Aage Se Left

15/08/2024

🇮🇳 On 14th August, on the eve of India’s independence day, hundreds of thousands of women all over West Bengal and India took to ‘occupying’ the streets late at night to protest sexual assault and violence against women.

The protests started in response to the gruesome r**e and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, and allegations of attempted cover up by powerful institutional forces.

The protestors have asserted women’s rights to exist freely without the fear of violence in all public spaces and at all hours. Many protests have been organised across different neighbourhoods of Kolkata and even smaller cities and towns across West Bengal and India. This is a change from the general focus on metropoles where these movements have been more prominent previously.

Even as the protests were organised many have pointed to the systemic challenges faced by the majority of women. Public transit would be unavailable at late night for women to commute, which remains a systemic obstacle for women’s free movement at night. In most protest locations, there would be no public toilets for women to access.

Others pointed out to the existence of ‘r**e culture’ in schools, universities, homes, and workplaces. This includes regular hostile remarks at women for their clothes or their bodies, silencing of women when they speak out about their experiences, and general attacks against women’s rights.

We hope that the movement will sustain beyond the limited media cycles and proliferate into the political culture of India. Only then we can begin the task of dismantling patriarchy and capitalism.

How can women ‘take back’ the night? The emergence of capitalism has been made possible through violence against women and forcing them into ‘domesticity’. This violence becomes visible when women are seen transgressing those boundaries by infringing upon the domain of women. The eradication of these structures are increasingly necessary.

The mass upsurge of people’s anger against sexual violence has finally erupted onto the streets.

22/04/2024

You may have read stories of incredible ‘humility’ of Infosys founder and his wife. Media reports that are barely disguised PR pieces have upheld them as models of Brahminical ‘merit’. The same media that shames Dalits, Muslims, women, or workers for getting a portion of their due by calling it ‘Revdi culture’.

But being given ₹4.2 crores at the age of 5 months is not ‘Revdi culture’ apparently. Murthy was recently in news reports arguing how Indians should expect to work 70 hours a week for us to become a developed country. Never mind the long term effects on the health of lakhs of workers or their right to having a life outside work!

A real developed country doesn’t worship wealth. It respects workers.

14/04/2024

Emboldened by the clean-chit given to it by the US and its MIC, Israel is seeking to expand its genocide in Gaza/Palestine into a regional war. The blame for this lies solely with the imperialists and their agents.

The world most certainly cannot afford another war and must demand that Israel put an end to its genocidal campaign unconditionally. Any talks on return of prisoners/hostages can only begin once peace & justice is ensured.

Aage Se Left

21/03/2024

16/03/2024

We have only begun to unearth the massive scale of corruption conducted by the BJP/RSS combine in the name of electoral bonds. It has become evident that the entire exercise has been a simple tactic to legalise corruption where large corporate houses received major projects in exchange for filling the BJP’s electoral coffer. The price has been paid by the Indian people, literally through taxes and with their lives. Navayuga Engineering Co. which is behind the collapsed Uttarkashi tunnel brought electoral bonds worth Rs 55 crore.

Learn more about the different forms of corruption being covered up by electoral bonds.

13/03/2024

🚨 BJP's new data harvesting operation was recently exposed. Your data may be stolen by unscrupulous operators pretending to be a part of a voter awareness campaign.

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