April 2009

Bihar politics continues to be full of surprises. The 14th Assembly elections in Bihar created history since Bihar is the only State in India’s electoral history where polls have been conducted twice in the same year (2005). The economy and governance became issues in a manner that is unusual for a polity more accustomed to personalities, caste and minority concerns. The referendum for development and good governance (susasan) encouraged the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) State (…)

As the general election campaign is coming to a close, there are increasing signs that the Bengali intellectual life is at a crossroad, often exhibiting signs of terrible decay and partisanship, a direct result of penetration of Left ideas in the Bengali social life after independence.
Every election since 1967 has brought to fore the bankruptcy of the Bengali middle class. Remember the 1967 general elections when the two Communist Parties, dominated by middle class intellectuals, (…)

It is high time the Congress and the Left got back together in national politics, which has degenerated into a fissiparous mess. All kinds of obscurantist, communal, and casteist forces have risen to the surface, pushing to the background the debates on real national issues. Only the rejuvenation of the Congress-Left alliance can alter these trends.
Both the Congress and the Left must realise that they are natural allies in spite of the differences in their ideology and numerical (…)

At the outset, I wish to make it clear that the subject I have chosen is a sensitive subject, as it deals not only with the dream of development within the Muslim society of India but also the relationship with the country‘s power elite. I am not an authority on the subject and the attempt to analyse the issue is purely due to the concerns for the community. In this context, I have to examine their present socio-politico status and ways to uplift them from ghetto existence.
It is now (…)

In the light of the recent violence in Kandhamal every right thinking person of this country must be concerned of the dangers to democracy and the secularist ideals of our nation. The violence that started in December 2007 had already destroyed the backbone of the minority Christian community of Kandhamal. The killing of the Swami, which from day one the Christian leaders and churches condemned in the strongest terms, and unequivocally stated that they had no role in it at all, was used as a (…)

I
It was two o clock in the morning. I had just woken up in the quiet village of Lakebadi in Kandhamal, still asleep in the lap of Nature and the Divine, and was looking at the beautiful mountains bathed in light with the rays of a blooming moon and the stars. I was remembering the prayer for peace offered by Gokul Diggal two days ago when we first met: “God, please forgive us all so that all of us can realise our own weaknesses and mistakes. The Hindu brothers who are doing all these (…)

April 22 this year marked the 139th birth anniversary of that immortal revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. On this occasion we carry the following tributes to Lenin from two of our most distinguished national leaders.
Bolshevism...aims at the abolition of the institution of private property. This is only an application of the ethical ideal of non-possession in the realm of economy and if the people adopted this ideal of their own accord or could be made to accept it by means of peaceful (…)

With the pre-poll campaign bereft of any real issue, one is witness to unprecedented verbal slugfests—Gujarat CM Narendra Modi slamming the Congress as a budiya compared to the youthful BJP and then calling it gudiya in response to Priyanka Gandhi’s prompt repartee; PM Manmohan Singh paying back L.K. Advani in the same coin recalling how the former Union Home Minister’s self-proclaimed “iron man” image had melted in the heat of the Kandahar hijack drama—thus bringing out the complete lack of (…)

The expectations about the outcome of the forth-coming general elections are shrouded in a penumbra of uncertainty. No single political party or group of parties or political combinations is expected to win an absolute majority, leaving the doors open to post-election negotiations and messy compro-mises resulting in an unstable government of the sort the country experienced during 1996-98.
This uncertainty is the result of political fragmentation which has manifested itself in the (…)

Voting is not a simple business. It is a false impression that the voter is the king. The king-maker certainly he is. But his choices are always limited. The boundaries are fixed by the contesting parties and individuals. The voter has no role in deciding who would contest from his constituency. Candidates field themselves without consulting even a small number of voters. In a sense, they are imposed from above. Everyone is entitled to contest. Naturally, victory goes to the person who (…)