2013

WOMEN’S WORLD
by Shruti
A number of non-government organisations have demanded December 16 be declared a day of remembrance for Jyoti. For newbees, Jyoti was the December 16 girl whose ghastly rape and subsequent death temporarily shook collective India out of its complacency with the neo-liberal gender balance. Unfortunately, she lost her name along with her life. The victim of one of the most infamous crimes in history was rechristened variously as “Nirbhaya” and “Damini” quite without (…)

COMMUNICATION
The BJP boasts of being a political party quite different from all other Indian political parties and this is quite correct. The glaring example of this is the way and manner in which the party has been trying to enlist the support of Muslims by concealing the real face and image of Narendra Modi and projecting him as a secular leader and resorting to token secularism by making all efforts to ensure that Muslim men wearing skull caps and Muslim women in burqas attend his (…)

EDITORIAL
If the conviction and life sentence awarded by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad this week to the dentist couple, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, for the double murder of their only 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj five-and-a-half years after they were found dead in the couple’s NOIDA apartment have been met with a sense of disbelief by not just the Talwar’s relatives but even some of Aarushi’s close friends, the sexual assault case involving the Tehelka (…)

The détente in Iran may appear unreal, if for no other reason than India so providentially gaining with the hope of uninterrupted oil supplies to check prices and curb inflation. Providence appears too timely to be true. There are other benefits like the reduction of India’s import bill and the easing of foreign exchange pressure. India will be able to buy more Iranian crude and Indian companies can renew stalled projects. Additionally, the India-Pakistani gas pipeline will get a fresh lease (…)

To secular Indians, who hold that religion belongs to the private and personal space, two recent national events of three state agencies should be a matter of concern. The first one was the act of ISRO Chairman Dr K. Radhakrishnan performing pooja with the replica of the Mars Orbiter Mission at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati a day before the launch of the spacecraft from Sriharikota. The second one was the digging for gold by the Archaeological Department with support from the (…)

Uruguay is the second smallest state in South America with a GDP of $ 56.3 billion and a per capita GDP of $ 16,600. Jose Mujica, the head of state elected under the Constitution as the President of Uruguay, controls the Secretariat of the Presidency, the Council of Ministers and the office of Planning and Budget. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The President and Vice-President are elected by direct elections for a period of five years, but without the right of (…)

At a time when politicians have come down to the level of street urchins, hurling abuses at each other and when the surveillance of even an individual is not considered an intrusion into privacy, the memory of the late Prime Minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, is like a fresh air. He was urbane, civil and never raised his voice when an opponent lost his cool. This November 30 is his first death anniversary.
Throughout his political career, either as a Foreign Minister or as the Prime Minister, (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Perhaps never before a foreign-affairs issue has been so badly mishandled as the sudden deportation of three Lanka Tamil leaders from India by the Rajiv Gandhi Government. It has been an amazing piece of thoughtlessness on the part of the government to have gone in for such a step without pausing to weigh its consequences, pro and con.
What is further intriguing is that the Foreign Office does not seem to take the responsibility for having initiated it. While it will (…)

Russian President Vladimir Putin tops his US counterpart, Barack Obama, on the Forbes list for “world’s most powerful person”. The news has become one of the hottest topics in the world.
Russian media are pleased with the ranking and public opinion in China also reacted positively. Proceeding from the nation’s geopolitical interests, the Chinese public is willing to see a strong Russia, although Moscow is on a different road now.
Most support the reversal of Putin and Obama in the Forbes (…)

Narendra Modi (NaMo, as he is popularly known) wants to usher in a ‘Congress-free India’. In his maiden speech after being elected as the Election Campaign Chief at the party’s Goa conclave, he had clearly said this in no uncertain terms.
As one can recall this part of his speech came under severe criticism and it was underlined that it shows his fascistic mindset. It was said that Modi does not want merely to defeat the Congress politically but wants to obliterate it completely as if the (…)