2021

by Upal Chakraborty *
The ’Pegasus’ spyware was conceived as a Trojan horse with soldiers sitting stealthily inside, ready to strike at the earliest opportunity. Conceived, developed and marketed by the NSO Group of Israel, it has, in reality, no horses or soldiers but is a piece of code sitting inside one’s phone

Rashtriya Janata Dal member Prof Manoj Kumar Jha’s eyes seemed swollen with unshed tears as he rose to speak in the Rajya Sabha in a short notice question this week.
“Never before in the history of parliament has there been an obituary reference between two sessions of the House to as many as 50 sitting and past members who have passed away,” he said referring to the mandatory respectful statement that is read out by the presiding officer at the start of a new session. Prof Jha, who (…)

by Ash Narain Roy
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir visited Cuba only months after the January 1, 1959 Cuban Revolution celebrated its first anniversary. Fidel Castro wined and dined the intellectual power couple of the 20th century during their stay in the island-nation. Sartre wrote about Castro’s revolution saying, “for the first time in our lives, we were witnessing happiness that had been attained by violence.”
Sartre was rebuked by many as a “fellow traveller” for his lavish (…)

by Ravi Sinha
Accountability is foundational to democracy and, ultimately, people are supposed take those in power to account through democratic processes and mechanisms. But, then, we also know what often happens in democracy. Electoral competition gives rise to ‘technologies’ (often religious, cultural and identity-based) which turn citizens into “Bhakts” (devotees) and storm-troopers (remember Hitler’s “Brownshirts”). The dark side of democracy comes on top more often than the other (…)

by P. S. Jayaramu *
July 28, 2021
Though there were rumours in Karnataka for the last two months as to when and how B.S. Yediyurappa’s tenure as Chief Minister would end, he chose the right time under the circumstances by announcing his resignation at a function organised on 2th July to mark the completion of two years of his Government. With his resignation, his long active innings in the politics of the State has come to an end. He has of course said that he would remain committed to (…)

IMPRESSIONS
The National Institutional Ranking Framework has named Delhi’s Hindu College as the best in the country in arts and science streams. It is a well deserved distinction based on its academic standards, the role played by its campus societies and its placement records.
The name of the College also brings out the peculiar Indian practice of linking education with religion. This is a regressive approach, started during the colonial period by selfish Christian (…)

by Pavittarbir Singh Saggu *
Abstract
This article focuses on the role of the central and state governments in influencing the trajectory of agricultural growth in Punjab, as well as farmers’ political responses to three major policy areas. The first is the issue of government procurement and food pricing. The second concern is the provision of water and electricity. The third topic is land reform and agricultural taxes legislation. The central dimension of these issues is examined in (…)

by Prof Gull Mohammad Wani* The erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir didn’t observe July 13 as a state holiday. The day was observed as ’Martyrs’ day to mark a 1931 protest against the then maharaja Hari Singh. The July, 13 (Martyrs day in Jammu and Kashmir) has figured in the ideological frames of political parties/actors in a partisan manner quite opposite to ’peoples history’ - the impulse for which is to understand the lives of common (…)

by Madhusudan Bandi *
Context
The recently concluded Bengal elections were hyped to a level that it received an extraordinary attention across the country. The narratives weaved by the principle political parties and their sympathisers in media, academia and intellectual class in the run up to the elections also contributed in generating such a euphoria for a routine state assembly election. The contest was significant for the reason that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was prominently (…)

by R.G.Gidadhubli *
There is on-going war in Afghanistan during the last few months between the State security forces and Taliban fighters. This is primarily subsequent to the declaration by the United States of America to fully withdraw its forces by the end of August 2021 and the process of withdrawal has started a couple of months back. At the beginning of July the U.S. forces vacated their largest base in Afghanistan at Bagram, north of Kabul. Having provided political support and (…)