2013

by Arun Srivastava
With political parties unwilling to clean their stables, the Supreme Court has stepped in to rid the much-maligned system, make life tough for the criminals in politics by ruling that those convicted in a criminal case will stand disqualified as a lawmaker from the date of conviction.
Since 2002 the Apex Court has been expressing its concern and keen desire to end the menace of criminalisation of politics. But nothing substantial could be achieved so far. The political (…)

Since the unknown past, Judaism has had four traditional castes, namely, Pharisees, Sadduces, Essenes and Zealots. Each claimed its purity, sanctity and supremacy over the other. Therefore, one among them did not recognise the other and arrived at a determination of intolerance: “one caste, one religion and one god for men”. In the Dark Age, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and Pope Gregory derived a homily from their parental religion, Judaism: “one religion, one Church and one empire for the (…)

Two major developments have caught national attention over the last few days.
First came the suspension of a young IAS officer of the UP cadre, Durga Shakti Nagpal, the Gautam Buddh Nagar SDM, ostensibly on the ground that she had pulled down the wall of a mosque being built without clearance (an act that triggered communal tension in the area, according to the UP CM), whereas the general impression is that action was initiated against her for having found “visibly tackling illegal sand (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The air is thick with talk about the economic crisis facing the country. The Finance Minister has called it “a grave economic crisis”. “We have not experienced anything similar in the history of independent India,” he has said.
In Parliament, in newspaper offices, in the university campus, in Chambers of Commerce, the talk centres round the urgent need to borrow, to contract loans so that our economy could be sustained and the nation does not collapse under debts. (…)

Dear Mr Sen, here is what you forgot:
When a party of traders gives,
It expects. Thus, Bharat Ratna
Was bestowed on you by us
Not because we thought you
Were great shakes—who bigger
And better than Golwalker ever—
But so that you might hide
The better part of your wisdom
About Bharat and its travails,
And begin to speak from our side.
Clearly, that Nobel—a Western conspiracy—
Turned your Leftist head, and even
At Harvard—Subramaniam Swamy’s
Pride—you felt (…)

by Sreerupa Saha
I
Max Weber, universally acknowledged to be one of the three most important founding fathers of social science (the other two being Emile Durkheim and Karl Max), located the social change in the appearance and actions of charismatic leaders, as the other two types, traditional and rational/legal, were geared to system-maintenance. Weber characterised charismatic leaders as men of exemplary conduct and extraordinary endowments; to him, charisma was a quality attributable (…)

The Congress has set a bad precedent. The party has combined two positions: one is that of party official spokesman and the other that of Minister’s for Information and Broadcasting. Both have different roles. The official spokesman defends the stand the party takes, right or wrong. The Minister for Information and Broad-casting is India’s spokesman, not that of one party. The first is nominated while the other is elected by the people.
To mix the two is unfair to the occupant, who (…)

The Clausewitzean fog of war is thickening in the Hindu Kush. The New York Times reported recently that President Barack Obama is seriously considering a “zero option” for Afghanistan, namely, a total pullout of American troops by end-2014—lock, stock and barrel, as they say.
Sounds incredible? Indeed, it may at this point, when Washington is reported to be in the final stages of negotiation for concluding a status of forces agreement [SOFA] with the Kabul Government to establish nine (…)

WOMEN’S WORLD
by Ranjana Padhi and Pramodini Pradhan
One seldom gets to hear about women’s resistance in Odisha, be it in resistance literature or history or the discourse of the contemporary women’s movement. It is the redeeming figures of Rama Devi, Malati Choudhury or Annapurna Moharana that have been assigned an aura of respectability for their unique contribution in Odia society.1 Reverence is a catch, especially in a society steeped in feudal patriarchy. Therefore, we need to look (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Sajad Padder
Pakistan—Unique Origins; Unique Destiny? by Javed Jabbar; publisher: National Book Foundation, Islamabad (Pakistan); 2011; pages: 246.
The book “Pakistan—Unique Origins; Unique Destiny?” is written by Javed Jabbar, a former Senator of Pakistan. The book is divided into six parts. Barring the sixth part, which contains bibliography, all other parts are left with blank pages at the end for further information and feedback from the readers. The author’s aim (…)