August 2009

Introduction Japan goes to the polls on August 30, 2009. Prime Minister Taro Aso who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the LDP-New Komeito coalition announced snap polls after a resounding defeat in Tokyo’s Metropolitan Assembly elections early in July 2009. In this election, the Opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) trounced the LDP with 54 seats to 38, thus precipitating the snap polls.1
Like the Congress in India, the LDP has dominated the Japanese (…)

Fifteenth August will once again be celebrated throughout the country as Independence Day in five days’ time.
After 62 years as we approach our sixtythird Independence Day the face of the country has undoubtedly changed for the better in different fields of activity. The national advancement in science and technology, nuclear power included, IT etc. does not bear repetition. The emergence of India as a major power is recognised even by the most developed states acr5oss the globe. What is (…)

We were born free
this is our land
this is our forest
this is our river
this is our mountain
and deep beneath the stone on the mountain-top
rages the timeless sacred fire of our dignity.
On to this
you cast your ‘development’ spell
to steal our freedom
and spell death
for our beliefs, values and culture.
Can you mine our God?
Can you defile our Nature?
We shall resist you
resist we shall
until we make you powerless.
The instruments you wield
shall come to (…)

Jawaharlal Nehru’s broadcast to the nation on August 15, 1948 is noteworthy because the words he uttered then hold considerable importance for our contemporary political life. Excerpts from that address are being reproduced here. —Editor
Let us not forget where we have failed or where we have erred. For our failures and errors have been many. Some of these are obvious enough, but the real failure has been a failure of the spirit and a falling away from the high standards set by the Father (…)

Fifteenth of August continues to be a sacred day in the mind and heart of the people of this great country. To celebrate the end of the long night of foreign rule and to breathe the air of freedom cannot but be a proud occasion even after thirtytwo long years.
And yet the concept of free India that one had on the day the Union Jack was hauled down and the Tricolour unfurled over the ramparts of the Red Fort is very different from the state of our national life as we see it today. Foreign (…)

The Constitution of India was made by the good for the honest. It is worked by the wise for the experienced. This marks a maturing of our Republic. It also tells us that the timber of our parliamentary functioning is being seasoned in varied waters.
Over six decades and 94 amendments after the people of India gave unto themselves that great enactment, it is not surprising that some feel: ‘Should we not take a re-look at the Constitution, it is quite old?’
Age is no weakness when the (…)

A law is amended generally to bring in improvement or to be in conformity with some important judicial decisions. The Land Acquisition (LA) Act of 1894 does require revision to conform to the current-day situation. So far, there could not be any objection.
But the way the amendments have been made looks as if we are going back on time. There are certain undesirable features which require to be highlighted. Under the theory of Eminent Domain, private property could be taken over only for (…)

This is not a slogan that I have coined. I got it from the write-up on the US Solidarity Economy Network which organised its first National Forum on the Solidarity Economy: Building Another World. The write-up continues:
The current economic crisis provides a historic opportunity to push for an economic system that puts people and planet front and centre. The Solidarity Economy is a growing global movement that is building real world practices and policies grounded in principles of (…)

There is a constant effort to say the economy of the developed nations is in reality a free-market economy. This is not said by any ordinary person but even by recent Noble Laureates like Amartya Sen, Joseph E. Stiglitz and others. We cannot say that they have not read the economics textbooks or they have forgotten what they learnt and taught in the classes of economics. In case of Amartya Sen, one can say that he is infatuated by the knowledge of the West. Indian economists as well as other (…)

I. Introduction
The Central Asian question is no more the same as it used to be in the 1990s. No one speculates anymore that it was inevitable that the region would descend into anarchy. However, the problems endemic to a critical period of state formation linger on. The transition economies were just about switching gear when the global economic crisis struck. Growth slackened. Foreign investment dwindled. Commodity prices crashed.
Regional cooperation has far from gained traction. (…)