Counterview

By A Representative   Women engaged in manual scavenging gathered in the national capital to counter the Union government’s official stance in Parliament that the practice has been eradicated in India.

By Aditya Sharma*  Dr P K Gupta's recent article ( The 'Dr' debate masks a larger crisis in allied-health education , Counterview , 1 August 2026)  on the use of the "Dr" prefix by physiotherapists reads, on its surface, as a balanced take on a genuinely difficult question. But a closer look shows that it revives a set of arguments that were put before Parliament during the drafting of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 (NCAHP Act) — and that Parliament's own Standing Committee considered and rejected. This response draws on the Committee's 117th Report and the text of the Act itself to lay out why.

By Ram Puniyani*  The Sarsanghchalak (Chief) of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, has undertaken a tour of three countries abroad. The first stop was the United States, where, apart from a few other engagements, his major event was to address a gathering at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was expected that over 5,000 people would attend. The stated objective of the visit was to dispel misconceptions about the RSS, engage in dialogue, and spread a message of universal oneness.

By A Representative   The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has proposed a red hexagonal warning label for packaged foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, following a series of directions from the Supreme Court. While the move could mark an important step towards helping consumers identify unhealthy packaged foods, public-health advocates say the proposal contains five significant loopholes that could substantially weaken its impact.

By Nava Thakuria*  Developments in northeastern India have brought the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) back into public discussion, with developments in Manipur and Assam placing questions of migration, citizenship verification and demographic change at the centre of the debate.

By Bharat Dogra   In the sun-baked potato fields of Gujarat, a quiet revolution was taking root. Nine smallholder farmers, tilling land their families had worked for generations, found themselves staring down a multinational giant. PepsiCo India Holdings had come for them — not for their land, not for their water, but for their seeds.

By Bharat Dogra   In recent months, President Trump has carried out numerous highly disturbing actions in the name of combating drug trafficking—including over 60 attacks on sea vessels, resulting in more than 220 deaths, issuing threats to Mexico and several other nations, and even orchestrating the kidnapping of Venezuela's president. 

By A Representative   In a landmark order, the Supreme Court of India has issued a comprehensive and unambiguous directive to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to implement front-of-pack warning labels on junk food within two weeks. The bench, led by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, rejected FSSAI’s argument that India cannot match international standards, asking pointedly: “Should India remain an underdeveloped country?” The Court further stated: “The world should know that India is very much concerned about the overall health of its citizens, more particularly the growing children.”

By A Representative   Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) has submitted a formal proposal to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India urging it to convert its existing 2022 draft labelling regulations into a system of mandatory interpretive warning labels in line with the Supreme Court’s recent directions. In a letter addressed to FSSAI Chief Executive Officer Rajit Punhani, the organisation said the authority already possesses a ready procedural framework through the Draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling & Display) Amendment Regulations, 2022, notified on September 13, 2022, and need only amend that draft to replace the proposed Indian Nutrition Rating with clear warning labels.

By A Representative   A fact-finding team has alleged that the lynching of a 32-year-old man in Jharkhand’s Chatra district was communal in nature and has exposed the failure of the Hemant Soren government to curb hate violence. The team, comprising representatives of the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha , Karwan e Mohabbat, Sajha Kadam, and the United Milli Forum, visited Bargaon village in the Tandwa police station area on August 12 to investigate the mob killing of Md Imroj Ansari on August 4.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  There was a time when farming was governed simply by the rhythm of the seasons—sowing, tilling, and harvesting. Today, Indian farmers are forced to navigate the labyrinth of complex legal volumes. The reason? The aggressive encroachment of multinational corporations into agriculture. Take, for instance, PepsiCo—a company reaping immense profits turning potatoes into chips—which legally locked down a proprietary potato variety for its supply chain. How are ordinary farmers supposed to survive this corporate maze?

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  For decades, India has grappled with the challenge of balancing development with environmental protection. Large projects—including roads, dams, mining operations, thermal power plants, industrial projects and nuclear power plants—are often presented as essential drivers of economic growth. Yet before such projects are undertaken, environmental impact assessments and measures to prevent or minimise potential harm are not merely desirable; they are legal requirements.

By A Representative   The human rights coalition Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) issued a statement on 15 August 2026 strongly condemning a Mumbai Police investigation into students, former students and professors of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences linked to an October 2025 programme commemorating the late professor G.N. Saibaba . The group said the arrest of a former TISS student, notices issued to professors over their communications with students, and scrutiny of routine academic fieldwork form a disturbing pattern of placing academic spaces, political expression and reading material under police surveillance.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* ​ Professor Jason Arday died on 4 August 2026, aged 41, in a flat in Battersea, London . But in a profound sense, he had been “killed” long before his physical death: reduced to the label of a Black professor and subjected to a relentless, coordinated campaign of institutional scrutiny and public hostility.

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 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 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 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.