So in our country the battle between electoral autocracy and people's democracy, between subjugation and freedom, between opacity and transparency, between institutionalized oppression and social justice, between majoritarianism and pluralism, between good and evil is hotting up in ideological, political and economic domains. On one side we find the extended Sangh Parivar and their cohorts within and beyond India, who not only wreak havoc from the corridors of power but, like termites (to borrow a term from a filthy politician who used it to describe Muslim infiltrators), eat into the very vitals of the secular democratic republic -- howsoever imperfect that may have been -- which we the people of India achieved at the cost of enormous sacrifices during the freedom movement. On the other side there is a much stronger army comprising farmers protesting against the three farm laws, workers and employees agitating against privatisation and the new labour codes, emerging icons of Young India such as climate activist Disha Ravi, dalit labour organiser Nodeep Kaur and her comrade Shiv Kumar, stand up comedian Munawar Faruqui and all those who are under attack simply because they work for the downtrodden and speak truth to power, the few judges and the many activists, journalists, artists, intellectuals and others who go against the tide to reclaim and rebuild the Republic. When protesting farmers observe Women Peasants’ Day,  International Women’s Day, Human Rights Day, and fan out to different parts of the country on a campaign to defeat the BJP in the impending elections, when the ruling dispensation finds itself in a very tight spot both in economic and political terms and when convergence of various popular movements in different forms is visibly growing, there is every reason to hope that the coming months and years will be marked by bitter battles and hard-won victories.