2013

It is once again Article 370 on the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Again the BJP has thrown the first stone. The party’s top leader, L.K. Advani, has said that the Article should be scrapped. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said in reply: “Over our dead bodies.” He tends to over-react but he is quite right in saying that the Article is sacrosanct.
The Article was the result of long discussions held between Srinagar and New Delhi at the time of the State’s (…)

The proposed talks with the Taliban on the future dispensation in Afghanistan appeared to be teetering close to the brink on June 22 when Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai announced in Kabul that his government will not be available for participation in the talks in Doha any more. What was galling for the Afghan President was that Washington, in its apparent keenness to reach a quick-fix deal with the Taliban, was marginalising Kabul’s role even before the talks had actually begun. The (…)

Who was Ishrat Jahan? In 2009, S.P. Tamang, Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad, described her in the report of his judicial enquiry as a “loving daughter and caring sister” who worked hard to support her mother and younger siblings. However, now that the CBI’s examination of her death in an “encounter” is the centre of attention, many people are calling her anything but innocent and harmless. The noises coming from the Hindu Right may be ignored, for what they offer as evidence is not just (…)

by Suhas Chakma
As the United States continues its relentless campaign to block whistleblower Edward Snowden’s attempts to seek asylum that went to the extent of disgraceful denial of air-space to President of Bolivia Evo Morales by France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Frank La Rue and UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of (…)

I. Introduction
Nearly two-thirds of the people in India are involved with agriculture and related liveli-hoods to a lesser or greater extent—either as cultivators of self-owned land, landowners, sharecroppers, landless farm labourers, tenants or in other ways. It is a matter of serious concern for the entire country that farmers are facing increasing difficulties and a crisis situation.
The crisis faced by farmers has been documented in the form of many reports of their increasing (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
After forty years of the foundation of our independent republic, the Frankenstein has appeared again—the monster that is out to destroy democracy and plunge this nation into civil war that shall rend asunder thousands of towns and villages of this great country.
The term, communalism, does not convey the gravity of the crisis that confronts us today—let it be bluntly stated that what we face today is the demon of Hindu-Muslim hatred. Over a large part of this land, (…)

The applauses and celebrations at the BJP National Executive meeting at Goa indeed sent vibrations throughout the nation as the polity gears up for the 2014 elections. Right from the conspicuous absence of the Right-wing stalwart who had led the party from a mere figure of two seats up to 182 in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, and others like Uma Bharati, Yashwant Sinha owing to several reasons, the meeting caught the attention of the masses because of the new brigade to watch out for. The much (…)

It has been more than two years that A.G. Noorani’s important book Article 370 : A Constitutional History of J and K’ (OUP, 2011, pages 480) has hit the stands and been able to clear many a confusion about the tumultuous era in the post-independence period pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir.
Basing himself on authentic documents, letters, memorandums, white papers, proclamations and amendments, the author, a constitutional expert himself, has not only provided new insights about the period (…)

DOCUMENT
The Centre for Policy Analysis (CPA), New Delhi, a think-tank, has since 2009 been involved with the people of Kashmir in the search of a peaceful and just solution. Over the years, several groups of civil society activists and experts have visited Kashmir for roundtable dialogues with the Kashmir intellectuals, politicians and activists. Several groups of Kashmir, including women and youth, have come for similar roundtables in New Delhi.
CPA-led civil society teams have also (…)

by R.G. Gidadhubli
In Russia Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) have been subjected to indiscriminate checking and investigation during the last few months, raising considerable resentment both inside the country and abroad. In the first week of June 2013, Russia has legalised ‘Random Checking’ of NGOs. This has in fact compounded the problems of those engaged in the civil society movement in the country because prior to this legislation, in November 2012, a law became effective under (…)