January 2009

The present economic crisis is global and has been caused by implementation of free trade as prescribed by the ‘Washington Consensus’. The worst victim of this crisis is the working class. Nevertheless the working class is not out on the streets. International trade unions like the ICFTU, WCL and WFTU are silent except issuing same statements. They have the capacity to intervene but do not use it. One does not know why this is so. In peacetime they exchange delegations, announce unity in (…)

Indians would have remembered John Milton’s lines as they stepped into the New Year: “Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud/Turn forth her silver lining on the night?” A hopeful, comforting prospect suddenly appeared from nowhere in the midst of the darkening South Asian security scenario. Within the space of a week, it appeared—on three templates, unconnected, yet of a kind. The elections to the provincial Assembly in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the parliamentary (…)

The Mumbai terror strikes on November 26, 2008 and a number of other terror attacks in the Indian cities have shocked our conscience and our sensibilities. The strikes on locations of the rich and powerful like the Taj and Trident hotels in the metropolis have woken up the Indian security establishment, something which did not happen when bombs exploded in busy marketplaces and railway stations. The visual media revealed its class bias by paying little attention to the first terror strike in (…)

With every Republic Day come out only the glittering pageants but pious perorations. From Olympian heights come messages of exhortation for the common people all over the country. If words alone could move the millions, then every Republic Day would have seen mighty stirrings swaying the entire nation.
Words, however noble and inspiring, do not by themselves mould any people. Only when the words reflect the will of a nation and the determination of a leadership, when words are matched by (…)

January 26 this year is not only our sixtieth Republic Day. It also marks the birth centenary of one of the most outstanding Communist leaders this country has produced—Bhowani Sen, who was described by C. Rajeswara Rao, the erstwhile CPI General Secretary, as a “staunch Bolshevik”; in fact after Bhowani Sen’s death in Moscow in the morning of July 10, 1972, Rajeswara Rao underscored: “He was a Bolshevik, every inch of him.” But apart from the fact that he was one of the most erudite (…)

The only way forward, to put it simply in four words, is rapid inclusive economic growth. It is restoring the Idea of an inclusive India—which is as much an integral part of the Idea of India as a democratic and secular India, to the people of India. The Idea of an inclusive India (inclusive socially, culturally and economically) that lies in the very core of the history of the freedom struggle can be best seen in the image of Gandhi, on the eve of Independence Day in August 1947, in (…)

DOCUMENT
The following is a press statement issued from Kathmandu on December 24, 2008.
As journalists from South Asia, we have been deeply saddened by the horrific killings in Mumbai and are also deeply concerned about the fallout of rising India-Pakistan tensions on the entire region.
We call upon all media professionals, especially in the television networks, to observe restraint in reportage and interpretation, and to be careful to avoid imbalance.
Tens of millions of South (…)

I. First Impressions
There is little that prepares one for the surprise when one visits Shanghai for the first time. For all its rapid growth in the last 25 years, China is still one of the poor countries of the world and a part of the developing world. Yet, the centre of Shanghai is like the downtown of a modern European or US city. Excellent infrastructure, skyscrapers, no power outages, good roads with proper signages, bicycle tracks and in places even moped tracks. The city boasts of (…)

After nearly five years of drought conditions, rains came to the Bundelkhand region in a big way in June and July last year, and the authorities were quick to announce the end of drought. But six months later, as I sat surrounded by people of Niduwa village (Nairani Block) of Banda district, I was repeatedly told that the drought may have ended for the government but if anything, their condition this year is even worse than the previous year.
To understand what these villagers are trying (…)

The Singur land acquisition, accompanied by violence and police high-handedness in West Bengal, hit the national headlines in 2007. The forcible land annexation for the benefit of the Tata corporate group provoked a revolt by the local farming community. This spread to active protest by virtually all sectors of urban civil society, marking a landmark episode in independent India. Thereafter, resistance to land acquisition is frequently occurring in many a State, including Haryana, Orissa, (…)