2013

by Jayan P.A.
The Chief Information Commission’s (CIC) order on bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act, 20051 is a right step in a vibrant democracy such as India. Accepting public money is one of the criteria in bringing the political parties under the RTI’s ambit. Many political parties have opposed the move. But it is a welcome step in the direction of betterment of the society. It is a landmark decision by the CIC which has been working for nearly a decade. (…)

by Mikhail Matveyev
The Supreme Court gave the final nod to the commissioning of the Kundakulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) more than month ago. In its legal judgment the country’s highest judicial authority stressed that the KKNPP is safe and secure and it is necessary for the larger public interest and the nation’s economic growth. The Court judgment on this sensitive issue came in the wake of several months of contradictory anti-nuclear protests. Several independent voices raised (…)

by Ivy Imogene Hansdak
Dear Sir,
I wish to draw your attention to certain anomalies in the policy used by the Sahitya Akademi in the nomination of recipients for the Annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in Santhali (Santali) language and literature. It is noted that only writers using the Ol Chiki script are being considered for the Sahitya Akademi Awards, despite the fact that Santhali is an oral language (like all tribal languages of India) and its speakers presently use at least five major (…)

While the last group of 150 persons was flown to safety from Badrinath on July 2, that is, seventeen days after flash floods due to nature’s fury from a sudden cloud-burst ravaged Uttarakhand, several developments of the last few days, including those related to the Himalayan tsunami, have attracted public attention.
It was reported today that even after so many days since the tragedy struck, several villages in the Rudraprayag district, one of the worst affected by the disaster, have not (…)

DOCUMENT
The Left parties—represented by the CPI, CPI-M, RSP and Forward Bloc—held a National Convention in New Delhi on July 1, 2013. The following Declaration was adopted at the Convention.
Sixty six years after independence, the aim of a developed and prosperous India with equal rights for all citizens seems a distant goal. The current plight of the country is due to the nature of capitalist development which favours the rich and harms the poor. The government’s policies are (…)

The following article is being published on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s one hundred and eleventh death anniversary on July 4. On January 12 this year we had observed his one hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary.
Nineteenth century India produced a number of eminent men and women who with their exceptional intellect and wisdom enriched different aspects of Indian life. The most important among them was Swami Viveka-nanda who in a short span of life, which lasted less than forty (…)

Not long ago, a disaster in any part of the country would elicit national response. People would go door-to-door to collect money, clothes, utensils, medicines and many other things of daily use to transmit through agencies which were voluntarily engaged in relief and rehabilitation work. The attitude has changed in the last few years. People are, no doubt, concerned and sympathetic. But there is no countrywide effort to organise help. The atmosphere is no more animated with the zeal which I (…)

We do not drive history according to our own desires and wishes; rather history leads us with its force taking all kinds of species through the different stations and temporary destinations. There are a few historical moments when mankind is able to witness what it desires. History is perhaps not a straight line process but it consists of crooked lines which push humans into the vortex of pain, uncertainties and happy times. Only a handful of people take advantage of the happy moments of (…)

by Priyanka Chaturvedi
The news this week that no one would have possibly missed and debated is the one that appeared in a leading national daily. The headline shouted, “Narendra Modi lands in Uttarakhand, flies out with 15,000 Gujaratis”. Clearly, Mr Modi’s propaganda machinery was at work again and NaMo bhakts on social media were lapping it up—he was the biggest superhero this country, nay this planet, nay this universe had ever seen. But neither Mr Modi nor his bhakts realised the true (…)

MUSINGS
No, sir, aerial surveys won’t do in the Uttarakhand region. You cannot view disasters from that far away, safe positioning! You got to be right there amongst your people to try and reach out to them.
It’s disgusting how the VVIPs are touring the devastated region in that detached sort of way at this stage when thousands have been killed and ruined. And it’s more than disgusting to know that even now these political creatures are making aerial surveys. As representatives of the (…)