June 2009

With the death of Kamala Suraiya at Pune at the age of seventyfive, Indian literature has lost a rare and remarkable writer of multi-linguistic, multi-personal and multi-literary identities and sensibilities. As a strong self-willed child she grew up in Malabar and Calcutta jealously guarding her rights and furiously defending her various identities, particularly the feminine identity, in the face of attacks from genteel society. She has never been apologetic about any one of them. See how (…)

As a writer who combined originality with daring, Kamala Das had no equal in Indian literature. The originality established her as a poet in her teens. The daring made her an international sensation, making waves from Canada to Japan.
Man-woman relationship was her theme. She wrote about it with no sense of taboos—a quality that is applauded as ‘modern’ in men. Women modernists usually approach the theme from a feminist angle, seeing man as an adversary, even enemy.
Kamala (…)

Sonia Gandhi, aided by her son Rahul, has shown her mastery over electoral politics. Of course, UPA’s victory has been facilitated by the follies and infighting within BJP; the latter’s failure to understand that the religious community called the Hindus are so secular and so permeated with the “Sarva dharma samabhava” ideas that they will no longer become a solid vote bank for communal politics; its failure to drop Varun Gandhi as its candidate after his infamous “hate speech”; its failure (…)

The Parliament elections have both been a relief and a disappointment A relief because it has ensured continuity and stability to a party that needs at least two terms to show results and distribute to the people the fruits of its policy. Also a relief because the voter gave the party he supported sufficient majority to follow its policy unhindered by arm-twisting by small parties that extracted to the full their pound of flesh for providing a majority cushion to the ruling party. In fact (…)

The Unexpected Results
The results of the general election for the fifteenth Lok Sabha belied all expectations and predictions. Most of the exit polls predicted that the Congress would emerge as the largest party but would be nowhere near an absolute majority —not even the UPA, that is, Congress + Trinamul Congress + NCP + DMK. The best hope of the Congress was to get 160 to 170 seats. In actual fact it crossed, for the first time since 1991, the two hundred mark and bagged 206 seats. The (…)

The parliamentary election result of 2009 has hopefully given a permanent burial to the politics of divisiveness, and religious bigotry. It is a warning to all that in India acceptance of politics of social inclusion and total equality of all religious groups, especially the minorities, are a pre-requisite to obtaining political power.
The new government will naturally frame its policies in the light of these and equally important considerations for the people of India that is (…)

Post-Election 2009
As the fragrance of the democratic festival is almost over, and Dr Manmohan Singh’s new team has taken oath on May 22, the verdict of Election 2009 must be analysed with all humility and objectivity to arrive at a meaningful conclusion. The well-wishers and proponents of Indian democracy must be happy to note the fact that a “teacher-turned-Prime Minister”, who has never contested any election, has became the champion of democracy and secularism. Certain points are worth (…)

The rout of Communists, particularly in West Bengal, is astounding. If after more than three decades of uninterrupted rule the Left Front has been rejected by the people it calls for serious introspection. Earlier the Congress was rejected and replaced by Communists when the former failed to live up to the expectations of the people. Now when people find that the Communists too have failed to live up to the expectations of the people they have no other option but to vote for the Congress as (…)

The flavour of national politics in India seems to be changing. The performance of State governments and the nature of caste coalitions at the State level used to determine the election outcome of the parliamentary elections in India. Therefore, the verdict in the general elections used to be an aggregate of State level verdicts, which seems to be not the case with General Election 2009. This is not to say that State level issues are no longer important in determining the outcome of (…)

COMMUNICATION
Prof Shobhanlal Datta Gupta’s excellent critique on the debacle in the parliamentary election 2009 of the ruling Left dispensation of 32 years in West Bengal (“The Left’s Exit: Notes for Consideration of All Concerned”, Mainstream, May 23, 2009), though comprehensive, leaves much kernel for consideration. There has been unanimity across the board that the Left Front’s drubbing is attributable to the swing of the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and minorities, particularly the (…)