2014

As India comes to the final phase of the 16th parliamentary elections, breathless hype across the subcontinent leads many to believe that we are close to the doorstep of El Dorado, which unfolds a legendary story in which “precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins [......] the imagined El Dorado went from a city to a kingdom and an empire of this legendary golden king.”1
Now the question is if India will vote for development, resulting in overflow of honey and (…)

Narendra Modi, the new mascot of the Sangh Parivar, has chosen Varanasi as his spring-board for his prime ministerial ambition in 2014. Nineteen ninetynine saw Lucknow sending Atal Behari Vajpayee on the prime ministerial trajectory. It was different as Lucknow is the city of composite culture and had offered one of the finest Hindustani cultural and literary traditions which represented the essence of the Hindu-Muslim cultural matrix. Narendra Modi’s arrival in Kashi is, of course, (…)

In this season of hurt sentiments, it is my turn—and with emphasis. It has been declaimed lately from a broad-chested but small-minded podium that Kashmir, pointedly meaning the Valley, has been turned into a “communal” place by the Abdullahs; the barely concealed sub-text being that it always has been so—a communal place.
I wish you to know that to the extent that my political and spiritual life has been shaped in a fundamental way by my experience of being a born and bred Kashmiri—an (…)

Three different interpretations can be given to the sensational remarks on Saturday (April 26) regarding underworld don Dawood Ibrahim by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. One, he spoke in the heat of the election battle and it could all be hot air.
But then, Modi was speaking at an exclusive media interview and not addressing a mam-moth rally of one million people chanting ‘Har, Har Modi’ where he would be speaking at the gallery. It’s well-known that (…)

The ensuing general elections (GE) have witnessed the participation of a large number of parties and political outfits, with many significant and important players in the fray. However, the central players remain the Congress and BJP. Whatever may be the election results, the government cannot be formed without the direct and active involve-ment of either of these two parties. The Congress has remained in power for most of the length of India’s independence, and whenever it has not, the BJP (…)

I get many telephone calls almost every day from Pakistan and a few from Bangladesh to inquire about the polling in the Lok Sabha elections. Their fear is that Narendra Modi might be India’s next Prime Minister and destroy the democratic polity which they envy. I hope Modi does not head the next government.
True, most opinion polls give the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP and Modi, a clear majority. But their tally is unreliable because there is not even a ripple, much (…)

[May 9 this year, that is, Baisakh 25, 1421 (Bengali calendar), marks Rabindranath Tagore’s 153rd birth anniversary. On this occesion we are publishing the following piece and reproducing an article by N.C. that appeared in a special commemorative supplement of The Calcutta Muncipal Gazette (published on September 13, 1941, more than a month after Tagore’s demise).]
by Jayanta Ghosal
Having grown up in an atmosphere of patriotism and nationalism in the family, Rabindranath was naturally (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Lenin once asked a group of Soviet students as to whom they regarded as the greatest literary figure of Russia. “Mayakovsky,” they replied. “Yes, but what about Pushkin?” asked Lenin, and added, “Could there have been a Mayakovsky without a Pushkin?” A hundred years from today the people would speak of Tagore in the same way and with more truth. At the moment we are too near to his personality to fully appraise its greatness. You cannot size up a Titan when you stand (…)

by Mouli Dey
The following piece was written and sent to us sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. However, despite some of the contents of the article being dated, the piece still retains its validity in essence; it is thus being used here.
Who should rule the country following the 2014 Lok Sabha elections? This is a question which might crop up in the mind of any individual citizen of India eligible to exercise the right of universal adult suffrage. (…)

Sathi Sunil is no more. He had a sudden brain hemorrhage and lost consciousness. After four days of struggling with death in that condition, he eventually passed away on of April 21, 2014. For years Sunil had been wanting to travel the country to raise awareness among the people about socialism. This wish of his could not be realised, and Time claimed him as his own co-traveller!
Sunil’s last rites were conducted the next day in Delhi itself. Condolence meetings were conducted for him at (…)