Articles by K M Seethi

The United States administration is fervently promoting the “Indo–Pacific” as an alternative geopolitical construct to mobilise a large number of countries in the Asia–Pacific region to contain Chinese and Russian influence. However, India under the Narendra Modi administration has become a strategic contraption by yielding to the pressures of the Donald Trump regime for a programmed “Indo–Pacific” ploy. In the emerging scenario, New Delhi’s rhetoric on “strategic autonomy” has become a political liability.

Kerala has witnessed bitter inter-party violence between Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh–Bharatiya Janata Party workers and Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadre over the last decade, resulting in over 60 deaths. This intensifying violence needs to be viewed in the context of the rise of the RSS, its political inroads into the Thiyya community in the state, and structural changes in the composition of and employmentamong Kerala’s lower-middle class.

Political conditions under the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala provided considerable opportunities for both the Left Democratic Front and the National Democratic Alliance to muster people's support on a number of issues ranging from rampant corruption to social conditions of women and marginalised communities. While the LDF effectively reaped the windfall of several graft cases in which many ministers as well as the personal staff of the chief minister's office were directly or indirectly involved, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA has steadily succeeded in making inroads into the support base of both the fronts, as well as among new voters, though the party won just one seat.

The controversial clinical drug trials on 26 cancer patients at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, allegedly under a contract with the Johns Hopkins University of the US, could be the tip of the proverbial iceberg, with 'biomedical joint ventures' becoming a buzzword for many leading institutions in the country. Greater public vigilance on biomedical experiments, especially in human beings, is needed to ensure that such trials strictly follow the norms set by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Helsinki Declaration.

The UGC has re-introduced its absurd requirement that PhD degree holders must clear the postgraduate level NET to be eligible for lecturerships. This devalues the PhD degree and discourages serious research.