2018

National Herald’s Editor-in-chief Neelabh Mishra, who had been admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai in February 2018, was critically ill with complications resulting from non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis. He breathed his last on February 24, surrounded by his relatives, friends and comrades. Tributes to Neelabh poured in from all quarters—from politicians of all stripes, from journalists across the country and from India’s grassroots movements fighting for equality and social change. Such was (…)

by Annapurna and Navneet Sharma
People eat mango kernel for hobby. —Agriculture Minister, Odisha
(seeking) Loan waiver has become fashion these days. —Venkaiah Naidu, former Minister, Vice-President, India
Farmers have been uncared for ever since India got freedom. Of late, they have been pushed to the walls, their pain has been ignored and they are exploited in name of development policies. The growth rate in rural agricultural employment during 1983 to 1993-94 was 1.38 per cent and (…)

IMPRESSIONS
The funny thing about the banking fraud that is rocking the country is that no one is accountable for it. The Finance Minister remained silent at first and then blamed the supervisory agencies—as though he was but an onlooker. His Cabinet colleague, the ever-unconvincing Ravishankar Prasad, blamed the Congress for the mess. He was no doubt seeing
Indira Gandhi’s bank nationalisation as the reason for the mess. Being a fair man, he didn’t blame the Italian grain merchants who (…)

by Manju Panwar
Introduction
It is said that the future of tomorrow is in the hands of children. But this is only possible if they are strong enough physically and mentally. They must be given adequate nutrition and health care facilities for making them strong. It is now acknowledged worldwide that the economic development of any nation depends upon the investment in human resources development. Children are the most important component of development not only because they are (…)

March Eight, the International Women’s Day, reminds us of the struggle of the working women, particularly of the garment workers on the streets of Chicago on March 8, 1908. It also reminds us of the 1911 strike on the same day in a textile factory in New York in which a group of women workers had died in a fire as they were locked up thereby preventing them from leaving before the working hour was over. This was the famous shirtwaist factory fire. At the Second International Conference of (…)

by Noor Zaheer
The much hyped Triple Talaaq Bill did not manage to go through the Rajya Sabha and the blame game has done the expected rounds with the Opposition and ruling parties accusing and counter-accusing each other and of course the media crying itself hoarse. This has become the square with the Muslim clergy forming the fourth angle and the Muslim woman, who was supposed to be the sufferer, the plaintiff and the beneficiary, being reduced to a non-entity.
Personal laws have been (…)

I have always wondered where we went wrong. After adopting a constitution which was secular in letter and spirit, we have strayed into the territory where every pebble is an impediment to the journey towards pluralism. India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, said on the night of August 14-15, 1947, in Parliament (what became popularly known as the ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech):
“The future beckons to us... We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem (…)

Our country is a federal state with its constituting units, namely, the States having autonomy of governance in the subjects allotted to them by the Constitution. Federalism is also one of the basic features of our Constitution. The constitution of Legislative Assemblies and of the State governments is also one of the autonomous functions of the State. The Union Government cannot interfere with the governance of the State except when there is a proclamation of Emergency under Articles 352, (…)

I’m not sure I know much about you. But they say you exist; that’s why the earth moves, life breathes.
Some also pronounce you’re long banished, probably dead, a bit of has-been now.
A few, however, claim mandates of heaven, each boasting of an exclusive frequency.
But ignorant, credulous as we remain, we hear about you in language they prefer to use.
Yet this much is sunlit my neighbour and I do exist, have to live in peace and harmony.
Why, then, is this deafening din of coiling (…)

I dance and sing
They think they’ve done no injury to me
I laugh and rejoice
They think they’ve been kind to me
I eat and feast
The think they didn’t snatch away my food
I speak and discuss
They think they didn’t gag me
I write and protest
They think they didn’t try to kill me
I rise and raise my hand
They think they didn’t put me down
I go to shops and buy a little
They think they didn’t steal my money
I paint and recite
They think they didn’t break my pen
I (…)