2017

by Mahi Pal
Setting
On the occasion of the third anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Government of India has launched a ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’ nationwide campaign on September 15, 2017 to accelerate a people’s movement for sanitation. It would have been better if love was also added with service because these are two important ingredients of Divinity. Cleanliness has been a way of life in India. There are numerous examples in this regard. For example, people offer puja (worship) (…)

They say life is glorious, abundant — an amazing gift of God.
But do they know how damning it is to keep one’s end up in a world that grinds out a living of going to work in the morning, hoping to return home at night in one piece without being mugged or torn apart by wild animals wearing civilized masks?
What does it glorify when one lives in a life-raft tossed by drudgery, anxiety, perpetual fear, kept afloat in the sea of crowd with acquiescence, mute, helpless?
It may sound as a (…)

by Martand Jha
The month of September marked the 150th anniversary of Das Kapital. On September 14, 1867, Karl Marx wrote this seminal text where he explained the theory of the capitalist system, which still provides a framework to understand the modern capitalist system. Das Kapital is essentially a description of how the capitalist system works and how, Marx claims, it will destroy itself.
This book enjoys an iconic stature among the readers; many consider it as Karl Marx’s opus. Since (…)

EDITORIAL
The lead report on the front page of The Indian Express today has the headline: “‘Demonetisation A Milestone: Reward For Honesty’: Critics are spreading despair but economy is on track: PM”. This is a gist of Narendra Modi’s address at the Institute of Company Secretaries of India in the Capital yesterday (October 4, 2017).
At one point it appeared that the PM was trying to strike a new path when he said:
Over the last few days there has been criticism on the economic front. (…)

Stampedes waiting to happen do happen
and death rains on a shaky old narrow foot over-bridge
connecting Elphinstone Road and Parel stations
where twenty-two dead heads get numbered
on a more than one hundred and fifty years old suburban line.
Forget upgrading infrastructure
pushing bullet trains over safe locals
benchmarks a new line of perverted priorities
in railway projects and public-private partnerships.
I say I cannot slow down whims on steroids
I need the fastest (…)

With the announcement of the quantum of punishment to the perpetrators of the January 1993 serial blasts in Bombay by Judge G.A. Sanap of the Special Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act [TADA] court on September 7, 2017, probably the longest terror case trial in India comes to a close. In the first phase of this trial, Judge P.D. Kode of the Special TADA Court had sentenced 12 convicts to death and 20 to life term on September 12, 2006. With the latest judgment, 100 of the (…)

Communist leader Jyoti Basu ruled West Bengal for two-and-a-half decades. He fought relentlessly against the communal forces. It is surprising how the RSS has penetrated and practically taken over the State. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress is in power in the State at present but even her adherents admit that they are fighting a losing battle.
The RSS has moved into the interior of the State and its morning shakhas are being held in every park. How and why it has happened (…)

by Barun Das Gupta
Yashwant Sinha was the country’s Finance Minister in the Union Cabinet headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. So when he says something about the Indian economy and Modi Government’s economic policies, it has to be taken seriously, because he is not talking through his hat. What he says cannot be dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders. His recent article ‘I Need to Speak Up Now’ in The Indian Express on what can only be called Modinomics, has set the proverbial cat among the (…)

The word “private” has the meanings: (1) belonging to a particular person (his/her own body or his/her own property), (2) not sharing thoughts or feelings with others, and (3) not connected with a person’s work or official role. From this adjective, we obtain the abstract noun “privacy”, which means “a state in which one is not watched or disturbed by others”. Thus privacy is something precious to a biological person, and includes the need to be left alone, even while remaining a member of (…)

by P. Arun
In August 2017, the Supreme Court delivered a momentous judgement on privacy. In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs Union of India, the nine-judge Constitutional Bench utilised its interpretative jurisdiction and unanimously declared that privacy is a constitutional right. After this high-voltage judgement enthusiastic responses started overflowing in several newspaper dailies and journals. It was widely hailed as a landmark judgement for being remarkable for “its clarity of (…)