February 2009

For A Programme of Caste-Ending Bourgeois Democratic Revolution And Socialist Transition
‘…. He (communist/socialist) will be compelled to take account of caste after (socialist) revolution if he does not take account of it before revolution…You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform unless you kill this monster.’ Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar [Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1, p. 47]
After discussing with Vaman Meshram, the President of the BAMCEF, Vilas Kharat, the Director (…)

It has been almost three months since the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai generated tension between two nuclear neighbourhoods in South Asia. Pakistan was reluctant to accept Kasab as a Pakistani national and take appropriate action to curb the terrorist organisations which are operating from its soil. A lot has happened during these months—from Pakistan’s mobilisation of troops and the Taliban declaring its support to Pakistan’s Army in case of any conflict with India. The question is: what (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Inter-Religious Communication—A Gandhian Perspective by Margaret Chatterjee; Promillla & Co. Publishers, New Delhi; 2009; pages 200; price: Rs 425.
Religion in India is a realm where diversity clashes with faith and belief. A society exists when humans interact with each other for coexistence. The state is that realm with authority and regu-lation is sanctioned based on our consent. In this domain, religion is, first of all, a matter of personal belief, and then (…)

There is justified concern in New Delhi over the latest development in Pakistan: Islamabad signing a peace deal with the founder of the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) so that there is cessation of fighting in the Swat valley simultaneous with the enforcement of Shariah laws in the region. The Pakistani authorities argue that this is a tactical retreat in order to help the Army go all out against Baitullah Mehsud‘s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Waziristan since it is the (…)

An Interim Budget that expressly avoids making big policy choices except presenting projections over the likely values of the main budgetary variables for the coming fiscal year in the form of a Vote on Account may stand on sound footing in terms of parliamentary convention and a measure of political morality (a rare entity in these tumultuous times). Generally no new initiatives extending over the entire year or beyond would have democratic legitimacy as the mandate of the ruling political (…)

The last session of Parliament before a General Election is normally intended to present Interim Budget and get Vote on Account to provide the government with necessary funds for the following financial year, pending the vote of final supply..
The procedure of Vote on Account which was not there under the British regime was introduced by the Constituent Assembly. While introducing the first Interim Budget of independent India for 1952-53 before the first general election, Finance (…)

Much was expected from the Interim Budget for 2009-10 given the deep economic crisis facing the Indian economy. These expectations were belied. The FM took refuge behind constitutional propriety for not announcing any new policy initiatives. Thus, the Interim Budget turned out to be a damp squib for the lay public even though for the ruling party it became the perfect oppor-tunity to blow its trumpet for the coming elections.
Even though the Budget is about the coming year and the (…)

The signals coming out of Obama’s Washington D.C. and the message conveyed by the Foreign Secretary of UK, David Miliband, during his recent trip in India (January 2009) are concerted. Miliband conveyed in no uncertain terms that Kashmir is an issue and India should move on with the Kashmir issue and not stick to the status quo. So there is a method and it is designed to take the eye off the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel’s current invasion ( in January 2009) of Gaza is brutal and has (…)

The Middle East quandary is perhaps the most crucial legacy in foreign policy that Obama inherits as the 44th President of the United States. The mounting of tensions with the Israeli blockade of Gaza has effectively rendered the policy of ‘business as usual’, as followed by Bush, impossible for Obama. The region’s guarded optimism over Obama’s election has now given vent to severe resentment for his total silence on the continued Israeli violation of international law. This has left the (…)

The birth centenary of Ajoy Ghosh, the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (October 1951-January 1962), falls on February 20, 2009. He took over the reins of the party at a critical period when the CPI was ravaged by the disastrous Left-sectarian course of B.T. Ranadive (under whose leadership the entire party suffered from what Lenin had aptly characterised as an ‘infantile disorder’) and painstakingly helped to rebuild it, put it back on rails, and nurture and sustain (…)