2011

One thing is now clear: India is a very rich country, perhaps the richest in the world. Gold reserves play a decisive role in central banking around the globe which makes the yellow metal a currency rather than a commodity. India has more of this currency than any other country.
It’s not in the hands of the central bank of course, but gold is gold. No other people have the fascination for gold that Indian people have. Many an economist has covetously said that if the gold held by Indian (…)

As Norway and the entire Europe come to terms with 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik’s senseless act of killing as many as 76 persons (not 93 as originally estimated)—68 gunned down by himself on Utoeya island and nine from the bombing in Oslo—on July 22, in his first comment on the brutal massacre Breivik is learnt to have asserted, through his lawyer, that his attacks were “atrocious but necessary” to defeat the liberal immigration policies of his country and spread of Islam. In the (…)

The Supreme Court has converted a high-powered committee of the Government of India, on the issue of black money, into an SIT under its own direction. This is an expression of no-confidence in the executive. The government’s intention in tackling either the problem of black economy or bringing back the black savings stashed abroad is suspect. According to reports, the money stashed abroad by the corrupt businessmen, politicians and others could be a staggering few trillion dollars. If (…)

by NANDINI SUNDAR
Imagine if, in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts, instead of improving intelligence gathering and local policing, the government set up squads of armed locals to help identify and neutralise the terrorists? Taking a cue from Chhattisgrah, where an ideal Special Police Officer is either a former Maoist, or a victim of the Maoists, the police could recruit people from families bereaved in the blasts, as also former members of the underworld, the Indian Mujahideen and (…)

by ALOK BAJPAI
Sometime back the incidents at the Ramlila Ground, yoga-guru Ramdev’s political gimmicks, and now Anna Hazare’s new threat of Satyagraha fast at Jantar Mantar have created an urgent occasion to reflect over Mahatma Gandhi’s notion of ‘Satyagraha’. It is important to recall Gandhi’s handling of the term because some civil-society representatives, various political groups and others are relying heavily on the Gandhian phenomenon of protest and struggle. All of them invariably (…)

The movement started by Anna Hazare and his colleagues has brought to the centre-stage the issue of widespread corruption in the country and the ensuing debate on the Lokpal Bill has stirred the whole country. But that has neither stopped the appearance of new scams nor has the ruling class stopped defending its people involved in these scams. The latest scam that has become known pertains to the awarding of contracts in the coal-mining sector, which is much bigger than the 2-G spectrum (…)

by SUDHANSHU RANJAN
The Union Government has announced that it would bring the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament which is expected to pass it in the winter session. The all-party meeting held on the Lokpal issue damned the civil society and passed a one-line resolution: “The all-party meeting agreed that the government should bring before the next session of Parliament a strong and effective Lokpal Bill following established procedures.” The Opposition parties are also (…)

Fifteen years ago on July 29, 1996 Aruna Asaf Ali, the stormy petrel of the August 1942 ‘Quit India’ movement, had breathed her last. On this occasion, while remembering her we carry the tribute that N.C. wrote after her demise. We are also reproducing a brief poem that one of N.C.’s contemporaries, Som Benegal, a noted journalist and writer, composed after Arunaji’s death. In the following pages we reproduce the interview she gave to S.C. on the golden jubilee of the ‘Quit India’ struggle that appeared in Mainstream’s August 8, 1992 issue

The following is a press statement issued by the General Secretary and spokesperson of the Socialist Party of India, Dr Prem Singh, on July 24, 2011.
The Socialist Party India (SPI) demands the immediate resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa following the charge of his involvement in illegal mining as reported by the Lokayukt Justice Santosh Hegde. Yeddyurappa, who is already facing charges of corruption, should, in fact, resign on his own, failing which he should be (…)

by SUDHIR HINDWAN
Condemnation should ring out loud and clear against the serial attacks in Mumbai on July 13 which left more than 15 people dead (according to latest figures, 20) and many injured. The terrorists want to send out a common message about their ability to attack with accuracy at a time and place of their choice. The sites, timing and modus operandi of these attacks expose the level of coordination, execution and obnoxious nexus between the terrorists, locals and outsiders. (…)