2012

Anand (name changed) belongs to a village on the outskirts of Delhi in the Narela-Sonepat belt. He is young, probably just over 20, and in jail on a murder charge. He says property dealers rule-the-roost in his area, where most land is being sold at around Rs 1 crore per acre. A little less if it is far-off from the main highway. He says these dealers earn in crores and their gang would get 20 per cent commission. With such large easy money around, a number of such Anand-type gangs grow, (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Freedom Movement and Indian Muslims by Santimoy Ray; National Book Trust, India; 2011; pages: i-xvi + 159; Price Rs 60.
I
How many people from this part of South Asia know the name of Soomru Allah Bux (1900-1943), a legendary leader from pre-partition India, who fought against the communal politics of the Muslim League, was popular enough to defeat its candidate to the State Assembly and wielded so much support among the masses that he could even become the Chief Minister (…)

by SONALI NARANG
Globalisation and Migration
Globalisation has been identified with a number of trends, most of which have developed since World War II. These include greater international movement of commodities, money, information, and people, development of technology, organisations, legal systems, and infrastructures to allow this movement. Globalisation is aimed at placing the world under a unitary economic framework of free market capitalism. The globalised system is based on (…)

During the last fortnight, the CEC report submitted to the Supreme Court allowed the central BJP leadership to heave a deep sigh of relief. Ironically, the recommendation of the CEC for a CBI probe into mining and related irregularities, involving former Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa, provided a (brief) moment of respite in what appeared to be an unending factional fight in the Karnataka BJP. In a rare display of apparent unity, the State BJP troika consisting of the former CM, the (…)

Something is happening in China that could have an impact on its future course and on neighbours like India. Internal unrest in the large and diverse country is nothing new, but things hit what looked like a climax of sorts a month ago, in the midst of preparations for the scheduled leadership change later this year. The problems began on the economic front. The pace of growth following Deng Xiaoping’s reforms was literally world-shaking, but it also led to rural poverty, urban (…)

The last few days have seen the rupee falling to an all-time historic low of 54.50 while the Sensex plunged to an intra-day low of under 16,000 points on account of major concerns over the eurozone compelling the Union Government to announce through the Finance Minister that it would have to resort to “unpopular” austerity measures even while refraining from pressing the “panic button”; vegetable prices shooting up to 61 per cent in April (as compared to 30.6 per cent in March) raised food (…)

by M.M. KHAJOORIA
The US Hafiz Saeed bounty bomb has turned to be a dud. At least for India and for the present. The $ 10 million bounty announced by the Obama Administration was “aimed primarily at shutting down Saeed’s terrorism operation even as Washington attempts to bring him to justice for the Mumbai carnage”. A bare reading of the Rewards for Justice notification issued by the US Justice Department, which announced “up-to-$-10-million” bounty for “information leading to the arrest (…)

About 23,000 people have decided to surrender their voter cards in protest against continuation of work on the Kudankulam nu-clear plant which is slated to be commissioned in mere 40 days or so. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had supported the cause of the protesters a few months ago but has backed out since then and is now supporting continuation of the plant. The Government of India is of the view that the protestors are being incited by foreign entities—NGOs as well as anti-nuclear (…)

In essence, the ongoing phase of political trans-formation, ostensibly in the name of democracy, cannot be described even as a partial success in the few Arab nations that have been affected by it. The process is still taking place. Success remains illusive as well as considerably distorted from what it was projected as initially. Now, this in itself raises two crucial questions. Considering that only a few of the numerous Arab countries have been actually affected by a phase of political (…)

The demolition of the Babri Masjid, which did the greatest harm to India’s secular ethos, has suddenly come to the fore after nearly 20 years. It indicates the intrinsic strength of the system which otherwise has been beaten because of indelible corrupt deals and the weak, faltering governance. It was such a deliberate defiance of law and morality that the destruction could not have been in oblivion for a long time.
Top BJP leaders like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, linked with the (…)