2015

by M.C. Pindwal
The recent statement of the former Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to the Centreal Bureau of Investigation, the premier investigation agency of the Central Government, that he had many other issues to worry about when he was holding additional charge of the Coal Ministry, is aimed at blaming the then Coal Secretary, P.C. Parekh, for failing to brief him properly. This is not tenable as the file speaks volumes in this regard; therein it was suggested to sell the coal (…)

The Union Government (as well as the Opposition in Parliament) totally forgot the historic significance of December 1 this year: the centenary of the first Independent Government of India—Hukumat-e-Azad Hind—set up in Kabul.
On December 1, 1915 this government was formed with Raja Mahendra Pratap as its President. Many years later the responsibility of this government was passed on to Rashbehari Bose and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Japan. Netaji was the second President of the (…)

Veteran Communist leader Vidyadhar Laxman Deshpande alias Bani Deshpande, 88, passed away in Mumbai after a brief illness on December 4, 2015. He is survived by his wife, Roza Deshpande, a former MP from Mumbai, a son and a daughter.
Suffering from lung infection, he was being treated for some days at the Dhanwantari Hospital in Dadar.
While studying at Nagpur he joined the All India Students Federation and then the Communist Party of India.
In his book, Universe of Vedanta, Bani (…)

EDITORIAL
The most significant of the political developments of the last few days was captured by The Indian Express headline of December 7: “India, Pakistan break the ice off camera in Bangkok”—a reference to the meetings between India’s National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, and his Pakistani counterpart, Nasir Khan Janjua, as also Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary, that took place the previous day in the Thai capital, Bangkok, far from (…)

Suddenly there was summer. A chance 160-second meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif has melted the ice, which seemed frozen beyond change. The about-turn indicates that the differences have been exaggerated. The ego, which is probably the real reason, needs to be tackled.
India was stuck on the stand that it would not talk anything else except terrorism as was the crux of the joint statement issued after their meeting at Ufa, Russia. Pakistan saw no purpose in (…)

Having lived and worked as a diplomat in the ‘Soviet space’ and in Turkey for over a decade of the best years of my life, the current tensions playing out between these two historical rivals present an engrossing case-study where terrorism mixes with good-neighbourly relations and make a heady brew — especially since I also devoted nearly a decade of my professional career to the India-Pakistan relationship with which strong similarities exist.
For a start, what are these similarities? (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Western powers have pooled their formi-dable military resources to punish ISIS for its terrorism. But they may not succeed because they are themselves the Frankensteins who produced the monster through the agency of Saudi Arabia. The founders of the Saudi dynasty began it all with policies of unspeakable cruelty justified in the name of religion. In the imperial games and oil politics that developed subse-quently, Saudi Arabia became—and continues to be—an ally of the West and (…)

by Mathew Varghese
Award wapsi has suddenly become fashionable among the writers and artists. The number is growing steadily. There is so much intolerance how can we be silent?—is the rhetoric. Don’t you call it a rhetoric! It is a rational and logical way to protest against the intolerance in society. But why now? You gladly took it because it was the previous government and now that the government has changed you are finding an excuse to embarrass the government.
But my concerns are (…)

by Arun Srivastava
In globalised India, the Left appears to be in a state of inertia; losing initiative and ideological mooring. With the state abandoning its responsibility towards the people, its inclusive growth and empowerment, the Left forces, the CPI-M, CPI, and others, have lost the will to intervene and organise the poor. On the plea of introducing reforms and promoting rapid economic growth, the ruling classes have adopted the strategy of refashioning the role of the state and (…)

by Sudhanshu Tripathi
The stunning victory of the “Mahagathbandhan” in Bihar has left the main Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, shell-shocked, which will have to review its strategy that failed to convince the electorate. Indeed, it is high time to ponder as to what can be the fate of democracy in India and how can the country present itself in the comity of nations as a modern, liberal and progressive society as well as polity.
Although the results of Bihar Assembly (…)