2016

India’s September 29 cross-LoC strike was conducted professionally, as expected of the apolitical Army of the Indian Republic. Pakistan‘s predictable response is denial of it ever having happened. It could have been left at that, but the government and the Opposition (such as it is), encouraged by TRP-hungry TV channels, provoking certain publicity-hungry military veterans, have been using the apolitical Army’s professionalism to make political or personal capital out of the success of the (…)

Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz has said that there is no room for improvement in relations between India and Pakistan so long as Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India. This is the most undemocratic and anti-people remark any person could have made. That it comes from a top Pakistan official is all the more disappointing and deplorable.
Modi is a duly elected Prime Minister and he and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were voted to power in open, fair elections. (…)

The Indian Government, after the surgical strikes on September 29, 2016, the details of which have not been made very clear, in response to the Uri attack on September 18, appears to be in a complacent mood as a result of something which it deems to be an accomplishment. This is similar to the nuclear tests conducted on May 11, 1998. Even then some BJP leaders indulged in chest-thumping; some were issuing warnings and threats to Pakistan. But before the end of that month, Pakistan too (…)

IMPRESSIONS
There is no end to books coming out on India. On Narendra Modi alone there are already more than a dozen. Expect more. Obviously the market is good even if some books say nothing a la P.V. Narasimha Rao’s two “autobiographies”. Journalists, fabled as composers of “the first draft of history”, often tend to take sides. When they don’t, some worthwhile books come out such as Inder Malhotra’s biography of Indira Gandhi. Into this category falls India Rising: Fresh Hopes, New Fears (…)

by Varghese P.J.
From time immemorial Onam has been celebrated for a particular period of time as an agricultural festival based on a common belief of Mahabali’s reign which provided welfare of all irrespective of caste, religion and other class divisions. As for the people of Kerala the only hero during Onam is an Asura king popularly known as Maveli. Hence Onam is considered as a popular festival of the region for all the religions, not a Hindu festival. It has been believed for myriads (…)

The pseudo-nationalists have made Kashmir an issue of nationalism in Karnataka. If indivi-duals or groups meet together to discuss or debate on Kashmir or screen a documentary about Kashmir, it is termed an anti-national act. In the month of August at a meeting held at an important city college, I was requested to preside over a panel, consisting of two Professors—one from the University of Bangalore and another from a Centrally-funded university—a Kashmiri journalist working in Bangalore (…)

by Mohammad Nurul Hassan
The gunning down of two persons by the Assam Police in the protest march against the eviction drive in Kaziranga is a serious matter for marginal communities across the globe. Being one of the marginalised groups, Muslims in Assam have been facing different levels of humiliation as well as atrocities at regular intervals. It started with the killing and harass-ment in the post-partition riots, during the Assam Movement and even in the post-Assam Movement era, for (…)

In early October, an international donors’ conference hosted by the European Union (EU) in Brussels declared a US $ 15. 2 billion aid package for Afghanistan to run till 2020, almost at par with the quantum of such funding provided so far. “A remarkabl(y) impressive amount,” said the EU in a self-congratulatory statement.
But the munificence of the EU went far beyond the adorable global will to continue to help Afghanistan stand on its feet. For, this truly impressive package is actually a (…)

Sunlight slanting through the branches
fell on a dead body lying
beneath the roadside tree;
unshaven face, sunken eye sockets,
tattered clothes covering a skeleton
of hunger, neglect, deprivation.
The onlookers stopped awhile,
gathered at the site,
cast a curious glance, then went away.
Nothing surprising,
such scenes not unusual;
soon it faded from the collective memory.
But suddenly there was a commotion.
A rumour was afloat:
the dead man might be a Dalit.
Queries started (…)

COMMUNICATION
In the perception of most people socialism is identified with a system based on economic equality and a path of planned economic development to ensure this equality.
This basic principle of equality should get very wide support. In fact we start with this basic precept.
However, one problem is that some who started with this basic principle moved away from it at the practical level because they did not have a proper understanding of what constitutes progress and (…)