On 30th July 2025, OBMA submitted a detailed appeal to India’s top regulatory and judicial authorities, calling for institutional accountability, independent inquiry, and restitution for thousands of DHFL depositors whose savings were wiped out. Despite detailed evidence of auditing failures, flawed credit ratings, and regulatory lapses, SEBI’s response was allegedly a bureaucratic deflection, refusing responsibility. To highlight this stark contrast, we designed a poster juxtaposing the plea for justice with SEBI’s mechanical reply, exposing systemic evasions and the erosion of public trust. Download, share, and spread this poster—because when regulators dodge responsibility, ordinary citizens pay the price.
We Love You SRK, But You Must Answer for DHFL!
This statement calls on Shah Rukh Khan to take accountability for endorsing DHFL between 2015 and 2018, a period when lakhs of small depositors were persuaded to trust the company before its collapse in 2019, which wiped out over thousands of crores of rupees. Citing the Consumer Protection Act, it argues that Khan failed in his duty as a celebrity endorser to exercise due diligence, and demands a public apology, disgorgement of his endorsement fees, penalties under law, and a temporary ban on financial product endorsements. Drawing on his iconic film roles, the appeal frames accountability not as hostility but as an act of love and justice, urging Khan to stand with victims as the true hero he portrays on screen. It ends with a call for public action—signatures, solidarity, and collective pressure for justice.
DHFL Scam: Who Audited and Rated Our Trust?
Between 2010 and 2019, DHFL projected itself as a secure, AAA-rated housing finance company, yet it concealed one of India’s largest financial frauds involving shell companies, fictitious loans, and alleged political collusion with the BJP. Despite glaring irregularities, auditors and credit rating agencies continued to endorse its credibility, betraying the trust of lakhs of ordinary small depositors. The collapse left vulnerable groups—senior citizens, widows, pensioners, and salaried professionals—with devastating losses, while the resolution process (reportedly) disproportionately benefitted one chosen corporate acquirer. This appeal demands disciplinary action against negligent auditors and rating agencies, restitution for depositors, transparency in insolvency proceedings, and systemic reforms to restore accountability in financial governance.
Resist Fear, Defend Freedom: Stop SLAPPs, Stop Surveillance
This video exposes how India’s democracy is under siege through SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), draconian laws like UAPA, and unchecked digital surveillance. From the DHFL scam victims fighting corporate–state collusion, to students, journalists, and whistleblowers imprisoned or silenced, the message is clear: truth-telling has been criminalized. Drawing from Tagore’s vision of a fearless India, the video demands strong anti-SLAPP protections, accountability in surveillance, and safeguards for free speech — reminding us that defending dissent is defending the Constitution itself.
DHFL Scam and the Death of Public Trust: Time for a Truth and Accountability Commission!
This appeal calls for the creation of a Judicial Truth and Accountability Commission to investigate the Supreme Court’s April 1, 2025 verdict on the DHFL insolvency case, which allegedly legitimised a flawed resolution plan favouring corporate interests while wiping out the life savings of lakhs of small investors, including widows, senior citizens, and the differently abled. Citing alleged collusion between regulators, the RBI-appointed CoC, and corporate actors, as well as parallels with electoral manipulation, it frames the case as part of a broader pattern of financial authoritarianism under the NDA regime (2014–ongoing). The Commission is envisioned to audit judicial reasoning, regulatory conduct, and the IBC process, outlaw SLAPP suits, and ensure systemic reforms so that courts and institutions uphold constitutional accountability over corporate power.
Landmark Victory in the DHFL Chronicle: A New Ray of Hope for the Victims
On 31 July 2025, the Chandigarh State Consumer Commission delivered a landmark ruling in the DHFL scam, holding Catalyst Trusteeship, CARE Ratings, and Brickwork Ratings liable for negligence and ordering them to compensate an investor—marking the first time market gatekeepers, not just the defaulter, were held accountable. This breakthrough offers all DHFL victims a second path to justice beyond the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, empowering them to pursue trustees, rating agencies, and other enablers. Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA) has long called for such accountability, urging victims to unite, gather evidence, sign petitions, and build a sustained public movement to turn this precedent into systemic change.
Justice Beyond Courts: DHFL Scam and the Call to Organize
On India’s Political Independence Day, we discuss the strength of social movements and why DHFL scam victims need more than courtrooms to win justice. Learn how to educate, agitate, and organize for real change—and why united action is the only way to hold the “powerful” accountable. 📢 Sign and share the petitions: PETITION 1– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/rndVPmFY8z’ PETITION 2– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/dSwwM2pYNT PETITION 3– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/DCxVVJz8bW PETITION 4– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/9RwFbKMMFp 🌐 Read more on Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA): https://onceinabluemoon2021.in/
Endangered Gender: Half The Sky Under The BJP’s Patriarchal Misogyny
India’s gender inequality persists as a contradiction between constitutional promises and patriarchal realities, evidenced by its 2025 Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) rank of 131 out of 148 countries (score: 0.644). This article examines three core issues—educational disparities, women’s malnutrition, and female foeticide—challenging overstated claims of literacy parity (98% women vs. 99% men). Drawing on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023–24, it reveals a 12.6-point literacy gap (87.2% men vs. 74.6% women), malnutrition’s dual burden (18.7% underweight, 24% overweight per NFHS-5), and ~307,000 annual foeticides (2013–2017) skewing sex ratios (108.9). These intersect with low economic participation (28.3%) and caste divides, worsened by data opacity (jugupsā). Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach frames these as entitlement failures, while feminist intersectionality highlights caste and regional disparities. Comparisons with Bangladesh, Sweden, and Pakistan underscore policy gaps. The dystopian film Matrubhoomi (2003) illustrates gender imbalance’s consequences. Recommendations emphasize targeted literacy drives, nutrition fortification, foeticide enforcement, and transparent data to foster equity.
Fortifying India: Reading Between the Lines of the 2025 Defence Budget
In the shadow of escalating geopolitical tensions, India’s defense strategy for the fiscal year 2025-26, with a staggering Rs 681,210 crore budget (13.45% of the Union Budget), perpetuates a militaristic paradigm that prioritizes arms over human and ecological well-being. This allocation, blending indigenous manufacturing (e.g., Tejas, BrahMos) with heavy reliance on imports (e.g., Rafale, S-400), is marred by historical corruption scandals (Bofors, Coffin, Rafale) and shrouded covert operations via entities like the Special Frontier Force (SFF) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Meanwhile, external debt servicing at USD 682.2 billion (19.2% of GDP) drains fiscal resources, exacerbating economic distress marked by bankruptcies, rising poverty, and wealth concentration among crony elites. Findings reveal that this defense-centric approach ignores profound ecological devastation, agrarian crises, and hunger epidemics, diverting public taxes to fuel a predatory military-industrial complex. War-mongering, akin to manufactured religious pogroms by the current political executive, fosters a false nationalistic fervor, sustaining a debt-ridden global techno-economic system that benefits tycoons while neglecting climate resilience, public health, and equitable flourishing.
Of Size and Suffering: Challenging the Illusion of “Progress”
India’s emergence as the world’s fourth-largest economy masks deep ethical and structural crises. This article critiques the country’s development model, which prioritizes GDP growth while perpetuating informal labour, systemic inequality, environmental degradation, and authoritarian neoliberal governance. It highlights the disjunction between economic scale and human well-being, exposing how neoliberal globalization erodes local economies, social cohesion, and democratic participation. Persistent gender and social inequities, ecological injustices, and increasing external debt trap India in a cycle of “pre-debtor” capitalism, undermining sovereignty and welfare. Drawing on critical political economy, postcolonial theory, and alternative frameworks such as degrowth and localization, the article calls for transcending growth-centric paradigms to pursue justice, sustainability, and pluralistic development rooted in dignity and ecological balance.
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 