July 2009

The stock market once again reacted to the Budget with irrational pessimism, as it had done during the Interim Budget. When Pranab Mukherjee started his Budget speech, the Sensex was up 150 points and by the time he finished, it had declined 756 points, a total decline of as much as six per cent. Possibly some unwarranted expectations were not realised, and the market reacted prematurely. In fact, Mukherjee has done a pretty good job in delivering on the mandate to restore high growth and (…)

The first Budget presented by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government since being re-elected to office was supposed to send a signal of its intentions. Of course, there were wide differences about what that signal would be. There were those who argued that since the UPA Government no longer has to rely on outside support from the Left, it will finally be able to implement all the market-friendly and corporate-oriented policies that big business and other elements have been asking (…)

The 2009-10 Budget has been presented at a time when recession has hit all sectors of the economy. The Congress-led UPA Government was expected to come up with concrete measures to meet the extraordinary situation. The agrarian sector has been hit by delayed monsoons and indications of early drought conditions. Manipur has already been declared drought-hit and predictions of a similar fate for certain other States are also rife. The suicides by farmers continue unabated touching an average (…)

Aruna Asaf Ali’s birth centenary falls on July 16, 2009.
Born as Aruna Ganguly in Barisal (now Bangladesh) on July 16, 1909, she emerged as one of the most striking freedom fighters especially at the last stage of our battle for emancipation from foreign yoke. Her dedication to the cause of liberation of the toiling millions remained undiminshed till the very end and she tirelessly worked in various capacities to realise the dream of an exploitation-free, new and radiant India she and her (…)

It is easy to criticise any set of views in this complicated world that we live in. And Aruna Asaf Ali often says and writes something that is liable to criticism. But that criticism, however justified, would be poor stuff, for it would deal with some superficial aspect of a living, vibrant and challenging personality, who has shaken up many a sleeping person and become in many ways a symbol of these changing times.
Symbols are often disturbing and challenges are disconcerting. And (…)

How do you reflect on those unforgettable days of August 1942 after fifty years?
Aruna Asaf Ali: Gandhiji’s ‘Do or Die’ message and his statement that every person is his own leader thrilled the masses and some of us. A few of us decided that going to jail was no way of serving the national cause. So we thought we’ll stay out of jail and lead the masses in the ‘Do or Die’ battle.
That’s how we then felt. We did not kill people for the sake of killing but we decided that we would (…)

The following paper by the late Aruna Asaf Ali was received from her in November 1991. The paper was prepared in response to a request from the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI) for a publication to be edited by Professor Upendra Baxi (former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University), Dr (Mrs) Alice Jacob (Research Professor, Indian Law Institute) and Tarlok Singh. This paper was published in IASSI Quarterly, Vol. 14, nos. 3 and 4, January-June 1996. It was reproduced from (…)

Generations spanning over centuries have been told that the French Revolution devoured its own children. In a sense, this could be said also of the Russian Revolution in which many of its heroes had themselves to face the firing squad.
There is however the other side, the heroic aspect of every revolution as it throws up leaders, and these in turn try to carry forward the revolution itself. Aruna Asaf Ali was one of these beautiful children reared by the Indian people’s revolution (…)

One more link with the past has gone,
One more patriot gone to rest forever,
United with history in the journal of her life.
O, Aruna Asaf Ali, I salute you
For your tireless wanderings
Through the maze of revolution,
But never faltering even though
Your comrades locked you out at journey’s end.
July 31, 1996 Som Benegal
(Mainstream, August 10, 1996)

A die-hard feminist at heart, I find the recent controversy revolving around the Women’s Reservation Bill disturbing. At a time and age when it has been established over and again that women are equal, if not better than men in terms of their capability, intellect and maturity, why is there a need for reservation suddenly? A staunch adherent of meritocracy, I have never been convinced by anybody to see the logic behind reservation of any kind, especially in present-day India. In a society (…)