Counterview

By Vikas Meshram   The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

By Kuntal Mukherjee*  As fresh warnings emerge about the possible return of El Niño conditions and their likely impact on the southwest monsoon , concerns are once again growing across rural India. For urban India, El Niño may appear as just another climate phenomenon discussed in weather bulletins. But for millions of farmers, especially in central and eastern India, it can mean failed crops, mounting debts, water scarcity, distress migration , and deep psychological stress. In a country where agriculture remains heavily dependent on monsoon rainfall, the threat of an El Niño year is not merely meteorological; it is social, economic and humanitarian.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak   Politics is a tool for social, political, economic, and cultural transformation—of individuals, families, societies, states, governments, and institutions—toward a progressive path of human emancipation from poverty, marginalisation, inequality, deprivation, and exploitation, as well as other forms of oppression created by feudal, patriarchal, capitalist, and imperialist power structures. The struggle against dominant powers not only produces mass leaders but also strengthens and deepens democracy across the world.

By Ravi Ranjan*  The intersection of hunger, poverty, and state violence has long been a defining theme of South Asian subaltern literature. In Hari Bhatnagar’s story Sharm (Shame), this intersection is not merely depicted—it is dissected, exposing the collapse of human dignity under the combined weight of economic destitution and institutional brutality. The narrative demonstrates how morality itself becomes a privilege of the secure, while the poor are stripped of even the right to feel shame. What emerges is a devastating portrait of survival, where the common man is crushed between the twin predators of police and dacoits, and where society itself becomes complicit in eroding the humanity of its weakest members.

   Counterview News    In a significant setback for transparency advocates, the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled on May 18, 2026, that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is not a "public authority" under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, reversing its own 2018 decision. The order has sparked sharp criticism from transparency activist Venkatesh Nayak, who has released a detailed critique accusing both the CIC and Union government ministries of acting as "night watchmen" to insulate the BCCI from public scrutiny.

By Sandeep Pandey*  U.S. federal prosecutors withdrew a criminal case involving allegations that Gautam Adani had bribed officials in India to secure solar energy projects, stating that they lacked sufficient evidence. Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani also settled a civil fraud case with the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a fine of around ₹180 crore without admitting wrongdoing. In addition, Adani Enterprises reportedly deposited around ₹2,750 crore into the U.S. Treasury to resolve allegations that it had violated U.S. sanctions on Iran through purchases of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). 

By Bharat Dogra   The Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper, reported on May 20, 2026, that twice this season the country’s highest daily temperature has been recorded in the city of Banda , located close to the Ken river in Uttar Pradesh, in the Bundelkhand region (which comprises 14 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh).

By Vikas Meshram   An invisible enemy has now made its home on farmlands across the world — and that enemy is the raging fury of rising temperatures. The picture painted by the joint report “ Extreme Heat and Agriculture ” from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is not merely alarming; it is directly linked to human existence itself. 

By Rajkumar Sinha*  According to recent studies, urban areas are witnessing a much sharper rise in temperatures than rural regions. The planet is currently heading toward an additional 1.9°C of warming — far beyond the target envisioned under the Paris Agreement . A team of climate scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that India’s average temperature increased by nearly 0.9°C during the decade between 2015 and 2024 compared to the early twentieth century (1901–1930). In western and northeastern India, the hottest day of the year has already become 1.5°C to 2°C warmer since the 1950s.

By Bharat Dogra   The National Alliance of People’s Movements has strongly criticized the arrests and repression of villagers and activists protesting against displacement linked to the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) in the Bundelkhand region . However, opposition to the controversial project has not been limited to grassroots groups. Since its inception, the project has faced criticism from government bodies, court-appointed authorities, retired officials and environmental experts.