2016

by S.N. Sahu
Late Madhusudan Das was an outstanding personality and influential leader of his time. Born in Odisha on April 28, 1848, he led an eventful life marked by manifold accomplishments in diverse fields. Widely acclaimed for exceptionally high standard of service and sacrifice for the cause of Odisha and India, he breathed his last on February 4, 1934. In 1903 he founded the Utkal Sammilani (Utkal Union Conference) which became the nucleus of the historic movement to unify the (…)

by Mayanglambam Ojit Kumar Singh
On June 5 every year since 1974, people from across the globe have been celebrating the World Environment Day (WED) by taking part in environmental action and becoming agents of change for positive impacts on the planet. The UN General assembly in 1972 designated June 5 as the World Environment Day (WED) marking the first day of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment. One of the very important resolutions adopted by the same assembly the same day led (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The following piece was published as ‘New Delhi Skyline’ in this journal precisely fifty years ago. It is being reproduced on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1966 devaluation that had enormous impact on India’s politico-economic landscape.
For days the papers were fed with reports of differences between the Planning Minister and the Finance Minister about financial allocations for the Fourth Plan programme. And so in the Capital when the Press (…)

While Donald Trump forges ahead to be the world’s most powerful CEO and then to keep the world’s Muslims from entering America, India’s own Sangh Parivar “trains” its young saffron shirts to do one better—namely, to prepare, rifle and lathi in hand, against our own Muslim Indians.
Last week saw a clutch of Bajrang Dal fascists in fierce drill to ward off possible attacks from an enemy who was represented as a man with a beard and wearing an unmistakable Muslim skull cap.
Noticeably, the (…)

by Mustafa Khan
In her new book Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, Rana Ayub calls the genocide in Gujarat 2002 as the “cold political bloodbath”. Narendra Modi and the state machinery under him carried out the genocide calculated to achieve a political purpose. So rich was the result that Modi and his BJP milked the holy cow of the ballot box for more than a decade. And he is doing it even now and on a much larger scale internationally. The recent speeches of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar (…)

BOOK REVIEW
The Phoenix Moment: Challenges confronting the Indian Left by Praful Bidwai; Noida: Harper Collins Publishers India; 2015; 586 + xiii pages; Rs 599.00
The Left in India, admittedly, is passing through its worst crisis since independence. Praful Bidwai, the author of this book, who died at a rather premature age in 2015, was an engaged researcher as well as an activist, with vast experience of political journalism. He has written virtually a comprehensive history of the Indian (…)

Linking Short-Term Urgent Relief With Longer-Term Sustainable Development and Protection of Environment
Bundelkhand region is spread over an area of around 70,000 sq. km. in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in Central India. This region at present includes 13 administrative districts—Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Chitrakut, Jhansi, Jajaun and Lalitpur districts in Uttar Pradesh as well as Panna, Chattarpur, Damoh, Sagar, Tikamgarh and Datia districts in Madhya Pradesh.
In recent (…)

COMMUNICATION
When Darulum Deoband, the largest Muslim religious seminary in Asia, protested over the proposed visit of Salman Rushdie, the author of Satanic Verses in which he has used highly offensive and objectionable language against the Holy Prophet of Islam and Islam and on which account this book had been proscribed by the Government of India, to attend the literary festival at Jaipur, Muslims all over the country, including Muslim organisations, supported the verdict of Darulum (…)

EDITORIAL
As we go to press, two issues have come to prominence.
A special court today convicted 24 persons while acquitting 36 people in the Gulbarg Society massacre in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. Former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among those killed in that incident. As for the remaining 13 persons, they have been convicted for rioting and on other charges but not murder.
The sentences for those convicted are to be pronounced by the court on June 6. What is significant is that (…)

Addressing Pakistani think-tankers and the strategic community in Islamabad on May 27, Iran’s ambassador Mehdi Honerdoost disclosed that:
Chabahar was first offered to Pakistan and China (before India came into the picture) but they were disinterested—and the offer is still open.
“Chabahar is not a rival to Gwadar”; on the contrary, Iran sees advantages of a link-up between the two ports that are separated by only 70 kms.
“The (Chabahar) deal is not finished. We (Iran) are waiting for (…)