Counterview

By A Representative   India's top civil rights network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has condemned the reported police crackdown on protesters opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi, alleging that peaceful demonstrators, including students, women, queer persons, journalists, lawyers and activists, were subjected to violence. It has demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the release of detained activists and the withdrawal of cases registered against protesters.

By Harsh Thakor*  Issues 89-90 of the journal Aspects of India’s Economy , titled "West Asia: The People Refuse to Submit," published by the Research Unit for Political Economy (RUPE), serves as a comprehensive documentation of how the oppressed peoples of the world are mobilizing to overpower US imperialism . The special issue underscores a central thesis: despite the merciless military power of US imperialism and its regional gendarme, Israel , and while weapons remain an important factor, it is the people who play the most decisive role in shaping historical proceedings. 

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The American Dream was popularized by historian James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America  (1931), during the Great Depression, when American corporate profits fell from 2.8 billion in 1929 to −2.6 billion in 1930. Even this decline created significant social and economic strain for working people. Corporations cut costs and restructured their operations to survive, but unemployment reached 25% by 1933, leaving millions in poverty. 

By A Representative   A women's rights group, All India Mahila Sanskritik Sangathan (AIMSS), has issued a strong condemnation of the police action taken against the parents of Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old receptionist from Uttarakhand whose 2022 murder has sparked renewed national outrage following a controversial political appointment.

By A Representative   A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the illegalities arising from requiring voters, whose names were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, to fill Form 6 to seek re-inclusion in the voter list. The statement on the petition has been issued by Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri.

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 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 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 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.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   For religious minorities in India, the roar of the bulldozer has become an ominous soundtrack to their daily lives. Ever since the saffron-led government came to power, these communities have voiced mounting concerns over what they perceive as systematic political action and discrimination. Across the nation, mosques, mazars, dargahs, madrasas, and various other Muslim religious properties have increasingly featured in high-profile demolition, eviction, and anti-encroachment drives conducted by municipal, state, and central agencies. 

By Harsh Thakor*  A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jagdalpur, Bastar district, has sentenced 10 people to death in connection with the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack. The case concerns the attack on a Congress convoy in which at least 27 people, including senior Congress leaders, were killed and around 38 others were injured.

By Aseem Mishra*  For years, Kutch presented a striking contradiction. It emerged as one of Gujarat's most industrialised districts, with ports, mining, salt production, chemicals, engineering, steel, ceramics, textiles and large infrastructure projects, yet the district remained outside the full territorial coverage of the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) scheme. That contradiction has now formally changed. A notification issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment on 25 September 2026 appointed 1 October 2026 as the date from which contributions under Section 29 of the Code on Social Security, 2020 would become payable in the entire area of Kutch and other previously non-implemented districts of Gujarat, with benefits under Chapter IV relating to the Employees' State Insurance Corporation to be provided to covered employees. The journey to this point, however, took several years of representations, official correspondence, a Public Interest Litigation and ...

By Nava Thakuria*  The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government has formed three high-level committees to address long-standing problems in the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), a region in southeastern Bangladesh that borders India's Tripura and Mizoram states and Myanmar's Rakhine state. Bangladeshi intellectuals, civil society representatives and several Asian rights bodies have opposed the move, arguing that it could increase militarisation and human rights violations against the region's indigenous people.

By A Representative   The Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA) and a coalition of Dalit and Ambedkarite organisations from North America and Europe have condemned IIT Bombay’s handling of the death of Sahil Wakode, a second-year BTech student from the Scheduled Caste community who died on 18 September 2026, hours after he was removed from an examination. His family has alleged caste-based harassment, and an FIR under the SC/ST Act names an IIT Bombay faculty member. 

By Rosamma Thomas*  The Justice K Hema Committee report that probed the sexual exploitation of women in the Kerala film industry was released to the public two years ago – it states that a criminal mafia comprising actors, directors and producers dominates the film sector in Kerala. On September 14, 2026, filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan started a hunger strike in front of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, demanding a probe into the findings of the Hema Committee Report. 

By A Representative   Demonstrations were held in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Brighton on 26 September in solidarity with individuals detained in India under what organisers described as a politically motivated conspiracy case, according to a statement issued by the Joint Committee to Stop Repression in India (JCSRI).

Counterview News  In what has been interpreted as a landmark victory for grassroots environmental justice, the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of the Miraj Sub-Division in Sangli district has ordered the temporary shutdown of the 10 MW Bhumi Green Energy Waste-to-Energy (WTE) incineration plant in Tung village . The administrative action is said to have followed sustained community protests and a damning joint fact-finding report by the Paryavaran Rakshan Samiti Sangli , the National Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ), and the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA). 

By A Representative  The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has called for the immediate initiation of removal proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the restoration of all names deleted from electoral rolls during the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR), following an investigation published by The Indian Express on September 23, 2026.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   The controversy over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has moved beyond a dispute over voter-list management. Reported objections by two Election Commissioners have raised questions about institutional procedure, transparency, technology and the difficult balance between removing ineligible entries and protecting every eligible voter from wrongful exclusion.

​By Lohit Sharma*  ​For decades, the turbulent waters of Arunachal Pradesh’s river valleys have mirrored the simmering unrest along their banks. From the Siang to the Subansiri and the Dibang, the state’s relentless pursuit of mega-hydropower has pitted central infrastructure targets against the lived realities of indigenous communities. What planners in New Delhi and Itanagar view merely as untapped gigawatts, local inhabitants revere as sacred rivers, ancestral homelands, and delicate riverine ecosystems. Yet, as legitimate grassroots resistance to these colossal projects mounts, democratic dialogue is increasingly being replaced by the coercive machinery of the state.