2018

COMMUNICATION
At a time of growing concern about the fast rising sexual crimes in India, it is important to draw attention to a neglected factor, that is, increasing alcohol and substance abuse in various forms, which also plays an important role in the rise of sexual crimes. This is evident from several studies in various parts of the world as well as recent news reports of sexual crimes in India.
The World Report on Violence and Health (WRVH) says that alcohol abuse is also an (…)

EDITORIAL
The campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections—the polling for which is scheduled to take place on May 12—is drawing to a close and there is as yet no clear winner in sight despite BJP chief Amit Shah’s braggadocio. But what is unmistakable is the fact that the poll speeches of PM Narendra Modi have been exceptionally low in standard and there is much strength in the view of electoral experts, apart from Congress stalwarts, that they don’t recall a PM having sunk to such (…)

TRIBUTE
by Prem Singh
His full name was Bhalchandra Bhai Vaidya but people used to call him Bhai Vaidya. I always addressed him as ‘Bhai’. In our village, it was an accepted norm to call a father ’Bhai’ and a majority of people followed this practice. I came in personal contact with Bhalchandra Bhai Vaidya after my father passed away, therefore I never really missed that close connection one feels with one’s father. Before the re-launching of the Socialist Party, he used to call me (…)

Co-Chairpersons of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (India Chapter) Dr Syeda Hameed and Tapan K. Bose and General Secretary of PIPFPD (India Chapter) Vijayan M.J. have issued the following statement after the demise of Dr Ashok Mitra.
Dr Ashok Mitra (1928-2018) is no more. Economist, politician, political and literary author, analyst, columnist, Dr Mitra was known to the world in many different contours, that truly reflected most of his life. For the members of the (…)

The following are reflections of a veteran CPI-M sympathiser after the party’s 22nd Congress at Hyderabad.
In an article titled “Two Faces” (The Telegraph, March 27), this writer had speculated on the possibility that the Party Congress of the Communist Party of India-Marxist might well rethink the earlier decision of its Central Committtee not to have any “alliance” or “understanding” with the Indian National Congress going forward.
Happily, intense and informed deliberations within the (…)

by Binoy Viswam
Members, sympathisers and friends of the CPI would consider the 23rd Congress of the party as a milestone in its history. But, the relevance of the Congress does not end there. It crosses the party barriers and would become something significant for the whole of Indian Left. The Congress held at Kollam, Kerala would be marked as a political catalyst that paved the path for building the broad platform of secular, democratic and Left forces to fight the menace of fascism. The (…)

by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
After I wrote ‘Why I am Not a Hindu’ and ‘Post-Hindu India’ the Brahmin-Banias (the castes that control the Hindu spiritual system and the whole business system of India) of Telugu States threatened to kill me. Several cases were filed against me. The intellectuals from these two most wealthy and most educated communities ask me: What is your philosophy? Why are you writing such books? These are important questions. Since I am challenging their religion after (…)

India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, proudly supported Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai. He had emerged after defeating the First Front Army commander, Chiang Kai Shek. The Chinese Premier had supported India’s movement for Independence when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said that the freedom of India was not dependent on the victory of Allies in the Second World War, which was a foregone conclusion when America declared support to Britain and such other democratic (…)

The following article is being published on the occasion of Marx’s bicentenary of birth that fell on May 5, 2018.
by Murzban Jal
In the domain of Political Economy, free scientific inquiry meets not merely the same enemies as in all other domains. The peculiar nature of the material it deals with, summons as foes into the field of battle the most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest. The English Established Church, e.g., will more (…)

TRIBUTE
by Sanjay Parikh
It is often difficult to write about a person with whom you were close for several decades. So many thoughts come to your mind, some are chronological, bound by time and events, but many are those, which are eternal, which constituted that person—his sensitivities, concerns, simplicity, love and compassion, to which you were a witness.
Justice Rajindar Sachar’s life can be easily encompassed by his achievements as a judge and later his immense contribution in (…)