Radhika Krishnan

Earlier this month, the presidential elections in the United States, as well as elections to some seats in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate finally ended. The 2020 US elections were unique in many ways. For one, the continuing CoVID pandemic somewhat altered normal procedures followed during elections. A substantial proportion of Americans voted through postal ballots in order to avoid exposure to the virus.

WE are all perhaps familiar with the fictionalised account of a pizza delivery service interacting with a potential customer. Through the course of the conversation, the server reveals an awareness of the customer’s medical condition, financial status, legal misdemeanours, and more. This situation, which was at one time seen as a joke or a frivolous exaggeration, is now strikingly close to our lived experiences.

IN the perfectly justified outrage over the Citizen Amendment Act which was passed by both houses of the Parliament in December 2019, another upcoming piece of legislation has missed the attention it deserves. In December 2019, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) tabled the Personal Data Protection Bill (DPB), and this bill is currently being scrutinized by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

“How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words…People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. You are failing us!"

– Environmental activist Greta Thunberg addressing the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019

THE results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were announced on 23 May 2019, following which there been a vigorous debate on the efficacy of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used during the polling process. At this juncture, it would be useful to look at some of the key arguments being offered in defence of the EVMs. Let us ask ourselves: what is the nature of this defence? Is it being suggested that technically speaking EVMs can never be tampered?

ACROSS the world, progressive politics has had to battle the ‘TINA’ factor – a deeply embedded notion in mainstream political discourse that there is ‘no alternative’.

Implications For India and the World

“I have to take care of interests of India. I need more water. Clean water. Where will I get it? Ramallah? No”: This is what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his recent visit to Israel. Netanyahu let slip this detail to reporters accidentally, because of a mic that inadvertently remained open. Modi, on his visit to Israel, made a conspicuous break with India’s long-standing foreign policy by failing to visit Palestine or to affirm India’s stance in support of a two-state solution.

IT has been a tumultuous period in several college and University campuses across the country. We were recently confronted with horrific images of students in Panjab University being brutally beaten up by the Police for protesting against a massive fee hike. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, of course, has been the epicentre of several attacks. Over the past year, students at JNU have battled sedition charges; they have been dealing with shocking disappearance of a Muslim student soon after he was publicly beaten up and threatened by some ABVP activists.