THE ferocious conflict which has erupted with the astounding Hamas attacks in southern Israel and the Israeli counteroffensive with the savage bombardment of Gaza constitutes a new chapter in the ongoing history of the occupation and the resistance to it by the Palestinian people.  At the time of writing this editorial, after the fourth day of the conflict, it is reported that 1,200 Israelis have been killed (of which 155 are soldiers) and 2700 injured.  On the Palestinian side, 1,055 people have died and 5,128 injured so far in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza; in the occupied West Bank, 17

HATE speech against Muslims, which has become rampant in society, has now invaded parliament.  On the last day of the special session, which was held in the new parliament building, the BJP member of parliament from Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, used the most foul and crude anti-Muslim epithets against Danish Ali, who represents the Bahujan Samaj Party in the Lok Sabha.  Words such as `Mullah terrorist’ and worse never heard before in parliament, were heard from Bidhuri repeatedly targeting Danish Ali.  The video of Bidhuri’s rant has been seen by tens of thousands across the country caus

THE adoption of a joint declaration by the G20 summit in New Delhi with all member countries subscribing to it was an achievement, given the sharp divisions that exist on the issue of the Ukraine war.  The eight paragraphs dealing with the Ukraine war were negotiated successfully due to the joint efforts of India, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa – the four countries which have held or will be holding the presidency between 2022 and 2025.   In the section on the Ukraine war, there is no reference to Russia as aggressor – something which the United States and the western countries acceded

THE shocking incident of a seven-year old Muslim boy being slapped by fellow classmates on the order of the teacher taking the class must not be seen as an isolated event.  That the school is a small private one in a remote village in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh cannot be a reason to treat this bigotry as an aberration.The teacher-cum-owner of the school, Tripta Tyagi, is seen explicitly identifying the boy as Muslim and asking his classmates to come forward one by one to hit him.  There is no doubt that the child was singled out for this type of harsh punishment because of his

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’s Red Fort speech on the occasion of the 77th Independence Day had all the hallmarks which have become typical of his independence day speeches of the past years.  There were the boastful claims of how, since 2014, India has made tremendous progress in all fields.  The only new addition was Modi’s claim that we can look forward to a thousand years of `Amrit Kaal’ as compared to the thousand years of slavery which began with Muslim rule and ended with British rule.