Asad Ashraf

From prison under the Shah to the helm of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei cast himself as a steadfast defender of Iran’s sovereignty, a leader who believed that dignity was preserved through resistance and resolve.

Six years after the flames receded from North East Delhi’s streets, routine has returned but certainty has not. Rebuilt walls stand where homes once burned, court dates outlast headlines, and memory lingers quietly in markets that now hum again with trade.

When a Vice-Chancellor questions Dalit autonomy or merit, it reflects more than a stray remark. It signals a deeper anxiety within savarna structures about independent Dalit political agency. As Dalit assertion becomes structural and irreversible, discomfort emerges not from a crisis of standards, but from the democratisation of power itself.