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Shortly after it dawned on all and sundry that what was initially thought of as only a gang war, was in fact a concerted attack by terrorists on the night of November 26, 2008, all eyes of the nation, and the world, were trained on Mumbai. The coverage of the attacks was to become a watershed in India’s television history. But hardly had the first night wore on, signs of criticism of the coverage began surfacing. Over Facebook status messages, through SMSs, and subsequently through blogs and other outlets. Even as National Security Guard (NSG) commandos fought a pitched battle...

View the story "Advani" on Storify] ...

[This is an excerpt from the thesis submitted by Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976) to the Communist Party of India in 1954. The thesis remained buried for many years, and was accidentally discovered among old files in the Party office in 1993. This is the preamble to the thesis.] We are witnessing a curious phenomenon today. We are witnessing an unprecedented expansion of progressive influence in the cultural sphere. Through their art, many common artists, from professional and other fields, are indicating that they are drawing closer to the people. Artists are taking up the cause of the...

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The Supreme Court, in 2006, had passed a landmark judgment directing all state governments and the Union government to reform the way police forces function all over the country. One of the directives was that police complaints authorities (PCAs) should be set up in all states. The intention was to make the police accountable for their actions. The court directed the setting up of both state level and district level police complaints authorities so that they would be easily accessible for all. This was to ensure that complaints against officers of the rank of Superintendent of...

The Playing for Change movement has launched a new video, global rendition of the classic Rolling Stones track, “Gimme Shelter.” Playing for Change is a multimedia music project created by the American producer and sound engineer Mark Johnson with his Timeless Media Group, that seeks to bring together musicians from around the world. Playing For Change also created a non-profit organisation called the Playing For Change Foundation which builds music schools for children around the world.     The Playing for Change website says: ...

Fox News is simply amazing. Just see where they have placed Egypt. ...

Mobile number portability is finally a reality. It may well be a choice between the devil and the deep sea, for all you know. What is Mobile Number Portability: It is a new development in mobile communications technology. In India there are more than 700 million mobile users. In this service the mobile user can switch to other service provider without changing the mobile numbers. Both prepaid and postpaid tele-users have the facility to switch to other favourable tele-operators. How to switch your mobile operator: The subscriber, who likes to avail...

[ The 'Towards a Free Revolutionary Art' manifesto was written by Andre Breton and Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1938. Diego Rivera was a co-signatory. ] We can say without exaggeration that never before has civilization been menaced so seriously as today. The Vandals, with instruments which were barbarous, and so comparatively ineffective, blotted out the culture of antiquity in one corner of Europe. But today we see world civilization, united in its historic destiny, reeling under the blows of reactionary forces armed with the entire arsenal of modern technology. We are by no means...

Our class enemies are in the habit of complaining about our terrorism. What they mean by this is rather unclear. They would like to label all the activities of the proletariat directed against the class enemy's interests as terrorism. The strike, in their eyes, is the principal method of terrorism. The threat of a strike, the organisation of strike pickets, an economic boycott of a slave driving boss, a moral boycott of a traitor from our own ranks – all this and much more they call terrorism. If terrorism is understood in this way as any action inspiring fear in, or doing harm...