May 2009

The year was 1965. The India-Pakistan war had just come to an end. It was then that we travelled to Chheharta, the industrial suburb of Amritsar, which was bombed by the Pak Air Force during the war. And it is in Chheharta that one first met Vimla Dang and her husband, Satya Pal, the legendary Communist leaders of Punjab.
It was Vimlaji who helped us stay in Chheharta and travel to Khem Karam which was the graveyard of the Patton tanks the US had gifted to the Pakistan Army to be (…)

Mainstream offers its belated homage to the memory of Prof Ruddar Datt, who passed away last March, with the following tribute. Two of his articles were published in this journal following his death.
It is sad news for the readers of Mainstream that Prof Ruddar Datt, a regular contributor who used to enlighten them on a wide range of current economic affairs, is no more. Indeed, it is sad news for a large number of students of economics spread all over the country who used to benefit a (…)

As heat wave conditions intensify in large parts of the country and the election jamboree takes a queer turn with personal allegations being traded with vigour by all sides since policies, principles and ideologies have ceased to matter, the latest developments in Nepal are a cause for considerable anxiety for all countries in the region.
In fact after Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Nepal is now on the throes of instability and tension originating from a major political crisis that has (…)

On April 27, 2009, over seven years after the cataclysmic violence in Gujarat, the Supreme Court of India directed the Special Investigation Team (also known as the Raghavan Committee) to look into the role of Narendra Modi, then as now the Chief Minister of Gujarat, in that violence. The focus is naturally on Modi, although the SIT was asked also “to probe the roles of 62 other top ranking politicians, bureaucrats and police officers of the State”.
There have been two reactions to (…)

Among the long-term outcomes of the 2009 elections to the Lok Sabha, besides the overall verdict of the electorate (likely to mark a watershed), it appears that the up-fronting of the malaise of gigantic amounts of wealth stashed away in various foreign financial institutions, by its very location illegal (save the declared amounts made possible by the recent decision to permit partial capital account convertibility of capital by Indians) is likely to be among the foremost. However, it (…)

The impact of the global financial crisis on growth rates, trade flows, remittances, jobs and incomes has led to a range of policy responses by the state. However, the fact that the crisis will reduce access to health care for a large segment of the population, has yet to receive attention. There are strong links between poverty and ill-health. Ill-health creates immense stress even among those who are financially secure and can drive those who are not poor into poverty. There is a gender (…)

Two Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations—the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism and the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment—have initiated a Joint Study to examine the practice of secret detention from a global perspective.
The Joint Study aims at producing new findings regarding the nature and scope of secret detention practices. The Joint (…)

Globalisation is a process of increasing interdependence, interconnectedness and integration of economies and societies to such an extent that an event in one part of the globe affects people in other parts of world. We have often heard of global culture and integration of the world economy. However, as this process is not consistent throughout the world, it leads to conflict and fragmentation.
In 2000, the Beijing+5 Document, while reviewing progress made since the 1995 UN (…)

The launching of an Israeli made satellite on April 20, 2009 came close on the heels of an opaque missile deal of India with an Israeli company under investigation both in India and Israel, raising further questions about India’s Israeli ties and its implications. A.K. Antony, India’s Defence Minister, found it hard to answer questions related to these deals while campaigning for the Congress party in the Parliament elections in his home State of Kerala.
India signed a massive US $ (…)

In the normal case, pushing the reset button should not be a difficult thing to do. Yet, it is almost two months since the United States Vice President Joseph Biden offered to do just that.
When he addressed the Munich security conference in February, Biden offered to reset the button in US-Russia relations. However, despite many positive signals and an overall lowering of rhetoric, the moves so far have been by and large symbolic. Across Eurasia, the signs are to the contrary. The (…)