2012

BOOK REVIEW
by RICHA KUMAR
Alternative Economic Survey—India: Two Decades of Neoliberalism by Alternative Survey Group; Daanish Books, New Delhi; 2011; pp. 466; Rs 450.
For the last 20 years, the Alternative Economic Survey Group has brought out a compilation of essays in response to the government’s Economic Survey published around the time of the Budget. This has been an important annual intervention in the debates surrounding growth and develop-ment, bringing to the forefront (…)

by N.S. RAGHUNATH
Kannada, which was credited with the classical language status recently, seems to be walking away with every prestigious literary award the country has instituted. It has won eight Jnanpeeths, a Magasaysay (K.V. Subbanna), a Kalidas (B.V. Karanth), a Kabir (M.G. Adiga) and now the Saraswati Samman by S.L. Bhyrappa, which has given the people something to celebrate. It has made many a writer blissfully happy, but the benchmark for the Saraswati Samman, I’m afraid, has (…)

April 22 this year marked the 142nd birth anniversary of that immortal revolutionary, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. On this occasion we remember him by reproducing the following excerpts from Nehru’s article on him that appeared in The Hindu (April 5, 1928).
‘I know a pair of eyes which have been for ever numbed by the burning sorrow of the Terror,’ said Gorky of Lenin. This sorrow did not leave him to the end. It made him a fierce fanatic and gave him the strength of will to persevere and (…)

by ESTEFANÍA PADILLA VELOZ
Who is learning Spanish in India these days? If it takes you more than five seconds to answer this question, let us work on your blindfold. With 329 million native speakers, Spanish language has proven to be one of the most important languages in the business field, due to growing interaction between India and the Spanish-speaking countries.
Let´s have a brief look at where India stands at the moment. In terms of world economic growth, Asia in general has (…)

Zohra Segal, the grand old lady of Indian dance and theatre, is turning 100 this week—she was born on April 27, 1912. She was the leading actress and dancer with the Prithvi Theatre, Bombay from 1945 to 1959. She has to her credit scores of feature films in India and abroad. One of her sisters, Azra Butt, also a prominent actress with the Prithvi Theatre, migrated to Pakistan where she was a noted stage actress; she has now passed away.
More than twenty years ago, when Zohra was doing a (…)

The outcome of the India-Pakistan summit meeting in New Delhi on April 8 has offered a new ray of hope in restoring the bilateral cooperative relationship.
PM Manmohan Singh needs to be complimented for seizing the opportunity when Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari conveyed his desire for a private visit to Ajmer Sharif and hosting a luncheon meeting with the Pakistani leader in the Capital last Sunday. Although detailed discussions were not to be expected in so short a trip, the (…)

At the height of an Akali agitation in the eighties, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, then out of office, reached Delhi under the guise of a truck driver and burnt a copy of the Indian Constitution. He personally did not agree with his Akali party’s fiat but went along with the decision as a disciplined soldier. Subsequently, he regretted his act of burning the document.
I don’t know whether Badal has felt the same way after filing a mercy petition to the President on the (…)

by BISHWAJIT SEN
The 21st CPI Congress (March 27-31, 2012) came at a time when the ruling UPA-II is losing its credibility fast in the public mind. The host to the party Congress was the Bihar unit of the CPI which, with limited resources, managed things extremely well. The credit for this goes to the Bihar leadership of the CPI and specially its unassuming Secretary, Badri Narayan Lall, a Communist of long standing and firm convictions. Their efforts made the CPI visible in Bihar again. A (…)

The CPI-M held its Twentieth Congress at Kozhikode in Kerala from April 4 to 9. The words ’

The Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi phoned to inform me that Bangladesh had decided to recognise my father, Parmeshwar Narain Haksar’s contribution to the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. Would I accept their invitation to go to Dhaka and accept the Friends of Liberation War Honour as his daughter?
I asked for two days’ time to think over. I had just returned from a gruelling 105-day trip of the North-East region of India where the problem of influx of illegal migrants from (…)