October 2009

I have read the Resolution (entitled “Stop offensive Hold Unconditional Dialogue” in Mainstream) made by the Citizens Initiative for Peace very carefully and I would like to raise some questions about the list of six demands that have been formulated in the light of the discussion and debates around the question of the Indian State’s decision to deal with the “Naxalite problem” with brute military force.
The Resolution has put forward six “simple yet urgent demands”. The demands are (…)

Twenty years after her great father’s passing away, Indira Gandhi fell, her frail body riddled with the assasin’s bullets, in the winter morning of October 31, 1984.
She died as she lived—taking danger as her constant companion. And she left behind a nation not only benumbed with searing sorrow but engulfed in insensate fratricidal violence, threatening the very unity of the country to defend which she faced martyrdom.
This is not the moment to undertake an objective (…)

a year has passed
without you;
tears dry up
on the surface,
but the pain persists
down below
where my heart writhes
like a wounded fawn
as it dawns on me
with every passing day:
how much we lost
by losing you.
New Delhi October 31, 1985

“The ‘Indira hatred’ slogan of her opponents has died with her, but for a long time the rallying cry in India was her call of ‘Garibi Hatao’ (end poverty). Witnesses bear testimony to the fact that where millions wept at her demise, beyond the family the sincerest tears were shed by the wretched and the poor who feel bereft because they believe that she had genuinely sought to give them succour and shield them against their oppressors.”
The above lines were written by the outstanding (…)

Internal conflict poses one of the greatest obstacles to South-east Asian integration and regional development today. Daljit Singh claims that “for the near future, the main sources of South-East Asia’s insecurities will continue to lie not in its external environment but within South-East Asia itself”.1 This is demonstrated by the fact that most of the countries within the South-East Asia region are stricken by some form of internal strife. In fact, Singapore and Brunei alone can claim to (…)

The results of the elections to the three State Assemblies of Maharashtra (288 seats), Haryana (90 seats) and Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats)—that went to polls on October 13—have come in following the counting of votes today.
At one level it is a victory for the Congress in all the three States as it has left its opponents way behind—it has emerged as the undisputed front-runner having swept the polls in Arunachal Pradesh, returned to power by securing a majority with its ally, the NCP, in (…)

(The Congress Socialist Party was formed on October 21-22, 1934 in Bombay. The following article, by the leading Socialist ideologue in the country, is being published on the occasion of the CSP’s 75th anniversary.)
The Congress Socialist Party was formed by those Congress workers who wanted to link the anti-imperialist struggle with socialism. They felt that it would, on the one hand, motivate the working classes to join the struggle and provide it the necessary striking power, and, on (…)

Jayaprakash Narayan has carried with him fulsome tributes from all political circles-his adherents and admirers, his adversaries and detractors. A life of ups and downs of heroic times and despairing moments Living beyond the Psalmist’s assigned span, JP had not only witnessed mighty deeds but participated in them in the company of the great and was often acclaimed as one of them. Where History will place him in the pantheon of the architects of our freedom, it will be known only to (…)

Dear Mr Sasi Tharoor,
I am a voter of the Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary constituency from which you were returned to the Lok Sabha in the last elections. With the political glamour of a recent Malayalee contestant to the world’s greatest prestigious executive post, Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation, you won the parliamentary elections with a wide margin of votes over your rivals. As expected, you were made the Minister of State for External Affairs in the Dr Manmohan (…)

India has a substantial policy crisis on its hands with the US indicating that the Taliban did not pose a direct threat to its interests,
The United States couldn’t have chosen a worse moment to reveal its mind on the Taliban than on October 8 evening even as the details were filtering in regarding the car bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. Worse still, the Taliban lost no time claiming responsibility for the attack, which claimed 17 lives.
A senior US official in (…)