2015

From N.C.’s Writings
An ordeal by fire is not necessarily the best moment to expect a chastened mood in a nation. The upheaval through which New Delhi has just passed could hardly be expected to restore immediately the balance needed for a sternly objective appraisal of the six stormy weeks that preceded the Cease Fire in the early hours of September 23.
For New Delhi as for the entire country, it was an overwhelming experience, the trials and tribulations as also the emotional stresses (…)

As the nation observers the fiftieth anniversary of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, we reproduce the following piece that appeared in the Annual Number of Mainstream (which came out in September 1965).
by Pannalal Dasgupta
Almost immediately after I set foot in Srinagar on August 30, I got the chance of attending a public meeting in a hall. The meeting was organised by the traders and houseboat associations over the situation created by Pakistani aggression, which has badly hit the (…)

by Farrukh Khan Pitafi
The following article appeared in the well-known Pakistani publication, Dawn, and was then carried in Scroll.in from where it is being reproduced here, with due acknowledgement, for the benefit of our readers.
The National Security Advisors’ meet fiasco has led to some graver questions.
• Are both sides losing control to the hardliners?
• Are they even aware of the consequences of their actions?
• Is there any reset button to undo the damage done?
It is my (…)

by Rob Sewell
The following article appeared on September 12, 2015 in Marxist.Com from where it is being reproduced, with due acknowledgement, for the benefit of our readers.
ELECTION RESULT:
Jeremy Corbyn: 251,417—59.5 per cent
Andy Burnham: 80,462—19 per cent
Yvette Cooper: 71,928—17 per cent
Liz Kendall: 18,857—4.5 per cent
This astonishing victory of Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour Party represents a political earthquake of monumental proportions. It has turned (…)

by Arun Srivastava
The announcement of elections to the Bihar Assembly has not brought any significant change in the electoral battle but by the time voters finally elect their representatives, the rural Bihar would be witnessing the worst kind of social strife. With the electoral battle turning out to be crucial for survival for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it is obvious that muscle power would fly high.
It has been quite clear from the beginning (…)

Understandably, there is a sense of horror over the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s decision to ‘modernise’ the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum at Teen Murti in New Delhi. The BJP spokesman has explained that the present museum tells only the Nehru side of national struggle for independence, not the entire story.
Ironically, the persons to put forward the demand are those who did not contribute even a bit to the national movement. Their role, if any, helped the British rulers.
What the BJP (…)

The uniqueness of the 21st century is that the most crucial issues of sustaining human life and innumerable other species are likely to be decided within this century.
Within the 21st century it is likely that the most critical time for decision-taking is here and now. The present generation and possibly the next one have to implement the most important decisions for the survival of most of the life-forms on earth.
Life in various forms has existed on earth for hundreds of millions of (…)

by Suresh Jnaneswaran
Listening is a virtue that comrades should assiduously cultivate. The distinction between listening and hearing has been pithily characte-rised by Roland Barthes as, “Hearing is a physiological phenomenon; listening is a psychological act”. Is listening to the petite bourgeois or non-card holder anathematic to the comrades self-esteem? Should an oracular posture of infallibility run them down over the Indian subcontinental landscape?
Change is the essence of history (…)

The recent car-and-truck bomb attacks in Kabul, killing several, and the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani’s demand that Pakistan crack down on the Taliban, appear to have ended the prospects of peace in that country generated by the July meeting between an Afghan Govern-ment delegation and senior leaders of Taliban insurgency in Murree in Pakistan. By holding that meeting, the Afghan President had taken steps to improve relations with Pakistan, whose influence he hoped would sway the Taliban. (…)

by Hasan Hamidullah
The last SCO summit, which took place in Ufa (Russia) on July 9 and 10, was held in a highly deteriorating international situation, the worst of its kind since the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001. The results of the agreements, concluded and signed at Ufa, testified to the major role the Organisation has been playing as a multilateral platform intended to discuss the most burning questions concerning the global political and economic (…)