2016

Integral part requires
Police and pellets;
Integral people could
Do without bullets.
Integral part implies
Boundary overrides bloodl
Integral people means
We too die when you
Are dead.
Integral part says
Forget the promises
We had made;
Integral people say
We are betrayed.
Integral part yells
Lump it or die;
Integral people cry, cry, cry.
Badri Raina

From N.C.’s Writings
Kashmir today has become the touchstone of Indian statesmanship. The crisis that has emerged there can no longer be managed by conventional methods of settling political acrimony. It has gone much beyond, and now it has assumed the magnitude of a definite threat to the integrity of the country.
The militants who want Kashmir to secede from the Indian Union are today in control of life and politics—at least in the Valley itself. It is time the public in this country (…)

On July 8, 2016, the Supreme Court said that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, in force in parts of the North-East and J&K, cannot be an excuse for extrajudicial killing—whenever such allegations surface they have to be investigated regardless of whether the person is a dreaded criminal, terrorist or an insurgent. On the same day a young militant, Burhan Wani, was killed in an encounter with the security forces. We don’t know whether it was a case of extrajudicial killing. (…)

In a historic ruling, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U. Lalit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court have spoken out in favour of democracy. The judgment came on a plea by hundreds of families in the North-Eastern State of Manipur for a probe by a Special Investigation Team into 1528 cases of alleged fake encounters involving the Army and the police.
In particular, by saying: “It does not matter whether the victim was a common person or a militant or a terrorist, nor does it matter whether the (…)

There is a vast difference between perception and evidence. When Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi says that the RSS is responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, he is conveying the general perception. In fact, the then Home Minister, Sardar Patel, imposed a ban on the RSS which he withdrew when the organisation gave in writing that it was only a cultural outfit. However, the perception has remained till today.
The BJP, which is said to be a political wing of the RSS, has (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Can there be two types of justice delivery system in the same country? This question came to one’s mind with the U-turn taken by the NIA in the cases related to terror acts in which many Hindu names were involved. Now the NIA in a fresh charge-sheet (May 13, 2016) has dropped the charges against Pragya Singh Thakur, has lightened the ones against Colonel Purohit and others. Along with this new line of the NIA it is being stated that Hemant Karkare’s investigation in these (…)

Swaraj Abhiyan, launched by anti-corruption activists on April 14, 2015 as a platform for participatory democracy through alternative politics, is organising its Second National Convention at New Delhi on July 30-31, 2016. In the last 15 months, it has taken five major initiatives towards its goal— (a) Jai Kisan Andolan for kisan and rural India; (b) Shiksha Swaraj about issues of education and youth employment; (c) Anti-Corruption Team to support RTI activists and PIL to fight corruption; (…)

by Vinita Chandra
Swaraj Abhiyan arose out of a historic split in the AAP, a party which itself was the product of a ‘split’ in opinions among the leaders of the India Against Corruption movement. Answers to the following two questions may bring insights for understanding the nature of Indian politics—What do these two splits signify? And what makes these two splits historic?
The first split was effected due to a divergence of opinions between Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal. While Anna (…)

by Avik Saha
Today, farmers and farming are in crisis. Farming has become a loss-making proposition. Although input costs of farming are continuously increasing and cost of living is also rising, prices of agricultural produce are not. One calamity like drought, hailstorm, flood and the farmer’s backbone is broken. Wallowing in debt, the farmer is forced to commit suicide.
The reason for this condition of farmers is not fate, vagaries of nature or machinations of the market economy. At (…)

by Aparupa Bhattacherjee
Do the recent attacks in Bangladesh (by seven young men in a Dhaka café killing several foreigners and the subsequent bomb blast on the day of Eid) signify the tip of a far larger iceberg? Worse, are they the tips of different icebergs that are coming to form a perfect storm?
Are the radicalisation of the youth, attacks on minority communities and violence against liberals in Bangladesh symbolising a deeper problem? Do the recent commentaries on the subject focus (…)