May 17, 2008

The terrorist blasts in the Pink City of Jaipur on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 have jolted the people at large not just because of the scale of the success achieved by the demented persons indulging in such inhuman criminal activities—80 killed and over 150 injured. The entry of Jaipur into the terror map of the country (it was out of that map so far) is indicative of the increasing spread of terrorism despite all the vigilance by the security and intelligence forces across the nation. The growing (…)

Revolutionaries are usually the last people to grasp that they are past their sell-by date. More so when they act as agents of outside powers. The colour revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia seem to be turning pale precisely on this account. Now efforts are on to initiate similar ‘revolutions’ in Armenia and Mongolia. It is an open secret that the Georgian scenario was played in Ukraine and later the one in Ukraine was sought to be replayed in the Kyrghyz Republic. China, Russia, the US and (…)

Nandigram is witnessing the ugly face of violence on the eve of the panchayat elections. Recent media reports suggest that violence has become an organic part of the structure of governance in the region.
It may be recalled in this connection that the eminent political theorist, Partha Chatterjee, has drawn our attention to the politics of governance in India in his recent research. He argues that greatness of ideology and sacrifice of leaders had an important role to play in Indian (…)

The “Sangharsh Dharna” held from April 28-30, 2008 at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi was in opposition to the general trend and large portions of the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill 2007, and the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2007. These Bills, as presently drafted, do not merely keep the field open for corporate growth at the expense of the lands and livelihoods of adivasi and rural people but in fact, once enacted, will be a cruel handle to force more poor people into destitution. (…)

It is a bestseller, but barely popular with its readers. The 194-page volume, which hit the bookstands in Burma on April 24, was the long-awaited draft Constitution authored by the country’s military junta, without consulting most of its people. The draft was published just a fortnight before the people are due to vote on it, apparently as a formality.
The large number of the book’s buyers, especially the young, may not be hoping to play a major role in the national referendum scheduled (…)

The three main points in the programme of the victorious Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) are land to the tiller, autonomy to regions and ‘industrial capitalism geared towards socialism’. Land to the tiller is clearly a winner. India accomplished this substantially under the able leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru in the fifties. The political stability of India owes itself much to this initiative. This measure is of greater importance for Nepal. According to the World Development (…)

[(BOOK REVIEW)]
State Building in Afghanistan: Linkages with International Politics by Uma Shankar; Academic Excellence Publishers; 2008.
To understand the significance that Afghanistan commands in international politics, here comes a compilation by Dr Uma Shankar. The book spans considerable period, beginning with the conceptualisation of state building, tracing the genealogical trajectory of the Afghan state from the Durrani monarchy to Mohammadzai, the fall of the Daoud republic, the (…)

Dictionaries are notoriously status-quoist when it comes to registering change. They continue to explain violence principally as the unlawful exercise of physical force causing physical injury or damage to a person or property. Decades after the exposure of previously unrecognised forms of violence permeating modern societies in the shape of disciplinary technologies, ideological appara-tuses and discourses, violence continues to be officially defined in extremely restrictive terms. The (…)

[(COMMUNICATION)]
Several journalists, writers and their organisations have expressed their distress at the recent arrest of Dr Mehruddin Khan, an eminent Hindi journalist and writer. His journalism is concerned with highly relevant social issues particularly communal harmony. In addition he has written some highly popular poetry (including dohas in the style of Kabir), short stories and novels. The widely articulated demand for his release should be accepted as early as possible.
New (…)

IMPRESSIONS Only fools and TV channels predict election results. And IPS-IAS opportunists. In 1977, after two years of Emergency repression, the Intelligence Bureau famously advised Indira Gandhi that she would easily win a general election. She infamously lost.
In the Karnataka election, there is one prediction the wise will make. That is: the voters will lose. In fact, the voters have already lost with the impending end of Governor’s Rule. It’s true the Governor was a faithful (…)