2013

I write these lines after a fortnight has passed since that shocking incident took place in a suburb of the city of Calcutta. Three women and their driver returning from duty assigned by the government’s Health Department were detained by a gang of ruffians, their belongings looted, their van set on fire and they were beaten and the women criminally assaulted, in which one of them died alongwith the driver and two others are still hospitalised.
This ghastly crime was committed in a (…)

It is surprising how intelligent people in politics sometimes take up positions which should logically belong to their adversaries.
The Muslim League in 1940 picked up the so-called ‘two-nation theory’ which a bunch of extremist intellectuals had first coined to back up their demand for Pakistan. Other parties in India rejected it. The Congress made it clear that it did not accept the theory itself though it agreed to the partitioning of the country on the basis of the very same two-nation (…)

While there is no doubt a lot on which to attack those in authority for their dereliction in running an orderly system of governance, one has to ask at the same time why there has been such an appalling deterioration in social conscience in most of our public activity. In other words, the corrosion of values in public life is not confined to Ministers and top bureaucrats, but has become all-pervasive, the pollution of morals seem to choke out public service.
If we look around, there is (…)

The following article, which appeared in this journal more than fifteen years ago, happened to be the last contribution of N.C. in Mainstream. It was published less than three months before he breathed his last.
Outgoing Prime Minister Inder Gujral can hardly take the credit for his quietude over the American response to the Iraq crisis.
The crisis in Iraq this time has not been of the horrendous type witnessed seven years ago. President Bush was very thorough in having the last fling of (…)

EDITORIAL
As the campaign for the State Assembly elections picks up, the prices of essential foodstuffs, notably onions, are registering massive increase in the Capital causing immense hardship to the middle classes, not to speak of those in the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. This has caused considerable anxiety among the functionaries of the incumbent Delhi Government, and CM Sheila Dikshit in particular, for it would adversely affect the Congress’ poll prospects in the Capital (…)

There is every reason to believe that the just-concluded high-level meeting between India and Russia is one of the most successful and productive summits in recent years. This is the first time in many years that the annual summit is not dogged by serious irritants in bilateral relationship like delays and cost escalations of Russian military hardware planned to be supplied to India. Issues like delay in the supply of the aircraft career, Admiral Gorshkov, its price hike and problems (…)

TRIBUTE
by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
Mohan Dharia represented a rare breed of politicians who were not only selfless but expanded their field of activity from politics to social and allied subjects. He not only held important positions in the political world but also went to establish many of those institutions which with the passage of time highlighted such issues that confront human civilisation today as environmental degradation and decline of village life and infrastructure.
He (…)

Pollsters are busy counting straws in the wind to guess which party will form the next government at the Centre. Newspapers and television channels lap up the surveys made because they make a good copy. Astrologers have also jumped into the fray as they have done before every election.
At stake are the 535 seats in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament. The elected candidates will constitute the next five-year-tenure government. One point which is common in all the estimates that (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
October 20 this year marks the fyftyfirst anniversary of the Chinese aggression on India. On this occasion we are carrying N.C.’s ‘New Delhi Skyline’ published in Mainstream seven days after the invasion.
A fresh appraisal of values has overtaken New Delhi with the shock of the massive Chinese aggression on the far-flung frontier from Ladakh to NEFA.
In the course of a single week, the nation faced the dangerous implications of a militarily powerful neighbour (…)

On the occasion of Jayaprakash Narayan’s 111th birth anniversary we are carrying the following piece written by N.C. under the pseudonym ‘Analyst’
by Analyst
Jayaprakash Narayan has carried with him fulsome tributes from all political circles-his adherents and admirers, his adversaries and detractors. A life of ups and downs of heroic times and despairing moments Living beyond the Psalmist’s assigned span, JP had not only witnessed mighty deeds but participated in them in the company of (…)