A Barking Government and a Whimpering Judiciary
There is a common saying: `A man who keeps a dog doesn’t need to bark himself.’ But our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t seem to trust the members of …
Sumanta Banerjee
`Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ in foreign policy and `Bharataiva Bibhedanam’ in domestic policy
Our Prime Minister is fond of spreading the traditional Indian message of `Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ welcoming the entire world as one family. But apparently, certain parts of the world are excluded …
Open letter to Chief Justice of India, D. Y.Chandrachud
Your Lordship, (is that how I should address you ? I’m not sure being a layman). But, leaving out the legalistic formalities, let me congratulate you first on your observations …
Indian cops and spies as (unwitting) stand-up comedians
“History repeats itself - first time as tragedy/ Second time as farce.” (Karl Marx. 1852) Political commentators, while observing the present situation quite often - and rightly …
Hamas offensive of October 7, 2023 and Tet offensive of January 30, 1968. Similar, yet divergent
Commentators are comparing the Toofan Al-Aqsa offensive by Hamas against Israel with the 1973 Yom Kippur event, when a coalition of Arab armies led by Egypt and Syria, overwhelmed Israeli …
Narendra Modi’s spree of re-naming terminology and re-inventing himself through `Sanskritization’
On the plea of decolonizing the nomenclature of our political and administrative system, as well as that used in our socio-cultural habitat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started a campaign …
Modi regime’s double standards
Our foreign minister S. Jaishankar has …
Indian judiciary’s motto: `Run As Slow As You Can’
There is currently an exhibition being held at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre entitled `Run As Slow As You Can.’ Designed by two eminent Italian artists, Maurizio Cattelan and …
Gang rape as symbol of India’s political culture
The horrifying video clips showing Manipuri women being stripped and raped, followed …
Fractured memories of Manipur – through myths, history and personal encounters
`A woman, spreading a sack before her like a fish stall/ Sells bodies of little children /Dead from gunshot wounds/ Sprinkling water…
Narendra Modi’s US visit – a bonanza to hit the box office for the 2024 Lok Sabha election
Our Prime Minister chose the right time - may be after consulting his astrologers - to visit the US. With around eight months left for the next parliamentary polls, and …
Soft power abroad and muscle power at home
India under the stewardship of our Prime Minister is gaining accolades from global authorities of all hues - ranging from world leaders seeking commercial collaboration on the one hand, to…
Cracks in India’s armoury – Achilles’ heel in the security and intelligence apparatus
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 …
Open letter to the Prime Minister
“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 …
Left Wing Extremist and Islamic Terrorist challenges
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 …
Letter to Ranajit Guha
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…
G-20 summit in Delhi – legacy of the colonial `durbar’ of 1877, when a teenager composed a poem against its pomposity
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 …
A bureaucrat-turned- minister in a mess
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…
Demystifying the halo around `Naatu Naatu’ and RRR
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 …
Narendra Modi’s tutelage under Asaram Bapu
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 …
Copyright of Hitler’s agenda, infringed upon by Narendra Modi
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 …
War in Ukraine – Shades of the past and portents of things to come
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 - …
Quirks of the Indian judicial system
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 …
Leftist response to the war in Ukraine
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 …
India’s neo-Nazi `Concentration Camps’
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 …
Bidding goodbye to CJI N.V. Ramana and reviewing the judgments passed under his stewardship
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 …
Can the new President `fulfil the dreams of the poor’ ?
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 …
Prime Minister makes India stink in world public opinion
“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)…
BJP style of observing Bakrid
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 …
Remembering Lenin when watching Ukraine today
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 …
Supreme Court of India – from ambivalence to ambiguity through procrastination
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 …
A monstrous embryo swelling in the womb of Bharat Mata
“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 …
Putin and Modi – Comrades-in-arms
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 …
Rights and Duties
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…
India’s `Gestapo’ – National Investigation Agency (NIA)
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, …
Saffronization of the army and militarization of the government
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, …
UN should brand Hindutva terrorist groups
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…
National Human Rights Commission – from a toothless tiger to a grovelling poodle
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’,…
Recalling a forgotten episode from Lakhimpur Kheri’s past history of protest
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 …
Can Indians trust their laws and judges?
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…
Afghanistan – Ominous echoes from the past
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…
The spread of the MODI virus – dancing the `Tandava Nritya’
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…
Tango Dance in Bengal
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…
Two decades of an Indo-Pak collaborative experiment – Pakistan- India- People’s- Forum- for- Peace-and-Democracy
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…
Gandhian antecedents of the anti-`love-jihad’ campaign – and Gandhi’s later act of atonement
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 …
Narendra Modi as a political artiste
`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…
Time for a new Civil Disobedience Movement
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…
Prime Ministerial Code of Conduct
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, …
A new class of `anti-nationals’ – victims of COVID-19 paranoia
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 …
India’s citizenship laws resemble South Africa’s Asiatic Registration Act
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…
Time for a mid-term poll -in response to reverberations from Shaheen Bagh and other parts of India
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 …
Premonitions and predilections while entering 2020
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 …
Rape as violent misogyny and `Encounter killing’ as state lynching
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 …
Calling Modi’s Bluff
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 …
Kashmir is no longer an `internal affair’
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 …
An indulgent democratic system that fosters `religious fascism’ – both in the brain and the brawn
“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…
Need for UN Observers to monitor India’s parliamentary elections
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 …
Shaking one hand with Andre Vltchek, and keeping the other hand on my heart
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, …
When Reason Sleeps
‘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 …
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