2019

by Sonia Malik
Abstract
The Fairness Doctrine is a mechanism that imposes affirmative responsibilities on a broadcaster to issue airspace to discuss the problems of public importance that is important and reflects differing viewpoints. This review paper discusses exactly the role of Fairness Doctrine in promoting local accountability, its historical background, the role of social media and electronic media, challenges faced by broadcasters, and finally the advantages of the fairness (…)

All is not lost.
The young still feel the sting
Of oppression.
Setting aside the quiescent
Counsel of terrified time,
They rise, singing a defiant rhyme.
Women, dragged by the hair,
Lead the march of assertion
Against the strategy of fear.
While the batons of state
Sought the men for correction,
Women in hijab shielded the men.
A new dauntless beauty was born,
Promising a conjoint dawn.
From Arunachal to Chennai,
From Punjab to the Hooghly
The roar goes up—“we (…)

EDITORIAL
Today is December 5, 2019. Four months ago, on August 5, 2019 the Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution were revoked and severe restrictions were imposed on Kashmir and Kashmiris residing in the Valley which was subjugated with the massive deployment of security forces while the J&K State was turned into two Union Territories—those of J&K and Ladakh which were both brought under Centre Rule. For the last several weeks the Centre has been claiming that normalcy has (…)

Just five years in power have made the BJP so arrogant, so intolerant and so haughty! These five years have inflated its oversized collective ego so much that it has started equating itself with India, the Indian nation, the Indian people. Any criticism of the BJP is, ipso facto, an anti-national act, an act of treason. It discovers a mare’s nest in every bush.
The recent observation of Rahul Bajaj, the Chairman of the Bajaj Group of Industries, that there is an “atmosphere of fear” (…)

by Ayushi Golwara
A woman boards a Delhi Metro at 11.20 pm, sees around and gets to know that there are only five men in that metro and NO woman. She regrets it the entire time, that why did she not see before boarding the metro, thinks of all the possible scenarios including gang-rape plus death, tries to keep checking out all the possible emergency buttons present, number 100 is on the dialer already. Finally the metro stops at the next station, and another woman boards it and she feels (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
It was a massacre of innocents by all counts. What happened at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in the early morning of December 3 was not just a tragedy but a heinous crime which killed nearly two thousand and hospitalised countless others, brings out something much more ghastly than the hazards of modern industrialisation.
The enormity of the crime—unprecedented in our times—lies not merely in any negligence on the part of the workers and superintending staff (…)

Human Rights Day is observed on December 10 every year commemorating the day, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark the occasion we are reproducing the following article N.C. wrote twentyseven years ago.
Human Rights: Basic Issues
The government’s decision to set up a National Human Rights Commission is a significant indication of its being able to read the signs of the times. The Prime Minister has made the eloquent claim (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Lately committing of suicide in higher places of learning has been in the news more often than before. Most of the victims belong to the Dalits, Adivaisis in particular, while a few others have also done so due to academic pressures. In the case of Rohith Vemula, it was a case of caste discrimination and his activities as Rohith was labelled as anti-national. Two other cases which stand out are that of Payal Tadvi, an aspiring gyanecologist, and Fathima Lathif, who was (…)

by Kavaljit Singh
On November 4, India announced its decision to exit the negotiations on the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) —a mega-regional free trade agreement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed the decision at the third RCEP Summit that took place in Bangkok. The summit was attended by the leaders of all the 16 RCEP Participating Countries (RPCs).
The full text of PM Modi’s address at the RCEP Summit is not yet available, but according to a tweet by (…)

by Mahendra Ved
While announcing that it was not joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partner-ship (RCEP) “for now”, India has rightly indicated that it was postponing the decision. It must join, sooner than later, if it wants to play a leading role in its region, now billed as “Indo-Pacific”.
It had rejected overtures to work with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) due to Cold War compulsions and took long to catch up. It cannot now afford such delays.
This (…)