February 2009

A news item was published in the newspapers on February 4 that the Government of India has virtually cleared the Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Chemical Hub at Nayachar island, just offshore of the original location at Nandigram in the Haldia zone in West Bengal. However, the final green signal awaits vetting by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The proposed chemical hub envisages a public plus private sector investment of the order of Rs 100,000 crores. The news (…)

Communication
Subhas Borker describes the most alarming of the many disorders of the Indian Republic (“Rapid Inclusive Growth: The Only Way Forward”, Mainstream, January 23-29, 2009) well. He uses the language of psychology to draw parallels between the disorders and psychological states like Schizophrenia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Thanks to him. Thanks, also, to those who signed the admirable plea for media restraint in South Asia (DOCUMENT, ibid.). More on that after a few (…)

The recent televised attack by persons alleged to be members of the Sri Ram Sene on young women inside a pub in Mangalore has created widespread public outrage. Even though a spokesperson of the Sri Ram Sene on NDTV has confused viewers regarding the identity of the attackers, what is very clear is that they oppose what they call “pub culture”. There is a wide gulf between the right of any person to disapprove of the morals, values or behaviour of others, and the use of force to demonstrate (…)

While tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad do not show any perceptible signs of abating with the latter still in a denial mode mainly on the question of the Mumbai terror strike last November having been planned and executed from Pakistani soil, the attack by the Sri Ram Sene activists on women at a pub in Mangalore on the ground that their presence there was against “Indian culture” has once again exposed the Hindutva brigade’s intention of imposing its “cultural” agenda on the polity (…)

Who were behind the terrorist onslaught in Mumbai last November? This question has lately acquired critical significance among defence analysts and security experts in the aftermath of the Mumbai bloodbath which has far-reaching implications.
The main suspects behind the terror strike are the Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. But then weren’t the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, whose brainchild is the Lashkar, the handiwork of Washington and its agencies to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the (…)

Former President Ramaswami Venkataraman, 98, who occupied the Rashtrapati Bhavan as the country’s eighth head of state from 1987 to 1992 and indeed presided over the transition from one-party rule to coalitions at the Centre, passed away at the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital in the Capital at 2.30 pm on January 27, 2008 following multiple organ failure. He is survived by his wife Janaki and three daughters. A distinguished public figure of national repute, he enhanced India’s image by (…)

Decentralisation is the Key
In the ancient City States of Greece, the people directly used to participate in the governance of their territory. In modern nation-states, such participation is obviously impossible and representatives directly elected by the people undertake the responsibilities of government. India from time immemorial has had a genius for finding via media solutions to every problem. Thus ancient India combined the principle of direct democracy with the authority of the (…)

The eighth President of India, R. Ventataraman (1987-92), breathed his last on January 27, 2009. He was 98, having been born on December 4, 1910. After retirement from the high office 15 years ago, he led a retired life with his wife and three daughters in the Capital. Except for minor ageing problems, the always smiling R.V., as he was affectionately known, was in excellent health. All his faculties were working exceedingly well despite advancing years. According to his physician, Padma (…)

We as a nation have taken pride in the fact that in political life, a liberal and tolerant approach has become the hall-mark of Indian democracy. While differences have always cropped up in our national movement involving the giants among its leadership, there was by and large adherence to the principle of live and let live.
In our young days, we in Bengal looked upto Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das as our leader, and yet when he and Motilal Nehru differed from Gandhiji and formed the Swaraj (…)

It is an old tendency of human beings to delude themselves and think that the impending dangers could be warded off. Thus they live undisturbed in a make-believe world. Jawaharlal Nehru, in one of his books, has written that when a foreign invader came to raid the famous Somnath temple in Gujarat and loot its treasures, the priests told the devotees to have faith in God and pray, not fight, so that the deity would himself appear and destroy the enemy and his army. Despite prayers for days, (…)