2014

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
The following pieces, written by N.C. in December 1970 (before the 1971 mid-term poll) and March 1972 (after Indira Gandhi’s resounding success in the State Assembly elections), are being reproduced here to draw the sharp and glaring contrast between the political situations prevailing in the country 41-42 years ago and now when there is a visible Rightist upsurge after Narendra Modi’s extraordinary victory at the hustings [ensuring absolute majority for a non-Congress (…)

by Asif Nazar
This article, written before the outcome of the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, reached us after the
results were out. It is being published since its contents have yet to outlive their relevance.
The great and glorious festival of democracy will conclude very soon. And there will be party-time for a few political parties and exercise of introspection for most of the political parties. Ideology may be the lifeline of any political party. And there is a tolerance-band (…)

On Dange’s 23rd death anniversary
by Pratip Chattopadhyay
This article has been written on the occasion of S.A. Dange’s 23rd death anniversary on May 22, 2014.
The verdict of the Lok Sabha elections 2014 reflects the sorry state which the Left political parties across the country have been reduced to (only 11 seats) particularly in their stronghold of West Bengal where the CPI-M has secured the same number of seats (two) as the BJP with the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc failing to win any (…)

The following is the press release of the Delhi University Community against Police Repression at a press conference on the detention of Dr G.N. Saibaba, who is teaching at Ram Lal Anand College, University of Delhi, at New Delhi’s Press Club of India on May 13, 2014.
On May 9, 2014 Dr G.N. Saibaba, while returning to his home from Daulat Ram College after examination duty for lunch, was intercepted on the way, blindfolded and taken to Aheri, Maharashtra by the Gadchiroli Police. He was (…)

by Sudhanshu Tripathi
The results of the 16th Lok Sabha elections have clearly shown, perhaps, the rarest of rare democratic phenomenon which was unexpected to even the very wise political pundits who might have relied on the exit polls. Almost all of them were hoping a near likely win for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition with equally possible chances for the Congress-I-led UPA for forming a new government at the Centre. But all these projections have gone awory, clearly (…)

With a view to reducing the tension around Tehran’s nuclear programme, the US has lately engaged itself in negotiations with Iran. There has been some progress in these negotiations no doubt, but the West has not yet given indication of any substantial dilution of the sanctions on Iran. What comes out from the attitude of the US and its European allies is that they have unilaterally imposed the sanctions regime not with the primary purpose of limiting Iran’s access to nuclear technologies (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
The verdict is out. It is a decisive victory for Narendra Modi rather than for the BJP or the NDA. The Congress has suffered defeat of a magnitude that its worst opponents could not anticipate. The Left has been all but wiped out. There is no denying the fact that Modi did succeed in creating a groundswell of support for him. The youth believed he was the Messiah who would deliver them from poverty, hunger and joblessness. Whether and if so how far he would be able to (…)

we can say what we like, but Narendra Modi took india’s electoral democracy by the scruff of its neck and romped home to victory. Rarely in recent memory has one man set aside so much and so many, including his own party elders and apparatus, forged his own persona and politics, marked out lucrative detractors, or chosen opportune backers, be it in the RSS , the corporates. or the media, and wrapped some consistently inventive and no-holds-barred polemics to keep the package in tantalising (…)

The much-talked about and controversial referendum in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions located in the eastern part of Ukraine (which is ruled by an interim government that came to power through a coup) took place on May 11, 2014. And its preliminary results show that an overwhelming majority of the population living in the region have voted in favour of indepen-dence.
According to Aleksandra Malihina, the chief of the Election Commission of the Lugansk region, 96.2 per cent of the people (…)

by Arun Srivastava
The threat of communalism is not merely a bogey, and the Muslim ‘sense of alarmism’ does not exist in a vacuum. It may be exaggerated by some parties to get Muslim votes, but it is a real threat. The BJP leaders have a common refrain that the Muslims should understand them. But this is not a one-way traffic. During the 2014 Lok Sabha election the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate tried their best to entice the Muslim voters, but they could not succeed. Barring one (…)