2011

The comrades of the Socialist Front have decided to form the Socialist Party (India) deriving its inspiration from the philosophy, ideology and movement of the Socialist Party formed by socialist stalwarts like Acharya Narendra Dev, JP, Dr Lohia, Yusuf Meharally and others.
Till the 1990s, the political scene in the country made the citizens believe that there can be only two national parties, the Congress and BJP-Janata combine. People therefore looked askance at every other individual (…)

COMMUNICATION
It is really disgusting and shocking that in our country, which is the largest parliamentary democracy of the world, there is no tinge of democracy in the highest temples of learning, that is, universities.
While the holder of the highest office of the country, the President of the Indian Union, can be impeached if he or she misuses his or her powers, judges of the Apex Court and judges of the High Courts can be impeached and Ministers both at the Centre and in the States (…)

Lest We Forget
Thirtyfour years ago on June 26, 1975, Emergency was proclaimed throughout the country as the ruling leadership bared its fangs nakedly displaying its dictatorial proclivities. We present here write-ups and poems that bring back the nightmare of those dark days when our freedom was sought to be snatched away and our voice throttled. —Editor
by AMIYA RAO, B.G. RAO
Not a leaf stirs in my kingdom without my leave. See how quiet my people sit. —Atahuallpa the Inca
To those (…)

Published in The Morning News—Sunday Times Service (London) on July 3, 1975. An introduction to the article read:
“An uncensored account from Jonathan Dimbleby who was in Delhi last week for the Thames Televivsion programme: ‘This Week’. He filed his report from Addis Ababa to avoid censorship.”
This was included in The Press She Could Not Whip: Emergency in India as Reported by the Foreign Press. —Editor
The famous Indian journalist sat in his silent office surrounded by notes for an (…)

REMEMBERING N.C.
On June 27 this year falls Nikhil Chakravartty’s thirteenth death anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce the following tributes to his abiding memory that were published in Mainstream on July 11, 1998, July 25, 1998 and July 4, 1998 respectively.
by P.C. JOSHI
In the passing away of Nikhilda at the ripe age of eightyfour the country has lost the doyen of Indian journalism and a vigilant watchdog of national interest and democratic rights. And the common people have (…)

I am among numerous others who felt being very close to Nikhilda. He had that remarkable quality, to quote Rabindranath Tagore, “of bringing those who are distant closer to him and making others his brother” ¼nwjds djsN vkiu cUèkq] ijds djsN HkkbZ½-I was drawn towards him because of the unbounded personal affection I received from him and because he embodied the qualities I have cherished most in my life. What drew me towards him was his simplicity; his refusal to be impressed by the vulgar (…)

by MALINI PARTHASARATHY
In the passing of Nikhil Chakravartty, this country has lost a distinguished member of a diminishing tribe of nationalists who were unabashed about their zeal and pride in being seen as the first generation of citizens of the new Indian republic. That sense of patriotism in the classical sense imbued all Nikhil Chakravartty’s writings even as it made him stand out as a rare spokesman for the highest political values that he strongly desired the Indian state to (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
Eminent artist M.F. Husain recently passed away in London. Remembering him we reproduce on N.C.’s thirteenth death anniversary what he wrote while assailing the vandalism that Right-wing Hindutva fantics resorted to in protest against Husain’s paintings as well as the threats meted out to the country’s foremost painter that eventually forced the latter to go into self-exile.
Maqbool Fida Husain is at the very centre of a storm whose after-effects are extremely (…)

Parliament has just repealed the Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act which came into force twenty years ago in 1956. Late Feroze Gandhi, who initiated and piloted the Bill in Parliament, made a powerful case which might have been useful for the present Government to bear in mind. Sri Bhupesh Gupta, in his signed article in New Age of February 1, 1976, has recalled Feroze Gandhi’s speech, from which a significant portion is reproduced here below:
“For the success of (…)

AN OLD COMRADE
On May 31 this year it was the thirtyeighth death anniversary of Mohan Kumaramangalam. On N.C.’s thirteenth death anniversary we reproduce the following tribute that the founder of this journal penned under the pseudonym ‘An Old Comrade’. M.K. and N.C. were indeed close comrades since their days in England in the 1930s and the friendship bloomed during their collective struggle in the communist movement; it was retained in subsequent years and even when Mohan joined the (…)