2016

A debate is going on in the Left circles in India whether fascism, or ‘communal fascism’, has arrived; whether the BJP rule is fascist rule or authoritarian rule; whether the BJP is a fascist party or a party with a ‘semi-fascist’ ideology. One of those Left intellectuals who contend that fascism has not arrived in India is Prakash Karat, former General Secretary of the CPI-M (whose article was reproduced in Mainstream’s last, September 24, 2016, issue). He quotes Dimitrov to say that the (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
One of my eaerliest reporting experiences was the great Calcutta killing of 1946. Fierce communal passions were unleashed and thousands were done to death on both sides in the course of a couple of days. But behind that gory carnage was the fight for the city of Calcutta: who should get it? Pakistan or India? Religious beliefs are made use of to rouse mass anger among innocent people, but those who whip up such passions do so only for political gains.
In our (…)

BOOK REVIEW
After the Fall: Sri Lanka in Victory and War by Mohan K. Tikku; Oxford University Press, New Delhi; 2016; pages 308; Price: Rs 650.
Considering the relative geopolitical insigni-ficance of Sri Lanka in the comity of nations, this beautiful island nation’s continuing ability to attract sustained international attention is quite remarkable. As many as seven years have passed since the end of the 26-year-old brutal civil war. But scholarly studies and journalistic writings on (…)

EDITORIAL
Fiftyone years ago, in September 1965, Pakistan had gone to war with India with the purpose of annexing the Kashmir Valley by force. This happened barely sixteen months after the demise of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who not only defended the unity and integrity of this nation, including Kashmir, with rare foresight but also worked indefatigably to reinforce the democratic principles which constituted the bedrock of our independence and Constitution. In the Annual (…)

by V. Bijukumar
Politics in Arunachal Pradesh assumed a new turn in the context of the mass migration of Congress MLAs, including its Chief Minister Prema Khandu, to the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), a regional outfit set up with the support of the BJP. When 43 Congress MLAs joined the regional party, the Congress strength in the Assembly was reduced to one as the former Chief Minister, Nabam Tuki, remained the lone Congress MLA. In the 60-member State Assembly, whose current strength (…)

by L.K. Sharma
Pakistan and India are engaged in a war of words at the highest level. Unusually provo-cative statements have been made by the two Prime Ministers. The area of contest and conflict has been widened. The TV channels in the two countries beat the war drums every night.
Pakistan queered the pitch when it saw India failing to deal with the Kashmiris protesting against the killing of a terrorist. Pakistan’s Prime Minister dedicated his nation’s Independence Day to Kashmir’s (…)

The way to you-know-where, they say, is paved with good intentions. After the results of the last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were in hand, it seemed a logical assumption to the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that joining with the BJP would yield a secular bond between the two major parts of the State and that aligning with the Narendra Modi-led Central Government could produce bold initiatives vis-a-vis the contention with Pakistan. Modi, it could be argued, is more an RSS Prime (…)

by Mustafa Khan
The Kashmir problem cannot be addressed unless you address Pakistan, says Dr Madhav Godbole.1 The Kashmir problem is a quandary but new grounds seem to be broken. Sitaram Yechury, who called on Geelani but could not meet him, said that Pakistan should be included in any dialogue on Kashmir. It went unnoticed by the BJP and even the Congress. Geelani called Pakistan a friend and well-wisher. Either the public opinion is not educated enough to know the delicate situation or (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
In the brochures and posters of Indian tourism, Kashmir still figures with its enchanting attractions. In reality, however, the picturesque Valley of Kashmir is becoming out of bounds for the peace-loving citizens of this country.
In a sense, Kashmir today represents the gravest challenge to Indian democracy—perhaps much more than what happened at Ayodhya on December 6 and all that followed. If the bomb blast in Bombay on March 12 and the blow-up of the bomb storage (…)

The horrors of partition came to my mind when I saw television beaming pictures of rioting and killing in Bengaluru. It was the same way I felt when partition took place and we, the people living in the newly-constituted state of Pakistan, had to leave our home and hearth to migrate to India.
I never imagined that a cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru could be the scene of linguistic chauvinism, which would go to the extent of killing Tamils by Kannadas. Leading IT firms preferred to open (…)