2012

DOCUMENT
A three-member team, consisting of J.P. Rao, Kopa Kunjam and Prof Nandini Sundar of Delhi University, visited Kottaguda, Sarkeguda and Lingagiri villages of Bastar on July 3 and 4, 2012. The following are excerpts from their findings as well as a statement by villagers.
The three villages merge into each other and have been carved up in an arbitrary fashion between different panchayats (Korsaguda and Chipurbhatti panchayats). The field where the firing took place is an open (…)

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had threatened to resign from the Union Council of Ministers if he was not made the UPA nominee for the presidential elections after his candidature was rejected by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee. In an article in The Sunday Guardian (June 27, 2012). entitled “One dagger, and many cloaks” M.J. Akbar wrote: “It is common knowledge that Pranab Mukherjee was never Sonia Gandhi’s choice for President. If he had been, his name would have been announced a month ago, (…)

Like the last presidential election, the current election too has been the talk of the town and country. It is good that discussions are on with respect to the election of the highest constitu-tional head of the nation. The debates raised during Constitution-making regarding Presi-dentship can also be looked into for better understanding of the Constitution and Presi-dentship as well. There can be many other points for this discussion, like elections of previous Presidents, their special (…)

by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
On January 24, 1950 when India was on the eve of becoming a Republic, Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of the Republic of India. H.V.R. lyengar, Returning Officer and Secretary, Constitutent Assembly, announced that only one nomination paper was received for the office of the President of India. His nomination was proposed by Pandit Nehru and seconded by Sardar Patel. Second May is a very important day in the constitutional history of India as on (…)

I am probably among the very few who still have faith in the capability of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take India out of the economic morass in which it is stuck. I do not like his World Bank-guided model. Yet he has given the country a growth rate of eight to nine per cent in a decade and more than doubled the Hindu growth rate of 3.5 per cent, our cumulative performance since independence in August 1947.
True, the Prime Minister has come a long way from his report on South-South (…)

From N.C.’s Writings The following lines were written on June 24, 1987 and published in the Mainstream, issue of June 27, 1987 bringing out the bizarre scenario prevailing twentyfive years ago just before the presidential poll. It also magnifies the contrast with the situation that obtains in the Left today thereby revealing the fact that the current Left leaders, especially those running the CPM, are indeed poor substitutes of those who led the Left parties then precisely because the (…)

Spotlight
Nelson Mandela turns 94 on July 18. In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared July 18 as the ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’ in recognition of the former South African President’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom and his dedication to service of humanity. Through this resolution, the world community recognised Nelson Mandela’s exemplary contribution in the fields of conflict resolution, race relations, promotion and protection of human rights, (…)

Prima facie, it would seem that a great unifying figure has finally appeared on the banks of the Nile whose shadow spreads across the entire Middle Eastern political landscape. That, at least, is the impression generated by the range of commendations from the international comm-unity that followed the election of Mohammed Morsi in the presidential election in Egypt. Ranging form Israel to Iran, the Middle Eastern countries hailed the outcome of the Egyptian election resulting in the victory (…)

by Nitya Gopal Basu
India is in the grip ever-increasing political doldrums. Regional political parties with their narrow vision of regional interests are reaping dividends taking full advantage of the weakness of decision-making of the second UPA Government. Regional politics, coupled with the limitations of coalition politics, has become a stumbling block for carrying out many of the positive steps for economic growth and expanding the horizon of international friendship (like the (…)

Communications-2
The author has gone through the grind of journalism from production and reporting to leader writing. The following is the second part of a two-part article which, according to him, is an endeavour to see the world through the prism of the average person like himself. The first appeared in Mainstream (July 14, 2012). As a wide range of public discourse informs us among the laity, unparalleled capital flow in the present period has created equivalent (or greater) social and (…)