2017

The life sentence given on March 7, 2017 to Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba by the Gadchiroli District and Sessions Court in the Maharashtra State of India is shockingly unjust. The court has convicted him and five others under the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Besides Saibaba, the five people convicted are journalist and social activist Prashant Rahi, Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hem Mishra and tribals Pandu Narote, Mahesh Tirki and (…)

In a bizarre, highly deplorable judgment delivered on Tuesday, March 7, Suryakant Shinde, Sessions Judge at the Gadchiroli District Court in Maharashtra, convicted Prof G.N. Saibaba (Delhi University), Prashant Rahi (journalist from Uttarakhand), Hem Mishra (cultural activist, student, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi), Mahesh Tirke, Pandu Narote and Vijay Tirke (tribals from Gadchiroli) and sentenced to life imprisonment the first five and the last to ten years imprisonment under Sections (…)

Delhi University teacher G.N. Saibaba has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his links with Maoists. With due respect to the Court, I beg to differ with the punishment. Maoists are ultra-Left and most people in India do not like their philosophy. Some who follow them can be criticised, but cannot be imprisoned for their views and that too for life.
It appears that the courts are also getting influenced by the party in power. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) believes in a Hindu (…)

TRIBUTE
Syed Shahabuddin (1935-2017), who breathed his last on March 4, 2017 at 6.22 am, was a former member of the Indian Foreign Service and one of the most articulate Muslim politicians of independent India. He bore a lot of responsibility for the Hindu backlash (which, in turn, has fanned Muslim fundamentalism, leading to militant postures in certain quarters) as a response to the Shah Bano case and Babri Masjid movement. Syed Shahabuddin, whose organisation of these two movements met (…)

MEDIA
by Krishna Jha
In a calculated move to not only muffle the freedom of expression, but to make the entire media subservient to finance capital, the government has come out with its plans to gag the print media as well as All India Radio.
Crushing the diversity in our compossite culture, an initiative has been taken by the BJP-led NDA Government to streamline the media and force singularity in the multi-lingual news services division of the All India Radio. Such steps have always (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The time has come when we can no longer afford to indulge in mutual recrimination. The time has come for us to hang our heads in shame.
What has happened at Moradabad is a blot on our patriotism. No amount of quibbling, finding fault with each other, can save us from the ignominy of having to face a situation in which citizens of this country were shot dead by the police for the crime of belonging to a minority community. It is an indication of the magnitude of (…)

These are days of great unease For the world’s residual democracies. A breed of no-nonsense ones Man the slogans and the guns. They suffer no uncertainties. They have outlived Socrates. Prickly bramble from the hedge Invade the centre from the edge. Slithering hates stand erect And spew venom to infect The disempowered innocent With purposeful murderous intent. The wise ones wait their turn Confident that the poisoned churn Will not but run its course And terminate in a giant remorse. (…)

by S. Sudhakar Reddy
Trumpism is at its height spewing racist venom! Already a newly married young Indian engineer had fallen victim while his colleague, also a personal friend, was hospitalised after having been gravely injured. The entire world—including Americans and his US colleagues who knew the victim—was shocked at the sudden turn of events and extended full support to the victim’s family. However, the White House, the seat of US power and headquarters of Trumpism, is yet to react (…)

The Annual Number of Mainstream (December 24, 2016) carried a piece titled ‘On Rosa Luxemburg and Russian Revolution’by Paresh Chattopadhyay (hereafter referred to as PC), a member of the Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Quebec, Montreal (Canada). Incidentally, PC, as far as this writer knows, has never claimed to be a Marxist but a Marxologist, that is, one who specializes in the theory of Marxism, rather than one who believes in it and accepts it.
Students of post-Revolution (…)

by Bhartendu Kumar Singh
Every time China and India hold any dialogue, the outcome is often marginal compared to the expectations. After all, the two countries have been involved in a series of protracted dialogues for more than 30 years without any visible solution to the outstanding border dispute and some other issues between them. The just concluded revamped strategic dialogue between China and India at Beijing should not be, therefore, judged from a pessimistic prism but from the (…)