2012

by ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
Why have I put a question-mark? Is there any doubt about it? Yes, very much. It would be too simplistic to assume that the potential for such a change already exists and it is only a push that is needed to bring about renaissance in the Islamic world. It did not happen even in the 19th century when conditions were more favourable, if not outright congenial. Very complex forces are at work in the contemporary world to admit this kind of change. Any simplistic (…)

Whatever happens in the next general elections—my bet is in early 2013—India will emerge an extremely divided country. The usual assumption that the two main political parties, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will have between them a majority of seats looks like going awry. Both have gone down so much in the public estimate that neither of them may cross even the three-figure mark. It’s obvious that there will be parties of all religious and ideological stripes in the field (…)

The joint press conference held by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal in Delhi on November 16 is ghastly even by the low standards of public morality Indian politicians have settled for in the past decade. They claim there was no such thing as a 2G scam!
It was sheer ’sensationalism’! If so, why was it that Raja and Kanimozhi were locked up for months without bail? Because the BJP and CPM demanded it? Both PC and KS are trained lawyers who should have known (…)

November 11 is marked as the National Education Day in India. It is a day to commemo-rate the great educationist, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who envisioned education as the “birthright of every citizen”. While addressing the Central Advisory Board of Education on November 9-10, 1953, he stated: “A state cannot claim to have discharged its duty till it has provided for every single individual the means to the acquisition of knowledge and self-betterment.”1 India is still struggling to meet this (…)

Haryana these days is in the news for the wrong reasons. There have taken place many incidents of rape of women of weaker sections in the State during the past one month. The media has been projecting it as a failure of governance. But the Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has been asserting that those who have committed these crimes shall not be spared. While the Opposition parties of all hues have been using these unfortunate events to tarnish the image of the ruling party, the (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
Visiting China for the fourth time in thirty-six years does not make it dull or monotonous by repetition. Particularly today when Deng Xiaoping at the advanced age of 88 is leading a phenomenal drive for modernisation and opening up of the most populous country in the world.
No doubt the question of Deng’s succession will be an item of concern when the Chinese leaders meet in their next Party Congress towards the end of the year. From all accounts, there is cohesion (…)

Japan has got embroiled in disputes over islands with China, the Russian Federation and South Korea. These disputes, historical in nature, have become acute recently, with no settlement in sight. The latest is between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets in East China Sea, which the Japanese call Senkaku islands, close to their Ryukyu islands, near Okinawa and north of Formosa (Taiwan).
Territorial dispute also broke out between Japan and the Russian Federation (…)

COMMUNICATION
This letter was sent to us when Aung San Suu Kyi was in India but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
Two persons died in police firing on a rally protesting against the Burmese Government’s genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign that killed and displaced hundreds and thousands of Rohingya Muslims. Now that Myanmar’s Opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is in India and meeting External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, India, as a neighbour (…)

by T.R. KRISHNAN
Much has been written lately on the delay in completing the process of renovating and modernising the Russian aircraft carrier, Gorshkov, and the cost escalation this delay entails. However, certain basic facts have either been glossed over (unwittingly or otherwise) or have not been taken into consideration due to lack of adequate information.
This aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy has been equipped with modern high-tech systems alongside elimination of all faults in (…)

Seeing shots of complete disaster in the Gaza belt, one is left wondering where are the so-called world leaders who talk of peace! Where is US President Barack Obama, who ought to start his second term by try saving lives of the hapless Palestinians! Where is the United Nations! And where is our own government! One is sitting ashamed and shocked at the muted response to the barbaric killing of the Palestinians. With an irony attached—the Palestinians getting killed and pushed to the edge in (…)