2017

by Arun Srivastava
It would be purely naive to believe the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, expressing grief at the brutal killing of the migrant labourer Mohammad Afrazul and saying that he was extremely pained at the heart-rending murder of the Muslim labourer in Rajasthan.
It is not that Afrazul, who was killed on December 6 by a Hindutva fanatic, was the first victim of such brutal and heinous crime being perpetrated against Love-Jihad. Ever since Modi came to power and occupied the (…)

by Aijaz Ahmad Turrey and Inamul Haq
Love-Jihad or Romeo-Jihad has become a common term in the Indian context nowadays. It emerged half-a-decade ago, but it has turned into a threat in contemporary India. Indian society was plural in custom and tradition in respect of region and religion. However, now the atmosphere has become one of hatred, communal as well as hostile. The question arises: who are responsible for it, Hindus/ Muslims or politicians?
History witnessed inter-caste as well (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Nearly a year ago multiple rowdy protests took place when the film Padmavati was being shot in Rajasthan. Sanjay Leela Bhansali had to interrupt the shooting for some time. Currently again, more intense opposition has been witnessed as the film was due to be released. On the basis of its trailer, the Karni Sena threatened that the film should not be released. Crores of rupees were on offer for cutting the nose of Deepika Padukone, the one doing the role of Padmavati, and (…)

by Diptendra Raychaudhuri
“We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of faith.”—Mohan Bhagwat on Ram Temple (at VHP Dharma Sansad at Udipi, Karnataka on November 24, 2017)
Every election brings out the socio-economic reality in much more perceptible terms than in other times. Seen from this perspective, this year’s Gujarat Assembly election will be remembered for long, as it has churned out different truths from within a polity that earlier seemed a monolith. Be (…)

by Bheenaveni Ram Shepherd
It is a known fact that Ram is politically owned by the Sangh Parivar whereas Krishna is owned by the Yadavs across the country as their divine and political legacy. In North India the Yadavs remained as an opposite political and social block to the Hindutva block. In this context, I want to examine two opposite streams of thought that emerged around Rama and Krishna. The main difference is that Rama represented war and violence, whereas Krisha represented the (…)

by Ahmad Zaboor
The Hinduvta brigade has over the last three decades been making fallible assertions that the Congress party is pampering Muslims in India at the cost of the majority community. What it signifies is that for the Sangh, Muslims with all the divisions and diversification vote en bloc for the Congress party. Two facts repudiate this untenable argument. The first is that Muslims of India are at the bottom of every index of development as pointed out in the Sachhar Committee (…)

by Binoy Viswam
The mood in the Congress can be called a mood of euphoria. Congress workers, young and old, are celebrating Rahul Gandhi’s elevation to the presidentship of the Congress. They are destined to believe that this promotion would bring about a sea-change in the course of the history of their party and the nation. They have every right to be jubilant after a long period of distress and disappointment. Leaders like A.K. Antony went to the extent of drawing parallels between the (…)

by Bharat Dogra and Madhu Dogra
The steep trek to the home of Kunwar Prasun in a Himalayan village had been difficult to negotiate but once we reached there a cool breeze and beautiful surroundings quickly made us forget all the tiredness. We walked to a field where Prasun and his wife, Ranjana, had been trying to grow some traditional varieties of rice which he had searched and found with a lot of difficulty. He intended to share these seeds with other farmers so that they can also grow (…)

by Barun Das Gupta
In the parliamentary elections in Nepal held recently, the two Communist Parties—K.P. Sharma Oli-led Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) and Pushpa Kanta Dahal (Prachanda)-led Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)— have won the majority, relegating the Nepali Congress to the third position. The CPN(UML) won 81 seats, followed by the CPN(MC) with 36. The NC had to be satisfied with just 23 seats. What is more, the two Communist Parties, which were once (…)

by Jayanta Kumar Dab
Introduction
India has been taken by everybody seriously across the globe because of its respect for democratic principles as well as secular values. These, by and large, have been the greatest factors for establishing its status as a future global leader. It is very vast both in area and population but it has left no stone unturned to maintain an exemplary image of unity amidst diversity—be it of religions, communities, sects, political parties, ideologies and (…)