The killing of five Indian soldiers by militants on May 5 in the Rajouri-Poonch sector, once again highlights the failure of our security machinery to protect our jawans. Its agents who are posted in that sector, failed to detect the explosive device that was planted and triggered by the militants in the path of these soldiers. Just a fortnight ago, [Read More…]
“Dear Shri Narendra Modi ji Please accept my heart felt condolences on the demise of your party, the BJP, in Karnataka. But more than that, I am rather disappointed by the utter ineptitude of your party in manipulating the minds of the voters and the EVMs in favour of your candidates. And this failure happened in spite of your domineering [Read More…]
Our Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s braggadocio that the Islamist terrorists in Kashmir have been eliminated, and our Home Minister Amit Shah’s much touted announcement that the Maoist insurgents (termed officially as LWE – Left Wing Extremists) have been crushed, are receiving wide-spread applause by the mainstream media. But both the claims have turned out to be deceitful, or at best [Read More…]
An advance 100th birthday greetings sent to Ranajit Guha by Sumanta Banerjee. Ranajit Guha breathed his last on 28th April 2023 at Vienna Woods in Austria just before his 100th birthday. This letter was published in the journal ‘Frontier’ Dear Ranajit da Do you remember me? I was your student for a brief while in 1953 on the eve of[Read More…]
New Delhi today sits at the centre of the global summit called G-20 – hosting VIPs from different parts of the world in the midst of pompous demonstrations of Prime Minister Modi’s suzerainty over India, and outreach beyond its borders. Coming down to brass tacks, G-20 is an exclusive club of elite capitalist states which promote neo-liberal economic policies at [Read More…]
Our high profile minister of external affairs, S. Jaishankar, who is vociferous both at home and abroad, appears to have landed up in a mess. Some of his recent remarks regarding both current and past events have stirred up a controversy. Not only Opposition parties, some members from his own former bureaucratic fraternity have also expressed reservations about his frequent [Read More…]
The bagging of the coveted golden statuette by the musical score `Naatu Naatu’ at the Oscars Academy Awards ceremony, has quite predictably set our people dancing in ecstasy, and united both the ruling and the Opposition politicians in flaunting the award as a symbol of India’s superior status in the global cultural arena. As Anurag Thakur, the Information and Broadcasting [Read More…]
Linking the name of prime minister Narendra Modi with the god man Asaram Bapu who is now behind bars for raping a girl devotee of his, may offend the sentiments of Modi’s devotees. But facts are too stubborn to be stamped down under covers. Let us therefore go back to the past, reveal a few facts and examine the relationship [Read More…]
I am raising a serious issue that touches upon a person’s legal right of exclusive possession of his/her personal creation – whether a scientific formula, or a literary piece, or even a political programme. This is known as copyright, or patent in relation with certain products. If anyone uses that material without the permission of its original author, or fails [Read More…]
Latest news from the battlefields of Ukraine indicate that the war game is moving in uncertain and unpredictable directions, and nothing is happening in terms of a final score – either by the Russians who have invaded Ukraine or the Ukrainians who are defending their territory. Russia’s recent decision to withdraw its foot soldiers from Kharson could be a temporary [Read More…]
Way back in 1922 , the Bengali author of comic literature Sukumar Ray (father of the famous film maker Satyajit Ray), composed a poem entitled Act 21, lampooning the system of justice in India under British colonial rule. He of course had to invent another country to disguise the object of his satirical barb – by describing it as the [Read More…]
While the war rages on in Ukraine, how is the Left facing the multi-dimensional complex challenges thrown up by the war and the ravages that it is heaping upon its people ? The writer Arundhati Roy, in a lighter vein has summed up the Left’s dilemma as “tortuous yoga asanas – some pretty drastic seeing and unseeing – depending on [Read More…]
The term `Concentration Camps’ was used to describe the notorious prisons run by the Nazis in the 1930-40 period in Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz and other places in Germany, and occupied territories in Europe. The plight of the prisoners who were held there had been well documented by later researchers who delved into the records of those camps and interviewed the [Read More…]
On the eve of the retirement of Chief Justice N. V. Ramana from the Supreme Court, it may be worthwhile to examine both his individual performance, and the functioning of the apex court under his supervision during his tenure of sixteen months from April, 2021 till the end of August, 2022, when he is due to retire. The issues being [Read More…]
After taking the oath of office of the President of India, Droupadi Murmu said: “My election is proof of the fact that the poor in India can have dreams and fulfil them too.” Her speech at the oath taking ceremony was a moving narrative, recalling her past struggles from humble origins and her daily toil during her childhood. She described [Read More…]
“He (Narendra Modi) gifted ittar (perfume derived from natural sources) bottles in zardozi box, crafted in Lucknow, to French President Emmanuel Macron.” (The Times of India, June 29, 2022) “Here is the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (Shakespeare: Macbeth). The above two quotes sum up the record [Read More…]
The Muslim religious practice of Bakrid – being observed in July this year – is in commemoration of an event in past history that is shared by both Islam and Christianity. Members of both the communities assert their devotion to a preacher known as Abraham among Jews and Ibrahim among Muslims. Note the similarities in the phonetic pronunciations. According to [Read More…]
Russia’s President Putin, in a speech on February 21, 2022, said: “Modern Ukraine was entirely created by….Communist Russia. The process began immediately after the revolution of 1917.” He then described the state as “Vladimir Ilych Lenin’s Ukraine.” Putin was harking back to the Romanov empire of the past, when Ukraine was under the Tsarist regime. Putin is today keen on [Read More…]
Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, heading a Supreme Court vacation bench, while hearing an appeal by a lawyer on May 23, flared up in an outburst of anger saying that it had become a “fashion” to make allegations against the judiciary. He added: “The stronger the judge, the worse the allegations.” (THE HINDU, May 24). Why is the honourable Justice Chandrachud [Read More…]
“A strange dusk has descended upon the earth today/ ….. Those whose hearts are devoid of any love and affection, never swayed by any sense of pity/ These are the people who advice us now as to how the world must move./ And those who still feel it’s better to believe in[Read More…]
In the background of the present war in Ukraine, much is being written by political commentators about the reasons why the Indian head of state Narendra Modi has taken an outwardly neutral stand towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin – a position which can be described variously as ambivalent, or even crypto-friendly. India’s abstention from voting in favour of resolutions [Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a rather controversial comment, while addressing a Hindu religious women’s organization called the `Brahmakumaris’ on January 21. He reminded his listeners: “In the last 75 years, we only kept talking about rights, fighting for rights and wasting our time. The issue of rights may be right to some extent in certain circumstances, but neglecting one’s[Read More…]
India’s counter terrorism task force NIA (National Investigation Agency) has come into limelight recently – but for the wrong reasons. Neglecting their original task of pursuing serious crimes like terrorism, the NIA personnel have barked up the wrong tree. Incapable of nabbing the real terrorists, they are trying other methods to justify their perpetuation in the present system. They have [Read More…]
The outpouring of grief over the tragic death of General Bipin Rawat is manifesting itself in an ugly belligerent form, which was never witnessed in the past on similar occasions, like the passing away of army stalwarts – Sam Manekshaw, Arjan Singh and Sundarji. The present state-sponsored display of national mourning over Bipin Rawat’s death is fast degenerating into an [Read More…]
Salman Khurshid’s observation comparing Hindutva with jihadist Islam has quite predictably raised the hackles of the Sangh Parivar. To go back to the context in which he made this observation in his book, `Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times,’ he was referring to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. Describing the change that was taking place[Read More…]
The former chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Justice H. L. Dattu, during his tenure there (February 2016 – December 2020 ), described it as a `toothless tiger’, while giving vent to his frustration at his inability to deliver justice to victims of human rights violation. He blamed the built-in regulations that were imposed on the NHRC by[Read More…]
Lakhimpur Kheri, situated in the northern Terai region of Uttar Pradesh and bordering Nepal, has all of a sudden caught the attention of national political parties and media – due to the violent clashes there on October 3 during the demonstration of farmers agitating against three unpopular farm laws of the Modi government. The clashes resulted in the killing of [Read More…]
The two common utterances regularly heard in our public discourse are – (i) “The law will take its own course” (by the prosecution); and (ii) “We have faith in the judicial process” (by the prosecuted). But both these assertions need to be questioned, given the experiences of common Indian citizens in their sufferance from laws on the one hand, and[Read More…]
Developments in Afghanistan, prior to and after its takeover by the Taliban, remind us of the political realignment of global powers in Europe on the eve of the 2nd World War. Although a tiny state (covering 652,000 km – slightly smaller than Texas – with a population of 26.5 million), Afghanistan might well be the pivot on which the reconfiguration[Read More…]
While we are all worried about the spread of new variants of COVID-19 (whether we describe them as Delta or by some other name) all over the world, we tend to ignore the invasion of Indian society by another variant of COVID -19 which may be described as the MODI virus. It is a pandemic affecting every nook and corner[Read More…]
What we are witnessing in Bengal today reminds us of the saying: `It takes two to tango’, implying that in a dispute it is not one alone, but the other is also responsible. During the electoral campaign in the state, the Trinamul Congress (TMC) chief minister Mamata Banerjee coined the slogan: ‘Khela Hobey’ (It will be a game). Her rival[Read More…]
In September 1994, a few Indian and Pakistani social activists and professionals gathered together in Lahore, and came out with a statement stating their intention to set up a forum through which interaction could be established between the common people of the two countries. This led to the formation of the Pakistan-India-People’s – Forum -for- Peace-and-Democracy (PIPFPD). This article is[Read More…]
The term `love- jihad’ is being used by the activists of the Sangh Parivar to target inter-religious marriages between Muslim men and Hindu women. They accuse the Muslims of seducing Hindu women and converting them to Islam. But then, how would they justify the marriages between the BJP’s Muslim leaders and their Hindu wives – with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi [Read More…]
`The show goes on’ – is a popular saying. The shows conducted by our Prime Minister – whether in public space or within Parliament – are excellent illustrations of his versatility as an `artiste’ (the term used to describe talented professional singers, dancers and other performers). His recent tearful performance on the floors of Parliament , on the occasion of[Read More…]
Politicians of all hues, are celebrating the birth anniversary of Gandhi this month. A leader of one political party has recalled his legacy, by rightly emphasizing the `Gandhian agenda’ of “more openness, freedom and a life of dignity and respect.” (Ram Madhav: `Gandhi’s True Legacy.’ Indian Express, October 2, 2020). Ironically, it is his own party that is in power [Read More…]
In this pandemic season of coughs and colds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown exemplary courage . With one single sneeze, he brought forth the lightening-swift measure of lockdown, taking everyone by surprise. Following it, in his social conduct and official policies, he has been strictly adhering to the protocol of the lockdown to fight Coronavirus. Let us take [Read More…]
The term `guilty by association’ had been a part of discourse in criminal jurisprudence for years. It implies the categorization of any one as guilty who has been associated with the accused criminal , even though not directly participating in the crime. Today, in the paranoid environment of the coronavirus pandemic, the term has been extended to include common [Read More…]
At a time when Delhi was burning in the fire of communal riots sparked by the provocative speeches of leaders of his own party as evident from video reports, it was ironical that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have invited President Trump to visit, of all places, Sabarmati, the ashram where Gandhi prayed for peace and non-violence – the very[Read More…]
The protestors in Shaheen Bagh in the national capital are being targeted by police-protected revolver-wielding Hindutva fanatics, and those in other cities across the country are being prevented by the police from demonstrating in the streets. Nevertheless their voices are reverberating from all corners of India to the corridors of the United Nations and the global institutions of Europe. They [Read More…]
The new year greets us with the murderous rampage by the Hindutva brigade in the JNU campus against students and teachers who have been protesting against the authoritarian policies and acts of the BJP regime. The practice of assaults and lynching against Muslims and Dalits in the public space since Narendra Modi’s coming to power, was extended to students of [Read More…]
It is ironical that we have been observing December 10 as the World Human Rights day following two most egregious incidents of violation of human rights in India – one by a gang of rapists and the other by the state police, each occurring within a couple of days. In Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, a survivor of gang rape was [Read More…]
Results of the latest state assembly elections in Haryana and Punjab, and some by-elections in other states indicate a slight awakening from the slumber in which the Indian electorate had sunk, since the last Lok Sabha polls. It seems that not all voters are willing to be taken in by the media-fashioned image of Narendra Modi as their messiah, and [Read More…]
Despite all the cringing efforts made by our newly appointed foreign minister S. Jaishankar to cajole the UN and the European Community to fall in line with the Modi government’s claim that developments in Kashmir are India’s `internal affair’, the exposure of the horrid happenings in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley through the international media is making Modi [Read More…]
The variety of post-mortem reports coming out from the analysis of the Lok Sabha election results is quite confusing. Each contradicts the other. Some psephologists are silent, others are bragging about[Read More…]
“Tolerance toward that which is radically evil now appears as good because it serves the cohesion of the whole on the road to affluence or more affluence…In a democracy with totalitarian organization, objectivity may fulfill a very different function, namely to foster a mental attitude which tends to obliterate the difference between true and false, information and indoctrination, right and[Read More…]
Candidates of the Opposition parties as well as Independents should immediately approach the UN to send observers to India to conduct an independent survey of the coming month long Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-ruled Indian state is fast approaching the status of authoritarian regimes which manipulate the electoral process to perpetuate themselves in power (as in some countries in South-East [Read More…]
Let me begin by congratulating Binu Mathew on his probing queries during his interview with Andre Vltchek, which brought out a powerfully honest narrative from this world-known public intellectual, who dares to describe himself as a “..Revolutionary and Internationalist.’ Since these two issues – revolution and internationalism – had been a part of my life since the 1950s, both [Read More…]
‘El sueno de la razon produce monstruos’ (The sleep of reason produces monsters) – Francisco Goya, the famous Spanish artist, in his note to his etchings called `Los Caprichos’, made in 1799. Goya’s words – and his paintings that he did later (during 1820-23) depicting a dark vision of his surrounding reality – arouse ominous echoes in our society today. [Read More…]
The courageous all-India Me-too campaign has nailed powerful male personalities ranging from film directors and actors to media journalists and political leaders. I expect the veteran Congress politician Renuka Chowdhury to join the campaign, since according to her own account she had suffered sexist remarks from no less a person than India’s present Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu. To recount, in March [Read More…]
The term `house arrest’ does not find any mention in the CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) or the IPC (Indian Penal Code). But certain judges have invented this term to justify their decree, presumably by falling back upon an Article in our Constitution. Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to “pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for [Read More…]
September 17, 2018 was the sixty-eighth birthday of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on which occasion a new edition of a 670 page coffee table biography was released. Entitled ‘Narendra Modi – A Charismatic and Visionary Statesman,’ it is co-authored by an Indian, Dr. Adish C. Aggarwala, and an English woman, Sarah J. Marchington. It was first published in [Read More…]
There is a nation-wide scare about a plot to kill our beloved prime minister Narendra Modi-ji by Maoists. Thanks to the ever alert police force of Maharashtra – and aided by our even more alert national investigative agencies – the conspirators have been apprehended before they could carry out their plot. But it is a matter of grave concern [Read More…]
Dear Shri K. Venkateshan I feel terribly sorry about your future career. You missed a chance of winning a police medal – or even a Padmashri. Even though you got custody of the five rights activists (Varvara Rao Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira) – you failed to bump them off in a false `encounter’, the oft-repeated [Read More…]
“One owes respect to the living; but to the dead one owes nothing but the truth.” – Voltaire (Lettres sur OEdipe) Obituaries arepourng in after the death of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is being paid respects to by all leaders across the national political spectrum . He is being hailed as a charismatic prime minister, a great orator, a ruler [Read More…]
I welcome Dr Prem Singh’s article: The era of `teaching lessons’ as a timely intervention in the current debate over how to resist the goons of the Sangh Parivar, particularly in the context of their recent attack on Swami Agnivesh. I however find a few problems with his position and the implications flowing from it. First, he seems to be upset [Read More…]
In Oscar Wilde’s famous story, the hero Dorian Graypledged his soul,on the condition that the painted portrait of his as a handsome youth must go through the ageing process on the canvas-in exchange of his right to enjoy eternal youth in real life.It was a wishful deal betweentwo traditional forms – art as fixed imageon the one hand , and [Read More…]
Now that the Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has dismissed the proposal submitted by some seventy -odd Opposition legislators to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra, the debate over the issue has to be extended beyond the legalese of the arguments in which our eminent jurists had been indulging all these months, into the arena of commonsense arguments where[Read More…]
The exchange of banters between the outgoing veteran Congress MP Renuka Chaudhury and India’s Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu in the Rajya Sabha, during the ceremony to bid farewell to her and other retiring MPs , has taken an ugly turn. In her farewell speech Renuka Chaudhury while addressing Naidu (who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman), in a self-deprecating humorous vein [Read More…]
The BJP last year observed September 17, as Liberation of Hyderabad Day’, celebrating the Indian government’spolice action’ (a euphemism for what was actually a military invasion) in 1948, which led to the integration of the Nizam’s princely state into the Indian Union. It claims that its political ancestors (members of the Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and other[Read More…]
Your honour May I, as an ordinary citizen of India, request you to enlighten me as to whether some of the recent judgments of the Supreme Court over which you preside, have emanated from schizophrenia, amnesia or megalomania ? To quote a few instances – in a judgment delivered by you as Supreme Court judge on November 30, 2016, you [Read More…]
The history of the 1917 Russian Revolution and its aftermath, can be divided into four phases – (i) the historical circumstances surrounding the 1917 revolution that led to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks; (ii) the post-revolution experiments in setting up a socialist system in Russia under the leadership of Lenin in the 1920s, and by Stalin from the [Read More…]
Nandini Sundar’s case study of Podiyam Panda’s plight as a victim of the police plot to show him off to the press as a surrendered Maoist’ (re: Questionable legality of the Surrender Process in Chhattisgarh’ in the Counter-currents website of May 23, 2017), not only re-iterates the well-established notorious role of the Indian police in framing innocent people, but also throws [Read More…]
The well-known social scientist and historian, Partha Chatterjee (in his article ‘In Kashmir, India is witnessing Its General Dyer’ that came out on the news portal The Wire some time ago) , is receiving more hate-mails than accolades, judging by the responses carried by that website. This is expected, given the militaristic jingoism that has been generated by the [Read More…]
Official reactions to the recent incidents on the Indo-Pak border ( killing of Indian jawans, the death sentence passed on an Indian national by the Pakistan judiciary , the incessant cross-border firings), follow a predictable pattern. At the diplomatic level, the foreign secretaries of the two states, perpetually miffed with each other, exchange angry notes. At the military level, the [Read More…]
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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…]
