2016

“The BJP is an authoritarian, not fascist, force. The fight against it cannot be conductet in alliance with the other major party of the ruling classes,” writes Prakash Karat, the erstwhile General Secretary of the CPI-M, in the following article in The Indian Express (September 6, 2016). It is being reproduced here, with due acknowledgement, for the benefit of our readers. An effective rejoinder to this thesis follows in the subsequent pages.
Know your enemy
Prakash Karat
The (…)

COMMUNICATION
The headline “Why Vegetarianism is Anti-National” [by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd in Mainstream (August 27, 2016) pp.11-13] is catchy. If the intent of the article was to incite visceral reaction, it served its purpose. But if the object of the article was to appeal to reason, especially at a time when the Hindutva madness has descended upon the country, it fell flat. Let me try by touching on some aspects of the article.
The article says: “A nation’s strength is dependent on (…)

by Mansoor Ali
In the course of a plenary session of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on June 23-24, 2016, India had made a concerted effort to join it; but that bid was rejected primarily due to objections to India’s application to that effect from the Chinese Government and also because of the unexpected support Beijing was able to enlist from Washington’s allies like Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland and Turkey. It should be noted that the US had promised New Delhi to persuade its (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
As complexities mount in governance of States what with the sharing of Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu causing widespread violence in the two States, the problem of tackling dengue and chikungunia in the Capital has brought out the AAP Government’s lack of preparedness to meet such a danger. At the same time the Shahabuddin episode in Bihar has exposed the Nitish-Laloo coalition government’s weakness in combating the menace of goondaism once again raising (…)

by Suranjita Ray
The recent mobilisation of Dalits to assert their rights to livelihood and dignity has once again reminded us that the state has failed them. By imposing disparaging occupations on the Dalits, such as manual scavenging and skinning of dead cows, the legacy of the upper- caste domination has been sustained. Despite the welfare policies based on affirmative action and protective discrimination, the everyday experiences of deprivation and violence of the Dalits are a (…)

by Binoy Viswam
August 15, our Independence Day, was observed in the national Capital in a routine manner. The Prime Minister, in his customary address, added Balochistan to give it an additional punch. But hundreds of kilometres away from Delhi, in the Gujarat town of Una, the day was marked in a much different way. There, thousands of Dalits, the oppressed, rallied to declare freedom from oppression. They were asking: how can India be free, when Indians are not?
There was anguish, (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Dalit activist and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha Udit Raj, in his recent article in The Indian Express titled “Where is The Indian Lincoln?” highlights some pertinent questions and brings forth the issue of caste-related atrocities. But he goes on to hide things which are more crucial to the process of caste annihilation.
He is on the dot when he says that atrocities against Dalits are due to a mindset which regards them as (…)

MUSINGS
The all-party delegation to Srinagar has only ushered in complications. Instead of reaching out to the alienated masses or taking the initial steps towards a solution to the ongoing crisis, what’s taken off is sheer politics! You could call this nothing short of Right-wing politics, where instead of focusing on the crux, distractions are brought about along a certain well-crafted agenda.
In the context of today’s bleeding-battered Kashmir, the Centre seems hell-bent on targeting (…)

by Ashfaq Maqsood Ali
“Unless political power and philosophy meet together, there can be no rest from troubles for states nor for all mankind.” —Plato
The early philosophical trend of human beings was revolving around the issues of being and becoming. In contrast, Socrates and Sophists appeared as a watermark on political philosophy as they were concerned about the fundamental questions proportional to the day-to-day social and political aspects of life. Socrates is known for his (…)

There is a silver-lining in the dark cloud of uncertainty looming over Jammu and Kashmir. An all-party delegation that recently visited the Kashmir Valley has called for talks with all stakeholders which may include the “separatist” All Parties Hurriyet Conference as well. Will the Modi Government find such an extraordinary idea agreeable? Anyway, the federal government needs an out-of-the-box approach to resolve the Kashmir tangle.
A high-profile visit by the Indian Army Chief, General (…)