2019

by A.K. Biswas
The demand for an inclusive judiciary is almost a century old, if not longer. When the Indian Statutory Commission with John Simon as its Chairman—also known as the Simon Commission—visited the Indian subcontinent in 1928 for consulting as also assessing public opinion for constitutional measures in the light of experiences obtained through the operation of the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, the Bengali Depressed Classes, the euphemism for the untouchables, submitted two (…)

by M.A. Sofi
Conflict, they say, is the continuation of state policies by other means. Which is why attempts shall continue to be made by the state institutions to ignite passions between castes and communities, on the one hand, and to scuttle the prospects for the resolution of conflicts both within the country and without, on the other. What the people of this country have gone through over the past close to five years, it is becoming increasingly clear that in the tool kit of the BJP (…)

RETURN TO ARMED VIOLENCE AS THE DOMINANT REFERENCE-POINT AND SECURITISATION OF THE KASHMIR DISCOURSE
M. Ibrahim Wani and Saima Farhad
In the year 2018, more than 250 local militants have been killed in operations by the state security forces in Kashmir; this includes a 14-year-old militant, a university lecturer of sociology, Ph.D scholars, a drama actor, engineering graduates, ex-soldiers etc. (Javaid, 2018) Adding 144 civilians and 86 security force personnel to this toll, the number (…)

by Ram Puniyani
The hierarchical Indian caste system has been a big obstacle to the journey towards equality. With independence and the coming into being of the Constitution, provisions were made for the socially backward classes, and for reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Later, in 1990 V.P. Singh, when faced with a threat to his power from Chaudhary Devi Lal Chautala, implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission report, giving 27 per cent (…)

BOOK REVIEW
People’s Movements in Pakistan by Aslam Khwaja; The Marginalised Publication, Wardha and Delhi; 2017; Rs 800.
At a time when there is so much communal polarisation in our country with a spate of hate politics towards minorities, particularly the Muslims, manufactured by a series of distorted historical facts and endorsed by a Right-wing government whose sole aim is the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra by poisoning the minds of the ordinary people with slogans of ‘Hindi, (…)

FOCUS ON MIDDLE EAST
by Purusottam Bhattacharya
Introduction
Turkey has been a nation in turmoil in recent times. It was buffeted from one crisis to another ever since the beginning of the civil war in Syria—with which it shares a long border—in March 2011. It has been grappling with the fallout of the Syrian civil war—primarily the influx of millions of Syrian refugees fleeing the wanton brutality at home as also their usage of Turkey as a gateway to Europe—its recent involvement in (…)

by L.K. Sharma
Foreign reporters coming to cover India’s general election in a few months ought to dive deep into the sea of mythology that has sustained this ancient civilisation. Apart from India’s secular and democratic Constitution, they must read the great Hindu epics such as the Ramayan. To understand the modern India, they have to go back billions of years, the epochs whose memory is rekindled in poll campaigns.
Beliefs have become more relevant in politics. Since the ruling BJP (…)

by Mahendra Ved
Nothing excites a Bangladeshi more than a go at politics, especially electoral politics. Every election in this South Asian nation has had more than its share of noisy campaigns, violence and controversies. The December 30, 2018 elections have reinforced this trend.
The UN called for holding an election free of violence. The European Union took a dim view of the way the polls were conducted. The US State Department deprecated the “climate of fear”. Human rights bodies (…)

by R.K. Misra
On November 3, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case told a Mumbai court that the murder of senior BJP leader and former Gujarat Minister Haren Pandya in 2003 was a contract killing executed at the behest of former IPS officer D.G. Vanzara.
The deposition of Azam Khan, an Udaipur based small-time gangster, before the CBI court has brought to life the most speculated and worst-kept secret of the time—that the murder of the up and coming Gujarat (…)