2015

From N.C.’s Writings
Meaning of Mujib
When Dacca, in the grip of an unprecedented mass upsurge on the triumphant home coming of Bangabandhu, heard lakhs of voices spontaneously calling for “Joi Indira Gandhi”, it was not only an expression of well-deserved personal tribute to the Prime Minister of India for all that she has done for the libertion of Bangladesh and for the freedom of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was much more significant: a memorable landmark in India’s contribution towards (…)

by Vinay Kaura
China’s support to India’s quest for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) remains a distant dream. There was no grand gesture from China on India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UNSC during the just-concluded three-day China visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Due to its zero-sum intransigence, Beijing has again shut a window of opportunity to reach out to those in India who harbour deep suspicions, real or perceived, of China’s geopolitical (…)

Heads of institutions are not generally assailed. The idea behind such thinking is that the criticism may harm the institutions, which are essential for the sustenance of democratic polity. Germane to this idea is the presidency. Therefore, the President is spared even when he or she crosses the line that the office delineates. Because of this consideration, President Pranab Mukherjee has escaped censure even when a person at an equally high office has been crucified. This does not, however, (…)

by Chitralekha Zutshi
I recently spent a week in Lahore. This was my first trip to the city and indeed also to Pakistan. As I crossed over the Wagah border from Amritsar into Lahore, I had no idea what to expect. A few weeks before the crossing, I had attended the flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah, which is usually how Indians usually interact, if at all, with this border. After having experie-nced this overly histrionic nationalist ceremony that included the requisite amount of (…)

The sub-title certainly describes the motor traffic road rules, but some may say that it could also speak for ordinary people who are denied their constitutional rights of justice, liberty and equality. We therefore need to state what is meant by “Left” and “Right” in the Indian context.
“Left” has come to mean the socialist and communist political parties and organisations which adopt ideology according to Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, etc., interpreted variously. Left-wing political entities (…)

Kautilya, the 4th century BC philosopher- statesman, in his magnum opus Arthashastra, had observed that ‘A King with depleted Treasury eats into the very vitality of the citizens and the country’. The UPA Government, by the time it was thrown out of power, left an empty treasury due to its reckless financial policies, with the economy in shambles. Is the new government, which came to power in May 2014, following a policy of fiscal rectitude, containing unbridled public expenditure and (…)

by Suparna Sanyal Mukherjee
The East India Company, owned by the British monarch, took charge of India in 1760. India was a large field of trade initially and subsequently exploitation. The rich flora and fauna amalgamated with natural resources was a synergy which the shrewd British administrators realised. India is adorned with all kinds of geographical definitions. Being the largest peninsula, it houses mountains, plateaus, estuaries, rivers and forests.
The Indian forests with their (…)

All the rallies and media hype to glorify the one year of the Modi regime cannot hide the bitter truth about the growing seriousness of the country’s problems and the directionless, unplanned, corporate-led growth likely to devastate environment and livelihoods based on jal, jangal, zameen (land, water and forests). In this context clearly there is an ever-growing need for Left unity. However, this unity will be able to serve the people and nation only if it is based on reappraisal of past (…)

by Hasan Hamidullah
Destabilisation of Turkmenistan’s security is in the interests of three major players in the region—the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Even if those countries have their own goals independent of how those goals would affect India’s interests (except in the case of Pakistan), their policies, amalgamated into a unified policy-perspective, can ruin the idea of sustainable supplies of energy resources to India from the Central Asian states and additionally prevent New (…)

EDITORIAL
Twenty soldiers were killed and over a dozen sustained injuries in a clinically executed ambush in Manipur’s Chandel district last morning (June 4). This was the deadliest terror attack on Army personnel in the last 33 years in the region. A new outfit, the United Liberation Front of Western South-East Asia, is learnt to have claimed responsibility for the attack.
With this ambush by the militants, the spotlight has returned on violence in the North-East. According to PM (…)