2017

Partisan tribalism is so intense among the US elites that a consensus is impossible to reach as regards the main topic of discussion at the meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg on Friday (July 7). As the meeting extended beyond the expected 30 minutes, there was consternation on the face of the CNN panelists and when it continued for another 30, 60 minutes—and eventually ended after 135 minutes—the look of (…)

IMPRESSIONS
It’s clear: The cow dominates India. The world is changing in radical ways and life-and-death issues confront our country—GST‘s impact on everyday life, the ”dirty war” in Kashmir, rising attacks on women, crisis in the IT industry, tensions with China. But none of them gets the national attention the cow gets. It is as though the country is meant only for cow-worshippers and cow-eaters. Religion is the key here as it is in all policy matters nowadays.
(Before we go any (…)

Amit Shah is no ordinary Indian ruler. He is the President of the BJP which rules the Centre and a majority of the Indian States. Most importantly, he is the other half of our PM, Modi; they together rule as the most powerful duo ever to rule India after independence. Additionally, he is a senior RSS functionary. With this bio-data Amit Shah is naturally the ideological face of the Hindutva ruling elite and his utterings hold the status of holy words for his followers.
Recently, he was in (…)

by Rajaram Panda
Context
June 16, 2017 emerged as an important date in the history of Japan’s imperial family. It was on this day that the special one-time law, passed on June 9 allowing the Emperor to abdicate, was promulgated by the National Diet of Japan. All political parties, except the Liberal Party, supported the new law. It would be the first abdication of the present Emperor Akihito in nearly 200 years since that of the 119th Emperor Koukaku in 1817 during the Edo period (…)

by Navneet Sharma and Anamica
“Imbecility of men, history teaches us, always invites the impudence of power.” —Late (Justice) H. R. Khanna
June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977 is the blackest period in the history of Indian democracy, liberty and freedom that we gave to ourselves in August/January 1947-50. George Santayana (1906) observed: “Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We, the people or generation ‘X’, who have born or grown young after/despite the (…)

by Ram Puniyani
There have been several brutal lynchings of Muslims and beatings of Dalits on the issue of Holy cow. Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Pehlu Khan in Mewat being just two of the cases from the long list. In these cases some pretext is cooked up to beat the cow-traders or those consuming meat or beef. The incident at Una shows that it is not only Muslims who have been on the chopping block of Hindutva vigilantes but as a byproduct of this emotive campaign launched by the Modi-Yogi (…)

by Binoy Viswam
The Sabarmati Ashram speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely discussed in the country. The speech and the place he chose to deliver it definitely reflect the cunningness of RSS politics. Without any hesitation the Prime Minister was trying to wash his hands from the series of killings of human beings in the name of the cow. His sole intention was to tell the international community that he and his government had nothing to do with the episodes of cold-blooded (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Vijay Kumar
The Constitution Of India: Miracle, Surrender, Hope by Rajeev Dhavan; Lexis Nexis in collaboration with Universal Law Publishing; pages: 173; Price: Rs 325.
Rajeev Dhavan’s recent book, The Constitution of India : Miracle, Surrender, Hope, is a thought-provoking work on the crisis of constitu-tionalism. The topicality of the book is enhanced as it has come at a time when intolerance and vigilante justice have risen menancingly. The book is dedicated to Fali (…)

by Bhartendu Kumar Singh
Until now, India had only one Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. But if things work well as per the Chinese strategy, the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) could soon double up as another LAC. At least this is what one can make of the twelfth round of China- Pakistan bilateral defence and security dialogue held recently in Beijing.
The Beijing round comes at a time when the two countries have already invested heavily in the CPEC. The Pakistan Army (…)

Explosive exchange of words took place between the West Bengal Governor, Keshari Nath Tripathi, and State Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, over the recent communal flare-up in Baduria and adjacent areas, including Basirhat, Swarupnagar and Deganga, in the North 24 Parganas district. Mamata alleged: “The Governor telephoned me and said certain objectionable things. He spoke like a block President of the BJP.” In his response, the Governor said that the “allegations of the Chief Minister (…)