2016

BOOK REVIEW
by Aejaz Ahmad Wani
Masters of Mankind by Noam Chomsky; Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, (Penguin), UK; 2015; pages 167 (paperback); Price: £ 8.99.
Introduction
If you wish to take your time off from the so-called “mainstream” political and economic discourses and try to surpass its boredom, there is perhaps none better than Noam Chomsky to look for. Beyond the world of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, Chomsky, rightly described by Eduard Said as a “significant challenger of unjust power (…)

Scandalous, irresponsible and impervious to public interest—one would like to cry out at the situation where, as reported in the press, there are 458 vacancies out of 1074, the full strength of the High Court Judges in India. But one does not do so because of inborn partiality of one belonging to the same legal fraternity—if a similar situation had been prevailing in the executive, the wise and sensitive men and women of the legal fraternity would have shouted from the house-top of the (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Strange, it took not less than 70 years for the RSS to identify the real Babasaheb Ambedkar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, Mohan Bhagwat, finally laid his claim that Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, was a believer in the Sangh’s ideology and had called its workers symbols of social unity and integrity. He came out with yet another revelation: that Ambedkar was not in favour of adopting the tricolour as the national flag (…)

by Santhoshkumar R.
Introduction
Our Public Service Commissions were established by the Constitution of India to select applicants for civil service jobs in the country, based on the merits of the applicants and reservation policies. The Public Service Commission advises the government on all matters connected to civil services referred to it under Article 320 (3) of the Indian Constitution, publishes notifications inviting applications for selection to various posts as per the (…)

The following Manifesto of a United Anti-Fascist Democratic Front is drafted by Aurobindo Ghose, an economist formerly at the Delhi School of Economics. He is currently a practising lawyer and human rights activist. He has conveyed that he “remains open to further debate, discussion and even correction”. He can be contacted at e-mail: g_aurobindo@yahoo.com.
Today what India urgently needs is a democratic revolution, not a socialist one. This cannot be achieved by the Left forces alone, if (…)

EDITORIAL
While there is no dearth of national issues hitting the headlines, the focus now has shifted to international affairs not only because PM Narendra Modi is currently in Washington D.C. holding substantive talks with US President Barack Obama on major subjects of special concern to New Delhi.
The latest information from the United States is that Hillary Clinton made history yesterday by winning the US presidential nomination from the side of the Democrats; she thus becomes the (…)

by Saumitra Mohan
The just concluded elections to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly were unprecedented in more ways than one. While the popular mood of the electorate was more or less known to everyone as also corroborated by the various opinion and exit polls, but the same was overshadowed by the overpitched performances from all the stakeholders as the polls progressed. These elections saw the apex electoral body in a hyperactive avatar which at times appeared unwarranted to many (…)

by V. Bijukumar
The election verdict of the Assam Assembly brought some dramatic developments in the politics of the State. It not only brought down the three consecutive Congress governments led by Tarun Gogoi but also consolidated the electoral base of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam. The BJP could form its first government in North-East India through the election in alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). The verdict also gave some solace (…)

In the present atmosphere prevailing in the country, everything is being politicised, whether the dubious land deals or the racist attacks against African students. Unfortunately, truth is the casualty. Sonia Gandhi has said that the criticism of her son-in-law, Robert Vadra, is political and is directed against the Congress party she heads. Her love for the dynasty has made her ignore the facts.
Vadra got land papers changed when the Congress was in power in Haryana. The land was (…)

by Seema Mustafa
“We had confirmed the involvement of the Sunil Joshi group in the Samjhauta explosion and the fact that no one from SIMI was involved,” was the categorical response of then Special Investigation Team chief, Vikash Narain Rai, an upright police officer, who had been entrusted with the enquiry of the train explosion in 2007.
In an exclusive interview to The Citizen Rai —former Director General of Police (Law and Order), Haryana—spoke of the painstaking investigation, the (…)