2021

by P.S. Jayaramu
Of all the Assembly elections this time round, the ongoing polls in West Bengal has attracted extraordinary attention by politicians and analysts from the academia and media. The television channels are giving unusual space to the political extravaganza because of the high stakes involved for the principal contenders for power, the BJP which is out to capture Bengal and the TMC wanting to retain its fortress. By all accounts, the contest seems bipolar with the other (…)

In the fourth phase of assembly elections in West Bengal on April 10, 2021, Sitalkuchi Block in the district of Cooch Behar witnessed brutal violence unleashed by the Central forces. MASUM, a human rights organization, documented this brutal State violence in its fact-finding report, and communicated it to the National Human Rights Commission (April 12, 2021). To put it in the words of the Report:
“At about 9.35 am, a 14 year old physically challenged boy, Master Mrinal Haque...was hit by (…)

The Bihar Assembly Elections, 1995 were conducted in various phases to ensure free and fair poll under adequate security cover. The Election Commission of India, converted into a multi-member body in 1989, comprised three retired IAS officers with T. N. Seshan, a former Cabinet Secretary, as the presiding deity. As the Chief Election Commissioner, Seshan’s motto was “to act ruthlessly to ensure free and fair election” in exercise of “the powers vested in me.” And he built up his reputation (…)

by Arup Maharatna*
It is far from the case that those, who are in the habit of calling our present times in various teleologically smart names such as ‘age of mass media’, ‘knowledge society’, ‘virtual age’, ‘post-truth society’ or ‘age of fake news’, are all very sure, or know well enough, of what exactly they are talking about. I am deeply sceptical as to how many of those, who frequently call our present age as one of ‘mass media’, are genuinely aware of the havoc being caused by its (…)

Publisher: Roli Books (Roli Books Pvt Ltd, M-75, Greater Kailash II, Market, New Delhi - 110048) | First edition (16 March 2021) | Language: English | Hardcover: 316 pages | ISBN-10: 8194969166 | ISBN-13: 978-8194969167 | Available here
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BOOK EXCERPTS:
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my late wife Anuradha, fondly called Anu, in whom I saw all that was good in society. Her commitment to truth and justice and her idealism could dispel the darkness of a benighted world. (…)

Sankha Ghosh, the eminent Bengali poet, teacher, critic and public intellectual died on April 21, 2021, after being tested positive for Covid-19 a week ago.
Other than his identity as a legendary Bengali poet, uniqueness of Sankha Ghosh lies in the fact that as an exemplary teacher at Jadavpur University he inspired several generations of students inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, he was an authority on Rabindranath Tagore, and his writings on different creative dimensions and (…)

Who are the happiest people in today’s Afghanistan where the United States has just announced its determination to get out of its “longest war”? No prize for guessing correctly. Barring the Taliban who have only succeeded in tightening up their fearsome history and image, nobody else, nobody else including those Afghans who preside over the non-Taliban segments of Afghan society, including those in the civilian and elected government, is happy and looking forward to a peace deal to bring to (…)

April 22, 2021
The United States and NATO are yet to begin the withdrawal of their forces from Afghanistan but the eyes are cast over the horizon at what lies after the ‘forever war’ formally ends. The US exit strategy in Afghanistan assumes the look of that random arbitrariness of a lottery that was the case with its Iraq war ending inconclusively in 2011.
Evidence is piling that the US president Joe Biden’s declaration of April 14 on total troop withdrawal by September 11 may not be (…)

by Farooq Ahmad Bakloo*
Abstract
During the abrogation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, it was stated that this change will empower the Panchayati Raj in the erstwhile state. However, the question is what about the states that have non-special status as in article 370 since independence. What is the position of the Panchayati Raj institutions in these states? The studies across the country revealed these Panchayati Raj institutions are sunk in a lot of problems even in those states (…)

In the post-independence history of our sub-continent, 1971 occupies a prominent position. That was the year in which the pernicious two-nation theory which led to the vivisection of our vast landmass in 1947 was given a complete burial with the liberation of East Pakistan (rechristened as Bangladesh) that was situated thousands of kilometres away from its parent territory Pakistan in an artificial arrangement somewhat unique in the world.
Sometime ago this year, one had written in these (…)