2017

by Duryodhan Nahak
Education is being increasingly viewed as a significant tool of empowering the weaker sections of the population including differently abled persons. Education as a discipline of social science not only helps in transmitting cultural and civilisational values from one generation to another, but it plays a vital role in helping physically challenged persons like their other counterparts to live with dignity and honour, confidence and independence. Physically handicapped, (…)

COMMUNICATION
With the BJP gaining strength by hook or by crook almost all over India and forming more and more State governments, the question of mobilising a strong and durable democratic Opposition is becoming more and more important. Some Opposition leaders are thinking in terms of a very broad mobilisation of various Opposition parties and groups. This is sometimes referred to as a mahagathbandhan.
The mobilisation of such a mahagathbandhan had proved effective in defeating the BJP (…)

EDITORIAL
On April 3, that is, last Monday, chiefs of missions of 43 African countries based in India sharply reacted to the brutal assaults on four Nigerian students at a Greater Noida mall sometime back and charac-terised such an attack—one in a series of similar incidents—as “xenophobic and racial in nature” while lamenting that the Government of India took no “known, sufficient and visible” deterrent action.
The External Affairs Minister, herself a highly conscious personality (…)

The suggestion of the Chief Justice of India to even act as a mediator in the pending Babri Masjid demolition case, showed his concern but it was a little odd considering that it came at the instance of an inter-meddler, and without the parties involved being before the Court— that is why it caused amongst the parties a certain concern. In my view, the Babri Masjid demolition case is not a matter for compromise. This case raises the deep concern regarding our Constitution which clearly says (…)

Among the first decisions of the Yogi Aditya-nath Government in Uttar Pradesh were the ones to ban abattoirs and form anti-Romeo squads. First it was said that all slaughterhouses will be closed but later the government retracted and it was clarified that only illegally operating ones will be closed. But the atmosphere created due to this arbitrary order was that even ordinary meat shops were closed. This included other kinds of meat as well—mutton, chicken, etc. A large number of people, (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The time has come when we have to seriously ask ourselves if we are really serious about preserving in one piece this Republic of India. Many in our country think that to talk about disintegration of the Indian Union is just a fantasy with an over-dose of panic. They can’t take it that we may have taken the road to Bosnia.
Three months ago, this impression was wide-spread. It can’t happen here—was the average Indian reaction when the mighty USSR fell apart without a (…)

The first ever Namasudra History Congress, held on February 18-19, 2017 at Calcutta, was a novel event for the academic and cultural calendar of the Bengalis. Attended by Nama-sudra scholars, researchers, educationists and activists from various parts of India, the Congress attracted participants from Bangladesh too. The Namasudra Thinkers and Activists Forum organised the two-day symposium. Their objectives and purposes were outlined by Dr Atul Krishna Biswas, a retied IAS and former (…)

by L.K. Sharma
This article was written much before the results of the recently held State Assembly elections came out.
Fidel Castro is dead but a leader determined to unleash a cultural revolution has risen in democratic India. On one dramatic night, an elected Prime Minister announces his decision to purge India of financial corruption and people the nation with honest citizens. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one fell swoop, killed 86 per cent of the currency notes in circulation as (…)

This article was written before the results of the five State Assembly elections came out and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was elected the Chief Minister of Goa thus resigning from the Union Cabinet.
UPA-1 and UPA-2 PM Dr Manmohan Singh staked his “kursi” on concluding two strategic agreements with the USA: The New Framework Agreement for US-India Defence Relationship between the US Secretary of Defense and the Indian Defence Minister, on June 28, 2005; and The US-India Joint (…)

by K. Narayana
As per news reports, the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, has invited university teachers from all over the country in order to hold a seminar on “Parting with Colonial Ways—Imbibing Nationalism”.
The RSS and its off-shoot organisations had never raised a finger against British colonialism and remained aloof from the freedom struggle. They had in fact actively collaborated with the British authorities to sabotage the struggle for freedom. None of their founders was a part of (…)