2013

As we approach our sixtyfourth Republic Day, the political class in the country has been gripped by an unprecedented crisis—the crisis of credibility. This has been recently witnessed in the unique spontaneity of the youth upsurge on the major streets and thoroughfares of Lutyens’ Delhi taking the ruling circles at the Centre completely by surprise thereby resulting in a panic reaction on the part of the latter—the indiscriminate use of force and coercion with lathis, teargas and water (…)

On the occasion of the sixtyfifth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom on January 30 this year, we offer our sincere homage to his abiding memory by reproducing excerpts from two speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru to explain Gandhiji’s significance before the US audience in October 1949.
You know that during the last thirty years or so, we carried on rather intensively our campaign for India’s freedom. We did not begin it; it was there. It had been continued for genrations before us but it (…)

On the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 116th birth annivarsary on January 23 this year, we offer our homage to the memory of that indomitable freedom fighter by reproducing excerpts from one of his writings.
A question which many people ask is as to what will happen when the British are forced to leave India. British propaganda has made many people think that without the British there will be anarchy and chaos in India. These people conveniently forget that British occupation (…)

by ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
The rape of Nirbhaya (as the 23-year-old victim has been named by The Times of India) on the night of December 16 rightly raised grave concern about the safety of women in modern democratic India today. Thousands of women and men, especially women, came out on the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and several other cities to condemn the heinous crime against women and demanded change in law to make the punishment harsher than what it is.
I fully sympathise with the concern (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Of the many things that went wrong during the Big Bad Year 2012, which was the most upsetting? That’s not an easy question to answer because there were too many Big Bad Things that were disconcerting. Hopes were shattered and fears came true. Heroes developed clay feet, villains became kings. Politicians grew fat, mafia cronies fatter. Mango in-laws made jokes about aam admis.
Consider Mamata Banerjee. A hugely popular leader, she was different from other politicians, living (…)

It appears to me that in India we are rushing on that route envisaged by Rousseau. This foreboding I am getting because of the latest situation in Delhi where the well-intentioned non-political young generation (who still retain faith and idealism) people were brutally dealt with by the police while protesting against the manner in which the horrible inhuman gang-rape of a young woman has been casually dealt with by the Delhi and Central governments.
One sees the horrible chilling scenes (…)

Even before Delhi and India got into the festive mood for the dawning of another New Year, 2013, the young girl who fell victim to the lust of six lascivious barbarous men, one of whom only in his teens, breathed her last in a Singapore Hospital, where she was sent for specialised treatment by the government. Not satisfied with fulfilling their lust, the six brutalised her body in such beastly manner that neither her willpower, that gave her the name ‘Nirbhaya’ (fearless), nor all the (…)

It is an unfortunate coincidence that the border clashes and ceasefire violations between India and Pakistan have been at a time when Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had signed the Tashkent Declaration some 37 years ago to bind the two countries into a peace pact. He consecrated it with his death. Yet the Declaration could not avert the 1971 war, nor the subsequent skirmishes.
Strange, there was not even a mention of the Declaration either by the media or by the political leadership. (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
The valiant defence of the Motherland by our armed forces as well as by the brave people of Jammu and Kashmir has inspired the nation. The grim determination of the people of this country not to rest till Pakistani aggression is completely vacated and it is ensured that there will be no recurrence of violation of our frontiers was fully reflected in the President’s message and in the Prime Minister’s broadcast to the nation.
The entire people of this country realise (…)

The beheading and mutilation of the bodies of L/Nk Hemraj and L/Nk Sudarshan Singh by Pakistani soldiers on January 8, 2013, is yet another barbaric act by Pakistan’s Army, following several earlier ones. [Ref. 1, Note 1] It is not unlike the acts of medieval armies or armed raiders, whose aim was to strike terror into the hearts of people. However, if such is the intention of the Pakistani Army, their latest barbaric act, far from striking terror or fear, is enraging the Indian public. This (…)