2010

Among the radical and progressive sections which have carried or inherited the legacy of the Nehruvian consensus, the name of Dr Rammanohar Lohia is synonymous with an anti-Nehru and anti-Indira Gandhi obsessed mindset. This personal angle is then transferred to the ideological plane and these sections associate Lohia with the opposites of the elements of that consensus.
This entire understanding is, however, deeply flawed and contrary to facts. Its dismisses, as if with a wave of (…)

On the foundation day of the Indian National Congress the Prime Minister said that terrorism, communalism, Naxalism and regionalism were the major challenges before the nation. He forgot that the corrupt and anti-people administration is the main cause behind those challenges. After the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001 the USA took measures and that is why no second attack became possible. India, on the contrary, has had to face repeated terror attacks. (…)

The December 9, 2009 midnight announcement by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram that the constitutional process will start for the creation of the new State of Telangana literally stirred a hornets’ nest in Andhra Pradesh, while it opened up a Pandora’s box in the rest of the country. While the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader, Chandrashekhar Rao, broke his fast leading to the restoration of calm in the Telangana region, it evoked an immediate virulent reaction in the Andhra region (…)

In April last year, the Supreme Court, in response to a public interest litigation filed by the Gene Campaign (whose convenor is the internationally known geneticist Dr Suman Sahai), directed the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to consider the toxicity and allergenicity of GM crops and to post the relevant material on the web so that independent experts could examine these. The Supreme Court asked the GEAC to study also the isolation distance of experimental fields to prevent (…)

(This article was sent on January 4, 2010. We are publishing it in view of the validity of its essential contents. —Editor)
Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian working amongst the adivasis of Dantewada is sitting on an indefinite fast since December 26, 2009. He had planned a padayatra beginning December 14, 2009, followed by a satyagraha, finally culminating in a jan sunwai (public hearing). He was denied permission to do the padayatra and hold satyagraha in Dantewada for the SP of Dantewada felt (…)

In the debate on development paradigm Jawaharlal Nehru is frequently presented predominantly as a strong advocate of heavy industry, large dams and big machines - someone who placed big hopes in modern technology. However, a more careful reading of several of his writings presents a different picture of a thoughtful mind troubled by several aspects of modern technology and industrial society, a mind which was prepared to go back hundreds of years in search of more inspiration and insight. (…)

Azad exposes Chidambaram’s Clear-and-Hold operations based on the Stratetgic Hamlet programme pursued by Britain in Malaya and the USA in Vietnam
The following interview of Comrade Azad, spokesperson of the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee, given to the Maoist Information Bulletin on October 19, 2009 reached our office in late December last year. This wideranging interview

India and Bangladesh will hark back to the past when they jointly celebrate next year the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. The Nobel Laureate’s poems are national anthems of both. This decision beautifully underscored the recent New Delhi visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
President Pratibha Patil hugged Hasina and the spontaneousness of their smiles came out in the pictures published the next day. There was holding of hands with Sonia Gandhi, who met the entire (…)

There is enough evidence that Orissa suffers from regional disparities. A Regional Imbalances Enquiry Commission was set up by the State under the chairmanship of Justice S. K. Mohanty to look into Orissa’s regional development imbalances and suggest measures to address the problem. It is reported that the Mohanty Commission made a comprehensive and a district-wise detailed analysis of the problem on the basis of certain well-tested indicators of development and came out with their findings. (…)

TRIBUTE
Famous Indologist Ji Xianlin and noted China scholar Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea’s departure from the scene in 2009 may be recorded in the “creative history” of India and China as a grievous loss. While Prof Ji passed away on July 11, 2009, Prof Mira died on December 13, 2009, leaving a deep void in China-India relations. Prof Ji was 98 and Prof Mira 80; yet both were “active and alert”. Scholars of Indian Studies in China and Chinese Studies in India know that “passion conquers” the (…)