2018

by L.K. Sharma
This article is in two parts, the following is the first part. The second part will be carried next week.
A lot depends on where you come from. It affects your way of seeing.
Arriving from the India of the eighties, it seemed only normal to hear the Dalai Lama addressing a congregation in a Christian church in London. Coming from India in 2018, one gets anxious hearing Hindu, Buddhist and Sufi chants in a Brighton church. Some fanatic Christians may come and disrupt the (…)

I find the followers of the secular ideology as fanatic as the others are. There was a furore over the visit of BJP President Amit Shah to my residence a few days ago. Criticism over telephone and e-mails were numberless. And all that they said was: “You should not have allowed him to visit you.”
I want to put the record straight. A couple of days before Shah’s visit, a few activists came to my house. We were together in the Jaya-prakash Narayan movement. They asked me if I had any (…)

by M.A. Sofi
The BJP juggernaut now sweeping large swathes of India seems unstoppable. Now with twentyone States out of a total of twentynine under its belt, it redounds to the highly effective and efficient administrative structure of the party that despite having precious little to show for its achievements on almost all fronts including economy and employment, its success at the hustings comes across as truly spectacular. However, it stands to reason if indeed its electoral successes (…)

Fortythree years ago on June 26, 1975, the Emergency was proclaimed throughout the country as the ruling leadership bared its fangs nakedly displaying its dictatorial proclivities. We present here write-ups and poems that bring back the nightmare of those dark days when our freedom was sought to be snatched away and our voice throttled. —Editor

My tablet and my pen,My two cherished treasuresAre snatched from me,But does it matter?For I have dipped my fingersIn the blood of my heart;My tongue they sealedBut does it mater? For,I have placed a tongueIn every link of chain That fetters me.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz

by S.R. Darapuri
The BJP’s chain of defeat, which started with the Gorakhpur and Phoolpur in Uttar Pradesh by- elections, has extended to defeats in Kairana and Noorpur. It has broken the invincibility myth of Modi and Amit Shah. If the Opposition parties succeed in joining hands to get rid of the unprecedented danger to the basic democratic values, institutions, society, culture and civilisation created during four years of Modi rule, it will definitely be good for the country and (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Dialogue is a core part of the democratic process. The question thus is: can there be a dialogue between two opposing ideologies, the one of Indian nationalism and the other of Hindu nationalism?
We witnessed a strange spectacle when the former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, a lifelong Congressman, arrived at the Nagpur headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the apex organisation promoting narrow, divisive, exclusive Hindu nationalism.
The decision of (…)

In current parlance, here is my “takeaway” on Pranab Mukherjee’s so tantalizing visit to the RSS Headquarters in Nagpur:
First, why was he invited? However Mohanji Bhagwat may have underplayed the occur-rence as a rather routine and innocent one, the invite was clearly loaded with political purpose.
That India is now run by an RSS-led Bharatiya Janata Party is all very well, but inviting a former President of the Republic to the RSS’ organisational den is quite another matter.
One (…)

by A.V.V.S.K. Rao
“From birth to death, our lives are affected in countless ways by the activities of government.” —Noble Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz
Introduction
The backdrop to the Narendra Modi Govern-ment’s fifth Budget has been a domestic economy confronted with a rather adverse global and domestic environment since 2015-16. The rural economy, particularly the agricultural sector, has been in a state of great turmoil. The Indian rural economy reeled under drought for two (…)

COMMUNICATION
All the great thinkers in history were in search of better worlds in their writings and thinking. The Indian Constitution represents our collective wisdom and suggests pathways for a better India. However, the values enshrined and the rights guaranteed in the Constitution are often violated in our everyday life in contemporary India. Our ‘constitutional morality’ should propel us to champion the individual and collective rights of the citizens and respect the plural culture (…)