2017

Tens of millions of people in India and China heaved a sigh of relief last Monday (August 28) when the war clouds that had gathered menacingly over Doklam receded, even if they have not totally disappeared. While India said both sides had decided to withdraw their troops and the Chinese side had agreed to stop its road-building activities in Doklam, meaning that the Chinese have decided to restore status quo ante as on June 16, the Chinese statement was ambivalent and ambiguous.
The (…)

by Purusottam Bhattacharya
The 70-day-old Doklam stand-off on the disputed Himalayan plateau between India and China at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan has finally ended with a declaration by the Government of India on August 28, 2017 of a mutual pull-out of troops from the prolonged face-off between the Indian and Chinese soldiers though the Chinese version differs significantly. The present reality, as one understands it, is that while India withdrew all its soldiers to its (…)

When millions are evicted in the name of nation’s development Can we be proud of such independence?
When the forests, the life and culture, Nurtured for centuries are destroyed forcibly Can we be proud of such independence?
The nature suffering silently, reminds Wake up the consumerist, or else we perish. Can we be proud of such independence?
The dreams of ‘foreign’ land, remain chained in foreign hands Without shame, they mortgage the country, To bring suffering to all. Can we be (…)

In a farewell message the outgoing Vice-President, Hamid Ansari, has said that the Muslims do not feel safe in the country. Instead of introspecting on what he said, the RSS and BJP have denounced him. Some have gone to the extent of saying that he could migrate to a country where he would feel safe.
The unkindest cut came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that Ansari could now pursue his agenda. A few others, occupying high positions, also made more or less similar remarks. There (…)

by Sriti Ganguly
India just celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence and like every year, apart from the grand celebration at Red Fort, schools and colleges across the country and even television soaps marked the event in their own ways. One also noticed an increasing trend of flags being sold at traffic signals by homeless migrants and the same flags undulating on rooftops of residential buildings. My niece’s school also celebrated the I-Day where she and a handful of other (…)

On July 22, 2015, the Attorney General (AG), Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Union of India (Centre, hereinafter), argued before a three-Judge Bench (Justices J.Chelameshwar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan) considering a batch of petitions challenging Aadhaar, that # the Constitution-makers did not intend to make the right to privacy a fundamental right, # since there is no fundamental right to privacy, the petitions under Article 32 should be dismissed, # it is needless to call privacy a (…)

Nine good men from the highest House
Of Constitutional guarantee
Have spoken in one ringing voice
That to be human is to be free.
To be free is not to be
Held captive in a card;
To be at the lordly beck and call
Of one or the other tinsel god.
To be free of course does not mean
To subvert the common good;
But it surely means that the common good
May be differingly understood.
That damage to the coomon good
May be less from common men
Than from those who lord the (…)

by Ram Krishnaswamy
In the last seven years every time I opposed Aadhaar and said it was a Frankenstein monster the creators will not be able to control and it invades our privacy, my opponents never hesitated to attack me personally and tell me “unless you have something to hide why should you be worried?” This meant that any one and everyone including activists who have spent their lifetime serving various communities in India, all had something to hide.
Transparency does not mean (…)

The landmark judgement of the Supreme Court is undoubtedly a blow on the authoritarian government. The government was bent to impose an “Aadhar Raj” on the people of India by making it mandatory for everything from mid-day meals to Income Tax returns. In the course of debates in Supreme Court, the government side even went to the extent of stating that the organs of the individual such as iris do not belong to him! When crores of data base were leaked out the authorities opted to keep mum on (…)

IMPRESSIONS
“August 15, 1947 will go down in history as one of the most memorable dates, not for India alone but for Asia and the world... For India it marks the beginning of a new age, a new outlook, a new future. For the world it gives a new idea and a new method...”
That was how the main editorial began in The Indian Express dated Madras, Friday, August 15, 1947. Seventy years and many ideological somersaults later, it is sobering to took at the sentiments that prevailed then and the (…)