2019

by Vidya Subrahmaniam
As in 2014 and 2017, so too in 2019, the Jats of Western UP overwhelmingly voted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This time they voted in even larger numbers even though there was a clear alternative before them in the form of the gathbandhan, a three-way alliance among the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. It didn’t seem to matter to the community that the RLD was led by Ajit Singh, heir to the Jat legacy and son of the late Prime (…)

IMPRESSIONS
In the Congress party’s most inglorious hour, Rahul Gandhi struck a note that was gutsy and resolute. It was brave of him to expose the selfishness of some of his seniormost colleagues. His resoluteness over the issue of resigning became sagacious when he said that the Congress needed a President without the Nehru-Gandhi name. The air thus cleared, action must follow.
That politicians put self before country is a known truism of our times. But never has a party chief named (…)

by Beena Sarwar
The following is the text of a letter from Boston-based Pakistani academic and senior journalist Beena Sarwar to M.J. Vijayan, General Secretary of the India Chapter of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy.
Dear Vijayan,
At the end of Ramazan, sending good wishes to you and your fellow citizens in India from Pakistan.
With elections in your country over and Narendra Modi firmly back in the driving seat, will relations between our countries return to (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
Thirty years ago, N.C. had left for China when the Tiananmen bloodbath took place on June 4, 1989. Apart from his despatches which appeared in The Times of India and Mainstream on the tragedy that befell that great country at that time, he also wrote this detailed piece which was published in Mainstream (June 17, 1989). This was an enlarged version of an article in The Times of India (June 12, 1989).
The contours of the emerging set-up in China are still very blurred (…)

by Kushal Pal
This is for the first time since Haryana was formed in 1966 that the saffron party made a clean sweep by winning all ten seats in the State. The party secured 57.93 per cent votes, almost double of the Congress’ vote-share and an increase of 23.14 per cent as the BJP secured 34.84 per cent votes in 2014. The Congress failed to retain its sole Rohtak parliamentary seat though there is an increase of 5.45 per cent in its vote-share from 22.98 in 2014 to 28.44 per cent votes in (…)

We just proved that in the end It is not the economy, stupid. Hindutva armed with war-like purpose Is a more potent Cupid.
What if investment is zero now, And manufacture slightlessly lesser; So long as inspiring Hindutva icons Adorn the national Dresser.
Consumption, that third driving force Of the Economy’s GDP growth, May also have lost some appetite, And gone into the sloth;
And unemployment may be ubiquitous And farmers’ suicides at all-time high; All is well so long we say (…)

by Shiraz Sheikh
In the recently concluded Indian elections the Right-wing forces led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have recaptured power with a massive electoral mandate. The BJP won 303 seats out of the 543 seats with a 38 per cent vote-share. Series of opinion-pieces have been penned to make assessment of various facets of this outcome. Hindutva, anti-Muslim hatred, national security narrative, professional campaign, strong leadership of Modi, and a weak and divided Opposition have (…)

by Nayakara Veeresha
Introduction and Context
India witnessed massive farmers’ protests and rallies all over the country since the last two years. On November 29-30, 2018 tens of thousands of farmers had gathered in the Capital city of Delhi and demanded from the government a special session of Parliament to discuss the agrarian issues. This is a timely and just demand in the wake of an unprecedented and acute farming crisis. It reflects not only the failure of the government, but also (…)

In the last five years of BJP rule, a new India has come into being. The Muslims are being characterised as enemies of the people in the dominant discourse of Hindu nationalism. Instilling fear in the minds of the Muslims is an organic part of the making of this new India. The fear is articulated by the Muslim intelligentsia. Hilal Ahmed, an Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, recently wrote about the “unofficial political mechanism that has produced a (…)

by Prem Singh
[The language-question is again under discussion spotlight after the publication of the draft of National Education Policy (NEP) 2018. In the context, l recollect the day when of one of my articles titled ‘Official Language Vs Social Justice’, originally written in Hindi on the same subject, was to be presented at a five-day conference on ‘Indian Constitution and Social Justice’. The conference was held in Mysore under the joint auspices of the Indian Institute of Advanced (…)