2013

EDITORIAL
Yesterday, that is, on May 22, the UPA II Government completed four years. The UPA dispensation has been in power for nine years now. It ousted the deeply entrenched NDA Government in 2004 when the pollsters had not predicted such an outcome, the comprehensive victory of the latter alliance headed by the BJP in 1999 being still bright in memory. It was the ‘India Shining’ agenda of the NDA that was its undoing despite the fact that a seasoned leader like Atal Behari Vajpayee, (…)

COMMENTARY
China’s new PM Li Keqiang’s first trip outside his country was to India this month. He had prepared well for his meetings with the Indian leaders and went out of his way to display warmth laced with plainspeak and candour. While PM Manmohan Singh read out from a prepared text at the media meet, Premier Li spoke extempore and left a lasting impress with his straightforward approach.
It was good that Dr Manmohan Singh raised the border issue, including and most notably the (…)

by M. Ashraf Haidari
Almost twelve years have passed since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but peace remains elusive. Four interlocking challenges with internal, regional, transnational, and inter-national dimensions impede Afghanistan’s stabilisation and reconstruction. Each challenge facing Afghanistan feeds off the others, and together they have engendered a vicious circle that is destabilising the country.
First, Afghanistan is an underdeveloped country and much of its (…)

It was an emotional expression, that of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after winning the polls in Pakistan. By inviting Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh to his oath-taking ceremony he fulfilled the desire to strike real friendship with India. But this should not come as a surprise. Nawaz Sharif had once fought and won an election against Benazir Bhutto on the plank of friendship with India.
Unfortunately, New Delhi’s response was tepid. I wish there had been an Atal Behari Vajpayee to travel (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The following piece, which appeared in the ‘New Delhi Skyline’ of Mainstream, was written two days after Jawaharlal Nehru’s demise on May 27, 1964. It was published on May 30, 1964.
As the golden flame licked up the funeral pyre, an unforgettable scene ended near the banks of the Jumna and under the shadow of the Red Fort.
It was an emotional experience without precedence, to watch this mightiest demonstration of love and respect that this great country has paid to (…)

May 27 this year happens to be Jawaharlal Nehru’s fortyninth death anniversary. On this occasion we are publishing excerpts from Nehru’s speeches on India-Pakistan relations.
Some recent events, more especially the talks which I have had with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, have resulted in an agreement which has produced a very marked change in the tense atmosphere. This change was immediately reflected, to a large extent, in the press of the two countries. This is, indeed, remarkable. I (…)

While remembering Jawaharlal Nehru on his fortyninth death anniversary this year on May 27, we reproduce some of the tributes paid to his abiding memory by eminent personalities who were also members of the National Committee set up for the commemoration of Nehru’s birth centenary. These contributions, as well as of others, came out in book form on November 14, 1989 following yearlong commemoration of Nehru’s birth centenary.
Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution in the post-independence years (…)

We, who have lived through one part or the other of the Nehru era, look back on that period with nostalgia as a sort of Golden Age; we tend to regard those times as the “good old days”. In fact, those years were, more than at present, filled with poverty and misery. Yet, the existence of a Jawaharlal Nehru made all the difference.
Nehru’s place in history would be assured by the leader’s role he played in the anti-imperialist struggle. As a national liberator, he was second only to (…)

For four decades and more, this gentle colossus strode our Indian world and his place among the great figures of our time is secure. But his uniqueness lay in the unobtrusive opulence of endowment which gave him, in the thick of politics and in the face even of frustrations, a peculiar refinement and grace of spirit. It was not only that he was “a man without malice and without fear” but that he carried an ache in his mind and heart, an ache which betokened kinship with the whole wide world. (…)

[Excerpted from the Gentle Colossus]
by V.K.R.V. Rao
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is not only a great patriot and one of the great sons of India, but also a great son of the world who played a significant role in the achievement of freedom for the colonial countries in both Asia and Africa. Even before he became Prime Minister, when he was in the Interim Government, he arranged to convene the Asian Relations Conference in early 1947, where he brought together all the sovereign and (…)