2011

There are people, may be millions, who believe feeding the hungry is less important for our governments than spending money for ‘develop-ment’. This attitude may be described as a reflection of insensitive minds, but many of our politicians brazen it out when push comes to shove.
Sharad Pawar did it when, on the question of providing highly subsidised food to the needy, he said: “The BPL debate is underway and the final decision will be taken by the Planning Commission. According to me, (…)

On November 14, 2011, the nation observed the 122nd birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, a great patriot who was at the forefront of the national struggle for independence and who as the first Prime Minister of free India for the initial seventeen years after independence became the builder of modern India.
Aftermath of Partition
EVEN before the attainment of independence, Nehru headed the Interim Government and had to grapple with the horrible. aftermath of partition, communal riots, (…)

by VIVEK KUMAR SRIVASTAVA
Pandit Nehru not only created history but also studied it in the analytical-comprehensive mode. His intellectualism had much to owe to his study of history. He viewed history as a tool to understand the secrets of human civilisation and its growth. He developed this tool as a basic platform which could yield answers to many of the unanswered questions of human existence. He studied history in a wider context. “He believed in the study of history as an effective (…)

(On November 19, falls Indira Gandhi’s ninetyfourth birth anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce the following article by a veteran journalist based in Geneva. He was the Chief of the Geneva Bureau of the Inter press Third World News Service. This article appeared in Mainstream (November 17, 1984) less than a month after our third PM’s tragic assassination.)
Indira Gandhi died as she lived—courageous and fighting.
However she is judged at home on her domestic record, in the Third (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
Whatever explanation may be trotted out by the External Affairs Ministry, there is no escape from the fact that the country has suffered a humiliating defeat in the race for a non-permanent member seat in the UN Security Council.
There will be pundits who will ascribe the poor Indian score to our refusal to sign the CTBT which the government rightly decided for the country. This school of thought seems to argue that had India voted for the CTBT, the US would have (…)

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of adequate nutrition are in India. It (…)

To
The Chief Minister
Government of West Bengal
Kolkata
Madam,
Last week some of us who signed here sent an open appeal to you requesting you to personally initiate the process of opening a dialogue with the Maoists as that, in our opinion, was the only way out to resolve differences with those who are the sons and daughters of our soil, and not our enemies. We also emphasised that the issue was not at all a law-and-order problem, but rooted in socio-economic deprivation and hence (…)

My attention was drawn to “An Open Letter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal” which was signed by thirty members of the civil society of Kolkata and Delhi. What disturbed me was the tone and tenor of the language used in the letter in denouncing Ms Mamata Banerjee’s bold initiative in inviting the Maoists of Junglemahal for a dialogue after “ceasefire”.
May I ask with all humility who among the Chief Ministers of the 12 Left-wing extremism-affected States took the initiative in this (…)

We, the concerned citizens, feel deeply disturbed by the continued acrimony, tension and violence in the Junglemahal area of West Bengal. After the change of government in the State it was hoped that a dialogue between the new government and the Maoists in the Junglemahal would commence which would address the real problems affecting the people of the area and lead to their solution. This would set an example for dealing with the situation prevailing in the Left-wing extremist affected areas (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by RITA NATH KESHARI
The Golden Island by Hrusikesh Panda, (English translation: Lipipuspa Nayak); Pakshighar Prakashani; Bhubaneswar; pp. 184; 2011; Rs 200.
The Golden Island is the English translation of Subarnadweepa, an Odia novel by Hrushikesh Panda, a writer with more than twenty works. The original Odia was published in 1994, the year India went for globalisation of the economy.
Set in an imaginary tiny country, the Golden Island, the novel trails the sad fate (…)