2011

[This is the third article in the series on black money by the author. The other two articles, first published in The Tribune and The Hindu respectively, were reproduced in this journal’s July 30, 2011 issue (“Tacking Black Economy: SC Takes Control from Government”) and October 15, 2011 issue (“The Cost of the Black Economy”) with due acknowledgement.]
The government’s intention of tackling either the problem of black economy or bringing back money stashed abroad is suspect. The money (…)

The people, mostly tribals of Jharkhand and West Bengal, displaced due to the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) project since the fifties—who were on dharna and relay fast at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar from October 17, 2011—were able to wrest a concrete assurance from Union Energy Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde who met a delegation of the oustees alongwith social activists at his office in the Capital on October 24. The meeting was held at the initiative of Swami Agnivesh. Earlier the displaced (…)

With the passing away of Dr Rajbahadur Gour, one of the heroes of the Telangana armed struggle, one of the last links of the present generation with the past in the Hyderabad state has snapped. Comrade Raj, as he was popularly known in Hyderabad, was 94 when he breathed his last on October 7.
Raj was born in a middle class Kayasth family in the Old City of Hyderabad. His ancestors migrated from the Faizabad district of UP and settled in Hyderabad. Raj belonged to the third generation (…)

The draft Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011, introduced in the Lok Sabha on November 7, 2011, stands referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development. The Committee invited views and suggestions from the public but gave such a short time that it was not possible for interested individuals or organisations to submit detailed memoranda to the Committee.
A first glance, however, shows that the draft Bill constitutes a great advance on the Act of (…)

The Delhi University’s Academic Council decided, in the firt half of October 2011, to remove from its “concurrent course in history” for all BA (Hons) students, A.K. Ramanujan’s essay “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation”. At the direction of the Supreme Court in July 2010, four experts had been asked to give their views on the essay to the Academic Council. The opinion of only one of these experts went against the essay and led to the decision. (…)

by Madhusudan Bandi
1. Context
The closer a government to its people, the better it works is how Stigler (1957) defined effective governance. And the demand for ‘Telangana’, if looked purely from this theoretical perspective, appears to hold substance. It is the geographical and population-size that makes Telangana an ideal administrative unit befitting to be a State that would rank somewhere in the middle in the cluster of the 28 other States of India. However, the issue is not so (…)

November 3 this year marks Nikhil Chakravartty’s ninetyeighth birth anniversary. While remembering him on this occasion we are reproducing the following message sent to the Mainstream editor by Justice P.B. Sawant who was then the Chairman of the Press Council of India. This was published in the August 29, 1998 issue of this journal. We also reproduce the speech delivered by Justice Sawant at the inaugural session of a two-day seminar on the ‘Role of Media in Crisis Situations’ organised by (…)

The role the media plays in crises situations depends upon the role it assigns to itself even in the normal situation. Does it look upon itself as a leader of the society? As a reformer? As a catalyst of change? Or as a mere messenger of news and views? Even as an informer, does it act as an independent communicator or is it influenced by some internal and external pressures and forces?
Media’s role in any country depends largely upon the social, political, economic and legal conditions (…)

As we come to the end of this two-day celebration of Press Day, I would like to join the other speakers in paying homage to Nikhil Chakravartty. Long before death took him away, he became a father figure for the press, always ready to help and give us the benefit of his mature advice. I remember with gratitude how, some months before his death, he quietly and without fuss or undue ceremony, donated his personal library to the Press Institute of India. He must have known the end was coming. (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS The following open letter to Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party’s daily organ, was written fortynine years ago by N.C. as an ‘Indian Marxist’ of 20 years’ membership of the Communist Party. It appeared in Mainstream (November 3, 1962). (It was on that day that he turned 49.) This was a reply to a Pravda editorial, published on October 25, 1962, recommending the Chinese terms for peace talks for India’s acceptance. It is being reproduced after fortynine years to once (…)