Counterview

Counterview News   The People's Commission on Public Sector and Public Services has demanded that the Centre immediately stop the sale of IDBI Bank to Fairfax, a Canadian company. In a detailed statement titled "Stop selling the golden goose to foreigners – Stop IDBI sale to Fairfax", the Commission said the deal is opaque, legally questionable and against the Constitution's Directive Principles.

By A Representative   The Supreme Court has pulled up the Election Commission of India (ECI) over its directive asking voters deleted during the Delhi Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to fill Form 6. Terming the move an "error" and a "structural incongruity," the apex court emphasized that the vital right to vote must not be forfeited due to procedural lapses.

By A Representative   Eighty-five concerned citizens, activists, artists, academics and human rights defenders have sent a representation to the Director General of Police, Maharashtra, demanding the immediate quashing of an FIR against Mumbai-based stand-up comedian Masoom Rajwani and 12 other persons detained during a candlelight vigil at Chaityabhoomi, Dadar, on 25 October 2026.

By A Representative   A complaint has been filed with South Africa’s Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) challenging Standard Bank’s environmental and climate-related advertising, with civil society organisations questioning whether its sustainability claims are consistent with its reported involvement in financing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

By Bharat Dogra   Recent student unrest across several European countries has made it urgent that we understand their problems. Too often, however, this discussion happens in narrow contexts—particularly regarding electoral implications and political power. From the perspective of finding durable solutions, we need a much wider view of youth welfare in the West.

By A Representative   The All India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Sangathan (AIKKMS) Gujarat unit has strongly condemned the state government's order denying irrigation water to farmers in the Saurashtra and Kutch regions, warning that the decision will prove to be a "disastrous blow" to farmers who are already reeling from power cuts and a deficient monsoon.

By A Representative   Gandhian activist Himanshu Kumar has alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is expanding its presence in the Abujhmad region of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division following a crackdown on Adivasi communities opposing the exploitation of their land and natural resources.

By Daniel Ramp, Kapil Vishwas Patwardhan, Rosalie Chapple  We give our pet dogs shelter, veterinary care, affection, training and play. We decide when they eat, where they sleep, when they go outside, who they meet, and how they move through the world.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' (1896-1961), celebrated as 'Mahapran' and a pioneer of free verse in Hindi poetry, transformed the ancient Ramayana myth into a profound meditation on power, justice, and human resilience in his masterpiece Rama ki Saktipuja . Written in 1936, during the height of India's anti-colonial struggle, this long poem presents us with a deeply human Ram—not the flawless deity of traditional devotion, but a  wrestling with doubt, exhaustion, and the terrifying possibility of defeat.

By Bharat Dogra   At a time when concerns are growing over the increasing destructiveness of the Russia-Ukraine war, a recent, specific and well-argued peace proposal by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs   (photo) deserves serious consideration. Published in Common Dreams on October 20, 2026, the proposal outlines a framework for ending the conflict and creating conditions for a more durable peace.

By Mohd Ziyaullah Khan   Maharashtra is facing a severe agricultural crisis. After a deficient monsoon, failing crops and mounting water stress, the drought threatens farmers, agricultural labourers, livestock and rural livelihoods. Yet alongside the struggle for water and compensation, another contest has emerged: the political battle over which constituencies make it onto the drought-relief list.

By Vikas Meshram*  In the tribal belt stretching from Banswara to Dahod, the day often begins with a glance at the sky. The fields are small, the land uneven and sloping, and irrigation mostly means whatever the rain chooses to give. Yet in the villages of this region, a different story has been unfolding over the past few years. Sitting in meetings of Vaagdhara’s Gram Swaraj groups, farmers have begun to treat water, forest, land, livestock and seed as their real capital. 

Counterview News   Four years after world governments pledged to align global financial flows with nature conservation goals, a comprehensive new assessment reveals that major financial jurisdictions have largely failed to translate these commitments into binding rules. As a result, banks and investors remain largely free to finance deforestation and ecosystem destruction .

By A Representative   A recent conference in London brought together feminists, ex-Muslims, lawyers, secularists, artists and campaigners to discuss the challenges faced by women who question, leave or challenge religion, including state repression, imprisonment, family coercion, social isolation and difficulties in rebuilding their lives.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  French students are taking to the streets in search of teachers and quality education, while the United Kingdom’s National Health Service faces mounting pressures amid the expansion of market-oriented reforms. Young people are grappling with unemployment, low wages, marginalisation and exploitation. Democratic protests are increasingly met with legal threats, possible imprisonment and heavy-handed policing. Protests and riots are growing across parts of the developed Western capitalist world, where democratic deficits, economic alienation, rising living costs and the marginalisation of working people expose deep-seated problems within capitalist societies. Meanwhile, propaganda against socialism as a potential alternative continues to grow.

By A Representative   At a time when dissent is increasingly being treated as a threat rather than an essential part of democracy, the human rights group ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) organised Pratirodh Ka Jashn (Celebrating Resistance) at the Press Club of India, Raisina Road, New Delhi. The programme brought together poetry, music and cultural thought to reaffirm the importance of resistance in safeguarding democracy and the Indian Constitution.

By Likha Tana*  A 12-hour bandh in Pasighat on October 23, 2026, has brought long-simmering tensions over the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) project to a boiling point. Organized by groups including the Adi Baane Kebang-United, the protest demanded the release of activists previously detained for opposing the project, the withdrawal of security forces, and an immediate halt to pre-feasibility studies and survey activities. 

By A Representative   A recent gathering at Saiyadain Manzil backed the hunger strike by Jamia Millia Islamia students demanding the revival of the students' union. Calling for a time-bound process and the withdrawal of punitive action against the protesting students, alumni, descendants of the university's founding families, artists, journalists, lawyers and other citizens stressed the need to restore the Jamia Millia Islamia Students' Union (JMISU).

By Sohini Sarah Pillai*  American audiences will be able to watch an English-dubbed version of “Ramayana,” a Hindi film based on a South Asian epic tradition , in theaters in November 2026. The Sanskrit “Ramayana,” or “Journey of Rama,” is an epic poem that was composed sometime between 400 B.C.E. and 400 C.E . The epic follows Rama , an exiled prince and an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu , as he journeys to rescue his wife, Sita , from the demon king Ravana .

By Nava Thakuria*  The 10th edition of the Chalachitram National Film Festival (CNFF) concluded at the Jyoti Chitraban film studio premises, with Manipuri short feature “Toy Gun” and Assamese documentary “The Silent Crisis” winning the top honours in the Northeast India section.

Counterview News   Sister comp anies  Filmsupply and Musicbed have released their 2026 Commercial Filmmaking Trend Report, a comprehensive forecast arguing that "the future of commercial filmmaking is intentional and human." Filmsupply is a premium footage licensing agency, representing award-winning filmmakers, providing authentic, cinematic stock footage for use in films, TV, and advertising, while Musicbed is a music licensing platform for filmmakers, brands, and agencies. T he films analysed are confined to North America and Europe. 

By Harsh Thakor*  Ryu Murakami, the celebrated novelist, essayist, and filmmaker whose raw, uncompromising and honest portrayals of modern alienation and subculture redefined contemporary Japanese literature, has died. He was 74. He died on 17 October at home, according to his Japanese publisher Gentosha.

Counterview News   Just days before the sacred Dhvajarohan (flag hoisting) ceremony marking the commencement of Nashik's Simhastha Kumbh Mela , environmental activists and civil society groups have raised urgent alarms over severe industrial chemical contamination in Nashik’s water systems. They have accused state authorities of "institutional opacity" regarding the presence of Hexavalent Chromium [Cr(VI)]—a Group 1 human carcinogen —in local groundwater and river networks feeding the Godavari , with contamination levels recorded at over 1,000 times the permissible limit.

By A Representative    A  coalition of  several civil rights, labour, student and social justice groups,  Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), has condemned the arrest of three anti-dam activists in Arunachal Pradesh following recent violence in Pasighat, demanding their immediate release and the withdrawal of security forces from protest areas opposing the proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP).

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  A report commissioned by Heineken on The Future Role of Bars in Europe, published in October 2026, found that young people go to bars and pubs to build social lives around food and coffee, not alcohol. They go to meet friends and family. This is not a minor shift in taste. It is part of a wider generational rejection of the commodity culture on which capitalism depends.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Lula da Silva has returned to power in Brazil despite heavy intervention by US corporate interests and the Trump administration, which was pushing for Flávio Bolsonaro. The fact is that America's backyard is turning "red", and so will its interventions. After the regime change operation in Venezuela, US interference in Colombia is well known.

By Bharat Dogra  In one of the most welcome pieces of news in recent times for democracy, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has achieved a great democratic victory in a keenly contested runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro , son of former President Jair Bolsonaro , who is now serving a 27-year jail term for an earlier coup attempt against President Lula.

By Harsh Thakor*  Fifty years after the military junta seized power and unleashed a campaign of state-sponsored terror, the earth is finally yielding its secrets. The recent announcement by judicial authorities in Cordoba province, Argentina, regarding the identification of eight victims of the 1976–1983 dictatorship is more than just a judicial victory; it is a profound testament to the resilience of memory and the triumph of forensic science over the machinery of state erasure.

Counterview News    A new report reveals that the modern workplace has fallen into a "workaround economy," where employees are increasingly bypassing official company software to piece together their own tech stacks, driven by fragmented systems and mounting cognitive overload. According to the study conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of AI productivity platform Superhuman, 75% of professionals now operate outside of fully approved tool stacks, relying on a mix of company-provided and personally selected applications to get their jobs done. The survey of 1,505 professionals highlights a growing crisis in enterprise technology: while workers remain optimistic about their tools, the friction of moving work across disconnected systems is forcing them into unofficial, often insecure, habits.

Counterview News  The global race for artificial intelligence dominance is not just about computing power or capital; it is fundamentally about human capability. According to the newly released Global Skills Report 2026 by Coursera and Udemy , a stark "readiness disconnect" is threatening to derail global AI investments, with the report revealing that 88% of leaders believe their planned AI investments will fail without greater investment in human skills training.

By A Representative   Senior p ower and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma has urged the Ministry of Power and other senior policymakers to undertake an urgent review of India’s power-sector priorities, citing rising renewable-energy curtailment, transmission bottlenecks, delays in battery storage projects and the growing financial and ecological costs of conventional power infrastructure.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   The recent statement by Asaduddin Owaisi that “Muslims do not need Gandhi and Nehru” has predictably sparked outrage, with critics swiftly linking it to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s separatist ideology. But is this interpretation fair when the larger context of his remarks is ignored? More importantly, the controversy obscures a more fundamental question: why do many self-proclaimed secular voices continue to overlook Muslim freedom fighters such as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Mahmud Hasan, and Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar? 

By Syed Ali Mujtaba  Mohammad Adeeb, a former member of Parliament and now chairman of Indian Muslims for Civil Rights (IMCR), has rejected the allegation that Indian Muslims are not participating in the ongoing agitation led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) in Delhi. In a candid interview, he discussed at length Muslim particip ation in the protests in Delhi. He said Prakash Raj, Yogendra Yadav, and a number of other prominent figures are sitting in the IMCR office in Nizamuddin, strategizing the protest. IMCR is a non-political, non-religious, non-governmental organization (NGO) based in New Delhi.

By Bharat Dogra  Youth movements are surging in several countries. What follows is an outline of an alternative path for these movements—one that could yield more durable results in securing a safer, better, happier, and more creative future for young people and children.

By N.S. Venkataraman*  Over the past four years, youth-led protest movements have brought down governments in Sri Lanka (2022), Bangladesh (2024) and Nepal (2025). In all three countries the protests began peacefully and were issue-based, but escalated after government heavy-handedness. Unrest is now visible in France as well, and governments elsewhere, India included, are weighing how to respond to street protests of their own. The question is how democracies should handle demonstrations that turn violent. 

By Harsh Thakor   Ultra-endurance swimmer Catherine Breed has set a new benchmark in open-water endurance swimming by becoming the first person to swim California’s entire 900-mile (1,448 km) coastline. Breed completed the journey from Oregon to Mexico in 111 days—less than four months—according to organizers of the Swim California expedition.

By Rajiv Shah  A new report published by the international research and advocacy organization GRAIN has warned that the global resurgence of biofuels is triggering a dangerous dynamic of “more fuel, less food, more land grabs.” Driven by intersecting energy security concerns, geopolitical tensions, and aggressive decarbonization mandates, the expanding agrofuel industry is increasingly pitting corporate energy interests against global food security and indigenous land rights. 

By Amrita Basu*  Five months after its founding , India’s Cockroach Janta Party, known as the CJP, has revealed what youth-led democratic movements can achieve – and how hard they are to sustain. The movement was formed in May 2026 to protest the government’s cancellation of medical school entrance exams and after India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant likened unemployed youth to cockroaches. By July, the largely Gen Z movement had scored an early victory with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) on Saturday expressed “immense pain and outrage” that even after four years and a national uproar, justice has not been fully delivered in the Ankita Bhandari murder case and that a ruling party politician facing allegations has been “gifted a high-ranking constitutional office.” In a statement, ALIFA extended “unflinching solidarity” to Ankita’s parents, who it said are “fighting for justice on the streets of Delhi,” and demanded that pending the CBI inquiry and judicial decision, the appointment of BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam as Sikkim’s Governor be subject to “immediate presidential review.”

By Raqif Makhdoomi*  The law mandates the dignity of life as a fundamental right, meaning a life with dignity cannot be denied to anyone. However, a troubling phenomenon is spreading rapidly through society, particularly in Kashmir: the practice of declaring a person criminal at the very stage of arrest.

By A.V. Yadappanavar*  Parliamentary panel advises Centre to continue engagement, strengthen governance, and expedite recruitment *** The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), a premier national institution for rural development training, research, and capacity building, has come under renewed public scrutiny following the recent recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

By Bharat Dogra   In the context of ongoing global debates surrounding foreign interference, it is crucial to seek clarity on what exactly constitutes a Foreign Covert Regime Change Operation (FCRCO). Historically, powerful empires have frequently attempted to topple weaker neighboring regimes that defied their dictates or failed to meet their strategic requirements. Today, however, technological and geopolitical advancements allow the world’s most powerful nations to execute these operations across the globe.

By Ravi Ranjan*  In modern society we are used to thinking that a person's identity is tied to his profession. In India, however, profession has never been merely a way of earning a living. Ideas of honour and dishonour, closeness and distance, equality and inequality have always clung to it, and their roots lie in the long history of caste. When Sudama Pandey "Dhoomil" (1936–1975) places a cobbler at the centre of his poem "Mochiram," he is asking more than how a labourer is treated. He is asking how society decides who a person is before that person has said a word.

By Rajiv Shah  The other day, I was speaking with my former colleague and friend, Neeraj Nanda, who is now settled in Melbourne, where he runs South Asia Times (SAT). We worked together in the early 1980s at Link Newsweekly, published from Link House in Delhi. Before that, we were active together in the All-India Students Federation (AISF), India's oldest student organisation.

Counterview News   In the latest episode of the podcast Unmute , hosts Gagan Sethi and Minar Pimple convened a profound conversation with two veteran development practitioners to dissect a persistent tension within civil society: the perceived divide between service delivery and the struggle for rights. The episode, titled "Beyond Service Delivery: Civil Society, Rights, and the Politics of Social Change," featured Apoorva Oza , a development practitioner with decades of experience in rural development and institution-building, and Professor Dipa Sinha , a development economist known for her work on food, nutrition, gender, and social policy.

By Vikas Meshram*  We proudly say that India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. At the same time, in the Global Hunger Index 2026, we stand at 100th position among 122 countries. In this report, released on 14 October 2026, India's score is 24.1, placing the country in the "serious" category. India has remained in this category since 2012. Last year, we were ranked 102nd among 123 countries, which means we have improved by two places this year. But this marginal improvement in ranking is no reason to feel satisfied. Behind these figures are malnourished children, mothers exhausted by anaemia, and families in tribal hamlets struggling to get two square meals a day.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   India has travelled a remarkable distance from a country plagued by food shortages and dependence on imports to becoming one of the world's largest food producers. Yet a troubling question is emerging: can a country that produces record quantities of food still face a food crisis?

By Bharat Dogra   In recent weeks, the question of missing names in voter lists has become the most controversial issue in India. This controversy is related to alleged irregularities in the course of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of lists of eligible voters.

By Harsh Thakor*  The high school revolt in France, which began among working-class youth, is not a narrow complaint about schools. It is the concentrated expression of a social system in deep crisis—and it also points toward the solution. The rekindled class struggle has put “violence” back at the center of debate: the revolutionary violence of the masses against the reactionary violence of the bourgeois state apparatus.

Counterview Desk   International human rights judge Navi Pillay was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. She was honoured for her lifelong dedication to international law and global justice. To understand more about Pillay and her work, The Conversation , an online journal, spoke with Sam Naidu*, a feminist and literary scholar with a focus on crime and justice, and the author of a biography of Pillay. ***

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The ordinary consumer has to pay the price for the mismanagement of electricity companies. Consumers in Madhya Pradesh, already troubled by expensive electricity, now face a possible additional burden of 10 percent. This is reportedly linked to the draft rules being prepared by the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission for the next five-year retail tariff period, to take effect from April 1.