Counterview

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan*   There are moments in a journalist's life when a news story refuses to remain just another headline. It becomes intertwined with memory, conviction, and identity. The conviction of Tarun Tejpal by the Bombay High Court in the 2013 sexual assault case is one such moment.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*   The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (August 9) is dedicated to protecting the rights of indigenous communities, safeguarding their heritage, and recognizing their contributions to society and the environment. It is also an occasion to reaffirm the human rights of indigenous peoples across the world and acknowledge their unique cultural identities and their vital role in protecting nature.

By A Representative  On the eve of India's 80th Independence Day, a prominent policy analyst has released a comprehensive report urging a fundamental strategic reassessment of the country's electricity sector. The proposal, submitted to the Union Ministries of Power, New and Renewable Energy, Finance, and NITI Aayog, advocates for a decisive pivot from the traditional "capacity expansion" model to a "system optimisation" paradigm centred on distributed renewable energy (DRE).

By A Representative   A group of concerned citizens, including writers, academics, filmmakers, activists and public figures, has appealed to the Chief Justice of India to intervene in the continued incarceration of activist Umar Khalid and former JNU scholar Sharjeel Imam, who have been in custody as undertrial prisoners in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case. In an open letter addressed to the Chief Justice of India, the signatories expressed concern over the prolonged use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), arguing that extended pre-trial detention must be weighed against an accused person's fundamental right to liberty and a speedy trial. The letter recalls the Supreme Court's 2021 judgment in K.A. Najeeb, in which the court held that constitutional courts retain the power to grant bail even under stringent UAPA provisions when prolonged incarceration infringes an accused person's right to a speedy trial under Article 21. The signatories quoted the judgm...

By A Representative   A group of women advocates who stood sixth and seventh among female candidates in the recent Bar Council elections have filed a petition before the Supreme Court, seeking a recall and reconsideration of the Court’s August 4 order determining the mechanism for co-opting women into State Bar Councils.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Savita Singh's poem "No Enemy" (Satru Nahin) represents a distinctive intervention in contemporary Hindi poetry, weaving together feminist consciousness and ecological ethics into a unified vision. The poem transcends conventional nature poetry by imagining relationships among human beings, rivers, trees, birds, forests, and silence founded upon mutual respect rather than dominion. At a historical moment when feminist and environmental discourses converge, Singh's work demonstrates that the liberation of women and nature cannot be understood independently of one another.

By Harsh Thakor*  Ghassan Kanafani, who was assassinated in Beirut in 1972, was not just a master of Palestinian literature, a pioneering journalist, and a visionary strategist, but was also a diehard internationalist. He comprehensively understood that the struggle against Zionism and imperialism in Palestine intersected with the anti-colonial, Pan-African liberation movements cutting across the African continent. 

By Ram Puniyani*  Our independence was the huge achievement of a people's struggle against the British. The independence struggle had the participation of people of all religions, castes, genders, languages, and ethnicities. The principles that guided our movement were Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Social Justice. Leaders like Bhagat Singh emphasized the values of rights and liberty for all sections of society, irrespective of the bonds of class and caste. Ambedkar focused on equality (social justice) for all people, trying to break the bonds of caste and varna, while Gandhi, who was the overarching leader of the movement, emphasized fraternity. Those who supported them belonged to the rising classes: industrialists, businessmen, workers, women, and indigenous people. The triad of the modern state was embodied in these three major icons, who left a deep impression on free India. It was these values of the independence movement that formed the foundational triad of ...

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  ​The recent "purification" (shuddhikaran) ritual conducted at the Ramlila Ground in Haldwani, Uttarakhand—following a public address by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge —serves as a grim reminder of how deeply caste prejudices remain entrenched in the Indian psyche.  

By A Representative   The news of thousands of quintals of wheat rotting in government warehouses in Mandla district due to insect infestation and negligence is deeply alarming. According to reports, approximately 17,859 quintals of wheat — roughly 1,786 metric tonnes — purchased during the Rabi Marketing Year 2025-26 through the Civil Supplies Corporation and stored in a government warehouse, has been severely damaged. Large quantities have been infested by insects, with many sacks rendered unfit for consumption.

By A Representative   In a landmark hearing held on 13 August 2026, the Supreme Court of India strongly criticized the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ( FSSAI ) for failing to implement its 10 February 2026 direction on front-of-pack warning labels for junk food.

By A Representative   The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has called for the immediate removal of Vice-Chancellor Prof. Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit and demanded an independent, time-bound inquiry into alleged violations of statutory rules, faculty recruitment procedures and the functioning of the university’s Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC).

By Jharna Pathak*  The death of Twisha Sharma on May 12, 2026, in her marital home in Bhopal, just five months into her marriage, is not an isolated incident of domestic abuse. She held an MBA degree, had worked as a model and actor, and was a corporate employee. Her husband is a practising lawyer, while her mother-in-law is a retired district judge. Given such an elite background and other markers of a modern, independent, and liberated woman, she should have been safe—until she wasn't.

By Dr. P.K. Gupta*  Around 4000 BC, in the pre-Harappan period, the Assyrian story of Etana — a king aided by an eagle and cursed by a serpent — features a goddess of fertility. It survives in cuneiform tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal, now held in Britain. In the tale, the goddess grants Etana a potion so he can father a son — a myth often cited as marking a symbolic shift from matriarchal to patriarchal social structures.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   By 2026, India’s youth anger can no longer be dismissed as a reaction to one leaked examination, one cancelled recruitment process or one police crackdown. The protests now unfolding across the country expose a deeper national failure: India is producing aspirations far faster than it is producing opportunity.

By A Representative   A 45-year-old man died after being taken into police custody in Halisahar in North 24 Parganas district, prompting the civil rights group Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) to allege custodial torture and demand an independent judicial investigation.

By Rohit Rakshit*  "The happiness and satisfaction I see on children's faces when they learn and understand new things motivates me to continue teaching," said Jitendra Kumar, one of fifteen community tutors from a remote village in Jharkhand’s Koderma district who continues to teach, even though the project that trained and supported them has ended.

By A Representative   Hundreds of representatives of fishermen displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project met Fisheries Department officials in Barwani on August 12, held detailed discussions on their problems and rights, and submitted a memorandum of demands. The delegation, led by the proposed Narmada Mata Matsya Utpadan Evam Vipanan Sangh, comprised representatives of various fishermen cooperative societies from Barwani, Dhar and Alirajpur districts.

By Aseem Mishra*    India’s cities are locked in a quiet but intensifying struggle over one of their most contested public spaces: the footpath. For pedestrians, a footpath is basic infrastructure—a strip of ground that should allow people to move safely, independently and with dignity. For millions of informal workers, the same stretch of pavement is a workplace, a source of daily income and often the difference between survival and destitution.

Counterview News     India’s housing market is increasingly showing two very different faces: affluent buyers are driving demand for premium homes, even as the supply of genuinely affordable housing continues to shrink.

By A Representative   The People’s Training & Research Center (PTRC), a Vadodara-based NGO that has worked on occupational health for over three decades, has released its annual report for 2025-26, documenting both significant legal breakthroughs and the persistent struggles of workers afflicted by silicosis in Gujarat’s ceramic and mining hubs.

By Neha Desai*  On the morning of August 10, 2026, the quiet border village of Mingmang Basti in Assam’s Dhemaji district erupted in gunfire. Unidentified persons from the Arunachal Pradesh side allegedly opened fire on Assamese villagers during a confrontation over contested land. Between eight and eighteen people were injured, several critically. The episode was swiftly labelled a “localised conflict” by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. That description is both accurate and damning. It was localised only because successive governments—state and central—have spent decades ensuring that a solvable administrative problem remained permanently unresolved, volatile, and armed.

By Kumar Krishnan*   The completion of one hundred years since Mahatma Gandhi’s first visit to the land of Anga was not merely an occasion to remember the past. The three-day national commemorative programme, held in Bhagalpur from 7 to 9 August 2026, sought to connect Gandhi’s memory with history, ideas, folk culture and the realities of contemporary social life. Organised jointly by the Gandhi Peace Foundation Centre, Bhagalpur, and the Mahatma Gandhi Arrival Centenary Celebration Committee, the programme brought together Gandhian thinkers, educationists, researchers, students, social workers and citizens.

Counterview News     The arrest and remand to judicial custody of Arun Pannalal , president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum , has triggered concern among civil-liberties, religious-freedom and minority-rights activists, who have accused the Chhattisgarh government of using criminal law to suppress dissenting voices.

Counterview News    India’s rapid economic expansion is accompanied by an increasingly concentrated distribution of wealth, raising fresh questions over how fheadline GDP figures reflect the economic reality of ordinary Indians. A two yearold social-media post by former bureaucrat Anil Swarup , founder chairman of Nexus of Good , has resurrected a debate over the gap between India’s aggregate economic size and the wealth held by its richest citizens. Swarup argues that looking only at GDP per capita can obscure the extent to which wealth is concentrated among a small section of the population.

By Nava Thakuria*  The recent media briefing by ousted Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina in New Delhi revealed little about her plans to return home. Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, however, delivered some striking remarks about the state of Bangladesh under the Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government in Dhaka.  

By Vikas Meshram*  The world recently witnessed a milestone that had been anticipated for years. Yet instead of being celebrated as a symbol of global progress, it became a stark reminder of the widening economic chasm. On 12 June 2026, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. Following the listing of SpaceX shares, Musk’s wealth surged past the one-trillion-dollar mark in a single day. 

By Guillermo R. Barreto  It happened on 25 May 2020, in Minneapolis, USA. George Floyd (a Black man) was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pay for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Police officer Derek Chauvin (a white man) pinned him to the ground and pressed down on his neck for more than 9 minutes. It was to no avail that George Floyd repeated 'I can’t breathe' more than 20 times. He lost consciousness and died of asphyxiation. In other words, he was murdered by the police officer. This incident sparked a wave of outrage and protests that spread to more than 2,000 cities across the U.S. and beyond.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The hubris of the Hindutva government led by the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is entering its final phase. The youth and student movements emerging across the country, together with the mass support they have mobilised in their struggles against the Modi government, point to a deeper material crisis affecting broad sections of the Indian population. If current political trends continue, the Modi government could face a decisive electoral reckoning in the next general election, scheduled for 2029.

By A Representative   A group of leading health professionals, medical scientists, and public health experts has written to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, demanding immediate implementation of a watershed ban on junk food advertising and the introduction of mandatory front-of-pack warning labels, warning that India can no longer afford delays in addressing its escalating diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis. 

By A Representative   Members of the Youth Socialist Initiative (YSI), along with socialist activists, trade union leaders, teachers, students, journalists and youth from different parts of the country, held a protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday on the occasion of Quit India Movement Day, demanding an end to the privatisation, commercialisation and communalisation of education.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ*   ​As India marks the anniversary of its independence from colonial rule in August 2026, a sad reality becomes glaringly apparent: the struggle for true freedom continues unabated.   ​To understand where the nation stands today, one must turn back the pages of history. Eighty-four years ago, Mahatma Gandhi and numerous freedom fighters gathered in Bombay with a singular goal: liberation. India had endured foreign subjugation since 1757, and the time had come to break the chains. 

By Kumar Krishnan*  The student movement sweeping Jharkhand over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations has evolved far beyond a demand to cancel tests. It has become a deeper confrontation over trust between the state’s youth and the government.

By Bharat Dogra  ​While recent high-profile educational reforms have dominated national headlines, a significant range of crucial educational needs—particularly those concerning younger children and core value systems—remain deeply neglected.  

By A Representative   India's urban bus transport system is in a state of crisis, with more than 400 cities having no organised bus service at all, according to a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and CITIES Forum released on August 10, 2026. The study, titled "The Economics of Bus Transformations: A Roadmap for Viksit Bharat 2047," warns that the country needs an investment of Rs 14.2 lakh crore, or roughly 165 billion dollars, over the next two decades to fix the sector.

By A Representative   The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Rajasthan, along with several people’s organisations, has criticised the public hearing held in Ajmer on the Aravalli region, alleging that the exercise was reduced to a “mere formality” and was dominated by representatives of the mining industry.

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), a national platform bringing together women, transgender and non-binary persons from democratic movements across the country, has issued an open letter to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, demanding institutional accountability for right-wing commentator T.G. Mohandas over his remarks calling for student protesters to be shot and making derogatory comments about women. Issued on Quit India Day, the letter gives the Sangh until August 14—a week before Independence Day—to act, warning that "silence is complicity."

By Arun Mohan   As someone who has lived in Delhi for over two decades, the sight of protests happening in and around Jantar Mantar, and the occasional rallies from Jantar Mantar to Parliament Street or from Barakhamba Road to Jantar Mantar, is not new. The vibrant Jantar Mantar road (entirely) and the huge Parliament Street rallies were themselves seen as a limited space for dissent, as engagement with policymakers was not guaranteed even after a huge protest. But over the years we have seen a clampdown on these very spaces as well. That, along with surveillance using facial recognition software and drones, has struck fear into people about the "state."

By Mahesh Pandya*  The month of August is often hailed as the month of revolution. During India's freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi bequeathed two enduring symbols to the nation: the broom and the spinning wheel. While the charkha (spinning wheel) came to represent self-reliance and economic empowerment, the broom was a potent emblem of sanitation and environmental conservation. 

By Prem Singh  “9th of August was and will always remain a people’s event. But, as yet, 15th August is celebrated with a lot of fanfare, for on that day the British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten shook hands with the Indian Prime Minister and gave damaged independence to a damaged country. 9th August expressed the will of the people—we want to be free and we shall be free. For the first time after a long period in our history, crores of people expressed their desire to be free. In some places it was done in great strength. But the will was short-lived, though strong. It didn’t have a lasting intensity. The day our nation acquires a tenacious will, we will be able to face the world.” —Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia

By Harsh Thakor*  In August 2026, the swimming world will celebrate the centennial anniversary of Gertrude Ederle's historic English Channel crossing. One hundred years ago, on August 6, 1926, Ederle became the first woman—and only the sixth person overall—to successfully swim the English Channel. Her time of 14 hours and 39 minutes shattered the previous record by nearly two hours.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Shamsher Bahadur Singh (1911-1993) stands as a distinctive vanguard poet of the Nai Kavita (New Poetry) movement in modern Hindi literature. His work seamlessly bridges the worlds of Impressionist painting and music with verse, celebrated for intricate imagery, experimental nature, and profound sensitivity. 

By Himadri Priya*  The devastating floods and landslides that have struck Arunachal Pradesh once again reveal a familiar reality: natural disasters may be inevitable in the eastern Himalayas, but the scale of disruption is shaped by the state's preparedness, the resilience of its infrastructure, and the speed of its response. While the government has launched relief operations and announced financial assistance, these efforts have come only after many communities had already endured isolation, damaged homes, disrupted livelihoods, and uncertainty.

By Mayanka Singh Chhonker*  Agra is known as the home of the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world and a bucket-list destination. Visitors marvel at its beauty, but few realise that another Agra exists in its shadow: the Agra of its artisans. These communities hold the essence of the city’s cultural legacy yet remain invisible to many of the people who seek beauty here.

By Osman Sher*  Eight decades after Independence, the present rulers are rewriting the history of India to suit their own political preferences, particularly with the intention of portraying Mughal rule as barbaric: a period in which rulers governed ruthlessly, destroyed temples, plundered India’s wealth, and forcibly converted local populations.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ*  The Ninth of August 2026 spells 'Courage': It was on this day in 1942 that the 'Quit India Movement' went into action and thousands of our freedom fighters who were on the streets were arrested. The previous day (8 August), at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee, Mahatma Gandhi introduced a resolution to start a 'Quit India Movement'. His was a clarion call: loud, determined, unequivocal and without compromise. India had suffered enough at the hands of their colonial masters, the British. It was time we got our freedom! The resolution was unanimously passed at that historic meeting.

In the flood-prone Kosi Diyara region of Bihar, water security is often defined not by scarcity, but by the challenges of living with hydrological volatility and seasonal extreme flows. In a field report published on July 28, 2026, by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), Dr. Rahul Yaduka , Postdoctoral Researcher with the WATCON Project at SOAS University of London , outlines how seasonal migrant farmers are redefining water security by adapting to the erratic nature of the Kosi River rather than fighting it.

By A Representative   The National Coalition for Women’s Reservation (NCWR) organised a joint rally at Jantar Mantar on Friday, demanding the immediate implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies, without linking it to delimitation or the census.

By Harsh Thakor   Swimming across the Baltic is one of the most enduring, and almost miraculous, unimaginable or insurmountable missions in long-distance swimming. The swimmer faces the perils of not only a considerable distance but also fluctuating weather, cold water, waves and mounting physical fatigue. A Polish man has become the first person ever to swim across the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Poland. On Sunday, Bartłomiej Kubkowski swam 100 miles (160km) from Kaseberga, in southern Sweden, to Dziwnów, on Poland's northern Baltic coast, taking 56 hours.

By Sudhansu R. Das*  The passage of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which extends legal protection to Vande Mataram, has once again brought India's national song into public debate. The legislation has prompted discussion not only about legal safeguards for national symbols but also about the historical and cultural significance of Vande Mataram in India's freedom movement.