2015

COMMUNICATION
PM Narendra Modi said in Jammu on July 17, 2015 that there is no untouchability in politics. He was referring to coalitions with different parties at various point of time. But untouchability is very much alive in the society. Nobody does anything to fight the evil.
Is untouchability acceptable in the social sphere then? If Modi really wants to bring in good days and change in the country, and if he is sincere to strengthen the country, he should keep removal of social (…)

EDITORIAL
As one watches the Opposition blockade of Parliament for three successive days demanding that the External Affairs Minister and the CMs of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh first tender their resignations from the posts they are currently holding as a prelude to a thorough investigation into the scams relating to Lalitgate and Vyapam before any worthwhile discussion on the issues involved can be held, one cannot but refer to the prognosis made in these columns precisely a fortnight (…)

TRIBUTE
One can’t see memorial lectures in his honour, nor medallions at convocations in schools of journalism. Some would say he wasted his life. He was not a celebrity. And most young contract workers in the print and electronic media of today would perhaps have not even heard of Pradyot Lal who died earlier in July. But one has to be careful that a requiem to him does not become a dirge on the death of honest, critical, romantic journalism where truth still matters and the ordinary (…)

by Manjula Lal
The following is a piece written for Mainstream after journalist Pradyot Lal’s sudden demise by his wife, also a well-known journalist who is a Consulting Editor of Tehelka.
Can the state of a nation be seen through the prism of an individual’s life? Or, to put it more bluntly, can a philosophical postmortem pinpoint socio-economic causes for an untimely death? It may seem a bit presumptuous, especially since Delh-based Pradyot Lal, 58, was no leading light in his chosen (…)

COMMUNICATION
Serious concern was expressed recently by the judiciary at the serious health problems faced by political prisoners like Kobad Ghandy and G.N. Saibaba. First court orders were given for ending numerous harassments caused to Kobad Ghandy (who suffers from several ailments) in Tihar Jail which were leading to steady deterioration in his health. Later on June 10, the Bombay High Court issued notice to the State Government of Maharashtra and sought a report on the deteriorating (…)

The Islamic State (IS) has created a support base in Iraq and Syria. When its fighters get bombed and ousted from one place, they appear in another, as happened in April when their fighters were driven out of the city of Tikrit in Iraq, to appear in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp on the putskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and again when they were ousted from the city of Ramadi in Iraq, on May 15, they appeared five days later to seize Palmyra, in Syria.
The total strength of (…)

by R.G. Gidadhubli
Cooperation and coordination to deal with threats of terrorism and extremism, especially from the rapid rise of the Islamic State (IS), have been discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the leaders of the five Central Asian countries during his visit to those states in the second week of July 2015. Moreover, at the SCO Summit, held in the Russian city of Ufa, the issue of growing threats of terrorism was also discussed.
In view of this it is necessary to (…)

by V. Krishna Moorthy
Introduction: The History
Ancient Greece, the birthplace of Western civilisation since about 2500 years ago, is known for its achievements in Philosophy, Sciences, Arts and Government. The Geek civilisation developed chiefly in City-States. They were fiercely independent and in constant rivalry with one another. The citizens were highly patriotic, took part in public affairs and established the world’s first democratic govern-ments. A common language, religion and (…)

IMPRESSIONS
One of the misfortunes of our country is that everything is reduced to Congress vs BJP. This is because everything is political in nature, whether it is getting admission to a kindergarten, encashing a pension entitlement, getting into a sports team or getting out of a traffic accident you have caused. All activities revolve round recommendations, political interference, wire-pulling and bribes. If the Congress does not blame the BJP for this year’s erratic monsoon, it will be (…)

The enterprise of the post-Independence nation-building in India was given a short shrift right after 1991 with Manmohan Singh changing the essentials of the Nehruvian model of nation-building. The only residual element of the post-independence agenda, which though taken by the Congress party, was secularism in 2004 after a full-blown regime of soft Hindutva under Rajiv Gandhi, who initiated also the early phase of the globalisation-liberalisation move. From 1985 to 2014, about 30 years of (…)