The unknown Ambedkar: India’s first labour minister https://theleaflet.in/the-unknown-ambedkar-indias-first-labour-minister/
Sanjoy Ghose·May 1, 2023

Ambedkar’s tryst with labour began when he was associated with the Bombay Textile Labour Union, formed in 1925 by moderates N.M. Joshi and R.R. Bakale...In 1936, Ambedkar formed the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which had a comprehensive manifesto on worker rights. In 1937, the party described itself as a “labour organisation” which mainly “advanced the welfare of labour classes” and was “committed to supporting state ownership and management wherever necessary”.

In the 1937 Indian provincial elections, the first under the Government of India Act, 1935, the ILP made a stunning debut by winning 15 of the 17 seats contested in the Bombay Legislative Assembly...

 https://twitter.com/TheDeshBhakt/status/1539990210565378053

India China Border Clash | Modi Govt hiding Aksai Chin truth? | Ep.2 - Deshbhakt की खुदाई! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx16mzJS_tU
The Deshbhakt

According to The Telegraph, Brittas was initially served a notice from the Rajya Sabha secretariat and was asked to appear before Dhankar. Brittas said when he had met Dhankar and briefed him “orally” on the issue, he was asked to give his explanation in writing instead.

https://thewire.in/government/rajya-sabha-chairman-summons-john-brittas-over-newspaper-article-critical-of-amit-shah 

01/05/2023

History is an important “issue” because it goes beyond the confines of academia and everyone has an opinion on it. It helps in creating identities. Identities which are often contested and imagined. The relationship between history and nationalism is like – as Eric Hobsbawm would have put it – “what poppy is to an opium addict”; it serves a purpose. What we are today has its roots in history and that is why history as a discipline is always on the radar of political regimes. In India, as lay people we do not read enough and often imbibe hearsay, WhatsApp forwards and political speeches as history and condemn historians for their “prejudice” in attempting to write academic histories.

https://thewire.in/history/are-we-moving-towards-a-medieval-understanding-of-history 

History never remains static; it is ever changing. Rewriting history is natural and essential. With every new interpretation or evidence, history changes.

And it is not uncommon for different political regimes to have different perspectives on history and to try to influence the historical narrative in the curriculum.

History should be understood in its totality, that is, with its context. Totality should not be confused with the “entirety” of the past, which is virtually impossible to achieve.

by Eshan Sharma

28/04/2023

Development: Between Cliché and Creativity,"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_wdd7D2iQk Shiv Visvanathan Azim Premji University
Jan 20, 2012 Shiv Visvanathan speaks on "Development: Between Cliché and Creativity," as part of the Azim Premji University Public Lecture Series
October 8, 2011
Shiv Visvanathan is Professor of Social Science at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Ahmedabad. His areas of research interest include Sociology of Science and Technology, Violence and Globalization, Corruption, Sociology of Disasters and Futures. Apart from extensive journal and newspaper publications, his work includes Organizing for Science (1985) and A Carnival of Science (1997), both published by Oxford University Press. He has also co-edited Foul Play: Chronicles of Corruption 1947-1997 (1999), published by Banyan Books.

Dr. Ram Puniyani speaks on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj: He wasn’t like Savarkar; BJP spreading lies The Public India  https://youtu.be/Mbg7sc1jlDQ?t=87   Letter of Shivaji to Auranzeb  was not an apology. He was a clever response to escape . 

The concept of ‘intimate association’, encapsulated under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, https://theleaflet.in/i-enter-indian-soil-and-my-union-is-no-longer-recognised-as-marriage-petitioners-on-the-foreign-marriage-act-on-day-4-of-the-hearing/   Gursimran Kaur Bakshi· April 25, 2023  Senior advocate Anand Grover averred that the argument of the Union government that homosexual unions did not exist in the subcontinent in antiquity is disproved by a study of history and culture of this region. He pointed out that it has been clearly accepted by the court in National Legal Services Authority versus Union of India (2014) that such relationships did exist during the British period. https://youtu.be/qdZNqTia7fE?t=1817

He also presented an interesting example where the marriage between a cis-male and a cis-female is valid. During the subsistence of the marriage, if the cis-male assumes a female gender, the law does not say that the marriage becomes void or voidable.

Senior advocate Geetha Luthra, for the petitioners, raised the question of ‘invisiblisation’ of marriage of non-heteronormative couples married outside and returning to India. Pointing out the term ‘comity’, Luthra argued that India cannot be lagging behind in terms of constitutional comity as it is a violation of the provision on discrimination under Article 15 (prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth) of the Indian Constitution. She also informed the court that most democratic and progressive countries have already recognised non-heteronormative marriages. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdZNqTia7fE

Vrinda Grover https://youtu.be/qdZNqTia7fE?t=14147  speaks about the Delhi Public Hearing in marriage equality case.. So well argued.. by vrinda for new imagination of family,, going even beyond non-conjugal intimacies..

Advocate Jayna Kothari similarly argued that most transgender persons have no option but to run away from their homes because of discrimination. In this context, the right to marry is extremely crucial as they are given a right to raise a family that can provide psychological and economic support.

PM CARES में 2900 Cr का घोटाला? Rs 2,913 Crore From Government Firms to Modi’s PM CARES Fund  https://youtu.be/iQUL4NSlE_Q?t=64  Apr 25, 2023

PM CARES Fund Not A Fund Of Government Of India, Cannot Be Labelled ‘Public Authority’: PMO To Delhi High Court Nupur Thapliyal 31 Jan 2023 https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/pm-cares-fund-public-authority-rti-act-parliament-govt-pmo-delhi-high-court-220299

Rs 2,913 Crore From Government Firms to Modi’s PM CARES Fund: Report https://thewire.in/politics/rs-2913-crore-from-government-firms-to-modis-pm-cares-fund-report Government-run firms accounted for 59.3% donations that listed entities made to a private fund run by PM Modi, as per Business Standard. The bulk of the amount seems to have come from corporate India’s CSR budgets in its first year.

scrutiny over CSR spending gains increased significance because of the new norms that were amended by the government in September 2022. These amended norms limit the amount of information that companies have to put out in their annual reports on CSR spends.

The status of PM CARES has been controversial for its nature and the lack of transparency around it. The PMO had told the Delhi high court in January that PM CARES is not a “public authority”.

 Out of 26 FIRs registered by Thane police in Maharashtra against opposition party members since Eknath Shinde came to power, 21 are in connection with social media posts which appear to criticise the new chief minister, Indian Express has reported. https://thewire.in/government/eknath-shinde-maharashtra-thane-police 

The Indian Express report notes that aside from Mungase, the 25 other Thane FIRs are all against members of the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction, Nationalist Congress Party or Congress.

Most of these include the section 153 (A) of the Indian Penal Code which accuses an individual of promoting enmity between different groups.

24/04/2023