2019

by Ram Puniyani
On this January 23, the BJP-RSS organised various programmes to honour Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. In one of these programmes, a clash took place leading to a curfew in Kendrapada, Odisha. In different meetings organised by the BJP-RSS an attempt was made to draw parallels between Bose and Savarkar, Bose and the RSS. A propaganda is on to show that it was on Savarkar’s suggestion that Bose undertook to tie-up with the Axis powers (Germany and Japan). Parallels are being (…)

TRIBUTE
by Shambhu Shrivastava
The best tribute to George Fernandes would be to acknowledge the fact that nobody, just nobody ever treated him as a Christian. He was always treated as a front-ranking leader of post-independence India. He was a true embodiment of the idea of India. This fact assumes great meaning in the times we live in when religious and caste identity of a person has become a badge of honour.
George was a lifelong rebel. His family sent him to a Christian seminary for (…)

by Arup Kumar Sen
An unparalleled political confrontation between the Centre and State of West Bengal took place in Kolkata on February 3, 2019, over an attempted questioning of the city’s Police Commissioner, Rajeev Kumar, by CBI officials in connection with the chit fund scams in the State. Reportedly, the CBI attempt to question the Police Commissioner was aimed at locating “crucial evidence” linked to the scams. The CBI team was briefly detained by the city police, and Central forces (…)

In an article on March 15, 2003, as storm clouds were gathering for the American invasion of Iraq, one of India’s best-known editors chastised our “entirely ignorant and non-serious politicians and public opinion” not to introduce “new stresses on our relations with the US” by spurning Washington’s invitation to Delhi to join the coalition of the willing. He warned that an irate George W. Bush might make us eat the humble pie in J&K. That was when, as then Deputy Chief of the Mission in (…)

by Shamsher Alam
As far as Indian democracy is concerned, Muslims are one of the important parts of the same. They are a decisive factor of Indian democracy. However, when it comes to map and comprehend their socio-political cons-ciousness and assertion, then it appears a vague picture altogether. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to understand and map the current socio-political assertion, consciousness and awareness of the Muslims in India today from three vantage points: first, the (…)

by D.M. Diwakar
The Union Budget is presented under the provision of “The Procedures of Financial Matters” in Articles 112 to 118 of the Constitution of India (GoI, 2015: 54-59), an intended financial proposal of the Union Government about its receipts and expenditure for the next financial year from the Consolidated Fund of India to attain the goals set by the Constitution of India in its Preamble. The NDA-II Government has presented five Union Budgets since 2014-15, which were already (…)

Anupam Kher’s film Accidental Prime Minister has targeted Dr Manmohan Singh who served for two terms and may be again acceptable for the job if his party regains power. But his tormentor, Narendra Modi, seems to be out of breath even before his first term is over. Disillusionment with him is so widespread and deep that people of India may not bear with him for another term. As the general elections approach again the difference between the two needs to be examined.
Manmohan Singh’s (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The time has come when we can no longer afford to indulge in mutual recrimination. The time has come for us to hang our heads in shame.
What has happened at Moradabad is a blot on our patriotism. No amount of quibbling, finding fault with each other, can save us from the ignominy of having to face a situation in which citizens of this country were shot dead by the police for the crime of belonging to a minority community. It is an indication of the magnitude of (…)

The fundamental postulate of any democratic justice system is that a few that may be guilty may go unpunished but not one that is innocent should be convicted.
In political terms, the concomitant postulate clearly must be that the least finger raised at the credibility of the electoral process must receive due and decisive notice and investigation from those incharge of supervising elections. This, for the reason that the primary pillar of the “basic structure” of the Indian Constitution (…)

by D.K. Giri
To read in the papers that the two days (February 5 and 6) in the last session of the 16th Lok Sabha were wholly washed out by disruptions is quite sad and painful for those watching the democratic institutions, mainly Parliament. It goes without saying that Parliament is the supreme law-making body, the ‘temple of our democracy’ as the PM-to-be Narendra Modi hailed it before being sworn is as the head of government. Remember, he head-saluted the stairs in 2014 while entering (…)