The question is not simply how much we spend on defence, but what we understand defence and security to mean, says SIMON BRIGNELL
TODAY Indians will unfurl the tricolour to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our independence. The Indian freedom struggle has not only shaped India as a modern constitutional democracy but also shaped the nature of our state, society and citizenship.
The anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle were the four pillars of India’s cause — they laid the foundation of our sovereign nation state and created a promise to pursue a society based on socialist, scientific and secular values, to ensure egalitarian citizenship rights without any form of discrimination.
These inalienable values are central to the unity, integrity, peace, prosperity and progress of India as a multicultural society and secular state.
Two months of student unrest have forced out India’s education minister and rattled the BJP regime. Could this be the beginning of the end for Modi, asks Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary MA BABY
The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Modi has rolled out the carpet for the Taliban in New Delhi — and we shouldn’t be surprised. They have more in common than you might think, argues Bhabani Shankar Nayak
Following the resignation of Nepali Prime Minister KP Oli amid mass youth-driven protests, different narratives have circulated which simplify and misrepresent the complexities and reality on the ground in Nepal at the roots of this crisis, argue VIJAY PRASHAD and ATUL CHANDRA



