In the wake of neoliberal reforms and relentless urbanisation, crime and urban insecurity have joined to become an interlinked theme overwhelming the public mind.

We are dealing with an issue which goes beyond the simple question of the need to defer the JEE and NEET exams in view of the pandemic, and the consequent danger to the lives of students.

The courage of uncertainty as opposed to the certainty of surviving in banal politics is a way to reconceptualise life.

While political parties took time to make sense of what was happening, the neoliberal system lost no time to forge its own response.

Probably for the first time in the history of the republic, it is not jurists and lawyers who are interpreting the constitution. The street has taken their place.

That West Bengal needs to do more in the education sector is true. But it is also true that the state has made huge strides in the last seven-eight years.

Why did the 1919 massacre not produce new laws and reparations? Any minimal justice would have created guarantees against such violence being reenacted today.

The role of legacy in the discourse of citizenship will play an important role in the days to come if the BJP comes to power.

Citizenship and statelessness are inseparable twins. The division between citizens and the stateless is of critical importance in the production of the national space.

Violence is endemic in all states across India. But in Bengal, all acts of violence are essentially political in nature.

The capacity of political innovation is not exhausted in this country, certainly not in Bengal, where the word 'unnayan' (development) has taken an irreversible double connotation – material development, and power or muscle strength.

Instead of debating an alliance with the Congress, Left parties should come to terms with the limits of governmental politics.

If Europe and the United States have destroyed the Mediterranean world and the Gulf, let them first restore peace and security in this arc, or else Europe's borders will continue to crisscross Europe itself.

There is an intense similarity between the Venezuelan crisis and what we find in some other democracies – the same populist response to crisis and the same hesitation of the Left to take note of the class basis of this response.

Rather than deploying more forces to curb the ongoing crisis in Darjeeling, the state government should initiate dialogue with the protesting parties to find a middle ground.

The popular upsurge of the late 1960s, while spectacular, had many paradoxes, and eventually was stymied by the bind of a universal 'line' and the parliamentary framework of rule.

Despite her popularity and her solidarity with the oppressed, the Left and the avant garde writers of West Bengal never really liked the celebrated author.

The dialogue between the old Left movements – with their politics of class struggle – and new social movements has to resume.

Liberal democracy may come and go but populism as a distinct form of politics marked by the presence of the lower classes will remain

Seven days after Krishna died, one of my friends paid me a condolence visit. After the customary inquiries she said, “After all, is it not better that Krishnadi died, she was suffering so much?” I protested.