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

Adani Power agrees to sign supplementary PPA with Haryana Hitender Rao Mar 02, 2023 0  https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/adani-power-agrees-to-sign-supplementary-ppa-with-haryana-101677691257073.html  The development assumes significance in view of early onset of summer and rise in the demand for electricity. The state had experienced a deficit of 2,570 MW in April 2022 and 1,786 MW in May 2022 due to non-availability of power from APL, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd and Faridabad Gas Power Plant. The state had to buy costly power at the rates 11.55 per unit in April 2022, ₹8.13 per unit in May 2022 and ₹7.30 per unit in June 2022. ..

The Council of Ministers had on June 27, 2022, approved the supplementary PPA for supply of about 1,096 MW power generated from domestic coal at ₹3.20 per unit (agreed tariff of ₹2.94 plus about 26 paisa). The cost, however, is likely to increase to ₹3.48 per unit. The state will though forego 224 MW power capacity at Haryana periphery.

2022 Redux: Adani Group will make most of Haryana’s long, hot summer https://www.adaniwatch.org/2022_redux_and_a_long_hot_summer_adani_group_will_make_most_of_haryana_s_power_crisis
Ayush Joshi & Paranjoy Guha Thakurta Apr 28, 2023  This summer, Adani Power can officially supply less power to Haryana and get paid more for each unit, despite a Supreme Court judgment which said there is no justification for hiking tariffs.

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

Section 27 Evidence Act Statement Not Liable To Be Rejected Merely Because It Was Recorded In A Language Not Known To Accused Through Translator  https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/section-27-evidence-act-statement-not-liable-to-be-rejected-merely-because-it-was-recorded-in-a-language-not-known-to-accused-through-translator-supreme-court-226980.. the ultimate test would be whether the statement was noted down as told by the accused. When the statement is being recorded in the language not known to the accused, the assistance of interpreter if taken by the police cannot be found fault with.

मलिक को CBI का बुलावा, पवार का बयान ग़ायब! | Satyapal Malik summoned by CBI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dodXFiDgOY4 Apr 22, 2023
अगर सीबीआई सत्यपाल मलिक के लगाए आरोपों का संज्ञान ले रही है तो भारत के प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी उन्हीं सत्यपाल मलिक के लगाए आरापों का जवाब क्यों नहीं दे रहे हैं? मलिक के आरोपों पर शरद पवार के बयान भी गोदी मीडिया ने ग़ायब कर दिए हैं। वैसे गोदी मीडिया सेना, जवान, देश की रक्षा को लेकर हमलावर हो जाता है, मगर जब इसमें लापरवाही के सवाल सरकार से पूछे जाते हैं तो चुप हो जाता है। साफ़ है गोदी मीडिया देश की नहीं उस सरकार की चिंता करता है, जिसके कारण उसका नाम गोदी मीडिया पड़ा है। आज ईद है। आप सभी को ईद की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ।