2012

Hailing from a “communist family” in the “red rain land” of Kerala, growing up in an environment where Communist stalwarts would all of a sudden drop by at home— iconic figures such as AKG, E.K. Nayanar, K.R. Gowri, M.N. Govindan Nair, C. Achutha Menon, T.V. Thomas—and as an inquisitive school boy with intellectual pretensions at a highly impression-able age eavesdropping on their animated conversations with my late father, and then in the privacy of the mind co-relating those poig-nant (…)

DOCUMENT The candidature of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee of the Congress-led UPA for the post of President has split the Left Front with two parties—the CPI and RSP—deciding to abstain in the presidential poll, while the CPI-M and Forward Bloc have chosen to support him. Protesting against the decision, the former Convenor of the Research Unit of the CPI-M, Prasenjit Bose, has sent in his resignation letter to the CPI-M leadership. The following is the text of the letter.
Dear (…)

Several developments in the international scene and on the regional plane as well as those related to the domestic political situation have assumed considerable significance of late.
The G-20 meeting at Los Cabos, Mexico found PM Manmohan Singh donning the robe of a global philanthropist to pledge $ 10 billion as the Indian contribution to the IMF’s additional $ 430 billion firewall for the eurozone. Dr Singh’s plainspeak—especially his sermon against the European approach to solving the (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
So, the fat is at last in the fire. The concern over the blatant speculation in the share-market which has shaken the country had to come over our Finance Minister only in driblets and that too after tremendous pressure in Parliament. Our Finance Minister did know that the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex began to shoot up instantly with his Budget, to the great applause of the brokers and their colluding bankers. That was the time when the Chairman of the National Housing (…)

REMEMBERING JUNE 22, 1941
The largest ever military assault on any country was made on June 22, 1941 when Nazi Germany and its allies unleashed on the Soviet Union more than 5.5 million troops in a ‘blitzkrieg’ or sudden assault in the night of that date along the longest war-borders of more than 4500 kms. The massive war machine included more than 47,000 artillery pieces, 4200 plus tanks and more than 5000 war planes. The 190 Nazi divisions were accompanied by a large number of allied (…)

When the Akalis are out of power, they indulge either in a dharam morcha or some act which would evoke religious passions among the Sikhs. But when they adopt the same tactics while in authority, it means that they want to divert attention from problems like unemploy-ment, drug trafficking and farmers’ declining incomes. To the horror of the country, Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal filed the other day a mercy petition on behalf of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the killer of former Chief (…)

by ALI AHMED
This article begins with a set of statistics and thereafter proceeds to discuss these. The Platinum Jubilee issue of the magazine of the Indian Military Academy, published in 2007, has some revealing tidbits of information. From the lists of various officer alumni who have done the Academy proud, it is obvious that Muslims are few and far between. Only six Muslim officers, who have passed out of the IMA, have made the supreme sacrifice for the country since the 1971 War. Only (…)

The Maoists gave tactical support to the Trinamul Congress (TMC) before the last Assem-bly elections to oust the CPI-M in Junglemahal. In the fight against the common enemy, some TMC activists joined the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), the umbrella organisation of the people led by the Maoists. After the TMC came to power, the situation took a radical turn. When the peace talks with the Maoists failed, the joint forces of the State started various repressive operations (…)

...27 of the 30 complaints that were addressed to the Commission spoke of indifference of police officials towards Dalits.These issues were raised immediately after NHRC Chairman K.G. Balakrishnan praised the status of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Gujarat. He said the State’s schemes for development of the marginalised are working well and penetration of education among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has reached 70 per cent. Almost all Dalits and their leaders present in the audience (…)

Lest We Forget
Thirtyseven 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
Not a leaf stirs in my kingdom without my leave. See how quiet my people sit. —Atahuallpa the Inca
To those whose only (…)