2017

From N.C.’s Writings
We as a nation are proud of the fact that we are a secular democracy. The test of our secularism does not consist in our protestations, however loud these may be, but in the manner we conduct ourselves towards the minorities who live and toil in this far-flung Republic of ours. Not only have we as a nation to ensure security to the minorities but should be able to instil into them a sense of security through our conduct. It is this challenge the nation faces today. (…)

by Kadayam Subramanian
Professor Randhir Singh, who passed away on January 31, 2016, was a truly eminent Professor of Political Theory in the University of Delhi. The first anniversary of his passing away was fittingly observed with the First Randhir Singh Memorial Lecture delivered on January 31, 2017 by the distinguished scholar/journalist, Bernard D’Mello.
The occasion also witnessed the release of the volume Selected Writings of Randhir Singh with an introduction by Professor (…)

TRIBUTE
by Mahtab Alam
In Delhi, the Panj Pira Qabristan adjacent to Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti, 82-year-old Syed Shahabuddin was laid to rest on Saturday (March 4, 2017) afternoon.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Foreign Secretaries Muchkund Dubey and Salman Haider, senior journalist and editor of Mainstream weekly Sumit Chakravartty and noted social activist Swami Agnivesh were some of the prominent people who were present there. He (…)

There have been three recent incidents of attacks on Indians in the United States and it remains to be seen whether they are the manifestation of a “new normal”. A combustible mix is forming in America’s political economy.
The racial bigotry in that country is legion. Even an “African-American” President couldn’t make difference to the entrenched racial prejudice amongst white people against fellow country-men with dark skin.
But what makes the current situation parti-cularly dangerous (…)

EDITORIAL
While the BJP stalwarts, including PM Narendra Modi, continue their communally polarising campaign in the last phases of the UP Assembly elections, the RSS’ student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has resorted to threats and intimidation against its adversaries among the students. Lately a 20-year-old student of English literature in Lady Shri Ram College has had to face the ABVP’s ire. She had changed her Facebook profile picture to her holding a placard (…)

As the multi-phased UP Assembly elections progress, PM Modi as the only mascot of the BJP’s campaign is becoming more belligerent in his communally polarising rhetoric. Speaking at an election rally on (February 20, 2017) at Fatehpur, the PM, while raising the issue of appeasement of the Muslim minority in the State by the current Samajwadi Party Government, went to the extent of declaring: “Ramzan me bijli ati hai to Diwali me bhi ani chahiye; Bhedbhav nahi hona chahiye (If there is (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
To build a temple to mark the brithplace of Ram, a mosque was destroyed by deceit.
Those who swiftly and competently did the demolition job on Sunday (December 6, 1992), did so before the very eyes of those leaders who had been assuring Parliament and the public that the disputed structure would not be harmed until the dispute itself was settled by negotiations or through the due process of law. The UP Government, which was manned by the party which supported the (…)

With the newly-formed SP-Congress alliance making waves in the Uttar Pradesh elections, it is natural for most members and supporters of these two political parties to feel upbeat about the prospects of this alliance. This article, however, is not about them or their taken-for-granted support. Instead this article is about the largely non-committed voters and why they too may be increasingly attracted towards this new alliance.
Let me start by analysing my own thinking, although I am not a (…)

MUSINGS
After twelve years, two innocents and one ‘half-innocent’ walked out free from the confines of the Tihar Jail, yet not a word of apology and nor a rupee in terms of compensation from the state to the three Kashmiri men—Hussain Fazili, Rafiq Shah and Tariq Ahmad Dar. They were arrested on charges of plotting and carrying out terror strikes in New Delhi in 2005.
A Delhi court said the police “miserably failed” to prove charges against them. Of the three accused of plotting and also (…)

by Sanjal Shastri
When Donald Trump was elected as the US President in November 2016, foreign policy observers predicted an era of uncertainty. If the first few weeks of President Trump are anything to go by, we will have to expect the unexpected. What do the first few weeks of the Trump Administration have the say about his foreign policy over the next four years? What impact would these have on the US’ allies? These are questions many around the world have been asking since November (…)