2017

by Jajati K. Pattnaik
China’s Doklam game plan at the tri-junction of India-Bhutan-China has created a stalemate between the two Asian giants. Much to the chagrin of New Delhi, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China has made inroads into the Doklam plateau of Bhutan on June 16, 2017 to construct a motorable road to connect Doklam with the narrow Chumbi Valley in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The Indian forces entered into Doklam to prevent the Chinese brinksmanship over Doklam (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Ahmad Zaboor
Being the Other, the Muslims in India by Saeed Naqvi; Publication: Aleph; 2016; 239 pages; Rs 599.
Beyond any description India is scripting a fast economic growth, that may be a solace for the corporate class including the government but the bare truth is that the growth process has simply bypassed India’s largest religious community of Muslims, as has been vindicated by the government-appointed Sachar Committee Report. Muslims also suffer from political (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Before the power of commercial lobbies, even the BJP Government bows. The party’s manifesto took a strong stand against GM foods; ignoring it, the government’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) greensignalled genetically engineered mustard in India. GM mustard is known to be more dangerous than GM cotton (which has caused havoc already) and GM brinjal (which was stopped in the nick of time).
Because mustard is used in every household every day in India, its health (…)

To
Shri Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister of India,
New Delhi 110001.
Dear Hon’ble Prime Minister,
Sub: GM Mustard — Request to reject commercial release
We, as members of the Sarvodaya movement and Gandhian networks, write to you, as consumers, as citizens of a democratic India and on behalf of all those who are concerned with the bio-violence that forms the inherent basis of the genetic modification technology. We have serious objections to the release of the Genetically Modified (…)

by Govind Bhattacharjee
Mr. Bharat Dogra’s article “Approval of GM Crops ignores Growing Scientific Evidence against Them” (Maintain June 3) presents one side of the argument and quotes facts only in support of that argument. But there is another side and the issue remains far from settled. While the fear of corporatisation of agriculture, or health and safety concerns, highlighted by him, may be true, despite the fact that WHO has certified GM crops as perfectly safe, the government’s (…)

COMMUNICATION
Many thanks to Mainstream (August 5) for prominently publishing the tribute to Pushpa Mittra Bhargava. However the tribute is not quite complete without a mention of the tireless struggle of the great scientist against GM crops. This peaked during his last years just as the need to save India from GM crops increased during this period due to the growingly aggressive interests of big business interests to get an entry for GM food crops in India by hook or by crook. As Prof (…)

EDITORIAL
Several developments in the domestic sphere have attracted wide attention of late. These include the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) lowering its policy interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, cutting subsidy on such an item as cooking fuel (LPG) now that oil prices are low (though the concerned Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas has clarified that the “subsidy will not be cut down, it will only be rationalised”), the exit of Arvind (…)

by Ram Puniyani
The turmoil in Kashmir has worsened since the encounter of Burhan Wani last year (2016). The ceaseless protests, the handling of protests leading to deaths and blinding of many is very disturbing. To cap this negative development the attack on Amaranth pilgrims has added salt to the wounds of the nation. (July 2017)
Tragedy struck when one of the buses was attacked. The bus driver, Salim, in a brave gesture, kept driving despite being wounded, and that prevented a (…)

MUSINGS
A few years back, when I had first heard a well-known Delhi University professor talk in an open forum of the twisted history taught in the RSS-run schools, it was more than shocking as she had actually read out several of the communally provocative passages from those books... poison dripping from each one of those sentences, enough to inculcate hatred in young minds for the other—the Muslims of the country.
Now, of course, there seems a well-planned strategy to change the very (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Mention corruption, and the names of some politicians jump out like registered trademarks. Laloo Prasad Yadav is right when he says that the BJP Government is hunting him for political reasons. The government has indeed been using the CBI to hunt its opponents on a selective basis. But it is able to play politics of revenge because facts are there to exploit. Laloo has been a synonym for corruption in unique ways—the only leader who breaks laws with defiance and daring.
When (…)