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Barack Obama once said “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” The other day an ex-Pentagon official hit out at terror-sponsor Pakistan and likened Pakistan to a pig, alluding that no amount of lipstick will make a difference to Pakistan's image!

In 2024, as in previous years, communal violence has persisted in the form of structural violence, embedded within the legal and institutional framework of the state. Structural violence, as conceptualized by Johan Galtung, refers to systematic inequalities and injustices that are institutionalized within legal, political, and social structures, thereby disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. In this context, discriminatory legislation, selective implementation of existing laws, and state directives have played a crucial role in perpetuating structural violence.

BHOPAL: How democracy can be subverted is the finding of a survey conducted by a leading news paper of the state. The survey revealed that vested interest, who described as "Dabang" are controlled many panchayat without contesting election. This Dabang pays a fixed sum to the sarpanch and panch and obtain all powers to run the panchayats. This is widespread position in the reserved panchayats. They include such "Dabang" who finance election of sarpanch and after election they obtain total control of the panchayat.

BJP leaders and the Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, have launched vicious attacks on the Supreme Court. These attacks have come in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment on the Tamil Nadu Governor’s unconstitutional role in withholding bills passed by the state legislature and subsequently the CJI-headed bench giving an interim order on the Waqf Amendment Act.

From asserting “all is well” on the floor of Lok Sabha only on March 7, the Modi government has had to order “keeping in abeyance the Indus Water Treaty of 1960”, declare the defence advisers in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi as persona non grata and close integrated check post at Wagah-Attari border on April 23, after Pahalgam, often dubbed the Switzerland of Kashmir, witnessed the gruesome massacre of 28 innocent tourists on April 22.

One of the greatest tragedies of South Asia has been the emergence of ‘Two Nation Theory’, which opposed the Anti Colonial Indian National movement. It was a great help to British colonialists to rule over this vast land. It led to the formation of Pakistan on the basis of Muslim majority (Islam) and the remaining part, India as a secular state with a large Muslim population. These Muslims, who by force of circumstances or by choice chose to stay here in India. It also led to large migrations of Hindus from Pakistan to India and many Muslims to Pakistan, the suffering was horrific.

The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 (‘the Act’) is currently under a rigorous constitutional scrutiny before a Division Bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna in the Supreme Court. One question we have not explored enough is what this Act means for Muslim women of this country.

Pakistan on Wednesday, a day after Pak Army Chief Gen Asim Munir-inspired ‘Muslim terrorists’ shot dead Hindu Indian males ‘touristing’ in Kashmir’s scenic ‘Pahalgam’, a spot eulogized as “Kashmir’s Switzerland”, woke up to the tragedy in India and in a gesture of commiseration expressed “concern at the loss of tourist lives”, reported a Pakistani newspaper.

Notwithstanding dooms-day-sayers words, United States is already claiming progress in trade talks with India. A White House press briefing last night has claimed as much, as US vice President, J.D. Vance, mentioned in his addresses and interactions with Indian officials in the last two days.

The occasion of May Day, observed on May 1 by crores of workers and young people across the globe as a day of international working-class solidarity, necessitates a reassessment of our collective objectives in the context of an escalating global crisis of capitalism.