2012

Twentyfive years have passed since the signing of the mostly-forgotten Delhi Declaration on Non-violent and Non-nuclear World. The Delhi Declaration on Non-violent and Non-nuclear World was truly a unique document that has been consigned to history quite unwisely at a time when it is most required. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had put their signatures on this significant document on November 27, 1986 at Delhi. This document was unique and (…)

by ALI AHMED
India is watching with bated breath as Pakistan attempts to ‘normalise’ its civil-military relations. For India there is considerable benefit in the outcome going a certain way. It looks forward to a dividend in the outbreak of democratic peace. Resolving Kashmir amicably would be a positive fallout. The incentives towards this end, of expanding trade ties, have been on offer for long. The Lahore peace initiative was a fore-runner. Whether Pakistan bites is not for India to (…)

On February 20 this year falls the 103rd birth anniversary of Ajoy Ghosh, the fourth General Secretary of the CPI and the last of the undivided Communist Party (October 1950-January 1962). While remembering him we reproduce, with due acknowledgement, the following article he wrote in New Age, the CPI organ, after the liberation of Goa from Portuguese colonial rule at the fag end of 1961. This article appeared on January 7, 1962 less than a week before Ajay’s tragic demise on January 13. This (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by BISHWAJIT SEN
Democratic Revolution for Economic Democracy by U.N. Mishra; New Generation Press, Delhi; Price: Rs 125.
This is a brief treatise attempting to explain the present crisis in world capitalism. With banks collapsing in the US and retrenched workers demonstrating in several European nations, the time has come for taking stock of the situation. Many issues are involved: How things came to such a pass, and which factors contributed to it? So, the work cannot (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
Although there is us yet no clear indication as to when the Lok Sabha elections will take place, the electioneering season has already arrived. Both the Opposition and the ruling party have opened their propaganda guns, and in a few weeks, it promises to be a high-pitched election campaign.
The new element in the election campaign this time—indeed a very disconcerting element—is the ominous emergence of the brass hat in the political arena. The long-range (…)

COMMUNICATION
It has been months since nurses from private hospitals of Kerala are on strike. They are striking for minimum wages and basic facilities in their working place. As you know, in India the private hospital industry is in the hands of religious-corporate leaders which control the mainstream media, which make sure this strike should not get the publicity it deserves. Like Arab Spring the blogs and face-book pages took the initiative to spread the message and it gained momentum in (…)

by NABANIPA BHATTACHARJEE
The Beginning of Things
Of the major issues that informed the culture and politics of post-independence Assam, none (other than the issue of immigration) perhaps acquired the kind of centrality that language did. The post-independence Gopinath Bardoloi-led Congress provincial government, and also sections of the civil society through various organisations such as the Assam Sahitya Sabha and Assam Jatiya Mahasabha took upon themselves the task of construction of (…)

by SRABANI RAI CHAUDHURI
The multiple connections between human lives and political affairs have been well-explored in the writings of almost every political philosopher or thinker we are familiar with.
What is politics? What is the art of politics for? What is it meant to do? What is it all about? What are the innumerable ways in which politics seeps into the lives of human beings? How do men create, interpret and further the political objectives which tacitly or explicitly gird their (…)

In the struggle over a homeland, how have you managed to keep six million Tibetans completely non-violent?
Before Buddhism, Tibet was all tribes using the sword and horse. Then Buddhism reached—the whole way of life changed. But Tibetans from the beginning respect life, even that of insects. Non-violence of thought and action is a Tibetan tradition. Tibetan culture is one of peace and compassion. So, the Tibetan community is carrying out that tradition. Inside Tibet, there’s constant fear, (…)

As the campaign for the Assembly elections in the poll-bound States, especially UP, gathers increasing momentum with political leaders of all parties of consequence in these provinces trading charges against each other and making tall promises to woo the electorate, several judicial pronouncements have attracted national attention.
First came the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment of January 31 upholding the private citizen’s right to seek sanction for prosecution of a public servant for (…)