September 2009

Regardless of the statements by the Ministry of External Affairs, including the assertions of External Affairs S.M. Krishna, that the situation on the Sino-Indian border was “peaceful”, the fact is that recent Chinese postures on the border are a matter of concern for the average Indian. This concern springs from the ground reality that perhaps for the first time in many years Chinese incursions have been reported from all sectors around the same time and there is much strength in the (…)

Great Judge Sotomayor, I salute you. Why? You are a super symbol of gender power, a fine paradigm of feminine title to judicial authority to dispense justice at the national level, a glory not only for the womanhood of the USA but a symbol of the woman’s super-stature in the sex performance in all humanity. You are the robed sex on the Supreme Court Bench, an inspiration for women in all countries now neglected because the masculine gender occupies an unjust majority in all the three great (…)

I have supped full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me. (Macbeth Modi)
I
Indeed, great is the temptation to write this account wholly in Shakesperian quotation.
Four new skeletons now rattle for justice in the Modi cupboard. And well might he be saying to himself:
...the time has been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their (…)

Politics everywhere, particularly in liberal democracies is all about getting power and retaining it as long as it is possible. In India where the feudal culture is still strong, the power thus gained is cleverly passed on to sons and daughters and even widows of the deceased who have been groomed for the job or not, whether they deserve it or not.
This tradition began from the very beginning with Motilal Nehru as a shrewd and successful lawyer who gifted his fabulously built Anand (…)

The Buddha describes lust/desire as the origin of suffering. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states pointblank that a person consists of desires. For Manu, desire is one of humankind’s ten vices. Every source of wisdom warns us against desire, greed, avarice, the craving for more and more.
Yet, desire drives us. The latest example of this is cricket star Harbhajan Singh driving an unlicensed Hummar vehicle in Chandigarh. It may seem like a minor matter, but it is a symptom of what seems to (…)

The air is thick with talk about the economic crisis facing the country. The Finance Minister has called it “a grave economic crisis”. “We have not experienced anything similar in the history of independent India,” he has said.
In Parliament, in newspaper offices, in the university campus, in Chambers of Commerce, the talk centres round the urgent need to borrow, to contract loans so that our economy could be sustained and the nation does not collapse under debts.
In other (…)

Both the Houses of the Indian Parliament have passed the Bill for providing free and compulsory education for children in the age-group of 6 to 14. There have been extensive debates on the extent to which this Bill will help in implementing the right to education as provided in Article 21-A of the Indian Constitution. What has been ignored in these discussions is that the Bill as adopted misses the excellent opportunity provided to the nation for bringing about a radical transformation of (…)

I was all set to write on the two recently published books on the Kashmir Valley—In The Valley of Mist by Justine Hardy (Rider-Random House) and the other one titled, Jammu and Kashmir—Cold War and the West by D.N. Panigrahi (Routledge, Francis and Taylor Group)—but just as I was settling down, trickled in those reports of the fake encounter death of Ishrat Jahan. She was killed five years ago along with three others, after being branded terrorists, supposedly on way to kill the Gujarat (…)

Protest by Hindutva organisations against construction of a mosque in Rohini Sector 16, Delhi...Prayer by the Muslims not allowed by Hindutva forces on 26.6.2009 and those who were coming for the Namaz were beaten up and chased back... Hooligans marched in street to look out for Muslims... Women also participated in large numbers... Timely intervention by the police ...19 arrested...... Appeal to maintain communal harmony by citizens groups.
According to reliable sources, a piece of land (…)

Even the most die-hard CPM supporter would now admit that his party is at present a sinking ship and is in extremely immature hands. At this critical juncture of Left politics when the need of the hour is honest self-introspection, Left politicians are indulging in jugglery and self- deception. At a time when the Mamata jugger-naut is rolling over West Bengal, Left leaders are loathe to admit that the Union Railway Minister has appeared as a titan in State politics in front of whom people (…)