2012

This is the second part of a four-part article on the current state of the Indian economy by Kobad Ghandy. The author is a Marxist/Maoist thinker, incarcerated in Tihar Jail; he has written two books: one on the Indian economy (Globalisation: Attack on India’s Sovereignty, 2004) and the other on the world economy (Capitalism in Coma, 2009). The first part of this article appeared in Mainstream (May 5, 2012).
Financial Sector: Where has All the Money Gone?
Funds/finances are essential for (…)

On January 29, 2012, The Hindu reported that Symbiosis University, Pune, had cancelled a screening of Sanjay Kak’s film, Jashn-e-azadi, following protests registered by some Right-wing organisations. I could not help but recall the shameful removal of an excellent essay by A.K. Ramanujan on the richly diverse Ramayana tradition by the Academic Council of Delhi University in October 2011, supposedly because of its potential to hurt Hindu religious sentiments. And the deplorable ‘exile’ of (…)

by MALLIKA SARABHAI
Gladson is an Adivasi living in the war-torn Jharkhand. When he was a year old, his family—farmers owning 20 acres of fertile land—became homeless. Their ancestral land disappeared when a dam was built on the Chinda river. As compensation, the family was paid ”Rs 11,000”. When their neighbours and they protested, they were sent to Hazaribagh Jail. Could a family of six ensure food, education, housing and health care for their entire life with ”Rs 11,000”? They headed (…)

by BRATATI PANDE
Impeachment by Anjali Deshpande; Hachette India; 2012; pages 369; Rs 350.
The Gas Tragedy that shook Bhopal very rudely on the terrible day in December in 1984 keeps harking back from time to time mainly because of the enormous scale of the tragedy and the immense indifference and callousness with which it has been handled both by the government and the legal system. It is a matter of great distress for all thinking Indians, the way the Union Carbide was allowed to (…)

The recent tripartite agreement on the Gorkha-land Territorial Administration (GTA) held between the Central Government, State Government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) to usher in normalcy, peace and development in the hill region of the district of Darjeeling, West Bengal has set in motion the potentialities for controversies and politics.
While the new arrangement of the GTA is considered both by the GJM and the Trinamul Congress (TMC), the ruling party of West Bengal, as a great (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
This week all the world over is being celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the victory over fascism. For, this was the week, thirty years ago, when the Hitler war-machine was smashed and the Soviet soldiers hoisted the Red Flag over the war-ravaged Reichstag building in Berlin.
This was a great turning point in the history of humanity. For, it saw the end of an order in which an exploitative power could conquer countries and enslave nations. Hitler was the last (…)

The following is the press release distributed at a press conference by Prashant Bhushan and Swami Agnivesh in New Delhi on May 11, 2012 on the Supreme Court ruling on the death of Azad and Hem Chandra Pandey.
The Supreme Court’s order dated 03.05.2012 dismissing the writ petitions of Hem Chandra Pandey’s widow Bineeta Pandey and Swami Agnivesh should be criticised on the following grounds:
1. The court failed to appreciate that the petitioners had from the beginning prayed for an (…)

WOMEN’S GROUPS’ MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESIDENT
The following is the memorandum submitted by women’s groups to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on May 14, 2012 regarding violation of the rights of a tribal woman, Soni Sori, and opposing conferment of President’s Gallantry Awared on SP Ankit Garg facing allegations of custodial sexual torture on Soni Sori.
Honourable President,
We thank you for giving us an audience to personally convey to you our concerns, regarding the sexual torture, (…)

[The following piece on Shankar, the reputed cartoonist, appeared in Mainstream (May 1, 1965). Anees Chishti, the well-known veteran writer-cum-journalist, who then worked in this journal, wrote it at the suggestion of N.C. and it was quoted by Pothan Joseph. It is being reproduced precisely because Shankar is in the news these days, one of his cartoons used in an NCERT textbook having been withdrawn due to vociferous protests by MPs who charged him with “insulting” a Dalit icon in (…)

Thousands of people from various parts of the country, especially the southern and western States, converged at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for a five-day dharna (from May 7 to 11, 2012)—organised by the Pension Parishad (whose motive forces were Hamal Parishad President Baba Adhav and Aruna Roy of the MKSS)—to demand from the Union Government and Parliament a universal pension scheme. The detailed demands, projected by thes Pension Parishad, are: a Universal and non-contributory old-age (…)