November 15, 2008

The communal virus has of late again assumed frightening proportions and degenerated into communal fascism. At this critical juncture, the Nehru era comes to mind spontaneously.
As we know, communalism was there even before independence. The colonial rulers, who were on the look-out for a suitable moment, quickly grasped the opportunity and adopting the divide-and-rule policy fanned the flames of communalism till it grew into a full-blown malaise in Indian society. The ugliest face of (…)

With barely a week to go before the Budget session of the Lok Sabha, there is naturally considerable trepidation about what’s in store for the common man. All the indications have made it abundantly clear that it may be a harsh Budget, at least for those in the middle and lower income groups, who constitute the overwhelming majority in our society.
A peculiar feature of the dramatic economic reforms of the last eight months has been that practically every major item has been sprung as a (…)

[(BOOK REVIEW)]
Dilli ki Communist Party ka itihas (in Hindi) by Anand Gupta; published by the Communist Party, Delhi State Committe; pp. xxxii + 467; Price: Rs 250. (Copies can be ordered from PPH, 5-E, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi 110055.)
In this volume of 500 pages, the result of almost a decade of painstaking research in the National Archives of India, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi Archives, P.C. Joshi Archives in JNU, Ajoy Bhavan library and other archives and primary (…)

Chandrachoodan (Mainstream, August 16, 2008) has argued for the formation of a Third Alternative in which the Left parties will form the fulcrum to be able to implement the Left programme. Chandrachoodan is the General Secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party which is a partner in the Left Front Government in West Bengal where the Front is ruling the State uninterruptedly for the last three decades. The Left Front during this period has failed to project any new model of development (…)