2019

IMPRESSIONS
In a democracy, a working majority is better than a brute majority. This is especially so in a country like India where the structure of democracy is honoured while the spirit is not. The effects of the brute majority enjoyed by the present government have been unhealthy as the actions and statements of its leaders frequently demonstrate. BJP leaders themselves must think where this is going to take the country, and indeed their party.
Consider, for example, an MLA going (…)

June 29, 2019 marked the 126th birth anniversary of Prof Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. On this occasion we reproduce the following piece by N.C. that appeared at the time of Mahalanobis’ birth centenary. This is particularly important now that the Narandra Modi dispensation has decided to completely devalue and destroy the Planning Commission which was painstakingly built during the days of the Nehru-Mahaalanobis model of development that charted out the path for the country’s self-reliant regeneration.

Shri Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner
Shri Ashok Lavasa, Election Commissioner
Shri Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner
Election Commission of India
Nirvachan Sadan
New Delhi
India
Sirs,
Serious Irregularities in the Conduct of General Elections, 2019
1. We are a group of former civil servants that takes up, from time to time, matters of exceptional national interest, seeking to remind our cherished democratic institutions of their responsibility to uphold the (…)

Tossed summarily from a train, Gandhi reset his glasses; A vision dawned, and the Empire Began to count its losses.
However thwarted, Chaplin, Brecht Said what they had to say; Chaplin and Brecht are still with us, The Fuhrer has gone his way.
Put away for a quarter century Alone in an island jail, Mandela stayed captain of his soul, And his truth saw an evil fail.
Rosa sat in a hands-off bus, Strong in her human truth; Driven by that simple epiphany, The black went to the polling (…)

by Krishna Jha
TRIBUTE
I refuse to shed tears for him. And refuse to accept him as a memory. He will be there, always, judging, advising, patiently listening to us for a stretch of time, then with a soft, stern smile, give one of his one-liners and our entire build-up would crash down. Then he would himself pick and choose the valid ones from the debris. That was him.
In the last room of the first floor of Ajoy Bhavan one could see him sitting at his table, doors ajar, any one could (…)

TRIBUTE
by B.K. Kango
Com Shameem Faizee was from Nagpur. During those days under the leadership of Com A.B. Bardhan and others Nagpur had a strong working class movement and party. Sensitive and intelligent, young Shameem was influenced by the movement and as a journalist and sub-editor of Hitavada (an English daily published from Nagpur) excelled in writing in English, Hindi and Urdu.
He came to Delhi initially to work in Ajoy Bhavan to help in publication of Hayat when Com C. (…)

EDITORIAL
In the wake of several developments at the national level, doubtless the most significant event of late has been the decision of Congress President Rahul Gandhi to step down from his post as the head of the grand old party. In a detailed letter to the party workers yesterday he has slammed the lid on any speculation that he might be persuaded to reconsider the decision to this effect he took soon after the 2019 parliamentary election results were declared giving the ruling party (…)

An Economic Survey is a document that surveys the economy in the financial year just past. So, it lists the issues confronting the economy and gives prescriptions for how to tackle these problems. Usually the solutions to the problems are presented in the Budget since resolution of problems requires allocation of resources which can only be done in a Budget. But most of the time the Budget does not follow the prescriptions in the Economic Survey. It is likely that this situation will not (…)

In the years immediately preceding World War II, Winston Churchill is quoted as having said: “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing expedients, of delays, is coming to its close ... ... in its place we are entering a period of consequences.”
World War II, purported to be a war to end all wars, ended in 1945 after the USA dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. It did not end wars, but it did have huge consequences, evidence of which is unfolding even today. Perhaps the (…)

by Mustafa Khan
The lynching of Tabrez Ansari was by means of threat and violence perpetrated with utter impunity for hours on end, nay, for days together. This is the darkest hour in the history of India which marks a departure of Narendra Modi from the first term as the PM since he remained silent in most of such cases instead of condemning them. It heralds the worst for the minorities. The miracle is that Tabrez survived to illustrate this fact of four days and then died. Sure sign of (…)