Dilip Hota
Dilip Hota passed away at 10:37 PM on August 13, 2025. He was suffering from Lung Cancer for the past eight months. The ailment got detected around February this year and he refused to go through the Oncological medical procedure. I went to see him at his Pune residence on 21 July evening accompanied by my son, of whom he was very fond of. There I witnessed the poise, resilience and calmness of Madam Ann, the living partner of Dilip. I saw in my own eyes how the human battle with an ensuing inevitable tragedy. She embodied outstanding human courage in withholding ensuing immense grief.

Dilip and myself shared many sweet and sour relationships, many are there in the email correspondences of Marx Forum. He was a keen enthusiast of the dialogue and exchange process around Marx Forum. I would always remember and respect him for the breadth of his imagination about the human being and the brilliance of his observations.

Dilip whom many of us fondly know as DilipDa was among the gems of people who crossed the boundaries of conventional education from Hindu School, Presidency College, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. I joked several times with him that had he carried on that bright path of immersing into conventionality, he could easily retire as a Director of any Lab of DAE. However, DilipDa’s constitution was of a different metal. He spent an arduous and uncertain life among the Adivasi population of Bokaro and then in Thane district. He was deeply associated with Shramik Mukti Dal, a comrade in arms with Dr Anant Phadke, Suhas Paranjape, Swaitja, Bharat Patankar, Gail Omvedt, etc.

I have only grief to share with all the well-wishers of Dilip Da at this moment. Hope You will bear with me this hour of sadness.
Arun Kumar Sinha
Kalyani, West Bengal

[After hearing the sad news from Arun Kumar Sinha Dilip’s well-wishers and friends, including Aditya Nigam, Bharat Patankar, Sukla Sen, Ajay Prakash, O P Sinha, Sagar Dhara, sent condolences to Frontier,—Fr]

The “Cutters”
Across India–whether in Narharpur or Gurugram, Dharwad or Delhi–thousands of Dalit sanitation workers are forced to perform autopsies. Called “cutters” by the medical fraternity, they get no formal training, protective gear, recognition, or additional compensation. Despite government regulations requiring an MBBS degree as the basic requirement to conduct autopsies, physicians at large do not want to go near decomposing bodies, much less handle the organs. They may supervise from a distance, but the dissection is left to sanitation workers, who are nearly always Dalit.
A Correspondent

Stop Amendments to Nuclear Laws
Eighty years ago, on the mornings of 6th & 9th August, 1945, the world witnessed the catastrophic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 civilians instantly and condemning generations to untold suffering. These horrors remain a stark reminder that nuclear technology; whether for weapons or energy poses an existential threat to humanity and all life on Earth.

Yet, instead of learning from history, governments around the world, including ours, are deepening their dangerous nuclear path. Recent announcements to amend the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, (CLNDA) to open the sector to private companies and foreign investments, mark a reckless and regressive step. These proposed changes seek to dilute Section 17(b) of the CLNDA, removing suppliers’ liability, and to privatise nuclear power operations. This is being packaged as a “clean energy transition” solution, but as has been exposed over decades, nuclear energy is neither safe, nor green, nor cost-effective.

NAPM strongly opposes these amendments and the ongoing nuclear expansion drive. These moves jeopardise the lives of millions, threaten fragile ecosystems, and trample democratic rights of people whose lands and livelihoods will be destroyed for reactor projects. Across the country, fisher communities of Kudankulam, Jaitapur and Mithivirdi, mango cultivators of Konkan, and Adivasi communities in Chutka, Seoni and MithiVirdi have stood firm against nuclear plants. They have resisted displacement, radiation risks, and the culture of secrecy and unaccountability that defines India’s nuclear establishment. These struggles will continue as farmers and workers are questioning and resisting the new considerations in Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar and Goa. 

The government’s argument that small modular reactors (SMRs) are a ‘game changer’ is another false promise. SMRs are untested, unsafe, exorbitantly expensive, and shift the focus away from proven decentralised renewable energy alternatives. Nuclear energy will not solve the climate crisis; it creates new ones. It comes with a massive carbon footprint during mining, transportation, and construction. It leaves behind radioactive waste that remains deadly for thousands of years, for which there is no permanent solution.
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

Ghost Voters
‘Provide relevant documents’: Karnataka CEO issues notice to Rahul Gandhi over ‘Shakun Rani voted twice claim’:

[The Dy. Chief Minister of Karnataka, btw, had already filed a formal complaint with the Karnataka ECI on August 5:

The central issues that Rahul Gandhi’s presentation has flagged–via a detailed scan of irregularities in the voters’ list of a single assembly constituency in Bengaluru that doesn’t still cover the issue of voter deletion—are as under:
1. Duplicate Voters (11,965)
2. Fake and Invalid Addresses (40,009)
3. Bulk Voters in a Single Address (10,452)
4. Invalid Photos (4,132)
5. Misuse of From 6–Inclusion of Elderly People as First Time Voters (33,692)

Gandhi has also, as a corollary, reiterated inter alia the following two top demands:

1.    Upload all the voters’ lists on the ECI website in digitalised format so that these can be far more easily analysed.
2.   Scrap the recent instruction to destroy the CCTV footages of the polling booths.

So, these are the broad issues. Not one Singh or one Rani. 

It’s abundantly clear that the ECI is doing the very opposite of sharing info with the public.

Just scurrying to hide. (The case of the Bihar draft roll is just a graphic exemplar. It’s noteworthy that the case is right before the Supreme Court is no deterrent.)

In the meanwhile, the ECI tells the Supreme Court, in a closely related case, that it will neither share the 65 lakh deleted names via SIR nor the reasons for deletion.
Sukla Sen

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 11, Sep 7 - 13, 2025