2015

The level of interest in Beijing on the developments in Yemen is apparently very high. This is only to be expected, arguably, considering that China depends on the Gulf countries for half of all its crude oil imports, apart from having wide-ranging relationships with the countries of the region, which have been steadily expanding and deepening. The ‘Road and Belt’ initiative gives an added strategic dimension insofar as the Silk Route passes through the Red Sea.
Indeed, China will be (…)

EDITORIAL
There are enough flip-flops in the Union Government’s approach to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill. While it is determined to push the legislation through even by calling a joint session of both Houses of Parliament, as conveyed by the PM himself, other Ministers like M. Venkaiah Naidu holding the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio are still trying to appease the Opposition as also dissidents within the ruling NDA coalition by stating that they were open to considering any (…)

One of the most famous lines on the official All India Radio news bulletins during communal disturbances used to be ‘Sthiti tanavpurn lekin niyantran me hain (the situation is tense but under control)’ and police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in the ‘sensitive’ areas. It was well known to us as what ‘samvedansheel kshetra’ or ‘sensitive areas’ meant. Most of these ‘sensitive areas’ were the Muslim localities in the walled cities, almost ghettoised in the aftermath of each ‘riot’ (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The menace of communalism looms large in this country today perhaps more than at any time before. With all the dire warnings being sounded repeatedly against the danger of destabilisation, the government so far has done very little to halt the advance of vicious communal hatred leading to orgies of violence in different parts of the country. It is amazing that while the Prime Minister concedes that there has been a deterioration in the communal situation—as he did at (…)

The new BJP Government has placed its first complete Budget before Parliament. It shows great hope. The Finance Minister has anticipated a growth rate of 8.5 per cent. The Economist of February 21-27 has an editorial on the subject with the title “India’s chance to Fly”. The editorial has suggested reforms in three areas: Land, Labour and Power. These areas are crucial but one may not agree entirely with the direction of changes suggested.
The editorial recommends that the acquisition of (…)

Our neighbouring countries are getting curiouser and curiouser. Pakistan is determined to free Zia-ur Rahman Lakhvi who had masterminded the Mumbai attack in 2008 when some 165 people were killed at Hotel Taj through the sea, near the Gateway of India. The court has released him due to lack of evidence. This is despite the clinching proof that India has provided against him.
Either Pakistan is whetting the evidence that New Delhi provides or the judge hearing the case has been under (…)

by Navneet Sharma, Pradeep Nair and Harikrishnan B.
“Ancient Sanskrit literature is full of descriptions of flying machines — Vimanas.... [T]he scientist sages Agastya and Bharadwaja had developed the lore of aircraft construction. Aeronautics or Vaimaanika Shastra is a part of Yantra Sarvasva of Bharadwaja. This is also known as Brihadvimaana Shastra...The knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in 100 sections, eight chapters, 500 principles and 3000 slokas. Great sage (…)

by Ayan Guha
Politics of West Bengal is going through a transition. The Left seems to be on a road to steady decline while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking poised to take on the role of the principal Opposition to the Trinamul Congress (TMC). There are already enough signs that indicate that the organised domain of politics has at last started to cede space to the BJP in West Bengal.
The rise of the BJP as a credible political force apparently challenges the general notion (…)

IMPRESSIONS
At the Aero India show in Bangalore, Narendra Modi made a statement that could well be a national motto. Said he: “I don’t want India to be No. 1 in the import of defence equipment... We should export.” This is an epiphany that took some six decades to come to our leaders. Import of fighter planes, submarines and field guns meant not only big money going to foreign companies, but also dependence on those companies in a military emergency. India, a leader in space technology and (…)

There is a joke doing the rounds, on failure of the pillars of the Constitution. Gandhiji in heaven asks Chitragupta as to how the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) are doing in India. Chitragupta replies that all three are doing well—andha bandar kanoon ban gaya; behera bandar sarkar ban gaya; aur goonga bandar vidhayak ban gaya. The desperate helplessness and frustration of people in political jokes precedes anarchic violence.
The recent untimely death of IAS (…)