2017

The present government in Goa is the most unrepresentative ever in this State and possibly in the whole country. Most Ministers in this government were elected on an anti-BJP platform and they defeated the BJP candidates. The present government is in violation of every canon of constitutional propriety. The people of Goa elected the Congress as the single largest party, crushed the outgoing government, including the Chief Minister and most of his Ministers, and brought down the BJP tally (…)

BOOK REVIEW
China and India: History, Culture, Cooperation and Competition edited by Paramita Mukherjee, Arnab K. Dev and Miao Pang; New Delhi: Sage; 2016; pp. 232; Rs 945.
In today’s globalised world in an age of information and communication technology, soft power is considered a more effective dimension of diplomacy going beyond the economic and military power. Soft power is ‘the ability to shape the preferences of others’. Havard Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr. in Soft Power (2005) (…)

The initial reports from Pakistan regarding the International Court of Justice’s interim order on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case give a sinking feeling. If chances of Pakistan carrying out the death sentence were evenly poised, the balance now tilts in favour of execution. It’s now, say, 75 per cent to 25 per cent. Consider the following.
There has been heavy criticism of the Pakistani Government’s handling of the case at the ICJ by the Opposition parties. The accusations range from inept (…)

It is well known that following the recommen-dations of the 14th Finance Commission in the financial year 2015-16, the share of Central taxes to be shared with States was increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. At the same time the allocations for several important schemes in the social sector were cut quite substantially on the understanding that the State governments will be able to make up for these cuts on the basis of the additional resources allocated to them. However, questions (…)

EDITORIAL
The International Court of Justice has spoken out loud and clear.
Today it instructed Pakistan not to execute Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer convicted of alleged espionage and terrorism and subsequently sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court (functioning under deep secrecy), till the ICJ pronounces its final decision on New Delhi’s petition to annul the death sentence.
The President of the UN’s highest court in The Hague said: “Pakistan shall take (…)

by Harsh Kapoor
In the April 23 first round of the French elections, the established parties were eliminated, leaving two final contenders in the final round of May 7—one was Emmanuel Macron (a former Economy Minister/a cosmopolitan political novice) representing his newly created movement called ‘En Marche’ [On the Move] and the other was Marine Le Pen, the leader of the forty-year-old Front Nationale (FN) [an anti-immigrant and anti-European party of the far Right]. Two opposing (…)

MUSINGS
What a relief! The French have indeed signalled that all’s not over! The election of Emmanuel Macron has actually relayed that sane and responsible governance will flourish in France. Lesser levels of discriminations and biases and hounding of the hapless.
Macron’s win has inflicted a huge dent to the Right-wing fascist politics on the international scene. In fact, till the French election results trickled in, there were fears that the Right- wing’s Marine Le Pen could cash in on (…)

Whether stone-pelting in Kashmir is at the behest of Pakistan or it is a response to the fundamentalists’ call, the fact remains that the Valley is disturbed. Scores of schools have been burnt and there is a fear in the mind of students that they would be punished if they were to attend classes. The separatists are said to be leading a movement to boycott the studies.
The result is that the students are finding it hard to prepare and appear in exams which the rest of the country is having (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
With all the excitement generated over the Ramaswami impeachement, the Narasimha Rao Government has good reason to thank the Opposition for letting the Budget pass with only a token show of dissent.
This marks a major headway for the government which had to pass quite a few anxious moments when it was reported that the BJP would not hesitate to support the cut motions due to be moved by the National Front-Left combine. The fact of having escaped defeat in the Lok (…)

by Sudhakar Vaddi
Despite severe economic sanctions, North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has conducted five nuclear tests and launched several long-range rockets including the latest Pukguksong-2 in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.1 To address the nuclear crises, the US, under President Donald Trump, announced a policy of ‘maximum pressure’ towards the impoverished North Korean regime. However, in spite of these harsh sanctions and (…)