2022

by Jaspreet Kaur
In Punjab Assembly elections, various parties have tried to give preference to the Dalit vote. First, the Akali Dal had announced the appointment of a Dalit face as Deputy Chief Minister. The main reason for this is that Dalit population in Punjab is around 33%. Putting aside the factor of considerable Dalit population, the riddle of appointing a Dalit Chief Minister cannot be resolved. Many other social and economic factors are also responsible for this. It is (…)

On 20 January, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi a dishonest man, and emphasized that Channi should not be viewed as a common man. That is, the patent of the common man lies with Kejriwal alone, and in this respect, honesty as well. Kejriwal made this statement in a quick response to the ED’s raid on Channi’s nephew’s house. Since then, a series of allegations and counter-allegations have been going on between the two leaders, which may (…)

by Rajvinder Singh *
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been the newest addition in the Indian political system. AAP with its advent promised a new kind of politics. Party made a strong effort to introduce a new issue “corruption” into the arena of party competition. Party was giving the issue of corruption a new salience in electoral politics and using that as the basis for political mobilisation. The AAP does not appeal to a homogenous social group and so does not gain from a structural cleavage (…)

Subhash Chandra Bose was one of the first nationalist leaders in pre-independent India to set his foot in Northeast India, 3 years prior to India’s Independence in 1944. And, he brought the focus on the Northeast region in the Indian national movement. His decision to enter the Northeast region and Burma (Myanmar) was a well-planned strategy. Secondly, Northeast India has produced several freedom fighters and I won’t name each of them since today is a celebration of Netaji’s 125th birth (…)

MUSINGS - 26 January 2022
Happy To See The Name of Sadaf Jafar In The List of Candidates For The Upcoming Elections
No, I don’t know the Lucknow-based activist Sadaf Jafar. Never met her. Nor spoken to her. But can’t erase this backgrounder to her: Exactly two years back, when the anti- CAA protests were peaking, she was not just harassed and humiliated by the cops in Uttar Pradesh but even physically tortured. In her statement she had detailed how a particular male police officer in (…)

This is a report of a webinar ’Discussing the Ongoing Framers Movement’ which was organised by Foundation for Creative Social Research, Delhi in collaboration with Society for Scientists and Technologists for a Non-Violent World Order and the Institute of Social Sciences. The Webinar was held in two sessions on 10 April 2021
Session 1: Chair: Uma Shankari, Farmer and Activist | Speakers: T.S Ahuja, Lawyer; Harish Damodaran, Senior Fellow at CPR and distinguished JoThe Indian Express; (…)

BOOK REVIEW
From East Pakistan to Bangladesh: Recollections of 1971 Liberation War
by Brigadier R P Singh (Retd) and Hitesh Singh
Vitasta
ISBN: 9789390961375
Pages: 545 | Price: Rs 995
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Even as the United States, China and virtually the entire Islamic world stood by Pakistan despite its butchery of civilians in its eastern wing that became an independent Bangladesh, one country which quietly sided with India – despite being shunned diplomatically by New Delhi – was (…)

Sometimes at dead of night,
as I sit by the reading light,
memories reel back.
The prism of youth, rainbow days,
dreams of million hues
started the journey of life;
the stretch of hand measured all
that came on the way.
But, questions, doubts, en route,
one by one, reined the gallop,
blunted the steadfast stare;
chances, success spilled
beyond the dwarfing reach.
Then, crept up the thought,
gnawing deep at the heart,
like an old pain
that never goes, but lingers
on the (…)

by Mandeep Lama
This the story of one man’s vision and grit in freeing Nepal from the tyrannical Rana oligarchy, on how he cobbled up a valiant fighting force from a ragtag motley group of patriotic warriors, and eventually rid Nepal of its ‘Ranarchy’
Part 1
Prologue
The ruling autocratic oligarchy of the Ranas had seized power in Nepal on the heels of the infamous palace armoury massacre of the 15th of September, 1846.
The massacre had taken place on account of the murder of (…)

From: ’Jawaharlal Nehru on Science And Society - A Collection of his Writings and Speeches’ Edited by Baldev Singh. Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (1988) SCIENCE AND GANDHI *
(Letter to Aldous Huxley refuting his characterisation of Congress views as anti-Science)
Allahabad, September 1, 1933
Dear Mr. Huxley
A short while ago, I read in prison a little book called Science in the Changing World.
A passage in your broadcast, included in this book, surprised and distressed me a (…)