Land, along with water, is essential for habitat, living, and survival of human and non-human species. It is not merely a source of food and livelihood for the food-producers, but also the socio-cultural basis of their lives. Colonization for resources In the 17th and 18th Centuries, industrializing European states captured territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. They realised the[Read More…]
Connection to Baltistan This is a recall of June 1984, thirty-nine years ago. The formation cut of a motorable road from Leh over Khardungla on the Ladakh mountain range and into Baltistan along the Shyok river valley, was completed. (The Shyok river, with source at the Rimo glacier, is a major tributary of the Indus river). The story of overcoming[Read More…]
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) India’s official claim is to the entire region of the pre-Independence “Princely State of Kashmir & Jammu” – namely, Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh – as an integral part of India. This includes Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). Pakistan entered into a boundary Agreement with China in March 1963 to settle its border differences, and ceded the Shaksgam Valley of the Hunza region[Read More…]
India has great diversity. It is geo-climatically diverse, with the Himalayan and trans-Himalayan mountains, the Indo-Gangetic plains, deserts, the peninsular plateau with mountain ranges, and riverine and coastal plains. People who live in different geo-climatic regions have different ways of living. They speak, eat, dress differently, and have different customs and cultures, sometimes even among co-religionists. Even within these geo-climatic[Read More…]
Addressing the September 23, 2022, National Conference of Environment Ministers, PM Modi said:“Urban Naxals and anti-development elements having political backing had stalled the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam by running a campaign that the project will harm the environment. Huge amount of money was wasted because of this delay. Now, when the dam is complete, you can very well[Read More…]
We the People The execution of Sepoy Mangal Pandey on April 8, 1857, by the officers of the Bengal Army of the British East India Company sparked our Independence movement. The rebellion among Indian soldiers that followed, caused the ruling British monarch Queen Victoria to proclaim in 1858, that India would be governed by and in the name of “the[Read More…]
We humans live on a planet which we have named Earth which, along with several other planets each of which we have named, revolves around a star which we have named Sun – all with different names in different cultures. More recently, we have recognized life on Earth ranging from micro-organisms to elephants and whales, and understand that in physical[Read More…]
On 13 Dec 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved an “Objective Resolution” during the Constituent Assembly, which outlined the objectives of the Constitution. These were discussed and later became the constitutional Preamble, assuring to the People, the democratic core values of Justice, Liberty and Equality. Fraternity as a core value, was added by B.R.Ambedkar on 21 February 1948. B.R.Ambedkar urged that the[Read More…]
Calling an all-Party meeting recently, MEA Minister S.Jaishankar rightly expressed official concern at the critical economic-financial situation of our southern neighbour Sri Lanka. It had caused large-scale protests. Jaishankar also allayed fears that a similar situation could arise in India. It is devoutly to be hoped that he is correct, in the interest of our People and our nation. The[Read More…]
The Tour of Duty scheme of recruitment for the Defence Services is catchily named Agnipath, and the youth to be recruited are named Agniveers. The implications of the Agnipath scheme are different for the Army (and within the Army for different arms and services), the Navy and the Air Force. This is because of the difference in the arena of[Read More…]
Disclaimer This writer is not a legal practitioner and not educationally qualified in law. However, being one among the several Petitioners challenging the sedition law IPC Section 124A in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in which the cases are sub judice, what follows is a layperson’s understanding on some of the prominent aspects of sedition. Genesis of Section 124A[Read More…]
The importance of a bridge is usually according to its dimensions or its carrying capacity. This account concerns the events that led to the construction of a military (Bailey) bridge insignificant in its dimensions or load capacity, its construction under exceptional circumstances, and how it became important. Prelude April 1982. I joined 16 BRTF in Ladakh to take over command[Read More…]
Only few remain in denial of global warming (GW) leading to climate change (CC). At the other end of the scale, only few view GW-CC as an impending disaster. Leaders of societies and nations are among the bulk of in-betweens, and their understanding of GW-CC mostly remains limited. The Davos development dogma The focus of attention and planning among world[Read More…]
Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal reportedly made remarks against Prophet Muhammad. Indian Muslims are outraged. Islamic nations Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and Iran, have taken serious diplomatic objection, and Qatar has reportedly demanded “public apology” from India. In some of these countries, there are “… protests being lodged with the Indian missions, Indian[Read More…]
Introduction The current stage of human societies on Planet Earth has three defining characteristics. One: The extremely rapid penetration of science and technology into human societies, with concomittant changes in their social, economic and political structures. Two: An explosion in the totality of energy-use by industrialized and industrializing human societies, resulting in planet-level (climate) changes posing an existential threat to[Read More…]
The combination of information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology (IT-BT-NT) is the cutting edge of civilizational transformation in the on-going “digital era”. This technological trio is based upon digitizing and manipulating data. [Ref.1] IT-BT-NT are becoming primary tools for research in the physical, natural, and social sciences, and connected technologies. Perhaps the most influential technologies created by IT-BT-NT in the social,[Read More…]
Freedom as ‘mukti’ “Human freedom, in its widest and deepest sense is fundamental, and needs to be fought for at every step. That is the most central of Vedantic messages” – was a comment made by a learned friend, during a conversation about freedom. This is of course, about “mukti” as a spiritual concept of freedom or final liberation from[Read More…]
Following the 1857 so-called Great Indian Rebellion during the rule of the East India Company, British monarch Queen Victoria, issued proclamation in 1858 that India would be governed by and in the name of “the Crown”. Thus, the British territory of India (the State) and the British Government of India, were embodied in the British Monarch. An Indian subject who[Read More…]
This paper was read as a Plenary Lecture at the 44th Indian Social Science Congress, held at Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, March 15-19, 2021, and is part of the Proceedings of the Congress. The world of Homo Sapiens For most of the Second Millennium CE onwards, humans in most societies have viewed the world around them as human-centric. This assumed “superiority”[Read More…]
War and the Deep State Russia’s military attack on Ukraine starting 24 February 2022, is war. Whether or not countries are actually involved in war, war is always justified by one or more parties to the conflict, and condemned as unjustified by one or more parties. Both sides of the conflict and opinion have their arguments and “facts”, which are[Read More…]
Tamil Nadu has reportedly made clear to the Supreme Court that it does not want the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) to be set up in a sensitive ecological zone in the Western Ghats at great cost to wildlife, biodiversity, and by ignoring the local opposition and public agitations to the project. Neutrinos are esoteric Neutrinos, first postulated in 1930 by[Read More…]
Snapshots from the UN Genocide Convention The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide – CPPCG for short – is an international treaty, which was the direct outcome of the atrocities in Germany and elsewhere, during of World War II. CPPCG was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948. It stands ratified[Read More…]
Our PM has spoken. To quote him: “We have to light the lamp of responsibilities and obligation inside the heart of every citizen of the country. Then only the country will reach new heights”, and “… society should stand on the foundations of equality and social justice”. [“Efforts made to spoil India’s reputation globally; our duty to present the correct[Read More…]
At the Dharam Sansad conducted at Haridwar, December 17-19, 2021, by Hindu sants and seers, there were calls for killing Muslims to cleanse Indian society. These are calls for genocide. Speakers also called upon army and police personnel to take up arms to kill Muslims. One speaker reportedly called for socio-economic boycott of Indian Muslims, and stated that governments will[Read More…]
Observations indicate that instances of vigilante groups taking the law into their own hands for various reasons connected with inter-faith matters, are on the increase. At the same time, terrorism is a subject of daily reportage. Both these matters affect everybody directly or indirectly, and bear discussion. ‘V’ for Vigilantism A vigilante is “a member of a self-appointed group of[Read More…]
Terror, terrorism, terrorists Terror is the emotion of “extreme fear” caused by the threat or use of violence. Terror is also an instrument to cause fear, “a weapon of the impotent, the disenfranchised and the unorganized in the face of profound grievance“. Causing extreme fear using the instrument of terror are both age-old. However, only in recent times has terrorism[Read More…]
USA may operationalize the 2016 Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), by insisting on building a military base in India, for use as a staging area for beyond-the-horizon surveillance and “launching attacks on terrorists in and around Afghanistan”. The US Administration is embarrassed by its capitulation to Taliban (signing a peace treaty with Taliban at Doha, February 2020, to allow[Read More…]
The Ganesh festival is celebrated country-wide with prayers and rituals, greetings are exchanged, and various food delicacies are prepared. When we relish the delicacies, it is appropriate to remember that every one of those preparations is based upon farm produce, be it grains, vegetables, fruits, or the banana leaves on which the feast is served. This farm produce is the[Read More…]
Complex society India is a diverse country. It has geo-climatic diversity and people who live in different geo-climatic regions have different ways of living and doing, with different cultures. India has been a socio-cultural entity with a civilizational identity for millennia. At Independence, India was a country of amazing complexity of cultures, languages, customs, religions, ethnicities, and an ancient caste[Read More…]
Taliban’s re-capture of Afghanistan was virtually certain after the February 2020 (Doha) US-Taliban deal concerning US forces pull-out from Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s immediate and regional neighbours had plenty of time to re-strategize the forthcoming situation. However, Taliban’s easy capture of Kabul due to the unexpectedly rapid collapse of Afghan forces trained and equipped by USA, has surprised all. Reports of Afghanistan[Read More…]
It is well established that global warming (GW) is driving climate change (CC). Thinkers believe that in coming years, GW-CC will adversely affect societies and nations on a global scale like nothing before. Important among the IPCC-predicted long-term effects of GW-CC, as applicable to India, are: (1) Rise in sea level due to polar ice-melt, leading to coastal erosion or[Read More…]
Nation = People + Country + Constitution A nation is the synergetic sum of a country’s people with their social and cultural resources, who live within the boundaries of the country with its natural and economic resources, and the rules by which the people live and work. The “rule book” for India is the Constitution of India. It was the[Read More…]
Farm laws and food The Farmers’ agitation starting 26 November 2020, was against three Farm Laws. The Essential Commodities Amendment Act, 2020, (ECA Act) is one of them. ECA Act amends the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, (EC Act) enacted “in the interest of the general public, for the control of the production, supply and distribution of, and trade and commerce”,[Read More…]
Illegal migrants living inside India is a worrying, long-standing reality dating back to the 1950s. This is so especially in several border states. Over decades, successive governments of different political persuasions at centre have amended the Citizenship legislation several times, but have only complicated, not helped to resolve if not solve, the issue. Together, the centre and states have failed[Read More…]
In early 2020, the Coronavirus took all countries by surprise, causing the first Covid storm (Covid-1). Even countries with a sound public health infrastructure struggled to manage the crisis arising from system overload. It was well understood world-over that the three rules of masking-distancing-hygiene were vital primary measures. Lockdowns were announced, and understood as only a means to check Covid[Read More…]
Chamoli April 23, 2021. Uttarakhand’s Chamoli District suffered flash flood yet again. [Ref.1] The previous one was on February 7, 2021. Both took sudden and huge toll of human and animal life and economic loss, including destroying infrastructure of dams and roads. Both occurred because of avalanches possibly triggered by glacier-dam burst. This writer argues that the avalanches were both[Read More…]
The farmers’ peaceful protest demanding repeal of the farm laws began on 26 November 2020, Constitution Day, non-violently overcoming physical and political obstacles, to encamp at the gates of Delhi. The repeal-the-farm-laws “ball” served to government by the farmers, was tossed into the Supreme Court by government. Without hearing pending petitions questioning the constitutional validity of the farm laws, the[Read More…]
Stepping back to November 2020, farmers marched peacefully on Delhi on Constitution Day with the aim of reaching Ramlila Maidan to hold a rally objecting to the three new farm laws. Government flexed its muscle military-style to stop them, by digging up the national highway and installing heavy obstacles and razor-wire concertinas. When farmers breached the obstacles, police used tear-gas[Read More…]
The K.G.Kannabiran Memorial Lecture, 2020, “Death of Democratic Institutions”, was delivered by Justice B.Sudarshan Reddy, retired Supreme Court Judge. Listening to the lecture led this writer to consider democracy and its institutions, especially as per Dr.B.R.Ambedkar (Ambedkar, hereafter), often considered as the father of the Constitution of India. Ambedkar, who died on December 6, 1956 (precisely 36-years later, we suffered[Read More…]
US president Trump dismissed Christopher Krebs, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Reason? Krebs had disputed Trump’s contention that the presidential election had fraudulent ballots and software glitches that changed millions of votes. Krebs spoke his “truth”, which did not match president Trump’s “truth”. Krebs paid the price by losing his job. In our country in recent[Read More…]
Government is on the backfoot with determined farmers, especially from the northern states, protesting peacefully against the Farm Laws. They are joined by farmers and workers countrywide. Whatever the official obfuscations, this is a People’s agitation/ protest against laws which they well understand will do them harm. In present times, barring ritual voting in elections, the will of We the[Read More…]
It is not every day that one needs a doctor, a lawyer, a policemen or a priest, but everyday, three times a day, you need a farmer. Farmers are not a homogenous community. There are caste and class differences because, among land-owning farmers, the socio-economic spectrum of farmers is huge. At one end are wealthy, university-educated farmers with large land-holdings,[Read More…]
The Agricultural Trade and Commerce Act, Farmers Price Assurance Act and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act were enacted by the Union Government in October 2020. These laws have triggered nationwide protests, which include huge participation of women farmers. They believe that these laws will make them vulnerable to exploitation by corporations, erode their bargaining power, and weaken government’s MSP system, putting[Read More…]
On 26 November, an estimated 250 million workers from different sectors belonging to 10 central trade unions and hundreds of workers associations struck work in what may be the biggest nationwide strike. It is not coincidental that lakhs of farmers of several states chose the same day to march towards Delhi from all directions, opposed by Police at multiple places.[Read More…]
In 2019, media reported that Government was preparing to table a new legislation, the Financial Sector Development & Regulation (Resolution) Bill (FSDR, hereafter). [Ref.1]. Reportedly FSDR is meant to rescue banks, among other financial sector institutions, from collapse. It replaces the Financial Regulation and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 (FRDI hereafter), which was withdrawn in 2018 following public outcry against a[Read More…]
Mao Zedong, first president of the People’s Republic of China, had designs on “reclaiming” territories to the west of China, by placing the “Chinese hand” over the region. Tibet was likened to the palm of the hand, and the fingers were Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh), spanning across the whole Himalayan range. Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and[Read More…]
Invisible millions In urban life, the hard physical, often demeaning and life-threatening work (cleaning out sewage manholes/drains or handling stinking garbage) is done by the lowest paid workers. These occupations are vital for urban life. For example, if urban garbage (thousands of tonnes per day in a big city) is not cleared regularly, life becomes unbearable and lays urbanites open[Read More…]
At global centre-stage, “Corona” is one of the most commonly used words worldwide, and the volumes of information and misinformation on it have caused doubts and fears among the public. This article discusses the fear that Coronavirus and Covid-19 have induced in society, and therefore begins with facts. Viruses and bacteria (1) Viruses outnumber cellular life at least 10:1, and[Read More…]
I have a problem. “Sure, but who doesn’t?”, is a valid rejoinder. At one end, people have life-or-death, existential problems. Then there are problems like: Next meal when?; Job/income/social security; Children’s future; Dependent parents; Match income with commitments and price rise; Loan for medical/surgical problems; … …, How to manage EMI for house/car/education?, … … and, at the ‘top’ end,[Read More…]
Viruses Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19 is just one of the more recent viruses in our environment, and it is here to stay [“One in 3 recover, time to learn to live with virus, says govt”; Deccan Herald; 09.05.2020, p.1]. It will add one more virus to the billions of viruses to which human bodies are already host. The problem[Read More…]
PM Modi has recognized the Corona pandemic as a “ladai” and given a clarion call to the people to be prepared for a long battle, and to contribute liberally for the fight. For Central and State governments, it is an unprecedented challenge to handle cases of Covid-19 and prevent/check spread of the virus, as well as to reach help[Read More…]
Setting a precedent, India’s 1.3-billion people are the world’s largest social-distancing lockdown population in the wake of the Corona virus. The decision to lockdown at this scale with 4-hours “notice”, without adequate preparation and planning is being questioned. But condemn it or praise it, we are in its midst and it is necessary to handle the lockdown effects, particularly on[Read More…]
Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses which cause disease in mammals and birds. The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes Covid-19, which is highly contagious and spreads very fast, but is not yet proven as a bigger killer than SARS and MERS, which belong to the same group. The Covid-19 pandemic has so far caused about 11,000 deaths worldwide. Without trivializing[Read More…]
There was public alarm following enactment of CAA-2019. The 2003 Rules [Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003] may not have been examined in detail had CAA-2019 not been enacted with the intention of countrywide NPR-NRC. Now the 2003 Rules stand exposed as providing definite possibilities for malafide/ targeted use in the NPR-NRC process.[Read More…]
Why examine the 2003 Citizenship Rules? During the tenure of Vajpayee’s BJP-led NDA-1 government, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, by Notification G.S.R.937(E) on 10.12.2003. Its infirmities – discussed here – were not rectified/amended/changed by Manmohan Singh’s two successive Congress-led UPA governments (2004-2014), or by Modi’s first[Read More…]
Government’s inflexible and resolute NPR-NRC initiative is causing country-wide unrest, testing the credibility of statements made by top politicians. With the date for starting NPR registration being April 1, 2020, some issues need to be addressed and understood. NPR & NRC are connected The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA-2019) passed on 10.12.2019 caused a public uproar because of fears that[Read More…]
On January 8, 2020, during a student demonstration within the campus of the University of Mysuru at Manasagangothri, Ms.Nalini Balakumar reportedly displayed a banner which bore the words “Free Kashmir”. For this reason, the Police suo moto registered a case of sedition against her. Whether or not displaying a “Free Kashmir” sign is an offence deserving being booked for sedition[Read More…]
Starting 2002, USA has been negotiating foundational military cooperation Agreements with India. They are GSOMIA (General Security of Military Information Agreement) signed in 2012; LSA (Logistic Support Agreement), signed in 2016 as LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement); CISMOA (Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement), signed in 2018 as COMCASA (Communications Compatibility & Security Agreement); and BECA (Basic Exchange[Read More…]
Our country is currently aflame with continuing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (CAA) and the as-yet-on-the-drawing-board National Register of Citizenship (NRC), concerning illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are indisputably illegal. There remains a limit to which Indian society can manage to socially, economically and politically accommodate persons who come into India, and claim a share of the diminishing “cake[Read More…]
Whether one likes it or not, celebrates it or rues it, appreciates it or criticizes it, the unanimous Ayodhya verdict by a 5-Judge constitution bench is now law. Flawed it may be, imbued with strange logic in places it may be, but it is final, because the Supreme Court is structurally supreme and constitutionally final. Following the Ayodhya verdict, a[Read More…]
Every year there is shortfall of rain in South India, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu which share Cauvery river water, go into crisis mode. The dispute is primarily because the total water demand exceeds the total water available in the Cauvery basin. Each year, with less water available and increasing demand, the demand-driven dispute becomes more fierce. Beyond Cauvery India, with[Read More…]
In the years immediately preceding World War II, Winston Churchill is quoted as having said: “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing expedients, of delays, is coming to its close … … in its place we are entering a period of consequences”. World War II, purported to be a war to end all wars, ended in 1945 after USA[Read More…]
A group of over 150 Indian military Veterans wrote a letter to the President of India in his capacity as Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces, expressing their serious concern at the recent rather blatant use by politicians of different parties, of the military, military uniforms or symbols, and actions by military formations or personnel, in their election campaigns. The[Read More…]
The current floods in Kerala are unprecedented and clearly a national disaster. In the midst of this disaster, there is fear for the structural safety of the Mullaperiyar dam on the Periyar river. Madras Engineers Colonel John Pennycuick commenced construction of this 173-ft high dam in 1887, and it was commissioned in 1895. This gravity dam was considered an engineering[Read More…]
Headlines that 356 serving army personnel have taken the unprecedented initiative of petitioning the Supreme Court of India (SCI) against “persection” is extremely worrying, to put it mildly. This comes after the Supreme Court directed the CBI SIT to file chargesheets against army personnel allegedly involved in extra-judicial killings in Manipur. No right-thinking officer would support a soldier (here[Read More…]
It was Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, when he was India’s prime minister, who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan!”, in the realistic understanding that the Jawan provides national external security (since then he has also been providing internal security due to failure of governance) and the Kisan provides the nation with food security. Were Shastri alive today, it seems[Read More…]
The union government’s proposal of lateral entry of persons from “private sector companies, consultancy firms and international or multinational organisations”, as Joint Secretary (JS) is to “bring[ing] in fresh ideas and new approaches to governance and also to augment manpower”. [“Private sector employees can now apply for top government posts“; <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-notifies-10-positions-for-lateral-entry-as-joint-secretaries/articleshow/64527221.cms>; Economic Times, June 10, 2018]. This would be unexceptionable[Read More…]
The Kannada saying “murthi chikkadaadaru keerthi doddadu” (meaning that even if the physical form is diminutive, the virtue is great), applies to Lal Bahadur Shastri who, as prime minister, led India with remarkable initiative and verve in the 1965 war against Pakistan. It was he who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”, in the full understanding that the Jawan[Read More…]
Data is being acquired without much thought as to its security or end-use. Take for instance, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) collecting the names, mobile numbers and e-mail IDs of 1.3 million young boys and girls so that the PM can interact with them via the Narendra Modi App. [“For chat with PM Modi, NCC collects mobile, email IDs of[Read More…]
Threats to databases In an age of exploding data, information and knowledge, both human and machine, cyber security is as much a necessity for personal privacy as it is for internal and external national security, or for day-to-day economic activities and operation of social and economic infrastructure systems. Cyber security also constitutes the defensive part of modern warfare[Read More…]
The word “private” has the meanings: (1) belonging to a particular person (his/her own body or his/her own property), (2) not sharing thoughts or feelings with others, and (3) not connected with a person’s work or official role. From this adjective, we obtain the abstract noun “privacy”, which means “a state in which one is not watched or disturbed by[Read More…]
On 22 July 2015, the Attorney General (AG) Shri Mukul Rohatgi representing the Union of India (Centre, hereinafter) argued before a 3-Judge Bench (Justices J.Chelameshwar, S.A.Bobde & C.Nagappan) considering a batch of petitions challenging Aadhaar, that # the Constitution-makers did not intend to make the right to privacy a fundamental right, # since there is no fundamental right to[Read More…]
The Game of Dice of the Mahabharata epic is being enacted on the banks of Narmada river. The actors are Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) as Dushasana; Government of India (GoI) as Duryodhana; the Narmada river represented by the people who are being forcibly evicted for protesting and demanding their rightful due, as Draupadi being disrobed; the Legislative and[Read More…]
This piece is inspired by the query of a respected activist who asked this writer, “While protest statements against heinous crimes are necessary, should there not also be statements when armed forces or security forces personnel get killed by mobs or militants?” Hence, this article attempts to present a view which will do justice to both sides of the[Read More…]
Ransomware worm WannaCry struck at and crippled UK’s National Health Scheme, causing a national emergency of sorts. The operations systems of British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France were targets of cyber attack on passenger handling, causing economic loss but fortunately no accident. All this is cause for concern in India, because of India’s huge vulnerability to cyber attack. Now[Read More…]
In a first in India, the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) has set up an “Anand Mantralaya” (Ministry of Happiness) with the Chief Minister himself in charge, and a “Rajya Anand Sansthan” (State Institute of Happiness), headed by a CEO. [“Madhya Pradesh to devise Happiness Index”; http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/madhya-pradesh-to-devise-happiness-index/article18516488.ece; The Hindu, Bengaluru; 21 May 2017]. Without in any manner belittling the initiative[Read More…]
In the current context of planned closure of the SSP dam sluice gates (understood as planned for 09 May 2017 by NCA), about 40,000 PAFs (2,00,000 people) in Madhya Pradesh alone, along with their villages and one township, will be drowned. Their forcible evacuation by police action is being planned and is imminent. Such action will bring utter shame on our Republic.
Maoists (or Naxals, according to some) ambushed a 100-strong CRPF road-opening patrol (ROP) on 24 April in Chintagufa Police Station limits of Sukma District of Chhattisgarh, killing 25 CRPF personnel and wounding six. The Maoists were reportedly around 200 in strength, and they ruthlessly continued engaging the pinned-down CRPF patrol for about one hour. The killing and wounding[Read More…]
The recent video clip of a civilian strapped to the front of an army vehicle deployed in internal security (IS) operations in Kashmir has made headlines. Many army veterans are defending it as a tactical means to avoid stone-pelting and thus permit operations with minimal bloodshed of protestors and army personnel alike. Some journalists aver that this tactic[Read More…]
Davos The World Economic Forum (WEF), a Swiss non-profit foundation for public-private cooperation “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”, met in Davos from 17-20 January, as it does every year, in an ambience of high-level meetings interspersed by opulent partying. It[Read More…]
There appears to be little justification for the proposed “strategic disinvestment” of 26% equity in BEML. On the other hand, such disinvestment will reduce India’s self-reliance in the defence sector (and other core sectors) and increase dependence on private business entities for national security. It will place vital manufacture in the hands of private entities which are primarily profit-based, not above colluding with foreign business interests which are against India’s security, and raising the cost of products which will adversely affect the defence budget and defence preparedness
Civil-military relations are today at an all-time low and although the decades-long continuity of the bureaucratic hand is obvious in the current NDA-2 dispensation, there is also evidence of the political leadership humiliating the military. Let us begin with CBI’s arrest of Air Chief Marshal S.P.Tyagi, India’s former air chief, in connection with the Agusta Westland helicopter purchase deal. It[Read More…]
The idea A project to interlink Indian rivers was formally declared in 2002. It was envisaged as a grand scheme to link 37 major Indian rivers by 30 link canals (14 Himalayan and 16 peninsular) with a total length of 14,900-km. [Map given above]. The interlinking of rivers (ILR) project, it had a first-estimate cost of Rs.5,60,000 crores (Rs.5.6 trillion).[Read More…]
Veteran Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal, aged 70 years, unhappy at government not providing OROP to Veterans, committed suicide in Delhi on November 2, 2016, by consuming poison. OROP has been the focus of intense agitation over many months at Jantar Mantar in 2015, and government has prevaricated and dodged the core issue, with PM Narendra Modi, RM Manohar Parrikar[Read More…]
India’s 29 September cross-LOC strike was conducted professionally, as expected of the apolitical army of the Indian Republic. Pakistan’s predictable response is denial of its ever having happened. It could have been left at that, but government and the opposition (such as it is), encouraged by TRP-hungry TV channels provoking certain publicity-hungry military veterans, have been using the apolitical army’s[Read More…]
Following the 18 September attack on the army’s Uri camp, government is reportedly contemplating strong diplomatic-military initiatives to counter Pakistan’s growing audacity. But strangely, the Home Minister and the National Security Advisor (NSA) appear to be taking all the initiatives, ordering the NIA to investigate the attack, and leaving a rather subdued Defence Minister, while the External Affairs Minister[Read More…]
The dawn attack on 18 Sep on the army’s Uri camp by Pakistan-trained militants resulted in 17 troops killed and 30 more wounded. The fact that attackers were four in number, has attracted the attention of the media, which labels them as terrorists, while politicians term the attack as cowardly. There are some issues which need consideration. First,[Read More…]
Prime Minister Modi’s bringing up “Balochistan” during his 15th August address was criticised, especially since he omitted to mention the on-going, acute crisis in Kashmir. While the validity of criticism of omission may hold good, mentioning Balochistan could be a calculated move to reverse India’s traditional passivity against Pakistan’s aggressive India policy. India’s turning a spotlight on Balochistan has the[Read More…]
Kashmir has been continuously on the boil ever since Burhan Wani was killed 44 days ago. Appeals by the BJP-PDP state government and the union government to Kashmiri youth to not agitate, have been predictably ineffective. That the problem is political at its root has been pointed out by many, who have (again predictably) been dubbed by the ruling dispensation[Read More…]
There comes a time when one needs to speak; I speak of the Una Independence Day Rally of Dalits, at the end of a 10-day 400-km Dalit Asmita Yatra following a massive Dalit congregation at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on July 31. Whatever one’s political, social or religious preferences, inclinations or beliefs, anybody who has respect for the Constitution of India[Read More…]
On my grandfather’s sixtieth birthday on July 16th, 1945, the atomic bomb was tested in USA’s Nevada desert, and the world lost its nuclear innocence. Twenty-one days later, on August 6th, the experiment was live-tested on Japanese people when USA dropped a 15-kiloton Uranium-235 fission bomb on Hiroshima. The same day, the experiment was hailed in The New York Times[Read More…]
I have again very recently (29, 30 & 31 July 2016) travelled in the Narmada Valley to meet PAFs in the submergence villages after the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) dam has been raised to its finished height of 138.68-m, with installation of the sluice gates. The on-going monsoon has already raised the water level upstream of the SSP dam and when it rises further as it surely will, it will submerge many villages and habitations, drowning 45,000 PAFs (2,25,000 people). The situation for these PAFs is therefore grim and very serious.
The on-going protests in Kashmir following the killing of Burhan Wani were met by police firing resulting in over 40 deaths and over 2,000 injured including hundreds of blindings due to pellet-shot. This is of serious concern to every thinking Indian, whichever side of the argument he/she happens to be on, because large-scale social unrest in any part of[Read More…]
Common experience Anybody going out in any city or metro, is assaulted by smoke and exhaust fumes of every sort of motor vehicle. In reducing size, we notice buses and trucks, SUVs, plush sedans, and “commoners’ small cars”, to use the elitist turn of phrase of Mr.Mukul Rohatgi representing government, when arguing against Supreme Court’s ban on large diesel[Read More…]
In a historic ruling, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U.Lalit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court have spoken out in favour of democracy. The judgment came on a plea by hundreds of families in the north-eastern State of Manipur for a probe by a Special Investigation Team into 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters involving the Army and the[Read More…]
Today, and very urgently even as I write, for all the foregoing reasons, with the monsoon about to break, the people of the Narmada River valley are in imminent danger of being flooded out of their homes and lands or drowned, due to the rising waters in the reservoirs behind the hundreds of small, medium and large dams, which have been constructed on Narmada river and its tributaries over the years. In particular, the SSP dam at its finished height of 138.68-metres with the sluice gates installed, threatens the lives of around 40,000 PAFs in Madhya Pradesh. Clearly, there is a disaster-in-the-making; India urgently needs to do something now.
Neoliberalism or free-market fundamentalism The central dogma of neoliberalism is economic growth, achieved by: # Increasing competition through deregulation (watering-down of social, welfare, health, labour and environmental laws), and opening domestic markets to foreign competition, and # Severely limiting the role of the State by privatization of state assets and liberalization of economic policies, simultaneously increasing corporate influence and involvement[Read More…]
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Israeli Protests: Racist Western Mainstream Media Ignore The Palestinians 
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Perils of Complacency – Recent Indian experience of democracy 
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Targeting China, US Navy to purchase 100 new ships 
Fifty Years of the 1973 Yom Kippur War 
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An Ordinary German Pogrom 
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Contemporary Anti-Semitism – A Jewish View from Germany 
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Take action against K Surendran for insulting Women 
Calculated Exoneration: Command Responsibility and War Crimes in Afghanistan 
DOJ Called Upon to Investigate Environmental Activists Abuses 
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
