Sabriwithrealitycheck

  Independence Day: Freedom Must Be Protected by Its Citizens As India celebrates its 80th Independence Day on 15 August 2026, it is worth remembering that our freedom came at an enormous cost. Independence was not the achievement of one community, one region, one religion, one caste or one gender. It was the result of decades of struggle and sacrifice by people across the country who dreamed of a free and dignified India. Leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, B.R. Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, and many others imagined an India where people of different faiths and beliefs could live together with dignity; where citizens would be equal before the law; and where freedom would have meaning in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Their vision was particularly significant in a society marked by deep inequalities of caste, class, gender and poverty. Over the past more than seven decades, India has made remarkable progress on many fronts. Yet the dre...

  International Youth Day is observed annually on August 12 . Designated by the United Nations in 1999, it celebrates young people’s contributions to society, raises awareness of the challenges faced by youth globally, and promotes their meaningful engagement in sustainable development. The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.” It is important to recognise that young people across the world do not form a homogeneous group. Their needs, aspirations, and opportunities are shaped by their social, economic, political, and geographical contexts. In other words, where you are located and the conditions in which you live can profoundly shape your future and your ability to participate in public life. There are many examples of young people who have challenged and broken colonial control in the past to help set their countries free. Yet the struggles for representation, dignity, equality, and justice continue in many parts of the ...

                           Amma is still listening Every evening there was a journey home a phone call to Amma. Not merely a call, but a quiet reassurance that the world was still in place. She knew my silences better than my words. She understood the weight in my voice, the worries I never named, the world I carried within me. Our conversations were never long. They did not need to be. After salaam , I would ask, "Sab theek hai?" And in that familiar mellowness, "How are Irfana and Zoya?" Those few words held an entire home. Sometimes she would tell me who had visited, which neighbour was unwell, whether the rains had come, how is crops in the field, or how the village was breathing that day. Nothing extraordinary. Everything essential. Amma never spoke of her own strength. Yet she was our light, our shelter, our mountain— standing quietly between us and...

  Sir William Mark Tully, one of the respected voices in Indian journalism and broadcasting, passed away at the age of 90 in a Delhi hospital. Born in Tollygunge, Calcutta, to British parents, Mark spent his early years in India before being sent to England for his education at Marlborough College and later at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Journalism was not Mark Tully’s first choice. In his early years, he aspired to become a priest, but that path was closed to him after an interaction with a bishop, who ultimately rejected his application for the priesthood. Finally, Mark joined the BBC and returned to India in 1964 as the BBC’s India correspondent, later serving the organisation as Bureau Chief in New Delhi. He became a leading voice in Indian journalism, known for his distinct ethos, and remained at the forefront of news-making for nearly three decades until stepping down from the BBC in 1994. Mark was among the rare journalists who bore witness to modern India in the making, ...

Trump in Davos, oh my world, what a speech by the President of the United States. What should have been a sober presidential address instead unfolded like a campaign rally, full of bravado and self-congratulation. It sounded less like diplomacy and more like domestic political theatre, with global crises reduced to backdrops for personal branding. In that moment, statecraft gave way to spectacle. The setting made the performance all the more revealing. Davos likes to present itself as the command centre of neoliberal global governance, a gathering where political leaders, corporate executives, financiers, and policy experts claim to manage the world through markets and technocratic expertise. Yet Trump’s speech avoided any serious engagement with the structural failures of this system: widening inequality, ecological collapse, labour precarity, or the permanent state of war that shapes much of the Global South. For audiences in India and South Asia, these omissions are not abstract, ...

Today we mark National Press Day, commemorating the establishment of the Press Council of India in 1966, the body entrusted with safeguarding standards of reportage across Indian media. Its mandate is simple but vital: to uphold ethical journalism and check the quality of the news that reaches citizens. Yet, anyone following Indian media closely will agree that a gulf persists between that mandate and reality, especially in broadcast and digital outlets. Freedom of expression is a universal right. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts the right to hold opinions and to seek, receive and impart information. And yet journalists worldwide, including in India, face growing pressure: editorial interference from corporate owners, intimidation from state actors, legal harassment, and even violence. The statistics are grim. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, dozens of journalists have been killed in India since the early 1990s while reporting. In many...