2017

by Krishna Jha
The cultural meaning of gender, like the cultural meaning of class, is evolved by men and women, according to the spaces they occupy in the society at its roots, and this meaning in itself is intensely political. The options and choices made about how to resist or assimilate and get involved in it are the issues of race, nationality, gender, and class.
It is in the context of these assertions and contradictions that the initiative by the Law Commission seeking views on (…)

by Gautam Sen
An international conference on the Palestine issue has been held in Paris on January 15, 2017, at the initiative of France and chaired by the French Foreign Minister, Jean Marc Ayrault. This was a follow-up to the earlier Paris Conference of June 3, 2016. The timing of the recent conference was significant because it was finalised just before the adoption of the UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2334 on December 23, 2016, which called for a two-state solution to the (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The menace of communalism looms large in this country today perhaps more than at any time before. With all the dire warnings being sounded repeatedly against the danger of destabilisation, the government so far has done very little to halt the advance of vicious communal hatred leading to orgies of violence in different parts of the country. It is amazing that while the Prime Minister concedes that there has been a deterioration in the communal situation—as he did at (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
Some historic comments never get stale. Marx opened his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte with these words: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” This has been quoted umpteen times on umpteen occasions by many people. Indeed, the decision of the Modi Government to allow Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Defence and Engineering to enter (…)

by Ashok Celly
Indian politics presents a distressing picture today. Both the ruling party and the Opposition have shown little regard for Parliament, the most important of our democratic institutions. Also, they seem to be totally indifferent to the suffering of the people even though they swear by them day in and day out. The last session of Parliament, which conducted zero business and thus set up a record of sorts, was the most deplorable demonstration of that.
The Opposition parties (…)

Veteran leader of the CPI-ML (Liberation) Sreelatha Swaminathan, 73, passed away in Udaipur (Rajasthan) in the early morning of February 5, 2017. She had suffered a brain stroke on January 28 night and was rushed to a hospital in Udaipur where she eventually breathed her last following a cardiac arrest.
Born in Chennai in April 1944 she joined the National School of Drama in Delhi after finishing college and later went to London to pursue dramatics. She returned to Delhi in 1972 and (…)

COMMENTARY
by Navneet Sharma and Divyanshu Patel
“Whosoever rules on water shall rule upon the earth”
If the speaker would have been aware of the politics and demographics of India he would have said something similar about the rule in UP and at New Delhi. In this commentary the argument is not only demographic but political rhetoric also. We will not only be looking at statistical reflections of the slated UP elections but the making of the popular mood and response to the governance (…)

by Nilofar Suhrawardy
Does the Ayodhya issue still have the same relevance that it had around 25 years ago? Undeniably, there still prevail several elements keen to make religious noise over the Ayodhya issue. But does their noise have the force, mass appeal and also the level of acceptance that it seemed to have two-and-a-half decades ago? There is a difference between simply making noise over any issue and the level of fervour that the same can excite. It is no secret that when this (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
In the wake of the bid by the ruling party at the Centre for communal polarisation against the backdrop of the impending UP Assembly elections, the relevance of the following article by N.C. after the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in the State on December 6, 1992 cannot be overestimated.
With December 6 only a month behind, it is too early to assess its long range fall-out. After the instant outburst of violence in different parts of the country, one (…)

by Ram Puniyani
The forthcoming UP Assembly elections (2017) are regarded as very crucial for all the political parties and more so for the future of secularism and democracy in the country. The BJP’s rise on the national scene began at a higher pitch with the Ram temple agitation and the consequent rise in communal violence. Since then it has been adding more divisive issues and with greater vehemence to reap electoral benefits.
Even before the elections in UP were declared, many a BJP (…)