2012

One of the noteworthy national events of the last few days has been the latest 30-page affidavit submitted by the CBI to the Supreme Court contending that not only should conspiracy charges against BJP leader L.K. Adavani not be dropped in the Babri Masjid demolition case, but he and other BJP as well as Hindu extremist leaders (like Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and Sadhvi Rithambara) must face trial alongwith the (…)

Statements by top government functionaries are usually expected to lead to clarity. However, the statement by the Central Bureau of Investigation Director on illegal money stashed abroad by Indians at the inauguration of the first Interpol Global Programme on Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery in February has added confusion to a politically sensitive subject.
The Director made three points. First, Indians hold an estimated $ 500 billion of illegal money abroad. Second, Indians are the (…)

Another name of economics is political economy; hence it is very dangerous to leave it in the hands of economists, especially neo-liberal economists who in the name of free market advocate privatising and downsizing government functions.
‘For we all are capitalists now, are we not? These days the victory of the market over the state is quite taken for granted,’ wrote The Economist, September 20, 1997 (p. 17).
The market theory of Adam Smith was grounded in carefully articulated fine (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
While the Central leaders maintained a studied reticence in talking to pressmen about Dr Zakir Husain’s successor until the late President’s funeral was over, one could hear the muffled whispers on the subject even as the VIPs drove into the cobbled courtyard of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the fateful Saturday afternoon for Sri Giri’s investiture as the acting President.
Those unversed in the realities of New Delhi’s politics regarded such talks as betraying indecent (…)

Syed Shahabuddin, a former member of the Indian Foreign Service, is one of the most articulate Muslim politicians of independent India. He was also a Member of Parliament for sometime.
This freewheeling interview poses all those questions which were never asked of him earlier and should facilitate historians in the future in understanding the dynamics of society and circumstances which helped breed a personality like him.
Q. Generally, Muslim bureaucrats opt for pro-establishment (…)

SEVENTYFIVE YEARS OF BHONSALA MILITARY SCHOOL
..to bring about military regeneration of the Hindus and to fit Hindu youths for undertaking the entire responsibility for the defence of their motherland. to educate them in the ‘Sanatan Dharma’, and to train them “in the science and art of personal and national defence”
—(aim of ‘Central Hindu Military Education Society’, NMML, Munje Papers, subject files, n 24, 1932-36)
This training is meant for qualifying and fitting our boys for the (…)

COMMUNICATION
The write up, ‘India needs Islamic banking for Inclusive Growth...: , by H. Abdur Raqeeb (Mainstream, Vol L, No 9, April 28, 2012) tries to cover up well-organised nefarious designs of Islamists in India in using banking as part of their agenda to advance the cause of ‘pan-Islamism’. These forces are committed to ensuring the hegemony of militant Islam or Wahabi Islam in India . The success of the secular nature of Indian polity and society is something they cannot swallow. (…)

BOOK REVIEW
RULING CLASS STRUGGLE AND THE FOX IDIOT BOX
The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson; New York: Oxford University Press; 2012; pages: 245.
The United States is a mature capitalist country on the down side of history. Under neoliberalism, the economic policy since the l970s has been centred on an agenda of rapid and radical de-industrialisation to ensure higher corporate profits. Jobs have since been exported en masse, (…)

(On May 5 this year was observed the one hundred and ninetyfourth birth anniversary of Karl Marx. On this occasion we remember that immortal revolutionary with the following excerpts from his unforgettable writings and speeches. We are also publishing some relevant articles in the following pages. —Editor)
“In direct contrast to German philosophy, which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men say, imagine, (…)

(The following are excerpts from the chapter ‘Reflections’ from the autobiography of noted Communist ideologue Mohit Sen, A Traveller and the Road: The Journey of An Indian Communist.)
Though the birth of the Communist movement took place in 1847-48 when Marx read out the Communist Manifesto, it would not be unfair to date its birth from the victory of the Russian Revolution on November 7, 1917. The news of its victory was sent ’To All! To All! To All!’ Since then, despite defeats, it (…)