2010

It is useful to look upon the Indo-Pak Summit against the wider background of social and political awakening in Asia. What do the two states stand for? What has been their respective record in the last twentyfive years since they attained independence? To a large measure, the answers to these questions provide the clue to the ultimate outcome of the Simla Summit which is yet to be known as these lines are being written.
By the yardstick of accepted ideological categories, India and (…)

The year 2009 witnessed a series of high level political drama in the nascent republic of Nepal. However, one such event, which created a lot of commotion not only in Kathmandu but also in New Delhi, was the Pashupatinath Temple priest row. With its astonishing architectural beauty, the Pashupatinath Temple stands as a symbol of faith, religion, culture and tradition. Regarded as the most sacred temple of the Hindu Lord, Shiva, in the world, the Pashupatinath Temple’s existence dates back to (…)

by A Special Correspondent
Analysing the current US policy in Afghanistan, the implementation of which will result in India turning out to be the “biggest loser”, Bashir Mohammad wrote in a brief article, “India and the US Policy in Afghanistan” (Mainstream, May 8, 2010) that in the circumstances “South Block should support the enhanced presence in the Central and local governments (in that country) of the national minorities, including those in the Northern Alliance as well as former (…)

There is a whole lot of commotion in the country that our lives and liberty are being increasingly handed over to the police and the rule of law, whose main purpose is to punish the guilty and protect the innocent, is being given a go-bye.
Several events lend credence to this sad conclusion.The killing of Azad, a widely travelled and respected Naxal leader, allegedly in an encounter by the government is not borne out by the statement of Swami Agnivesh who had been in touch with (…)

The Foreign Minister of India, Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, went to China to reaffirm India’s strong bilateral relations with China. Both Asian giants very well understand they need each other. The External Affairs Minister went to China to re-energise Sino-Indian relations and remove all the dark shadows from the relationship. His going to China was to find the answers to some questions:
1. Would China accept India’s demands on the border issue?
2. Would China stop giving stapled (…)

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While the two major incidents of the last few days—the horrific train accident at Sainthia station in West Bengal’s Birbhum district (where the Sealdah-bound New Cooch Behar-Sealdah Uttarbanga Express rammed into the Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express from behind) in the early hours of July 19 claiming, as per initial reports, 67 lives and injuring as many as 121 passengers and the shocking misdemeanour of the people’s representatives (…)

Last Friday, that is, on July 9, the Supreme Court upheld an order of the Bombay High Court to lift a four-year-old ban imposed by the Maharashtra Government on the publication and circulation of American scholar David Laine’s book, Shivaji: The Hindu King in Muslim India.
Shortly after the verdict, which was hailed by activists as a “boost for freedom of speech”, the advocate representing Laine and the Oxford University Press hoped that henceforth governments would be more circumspect (…)

If the most salient feature Indian politics were to be named, it would be its preference of the symbol over the substance. The decision to create a unified command in the Centre, increase in police force at the State levels and the creation of paratroops to fight against the Maoists begs the question as to what is the substantive cause of the rise of the Maoist threat. The frustrating of the people in the more devastated areas where mining operations have displaced the tribal people and the (…)

There are always some people born with an innate proclivity for forging an uncommon, or indeed often just the opposite, stance on nearly all debates, discussions, and conversations in life —mundane or otherwise. Barring such select characters with pathological passion for dissenting, nobody would dare to deny that the British colonial rule has been largely (and perhaps indeed directly to a substantial extent) responsible for India’s protracted socio-economic retrogression relative to many (…)

In the midst of the hide-and-seek between the sun and the cloud, the environment at the Jaipal Singh Stadium in Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand, was very tense on June 25, 2010. The reason was that the “Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Nagrik Manch” (Citizens Forum against Operation Green Hunt) had called a rally and mass meeting against the cold blooded murder, rape and torture of innocent villagers by the security forces in the ongoing so-called anti-Naxal operation codified as (…)