2022

Dr S Y Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner, celebrated author of a celebrated book that explains with great clarity that the rate of growth of the Muslim population in India, is now on the downward trend as people, specially women, get more educated. The same has happened in the population of other communities.
It is only in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where social indicators are still in the red, that the size of the average family is higher than the national norm – for (…)

Enormous havoc and misery caused by recent floods in Bengaluru, Pakistan and Assam are not only natural disasters but also due to climate change. Overexploitation of urban land and water resources by greedy private real estate developers perhaps the chief cause of floods. Media relentlessly focused on flooded upscale villas, their swanky automobiles of super rich in flooded Bengaluru, and totally ignored the suffering of millions of poor and middle-class slum dwellers.
For the floods, (…)

Soon after L.K. Advani started his Ram rath yatra on a DCM Toyota truck across greater part of India from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990, seeking to replace Babri Masjid with a “Bhavya Ram Mandir,” Advani’s confidant and the then Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) International President Ashok Singhal held a press conference asking the Muslims to meekly surrender Babri Masjid, Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi and the Eidgah in Mathura to the Hindus, to avoid Hindu claims on 3000 mosques and shrines all over (…)

Let it be clear at the outset that when the road from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate in New Delhi was named Rajpath, it was not a literal translation of the King’s Way. In the same sense, Janpath was not the translated name for its old name, the Queen’s Way. In the Rajpath nomenclature, the symbolism of independent and sovereign India’s democratic statehood was fulfilled. From 26 January 1950 onwards, a colorful display of India’s military might and cultural diversity continued to be (…)

by Arun Srivastava
A group of retired bureaucrats have petitioned the chief election commissioner (CEC), that the AAP be de-recognised as a political party as its leader Arvind Kejriwal has been trying to "induce" public servants in Gujarat to help his party in the state Assembly polls due later this year.
This is indeed a sagacious move and every liberal person possessing moral ethics should appreciate this move. The immediate reason for their writing to the CEC owes to Kejriwal’s (…)

by Rajinder Chaudhary*
Renowned agriculture scientist Norman Borlaug opined that “Even if you could use all the organic material that you have—the animal manures, the human waste, the plant residues—and get them back on the soil, you couldn’t feed more than 4 billion people. ... don’t tell the world that we can feed the present population without chemical fertilizer. That’s when this misinformation becomes destructive” (Bailey 2000). Nobel Laurate was not alone in questioning the yield (…)

Addressing the September 23, 2022, National Conference of Environment Ministers, PM Modi said:“Urban Naxals and anti-development elements having political backing had stalled the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam by running a campaign that the project will harm the environment. Huge amount of money was wasted because of this delay. Now, when the dam is complete, you can very well judge how dubious their claims were”, and further,“These urban Naxals are still active. I urge you to make (…)

Abstract
The Anti-Defection Law introduced by the Constitution (Fifty-Second Amendment) Act, 1985 has curbed defections and shifting allegiances in our legislatures. However, the law has failed to address some complex problems in Indian politics. The powers of the Presiding Officer to disqualify legislators for defection remain controversial. Over the years, expert Committees and Commissions have concluded that the conditions of the Office subject the Presiding Officers to political (…)

by L K Sharma
India continues to loom large in British imagination. The national dish of Chicken Tikka Masala is an old story. This year, first came the unbearable Indian summer. Then in the prime-ministerial race, a politician of Indian origin reached the semi-final. And now comes the new King whose thoughts resonate with Indian traditions.
King Charles III has spiritual leanings. He has a philosophical bent of mind and a deep interest in nature, environment and organic food. In the (…)

A leading English daily from the Capital carried on October 3, a remarkable photo of a young Iranian woman abandoning her ‘chador’ dancing in a state of trance before a crowd including men clicking her act on their mobile cameras as a form of protest against the repression unleashed by the Iranian clerical state forcing women to dress in a particular manner which they consider Islamic to ensure modesty of women.
A crucial judgement of the apex court is eagerly awaited on whether the state (…)