September 2009

This piece was written before the Afghan presidential poll.
In his distinguished diplomatic career spanning four decades, there is not a trace of record to show that Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, dabbled in energy security issues. His recent visit to Pakistan—en route to Afghanistan —has been officially projected as aimed at helping his host country find a way to overcome its electricity shortage.
Holbrooke admitted to (…)

The takeover of the CPI-M party by the neo-liberals was so bloodless, with seasoned social-democrats rooted in the trade unions (like Pandhe saab) and the peasant masses (like Rezzak saab) and voluble intellectuals capitulating with only a whimper or two,* that commentators like the present columnist concluded that the party had become a party of big capital. While this remains the principal aspect, it seems that there is still life in the creature, and the debacle in the West Bengal Lok (…)

Introduction
Nowadays the swine flu has created a health scare among the Indian population. It is still confined to the urban areas. But eventually it is likely travel to rural areas. Given the background of villagers’ apathy in health matters the flu in all probability will take a larger toll. Since the local government institutions are functioning well and programmes like the National Rural Health Missions are working in conjunction with panchayats it will be worthwhile to start the (…)

Switzerland has reportedly told the Indian authorities that it would not give them names of the Indians holding secret bank accounts in its banks while its largest bank, the UBS, has agreed to give the US Government names of about 4500 US citizens who have accounts there. This is in addition to the 250 names it agreed to give in February 2009.
Switzerland is one of the possibly 77 tax havens in the world where rich individuals (from all over the world) keep their money from the (…)

Sometimes, in moments of introspection, one is tempted to ask what could have happened if people in authority had behaved differently, had different views about each other. Even orthodox Marxists have not been able to deny the role of the individual in history, but the reality perhaps is more explicit on this score than they would concede.
Recently I had a strange feeling about how the destiny of our country could have turned out to be very different had those at the helm in the past (…)

Madan Lal Dhingra is perhaps the first Indian freedom fighter, who was executed in London on August 17, 1909. But it is strange that no one in public or the government has thought of comme-morating the event. A brief life-sketch of Madan Lal Dhingra is being given here to draw attention towards his martyrdom, a century ago, for the freedom of the country.
Madan Lal Dhingra was born on February 18, 1883 at Amritsar in a very rich family. His father, Dr Ditta Mal, retired as the (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Gandhi and Bhagat Singh by V.N. Datta; Rupa and Co., New Delhi; 2008; pages
126; Hardcover price: Rs 295.
Here is an extremely readable book—rather old-worldish in some ways, but very topical nevertheless. V.N. Datta, the well-known historian and retired Professor of History, engages with questions that are asked repeatedly: did Mahatma Gandhi let Bhagat Singh down at the Gandhi-Irwin talks in 1931? Could he have saved Bhagat Singh from the gallows and did he choose not (…)

The RSS is deeply in love with the word “Hindu”, shorn of Hinduism’s values. It owes an obligation to the Indian public to clarify if there is any brand of spirituality that is called Hindutva.
It has recently reiterated that Hindutva is the core of its ideology and rooted in Indian culture and civilisation’s heritage. What exactly are the attributes of this culture as perceived by the RSS? Why are its desired values never spelt out in detail for public edification? If Hindutva is an (…)

The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India is planning to set up fourteen national universities of ‘world-class’ standard, and has circulated a [draft] concept note to that effect bearing the above title.
This seems to be revised from an earlier note called ‘Brain Gain’, implying retrieval of some of the better brains that have gone overseas, and thereby rationalising to a degree the still vexed question of ‘brain drain’. The (…)

The key Recommendations of the Yashpal Committee Report is the following:
A holistic view of knowledge, as advocated above, would demand a regulatory system which treats the entire range of educational institutions in a holistic manner. All of higher education has to be treated as an integrated whole. Professional education cannot be detached from general education. It would be, therefore, imperative that all higher education, including engineering, medicine, agriculture and law, is (…)