Counterview

By Ram Puniyani    The results of the recent Assembly elections held in May 2026 were awaited with intense anticipation. In Assam, the delimitation exercise once again helped Himanta Biswa Sarma secure victory in the Assembly elections. His campaign focused primarily on the issue of “infiltrators,” accompanied by several other divisive and inflammatory slogans. 

By A Representative   The Gig and Platform Services Workers Union (GIPSWU) on May 16 organised a temporary nationwide shutdown of app-based services from 12 pm to 5 pm to protest rising fuel prices and inadequate wages. The strike, which comes after a Rs 3 per litre petrol and diesel price hike announced on Friday, has impacted food delivery, ride-hailing and quick-commerce platforms including Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola and Blinkit.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  A Preview of " India Economic and Social Justice Report – 2025 " by Prof K S Chalam *** In an era defined by indices and indicators measuring everything from economic growth to cultural well-being, a dedicated report on economic and social justice is not merely useful — it is essential. India's political class has lately been consumed by the rhetoric of a " Caste Census ," yet the caste question remains perpetually sidetracked, invoked only when it poses no real threat to the existing social and political order. For decades, experts have argued either that India's problems are purely social or purely economic, as if the two could be neatly separated. This false dichotomy has served mainly to inflame rival constituencies while obscuring the truth: that socio-economic and cultural injustices are deeply interdependent and cannot be understood in isolation.

By Jag Jivan   A joint submission by environmental research platform Mapping Malnad and climate coalition SAPACC has raised serious objections to the Karnataka government’s draft climate adaptation and mitigation strategy for the water sector, alleging that several major water infrastructure projects are being “mislabelled” as climate adaptation measures despite worsening ecological and hydrological stress across the state.  The 17-page response , submitted on May 11 to the Government of Karnataka, critiques the State Specific Action Plan on Climate Change (SSAPCC) prepared under the National Water Mission framework and calls for a complete overhaul of the state’s water governance approach.

By Saksham, Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava  Accelerated urbanization across India is exerting unprecedented pressure on water resources. Cities are expanding beyond administrative boundaries, groundwater is being over-pumped, surface water is increasingly polluted, and lakes and rivers are being encroached upon. Most Indian cities, historically agglomerations of villages, were traditionally built around sophisticated water-harvesting infrastructures — from cascading tanks and stepwells to stormwater channels and rooftop rainwater harvesting systems — that allowed communities to manage and conserve water sustainably over generations.

By Rajkumar Sinha*     Life on Earth has unfolded over hundreds of millions of years, with countless species emerging and disappearing in the natural cycle of evolution. Extinction has always been part of this process, driven by volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, and climatic shifts. 

By A Representative   As the 79th World Health Assembly prepares to convene in Geneva from 18 to 23 May 2026, a growing chorus of gender equality and global health activists is urging health ministers from 194 countries to counter rising anti-rights and anti-gender backlash and to accelerate progress towards the indivisible goals of gender equality and Health for All. The call comes amid a flurry of advocacy events at the Women Deliver Conference 2026 in Narrm, Melbourne, where the SHE & Rights Media Awards 2026 also celebrated journalists from Africa and the Asia Pacific for their reporting on health, gender and development justice.

By Sandeep Pandey*  Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s suggestions to buy less gold, avoid foreign travel, reduce the use of petrol and diesel, consume less edible oil, cut down on fertilizer use, use the metro, and work from home have triggered debate across Indian society. Political opponents argue that these remarks amount to an admission of the failure of government policies, while some economists claim that such measures could adversely affect the Indian economy.

By Himadri Priya  The recent protests led by the Arunachal ST Bachao Andolan Committee ( ASTBAC ) are not merely another pressure movement in the state’s political landscape. They reflect a growing public frustration over what many increasingly perceive as the Arunachal Pradesh government’s inability—or unwillingness—to decisively address illegal immigration and weak enforcement of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system .

By A Representative   A collective of 62 retired civil servants has urged the Madhya Pradesh government to order an impartial judicial inquiry into what they describe as a “highly suspicious” land transaction involving officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS).  

By Vikas Meshram   The world today confronts a stark contradiction: a few thousand wealthy individuals conceal fortunes greater than the combined assets of half the global population. This is not simply inequality—it is a system where the rich play by different rules than ordinary citizens. Oxfam ’s latest report exposes this imbalance with clarity.

By A Representative   Women’s and transgender rights organisations in Telangana have demanded the immediate arrest of Bandi Bhagirath , son of Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar , in connection with a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case, alleging that delays in police action are creating a perception of preferential treatment due to political influence.

By A Representative   The advocacy group National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights ( NAJAR ) has extended its support to the students of the National Law School of India University ( NLSIU ), Bengaluru, who are protesting against deteriorating living conditions on campus. 

By A Representative   The Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU) have called for a five-hour shutdown of app-based services on May 16, from 12 PM to 5 PM, in protest against the hike in petrol and diesel prices announced on 15 May 2026, demanding that the government and digital platforms fix a service rate of Rs. 20 per kilometre for delivery and ride-hailing workers.

By A Representative   The U.S. Justice Department is planning to drop criminal fraud charges against Gautam Adani , India's richest man, following an unusual private meeting in Washington in which his lawyers offered to invest $10 billion in the American economy if prosecutors closed the case, the New York Times reported on May 14.

By A Representative   The Gujarat High Court has issued a strong rebuke to the Vadodara City Police over the alleged custodial torture and public parading of five individuals, including young adolescents and their mother, in connection with a minor offence of hurling eggs at a Ganesh idol.

By A Representative   The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) Gujarat has issued a legal contempt notice to senior officials of the Government of Gujarat following the incident of public parading and custodial torture in Surat’s Althan area on April 25, 2026. The notice, signed by MCC Convenor Mujahid Nafees, has been addressed to the Chief Secretary of Gujarat, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department), the Director General of Police, and the Commissioner of Police, Surat City. 

By Jag Jivan   When 65-year-old Jitu Munda walked into the Odisha Gramin Bank ’s Malliposhi branch on the afternoon of April 27, carrying a jute sack on his shoulder, no one expected what lay inside. The sack contained the skeletal remains of his sister, Kalra Munda, whom he had buried on January 26.

By A Representative   A group of concerned citizens has written to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant , expressing deep disappointment over his recent observations on environmental litigation , which they say belittle their constitutional duty to protect the natural world.

By A Representative   The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned the arrest of activist and public intellectual Garga Chatterjee, calling it a dangerous instance of the “criminalisation of political speech” and warning that such actions threaten constitutional democracy. In a statement, PUCL said Chatterjee was arrested by the Cyber Crime Cell of the Kolkata Police on May 12 over allegations linked to his social media posts concerning the functioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the recent Assembly election period.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Sandhya Navodita occupies a distinctive place in contemporary Hindi poetry, where her literary sensibility is inseparable from socio-political consciousness. Educated in History, Law, and Journalism at Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, she has long been associated with people’s movements and pro-people politics. 

By Tings Chak   From Beijing this week, the first US state visit to China in nine years is being staged for the world to see. The Great Hall of the People is open to Donald Trump, who has traveled with eighteen US executives—Apple, Tesla, BlackRock, Boeing, and Nvidia among them. A state banquet on Thursday, followed by tea and lunch on Friday.

By A Representative   The National Health Rights Forum (Rashtriya Swasthya Adhikar Morcha), a nationwide initiative of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), has expressed deep concern over the continued stocking and sale of misbranded Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) products across India, warning that the practice severely jeopardises the health of children and vulnerable populations despite a clear ban imposed by the food safety regulator and upheld by the High Court. 

By Khan Tahir   India's entrance examinations have never been merely tests. For millions of families, they represent everything — a mother's prayers, a father's overtime wages, a sister's deferred dreams, a child's sleepless years. When the National Testing Agency was founded in 2017, it came with solemn promises: transparency, security, the end of cheating mafias, and a fair shot for every deserving student. Nearly a decade later, those promises lie in ruin.

By Atanu Roy   The political rise and recent electoral collapse of Mamata Banerjee cannot be understood without revisiting the defining battles of Singur and Nandigram. Those two movements reshaped West Bengal politics, ended 34 years of Left Front rule, and transformed Mamata Banerjee from a street agitator into one of India’s most powerful regional leaders. Yet, nearly fifteen years after she came to power in 2011, Bengal once again stands at a political turning point.

By A Representative   Mumbai-based senior journalist Gajanan Khergamker , in his new collection The Bengal Mandate , examines the shifting political landscape of West Bengal following the possible fall of Mamata Banerjee and the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  

By Raqif Makhdoomi*  Kashmir 's political atmosphere rarely settles. Barely a day passes without some fresh tussle between parties, their leaders trading accusations while ordinary people watch, exhausted and disillusioned. They voted for change. What they got was theatre.

By Jitendra Parmar   In a major anti-trafficking operation that has once again exposed the widespread use of child labour in India’s industrial hubs, 91 minor children were rescued from three textile units in Surat, Gujarat , during a joint raid conducted by multiple agencies and child rights organisations.

By A Representative   Human rights activist Kavita Shrivastava has alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Police is invoking the National Security Act (NSA) against two activists associated with Mazdoor Bigul in connection with the Noida workers’ protest case, even as labour unrest continues to spread across industrial belts in several northern states.

By Rajiv Shah   The Ahmedabad unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has released a detailed field research report titled "Are we not Indians? The Development Politics of Uprooting Citizens and Shattering Lives at Chandola Lake ," documenting the mass demolitions in the city's periphery that took place between April 27 and May 2, 2025.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Nepal is a friendly neighbour of India, and people like me have always felt deep cultural affinities with Nepal and the Himalayan societies of South Asia. We share not only borders but also histories, traditions, languages, food habits and kinship ties.  From Uttarakhand to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, the communities living along the Indo-Nepal border have evolved through centuries of close interaction. Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh share strong similarities with the Tarai or Madhesh region of Nepal. Sikkim and northern West Bengal are linked through Buddhist and Gorkha traditions. 

By A Representative   Human rights activist Kirity Roy has written to West Bengal Chief Minister urging the newly formed state cabinet to reconsider and humanely implement its decision to expedite land allocation to the Border Security Force (BSF) for fencing along the India-Bangladesh border . In a letter dated May 12, Roy appealed to the government to ensure that land between the border fence and the international boundary is legally acquired and that the rights and livelihoods of border residents are protected.

By Deepmala Patel*  Tribal communities in Odisha's Rayagada district are locked in an intensifying confrontation with mining giant Vedanta Limited over a proposed bauxite extraction project in the Sijimali hills — a conflict that erupted into violence in early April when police stormed a village in the dead of night and left dozens injured.

By Palla Trinadha Rao  When forests are diverted for development, compensation is meant to restore what is lost—not only ecologically, but also for the communities that depend on them. In Andhra Pradesh, however, large Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds remain unutilised, delaying restoration efforts and raising deeper concerns about environmental justice, accountability, and the credibility of compensatory afforestation itself.

By Fayyaz Baqir, Mansee Bal Bhargava   Archibald MacLeish in Hypocrite Auteur  mentions that a “world ends when its metaphor has died,” signifying the death of shared meaning. The decline of global governance , augmented and triggered by the rise of imperialism, is challenging the world order and pushing humanity to the threshold of an existential crisis. When the cultural, spiritual, artistic, and humanistic values that structure our reality cease to be believed, the world falls away, creating a “rupture” that demands new meaning.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Hindutva politics has been described as a political, social, cultural, and economic project associated with higher castes and classes. Analysts note that it has functioned as a framework for consolidating crony capitalism in India. 

By Rajiv Shah  A recent academic study has highlighted how caste and social identity continue to shape employment opportunities, wages and access to secure livelihoods in India, even as the country projects itself as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The findings, published in the 2026 Springer volume Unequal Opportunities: An Analysis of Inequalities in Employment Opportunities Among Different Social Groups in Labor Markets of India , argue that structural discrimination remains embedded in both formal and informal labour markets. 

By Himadri Priya*  The dispute over Lipulekh Pass is no longer merely a cartographic disagreement between India and Nepal. It has evolved into a revealing test of political sincerity, diplomatic consistency, and regional trust. From an Indian perspective, Nepal's increasingly aggressive claims over the strategically important pass appear less rooted in historical legitimacy and more driven by opportunistic nationalism and geopolitical balancing.

By Vikas  Meshram*  In the Petlawad tehsil of Jhabua district , Madhya Pradesh , nestled within the Moicharani Panchayat, lies a small tribal village called Borpada — perhaps no more than a dot on any government map, yet its life is no less complex than the turmoil of a big city. The only difference is that the hardships of a city make newspaper headlines, while the hardships of a village are silently endured.

By Ravi Ranjan*  In an age when much contemporary poetry chases fashionable idioms and performative outrage, Keshav Tiwari offers something rarer: a voice rooted in the soil of rural India, yet reaching toward universal human truths. His collection Nadi ka marsiya to pani hi gayega (Only the Water Will Sing the River's Elegy) stands as a quiet but profound intervention in Hindi literature —one where personal suffering intertwines with collective memory, and environmental decay merges with human resilience.

By Harsh Thakor*   This is my selection, in order of merit, of the greatest opening batsmen ever. I have tried to strike a balance between Test and first-class statistics, as well as technical correctness and attacking skill. I have prioritised Test and first-class cricket over ODI cricket .

By Rajiv Shah  A new World Bank flagship report reveals that human capital accumulation in India is being critically undermined by severe deficits in child health, home-based care, and educational quality, with stark disparities linked to gender, birth order, and environmental pollution . The report, Building Human Capital Where It Matters: Homes, Neighborhoods, and Workplaces , argues that without urgent policy action targeting the home, neighborhood, and workplace, India risks perpetuating a cycle of low productivity and stagnating economic growth.

By Rajkumar Sinha*  Tamil Nadu’s contemporary politics has witnessed a historic shift. Breaking the decades-long dominance of the two major Dravidian parties — Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam — actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, emerged as the single largest force by winning 107 seats in the 234-member Assembly. Tamil Nadu Governor R. N. Ravi had initially declined Vijay’s claim to form the government, despite the TVK founder meeting the Governor twice and requesting an invitation to establish the administration. A petition was also filed in the Supreme Court challenging the delay in inviting Vijay to form the government. In a parliamentary democracy governed by the Constitution, whether a party or coalition commands a majority can ultimately be tested only on the floor of the House.

By A Representative    A growing national debate over India’s expanding AI and data centre infrastructure has intensified, even as noted power and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma urged the Union government and state authorities to exercise “high level due diligence” before approving large-scale nuclear energy projects aimed at meeting rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centres .

By Ravi Ranjan*   The Radcliffe Line , drawn in 1947 by a British lawyer who had never previously visited the Indian subcontinent, remains one of the most violent cartographic acts of the twentieth century. Yet its violence was not merely territorial. As Tarun Bhatnagar 's story " Grandmother, Multan and Touch and Go " demonstrates with extraordinary subtlety, the line fractured something far more intimate than maps or political boundaries—it tore through the fabric of memory, language, domestic intimacy, and the human soul.

By Harsh Thakor*  When Jean-Paul Sartre died in Paris on April 15, 1980, the left lost one of its most uncompromising voices. He was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist and anti‑imperialist militant – but above all, a thinker who refused to let theory sit apart from revolutionary action. Decades later, in a world still healing from colonial wars and capitalist alienation, Sartre’s example endures. The mid‑century meeting between Marxism and existentialism , which he did more than anyone to forge, remains vital today. Far from being a relic, Sartre’s insistence that we can always choose to act – even under crushing structures – keeps his work a beacon for the left.

By Rajiv Shah   A comprehensive new study examining 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods across India has uncovered deep patterns of residential segregation and systematic inequality in access to public services, with findings that researchers say rival the scale of racial segregation in the United States.

By A Representative   A group of scientists and academics under the banner of Scientists for People has submitted a detailed representation to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority alleging major scientific and environmental lapses in the appraisal of hyperscale data centre projects in Telangana, including projects linked to Amazon Data Services and CtrlS. The representation, dated May 8, 2026, was addressed to SEIAA Chairperson Dr. G. Sabita Reddy and raises concerns over environmental clearances granted to large-scale data centre facilities in Raviryal, Chandanvelly, Meerkhanpet, Peddavedu and Manchanpally. 

By Shankar Sharma*  India stands at an energy inflection point unlike any it has faced before. The accelerating demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure , data centres , air conditioning, and electric vehicles is generating powerful lobbying for a major expansion of nuclear power . Before we commit to that path, we owe ourselves — and every living thing dependent on this land — a clear-eyed reckoning with the full costs involved.

By A Representative   A student of Azim Premji University in Bengaluru has been handed a two-year suspension by the university administration, a decision that has sparked immediate protest from fellow students who are demanding its revocation. The suspension order, conveyed via email from the Registrar’s office today, cites four specific allegations against the student: “ Defiance of institutional processes and guidelines ,” “ Misrepresenting facts ,” “Violating the university code of conduct ,” and “Failure to follow university’s instructions for de-escalating a volatile situation during an extraordinary event on campus.” According to a press release issued by students of the university, this decision follows the recommendations of a Special Disciplinary Committee that was constituted to investigate events that took place on February 24, when ABVP members forcibly entered the campus and vandalised the university premises. Students have expressed deep concern over ...

By A Representative   Representatives of Catholic, Protestant, and independent Christian denominations formally launched the National Federation of Churches in India (NFCI) at a meeting held at St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences in Bengaluru, constituting what church leaders described as the first all-inclusive national body of Christian Churches in the country.