2011

PEOPLE ARE SUPREME: PARLIAMENT MUST WORK UNDER PEOPLE’S PRESSURE
Last fortnight, despite countrywide popular support for Anna Hazare’s Jana Lokpal demand, some MPs of the ruling coalition started saying that Parliament is supreme, that parliamentary procedures cannot be shortened or expedited to meet emergencies and that trying to do this would mean undermining the democratic process. According to newspaper reports, “Rahul Gandhi underscored the supremacy of Parliament over street (…)

by ARUP SEN
The eminent political philosopher, Giorgio Agamben, drew our attention to the “protracted eclipse” of politics today. This happens, argued Agamben, because “politics” failed to confront the transformations that gradually “emptied out its categories and concepts”.1
Many political commentators have recently raised questions about the legitimacy of parliamentary politics in India in the context of the Anna Hazare movement. Pratap Bhanu Mehta argues that the singular achievement (…)

by V.P. JAIN
We are corrupt. Corruption is deeply entrenched and it has become institutionalised. ‘Corruption has become endemic to the system and it has to be fought.’ This has become a constant refrain. Then what is the current turmoil about and where is the catch?
The problem is very simple: It does not affect everybody in the same way. It is creating an asymmetrical society. On the one hand, we have the beneficiaries of the corrupt system, the big business houses, the politicians, (…)

Expectedly, the high-pitched media-supported Anna anshan at the Ramlila Ground has come to an end with Parliament passing a unanimous resolution as dictated by Team Anna. The three conditions—that the lower bureaucracy should be within the Lokpal’s ambit, Lokayuktas in States should be brought in through a Central legislation like the Lokpal’s, and a citizen’s charter detailing the responsibilities of government functionaries and the penalty for non-fulfilment should be instituted—were (…)

A rural scientist, Mangal Singh, has received a patent for an innovation (Mangal Turbine) which can save billions of rupees worth diesel and electricity currently used up for irrigation. Despite the recognition of his work by eminent experts and officials, this scientist has been subjected to relentless harassment by a handful of bureaucrats. A recent evaluation of his work ordered by the Department of Rural Department has indicted these bureaucrats while strongly recommending that Mangal (…)

The following is a detailed report of a seminar on "Militant Left Radicalism, State and Civil Society: the Centrality of Tribal Land Rights” that was organied by the Council for Social Development, New Delhi in the Capital on December 10-11, 2010. The keynote address of distinguished social anthropologist Prof B.K. Ray Burman was published in Mainstream Annual 2010 (dated December 25, 2010). Since the issues discussed at the seminar are highly topical in the present context, this piece is (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh together have long been regarded as the traditional homeland of the Congress. These two States together constitute an almost overwhelming bloc in Parliament, and all the Prime Ministers of India but one have come from Uttar Pradesh. The Central Ministers from this region easily outnumber those from any other region; inevitably this has been most conspicuous under the Congress than under the Janata Raj.
It is therefore natural to regard these (…)

Terror has struck the heart of the Capital—just outside the Delhi High Court. Delhi has bled once again while the custodians of law and order continue to repeat, like an old gramophone record, what they had said time and again after every bomb blast causing countless casualties. The leaders of the government too have used the same language that they employ in such incidents—and that boils down to “we shall not bow to such cowardly acts and definitely bring the perpetrators to book”. But what (…)

COMMENTARY
The first visit of an Indian PM to Bangladesh in 12 years has doubtless been a major success despite the fact that the Teesta water-sharing deal could not be inked (due to the West Bengal CM’s veto—in deference to that State’s interests—on the details worked out in the proposed draft agreement) and the transit issue (which involves overland access for Indian goods across Bangladeshi territory to the landlocked North-Eastern States) still needs to be resolved. In fact what has (…)

The Union Government has prepared the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2001 (BRAI in brief) for the regulation of the biotechnology sector in India. While the need for strong and careful regulation certainly exists keeping in view the serious threats posed to health and environment by the genetically modified (GM) crops, the BRAI can actually increase this threat by paving the way for the rapid spread of GM crops (or their field-trials) and this is the reason why it is being (…)