Counterview

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The question that haunts Indian political discourse—“If not Modi, then who?”—is not a genuine inquiry about leadership. It is a rhetorical trap, designed to shrink the imagination of a nation of 1.4 billion people into a single, chest-thumping silhouette. It presumes that without one man, the world’s largest democracy would collapse into chaos, as though the Indian republic were a startup dependent on a visionary CEO rather than a constitutional democracy built on the collective will of its citizens.

By Bharat Dogra   Across India’s cities, coaching institutes have mushroomed at breakneck speed—not through careful planning, but through a reckless pursuit of profit. In this gold rush, safety has been the first casualty. Congested buildings, never designed for mass instruction, now pack in hundreds of students with woefully inadequate fire exits, overloaded electrical systems, and staircases that choke at the first sign of rush hour.

By A Representative   The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has condemned what it described as the "brutal and unprovoked" police action against peaceful students, youth, parents and citizens who gathered at Jantar Mantar and nearby areas in New Delhi on July 20 to protest against alleged failures in the country's public examination and education system. In a statement issued on July 23, the organisation alleged that the police response represented a serious assault on democratic rights and called for accountability, judicial inquiries and dialogue with protesters.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The discontent over India's education and public recruitment examination system has now taken the shape of a wide-ranging social and political movement. For nearly a month, thousands of students and young people have been protesting peacefully. Their central demand is that accountability be fixed for the deepening crisis in the education system and in public recruitment and competitive examinations, and that transparency and credibility be restored to the examination process.

By A Representative   Multiple civil society organisations, lawyers' bodies, religious groups, feminist collectives and rights groups have issued strongly worded statements condemning the police crackdown on student protesters at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, even as concerns mount over press freedom, custodial violence and the safety of demonstrators demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Kedarnath Singh's poem 'Banaras' cannot be adequately understood merely as a cultural, historical, or urban meditation. The poem constructs an experiential structure in which place, time, memory, the body, language, and cultural consciousness together forge a comprehensive lived experience. Reading the poem through phenomenology proves particularly fitting for grasping its inner architecture.

By Harsh Thakor*  Graham Bradley, one of the most gifted and controversial jump jockeys of his generation, recently died at the age of 65 after a five-year battle with semantic dementia. The rider, affectionately known as 'Brad' to his peers, passed away peacefully with his wife Amanda and daughter Georgia May at his side. His career was a tapestry of extraordinary highs and damaging lows, but his talent in the saddle was never in question.