October 2009

Electioneering in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh having come to an end, polling for the elections to the three State Assemblies took place today. According to preliminary information, there was moderate to heavy polling in the three States—whereas Maharashtra had the lowest turnout, that is, over 50 per cent, in Haryana the figure was 65 per cent while Arunachal Pradesh recorded the highest (72 per cent). The results are due on October 22.
What is striking is that despite (…)

The Indian embassy in Kabul has been targeted for bomb attack for a second time in the past 15 months. At least 17 people were killed in the October 8 attack, when a car loaded with explosives rammed into the embassy’s compound wall.
The Indian chancery is not far from the presidential palace and, ironically enough, just across the road from the Afghan Interior Ministry. Needless to say, the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, have shown they have the capacity to (…)

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 125 districts spread over nine States in Central India and adjoining areas have come under the influence of Left radical groups, loosely called Naxalites. On June 22, 2009, the Government of India has declared the most important among the Naxalite groups, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), as a terrorist organisation and banned it.
The precursors of the present phase of Naxal activities first surfaced in Naxalbari of (…)

Earlier in the week The Asian Age carried a news item about a film being made on the Rabindranath Tagore-Victoria Ocampo friendship. I doubt if the name Ocampo is known to many in India today. Tagore too is a distant memory.
The film, Thinking of Him, is to be a joint Indian-Argentinian venture about the ‘Tagore-Ocampo Love Story’. It is to be directed by the Argentine film director, Pablo Cesar, who will be in India next week. He is coming with the Argentinian President, Cristina (…)

In February 2009, the World Bank’s Governors approved the first of a series of reforms aimed at amplifying the voice and influence of developing countries inside the World Bank Group. The centerpiece of these much-awaited reforms is an additional seat for Sub-Saharan Africa on the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, a change that will allow developing countries a majority on the Executive Board. The reforms, which also seek to bring the share of developing countries in the Bank’s voting (…)

Two models of economic development are available to us. The first model is of centralised development. The big businesses will lead smaller ones in this model. Big industries will buy parts from small vendors. They will also provide loans for setting up vendor units through their banking subsidiary. The growth and progress of the vendors is wholly dependent upon the growth of the big unit. The second model is of decentralised development as we see in a large number of lock-making units in (…)

Whatever may be the substance of the much-advertised point of difference between Peking and Washington over the question of détente, it may be safely assumed that Gerald Ford’s talks with Mao Tse-tung and his cohorts explored the further potentialities of Sino-American collusion, particularly in the countries of the Third World. Angola shows the enormity of this entente while the happenings in Bangladesh underscores this danger in our immediate neighbourhood.
The Sino-American (…)

Concerted efforts have been made to give a new lease of life to the Doha Round of WTO negotiations. The question before us is: what is the most relevant role which this revived round of trade talks can play? If we take an overview of the entire international trade scene and the changes that have taken place ever since the WTO was created (including the negotiations which preceded the WTO’s creation to replace the GATT) then the most credible answer to this question is: the most relevant and (…)

TRIBUTE
A legendary human rights activist of India, K Balagopal, General Secretary, Human Rights Forum, died of a sudden heart attack in Hyderabd on October 8, 2009. He was 57.
I cannot believe that Balagopal is no more. He came to Delhi last month to address an important meeting launching a Citizen’s Peace Initiative calling for stopping the cycle of violence and urging for a dialogue between the government and the Maoists. We had been in constant touch to carry this initiative (…)

The advertisement of the Union Home Ministry, captioned ‘Look at These Innocent People—Victims of Naxal Violence’, that was carried in The Indian Express, The Hindu, and The Times of India on September 20, is not only vicious and vindictive, it is easily the most irresponsible in recent times. Has the executive arrogated to itself the functions of the judicature? The ad is calculated to prejudice not only the public mind but also the courts before which many prosecutions of so-called (…)