2017

EDITORIAL
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, returned from a trip to major countries of Europe—Germany, Spain, Russia and France—last week and has left for Astana (Kazakhstan) today to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit.
The European visit was overdue and Modi did well to explore new avenues of cooperation with Germany while sustaining and cementing India’s strategic partnerships with Russia and France.
The Indian Express, while analysing Modi’s European visit, has (…)

Three years into the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, the battlelines between the partners seem now clearly drawn. A sort of Zionist discourse seems afloat, which cautions that the governments now in the saddle both at the Centre and in the State are “different” (Ram Madhav) and the Valley must learn to know its proper place. Indeed, parts of the Valley are coming to be conceived as a sort of West Bank and some downtown areas as India’s own Gaza Strip. Mehbooba Mufti seems cast in (…)

by S. Sudhakar Reddy
Kashmir is again in the news. Actually it is always in the news. Mainstream media is generally giving the official version, except in exceptional cases. Kashmir is really burning. The Kashmiri people are being branded as perma-nent agitators. Generations of Kashmiris are habituated to this situation. The Srinagar by-election exposed the hollowness of the adminis-tration’s claims that everything is normal except in some pockets. Only seven per cent of people voted in (…)

The discourses in the Indian media over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia within the framework of the annual summit meetings between the two leaderships have taken a bizarre turn. Modi is being caricatured as something of a car mechanic travelling to St. Petersburg with his tool kit to “repair” the India-Russia relationship.
Even more bizarre is that the guys in Carnegie India and Brookings India have been in the forefront of the lamentations over the state of affairs in (…)

The Indo-Russian annual summit, taking place alternatively in each other’s capital, was this time held in St Petersburg, the northern capital of Russia and President Vladimir Putin’s home town. This is the first time when an Indo-Russian annual summit was held in summer, as India for the first time was invited to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum as the guest of honour. The St Petersburg Economic Forum, Russia’s most prestigious business platform, widely regarded as the Davos of (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Against the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia and talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin the following two pieces that appeared in Mainstream in November-December 1973 on Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s visit to India at that time are being reproduced for the benefit of our readers.
Brezhnev in India
Seven weeks ago, laying the foundation of the refinery at Mathura, Smt Indira Gandhi referred to the Soviet offer of two-million tonnes of foodgrains (…)

by Krishna Jha
On May 5, 2014, a letter was received by the Home Secretary, Government of Jharkhand, from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, stating that according to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, the State was responsible for taking steps to prevent, detect, register and investigate crime and prosecute the criminals through law-enforcing agencies; hence, steps must be taken in the context of inordinate delay, in fact more than six decades, in granting (…)

The demolition of the Babri Masjid and the ban on cattle sale for slaughter are two sides of the same coin. They reflect the prejudice of the majority community. Both are fouling the air. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which completed three years in office just a week ago, is blessing the different expressions of Hindutva which is slowly but firmly engulfing the entire country.
It looks as if the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started its preparations for the next Lok (…)

by Aurobindo Ghose
This article was sent on May 25 but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
It is ten days since the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Summit, called and hosted by China at Beijing from May 14 to 15, 2017, concluded. Significantly, India did not participate in OBOR. But the subject is so important for peace, development and stability or otherwise in the region and beyond that it has continued relevance and requires a fresh review and discussion. Yesterday’s front (…)

The Government of India (GoI) has decided to go ahead with “strategic sale” to a “strategic partner”, of 26 per cent of its present 54 per cent share in the Bharat Earthmovers Ltd (BEML), which produces critical hardware for India’s Armed Forces (military, for short). Disinvestment of GoI shares in public assets orginated in Congress times, but disinvestment of a defence-sector PSU is a “first” which the BJP-led NDA-2 Government can claim. The strategy behind the sale is questionable, (…)