During a renovation in Uttar Pradesh’s Banaras at Manikarnika Ghat, a part of the ghat was damaged, causing immediate outrage among locals. Meanwhile, multiple “development” projects have raised concerns that such changes are erasing the city’s cultural heritage. We also visited Dal Mandi, where 186 structures are set to be demolished for the widening of a road.

Ground Report | In Varanasi, Development or Destruction? - The Wire 

by Vipul Kumar

29/01/2026

How The State Assails Muslim Livelihoods in the Modi Era  https://thewire.in/communalism/how-the-state-assails-muslim-livelihoods-in-the-modi-era By Harsh Mander ..From boycotting Halal products to sweeping changes in the Waqf Act, the BJP government has relied on bizarre conspiracy theories to strip Muslims of dignity at work!

allegations of many outlandish jihad conspiracy theories like thook (spit) jihad and beauty parlour jihad.

A #BoycottHalalProducts” campaign was launched in 2019 by Hindutva organisations Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Jagruti and vigorously supported by the Sudarshan News TV channel. 

Maharashtra Civic Polls 2026: Secularism and the Rise of Minority-Centric Parties  https://www.youtube.com/live/6rh98HCam-A?si=JvGzTw_eheEOFIEo 
Maharashtra Civic Polls 2026: Secularism and the Rise of Minority-Centric Parties | M3 | MUNSIF TV

RSS at 100 stands tall but is shadowed by a fraught past and fractious present https://thefederal.com/category/opinion/rss-centenary-mohan-bhagwat-najeev-jung-opinion-219376  Najeeb Jung &Amogh Dev Rai 6 Dec 2025 The Federal

Founded in 1925 by KB Hedgewar in Nagpur, the RSS emerged from a sense of Hindu social vulnerability in the light of the Khilafat movement. Hedgewar’s diagnosis was less political than civilisational:

Under MS Golwalkar, who led the Sangh from 1940 to 1973, the movement acquired a more defined ideological frame. He articulated the concept of a Hindu Rashtra

Madhukar ‘Balasaheb’ Deoras, who succeeded Golwalkar in 1973  understood that to remain socially relevant, the RSS needed to expand beyond its insular, caste-homogeneous roots and engage with the institutions of a democratic polity.

Under Mohan Bhagwat, who became Sarsanghchalak in 2009, the RSS has adopted a more reflective tone, He has engaged in dialogue with Muslim groups, distanced the RSS from earlier exclusionary theories, , and  encouraged debates on caste inequality.

Today, in the BJP-governed states, there is repeated bulldozing of Muslim homes, ill-treatment of Christians, calls of lynchings and hate speeches or boycotting minority businesses.

https://thefederal.com/category/opinion/rss-centenary-celebrations-210093

https://thefederal.com/category/news/italian-fascism-influence-hindu-nationalism-212257

https://thefederal.com/category/opinion/rss-100-hindutva-brahminical-opinion-209537

https://thefederal.com/category/news/rss-freedom-struggle-mridula-mukherjee-208529

What Happened to Gujarat’s Grand Projects? The Untold Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LfAMtk7Dww What Does This Data Say

Databite Weekend examines Gujarat’s most ambitious projects —

Dholera Smart City – India’s first “futuristic” city that still lies empty.
GIFT City – the billion-dollar financial hub struggling to attract real business.
Statue of Unity – a ₹3,000 crore monument that failed to generate promised revenue.
Seaplane Project – Modi’s grand inaugural flight that never took off again.
GSPC Gas Fields – Gujarat’s biggest fiscal disaster, losing ₹19,000+ crore in public money.

political optics have overshadowed the public good, and Gujarat’s debt has skyrocketed from ₹45,000 crore to ₹3.4 lakh crore. 

 Caste in Indian cities: Why urbanisation has not brought equality  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HOmXiaE0Fg  Frontline Magazine Vakulabharanam challenges the popular belief that urbanisation dissolves caste hierarchies. Drawing on census data and comparative urban research, he shows how Indian cities remain deeply segregated by caste, class, and religion even when they appear socially mixed on the surface... Why caste does not disappear in cities and how it reorganises itself
-How urban segregation works through housing, labour, and credit markets
-What mixed neighbourhoods can (and cannot) achieve
-Drawing parallels between caste segregation in India and racial segregation in the US
-The historical roots of urban inequality in cities like Hyderabad and Mumbai
-Why “world-class” city visions often deepen exclusion
-What fighting caste discrimination in cities realistically looks like today

‘A colossal own goal’: Trump’s exit from global climate treaties will have little effect outside US  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/09/a-colossal-own-goal-trumps-exit-from-global-climate-treaties-will-have-little-effect-outside-us  Fiona Harvey and Oliver Milman  Investment in low-carbon forms of energy is now above $2tn a year, dwarfing the $1tn spent on fossil fuels. Renewable energy alone grew 15% last year.. Low-carbon power makes up more than half of the generation capacity of China and India, and China’s exports of low-carbon goods and services topped $20bn in a single month last year.

Under Trump, the US risks being left on the sidelines – a position that Kerry called a “gift to China”.  .. Meanwhile, people living in the US will be confronted with increasing frequency with the effects of the climate crisis. Wildfires last January in California forced the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Farmers are struggling with pests, drought and floods. Homes in some areas are becoming uninsurable, and extreme weather cost the US at least $115bn last year.

Who will fill the climate-data void left by the Trump administration? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41238699/  Nature  2025 Nov 14.  Brittany Janis, Cathy Richards

 Neoliberalism is dying: Mark Carney’s Davos speech confirmed it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMTQNI3BV90
Richard J Murphy
  Neoliberalism wasn’t an accident. It was a deliberate ideological project built around the myth that “freedom through markets” would deliver freedom for everyone. Instead, it delivered:    rent extraction, precarity, instability, a hollowed-out state & rising inequality and insecurity

Neoliberalism created extraction and not prosperity. It undermined democracy. It must be replaced with the politics of care. We must restore social purpose to the state as a consequence, and we must rebuild public services and public trust.

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/01/25/neoliberalism-is-dying-whats-next/  https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/downloads/

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06/20/chatgpt-prompt-for-a-letter-to-your-mp/ 

Make in India: Indian and Turkish shipyards close contract for building FSS ships for the Indian Navy  https://www.financialexpress.com/business/defence/make-in-india-indian-and-turkish-shipyards-close-contract-for-building-fss-ships-for-the-indian-navy/2037522/   Huma Siddiqui
July 28, 2020
The local industries of cable laying, zonal painting and blasting as well as related small scale industries will get a lot of work. This is the first time at a shipyard from Turkey is participating in a defence contract in India. As has been reported by Financial Express Online, the Anadolu Shipyard is part of TAIS industrial group. And the discussions were with the shipyard and not the TAIS group.  

Context https://www.facebook.com/NationWithNaMo2019/posts/from-an-mou-with-china-to-an-overseas-office-in-turkey-congress-is-also-found-on/5018349908190475/  Nation with NaMo's Post From an MoU with China to an overseas office in Turkey, Congress is also found on the same side as those who seek to harm India & its national interests!