2017

Be afraid of the darkness no more,
Cover your face with my hands,
Drink sorrow and joy into your eyes,
Build victory with your encircling arms,
Weave your tempo with my beat.
The intolerable light burns today by hatred;
I have no taste for the foul day,
Darkness alone is holy,
Love’s orchestra is silenced by hatred.
Cover your face with my hands.
Bishnu Dey
[Translated from the original Bengali by Samir Dasgupta and Stephen N. Hay]

From N.C.’s Writings
Autumn has set in—the chinar in its gorgeous robe. But it is an autumn of bitter sorrow for the hapless people of Kashmir. The Valley, which was known as the paradise on earth, has been turned into a trough of hatred, of blood and tears.
On Friday last week the portals of Hazratbal were barred as the Indian Army had laid siege of the mosque complex in pursuit of the militants. To protest against this siege of the holy of holies for every Kashmiri Muslim, the common (…)

The myth, assiduously created by the BJP’s propaganda machinery working overtime, that the party is unbeatable in any election is exploding. The results of several elections and bye-elections in civic bodies in Maharashtra and Delhi bring home this truth
To take Delhi first. The BJP swept the recent polls in three civic bodies of Delhi. The Congress did slightly better than before while the AAP fared very badly. But the BJP lost all the two by-elections that were held immediately (…)

by Gautam Sen
The problem of Indian fishermen crossing the median boundary line in the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Straits and Palk Bay and intruding into Sri Lankan territorial waters, has been existing for a long time. In fact, there are accusations that, the Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu‘s southern districts have been indulging in predatory fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters and exclusive economic zone and even bottom trawling there, thereby destroying the seabed ecology of that (…)

by Jajati K. Pattnaik
India’s longest bridge, Dhola-Sadiya, which was built over Lohit, a tributary of the Brahmaputra river in the Tinsukia district of Assam bordering Arunachal Pradesh, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 26, 2017. The bridge, spanning over 9.15 km, connects Dhola in the south bank and Sadiya in the north bank of the river. It serves as the lifeline of connectivity between Upper Assam and Eastern Aruncahal Pradesh.1 Besides this, the bridge could be a (…)

Are multinational companies pressurising the government to adopt undesirable agricultural policies, particularly those policies which are ecologically harmful? Are they exerting undue pressure to sell their seed varieties which are not suitable for our farmers and the environment? In the process has a lot of harm been caused already? Is the government ignoring such warnings even if these are voiced by its own Minister having special expertise in this field?
These and related questions have (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Aejaz Ahmad wWani
The Public Intellectual in India by Romila Thapar, et al.; edited by: Chandra Chari and Uma Iyengar: Aleph Book Company; 2015; pages: 170+xxxiv; Price: Rs 499.
The Public Intellectual in India is an outcome of the Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial Lecture delivered by the eminent historian, Romila Thapar, on October 16, 2014. In developing a case for the constructive role of a public intellectual in a rapidly changing India, Thapar lays out some of the (…)

COMMUNICATION
We are really proud of the most distinctive features of our country, that is, it is the largest parliamentary democracy of the world, the abode of the highly precious national composite Ganga Jamni culture based on the noble principle of unity in diversity, and has a secular Constitution which is not irreligious but respects all religions and gives every citizen full religious freedom.
But alas! Since May 26, 2014, that is, 36 months earlier, when the BJP under the (…)

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EDITORIAL
In recent times one special feature of the Indian political situation is the fact that Dalits are asserting themselves across the country. This has been the result of persisting attacks on Dalits in different areas, the most recent Dalit mobilisation in the Capital on May 21 having been triggered by the anti-Dalit violence in UP’s Saharanpur and the response to it from the Yogi Adityanath Government there.
Such a Dalit protest, as underlined in The Indian Express, has been (…)