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Religious Freedom: How the USCIRF continues to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC)
For another year running, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its 2026 Annual Report, has in strong recommendations, urged the US government to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), “for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)”
Appeal to Parliamentarians against repeal of MNREGA: Dr Manoj Jha & activists
Dr Manoj Jha, academic activist associated with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and also a member of the Rajya Sabha has appealed to the fellow parliamentarians against repealing the forward looking and empowering Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 and replacing it with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025; meanwhile senior activists have also protested this move
Labour Rights Endangered: Four labour codes passed without worker or state governments’ consultation or consent
The Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Services comprising of well-known academics and former government servants apart from public intellectuals has called for the immediate revocation of the recently, unilaterally enacted Four Labour Codes; demanded that existing labour laws be brought fully in alignment with the letter and spirit of the Directive Principles of the Constitution and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to which India is a signatory
The Cross Bat Conversation: Air, antiques and force majeure
The author, brings attention to crucial issues affecting our society and state through his unique brand of satire
When Power Forgets Consent: How a public act by the Bihar Chief Minister derailed a doctor’s career
Outrage widens after CM Nitish Kumar pulls down Muslim woman doctor’s hijab at appointment ceremony; FIRs filed, media barred, national leaders condemn act
West Bengal Draft Electoral List: Over 58 lakh names deleted under SIR exercise, urban seats & Hindi speakers see higher voter deletions
Surprises afoot in store for the politically entrenched as the bogey of “infiltration” stands exposed; border minority areas show better documentation and inclusion in the Draft Electoral Roll for West Bengal published yesterday, December 16
Kerala’s LDF govt to defy Centre’s diktat, to screen all films as per schedule at IFFK
Senior politicians associated with the left government made it clear on social media within hours of news of the censorship of first 19, then 15 films by the Modi government, the films were slated to be screened at the prestigious International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)
Identity issue to the fore: Vande Mataram controversy
The untimely raking up of this controversy by the BJP leadership is nothing short of a desperate attempt to divert national debate from key and pressing issues
Over-centralisation, Unaccountability, Political Considerations & Control: Stakeholders critique the VBSA 2025
At a press conference held on December 15, 2025, Monday, over two dozen organisations and fronts working on higher education have critiqued the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill 2025 pointing out how this proposed law marks a structural shift to dismantle public funded higher education
Kerala Local Body Election Results Ring Alarm Bells in the Left’s Last Bastion
The CPI(M)'s Hindu outreach alienated Muslims in northern Kerala while Hindu voters migrated to the BJP anyway, with the Left party getting caught between two vote banks, satisfying neither.
MNREGA to G RAM G: Ideological shift, erosion of rural workers’ rights, increase of fiscal burden on states
In continuance of its assault on constitutional rights, the Constitution itself and a rights based framework in rural work, the Modi 3.0 government’s introduction of a Bill to replace the MGNREGA 2005 twenty years later negates the basic concept and approach of a robust demand driven law
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India
Religious Freedom: How the USCIRF continues to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC)
For another year running, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its 2026 Annual Report, has in strong recommendations, urged the US government to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), “for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)”
Communal Organisations
USCIRF’s Call for Sanctions on the RSS Is a Major Moral and Political Marker
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its 2026 Annual Report, has apart from continuing to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), also recommended targeted sanctions against the RSS; this is a first.
Communalism
Evicted, Accused, and Deleted: The shrinking space for Muslim citizenship
From migrant workers and small vendors to university classrooms and electoral rolls, the architecture of suspicion –for the Indian Muslim--now stretches across everyday life
Rights
Union government revokes Sonam Wangchuk’s detention under NSA after nearly six months!
Move comes days before Supreme Court hearing in habeas corpus petition filed by his wife; Ladakh activist had been detained following September 2025 protests over statehood and Sixth Schedule protections
Minorities
Allahabad High Court orders 24/7 armed protection for Bareilly Muslim man allegedly prevented from offering namaz at home
Summoning the district magistrate and SSP of Bareilly, the Allahabad High Court said any violence against the petitioner or his property would be presumed to have occurred at the instance of the State, as the case raises serious concerns over interference with religious prayers inside private property
Rights
35 civil society groups oppose Maharashtra’s proposed anti-conversion law, warn of threat to women’s autonomy and constitutional freedoms
Coalition, which also included CJP who is the lead petitioner on challenge to anti-conversion laws in SC, demands draft bill be made public, calls for consultations and legislative scrutiny; says existing criminal law already addresses coercion
Communalism
Odisha: 18 months, 54 incidents of communal hate crimes, 7 mob lynchings
Admitting to a spiral in communally driven hate crimes in eastern state of Odisha since June 2024 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a majoritarian outfit came to power, Odisha’s chief minister, Charan Majhi said on Monday, March 9 that 54 such incidents and seven mob lynchings were recorded in that state; this was in a written reply to the State Assembly