2016

by Purusottam Bhattacharya
Contrary to all speculations and a certain degree of wishful thinking on the part of her opponents, Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul Congress have created an electoral record in the annals of Bengal politics by winning 211 seats for the TMC alone in an Assembly which has a strength of 294. The alliance of the Congress and Left Front secured only 77 seats and the BJP increased its tally from one to three.
The TMC’s numbers are a record in the sense that no (…)

by Joydeep Biswas
The BJP’s emphatic victory in Assam is not only the tale of two tall leaders, fallen apart, contrary to what the media would have us believe. This electoral spectacle is scripted by a complex social engineering whereby Assamese regionalism, ethnic assertion and Hindutva could be rallied successfully against the perception of a Muslim demographic invasion
Out of the four States and a tiny Union Territory which went to Assembly polls during April-May, only Assam appeared (…)

IMPRESSIONS
A disturbingly turbulent election season has come to an end. It was characterised by campaigns that often broke the letter of the law, to say nothing of its spirit. Violence was its signature tune in West Bengal. Illegal flow of unaccounted money marked the campaigns in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Overall, it was an election that again exposed the manner in which democracy was losing its soul in India.
The polling process itself went off well, showing that the Election Commission (…)

WOMEN’S WORLD
by Pradeep Nair, Navneet Sharma and K.B.S. Krishna
Karyeshu dasi, karaneshu manthri; bhojeshu mata, shayaneshu rambha; Roopeshu lakshmi, kshamayeshu dharitri; shat dharmayukta, kuladharma pathni—Neetisara
(Works like slave, helps like minister, cooks like mother, beds like a consort, beautiful as goddess of wealth, is as bearing as the earth, carries hundred religious virtues, is the righteous familial wife.)
The above ‘pearls’ of wisdom not only eulogise the idea of (…)

by N. Sukumar
The model State, Gujarat, has long been considered the social laboratory for Hindutva. Jan Bremem1 has analysed the well-entrenched nature of the Hindutva movement and its predecessors in Gujarat, strongly opposed to communal harmony and to the design of society as a melting-pot of diverse and open-ended social segments. The mobilisation of low and intermediate castes to participate in the activities of the Sangh Parivar organisations in the last two decades has broadened the (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
One of the striking impressions of the AICC pilgrims returning from Bombay is about the Prime Minister’ style in dealing with the critics of government policies.
This question is not something which came up all of a sudden at the Bombay AICC. In fact it has become the subject matter of avid gossips and discussions in the Capital for the last few weeks, particularly since the Prime Minister’s return from the USA. From the person-to-person broadcast to the press (…)

by Mohd Yousuf Dar and Jahangir Ahmad Dar
Jawaharlal Nehru’s political leadership both in Indian politics and international affairs was indeed unique in the true sense. As a votary of world peace, Pandit Nehru was intimately connected with problems and challenges of international affairs. He developed an inter-national outlook. He was greatly concerned about the arms race and the superpower rivalry. He was deadly opposed to all forms of imperialism, colonialism, racialism and so forth. He (…)

We are appalled that leaders of India’s ruling establishments and law enforcing agencies are not ashamed at what happened on January 31, 2016 night to a Tanzanian girl student of Bachelors of Business Administration in a college at Bangalore. The car in which she was returning in company of her friends to the city was attacked, she was dragged out, stripped and paraded naked in public for no rhyme or reason. When she ran to board a bus passing by the place of occurrence, its passengers did (…)

China has started work on its second rail line in Tibet, which will ultimately reach close to India-Bhutan border town of Yatung (Yadong) when completed in 2030. Its first Tibet rail line from Golmud in Qinghi province to Lhasa was completed in 2006, has been bringing in much tourist traffic. Two years ago, it was extended from Lhasa to Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city and the home of Panchen Lama. It will be further extended to Yatung (Yadong), and will reach the Nepal border after (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Nityananda Ghosh
The Socialist Vision and The Silenced Voices of Democracy – New Perspectives – Part I, Rosa Luxemburg by Sobhanlal Datta Gupta; Seriban, Bakhrahat, South 24-Parganas district, West Bengal; pp. 137 + xiv; Rs 495.
With the Leninist model of vanguardist Communist Party as leader of the socialist revolution being questioned the world over, the concept of democratic centralism (again formulated by Lenin) is also being debated everywhere. In practice, DC is (…)