2019

by Mahendra Ved
The BJP leadership has to make a clear choice between Mahatma Gandhi and Nathuram Godse because the two are mutually incompatible
Now that dust has settled on the most contentious election India has ever had, it is time to look at a sensitive issue that cropped up during the campaign: demonisation of Mahatma Gandhi and deification of his assassin, Nathuram Godse.
It is important because it has figured in public discourse in the past, even before the election and will (…)

by Somdeb Lahiri
Historically, Leftist politics has been identified with socialist ideology—whether democratic or reformist or revolutionary. The socialist ideology emphasises the extension of democracy to the workplace. The process of production requires the application of labour to land and/or capital, to convert inputs into outputs. The socialist position upholds democratic and participative management which provides a primary role to the workers in the decision-making activities in the (…)

In the last few days we have lost from our midst two outstanding creative personalities—Ruma Guha Thakurta, 84, who has been aptly described as a “cultural icon who straddled multiple disciplines with ease”, and Girish Karnad, 81, a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford where he studied Mathematics besides seamlessly moving across responsibilities and roles—from being the President of the Oxford Union (1962-63) to taking over as the Director of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) (1974-75) (…)

EDITORIAL
Two weeks have passed since the results of the 17th Lok Sabha polls were announced on May 23, 2019. However, even now the scale of the NDA’s, and in effect the Modi-Shah-led BJP’s, victory is still being debated in various fora and the sense of disbelief at the magnitude of the ruling party’s and/or coalition’s success has yet to be dispelled.
Let us delve into the issue of the reasons behind the astounding BJP victory. Several people have ascribed the BJP’s success to the (…)

by Satya Sagar
In an era where national elections have become a strange cross between an episode of Big Boss and twenty-twenty cricket, it has become quite difficult to take the end results very seriously. This is even more so when there is widespread suspicion of the poll itself being rigged through massive deletion of names from voter lists and possible tampering with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) used.1
Yet, what does one really do when a man you think is a hate-mongering (…)

by I.A. Rehman
The following piece appeared in the Pakistani publication, Dawn, on May 30, 2019.
By giving Modi’s BJP a landslide victory, the Indian electorate has dealt its country a blow that might take a long time to recover from. The outcome of the polls has virtually buried India’s ideal of secularism and tightened the hold of crooks and the vulgar rich over the House of the People.
The main plank of the BJP’s election strategy was a pledge to complete India’s transformation into (…)

by Rana Ayyub
On May 17, just before the end of the election season, Indian journalists were abuzz with news that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would give his first-ever press conference. Modi has been the only Prime Minister in the history of independent India not to take questions from the press. But instead of a news conference, Modi delivered a monologue. When asked to take questions, he looked to his left, to Amit Shah, then the President of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Shah (…)

by Partha Chatterjee
The Narendra Modi triumph has been built on two projects: one, the representation of Modi as the unquestioned populist leader who could be trusted to defend the nation’s security, and two, the long-term project of a nationalism defined by the Hindu majority.
Although it is not incorrect to explain the stunning electoral victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the success of populist politics, this overlooks the fact that the result was actually a combination (…)

by Mahendra Ved
Given majority in both Houses of Parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s second term in office may see a renewed push in the majoritarian agenda.
This must begin with an apology for failing to discern the Tsunami that has brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a landslide victory in India’s Elections 2019.
Churlish though it sounds, the fact is that none noticed it. A very toxic and polarising campaign that raised the decibels of rival claims high even as it brought (…)

by Ram Puniyani
The results of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are out and the ruling BJP-led NDA has come back to power, with the BJP increasing its percentage of votes and the number of seats. This came as per the prediction of the BJP leaders, particularly Amit Shah who stated before the results that the BJP will cross the three hundred mark. While the BJP was overjoyed and its supporters hysterical with joy, many of those in Opposition and also those struggling for upholding of democratic (…)