2017

The recent elections in Uttar Pradesh were very important and the results have surprised most people. It is very important to try to understand the election results in an unbiased way with a view to learning from them.
For the sake of better understanding the causes of the massive win of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, these can be divided into three categories—(1) those relating to mistakes and weaknesses of other leading parties; (2) those relating to the very successful planning and (…)

After the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations by the Vishwanath Pratap Singh Government at the Centre in 1990, it has been only an Other Backward Classes or a Scheduled Caste leader in Uttar Pradesh at the helm, except for a five-year period from 1997 to 2002 when the only Bharatiya Janata Party Government formed after the Babri Masjid demolition had two upper-caste Chief Ministers, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh. [However, before Gupta and Singh there was a Backward (…)

by S.P. Shukla
A lot has been written about the results of the UP Assembly elections which seem to have confounded the critics as well as the participants in equal measure.
Much of what has been said is more of a description than analysis. Take, for example, the belated discovery, by participants as well as commentators, of a ‘Modi Wave’ or a ‘Modi March’.
Or for that matter, the tribute paid by a veteran Opposition leader that PM Modi is “the most dominant figure in politics today”. (…)

by L.K. Sharma
India is a happening place. It has just witnessed the rare event of a Hindu priest becoming the Chief Minister of its politically most influential State of Uttar Pradesh (UP). Ajay Singh Bisht became Yogi Adityanath and after the death of his “spiritual father” became the head of his religious establishment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned hard to win the State Assembly elections for his party and then ensured that the State is ruled by a monk in saffron clothes (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Bombay is burning. Sopore is burning.
Bombay marks the worst of Hindu-Muslim communal violence since the bloody days of the partition that came with the independence of India. The civil aministration having failed, the Army has been called in to put down killing and looting in the country’s commercial capital famous for its cosmopolitan culture.
And Sopore? The Border Security Force under constant attack from the militants fighting for Kashmir’s secession, (…)

We are back to square one. The Supreme Court has advised the two parties, those who want the Babri Masjid to be reconstructed and those who claim that the site is that of Lord Rama’s. In its judgment, the Court has advised the different parties to sit together and sort out the problems through negotiations.
One surprising part of the advice is that the Chief Justice of India is willing to mediate for an out-of-court settlement. He has said: “Give a bit and take a bit. Make an effort to (…)

MUSINGS
Doomsday for the State of Uttar Pradesh with the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister. Well, that was my first spon-taneous reaction as soon as that news had trickled in. And this reaction is getting com-pounded as disasters are getting unfolded. Within the very first two days of his appoint-ment hundreds are sitting jobless as slaughter houses and meat-shops have been shut or sealed in several towns of Uttar Pradesh—Allahabad, Lakhimpur Kheri, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, (…)

Leftist thinker Kobad Gandhy has sent this short piece for publication from Cherlapalli Central Jail, Cherlapalli, Medchal district, Hyderabad where he is currently lodged.
In the West the people have known since long that the mainstream/corporate media is filled with fake news and have thus turned to the social media. Now this is out in the open, with even prestigious newspapers/channels planting fake stories against Trump and crudely backing Clinton. Not that there was much to choose (…)

The question of a Uniform Civil Code is one of the most controversial issues in Indian politics today. The Uniform Civil Code is intended to replace personal laws based on customs and religion of the major communities of India by one common law covering marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance and governing every citizen.
Article 44 of Constitution, a Directive Principle, says that the State should endeavour to secure for all citizens an Uniform Civil Code through-out (…)

Syed Shahbuddin’s demise on March 4, 2017 came as a great personal loss to me. My association with Shahab, as I affectionately called him, dates back to our year of matriculation from the Patna University in 1950. After that, he joined the Science College and myself the adjacent Patna College of the university. Both of us completed our post-graduate studies the same year in 1956, he with Physics and myself with Economics, from the Patna University. After taking our Master’s degree, both of (…)