2018

I was a foetus: the future crown
of womanhood, growing
in the warmth of your womb,
cradled in a web of dreams:
for you the caring motherhood,
for me an ever receding skyline.
Suddenly something happened;
you started miscarrying;
frantically your fingers moved
over the belly to feel
if my heart was beating.
A faint, assuring movement
throbbed beneath your palm.
Then it grew fainter and fainter,
ceasing to pulsate any longer.
And you asked for a termination.
But (…)

First we give you bagfuls
To make government,
Then you commit not to meddle
With our profit-piling hunt.
But when people demonstrate
Against our killer-loot,
You promptly send the troopers
To take aim and shoot.
Thus it is that you and we—
Government and Corporate—
Define the nationalist feature
Of the proud and ideal State.
Government by, of, and for
The men with currency
Is thus the improved version
We provide of democracy.
Badri Raina

The decline of the National Democratic Alliance is by now a dated story. The few partners of the Bharatiya Janata Party—who are still formally in the Alliance—may be understood to be in the throes of a judicial separation, pending divorce. The contest in a Maharashtra bypoll directly between the BJP and Shiv Sena tells its own story. The Akalis may eventually have nowhere else to go, but this may not be the case with the mercurial JD(U); should the Hindutva forces create mayhem leading upto (…)

by Binoy Viswam
Developments in Karnataka conveyed an important message to the nation. It marked the beginning of the end of the authoritarian rule of the BJP in the country. All secular, democratic and Left forces are expected to draw appropriate lessons from Karnataka. The CPI, being the first political party that has called for a broad platform of secular forces to face the fascist threat, naturally feels proud while evaluating the ups and downs in Karnataka. Those developments (…)

However justified Delhi’s Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Cuoto may be in calling fellow Catholic Christians to pray for a change of government at the Centre, he is guilty of committing a grave mistake of mixing religion with politics. In a pastoral letter, he has asked fellow priests to pray and fast for change in the 2019 elections, arguing that India faces a turbulent political future which threatens the country’s democratic polity.
Today, when India as a nation faces attacks from fascist (…)

by Ram Puniyani
In the recently held Karnataka elections, Narendra Modi made statements which are not true, and which are made to raise the emotive pitch against his opponents. In a blatant lie, in a rally in Bidar, he asked: “When Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Batukeshwar Dutt, Veer Savarkar, greats like them were jailed fighting for the country’s independence, did any Congress leader went to meet them?...” One is surprised as to how this can be an electoral issue today! The central tactic of the (…)

During the first two decades of the 21st century it has become increasingly clear that this is going to be the most critical century of human history in the sense that survival issues or existential issues created by human activities are likely sooner then later to have an over-whelming impact. Among environmental issues there are climate change and at least eight or and nine other issues (like freshwater shortages, species extinction and drastic changes in oceans as well as land use). (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
One of my earliest reporting experiences was the great Calcutta killing of 1946. Fierce communal passions were unleashed and thousands were done to death on both sides in the course of a couple of days. But behind that gory carnage was the fight for the city of Calcutta: who should get it? Pakistan or India? Religious beliefs are made use of to rouse mass anger among innocent people, but those who whip up such passions do so only for political gains.
In our immediate (…)

IMPRESSIONS
The time gap between voting day and results day is one of the afflictions of democracy. The tension is excruciating when it’s an election that will decide the temper of life for a considerable length of time. Will the freedoms we have taken for granted for 68 years continue as before, or will they be amended by a new set of values with new definitions of freedom and democracy? To know the answer, we must necessarily live through the pressure of waiting. One way to
cope is to (…)

MUSINGS
I’m finding it impossible to grasp the ruthlessness meted out to rape victims in this country. Take the case of the eight-year-old girl raped and murdered in Kathua, on the outskirts of Jammu, and also that of the 16-year-old girl raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao. In both the cases the rapists were more than identified and well within the jurisdiction of the State to have been nabbed and nailed immediately, yet look at the way hurdles are getting thrown in the way. Not to be (…)