2010

by Lakhwinder Singh Sidhu and Sumandeep Kaur Punia
India, being a federal parliamentary democracy, witnesses periodic elections to legislative bodies both at the national and State levels. Every election is different, in some ways, from the earlier ones. The electoral issues, manifestos, election slogans, campaigning techniques, voting behaviour etc. show some novelty in each election. The 15th general elections were held in May 2009. Since the 1990s, a notable feature of Indian politics (…)

The monsoon session of Parliament has come to an end. But before the curtains came down on the session on August 31, the government was forced to retreat on several Bills.
In fact the Rajya Sabha on August 31 was witness to a rare spectacle: one of the elders from the Congress benches, a former Minister for Education in Andhra, K. Keshava Rao, expressing his strong dissent with the manner in which the Education Tribunal Bill was being rushed through by the Union HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal. (…)

On Thursday, August 20, the farmers of western Uttar Pradesh jammed New Delhi and held an impressive rally at Sansad Marg. They were agitating for the repeal of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The British imperialists, having claimed land and forests for the Raj under the Law of Eminent Domain, adopted this piece of legislation in order to acquire lands to be used for public good. Independent India did not remove this Act, the reason being economic development which the government wished (…)

The controversy following resignation of Justice Santosh Hegde, the Lok Ayukt of Karnataka, and the subsequent amends purported to have been made by the Karnataka Government has again highlighted the failure of the Lok Pal legislative history at the Centre and equally the passivity and reluctance of all political parties to pass this legislation, which is most urgently desired, if the attempt to control the rapid drift downward to political corruption, that is eating into the vitals of our (…)

September 1 this year marked the sixtyeighth anniversary of the formation of the Indian National Army (INA). The following article, bringing out the detailed history of the INA, is being published on that occasion.
In the history of India’s freedom struggle, the INA occupies an important place. At the time when there were all round divisions on the Indian national scene, the INA exhibited complete national unity. The Indian soldiers fought unitedly for a united India. This armed struggle (…)

On February 9, 2010 Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, announced the important decision of a moratarium on Bt brinjal which was widely welcomed-not just in India but also at the global level-on grounds of health, environment and safety. However, a relatively small but extremely powerful section of vested interests set in motion high-power efforts to remove this moratorium.
To give an idea of how strong these vested interests are, we may mention here (…)

On September 21 will take place an important international Conference on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). It was launched by the United Nations in 2000 with the aims to reduce acute poverty by half, to promote rapid progress of basic education and health, as well as gender equality.
Half-way through, there has been some progress in education and health, but, as stated by Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN: "We are not on track to fulfil our commitments." (The MDG Report, (…)

I. Introduction
After independence from colonial rule, which most of the countries of Africa were reeling under, these countries set out on the course of their economic development independently. Though some development had taken place even under colonial rule, it was circumstantial, based on the needs of the colonial masters, devoid of any proper planning and vision. So, virtually almost all countries of Africa had to start their journey of development from the scratch. In the 1950s and (…)

Not content with having one finger in the Afghan pie, the United States is trying to pull out a plum in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian republics too. The "Tulip Revolution" of 2005 in Kyrgyzstan and the earlier "Rose Revolution" in Georgia and the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine were all engineered by the Americans primarily to undermine Russia and to weaken its regional clout. Today, all these manufactured revolutions are floundering, with Ukraine having crossed over to the Russian side (…)

Autumn has set in-the chinar in its gorgeous robe. But it is an autumn of bitter sorrow for the hapless people of Kashmir. The Valley which was known as the paradise on earth has been turned into a trough of hatred, of blood and tears.
On Friday last week the portals of Hazratbal were barred as the Indian Army had laid siege of the mosque complex in pursuit of the militants. To protest against this siege of the holy of holies for every Kashmiri Muslim, the common folk in the small town of (…)