Shimla has been my second home after Delhi since 1991, the year I joined the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) as Fellow. During this long period of my association with Himachal Pradesh, I have been fortunate to have visited a larger number of cities, towns and a few villages of Himachal Pradesh. I got an opportunity to interact with[Read More…]

(I have used an exclamation mark in the title of the article. But I have not used this punctuation sign anywhere thereafter. For the last three decades, the mainstream political and intellectual circles of the country have been working with the spirit of team-work in erecting a Corporate-India (nigam-bharat). Hence I have accorded it the befitting title of Team-India. It[Read More…]

  (This is the English translation of my Hindi article titled ‘Swatantrta Diwas Ke Kartavya’ published in ‘Yuva Samvad’ and ‘Hastakshep.com’ on the occasion of 66th Independence Day in 2013. The article was reissued last year on 15 August 2021 on the occasion 75th year of the independence – with the hope that along with the exchange of greetings on[Read More…]

(This is the English translation of the Hindi article titled ‘Tirange Par Kabze Ki Ladai’ which had been published in ‘Yuva Samvad’ and Hastakshep.com in 2011. Since then, the business of the country’s national flag Tricolour has increased manifold in the corridors of power. One can note that anti-corruption movement which was held under the aegis of “India Against Corruption”,[Read More…]

(1) Internal discord in the party has intensified after Congress’s dismal performance in the five assembly elections held in February-March 2022. Political pundits, leaders of other parties and politically aware citizens are questioning the role of the Congress for future politics. Among those who put in question there are many people who have reasonable expectations from the Congress as an[Read More…]

Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik’s stand has not softened even after the government withdrew three controversial agri-laws. Speaking at a social function in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri town on January 2, he said that when he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the question of farmers’ agitation and raised the issue of the death of 500 farmers, the PM’s attitude was[Read More…]

(1) It is a well-known truth about civilization that a person deeply immersed in philosophy, spirituality, religion, science, art, literature, other diverse disciplines of study, or even in independent study etc. is prone to less verbal articulations i.e. he talks less. Taking the concept of Gandhi, it can also be considered true about politics. (India’s Independence Movement was also brilliant[Read More…]

The country is one and a half months into the lockdown but the plight of the toiling labourers at the country-wide level continues unabated. Every day huge crowds of workers suffer from hunger, insult and alienation/ignorance in their own country, from their own countrymen and the images are for every one of us to see. It may be noted that[Read More…]

The voting-day (8 February 2020) for the Delhi Assembly elections has finally arrived. The BJP has continued its all-time strategy of communal polarization and Congress bashing in its election campaign. However, the emphasis remained more on communal polarization in the discussions held in the public domain and also in circles of anti-BJP intellectuals. There has been such a concentrated publicity[Read More…]

Recently, I came across a news piece published in the ‘Indian Express’ in which Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that they have changed the narrative of politics. There has been a grand debate ranging from the end of history to the end of ideology since the last decade of the past century . This propagated ‘endology’ apparently meant[Read More…]

1. The title of the article is not reflective of the defeat of politics that stands against the politics which imposes neo-imperialist slavery on the country. That defeat has already been taken place. The reason is that almost all the claimants and intellectuals of socialism, secularism and democracy in the country are against the anti-neo-imperialist politics. The experience since 1991[Read More…]

In the mid-seventies, when I came to Delhi University (DU) from a small village in Haryana, the deployment of police or private security guards either in the college or university campus was unheard of. There used to be university watchmen at the gate of college, hostel and faculty, who were generally befriended by the students. In the entire north campus,[Read More…]

Yesterday (1 October 2019) I had the opportunity to share a car ride with Virendra Kumar Barnwal who is the author of ‘Hind Swaraj: Nav-Sabhyata Vimarsh’. We both were en route to the South Campus of Delhi University where he was invited to address the audience on the topic ‘Gandhi and literature’. On the way the discussion inter-alia turned towards[Read More…]

One important inference that can be drawn from the speeches of the 30th August 2019 rally of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), is that the recent bust controversy will be a pivotal issue in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election scheduled to be held on 12 September. The dispute will not cease with the announcement of election results.[Read More…]

August 9, 2019 is the 77th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, famously known as the August Revolution and an important milestone in the history of India’s freedom movement. The 75th anniversary of this movement, a movement which was fuelled by the intense desire for freedom of the Indian people, was celebrated two years ago on 9 August 2017. On[Read More…]

As per the decision the present day government took in the Parliament on 5 August 2019 the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir accorded under Article 370 of the Constitution of India has ended. The Article 35A also has ceased to exist. Consequently Jammu and Kashmir will no longer be even a full-fledged state. The entire area[Read More…]

(The language-question is again under discussion spotlight after the publication of the draft of National Education Policy (NEP) 2018. In the context, l recollect the day when of one of my articles titled ‘Official Language Vs Social Justice’, originally written in Hindi on the same subject, was to be presented at a five-day conference on ‘Indian Constitution and Social Justice’.[Read More…]

At the time of the establishment of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) on May 17, 1934 in Patna, under the chairmanship of the patriarch of the Indian Socialist Movement, Acharya Narendra Deva, two goals were clear: to achieve the independence of the country and to enhance the pace of the organised efforts towards establishing a socialist system. To achieve both[Read More…]

Narendra Modi, during the campaigning for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, had specifically emphasized two things : First, nothing has happened in the country during the Congress rule of the last 65 years. He, accusing the Congress of failures during its 65 years rule, had then claimed that he would complete 65 years of task in just 65 days if he[Read More…]

Narendra Modi has been a recipient of consistent acceptance and support from various corners/ sources which favours his eligibility as the Prime Minister. Although after five years of being Prime Minister, a lot of people have come out of the lure of Modi, yet an unreal aura is being created about his future Prime Ministerial role, as if it is[Read More…]

Justice Sachar, His Report and Muslims Today (20 April 2019) is the first death anniversary of Justice Rajindar Sachar – a socialist visionary, a Justice par excellence, a true secular and democrat, an unrelenting human rights and civil liberties champion and a wonderful person having complete faith in human goodness. While paying her tribute to him on his demise, Seema[Read More…]

Today, on April 13, 2019, is the hundredth year of Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It was the day of Baisakhi festival. Thousands of male, female and children had come to Amritsar from nearby villages and towns. Many of them had camped in Jallianwala Bagh’s open ground. There was an atmosphere of tension in Punjab due to the agitation organized to oppose[Read More…]

Delhi is the ancient city of India. The city’s history bears testimony to settlements and also to ruins. This order of settling and deserting of the city has been going on since the Mahabharata period. In the medieval period, this city enjoyed eminence as a centre of power and this eminence endured for a long time. It is hardly surprising[Read More…]

1. The modern industrial civilization has witnessed two World Wars. The researchers of war have yet not been able to estimate the magnitude of casualties/deaths – both military and civilian – which occurred in these two World Wars. The estimated figure of people killed in both World Wars is between 10 to 15 crores. World Wars I and II were[Read More…]

  First phenomenon : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team has succeeded in projecting the political debate from the ground on to the virtual world. The political and intellectual class  has played a pivotal role in the last three decades in the crystallisation of this successful endeavour of Modi. As political and intellectual discussions began taking shape in a manner which[Read More…]

University of Delhi is replete with ad-hoc teachers as it presently employs around five thousand teachers who work in the ad-hoc capacity. Year after year, a hire and fire policy is adopted with regard to their employment by the college administration for every academic session. In this process, an ad-hoc teacher often finds himself/herself being turned into a guest teacher.[Read More…]

By passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 in the Lok Sabha the Narendra Modi government at the Center has taken up another step towards the contempt of the Constitution. The Bill provides that six non-Muslim communities – Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi – of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be granted citizenship of India in the event of religious[Read More…]

It would have been more pertinent and meaningful if this piece had been written by a journalist friend. Actually, I had waited for some time hoping that one or another journalist friend would turn his attention to this subject and write about it. But unfortunately, journalists who would look into the changing face of Delhi metropolis and speak about the[Read More…]

The Socialist Party believes that the Modi government has brought the issue of AgustaWestland chopper deal as a rebuttal of the Rafale aircraft deal, and not to fight corruption. The BJP leaders, including the PM, have explicitly stated that extradition of James Christian Michel will pose a serious crisis for the Congress and its Gandhi-Nehru family. People should understand that[Read More…]

1 Civil life in India, especially during the last two decades, has been afflicted by the twin war cry of patriotism (rashtrabhakti) and treason (rashtradroh). The three pillars of the Indian democracy – the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, including the fourth pillar – the press, the education and research institutions as well as independent and committed intellectuals of[Read More…]

The present government has opened almost all areas – from education to defense- for intervention by foreign capital. The loot of the country’s resources and labor is closely associated with this decision of the government. The ministers of the ruling party often make a variety of anti-constitutional announcements that includes declaration about changing the very Constitution. Education is being commercialised[Read More…]

Political Resolution -Socialist Party (India) National Executive Committee Meeting, Delhi The Indian Constitution is passing through the crisis of a serious threat from the ruling establishment of the country. The present government is not only destroying the basic values of socialism, secularism and democracy embedded in the Constitution, but its leaders are also openly declaring that they are working in the[Read More…]

Although the recent attack on social activist Swami Agnivesh is being widely and strongly condemned, there are many people who, citing some earlier incidents involving Swami ji, perceive the attack as an inevitable and normal culmination. This is definitely most unfortunate. Those who do not agree with his earlier or present views and actions were, and are, absolutely free and[Read More…]

On coming 10 May is the 161th anniversary of 1857 – the country’s First War of Independence. 10th May 1857 is the day when the brave Indian soldiers first raised the war-cry for independence against the British regime. To secure freedom for the country by breaking the chains of slavery, on 10th May the soldiers started from Meerut, reaching Delhi[Read More…]

He had forbidden us to call him ‘Justice Sachar’. So I began to call him Sachar Saheb. Four days after his death, I sit down to write this tribute. The personality of Sachar Saheb was like a masterpiece, epic in its dimensions. A classic personality in this absurd period! In a tribute like this, written for the media, there is[Read More…]