contemporary humanity, trapped between the desire for connection and the comfort of managed solitude.

By A Representative   The Supreme Court of India on Monday issued notice on a petition filed by the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information challenging amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005 brought in through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The matter was heard by a Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, which indicated that the case would be placed before a larger Bench.

By A Representative   A public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court of India challenging the constitutional validity of several provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, with the petitioner arguing that these laws have dealt a severe blow to citizens' fundamental right to information and have effectively gutted the Right to Information Act of its most essential safeguards.

By Vikas Meshram*   Life in the remote villages of the Ghatol block in Rajasthan’s Banswara district has never been easy. Water scarcity, lack of employment opportunities, inadequate access to education, and the weight of entrenched social traditions have persisted for generations in these hilly tribal regions. Yet amid these challenges, a group of women has emerged who have not only transformed their own lives but have also become sources of inspiration for their communities. Without formal education and with limited resources, they have ignited meaningful change in their villages.