2014

When a tentative nuclear deal was struck with Iran around November last year there was conjecture on repositioning of groupings in West Asia and its consequences. Iran, Iraq, and Syria, among others, share the Shia persuasion and were assumed to comprise the counter-weight against the Sunni Al-Qaeda and its formidable, if sometimes contradictory, patrons among the Arab rich. The earlier “Arab Spring” casualties included Egypt, particularly its authoritarian President, Hoshni Mubarak, also (…)

Over a long historical period, one factor which has provided strength and dynamism to human society generation after generation has been a natural tendency on the part of a large number of youth to take sides against injustice and in favour of justice, against inequality and in favour of equality. One can call this a ‘natural’ tendency because youth is the age of innocence when truth and ideals have an almost natural appeal. As this is the most energetic age-group, every generation of human (…)

Six years after the outbreak of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district of Odisha, killing more than one hundred Christians, mostly Dalits and tribals, and displacing sixty thousand of them, justice remains denied to the victims and survivors. While the civil society observed the anniversary of Kandhamal violence on August 25 all across the country, Md. Eisa, Abdul Raheem Umary and Abhay Kumar conversed with Dr John Dayal, a well-known civil rights activist who has been a (…)

by Prachi Aggarwal
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in India in September, comparisons and contrasts of both the leaders has begun with renewed vigour. It cannot be doubted that Narendra Modi received a landslide victory because he was perceived as a strong alternative to the 60-year-old corruption plaguing the Indian political system. However, corruption has not only been bearing resonance in weak democracies like India but also has reverberation in strong political (…)

by Ranbir Singh
The victory of the INLD candidate, Dushyant Chautala (grandson of O.P. Chautala and great grandson of legendary Jat leader Devi Lal), over the BJP-HJC alliance candidate, Kuldeep Bishnoi (son of former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal), by a margin of 31,847 votes from the Hisar parliamentary constituency may prove to be a game-changer in Haryana politics. It is pertinent to mention that Kuldeep Bishnoi had been projected by the alliance as the prospective candidate for (…)

TRIBUTE
Recently Bengal lost a prominent literary figure who never compromised with the establishment. One had worked with Nabarun in the students’ movement of the sixties and interacted with him on literary issues subsequently. While offering our sincere homage to his memory we are carrying the following tribute.
by Bishwajit sen
Nabarun Bhattacharya was born on June 24, 1948 in Bahrampur. His father was Bijan Bhattacharya, who wrote “Nabanna”, the play which kept alive the faith of (…)

Editorial
Our sixtyeighth Independence Day is being observed in the country against the sombre backdrop of the BJP’s return to power at the Centre after 10 long years.
But it is not just the BJP’s return to power that is a matter of alarm. It has secured absolute majority in the Lok Sabha—the first party to do so after 25 years. That is doubtless a source of grave concern.
Of course, the party used the twin planks of ‘development’ and ‘governance’ during the election campaign to storm (…)

Under oppression’s shadows condemned to breathe,
Still for a time we must bear them, and tears, and endure
What our forefathers, not our own faults, bequeath:
Fettered limbs, each impulse held on a chain,
Minds in bondage, our words all watched and set down—
Courage still nerves us, or how should we still exist,
Now with existence only a beggar’s gown,
Tattered, and patched every hour with new rags of pain?
Yes, but to tyranny not many hours are left now;
Patience a little, (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
August Fifteenth, the day when the Tricolour of independent India was hoisted on the ramparts of the Red Fort thirtyseven years ago, not only brings back the imprishable memories of the nation’s freedom struggle in which millions upon millions participated, but also reminds us of the pledges unredeemed and the commitments unfulfilled.
In the four decades since independence, the nation has been unified as the mosaic of petty princedoms disappeared; the economy has (…)

[(Desh Raj Goyal, 84, passed away in New Delhi after a brief illness in the afternoon of February 3, 2013. A veteran journalist and academic, he was the editor of Secular Democracy. From 1963 to 1967 he edited Mainstream.
Goyal-sahb was a crusader against the growing menace of communalism in the country since he fully comprehended the threat it posed having himself been a full-time RSS pracharak (like PM Narendra Modi) in his youth. He later eschewed his connections with the RSS and joined (…)