2012

In 1964, after the sudden death of Pandit Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah returned from Pakistan, cutting his journey short. I went to the Delhi airport to receive him. After landing, he told me to take him first to Nehru’s samadhi.
He was so stunned by the tragic news that he could hardly utter a brief sentence. He said that had he known that Panditji’s death was so near, he need not have gone to Pakistan. He had got full agreement there on all points.
I just said: “Be sure you do not miss the (…)

by SAMUEL J. KURUVILLA
The alleged ‘counter-piracy’ incident that happened in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Kollam in Kerala several weeks ago does not show any sign of ending. This ‘incident’ resulted in the death of two innocent Malayalee fishermen who had set out in a boat along with nine other fishermen from the Neendakara fishing harbour near Kollam. The incident blew into a major diplomatic row between India and Italy as the culprits responsible for the death of the two fisher-men (…)

Twenty years ago Mahinda Rajapaksa was a fiercely dedicated human rights lawyer and, along with Mangala Samaraweera, a pillar of strength to Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike who was heading the Mothers’ Front in southern Sri Lanka. The latter was a frontal organisation to fight for justice for the thousands of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) members killed by the Sri Lankan Army and police in their successful campaign against the Sinhala nationalist-terrorist force.
Among his many qualities like (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS April 14 this year marks the 121st birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. On this occasion we are reproducing the following piece by N.C. and a few relevant articles to offer our sincere homage to the abiding memory of that towering personality.
The award of the Bharat Ratna posthumously on B.R. Ambedkar raises mixed feelings. No doubt Ambedkar was one of the stalwarts of modern India; the high-water mark of his career was that he contributed most to (…)

When the International Monetary Fund and World Bank-dictated neoliberal policy package was adopted by the Narasimha Rao Government in July 1991, with a false projection to the people that those were homegrown economic reforms, albeit with a Thatcherite apologia that ‘there was no alternative’, many intellectuals, whether they understood economics or not, vied with each other in supporting it to get into the good books of the government. Economics has by and large been an outcaste in Dalit (…)

Part-I
Blazing Bullets greeted Dalit Merit!
An English daily, February 28, 2012 dateline Chandigarh, reported a chilling incident under the caption, “Upper caste boys kill boy from lower caste for ‘topping class’”. That efflorescence of talent and excellence could bring in its train a tragedy so tormenting in dimension is not only shocking but unbelievable also. However, this is the truth. Merit does invite blazing bullets in India, if it does not manifest itself in the comely social (…)

by K.S. CHALAM
The recent election results in five States, particularly in the largest State of India, Uttar Pradesh, induced political pundits to make different conjectures. One important message, according to some, is that UP is becoming another Tamil Nadu, making the national parties redundant in State politics. This may be a farfetched hypothesis that needs serious empirical study following Indian approaches of understanding a local phenomenon. It is also pointed out that the Bahujan (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Awakening Giants – Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India by Pranab Bardhan; Princeton University Press; 2010; cloth: $ 25.95 (£17.95).
The rapid rate of economic growth in the two large countries of Asia – China and India – stands in striking contrast to the Western world’s developed countries’ feeble growth rate. The dis-appointing growth rate was compounded by recession which struck in the USA in 2008 and spread to the countries of Europe. They are (…)

DEMOCRACY’S DYNAMICS
This week I happily yield space to a thinker from Pakistan. He has analysed recent events in a refreshing way, reminding us that behind the terrorist minority that has hijacked Pakistan, there is a sober majority that dreams of progress and the warmth of the human spirit.
Tahir Mehdi works with the Punjab Lok Sujag, a research and advocacy group focusing on the governance and democracy. He is a blogger who appears in Dawn, Jinnah’s newspaper. The newness of his (…)

In the midst of the murky national developments—capped by the sensational report of the movement of two Army units in the direction of the Capital without any notification (that invited a chorus of denials from the PM, Defence Minister, Defence Secretary, Ministry of Defence to the Army)—as well as major international events—like the US decision to slap a $10 million bounty on terror-mastermind and founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed—the most heartening news of recent times (…)