2015

by Arun Srivastava
After strangulating the move for the unified Janata Parivar, the RJD chief, Laloo Prasad, is on the mission to downsize Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Laloo is more virulent in his attack on Nitish than his political rivals from the BJP. The intensity and nature of Laloo’s diatribe could be made out from the simple retort of Nitish that nobody could force him to do anything. Coming from Nitish this has wider implications; to which nature of compromise was Nitish (…)

With the passing of the twoBills—the Karnataka Ministers Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pensions and allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2015—on March 30, 2015 without any debate, the legislators of Karnataka have become the richest legislators of the country. The voting was unanimous in a House that was deeply polarised after the controversy of the suicide of an IAS officer, D. K. Ravi, and the illegal denotification of the Arkavathi layout (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Twentysix years ago, N.C. had left for China when the Tiananmen bloodbath took place on June 4, 1989. Apart from his despatches which appeared in The Times of India on the tragedy that befell that great country at that time, he also wrote this detailed piece which was published in Mainstream (June 17, 1989). This was an enlarged version of an article in The Times of India (June 12, 1989).
The contours of the emerging set-up in China are still very blurred as the (…)

COMMUNICATION
We are really proud of the most distinctive features of our country, that is, it is the largest parliamentary democracy of the world, the abode of the highly precious national composite culture—or Ganga-Jamni culture—based on the principle of unity in diversity and having a secular Constitution which is not irreligious but respects all religions and gives every citizen full religious freedom. But alas, since May 26, 2014 when the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi came (…)

COMMUNICATION
The CCTAD notes with concern and condemns the repeated attacks on Dr Nandita Narain, the President of the DUTA, by the DU authorities and St. Stephens College. The attempt is to weaken the democratic body of the Delhi University teachers, the DUTA, by obstructing its functioning. The latest attempt to initiate proceedings against her by the Principal, St. Stephens College only shows how the DU authorities and College together are gravely undermining the democratic right of (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Many a social and political processes related to projection of some icons and undermining of the others have intensified during the last few years. Even during the last regime of the NDA- led BJP rule from 1998, Savakar’s portrait was unveiled in Parliament. At one level the game of undermining some icons and projecting other icons is a part of various political streams and the RSS seems to be the past master in the same. One recalls its machinery has been putting forward (…)

Dr Aaron Friedberg (Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University) was awarded the Professor M.L. Sondhi Prize for International Politics for 2013 on May 5, 2015 at New Delhi Habitat’s Gulmohar Hall; this is a prize annually awarded by the Professor M.L. Sondhi Memorial Trust and the M.L. Sondhi Institute for Asia-Pacific Affairs.
Trustees Lalit Mansingh and Madhuri Santanam Sondhi honoured him with a shawl, and presented him with an inscribed plaque and cheque (…)

EDITORIAL
The Narendra Modi Government completed one year in office on May 26, that is, last Tuesday. How has the country fared in the last one year?—that is the biggest question in the people’s mind now. As far as the middle class is concerned, there are sharp differences of opinion on the achievements of the Modi dispensation in the year that has gone by. This is clear from The Times of India’s poll on various issues that appeared in the newspaper on May 26. On the front page the second (…)

Introduction
The NDA Government, that is completing one year, started with tall promises during election rallies as well as in its manifesto. It is time to assess whether the government has been able to deliver on its promises in the past one year. Of course, one should not expect all the promises to be fulfilled within one year but the media blitzkrieg by the government is forcing analysts to assess the performance. In its manifesto, the BJP promised ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’. The (…)

by S. Sudhakar Reddy
The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government, as it completes its first year of rule on May 26, 2015, has to its credit an unprecedented ignominious record of being anti-people, anti-working class and anti-farmer while at the same time being pro-corporate and pro-rich. Also to its credit goes a year of misrule with all attempts being made to divide the people over caste, religion and region along with sinister moves to turn back the clock of (…)