2018

by Ram Puniyani
On August 17 (2018), during the funeral procession of the former Prime Minster of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Swami Agnivesh was assaulted outside the BJP head office, when the Swami was trying to participate in the procession. The assaulters, some members of the crowd, began to heckle him and then they physically attacked him. They were raising the slogans, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Deshdrohi Wapas Jao (Go Back Anti-National)’.
A month ago, in Pakur, Jharkhand, Agnivesh (…)

The following is a statement by Debabrata Biswas, General Secretary of the All India Forward Bloc, on the demise of Somnath Chatterjee.
The All India Forward Bloc place on record its deep sorrow and heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of Somnath Chatterjee, the former Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a veteran as well as outstanding parliamentarian.
He was a known face for Left politics in Parliament for years together. The void created due to his absence in Parliament cannot be filled. (…)

Over 40 lakh people in Assam, mostly belonging to the Muslim community, found their names excluded from the “complete draft” of the NRC, released in Guwahati on July 30, 2018. The BJP Government has already passed the burden of this document on to the Supreme Court. In the context of criticisms of this document, the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, stated: “I want to make it clear that the government has no role to play. Whatever is happening is being done under the supervision of the (…)

by Binoy Viswam
While presiding over the founding conference of the AITUC in 1920, the legendary freedom fighter, Lala Lajpat Rai, classified truth into two—one, the workers’ truth and the other, the capitalist truth. That classification remains valid even after 98 years. In the present day Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the apt person to be termed as the classical exponent of capitalist truth. From his Sangh Parivar school of fascist propaganda he has mastered the skill of depicting the (…)

by Pratip Chatterjee
Former Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee passed away on August 13, 2018 and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee passed away on August 16, 2018. This article attempts to highlight the parliamentary ethics they demonstrated in their political and public careers, something exemplary in contemporary India.
Introduction
Indian parliamentary democracy has come a long way since independence with the effect that a post-colonial indigenous form of (…)

August 15, 1947 was a historic day in the eventful history of India. India won independence after a long and heroic struggle against the British colonial masters. India’s independence was also a milestone in the ongoing anti-imperialist liberation struggles the world over.
In India all those who dreamt of an independent India and survived to see it happen were jubilant and, despite the gloom due to communal violence, celebrated this amazing day with great passion. However, there was one (…)

What strikes one’s notice is the editorial of the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, in its ‘Independence Day Special’ dated August 19, 2018. It states: “The ideals of democracy, secularism and socialism... were non-Bharatiya”(!) This at a time when the country (‘Bharat’) has just celebrated its 72nd Independence Day. The RSS not only denies secularism and socialism, but also democracy. It has not a single word to say on the great democratic structure built after independence, using which it has (…)

MUSINGS
Shots of the flood fury raging in Kerala are enough to jolt if not leave a lasting impact on the very psyche. Of course, Kerala floods are a national calamity. These floods have destroyed lives and livelihoods of thousands and a great majority of the survivors will find it very difficult to contain the damage along the emotional and financial strains.
Sit back, close your eyes, think how would you react if you see your home and all the belongings in it, getting washed away in (…)

The father of the Bangladesh nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated with his entire family (except his two daughters who were not in the Bangladesh capital at that time) in Dacca on August 15, 1975. The following article is being published in that connection.
When the “Bangladesh War” ended on December 16, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder President of the Awami League party of Pakistan, was in Pakistan where he was detained since the military crackdown in Dacca (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by K.S. Subramanian
Kashmir Intifada: A Memoir by A.M. Watali; Gulshan Books, Srinagar; 2017; pp. 543; Price: Rs 1495.
The author of this book, Ali Mohammad Watali, was the Deputy Inspector General of Police, J&K at the start of the popular unrest over official Indian policies in Kashmir. The discontent became manifest in 1988-89 with the departure of radical youths to Pakistan to take up arms against India and engage in pursuit of intifada or resistance. The book (…)