2015

by Aijaz Ashraf Wani and Mehrag Ud Din Bhat
Over the last few months a lot of political noise has been made over the issue of return of Kashmiri Pandits to their native land. However, instead of dealing with the issue from a humanistic perspective, it has been used, as has been the case most of the time, for political rabble-rousing and drawing cheap political mileage out of it. It needs to be mentioned that the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley is a very sensitive issue, both (…)

MUSINGS
Yoga is a great form of exercise. So is walking, swimming, jogging and even classical dancing. Can the government make all these compulsory in our daily lives ...in schools, colleges or offices?
Don’t compel, don’t utter compulsory, for the minute you do so you are destroying and denting the very concept of acceptance.
Let yoga stand out in its natural form, with all its hues intact. Don’t thrust and force it on the hapless masses. Don’t use it as a means to divide and (…)

by Duryodhan Nahak
In modern times, the term confidence building measures (CBMs), assumes significance in the study of international politics. In a conflict-ridden world with growing discontent against the use of lethal, chemical and nuclear weapons, the CBMs seem to be only alternative in the hands of sovereign nation-states in general and India and Pakistan in particular through which peace and stability can be achieved in the world. Despite the history of protracted conflict and bitter (…)

by Namrata Singh
Due to changes in the climate in the past decades, interest in ecological changes and conservation has arisen in all academic disciplines.This is true for the discipline of History as well. E.H. Carr has defined history as a dialogue of the present with its past. This means that contemporary issues are sought to be understood in the context of the past. By doing so, certain historians, as pointed out by Beverley Southgate, write history, to provide examples from the past. (…)

TRIBUTE
On June 2, 2013, Jagjit Singh Anand completed 50 years as the editor of the Punjabi daily Nawan Zamana, published from Jalandhar. Perhaps few have achieved this feat. Two years later, on June 19, 2015, Anand passed away as the editor of the publication at the age of 93 years plus.
Anand was born on December 28, 1921 in a well-known family of that time in district Amritsar. His father, Headmaster Mehtab Singh, was a well-known Sikh scholar. His elder brother, Pritam Singh Safeer, (…)

by Vinay Kaura
“God has placed us in a position in which we are prevented by our neighbours from slipping into dullness and inertia.” Had these words not been spoken by the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in the Reichstag in 1888, they could well have been spoken by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015. Having spent one year in office, Modi may have realised that his government’s Pakistan policy has not been a success story: it has failed to achieve anything substantial in (…)

by Ramakrushna Pradhan
This July visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Central Asia is of paramount importance for both regions because of several reasons: the first is to give India a substantial footprint on the hydrocarbon map of the region; to check and counter Pakistan’s strident Islamist agenda against India; to keep a tab on drug trafficking and potential weapon proliferation in this region; to promote India’s interests in the commercial arena and to garner support for the country’s (…)

Vyapam
That you can smile and smilw and be a villain (Hamlet)
People die all the time; it is The way of all flesh. So what does it matter how they Died, or continue to die. Such silly things cannot possibly Occupy the attention of the highest In the government, not to speak Of the routine little corruptions That may have informed some Murderous intent. What is of Greater danger to the country Is the sad fact that the media Should suddenly become so Vociferous a participant in An (…)

EDITORIAL
Whether it was a broad hint or an unambiguous message, BJP patriarch L.K.Advani’s recollection of what he himself had done when his name cropped up in the Jain-hawala scam was sufficient indication that he desired the party leaders occupying major constitutional posts—notably those of External Affairs Minister (Sushma Swaraj) and Rajasthan Chief Minister (Vasundhara Raje)—to quit their respective offices until their names were cleared of charges of serious ethical impropriety. (…)

All along we have been under the impression that what makes the Bharatiya Janata Party a party with a difference is its ideological commitment to Hindu nationalism. Turns out this is only one part of its USP. A second and potentially equally consequential feature, especially noteworthy now that the party occupies state power, is its ability to filibuster any sort of fact out of existence. And without the least embarrassment.
Arguably, of course, the two specialities are closely linked in (…)