2010

On September 9 Congress chief and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who has just been ‘re-elected’ as the party President, made certain valuable observations. She said that while land was needed to build industry, the “land acquisition must be done in a manner that does not result in the loss of large tracts of fertile and productive agricultural land so indispensable to grow foodgrains and feed people.” She further opined that environmental concerns cannot be rejected offhand. She also opined (…)

In a parliamentary democracy, the most important institution through which the supremacy of the people is expressed and enforced is Parliament. The Members of Parliament are there only in representative capacity as trustees of the people. Gandhiji said:
…..If they do not become trustees of their own accord, force of circumstances will compel the reform, unless they court utter disaster.
He further said “…Public opinion will do what violence can never do.” What Gandhiji said is probably (…)

Respected Prime Minister,
In a landmark ruling from the viewpoint of the poor, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has directed that surplus foodgrains without proper storage should be distributed among the poor rather than be allowed to rot. The Government of India is reported to be unwilling to abide by the ruling maybe because it is not on all fours with the Bill of right to food in which there is provision only for cheap grains, not free grain. There is a provision in the Natural Calamities (…)

There have been various phases in the history of international relations which signify the changing pattern of the behaviour, policies and actions of some political units resulting in creating a kind of balance and expectations for a better future. Such dynamism does ensure, if not guarantee, a great chance for peace in the chaotic situation of the the contemporary world order. On the other hand, there are few actors whose policies, actions and designs certainly threaten the teleological (…)

September 11 happened to be the sixtysecond death anniversary of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the architect and founder of Pakistan. We are belatedly carrying the following article while remembering him.
September 11 marked the death anniversary of M.A. Jinnah, the Father of the nation of Pakistan, which came into existence on August 14, 1947. In 1937 the Muslim League, under Jinnah’s leadership, had declared the complete independence of India as its goal and had also expressed its willingness to (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Miracles happen, so the Commonwealth Games may take place without some stadium roof collapsing. But that is not the issue. What we should really be worried about is: How do dunderheads, frauds and double-dealing fixers come to represent this great country? How do humbuggers, thimbleriggers and pettifogging pretenders get the power to humiliate us before the world?
It is possible to see thugs in leadership positions when the government itself loses its legitimacy and is (…)

The South Asian Winter Games, which were to be held in Auli in Uttarakhand in 2008, have not been held due to lack of preparations and irregularities. However, about Rs 200 crores (Rs 110 crores allotted by the Union Government), have already been spent on the preparations, which, three years later, are still incomplete. The Games are now scheduled to be held this winter, in December, which also seems unlikely, in view of the conditions on the ground.
It is not only the Commonwealth Games (…)

For long it has been fashionable to talk about the Kashmir crisis as the most intractable challenge before the country and yet do pretty little to deal with it and thereby let the blood-letting go on. Recently, however, one notices some stir in diverse circles both at home and abroad to tackle the Kashmir problem. A feeling appears to have crept in both within the government and in the Opposition that Kashmir can no longer be kept on the back-burner. This sense of urgency has to a large (…)

The people of Kashmir Valley had, on several momentous occasions, made their intention clear that they prefer to remain Indians. This they did by participating in successive State and federal elections, despite the boycott call by separatists, through State Assembly Resolutions in 1953 and 1956, and through their iconic leader Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah’s pronouncement in 1975 that “Kashmir’s accession to India was irrevocable”.
The present chief of the National Conference, Dr Farooq (…)

The following article appeared in Bengali in Dainik Statesman and was later rendered into English and sent to us by the author who has taken full respectively for its publication. His first article on the Jnaneshwari Express sabotage and mass murder case appeared in Mainstream (July 10, 2010).
Umakanta Mahato, the CID-CBI got-up game’s alleged mastermind of the Jnaneswari Express sabotage and mass murder case (May 27, 2010), was compelled to embrace death on August 26, 2010 midnight. The (…)