2015

by Arun Srivastava
There is no more ambiguity. The Modi Government is accomplishing the task of the RSS to change the secular character of India and convert it into a Hindu Rashtra. The RSS is in a hurry but does not intend to show the urgency. It has been treading quite cautiously. It is aware that rushing through the agenda would alienate the huge population of India which is basically Centrist in character, if not secular, and jeopardise the functioning of the Modi Government, even mar (…)

The endgame in Ukraine appears to be struggling to be born. The German account of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the ‘Normandy Format’, which took place in Berlin on Saturday (September 12), struck a positive note. ‘Significant progress’; ‘less confrontational’; ‘made headway in some critical things’; ‘very close’; ‘now needs to be further consolidated and secured’ — the expressions used by the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his media briefing were meaningful. (…)

Dear Dr Shashi Tharoor,
Your speech, driven both by facts and thoughts, in Oxford University Union on July 22, 2015 on a motion Britain does owe reparations to India, has stirred up millions of Indians at home and abroad with patriotic fervour and admiration. But this is likely to provoke areas that are equally impelling to warrant thoughts for consideration.
Let me elaborate the points to drive home the inherent dichotomy. A section—essentially the most influential one—will (or should) (…)

The CPI-M leader, Suryakanta Mishra, who wears the double-hat of the Secretary of the party’s West Bengal unit and leader of the party’s legislative wing, has given a long ‘inter-view’ to his party’s theoretical organ The Marxist (April-June, 2015 issue). The interview is an exercise in deceit, duplicity and plain dishonesty.
Let us examine them one by one. The interview starts with the charge that “The repression that we have been facing in West Bengal today, four years after the changing (…)

by Siddhartha Guha Ray
The ambush of an Army convoy by insurgents in Manipur killed 18 soldiers of 6 Dogra unit on June 4. It was undoubtedly a dastardly act of violence, rightly condemned by the people of several walks of life. In a quick response to the action, Indian Para Commandos smashed two insurgent camps inside Mynmar territory and brutally killed about 50 Manipuri militants. The Indian politicians felt elated at the ‘heroic deed’ of the Indian Army. It is learnt from the (…)

The following statement was issued by the country’s four leading intellectuals on the proposed changes in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library bears the name of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), a political leader, intellectual, lawyer, thinker and author who became India’s first Prime Minister. Beyond that, and the observance of his anniversaries, the NMML (or Teen Murti, as it is popularly known) is unconnected with the perpetuation of his name or (…)

EDITORIAL
While secular democracy is at stake under the Narendra Modi dispensation with countrywide rise in parochial communal violence spearheaded by the Hindu extremists on the one side and Muslim fundamentalists on the other, the largest circulated national newspaper in the Capital has reported today that the ongoing war on dengue (which has taken a toll of 15 lives in Delhi so far following the death of yet another child) has been crippled due to a 66 per cent drop in funds in the last (…)

The world observed last month the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the final stage of the Second World War, on August 6, 1945, the first nuclear device was detonated by the American military on Hiroshima. Several thousand people died on the spot and lakhs perished subsequently. A few days later, Nagasaki, another bustling Japanese city, was also bombed with a nuclear missile and a similar catastrophic outcome followed. Meetings held (…)

TRIBUTE
I first met Ramaswami Iyer as the husband of Suhasini Iyer—Suhasini was deeply admired and loved by a Cambridge graduate called Foy Nissen who later was in charge of the British Council Library in Mumbai. He insisted that we meet her and of course, typical of Suhasini, we were cherished and fed and our bonding began.
But the real intertwining between my family and the Ramaswami Iyers began when my husband, L.C. Jain, belonged to a special committee set up by the Planning (…)

The Government of India (GoI) finally announced its version of One-Rank-One-Pension (OROP) for military Veterans. This was welcomed only in part by the Veterans, because there were important sticking points which were not included or inadequately included in the announcement. Fortunately, the Veterans who were on fast-unto-death were persuaded to end their fast, but the Veterans’ resolve to remain on protest until the outstanding points were settled to their satisfaction, resulted in (…)