2023

Very recently, a controversy has cropped up in the public sphere in West Bengal in the light of the decision of the West Bengal governor, C. V. Ananda Bose, to celebrate ‘Paschimbanga Dibas’ (‘West Bengal Day’) on June 20, 2023, as the State’s foundation day. The governor did so, honoring the advisory for the commemoration of Foundation Day of States, communicated by the Government of India on May 11, 2023. It should be mentioned in this connection that the Chief Minister of West Bengal, (…)

Comments for the Washington DC Diaspora Program on “Karnataka Election Outcome and the Two Contesting Ideologies”
by Ravi Sinha
I must begin with a disclaimer. I am no expert on how elections are won or lost. Nor can I claim any competence in deciphering an election result for what has worked and what has not. I will not be offering, therefore, any fresh insights into the results of recently concluded Assembly elections in Karnataka beyond what is already well-known from the media (…)

(This Part 2 of ’CPM’s 34-year rule in West Bengal’, Part 1 is available here )
by Kobad Ghandy with inputs by Raktim Ghosh and Bonhihotri Hazra
The CPIM party machinery was all dominating in the West Bengal state during their rule. In every social, political, cultural and even in personal matters the CPIM ‘dada’s’ interference was a must. Initially they began with some attempts at land reform but slowly that too degenerated into the old structures that existed earlier. It all started (…)

Narendra Modi’s United States visit has made big news. In his seventh trip to that country as the Prime Minister he has been able to get himself invited as a state guest for the first time, riding on the back of a proposal from an Indian private company Air India to buy 220 aircrafts from another U.S. private company Boeing.
However, just as Narendra Modi was preparing to travel to U.S. there was news about the Gujarati couple Pankaj and Nisha Patel, who in exchange for Rs. 1.5 (…)

Islamophobia has been whipped up in several parts of the world, and there are many persons who have severely condemned Islam e,g. Christopher Hitchens, Douglas Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, etc.
Among these critics of Islam is Tasleema Nasreen, the Bangladeshi doctor who had to flee from Bangladesh into India due to fatwas against her and death threats from religious extremists. Even in India she was given threats in West Bengal and attacked in Hyderabad. She then lived in Sweden for some years (…)

by Pragya Ranjan *
Chronicle of Feminism or Subversion through transgression?
‘There is no truth, only perception of truth’, and that perception too changes with time. Lysistrata is one such text where this difference of perception prevails. Written by Aristophanes in 411 BCE, Lysistrata is one of the eleven Old Greek Comedy plays surviving out of forty-two. The play revolves around the Peleponnesian war, when women have to stay at home while their husbands are at war. Lysistrata, the (…)

The Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP rose from the ashes, phoenix like, in the late 1980s under the leadership of L.K. Advani with a three-point agenda which immediately struck a chord with a large section of Hindu voter in India: the claim over Babri Masjid; abolition of Article 370 granting special status to the only Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
If we go back in history the trigger was in fact the Shah Bano case judgment of April, 1985 (…)

Abstract:
This paper traces the evolution of the economic development process of the Punjab economy since the green revolution. Apart from identifying the factors that have contributed to the rise and fall of the Punjab economy, alternative public policy solutions are suggested to rejuvenate the Punjab economy.
1. Introduction:
Punjab economy over a long period of time has been performing below its potential. Punjab at the turn of the century (2000) was ranked number one, in terms of (…)

by P S Jayaramu
25th June 2023
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States was one of the keenly watched event in India and America. It was described by President Biden as the most consequential visit not only for bilateral relations but for the world too. Modi described it as the oldest and largest democracies strengthening their ties for global good. While the BJP sees it as Modi’s moment, it is only fair to see it in the larger perspective of India’s rise as a global (…)

(this article has waited for long in the pipeline and is being published now as it remains relevant)
by Manoj Kumar Mishra *
Both Russian and Ukrainian governments have good reasons to protract the war ongoing over Ukrainian territory. While Ukraine pins hope on continued Western assistance in order to reclaim the Russian-occupied territories, Russia tends to believe that the Ukrainian battlefield successes indicate the peak of Western support which will be leveled off and then flag (…)