Modi's India Cedes its Stature in BRICS to Become a US Ally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkljQD0e8AU 
Force Magazine

With Trump at the helm, global politics is undergoing a seismic shift, where conflicts, hyper-nationalism, and a disregard for international norms increasingly overshadow the idea of diplomacy. As threats, wars and regional disputes dominate headlines, power struggles, rather than cooperative engagements, are shaping the global order. Trump’s return to the White House only amplifies uncertainty, making the coming years in international politics highly unpredictable. His recent rhetoric – marked by incendiary nationalism and unilateral assertions of power – signals an era of escalating tensions and declining diplomatic efforts. https://thewire.in/world/the-trump-storm-and-rising-anarchy-of-global-politics 

If we examine Trump’s recent pronouncements closely, we find a leader who thrives in chaos, a disruptor who challenges the existing orders. His concept of “national interest” – driven by a transactional and coercive approach – disregards conventional diplomatic norms.

His worldview aligns with the idea that the international system is anarchic, where international laws exist but lack enforceability, allowing powerful states to act with impunity.

by Amal Chandra and Anmol Kumar

19/02/2025

The government of India by not caring about its very own chained people being dropped down by a foreign military plane can pretend it is an ostrich, but the picture of an India shrivelled and grovelling and further trying to 'normalise Indian hate' tells its own story.

https://thewire.in/rights/three-things-about-india-that-shackled-indians-returning-home-tell-us

The images of chained Indians, accounts of them being beaten and kept hungry for days in the US, despite engagement at the highest level, gives away the pecking order of where India stands in the Trumpian world. Modi’s readiness to concede everything has shown up the drastic fall in the place that India commands, globally. Other smaller countries have stood up for their citizens, notably when on January 26, 2025, Columbian President Gustavo Petro refused to allow the two C-17 military transport aircraft carrying Colombian undocumented nationals back from the US. Trump had then announced that he would impose 25% customs duties on imports from Colombia. But after Pedro sent his presidential aircraft to bring back his people, Trump suspended his tariff threats in a statement.

In sharp contrast, India has tried to make common cause about ‘illegal immigration’. The craven ‘MEGA’ coined by Modi to chime with Trump’s MAGA, is not only misplaced, and contestable, but reflective of the sheer inability of Modi’s India to project power, either as a ‘middle’ power or as an alternative leader of the Global Majority. The Modi government has mounted a shameful defence of the US policy of chaining people when deported. India’s deflections on ‘agents’ taking people out of India and trying to be seen as in the Trump camp, have yielded little and Trump has disdainfully continued to threaten tariff hikes against India.

by Seema Chishti

18/02/2025

Why India's Start-up Boom Is Crumbling Under Poor Governance
Saurabh Chandra 14 February 2025  https://www.moneylife.in/article/why-indias-startup-boom-is-crumbling-under-poor-governance/76386.html

 Hate speech in India ‘not spontaneous’, BJP leaders top the list  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfHouy3Va7E
The News Minute

@HemantSharma-h1f ..
So calling someone Andhbhakt is not hateful but condemning Terrorists and anti nationals is hate Speech?? This is all we need to understand who is actual hate Monger 
@pizzalot
The hatred, misogyny, and discrimination seen in Indian society today aren’t just random. ... The Rig Veda itself portrays Indra as a warlord, celebrating the destruction of enemies, looting of cattle, and the subjugation of weaker groups. Women, in particular, were gradually pushed into subordinate roles, with later texts like the Manusmriti codifying their oppression.

The varna system, which evolved into caste-based discrimination, ensured that those who worked the hardest—Shudras, Dalits, and laborers—were treated as lesser beings. ..Tamil traditions, in contrast, had a more balanced societal structure, where women, poets, and warriors were respected, and skin color wasn’t a measure of worth. But later Brahmanical influence corrupted this, imposing Vedic hierarchy on Tamil society.

Noted artist Theo Jansen has  Strandbeests, animals that walk on soft sandy beaches. they are autonomous walking machines.
some hold compressed air in tubes to power thmselves. Another class of moving machines, though, need to be powered, either by human (and animal, ie draught) muscle, or by engines.
The consequences of this single minded purpose has already had dire consequences in some hill regions, particularly the Himalayan foothills, and the impact on water flows in the country has never been assessed or debated.

see the full post in https://www.azadmaidan.in/t/chalopede-a-class-of-vehicles-on-legs/88

https://metastudio.org/t/creating-a-pedal-vehicle/2190/16 Creating a pedal wheel.. 

Remembering Tapan Kumar Bose, a Tireless Advocate for the Rohingya People https://thewire.in/rights/tapan-kumar-bose-obituary by Sabber Kyaw Min.. 

Bose’s activism began during India’s emergency in the late 1970s, where he highlighted human rights violations. His work covered important events like the Bhagalpur blindings, conflicts in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and the Bhopal gas tragedy. Through his films, such as An Indian Story (1981), Bhopal: Beyond Genocide (1986), The Vulnerable Road User (1991), Jharkhand (1993) and The Expendable People (2016), he gave a platform to the oppressed and brought attention to systemic injustices.

He was instrumental in establishing and supporting many human rights groups, including the South Asia Forum for Human Rights, the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative and others.

Frontline cover package on the Great Nicobar mega infra project.  


1)  The Great Nicoba sellout: The Editor's note by Vaishna Roy
"When “development” means uprooting people, plundering forests, and selling paradise to profiteers, whose future are we really building?"
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/great-nicobar-project-india-development-sustainability-island-archipelago-ecological-donald-trump/article69192295.ece 

2) Great Nicobar: Disaster in the making - The Lede by Pankaj Sekhsaria
"The mega project on the island was cleared using incomplete, inaccurate data, grossly underestimating its environmental and biodiversity impact."
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/great-nicobar-infrastructure-environmental-tragedy/article69158497.ece 

3)  "The Great Nicobar Project: A costly miscalculation?" - M Rajshekhar
"The proposed container port lacks commercial logic, its naval merits are unclear—so why is this project being pushed through at any cost?"
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/great-nicobar-project-campbell-bay-transshipment-terminal-galathea-bay-infrastructure-project/article69159231.ece 

4)  An obit for Patai Takaru by Rohan Arthur and TR Shankar Raman
"Great Nicobar’s mitigation plans reduce restoration to tree-planting and reef relocation—a deceptive fix for irreversible ecological loss."
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/great-nicobar-island-andaman-ecological-development-coral-reefs-marine-ecosystems-climate-change/article69158539.ece 

5)  On the brink: 10 endangered species of the Nicobar Islands by Saurav Harikumar
"The islands are home to a rare mix of wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. Here are ten that face the greatest threat from the Great Nicobar project."
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/great-nicobar-project-endangered-species-saltwater-crocodile-species-wildlife/article69150433.ece

Com. Dr. Rameshchandra Patkar
Senior member of the Marxist Communist Party, member of the editorial board of the state mouthpiece of the CPI(M) 'Jeevan Marg', writer, translator, thinker, painter of Janshakti Granth Prakashan, Lokvangmay Grih and many other publishing houses, popular retired professor of the Marathi department of Wilson College, Com. Dr. Rameshchandra Patkar passed away on 11 February 2025 in Mumbai at the age of 85 due to old age.

Rameshchandra Patkar was born on 16 November 1939. He remained loyal to Marxist ideology throughout his life. While working as a professor at Wilson College, in 1975, senior party leaders and former All India President of the Teachers' Association, Dr. Kishore Thekedutt, Prof. Rameshchandra Patkar and Prof. Sudhir Yardi, three of them, established the Teachers' Association in Mumbai-Maharashtra. They were on its executive committee for many years. They were always active in the historic strike of the teachers and many other movements.

Dr. Rameshchandra Patkar wrote important and quality writings on art. Today, many who have studied painting in Maharashtra have learnt the basic lessons of art history from the book 'History of Art' written by Patkar. Apart from this, Rameshchandra Patkar has made a valuable contribution to the art world of Maharashtra by completing the research book 'Art Thoughts in Maharashtra Magazines' with great perseverance. Patkar has translated articles and poems of many domestic and foreign writers from a humanistic perspective and has also published them.

कॉ. डॉ. रमेशचंद्र पाटकर 
मार्क्सवादी कम्युनिस्ट पक्षाचे ज्येष्ठ सदस्य, माकपचे राज्य मुखपत्र 'जीवन मार्ग'चे संपादक मंडळ सदस्य, जनशक्ती ग्रंथ प्रकाशन, लोकवांग्मय गृह व इतर अनेक प्रकाशन संस्थांचे लेखक, अनुवादकार, विचारवंत, चित्रकार, विल्सन महाविद्यालयाच्या मराठी विभागाचे लोकप्रिय निवृत्त प्राध्यापक कॉ. डॉ. रमेशचंद्र पाटकर यांचे ११ फेब्रुवारी २०२५ रोजी मुंबई येथे वयाच्या ८५व्या वर्षी  वृद्धापकाळाने दुःखद निधन झाले. 

रमेशचंद्र पाटकर यांचा जन्म १६ नोव्हेंबर १९३९ रोजी झाला. आयुष्यभर मार्क्सवादी विचारसरणीशी निष्ठापूर्वक बांधिलकी त्यांनी ठेवली. विल्सन महाविद्यालयात प्राध्यापक म्हणून कार्यरत असताना १९७५ साली पक्षाचे ज्येष्ठ नेते व प्राध्यापक संघटनेचे माजी अखिल भारतीय अध्यक्ष डॉ. किशोर ठेकेदत्त, प्रा. रमेशचंद्र पाटकर आणि प्रा. सुधीर यार्दी या तिघांनी मुंबई-महाराष्ट्रात प्राध्यापक संघटनेची स्थापना केली. त्याच्या कार्यकारिणीवर ते अनेक वर्षे होते. प्राध्यापकांचा ऐतिहासिक संप व इतर अनेक आंदोलनांमध्ये ते नेहमीच सक्रिय असत.

डॉ. रमेशचंद्र पाटकर यांनी कलाविषयक महत्त्वपूर्ण व दर्जेदार लेखन केले. आज महाराष्ट्रात चित्रकलेचे शिक्षण घेतलेल्या अनेकांनी पाटकर यांनी लिहिलेले 'कलेचा इतिहास ' या पुस्तकातूनच कलाइतिहासाचे प्राथमिक धडे गिरवले. याशिवाय रमेशचंद्र पाटकर यांनी 'महाराष्ट्राच्या नियतकालिकांतील कलाविचार ' हे संशोधनपर पुस्तक अत्यंत चिकाटीने पूर्णत्वास नेऊन महाराष्ट्राच्या कला जगतास मोलाची देणगी दिली आहे. पाटकर यांनी अनेक देशी व परदेशी लेखक-लेखिकांच्या लेखांचे आणि कवितांचे मानवतावादी दृष्टिकोनातून भाषांतर केले असून ते प्रकाशितही झाले आहे.   

कॉ. डॉ. रमेशचंद्र पाटकर यांच्या निधनाबद्दल मार्क्सवादी कम्युनिस्ट पक्षाची राज्य कमिटी, जीवन मार्गचे संपादक मंडळ आणि जनशक्ती ग्रंथ प्रकाशन तीव्र शोक व्यक्त करत असून, त्यांच्या कुटुंबियांच्या दुःखात सहभागी आहेत.