2014

Ever since the ideas about planning took roots in India, certain political formations have been hostile to it. During the 1930s, the Hindu Mahasabha and, later, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh started attacking it. Later, when the Jan Sangh merged into the Janata Party, it took cudgels against it. It supported Morarji’s “rolling plan” which meant that planning was to be buried forever. Fortunately, the Morarji Government did not last long. When the saffron party came out of the government as the (…)

While there is almost universal support for a change of style and focus in the Planning Commission, some of the language used and the attributes given to its earlier purpose and history are incorrect.
As someone who has been close to those who were engaged with the Planning Commission during some of the earliest plans such as the Third Five Year Plan, and then been part of various committees and individual consultations of the Planning Commission, I recall the lively free-thinking and (…)

COMMUNICATION
One of the most controversial decisions taken by the new government relates to the dismantling of the Planning Commission.
While this had been talked about since the regime-change in Delhi, the Prime Minister made an official announcement in his Independence Day speech when he stated: “We’ll replace the Planning Commission with a new institution having a new design and structure....”
This’ll be done in a hurry, as The Indian Express pointed out on August 17—“By next week (…)

Article 370 is not meant to reflect the liberal tilt in the Indian Constitution. It is specific. It gives a special status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir—a status which the people of Jammu and Kashmir won after waging a long, tough fight for freedom both from the British and the Maharaja ruling the state.
Sheikh Abdullah was in the lead and achieved what looked impossible at one time, an autonomous status within the sovereign, secular Republic of India. Except three subjects—Defence, (…)

MUSINGS
First things first. Why did the security forces kill an unarmed 14-year-old protestor in the Kashmir Valley? This boy was merely protesting against Israel’s brutal killings of those hapless Palestinians in the Gaza settlement. At least this young Kashmiri boy had the guts and grit to protest against the ongoing genocide! And instead of honouring his spirit, we kill him! Don’t we civilians have the basic right to protest and cry out?
In fact, this brings me to the bigger question. (…)

Modiji became the Prime Minister of the Republic by virtue of two circumstances: one, having been declared the prime ministerial candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party which won the elections, and, two, by taking the all-important oath of office to protect and preserve the Constitution as by law established. As a reminder to ourselves, that Constitution defines the republic as “India that is Bharat” rather than as anything else, such as Hindustan.
Those who have recently, however, (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
who has won, and who has lost? The President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, can certainly claim that his mission was fulfilled when he unfurled the Tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk in the wintry morning of January 26, even if the last lap of the ekta yatra had to be done flying in the IAF transport Anton-32 plane.
The huge concourse that the yatra had gathered at Jammu could not however cross the Banihal—not only because of the bad weather (…)

This article was written quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
The sensational debut of the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections and the subsequent developments which forced the party to form the government in the national Capital heralding an era of transforming power from the elite to the common, from the rulers to the ruled, from the oligarchs of democracy to the objects of democracy, has also provided an alternative political space for the aam (…)

by Arun Srivastava
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remark certainly does reflect the concern of an overbearing parent that the progeny would go astray. Bhagwat, through his observation that the BJP came to power at the Centre because the common man wanted a change and an individual alone could not have ensured the party’s victory, primarily aimed to shield Narendra Modi from the accusation that he was implementing the RSS agenda. We ought to remember that the RSS under Bhagwat is not the RSS of (…)

Ukraine has been plunged into deep chaos and violence of unprecedented magnitude in less than a year. The crisis—that began with the throwing of Molotov cocktails against the riot police in Kiev’s Euro Maidan—has snowballed into a full-scale civil war with use of heavy artillery, airstrikes, even ballistic missiles. Though Ukrainian President Pyotor Parashenko had promised to put down the rebellion in the east of the country in a few hours, the military confrontation between the government (…)