2019

by R.G. Gidadhubli
Central Asia

MUSINGS
Wondering aloud: Is the Modi-Trump

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
The final results of Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls are yet to come, but the broad picture is clear enough. In Maharashtra the BJP’s loyal propagandists masquerading as psephologists had been predicting the party would make a clean sweep by winning about 230 to 240 seats. They have been found to have gone very wide of the mark. But they need not be either ashamed or apologetic. They have loyally served their paymasters.
In the event the BJP has ended up at 160 (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Bhakti, devotion or hero-worship is an important element in Indian politics, unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country. If in religion Bhakti is the road to spiritual redemption, in politics it is the boulevard for attaining material and socio-political stature.
Leaders are to be admired. There is nothing wrong with it. Admiring a leader has been an old phenomenon, but in recent times it has acquired the vulgar character of (…)

by Ram Puniyani
The RSS is the major organisation influencing politics and other aspects of our society for the last nearly three decades. As such it has the agenda of a Hindu Rashtra, and it politics is called Hindutva, which is the politics based on elite, Brahminical Hindu values. While the dominance of Hindutva poltics is self-evdent what is less known is that it is the outcome of over nine decades of continuous work on the part of the RSS.

by Mustafa Khan
There is arcane silence in the Kashmir Valley. It is fraught with the danger that there is some sinister conspiracy of tiring out the enemy by prolonging the lockdown and continuing the stasis of hunting with the wolf and playing with the hare. Or, even worse. After two months of wait and watch they are now tapping slogans, watching raising of flags, monitoring rumours, recording intimidation and scrutinising posters to find out what the mood is there and the direction in (…)

by Kunal Kumar Yadav
The emergence of new caste-class equation in India is a phenomenon which needs serious attention and an indepth analysis. The movement of the lower castes’ affiliation towards the cultural narrative has given a new direction to the political process in India. Caste, as it was seen a decade earlier, has completely changed its structure and interactive mechanism. The new prosperity which has come to India in the post-liberalisation, post-globalisation phase has (…)

If

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
In 1967, that is, fiftytwo years ago, N.C. visited the Kashmir Valley for a few days and held detailed discussions with a wide cross-section of opinion-makers and political personalities of all shades there. On his return he wrote

by Prannv Dhawan and Anmol jain
Introduction
The downgrading of the credentials of India’s constitutional democracy has been a subject of severe domestic and global critique in recent times. Nevertheless, the Indian diplomatic positions in the global fora continue to emphasise upon its track record as a vital constitutional democracy with sound judicial safeguards to protect human rights. When this contradiction is analysed from a historical perspective, the warning signs for the (…)