2016

He is a guileless fellow of the seraphic land, He is a naïve lad of the rustic terrain, He is a clueless fellow of the world outside, He is a darling of his parents, He is the sole glitter of his kin;
He is a guileless fellow of the town... He is the same naïve lad for the running city; He is an awed boy in the new ambience; Has reached with a deluge of dreams; Has found the avenue to his roaring ambitions; Is ready to embark the path of struggle, And walk relentlessly on every ruin and (…)

EDITORIAL
Finance Minister Arun Jailtley, speaking in his capacity as the Number Two person in the Narendra Modi Government, has made a facile claim at a conference of the BJP’s youth wing that the party, or to be more precise, the party’s student organisation, the ABVP, had won the “ideological war” in the JNU row. One can react to this with only a derisive smile.
Let us face the facts. The police had arrested the President of the JNU Students’ Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, on the charge of (…)

TRIBUTE
Purno Agitok Sangma, who passed away in New Delhi on March 4 at the age of 68, was one of the few illustrious political leaders India’s North-East has produced. His wide circle of friends and admirers will remember him as a warm-hearted friend and a host whose hospitality was fabulous. At the personal level he would be frank even with those who differed with him. From a modest beginning—he was born in a farmer’s family—he rose to be a national leader by dint of his merit.
After (…)

by Imtiaz Ahmad Ansari
“The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.” — Lao Tzu
Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNUSU President, is finally out on bail. The controversy over the anti-national sloganeering in Jawaharlal Nehru University, one of the finest centres of higher learning in the country, needs some introspection and reflection. Introspection more for those who have ‘declared’ themselves to be the only patriots of the country and reflection for the (…)

by P.K. Bhargava and Jyoti Bhargava
The importance of agriculture as also of the rural sector cannot be undermined in India as a large part of the population still lives in the villages and earns its livelihood from agriculture. Unfortunately, the preceding two years have been of significant distress to this sector owing to the unfavourable monsoon. In this context, the initiatives incorporated in the Union Budget for 2016-17 deserve to be appreciated as they focus on doubling the farmers’ (…)

by A.V. V. S. K. Rao
“Taxes are the Sinews of the State.” —Cicero
A Viewpoint
So far in India, right from suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and ultimately consumers—all are made to pay indirect taxes to the Centre and States. For instance, the manufacturer pays tax to the Central Government, on the supplies made to wholesalers in different States. Manufactures add the tax component to price and charge accordingly from wholesalers. Wholesalers repeat the (…)

by Ram Puniyani
One is witnessing strange incidents where the women from Muslim and Hindu community are facing similar obstacles. This relates to the issue of entry into places of worship. While the women from the Bhumata Brigade are struggling to get entry into the Shani Shingnapur temple (Ahmednagar, Mahrashtra), the Muslim women are fighting a legal battle to restore their access to the mazar of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. In yet another incident, the women are trying to get the right of (…)

by P. C. Jain
The recent episode at JNU involving the student community has resurrected an old debate on Nationalism and Patriotism that had long been forgotten. What is Nationalism? and what is Patriotism? Are Kanhya Kumar and his comrades guilty of anti-nationalism? This brings to our mind the basic question: what is nationalism?
Nationalism is the product of the “Nation”. The Nation was earlier defined as a group or community of persons having common race, religion, language, culture, (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
In the midst of the pressure and pulls of contemporary politics, certain significant developments seem to have escaped notice. Some of these are too conspicuous, and yet one hardly finds any serious endeavour to understand them.
The two most disciplined political parties today have leaders who are known to be extraordinarily independent of the mindset of their parties. Nobody can question Atal Behari Vajpayee’s standing as the foremost leader of the BJP or his (…)

WOMEN’S WORLD
by Gargi Chakravartty
Eighth March, the International Women’s Day, is a milestone in the women’s movement. It was Clara Zetkin who proposed, at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910, for the observance of an International Women’s Day with the demand of equal rights for women, especially women workers. In India during the Second World War many women, who were part of the country’s freedom struggle, were inspired by the worldwide (…)