2011

by SUBRATA BAGCHI
In the wake of the West Bengal Chief Minister’s announcement of a development package for Junglemahal and without mincing words for the Maoists, the debates within the civil rights movements regarding the release of political prisoners and withdrawal of the joint forces from Junglemahal are now rocking the entire political spectrum. It seems that the detention of Chhatradhar Mahato and Manoj Mahato, leaders of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA),1 and (…)

by JAYAN P.A.
The much-awaited report on Jammu and Kashmir (hereinafter J and K) was submitted by the three interlocutors—journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academic Radha Kumar, former Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari—to the Union Home Ministry on October 12, 2011. The three-member panel was appointed by the Centre exactly a year ago with a mandate to suggest the contours of a political settlement of the J and K problem. The report is the outcome of the interactions of the three (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
The position that the President of the United States of America holds in the affairs of the world carries with it a modicum of dignity and a certain degree of responsibility. It is amazing that the present occupant of that high office has recently demonstrated that he possesses neither. Leaders of nations sometimes indulge in bitter polemics and hurl harsh words at each other, but none of them has called another head of a state a mad dog. Not at least since Adolf (…)

COMMUNICATION
With reference to the article by Ajit Jawed, "Pakistan Failed Jinnah" (Mainstream, September 10, 2011), I want to point out that the write-up does not talk about the letter which Habibur Rahman, an ex-Muslim League member, wrote to his party members. In this letter he says that Jinnah was a follower of Chengiz Khan and Hitler. He wanted the Hindus to be killed and looted. He wanted that Hindu girls should be abducted and raped en-masse. I have compiled this letter from the (…)

POVERTY, CREATIVITY AND CHALLENGES OF TRANSFORMATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY ODISHA AND THE WORLD
"Dreams are made out of the impossibles. We cannot reach the impossible by using the analytical minds trained to deal with hard information that is currently available. These minds are fitted with flashing red lights to warn us about obstacles we may face. We’ll have to put our minds in a different mode when we think about our future, will have to dare to make bold leaps to make the impossible (…)

by K.P. BHANUMATHY
Ernesto Che Crevana was executed by the Bolivian Army in Bolivia on October 9, 1967 when he was just 39 years in age. On the occasion of his fortyfourth death anniversary this year we are carrying the following article by veteran journalist K.P. Bhanumathy who interviewed him when he visited India in July 1959. This has been included in her book Candid Conversations with Towering Persons (first published in 2007 and then republished in 2010 by the National Book Trusts, (…)

West Bengal has seen Friday, May 13 this year. The majority of the Bengalis might not have considered this day horrifying as the poll outcome did suggest. Instead, this day did mark the cut-off point of a long legacy which made West Bengal to be a State with a difference. The difference was not limited to the gamut of political affiliation. There had been a rise of a number of impediments which made this State to become unmanageable to render good governance. This happens to be the horror of (…)

A judge of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Soumitra Sen, had been summoned up by the Rajya Sabha on August 18, 2011 to switch on the impeachment process on certain allegations levelled against him. The judge being subjected to impeachment and the members impeaching him scourged at the judiciary with different perspectives apocalyptically. The words of the perspicacious judge under shadow may be ignored as it may be his last subterfuge. But criticisms unleashed by the members of the Rajya (…)

The results of the by-polls in the four States of Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have clearly demonstrated the wide gulf separating the principal constituent of the ruling coalition at the Centre from the public at large. Not only has the UPA lost all the seats, the Congress candidates could not save their security deposits in the Hisar Lok Sabha by-election in Haryana and the Darounda Assembly by-poll in Bihar, since they came a distant third in both the contests. (…)

The DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation) is one of the oldest and prestigious river valley projects in which Jawaharlal Nehru took very keen interest. It was intended to provide irrigation facilities and generate electricity so that both agricultural development and industrialisation of two important States, namely, West Bengal and Bihar (now Jharkhand), would get a big boost. Not only would agricultural and industrial production increase but lots of jobs would also be generated in the services (…)