2018

by Sardar Amjad Ali
With the 2019 parliamentary elections approaching, speculations over the electoral prospects of different political parties are getting more intense.
The ‘Journo-Mastradamus’ of our time is leaving no stone unturned in speculations as to who will get most of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha to form the next government.
Any government overtly running with the circuitous motive and clandestine process helps not only to break the popular unity and breed a conducive (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Rajeev Ranjan Sinha
Indian Federalism: Emerging Issues by S.K. Jain (ed.); Kalpaz Publications, New Delhi; 2017; 309 pp.; Price: Rs 900. ISBN: 978-93-5128-263-1
Federalism is best understood as a method of promoting self-rule and shared rule and of balancing the interest of a nation with that of a region. A federal system is the constitutional arrangement that gives federalism its institutional form. India’s federal democracy has developed through successive phases of (…)

by Shushwi Ke
The present crisis in society is the result of systemic failure of the sites of learning in all branches. The Indian education system, either the schooling or higher education, has taken the form of utmost utilitarian or instrumental character. At a time when societal change and transformation is being witnessed at the surface level, the perception of society towards education has dramatically changed. The aspiration of citizens, particularly the ‘new middle class’, has taken (…)

by Jagannath Sarkar
Jagannath Sarkar, who passed away in April 2010, was among those who led the spectacular rise of the CPI in Bihar in the 1960s and 1970s. He was among a handful of Bihar CPI leaders who envisioned the crisis in the CPI in the mid-1970s. On his first birthday after he passed away—he was born on September 25, 1919—the following article by him came out in English on September 25, 2011. It gives a glimpse of the debate on new caste assertions in the CPI. It was written by (…)

by Mustafa Khan
Those who study literature, as M.J. Akbar did, must have had a nobler mind and shunned from descent into darkness of their own heart. His case is of the rarest type. It turned out to be topsy-turvy. How could he fall so precipitously! Why did the almighty hurl him headlong into the bottomless pit of hell! The aspiring young journalists (mostly women so far) whom he abused over decades were more concerned to make journalism a means of making a decent living. How traumatised (…)

EDITORIAL
While the Election Commission has laid out the schedule for the Assembly elections in five States (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram), the poll campaign has yet to begin in right earnest even if leaders of all political parties, notably BJP chief Amit Shah, PM Naredra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi, have started addressing public rallies in the concerned States in preparation for the polls (whose results would be known on December 11). It is (…)

TRIBUTE
Swami Sanand breathed his last at a hospital in Rishikesh on October 11, the 111th day of his fast for the protection of the Ganga river. Known earlier as Prof G.D. Aggarwal, he was widely regarded as one of the most respected authorities on protection of the Ganga river.
After a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, he taught at the IIT and served as the Member-Secretary, Central Pollution Board. Then he took up sanyas and devoted himself to protection of the (…)

The Indo-Russian defence deal, signed last week during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi, is a significant development. To make this deal possible, hectic behind-the-scene activities took place. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had to work overtime to persuade Washington to exempt India from the purview of the draconian “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act”, CAATSA for short, which stipulates imposing sanctions on any country doing certain types of (…)

DOCUMENT
The following is the Joint Statement issued after the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India and the fruitful talks held by the Russian delegation headed by him and the Indian delegation led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on October 4-5, 2018.
Prime Minister of the Republic of India H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi and President of the Russian Federation H.E. Mr. Vladimir V. Putin met for the 19th edition of the Annual Bilateral Summit in New Delhi on October (…)

by M.M. Khajooria
It is established that there have been surgical strikes across the LoC in the past. So what was special about the last surgical strike meriting so much of publicity and controversy culminating in observance of the Parakram Parv anniversary? The Vice Chief of Army Staff has finally placed the episode in perspective. In answer to a question of the anchor on a national TV channel, the Vice Chief cited three distinguishing features of this particular controversial surgical (…)