They know there will be no justice. There will be no judicial trial. They will not be caught. Brutal killing of bloggers has become some sort of fashion in Bangladesh of late. Every once in a while there are headlines of some free-thinking bloggers being killed or injured in attacks by religious extremists. Therefore, it was only…
Last month, I attended a weekly rally of the infamous Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, better known as Pegida, a far-right organisation that shot into news last year for its mass demonstrations against “Islamisation” of Germany. I had a long conversation with its founder Lutz Bachmann and leader Tatjana Festerling. Both were…
Read more Germany’s anti-Islamist group has a new hero: Narendra Modi
Bangladesh celebrated its 44th Victory Day on December 16 last year. On that day in 1971, the Pakistan Army surrendered before the India-Bangladesh forces in Dhaka, leading to the liberation of erstwhile East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh. The rare public surrender at the Race Course grounds marked the end of the 13-day India-Pakistan…
Read more A culture that ignores poetry is a defective culture
Hours before Chinese President Xi Jinping was to visit Sabarmati Ashram during his India trip last month, Tenzin Tsundue was whisked away from inside the premises of the museum, once a residence of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The writer and activist had been hiding there overnight to stage a demonstration in Jinping’s presence, a mode of protest he has mastered over the years with his repeated…
It rained the whole day today in Calcutta. It poured, and poured, the intensity of the rain matched only by the spirit of the city’s young who showed what makes Calcutta a city with a soul. In many ways, Calcutta is a dying city. There are no jobs, there is no future, and most educated…
Alright, let’s assume the students were wrong. Let’s believe the police when they say the students of Jadavpur University provoked them and thus deserved to be manhandled, beaten up and thrown into lock-ups in the wee hours of September 17. After all, many, even those who have now joined the students in protesting against the “alleged”…
Read more Why the police explanation for JU violence is not acceptable
Anuradha Sharma 