Counterview

By A Representative    As India marks 21 years of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, a new report by the civil rights to group Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) has exposed a severe crisis in the functioning of Information Commissions (ICs), the final appellate authorities mandated to safeguard people's fundamental right to information.

​By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  ​We live in revealing times. When a television reporter recently confronted renowned development economist Jean Drèze and asked him who he was, social media erupted into debate. Many asked: what is so egregious about a reporter not recognizing someone? But aren't journalists expected to understand the public sphere, its key actors, and their backgrounds? Predictably, an establishment media figure rushed to frame Drèze merely as a former member of the UPA-era National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi.

By A Representative   In a strongly worded appeal addressed to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), ecologist and former UN Environmental Negotiator Dr. S. Faizi has urged the organization to remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar from his position as Chair of its Council of Member States for 2026. The letter, addressed to International IDEA Secretary-General Dr. Kevin Casas-Zamora, also calls for the immediate establishment of an independent mechanism to monitor India’s electoral process.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  Traditionally, women have been confined to the domestic sphere, with emphasis on their roles as wives, mothers and homemakers. But India is now witnessing a sweeping change in the role of women. Two recent large protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, one in July 2026 against the then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and another in October 2026 against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, have drawn a new picture of the role of girls and women in Indian student politics and social movements.

By Ayush Bajpai, Sandeep Pandey  On 10 October, Delhi witnessed something that has become a familiar template of this regime over the past decade. It weaponised the police and paramilitary forces to stifle dissent, prevent people from speaking out, and unleash brutal violence against them—men, women and children alike. No one is spared. Advocates are being subjected to brutality; seeing someone like Shadan Farasat being manhandled by the police is both disturbing and cruel. The goons, without any fear or remorse, are beating children and women on the streets, right in front of the Delhi Police.

By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  The burning question on every Indian's lips is what the future holds for the Cockroach Janata Party's (CJP) agitation in Delhi and elsewhere. At the moment, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The protest may lead to regime change in Delhi, or it may fizzle out for reasons that are obvious and need not be enumerated. For now, the protest is not going to die. Stopping it and detaining people will only prolong it, and chaos and uncertainty are clearly written on the wall.

By Harsh Thakor*  Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy, who taught comparative politics and the Indian Constitution at the School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University, died on October 11. He was 75. A political scientist and public intellectual, he was known for his work on international relations, peace and conflict resolution, human rights and democratic values, and for his solidarity with students.

By Harsh Thakor*  The intellectual world has lost a towering figure whose work reshaped how we understand capitalism . Anwar Shaikh , who passed away on October 6 at 80 in New York after a prolonged illness, was among the most influential Marxist economists of the past half-century. His contributions transcended the boundaries of conventional economic thought, offering a framework that bridged classical political economy with rigorous empirical analysis. For over four decades, Shaikh stood at the forefront of efforts to develop a coherent alternative to mainstream economics —one grounded in the realities of competition, conflict, and crisis rather than abstract models divorced from actual capitalist dynamics.

By Sandeep Pandey, Niya Tapo  The Arunachal Pradesh government had been claiming that the majority of people in the Siang Valley were in favour of the Pre-Feasibility Report (PFR) survey being carried out to determine the viability of a proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, envisaging a large dam on the Siang River with a capacity of 11,000–12,500 MW. However, a visit by Chief Minister Pema Khandu to Yingkiong, the district headquarters of Upper Siang, towards the end of September provoked people to burn several government vehicles, set fire to a Central Armed Police Forces camp comprising CRPF, ITBP, SSB, RAF and IRBM personnel, vandalise the house of MLA Alo Libang in Yingkiong, and prevent Deputy CM Chowna Mein, Cabinet Ministers Ojing Tasing and Nyato Dukam, and Advisor Ninong Ering from attending the CM’s meeting with government officials and community representatives. 

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Liberal commentators, journalists, and insular intellectuals from various fields often claim that there is a fundamental difference between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, the two BJP Prime Ministers of India. It would be disingenuous to claim that there are no differences between the two individuals. In biological terms, cloning through the duplication of a genotype (genetic code) is possible, but environmental differences can still produce variations in phenotype, including physical traits and lifespan.

By Dr. P.K. Gupta*  When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to a historic majority in May 2014, ending a decade of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), it was widely heralded as a definitive verdict on corruption and policy paralysis. Yet, to view the 2014 election merely as a referendum on governance is to miss the profound tectonic shift that had occurred beneath India’s democratic surface. The road to 2014 was not paved solely by administrative failures; it was constructed through a revolutionary alchemy of 24/7 media spectacles, moral crusades, and the weaponization of religious identity. It marked the moment when Indian politics transitioned from the slow machinery of coalition management to the high-voltage arena of emotional persuasion.

By A Representative   The Press Club of India (PCI) has issued a scathing statement condemning the Delhi Police for the "arbitrary detention, harassment and seizure of equipment" of journalists covering protests in the capital on Saturday. The protests, which saw a massive police crackdown, were demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan  If the Achhe Din promised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government have not arrived in your life, you may at least find one encouraging development: a growing number of Indians are seeking news beyond the familiar television studios that once dominated public debate.

By A Representative   The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has condemned the police crackdown on protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging mass detentions, assaults on demonstrators and restrictions on internet and public transport services in Delhi and several other states. In a statement, PUCL demanded the immediate release of those still detained, withdrawal of FIRs against peaceful protesters and a time-bound judicial inquiry into the alleged police excesses. The demonstrations on October 10 and 11 were organised by student groups, Left parties and other organisations demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and withdrawal of the SIR exercise. “Citizens asking questions about the integrity of the voters’ list were met not with answers, but with lathis, police vans and detention camps,” the organisation said. The statement was issued by PUCL president Kavita Srivastava and national genera...

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The recent democratic upheaval in India has laid bare the widening gap between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) developmental promises and the ground realities. From the "Shining India" narrative of the early 2000s to the "Viksit Bharat" (Developed India) vision, the political discourse increasingly clashed with rising unemployment, economic inequality, and social polarization. The mass protests that recently swept the nation were not merely a rejection of specific policies, but a profound repudiation of the prevailing political narrative, exposing the hollowness of a governance model that prioritized optics over substantive welfare.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan  There is growing talk of political change in India. With the next Lok Sabha election due in 2029, many people already believe that the present government could eventually be replaced. But there is a more important question that Muslims need to ask: if the government changes, will the condition of Indian Muslims change too?

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The policies of the Modi government, shaped by the Hindutva ideology of the RSS and its engagement with right-wing politics and crony capitalist projects, have created conditions that enable figures like Elon Musk to comment on Indian affairs by calling Mukesh Ambani the unelected Prime Minister of India. 

By A Representative  Tribal rights activists, legal experts, tribal leaders, former officials and civil society representatives from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have called  for urgent action on tribal land rights, employment and PESA safeguards. They were participating in  roundtable on Constitutional Safeguards for Scheduled Tribes in the Telugu States at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad. Former Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao chaired the deliberations.

By Nava Thakuria*   With the Union government of India having nominated 13 media professionals to fill vacancies in its statutory and autonomous print media surveillance and rights body, the journalist fraternity now hopes for better days ahead in the world's largest democracy.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan  The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has resulted in approximately 13.3 crore names being struck off draft rolls across states where the exercise has been completed or is underway. More than 71 per cent of these entries fall into the broad categories of voters marked absent, shifted or classified under other headings. Around 2.7 crore were recorded as deceased, while approximately 1.01 crore were flagged as duplicate or multiple entries. A deletion from a draft electoral roll does not automatically amount to permanent disenfranchisement; many citizens can have their names restored through verification, claims, appeals and the filing of fresh Form 6 applications. Yet the sheer scale of the removals demands rigorous public scrutiny.

By Sunil Kumar*  From protests against SIR to the alleged police brutality against women journalists —the question is not just about the vote, but also about citizens’ constitutional rights in a democracy. India is called the world’s largest “democratic country.” Elections here are considered the great festival of democracy. Since the first general election in 1952, adult Indian citizens have had the right to vote. This right makes us feel that the government is “elected by our votes” and that a “government elected by the people’s votes” works for the people. Much has already been written about this. Let us now talk about how the people’s right to vote is being curtailed through SIR. In protest against this curtailment, India’s aware citizens and opposition parties have been on the streets of Delhi since October 2.

By Atanu Roy*  In late September and early October, the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata became an unlikely battleground. On September 27, students of SRFTI clashed with members of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, an organisation that several reports have described as RSS-linked. The students said they objected to the group's programme on their campus and alleged that outsiders assaulted them. The ABGP told a very different story — it claimed students disrupted its event and disrespected images of Bharat Mata and Swami Vivekananda — but offered no substantial evidence to support that narrative.

By Prof Suresh Deman*  There is an old difficulty in writing about political thinkers. Once their followers acquire power, it becomes increasingly hard to distinguish the thinker from what is subsequently said and done in his name. Satish Jha 's Owed to Every Child* attempts precisely that separation.

By Harsh Thakor*  In recent weeks, two open water swimmers from opposite sides of the world have pushed past barriers in endurance sport, showing what willpower can achieve. Each tested the limits of body and mind, and each did it in a way that will be remembered.

By Md. Abu Saim*  The United States' federal debt has crossed $40 trillion. The number is almost impossible to comprehend. To put it in perspective, it equates to roughly $117,000 per American—and it would take nearly 110,000 years to repay at $1 million per day.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Trains have been cancelled, metro services suspended, and announcements issued urging parents, teachers, and resident associations to exercise caution about venturing outdoors. A peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar has emerged as a major challenge for the current regime. People have witnessed such high-handedness before. The methodology is simple: foil the protest at all costs, using every possible means at the government's disposal.

By Martin Macwan*  On August 15, 2013, the Gujarat government carved out a new district from Jamnagar and christened it ‘ Devbhumi Dwarka ’. In our childhood, we were taught in Gujarat’s schools that gods reside in every single grain of wheat. So, amidst our household poverty, we would sprinkle flour from our meager meals into anthills upon returning from school.

By Sandeep Pandey, Shashank Singh  On October 7, 2026, a bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev of the Allahabad High Court did not mince words, remarking that the state of the police in Uttar Pradesh is a mess and that officers operate with the impunity of believing they can do anything and get away with it. Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by a man named Deepak, the Court admonished the Assistant Commissioner of Police and the Station House Officer of Gautam Buddha Nagar. 

By Dr P.K. Gupta   Few ideas in Indian thought are as enduring, or as difficult, as dharma. It cannot be reduced to worship, doctrine, or membership of a religious community. It joins personal conduct with social duty, justice, compassion, and the preservation of life. Its meaning has never stayed fixed: across centuries it has been questioned, interpreted, challenged, and renewed. To trace that movement is to trace the ethical history of Indian civilisation itself.

By A.V. Yadappanavar*  As someone who has spent years within the walls of the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj , I have watched this institution grow into what it is today: India's apex institute for rural development and capacity building. A SWOT analysis of NIRDPR , located in Hyderabad , Telangana, reveals both its enduring strengths and the challenges it must confront.

By Vijay Prashad   Brazil’s general election on 4 October delivered a severe warning to the Left. Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party (PL), finished ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with approximately 47 per cent against 45 per cent. Neither secured a majority, sending them into a runoff on 25 October. More troubling than this narrow presidential gap was the advance of bolsonarismo through Congress. The election has strengthened a political movement whose ambitions extend beyond defeating Lula to reshaping the institutions that obstruct its exercise of power.

By Vikas Meshram*  When the Swedish Academy announced Canada’s Anne Carson as the 2026 Nobel laureate in literature on October 8, it was not merely a victory for a singular talent. It was a resounding endorsement of literature that refuses to be confined. At seventy-six, the poet, essayist, and classicist receives literature’s highest honor, with the Academy citing her “bold and inventive” work and her “playful dialogue with the classical tradition.” 

By Harsh Thakor*  Eva Marie Saint, one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age of the 1940s and 1950s, died on October 6, 2026, at her home in Los Angeles, aged 102. Her life and work embodied grace, intelligence and timeless artistic sensitivity. Few performers bridged so many chapters of entertainment history while bringing such extraordinary depth to their characters.

By Rajiv Shah   A comprehensive new report by Homes In The City (HIC), a Bhuj-based civil society programme, has revealed that despite late monsoon rains easing Kutch's immediate drought conditions, the region faces a deepening water security crisis — with Bhuj having lost more than half of its historic lakes and pastoral communities forced to migrate for the first time since 2018.

By A Representative   A severe toxic emergency has erupted in the Ambad area of Nashik, Maharashtra, as laboratory tests confirm that residential groundwater is contaminated with hexavalent chromium at levels more than 1,000 times the permissible safety limit. According to a recent press note by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), the acute contamination is likely stemming from industrial discharge in the Ambad Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area, turning local borewell water a bright yellow. 

By A Representative   The human rights group, Citizens for Democracy (CFD), has called for peaceful demonstrations demanding accountability from the Election Commission of India (ECI) over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls, while urging the Delhi Police and the administration to ensure that protesters can exercise their democratic rights without intimidation.

By A Representative   West Bengal rights group Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) has approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), seeking urgent intervention into the alleged illegal detention and subsequent disappearance or transfer to Bangladesh of Abdul Rahim, a 37-year-old paddy trader from Kuilara Anantapur village under Bhatol Gram Panchayat in Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal.

By Bharat Dogra  Sincere, thoughtful, and courageous work for humanity—for justice, equality, and a society free of exploitation—always brings great results, even if the impact takes time. This is among the most enduring lessons from the efforts of Shahid Bhagat Singh and his comrades during India's freedom movement (1924–31).

By Ravi Ranjan*  In my exploration of modern Hindi literature, Kunwar Narayan’s poem ‘Amir Khusro’ continually draws me into a profound meditation on history, memory, and the enigma of cultural identity. Narayan, a poet of deep philosophical inquiry, does not merely recreate a medieval historical figure; he constructs a complex dialogue between the individual and the age, between social roles conferred by authority and the identity achieved through creative consciousness.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  A social, political, economic, cultural and spiritual crisis produces mass movements that accelerate progressive change, address the crisis and offer alternatives for the future. Passionate leaders with an emotional connection to the masses shape visions, grasp the crisis, guide the struggle and turn it into an opportunity for the progressive transformation of society. Such mass movements, with mass participation upholding the collective interests of individuals and societies across the world, produce new ideas and new leadership to sustain the politics of change that protects and promotes the interests of people and the planet.

By Suresh Deman*   Harsh Thakor's Counterview article on the fall of the "Gang of Four" revisits the arrest of Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen on 6 October 1976, barely four weeks after Mao's death. Thakor rightly sees it as a decisive shift in China's political direction, and he acknowledges that Mao's worries about bureaucratic privilege, bourgeois right and capitalist restoration arose from contradictions within socialist society itself (Thakor 2026). Yet his account stops short of the most fundamental theoretical problem the Cultural Revolution raised: if the Communist Party represents the working class but also controls the state, who supervises the Party?

By Kumar Krishnan*  Farmer organisations on Tuesday raised concerns over Bihar's proposed 11 satellite township projects and the Bihar City Development Act, 2026, alleging that large-scale conversion of agricultural land without adequate safeguards could affect farmers' land rights, livelihoods and social security. Addressing a press conference in Patna, Bharatiya Kisan Union national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait and farmer leader Dinesh Singh said farmers were not opposed to urban development but would resist any model in which development came at the cost of agricultural land and the economic security of farming families.

By A Representative   In an unusually sharp open letter addressed to serving members of the All India and Central Services, 98 former civil servants have warned that constitutional values in India are being openly breached and that democratic dialogue has virtually vanished, with any expression of dissent or difference of opinion being branded "anti-national." The letter, issued by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) on 7 October 2026 and signed by retired officers of the IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, IFoS and other services, tells civil servants in no uncertain terms that when orders from the political executive conflict with statutory provisions, their duty is to follow the law "in letter and spirit, even where it causes personal inconvenience." The CCG, which describes itself as a collective of former civil servants that came into being nine years ago to uphold the primacy of constitutional values in India's polity and society, says it feels compelled to...

By A Representative   The Right to Food Campaign on Wednesday welcomed the Maharashtra government's decision to strengthen PM POSHAN and extend school meals from Class 8 to Class 10, while urging that the scheme be expanded to cover Classes 9–12, with a nutritious breakfast also introduced alongside milk, eggs and fruit.

By A Representative   A delegation of participants scheduled to attend a "Course on Green Socialism" in Pasighat, East Siang District, has been barred from entering Arunachal Pradesh by local district authorities. The event, organized jointly by the Socialist Party (India), India Greens Party, and Voters’ Party International, was set to take place from October 7 to 11, 2026. However, the plans were halted following written orders issued by the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Magistrate of East Siang, Sonalika Jiwani.

By Vikas Meshram*  In the tribal heartland of Banswara, four women have turned small family gardens into layered sources of nutrition, income and self-respect. At the southern tip of Rajasthan, where the Mahi River curls around a landscape of hills, slopes and small fields known as Vagad, lies Banswara. According to the 2011 Census, about 76 per cent of the district's population belongs to Scheduled Tribes, the Bhil being the largest community, and most households live off the land. In Anandpuri block, four women have each found their own way of drawing a livelihood from this terrain: Kokila Devi Damor of Seranagla, Kuni Devi Pargi of Navagra, Chhagan Devi Patel of Bawdi and Laxmi Garasia of Ubapan.

By Dr A.V. Yadappanavar *  In a small village called Takli, not far from the temple town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, there is a home where children who were once abandoned because of their HIV status now find food, medicine, education, and something even rarer — love without fear. The home is called Palawi, and it was founded in 2001 by Mangal Shah, affectionately known as Mangaltai, a social worker who could not look away from children rejected by their own families.

By Bharat Dogra*  The recent successful BRICS summit, along with the preceding talks that resolved several contentious issues, has helped create conducive conditions for improving India-China relations. This is good news for both countries and for world peace.

By Harsh Thakor*  The arrest of Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen, commonly known as the “Gang of Four,” marked a major change in the political direction of the People’s Republic of China. Occurring shortly less than a month after the death of Mao Zedong on September 9, 1976,  the arrests brought the radical phase of the Cultural Revolution to an end and initiated a transition in the balance of power within the Communist Party and the state. The 50-year-old episode was followed by a reassessment of the Cultural Revolution and, over the subsequent years, by significant changes in China’s political and economic policies.