2014

by T. Sadashivam
The following article was written before the Court’s rejection of Jayalalithaa’s bail plea.
Since last year, a number of important events took place in our society, especially in the field of governance, and one such event was the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of India on July 10, 2013 in the case of Lily Thomas versus Union of India where it ruled that any Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Member of a Legislative Council (…)

When the water came, sprawling
Underred at its own
Even intent, it said, “I am come
To remind you that rich, poor, man
Woman, or child, old or young,
Literate or illiterate, Sunni or
Shia or Ahmedia, low caste or high,
Tantric, Vaishnav, or Trika, living
Upstream or downstream, or by
Hillside resort, nationalist or
Separatist, you are all the same.
Do see that the rich man’s, the
God-man’s, the beggar man’s bone
Bloats without distinction
In the waters of (…)

In a very small corner of the world, in my neighbourhood, which is an island of privilege in the ocean of squalor called Mumbai, a debate rages. It is about whether service providers like nannies, domestic help, charwomen, cooks and chauffeurs, colloquially known as maids and drivers, should be made to use separate elevators in our condominium. There is no sense of ‘infringement of human rights’ in this debate. The elite do not find anything bizarre in this discussion. They find nothing (…)

Within the first 100 days of the Modi Government some symbols of development priorities have been publicised widely. If in urban development the creation of 100 smart cities is the biggest talking point, in railways it is the proposed introduction of bullet trains which is widely promoted. Following the Prime Minister’s Japan visit, it has been announced that Japanese help—financial and technical—will be readily available for these two schemes much favoured by our Prime Minister, Narendra (…)

In his tongue-in-cheek description of the PM, BJP patriarch L.K. Advani (who has been left out in the cold by his former protege now running the country) recently observed that Narendra Modi “is a great event-manager”. A remarkable showman or an impressive event-manager, Modi used his gifted rhetorical and oratorical skills to enthrall the packed audience of primarily Gujarati NRIs at the Madison Square Garden in New York on September 28. That indeed was the high point of his trip to the US, (…)

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the US has been a stunning success from his point of view, but what has India got in the bargain? Modi is not India—at least, not yet. But Modi nonetheless confused his political interests with the country’s. The country feels cheated, as he brings back with him this appalling document called the ‘Joint Statement’ as the outcome of his five-day sojourn in the US.
The picture that is bound to be silhouetted in memory for a long time will be that (…)

My hunch is that Gujarat’s map of India showing Arunachal Pradesh with dotted lines, suggesting a disputed territory, was at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gujarat is his backyard and he can have anything done there. Even the contradiction was half-hearted and left to further “investi-gation”.
What Modi probably tried to convey to the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping was that he was willing to keep Arunachal Pradesh as a disputed territory provided there was an (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 115th birth anniversary on October 2, 2014 we are reproducing the following article of N.C. and carrying a few relevant articles on Gandhiji.
On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of different denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which will spread over a (…)

The Tamil Nadu Chef Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief, Ms J. Jayalalithaa’s conviction by a Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Bengaluru on September 27 was exemplary. Ms Jayalalithaa was sent to prison for four years, disqualified as an MLA, lost her position as the Chief Minister and was barred from holding public office for ten years, apart from having to pay a fine considered commensurate with the magnitude of her offence. Her three (…)

At the penultimate hour of leaving Afgha-nistan, the Western powers are now engaged in the dirtiest game imaginable. Doggedly pursuing the goal of facilitating a legitimised re-entry of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network into Afghanistan in the post-2014 scenario, the Obama Administration has put the Afghanistan Government under utmost pressure to succumb to its diktat.
Despite repeated requests by Kabul, Washington D.C. has steadfastly refused to supply heavy artillery, tanks (…)