2011

Every election, Assembly or Parliament, in India exposes the interiors of social panorama in original colours. The manifestation of social realities attain fullness, be it in the cow-belt or in the so-called progressive States. In the case of States like West Bengal, discussion of caste via-a-vis election or for that matter on any occasion is abhorred and considered blas-phemous. A social anthropological analysis of the ground realities nonetheless is worth, though such an attempt might be (…)

by K.N. RAMACHANDRAN
We have no hesitation to agree with Prabhat Patnaik that significant transition has taken place in India from those days when it was reduced to a colony of British imperialism, especially during the 20th century, under the long democratic revolution starting from the time of the First War of Independence of 1857, and which is still continuing. We also agree with him when he says that the Indian democratic revolution today is faced with the prospects of being (…)

COMMUNICATION
Against the background of the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal and keeping the CPM in view, Prof Patnaik has provided us a few positive attributes of the Left (“Why the Left Matters”, Mainstream, March 25, 2011, p. 31). Whatever may be the position elsewhere in India, in WB the Left does not deserve these attributes.
The CPM (WB) at the grassroot level is highly sectarian in every sphere, follows a policy of “we” and “they”, and actively pursues an agenda of (…)

Unilinear Marxism is in world crisis. Jyoti Basu, the CPI-M’s longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal, said before his death that ‘socialism is not practicable’. The Left (Democratic) Fronts of Kerala and West Bengal can no longer lay claim to the titles of Socialist or Communist. That is why irrevocable tragedies wait for both these Fronts in the coming Assembly elections. Disillusionment will seize their sincere cadres in the post-election period and they will strive to seek the (…)

It’s time to pause and ponder for the CPI-M in West Bengal. I would not use the hackneyed cliché of “self-criticism”—much abused in Communist circles. It has been shown up as a means to force a sort of confession in Catholic terms. What’s wanted is self-introspection. Let the leaders of the Left, particularly the wise and the perceptive, think over what’s happening and how to get back to the road to a purposeful future.
I happened to be in Calcutta on the day of the Congress-I called (…)

The endosulfan controversy is typical of India, of Indian politics, of Indian corruption, of Indian morality. There were 173 countries in the Stockholm Convention that debated whether or not there should be a global ban on this notorious pesticide. Of these 125 had banned it outright. All 47 of the remaining 48 sat on the fence and generally kept quiet. Only one argued vehemently on behalf of endosulfan. That one-in-the-world nation was India.
India was further isolated by the silliness (…)

Osama bin Laden is no more. The Al-Qaeda supremo, regarded as the world’s most dreaded terrorist, was shot dead by US forces in the early hours of May 2, 2011 at a spacious building in a massive compound, fortified with high walls and barbed wires, in Abbottabad (about 60 km north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad), a city where the Kakul Military Academy is located. This has stunned both the Pakistani establishment and people at large—and the general impression of well-informed experts and (…)

DEMAND AT PRESS CONFERENCE IN NEW DELHI
A press conference was held in New Delhi on May 4, 2011 to protest against the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest’s “final clearance” to the POSCO project in Odisha. The following is the press release issued by the POSCO Pratirodh Solidarity (PPS-Delhi) in association with NFFPFW, CSD, NAPM, INSAF, and others at the press conference.
The ‘final forest clearance’ by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to the controversial POSCO (…)

by Sanjeeb Mukherjee
Most governments in India are regularly in the news for the wrong reasons. Corruption, murder, rape and mayhem have become routine pastimes of Ministers and their men. It has to be recognised that the Left Government in West Bengal has a much brighter image; no major scam has embarrassed it. Though charges have been levelled against some Ministers and rumours are afloat, the media and the Opposition as well as whistleblowers and intellectuals have failed to properly (…)

Lenin once asked a group of Soviet students as to whom they regarded as the greatest literary figure of Russia. “Mayakovsky,” they replied. “Yes, but what about Pushkin?” asked Lenin, and added, “Could there have been a Mayakovsky without a Pushkin?” A hundred years from today the people would speak of Tagore in the same way and with more truth. At the moment we are too near to his personality to fully appraise its greatness. You cannot size up a Titan when you stand next to him. Tagore (…)