2017

India and Pakistan attained independence in 1947 and all the princely States, except Kashmir, merged into either of the two countries. Pakistan demanded that Kashmir, a Muslim majority State, should accede to it but the ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, did not comply.
In 1948, Pashtun tribesmen invaded the Kashmir Valley with the support of the Pakistani Government. The ruler of Kashmir asked India for help. The Government of India demanded that Kashmir should first accede to India and the (…)

After spending more than $ 117 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction in fifteen years, the “largest expenditure to rebuild a country in our nation’s history” (as the latest report of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan’s Reconstruction describes), it is but natural that the US Administration is keen to find an answer to the question, “What ails the country?” In simple language, “How much longer will we have to carry this awesome burden?”
As various US Government agencies seek (…)

by Gautam Sen
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS)has recently demanded a reorientation of the government‘s labour policies. The BMS has also called for a correction of the policies of the NITI Aayog (former Planning Commission re-incar-nated as a government think-tank),which it has described as aligned to the interests of the corporate sector. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-affiliated labour union, claiming a membership strength of nearly one crore and affiliation of more than 5000 unions, (…)

COMMUNICATION
Giorgio Agamben reminded us in his short piece, titled “Security and Terror”, that in the course of a gradual neutralisation of politics and the progressive surrender of the traditional tasks of the state, security “now becomes the sole criterion of political legitimation”.
Recent developments in Kashmir and Chhattisgarh bear testimony to Agamben’s seminal observation. The blatant instance of human rights violation in Kashmir in recent times, in the name of “security”, is (…)

You would think That farmers would be The Sangh Parivar’s first love, Considering how they tend The holy cow, and are Custodians of Creation’s Most pristine ambrosia, Namely, cow’s urine.
You would think they Would be beloved Of the Sangh, considering They live next to Heaps of dung, which, as You know, is therapeutic Of the highest rung.
You would think Farmers to be prized Offspring of Bharat Mata, Given that they are the Realm’s Anna Data. And for being closest To tradition which (…)

EDITORIAL
The agrarian crisis across the country, that was highlighted in these columns last week, has further accentuated with another farmer taking his life in Madhya Pradesh’s Hoshangabad district this morning. This is the seventh case of farmers’ suicide in seven days in a region which has witnessed violent farmer protests over the rapidly declining crop prices.
On June 6 Madhya Pradesh shot into national prominence when five farmers were shot dead in police firing during (…)

by Purusottam Bhattacharya
The opinion pollstars have got it wrong again—the Brexit referendum of June last year, Donald Trump’s triumph in the US elections last November and the just concluded general elections in the UK, three in a row in the last one year. British Prime Minister Theresa May had called snap general elections last April (the next elections were due only in 2020) on the strength of opinion polls which gave her a 20-point lead over the Labour Party ostensibly to strengthen (…)

by Samit Kar
The Right to Cessation among the people of Darjeeling began to snowball since the formation of Sikkim as a separate State in 1975 at the behest of Indira Gandhi. The creation of Sikkim also led to a gradual deterioration of Sino-Indian relationship as the State primarily emerged as a military State of our country. The establishment of a strong military base bordering China did have a strategic reason to safeguard our national interest in the aftermath of repeated Chinese (…)

by Arun Shourie
Veteran journalist and former Bharatiya Janata Party Minister Arun Shourie on June 9, 2017 warned the media against becoming the Narendra Modi Government’s “instruments for distracting your viewers and readers...from the main story”.
He was speaking at a meeting at the Press Club of India in Delhi on June 5 to protest against the Central Bureau of Investigation’s raids on NDTV promoters Radhika and Prannoy Roy. The CBI has filed an FIR against the Roys in connection with (…)

by H.K. Dua
The following is an Introduction to a new book, Demonetisation : The Jury is Still Out, edited by the author who has sent this for publication in Mainstream. The book, now under print, is likely to be out in the next few days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like Indira Gandhi much before him, has a flair for making surprising and dramatic moves to shake the country out of the mundane and the routine. Way back in 1975, Indira Gandhi shocked the nation by clamping Emergency on (…)