2022

by P. S. Jayaramu
(28-2-2022)
The Ukrainian Crisis is very much in the news. When the crisis began, it was fondly believed that Putin’s order of moving troops to the Ukrainian border was only an act of brinkmanship and that the crisis would get blown off soon. But, the invasion of Ukraine, the subsequent marching of Russian troops to the major cities of the country, including the capital city Kyiv, the intentional crippling of Ukraine’s military capabilities, the loss of civilian lives (…)

by James M. Dorsey
Feb 28, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the international condemnation it generated contains key lessons for policymakers.
They are lessons that should have been learned in past global crises but weren’t. However, the Ukraine crisis offers an opportunity to correct that mistake.
A first lesson is that failure to firmly stand up to violations of international law as they occur convinces trespassers that they can get away with them. It (…)

by Ptee Robin Robinovich
The decision and rationale by Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch a ’special military operation’ aimed at "demilitarisation and denazification" — a war on Ukraine, in simple words, came on February 24, 2022. Prior to this, there had been a month-long Russian military deployment & combat exercises involving over a hundred thousand troops near the Ukrainian border. Several prominent European leaders visited Mr Putin in Moscow for talks to get him to lift (…)

[Yevgueni Yevtushenko wrote this poem in 1956 after the 20th CPSU Congress]

* Who are We A ‘Union of States’ or a ‘Nation’ | Karli Srinivasulu
* Remember Romesh Chandra, As the US pushes war in Eurasia | Nandita Chaturvedi
* Lockdown As A Means of Controling Covid? | Kobad Ghandy
* When Was Modernism? | Raymond Williams

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, February 19, February 26, 2022
The Government of India under Narendra Modi has since 2014 been steadily pushing a certain vision of an imaginary history and heritage in the name of so-called Indianisation coloured by its ideological moorings in Hindutva cultural nationalism. As a result, we have seen names of cities changed, syllabi and curriculum modified, we have heard the Prime Minister making amazing claims of plastic surgery in Ancient India, we have (…)

Who are We? and what kind of a nation are we? It is a question that often crops up in the history of a country in response to new challenges and remains at the centre of political discourse often subtly and sometimes openly, raised be it by Samuel Huntington or Rahul Gandhi in the present instance.
Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address has gained national attention. The speech was fairly complex and was apparently meant (…)

While elections in all states are important, state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP) always have a special importance from a national perspective. So it is this time around too as the election scene in Uttar Pradesh is being followed very eagerly.
Generally BJP is depicted to be strong in this state, but let us check this against the results of the panchayat elections held last year in UP. While nobody is saying that similar results will be repeated in assembly elections as these (…)

IMPRESSIONS
It wasn’t long ago that a group of professors and intellectuals sent to the Prime Minister a memo from their hearts. The subject was silence. But it sounded like thunder because it was about the crisis of conscience that threatened the country. The simplicity of the words underlined their power.
"Your silence on the rising intolerance in our country, Honourable Prime Minister, is disheartening to all of us who value the multicultural fabric of our country," the (…)

It has often been difficult to understand the logic of the procedures being adopted for the lockdown. For example, here in Bandra, Mumbai, taking in the fresh air on the promenade, next to the sea, was banned after 5 pm; while walking on the busy road a mere two feet away inhaling car fumes and risking one’s life (as there is no pavement) was being allowed. Yet again, when there were partial lockdowns the essential shops were allowed to be open for just a few hours in the day, resulting in (…)