2015

In the eleven months that the Delhi University’s teacher-activist Dr G.N. Saibaba has been incarcerated, under the UAPA provisions, in the Nagpur Central Jail, he has been subjected to barbaric treatment by the jail authorities and Maharashtra Police. Dr Saibaba’s acute physical disability and life-threatening conditions have been disregarded and he has been denied basic facilities including toilet facilities and helper, prescribed nutrients and medicines necessary for his survival. He is 90 (…)

by Navneet Sharma, Pradeep Nair and Harikrishnan B.
Cow is a national animal. Cow is our mother. Cow is a useful domestic animal. Cow has four legs, two eyes, one mouth and one tail. Cow gives us milk.... cow has a calf that grows into Sanjay Gandhi.
Excerpts from the essay written on The Cow by a class 5 student in 1976. Source: Verbal testimony of a teacher educator
The ‘image’ and imageries are very important in electoral democratic politics. The above essay reflects how Mrs Gandhi (…)

by Sanjay Mishra
This article, which reached us in March, could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. Its contents, however, are still valid even though a bitter struggle has lately broken out within the AAP. It is thus being published for the benefit of our readers.
Sixtyseven seats in an Assembly of 70 seats, with a vote percentage of 54.3 per cent and an average victory margin of about 28,000, almost three times the 2013 average!1 Even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had not (…)

by Shatakshi Bhargava
South Asia, as a region, has always been a victim of political instability and economic disequilibrium. It is not hidden that political and economic affairs are interlinked amongst states. Nonetheless, the states have together contributed to regional development, India being the major contributor. Hence, not from now but decades, India has been tagged as a regional hegemon. It implies the influential behaviour of a state (in this case, India), the regional hegemon, (…)

EDITORIAL
While PM Narendra Modi is abroad visiting France, Germany and Canada trying to woo foreign investors and engaging in deals like the one on purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft he has struck in France (thereby detracting from his “Make in India” initiative), the so-called ‘fringe elements’ of the Sangh Parivar (who actually consitute the core of the saffron brigade) continue to harp on their divisive agenda thus reinforcing religious intolerance and endangering social cohesion. (…)

Religious sensitivity has deepened since the advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime. Even though he has underlined the principle of sarva dharma samabhava, parochialism has shown its ugly face in one field or the other. The judiciary is the only institution that has been above the taint. Nonetheless, the outburst of Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph shows the pent-up feelings of a justice belonging to the minority community.
There can be no exception to what he has said: “Our (…)

Prime Minister Modi’s gratuitous diatribe of the judiciary being influenced by five-star social activists was a cheap joke which brought down the prestige of the biggest political office of the country. And to make this observation at the Chief Justices Conference, attended by the Chief Ministers of States, was an uncalled for jibe at the judiciary and a dangerously provocative example, if allowed to be followed by the Chief Ministers.
The remark shows ignorance of the kernel philosophy of (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Forget the beef ban and the Good Friday controversy in the Supreme Court. More important is the fact that we seem to have reached a stage where we cannot debate issues like water and air pollution, forests and wild life, the death of rivers and the enormity of pesticide abuse that is killing citizens in tens of thousands. We cannot discuss them because discussion means criticism as well—and we have a new India where criticism is considered “anti-development”.
Which Indian in (…)

If Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi were alive, we could have asked him how the French get around authoritarian rulers and tin-pot dictators from the developing countries who carry fat cheque books in their pockets while travelling abroad. As the dreamy picture in The Hindu newspaper immortalises the moment for historians of Indian diplomacy, the French leadership went the whole hog to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit memorable.
The entire leadership—President, Prime Minister, Foreign (…)

by Hamid Habibullah
Egypt’s procurement of the muilti-role combat aircraft Rafale from the Dassault Aviation of France had been actually financed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which have been known for long to be Egypt’s sponsors in West Asia. With the recent payments made by the Saudis for French weapons supplied to Lebanon and Egypt, Riyadh has sought to kill two birds with one stone: It strengthens the Saudi influence on regional players while getting an opportunity to make an impact on (…)