Politics

AERO dies by suicide in Kolkata, family alleges extreme election duty pressure and humiliation

A 48-year-old Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) died by suicide in South Kolkata’s Bansdroni area after consuming pesticide, the tragic death of Malabika Roy Bhattacharyya has sparked serious concerns regarding the immense pressure placed on government officials tasked with SIR/Election duties, with her family explicitly blaming the ECI for the extreme workload

India: Left at the forefront, opposition & people protests US-Israel attacks on Iran

Widespread demonstrations and protests broke out all over India at the US and Israel’s strikes against Iran, actions that clearly violated international law; Iran and the US were in the midst of negotiations and dialogue when the US-led by President Donald Trump launched strikes on Saturday February 28

Temple Leases, Food Morality: Rajasthan’s new Panchayat order

The recent decision by the BJP-led government in Rajasthan of granting land parcels to temples, moreover those controlled by Brahmins and Banias, and further making it “mandatory” for meat shops to obtain NOCs from the local Panchayat, privileges caste elites and food choices while also being fundamentally exclusionary

UPI Goes Global — But At What Cost to Data Sovereignty?

Before 140 crore Indians rush to celebrate the expansion...

Policing Identity: Maharashtra’s birth certificate crackdown and the politics of belonging

What is framed as an administrative clean-up of fraudulent records in Maharashtra has unfolded into a securitised campaign in Mumbai — raising urgent constitutional questions about due process, discrimination, and the weaponisation of civil documentation

An Ode to a Professor- Remembering T.K Oommen

Prof. T K Oommen was the founder chairman of...

Hegemony: Kerala’s Bharatapuzha as a political stage

Unlike the North Indian Kumbh, the Bharatapuzha by contrast has never functioned as a Pan-Hindu pilgrimage centre. It has no historical association with mass ritual bathing, no priestly networks that regulate sacred time, and no inherited mythological mandate that binds the river to cyclical purification rites. The introduction of the Maha Magha Mahotsavam is a clear cultural imposition by Hindutva

Ensure transparency and inclusion in the 2027 Census: CCG

In a letter to the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, over 90 members of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collective of former civil servants from the All India and Central Services have urged that the Census process be transparent and inclusive; that OBCs be specifically enumerated, DNTs be enumerated as also the 1369 mother tongues in India be also separately classified (through supervision of the Anthropological Survey of India

CJP 2025: a constitutional vanguard against hate and coercion during elections

Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) spent 2025 defending India's secular fabric, filing rigorous and fearlessly complaints against communal polarisation and state-sponsored demonisation, by invoking the Model Code of Conduct, CJP successfully initiated challenges electoral hate speech and the weaponisation of welfare

Cries for Justice in India grow louder!

Come February 20, and the world will once again...

2025 in Protest: Across issues, across India

In 2025, citizens nationwide mobilised across labour, environment, religious freedom, and electoral integrity

Trending

Related VIDEOS

ALL STORIES

ALL STORIES

Censorship and the Drumbeats of Hate: Mapping the state of free speech ahead of the 2026 polls

A new report by Free Speech Collective traces five years of censorship, criminalisation of dissent, and the rise of hate-driven political discourse across Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry—raising urgent questions about the conditions for free and fair elections

AERO dies by suicide in Kolkata, family alleges extreme election duty pressure and humiliation

A 48-year-old Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) died by suicide in South Kolkata’s Bansdroni area after consuming pesticide, the tragic death of Malabika Roy Bhattacharyya has sparked serious concerns regarding the immense pressure placed on government officials tasked with SIR/Election duties, with her family explicitly blaming the ECI for the extreme workload

UP’s syncretic warrior cults facing Hindutva challenge

Be it the attack on the Gogamedi shrine in the Hanumangarh district of northern Rajasthan or the Neja Mela in the Sambhal district of western Uttar Pradesh, Hindutva’s systemic attack on India’s syncretic traditions, past and present, reveals its rigid and Brahmanical ideological orientation: imposition of a strictly hierarchical, exclusionary and structured notion of faith and practice

No Hearing, No Notice, Just Deletion: How Bengal’s SIR Erased a Decorated IAF Officer

The removal of Wing Commander Md Shamim Akhtar, who served the nation for 17 years, during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) highlights a systemic lack of due process that threatens the voting rights of even the most distinguished citizens

An Adivasi woman once in bonded labour now serves her village as a Sarpanch

As India marks 50 years of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, cases of bonded labour still surface in states like Telangana where many workers in sectors such as agriculture, brick kilns, fishing and construction remain trapped in debt and coercion; here the author reflects on a transformative journey of an Adivasi woman who serves as a Sarpanch.

Abdul Sheikh Citizenship Case: Deportation stayed as Gauhati High Court Hears challenge to ex parte foreigner declaration, state to raise maintainability issue

Court allows preliminary objection while continuing stay on deportation; petitioner explains delay to challenge FT order through prolonged detention, lack of access to the detenue, financial constraints, and absence of legal aid

Bhagat Singh sent to gallows once again!

Repeated attempts by present day academics to whittle down the tradition followed and forged by young revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh are bound to fail; as history endures with the traditions laid by these very men