September 20, 2008

While the Wall Street faces a turmoil that impacts on the whole world including India as the media sarcastically dubs the US Administration’s $ 85 billion takeover of the American Insurance Group as the most eloquent manifestation of the transformation of that citadel of capitalism, Washington, into the United States Socialist Republic (USSR), India continues to be shell-shocked by the terror strikes in the Capital last Saturday (September 13), and the principal Opposition party bays for the (…)

The Wall Street crisis which has seen the mightiest investment banks bite the dust and an insurance giant pleading for time to sets its finances straight seems more like the crisis of capitalism than just the crisis of a few financial institutions.
Barack Obama, the United States presidential hopeful, has blamed it on US President George Bush’s policies but that would be too simplistic. It is capitalism, which feeds on itself, and there is no end to the greed.
The stock market, it is (…)

Its time for the Indian Government to say to the United States of America:” It’s enough now, Uncle Sam!” As time passes by one after another explosive contents of the Indo-US nuclear deal is coming in front of the public eye. The deal right from the day one had generated a political storm here in India and it seems the days ahead would definitely not be smoother.
Initially hell broke out here in India at the political level the moment the deal was first agreed upon in 2005 on the issue of (…)

Whatever happened to India’s vaunted “credible minimal deterrent”? Despite having Asia’s oldest nuclear programme, India still does not have a minimal, let alone credible, deterrent as defined by its own nuclear doctrine. Yet to secure a dubious civil nuclear deal, India is allowing the various good-faith declarations it made on July 18, 2005, to be turned into binding, enforceable international commitments. If this deal takes effect, India can forget about being a strategic peer of China. (…)

Even before the Civil Nuclear Agreement between India and the USA is signed, the opinion- makers and partisans have equally displayed euphoria that does not behove a mature democracy. Our partner, the USA, is free from any such display. Sober analysts are looking at the long-term implications behind the “Deal”. That should focus on political outcomes more than just apparent economic and technological benefits that can be realistically evaluated when they come to pass.
The period between (…)

In the heat and dust raised by the manner in which India secured a questionable waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna on September 6, 2008, many opponents predicted that the nuclear deal would mean only what the Americans said it would mean. A former Indian ambassador to Turkey revealed that a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, a NATO ally of Washington, used to say: “Mr Ambassador, you cannot trust Americans on even what they have given in writing.”
That pretty much sums up the (…)

Land and food security, these not difficult or confusing words attracted media attention for several weeks. That is currently subsided not because the problems are resolved, but newer and more catchy issues are cropping up almost daily to attract the media. There were inter-party differences especially between the major constituents of the Left Front, namely, the CPI-M and the CPI. Perhaps it is not yet time to say that everything is amicably settled .though there are media reports about an (…)

Very recently, the Mamata Banerjee-led movement against forcible land acquisition in Singur for the Tata small-car factory has taken a new turn. The Tata Group Chairman, Ratan Tata, has given an ultimatum to the West Bengal Government that if the violence continues, the Tatas will pack up and leave, regardless of the Rs 1500 crores invested in the project. He categorically stated: “What has concerned us is the violence. We are concerned about the safety of our employees, the safety of our (…)

TERROR ON TAP
I
America is marked, as compared to the rest of the world, with a unique feature. If at all possible, every enterprise should be geared to the making of private profit. The public spirit, as such, scarcely exists, although it is cynically alluded to. Rather, it is the profit spirit which prevails. This probably should not be surprising, as the de facto ruling class in America is the business class. Indeed, everything revolves around the “business class”, not only in (…)

When the emperor has to go for elections, the subjects have to face the music. Nero was not the only one who fiddled when he let his capital being burnt down. The emperor of today cannot afford to let his capital being burnt down, because it is the only prize he covets—the acquisition of capital, that is, wealth. But to win the election, he is prepared to bomb out innocent unarmed men and women in far-away countries.
As part of his Presidential election campaign, Clinton hit upon three (…)