COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN 2013: PART – II

Irfan Engineer

 

In the previous article, we examined the trends in riots and the all India statistics of communal riots provided by the Union Govt. We also described some of the communal riots in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. In this article, we now propose to describe some riots in J&K, UP, MP, Bihar and Assam. Read more…

INDIA-US CONFRONTATION – A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Vinod Mubayi

 

The angry confrontation between the Indian and US governments over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York for allegedly making a false visa application to bring her maid from India to the US has attracted an immense amount of publicity and comment from governmental representatives, journalists, op-ed columnists, domestic worker groups and individuals in both countries. The U.S. Attorney in New York, himself, incidentally, of Indian origin, issued an angry statement to the press defending his decision to arrest and prosecute Devyani Khobragade while India’s National Security Advisor described the treatment meted out to her as “barbaric” and “despicable.”  Read more…

SUPREME COURT GETS ONE DECISION COMPLETELY WRONG

Vinod Mubayi

 

In the last couple of decades the higher courts in India have played a positive role in taking decisions affecting the lives of millions when the executive or legislative branches had failed to act. The Supreme Court, in particular, through its activist role in public interest litigation, such as for example the judgment on reducing air pollution in Delhi, has often succeeded in passing laws that have helped to improve people’s lives.  But every once in a while, the courts slip up and issue rulings that verge on absurdity. Read more…

WILL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE BILL BE TABLED IN PARLIAMENT?

Irfan Engineer

 

With the defeat of Congress in the 4 states, the results of which were declared on 8th December 2013, one does not know the fate of the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2013 that was to be introduced in the last winter session of the Parliament under UPA II. Some may say the UPA II government is now a lame duck govt. and would not introduce such legislation. On the other hand the UPA has a duty to redeem its electoral promise and should introduce the legislation to gain support of democratic and secular forces. Read more…

NEPAL’S STUNNING RESULT

(Editorial, Economic and Political Weekly, Dec. 7, 2013; supplied by Liberation News Service)

 

In what has been a surprising result, the elections for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) of Nepal, held in November 2013, have relegated the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to the third position, well behind the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist – UML). The NC and the UML, which together dominated Nepal’s polity in the 1990s, have garnered close to a two-thirds majority in the second CA in both the first-past-the-post seats as well as the proportionally represented votes that are still being counted as we write this. The Maoists and the Madhesi parties, which had done exceedingly well in the 2008 elections, have been reduced to much smaller numbers. Read more…

MULAYAM SINGH YADAV AND NARENDRA MODI ON PARTITION OF INDIA

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Some familiarity with the recent history of India should be one of the requirements for becoming the Prime Minister of India. While two aspirants, Modi and Yadav, have commented on what they perceive concerns the Indian people their knowledge of history leaves much to be desired. Read more…

MUSLIM LEGISLATORS DISPROPROTIONATELY LOW

In the recently concluded provincial elections only 8 out of a total of 589 winners were Muslims. In the outgoing assemblies, there were 20. Five of these 8 won on Congress ticket and one won as independent. Read more…

UP TOPS COMMUNAL LIST, GUJARAT IN TOP FIVE

Deeptiman Tiwary

 

 

NEW DELHI: Having witnessed gruesome riots in Muzaffarnagar in August-September that claimed 62 lives, Uttar Pradesh, not surprisingly, has topped the list of states with most incidents of communal violence and deaths this year. Read more…

BALI TRADE AGREEMENT A VICTORY FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Randy Fabi

 

The World Trade Organization reached its first ever trade reform deal on Saturday to the roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1 trillion to the global economy. Read more…

POSTHUMOUS ROYAL PARDON TO GENIUS ALAN TURING

(Based on PTI report)

 

Alan Turin hailed as the ‘father of modern computing’  convicted in 1952 for homosexuality, termed a crime in Britain of that time  was granted Royal pardon on December 23, 2013. Read more…

I AM MALALA – BOOK REVIEW

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

How can one read this marvelous book and remain unmoved? It is a good-humored tale of grit, courage, and determination. A 14-year old girl, passionate about education being every child’s right, is shot in the head and nearly killed but miraculously recovers. She makes it to the world’s highest forum where she gets a standing ovation from all including the United Nations Secretary General, and sets her life’s mission to fight the forces of demented Islamism. Read more…

NELSON MANDELA – FROZEN ICON

Sam Noumoff

 

Much has been written, and is still being written, about the iconic figure of Nelson Mandela. He has been portrayed as the quintessential symbol of a new non racist Africa, having endured the hardships of struggle, incarceration, and ultimate freedom. His most enduring achievement was his destruction of the pernicious system of apartheid in which class and race were organically fused. He constructed a tri-partite nominally anti-imperialist alliance, between the African National Congress, the Communist Party of South Africa, for which he was a member of the Central Committee, and the COSATU trade union federation. A central characteristic of this alliance was its composition – the Black masses and the White elite. The liberation programme was enshrined in 1955 by The Freedom Charter which called for the nationalization of industry and land distribution for the peasantry. Mandela continued to work as a trained lawyer and organizer, disguising himself as a chauffeur, until 1962 when he was captured by the police, betrayed by a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency agent who had infiltrated the ANC; with his trial for treason sandwiched between 1961 and sabotage in 1963. He remained in prison on Robben Island for the next twenty-seven years. The cold war raged pitting the western capitalist countries, including Israel, supporting the South African racist regime, against the USSR and the ANC. South Africa was seen as a critical geo-strategic location, located on the tip of the southern sea lanes as well as a source of its critical resources. Read more…

CPM SHOULD LEARN FROM LATE PC JOSHI AND NOT FROM MULAYAM SINGH YADAV

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The Communist Party of India (CPM) is the life-line of the communist movement in India. There are other communist parties too, like CPI, but there is no apparent political and ideological reason for their existence; they reflect the decay and not the rejuvenation of the communist movement. The only radically different trend and, indeed, the greatest vulgarization of Marxism is represented by the Maoist movement, which is neither Maoist nor a movement but seems to get undue attention on the part of the media because of its violent nature. Read more…

NUCLEAR AGREEMENT WITH IRAN: A Positive Step for Peace

Vinod Mubayi
Haan! Talkhi-e-ayyam abhi aur badhegi
Haan! Ahl-e-sitam mashq-e-sitam karte rahenge

 

Manzoor ye talkhi, ye sitam hum ko gawaara

 

Dam hai to mudava-e-alam karte rahenge

 

(The poisons of the age will grow further/Tyrants will continue their tyranny/I acknowledge this poison and the tyranny/As long as I live I will try to keep on remedying them) – excerpt from Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s “Lauh-e-Qalam” (Tablet and Pen) Read more…

MULAYAM SINGH YADAV’S ANTI-PAKISTAN, ANTI-CHINA SECULARISM

Daya Varma

 

At a grand rally on October 29, at Azamagarh in Samajwadi Party (SP)-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the leader of SP flayed Narendra Modi for his divisive politics and Gujarat pogrom. But he did more. Read more…

TEJPAL AND MODI

Jawed Naqvi

 

LET’S not get distracted. Tehelka’s editor Tarun Tejpal used his position of power to force himself on a junior colleague who was his daughter’s age.

 

He contests the charge of rape but he did confess in a letter of apology to an error of judgement in seeking ‘liaison’ with the woman in question. Read more…

SWAMI AGNIVESH ON SCIENTISTS VISITING TIRUPATI

Press Statement by Swami Agnivesh President World Council of Arya Samaj Scientists visiting Tirupati Read more…

CBI DIRECTOR COMPARES RAPE WITH GAMBLING

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ranjit Sinha is reported (The Hindu, October 13, 2013) to have made the following statement: Read more…

THE TRUTH OF SOMNATH TEMPLE-HOW WAS IT BUILT: NEHRU HAD NO ROLE

Ram Punyani

 

The claim that the Somnath reconstruction was done as per the decision of the Nehru cabinet. is a total lie. Since the public memory is too short anything propagated repeatedly starts sounding like being true, Contrary to what is being propagated a little peep into the recent history will show us that Indian Government had nothing to do with the reconstruction of Somnath temple. Read more…

MODI’S-ABUSING HISTORY FOR POLITICAL MILEAGE

Ram Puniyani

 

The politics of Modi’s parent organization RSS is based on distortion of history, medieval history in particular. To begin with the projection of kings through the prism of religion, to demonize Muslim kings based on distortions and falsehoods of History, and then in turn spreading hatred against Muslims of today has been the foundation on which RSS built it up. Taking the same method to further lower levels currently Narendra Modi is trampling, distorting the facts of history to project his ideology. In the last week, October 2013, he addressed two meetings and gave one interview which showed the levels to which he can fall to score the political mileage. Read more…

NARENDRA MODI NEEDS AN ELEMENTARY COURSE IN HISTORY

(Daya Varma. Based on a news item in the Hindu of November 11, 2013)

 

While inaugurating a hospital on November 10, Modi said that the founding patriarch of his Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Syama Prasad Mukherjee was a “proud son of Gujarat”. Modi credited him for setting up the “India house in London” and added that Mukherjee “was considered the Guru of Indian revolutionaries” and “died in 1930”. Read more…

NEPAL ELECTIONS

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

The results of the Nepali elections have demonstrated that the Nepali Maoists who gained a significant plurality in the 2008 elections and emerged as the largest party in Parliament with their leader Prachanda becoming Prime Minister, are now in a significant decline. Read more…

PAKISTAN-INDIA PEACE: NO ALTERNATIVE TO DIALOGUE

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

As soon as Nawaz Sharif was elected to power in the first democratic transition in Pakistan history last May, he evinced a desire for better relations with India.  The media in India, which, with a few honorable exceptions, has lately become a loud right-wing echo-chamber, regarded this as some kind of a dastardly trick.  More attention instead has been focused on the BJP leaders’ bellicose calls to give a “fitting response” to Pakistan, or on the words of Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, to cut-off the heads of ten Pakistani soldiers for each decapitated Indian jawan. Read more…

JUDICIARY AND POLITICS: JUDGMENT AGAINST LALU YADAV

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

INSAF Bulletin has argued in the past that the political problems of India cannot be fixed by the judiciary.  The independence of the judiciary is undoubtedly important in a democracy. But the judiciary is not expected to replace or dominate the parliament, which alone should have the power to make laws. If it does so, it becomes like the civilian equivalent of military rule. Read more…

NARENDRA MODI’S RANT AT HIS DELHI RALLY

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

September 29 was a special day in Delhi. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) had done its utmost to organize the first show case rally to launch Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate and had expected over 500,000 people to attend. However, according to Indian papers, the size of the crowd was closer to 100,000, far short of BJP’s expectations. Read more…

COULD MODI BE GROUNDED BEFORE TAKE OFF?

Saeed Naqvi

 

Recently, the Indian Express published two news items on the same page. Read more…

ATROCITIES THAT NO LONGER SHOCK THE HINDU

Kalpana Kannabiran

 

 

While the Delhi rape incident saw mass protests for justice, crimes against Dalits hardly evoke such outrage, which is why the killers (of Dalits) in the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre have got away. Read more…

AAM AADAMI PARTY (AAP): URBAN MIDDLE CLASS ASSERTION

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Dr. Manmohan Singh did not patent the term “Aam Admi (common man)’. So this attractive phrase got usurped by the burgeoning middle class of India and NRIs (nonresident Indians). The choice of a broom as its symbol and a cap as insignia makes AAP an impressive new entrant on the political scene of India. Read more…

WHAT AILS NATIONAL INTEGRATION COUNCIL?

Ram Puniyani

 

The meeting of National Integration Council (NIC) on 23rd September (2013) was a damp squib. Held in the aftermath of Muzaffarnagar violence and in the times when the next Parliamentary elections are on the horizon, one expected some concrete proposals and actions which Government could have discussed and brought in as a voluntary code for all to follow. The major point which was highlighted was the role of social media in exaggerating the violence. The underlying cause of the role of media was not much highlighted. Read more…

MODI’S GUJARAT ‘LESS DEVELOPED’ STATE

Ram Puniyani

 

Raghuram Rajan report on overall performance of all 28 states in the country suggests that Gujarat lags behind six Congress ruled states including Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala. Read more…

INDIA: MUZAFFARNAGAR – A CASE OF ’INSTITUTIONALISED RIOT SYSTEMS’

Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

 

(Presented at a seminar organized by Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) on “Reportage of Sensitive Issues like Muzzaffarnagar Riots, Caste Conflicts and Sexual Assaults against Women”.) Read more…

THE CHILLING FAMILIARITY OF MUZAFFARNAGAR

Farah Naqvi

 

Riot follows riot with sickening regularity but there is only a deathly silence on a draft bill to fix accountability for communal violence and guarantee justice and compensation to victims. Read more…

FORMAL VERSUS SUBSTANTIVE JUSTICE: Home Minister Shinde’s letter

Ram Puniyani

 

In his letter to all the Chief Ministers, the Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde wrote (30 September, 2013),  that Government has been receiving complaints of harassment of innocent Muslim youth by Law enforcement agencies. He asked the state authorities to ensure that no innocent Muslim youth should be arrested or wrongfully detained in the name of terror. The letter also suggests that if such wrongful act has been done it should be duly compensated. Read more…

LOVE JIHAD: FROM ILLUSORY SLOGAN TO POTENT WEAPON

Ram Puniyani

The country is yet to recover from the aftermath of Muzaffarnagar violence (October 2013). This violence was engineered over a period of time in the areas of Western UP, where Jats and Muslims had thick social interaction, despite belonging to different economic strata. Communal violence has been instigated, engineered earlier on various issues like Cow slaughter, Babri demolition, ‘sexual assault on ‘our women’, amongst others. The primary weapon used to communalize this region was the community honor. ‘Muslim youth teasing and luring Hindu girls’ was made the central part of propaganda. While other factors like role of Sangh Parivar components in uploading the (fabricated) video clip, in mobilizing the Hindus in the name of Bahu-Beti Bachao, have been discussed, one needs also to look at the way this ‘saving our daughters’, or Love Jihad, from the Muslims, had operated in the area. Read more…

THE DEATH OF A HERO AND THE BIRTH OF A REVOLUTION

Sam Noumoff

 

In the early days of October news was released of the death of General Vo Nguyen Giap, at the age of 102. Second in reverence only to Ho Chi Min, General Giap came to symbolize the success of what has come to be more recently defined as asymmetrical warfare. At the outset of the modern Viet Nam independence struggle the Viet Minh numbered in the hundreds and increased from small scale guerilla units to more conventional large scale battle formations defeating in turn the French colonial occupation forces and the mighty United States and its neo-colonial puppets. Read more…

NEWS BRIEFS AND COMMENTS

UNITED GOVERNMENT EFFORTS GREATLY MINIMIZE CYCLONE EFFECT

 

Timely warning, evacuation of nearly one million people and deployment of rescue teams by the provincial and central governments reduced death toll from cyclone Phailin to 23. The cyclone mainly hit coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha (former Orissa). Read more…

MUZAFFARNAGAR 2013 – A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

The deliberately fomented riots in Muzaffarnagar leading to scores of deaths, mainly minorities, are simply the opening salvo of killer Modi’s election campaign, which is sure to become a fusillade in the run up to next year’s parliamentary election. It is a tried and tested strategy that paid off big for Modi and the BJP in the elections in Gujarat following the 2002 pogrom of Muslims. Earlier it was used by L.K. Advani in the rath yatra campaign that ended with the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. The recent arrest of UP BJP MLAs, one of them for circulating a fake and doctored video of a  killing in Pakistan to polarize and incite local Hindus against UP Muslims, demonstrates, if any demonstration is needed, of the bag of dirty tricks that the BJP has in hand to inflame communal sentiments.  The sad fact is that communal feelings have so seeped into the core of civil society that average people can be affected by these despicable tactics. Read more…

CRIME AND COMPLIMENT: THE CROWNING OF NARENDRA MODI

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

With big fanfare and a bit of drama by L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi has been crowned as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. The person who decided all this is the Chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bhagwat, who supervises the entire herd of the Hindutva family including the BJP. Read more…

WOMAN AID VOLUNTEER ATTACKED

Selva Ganpathy

 

The Association for India’s Development (AID) condemns the cowardly attack on Linkan Subuddhi, an AID Noida volunteer, who was responding to a call for help from a minor girl being forced to marry. Read more…

DALIT GIRL STUDENT GANG RAPED IN HARYANA

Gurmeet Singh

 

Rubbing salt into their wound, the Station House Officer of a police station in Haryana’s Sirsi district refused to register a complaint of rape made by relatives of a 19-year-old Dalit girl, who was gang-raped on Saturday allegedly by three boys from the dominant caste, all known to her.

None of the accused has been arrested yet. Read more…

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN PESHAWAR AND NAIROBI CONDEMNED

Delhi, 23 September, 2013: The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, today condemned the terrorist attacks in Peshawar and Nairobi. Read more…

MINI-COUP BY EX-GENERAL V.K. SINGH

Daya Varma

 

About a year ago, India’s former Army Chief, General V.K. Singh contested the timing of his retirement on the ground of disparity in his recorded age in service documents and his High School certificate.  He knew about this discrepancy all the time but chose to raise the issue on the verge of retirement. Future developments show that the timing was chosen by the General so he could join BJP with applause; this, indeed, he got when he shared the dais with Narendra Modi at a public meeting in Haryana. Read more…

INDIAN ARMY AND DEMOCRACY

Irfan Engineer

 

Indians, as indeed citizens of all countries, venerate their armies as an apolitical, professional, virtuous and disciplined force; and army men as fountainhead of virtues like patriotism and honesty, even if there are a few dishonorable exceptions to this rule within the force. Read more…

VINOD RAINA: A PERSONAL TRIBUTE

Feroz Mehdi

 

It is very difficult for me to believe that Vinod Raina is no more with us. Rarely I have come across a person with so much energy and drive. Four years ago he knew that he has cancer. In those four years I met him on different occasions in Montreal, Paris, Delhi, Dhaka and Tunis. I never saw him tired or shying away from a task. Never did he complain about his condition. In fact he shared the fact that he has cancer with a very small number of people. Read more…

VINOD RAINA: ARCHITECT OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Akshaya Mukul

 

In the winter of 2008, with barely a few months left of UPA-1, even officials of the HRD ministry had given up hope that Right To Education would see the light of day. The only person who would shrug off all cynicism with a wave of his hand was the mild-mannered Vinod Raina, the eternal optimist, who spent hours chiseling away at provisions of the historic legislation. Raina passed away on Thursday. Read more…

CANCER CLAIMS EDUCATIONIST-ACTIVIST VINOD RAINA

(The Hindu, Special Correspondent, September 13, 2013)

 

 

Educationist Vinod Raina, who died of cancer here on Thursday, was one of the key architects of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. He was member of the expert group on ‘Monitoring of Child Rights in Education’ set up by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and a sitting member of the Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE), the highest decision-making body on education. Read more…

CAN NARENDRA MODI BE STOPPED?

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

The possibility that Narendra Modi will lead the BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) and its appendages in the National Democratic Alliance to victory in the 2014 parliamentary elections is real and needs to be steadfastly opposed by all democratic and progressive sections of the people of India. Read more…

MODI PHENOMENON: AN ATTACK ON INDIAN DEMOCRACY

Ram Puniyani

 

 

Currently (August 2013) Narendra Modi is trying to dominate the media, print social and TV through his carefully constructed propaganda machinery and his potential of being nominated as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate by RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)-BJP. Modi has openly used the words like puppies dying under the car wheel, while referring to the victims of Gujarat carnage of 2002. He has also asserted that he is a ‘Hindu nationalist’. While most of the older allies of NDA (National Democratic Alliance), are deserting NDA, RSS-BJP hope that he will be able to win the 2014 elections due to his image of a non- corrupt, efficient administrator who has taken Gujarat to the heights of development. In social media and other platforms the polarized section of Hindus and the section of middle class are very appreciative of Modi and are creating a delusion of his becoming the next prime minister. Read more…

ASSASSINATION OF AN ACTIVIST: Who Killed Dr Narendra Dabholkar?

Ram Punyani

 

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  Albert Einstein  (1879-1955)

 

Words have an uncanny ability of impinging on the receiver with clinical detachment. It is up to the receiver to unpack them or try to derive meaning out of them. It is still difficult to get over the sense of grief and shock one experienced when one received the news of the assassination of renowned rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar on the streets of Pune on August 20. Read more…

RESIST ANTI-SCIENTIFIC TEMPER FORCES

Gauhar Raza

 

We the scientist, rationalists, educators and intellectuals of the country learnt with shock and anger the brutal and inhuman murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar. This murder is part of the series of attacks that have been perpetrated by anti scientific temper forces in the country. The attacks on artists, intellectuals and rationalists, all over the country, have increased exponentially. Read more…

WHY DO ‘THEY’ LOVE NARENDRA MODI ?

Shankar Gopalakrishnan

 

On August 14th, Narendra Modi declared that his Independence Day speech would attract as much attention as that of the Prime Minister. He appears to have been right. The fact that this is hardly unexpected should not obscure the deeper puzzle that it hides. It is a rare occurrence for a state level leader to suddenly get so much prominence in the media, and that too for such a long period. Why, then, have powerful forces in our society – including most of the media – chosen to endorse Modi? Why the sudden promotion of this particular leader at this particular time? What is it that he and his regime are offering? Read more…

INDO-PAK RELATIONS: TIME FOR THE PRIME MINISTERS TO MEET AND PRESS FOR PEACE

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

Many of the saner political observers on both sides of the Pakistan-India border have noted with dismay the steady downturn in the relations between the neighbors since the beginning of this year. There was the reported killing of five Indian soldiers on the LOC (Line of Control) in J&K in January, including the gruesome beheading of Lance Naik Hemraj.  This was followed by bellicose propaganda in the Indian media and among right-wing politicians against the Pakistan Army to cut off ten heads of Pakistani soldiers for every Indian one. Ever since then, there are almost weekly, if not daily, reports of cross-border shelling and small-arms fire causing the deaths of not only soldiers but also civilians in both countries. Read more…

LASHKAR FUELING HOSTILITIES BETWEEN INDIA and PAKISTAN

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

A moratorium on cross-border firing, which largely held from 2003 to 2012, stands broken. About two dozen lives have been lost since the beginning of this year. Why? The breakdown did not come from Nawaz Sharif who, risking his popularity within his party, has been arguing forcefully for peace with India. Read more…

KANDHAMAL CARNAGE: AFTERMATH

Ram Puniyani

 

This August 25, 2013, it will be five years, since the biggest anti-Christian, violence, biggest communal violence in the Adivisi area, will complete five years. What has been the plight of the victims of the violence after this ghastly tragedy? What is the state of justice to the victim? Read more…

COUNCIL OF INDIAN MUSLIMS (UK) OPPOSES NARENDRA MODI’S VISIT

14 August 2013

 

Open letter to: Foreign Secretary William Hague, Home Secretary Theresa May,  Conservative Party Chairmen Grant Shapps and Andrew Feldman. Labour Party Leader  ED Milliband.

 

We, the British Indian Muslims, are writing this open letter to you, sirs and Madam, in utter disgust at the invitation by Labour and Conservative MPs to one of the most controversial and polarizing Indian politician, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, to visit UK. Read more…

TALKING PEACE IN THE TIMES OF WAR MONGERING

New Delhi, August 14, 2013: The seminar organized by the Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD-India) at India International Centre, on the eve of the independence days of Pakistan and India, reminded both countries that a permanent transformation to the India-Pakistan conflict can only come through dialogue processes between the two South Asian democracies and not through military methods and war. Read more…

BANGLADESH: STOP STIFLING THE WHISTLEBLOWER, ADILUR RAHMAN KHAN

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is informed that, at 10:20 p.m., on 10 August, officers from the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police have taken into custody, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, one of the most respected human rights defenders in Bangladesh, from his residence in Dhaka. Adilur is the Secretary of Odhikar, a prominent human rights organisation in the country, known for its critical assessments of human rights in performance and practice, by the Government of Bangladesh. Adilur has also served as the Deputy Attorney General of Bangladesh and is a Senior Lawyer practicing at the Supreme Court. Read more…

WHO ARE THE “TERRORISTS” AND WHAT DO THEY WANT?

Tapan Bose

 

(I was asked to prepare a note for members of PIPFPD on terrorist activities by different groups in India and Pakistan, its impact on the people of both countries and the relations between India and Pakistan. I do not claim any expertise in this area. However, I have attempted to analyze why the use of “terror tactics” has proliferated in this region, particularly among the Muslim groups, what are their objectives and locate this in the context global imperialism. I hope my efforts will be of some use to my fellow members – Tapan Bose) Read more…

FROM THE GRANARY TO THE PLATE

Jean Drèze

 

Despite its many flaws, the food security bill is an opportunity to end the leakages from the PDS and prevent wastage of public resources. Read more…

PUNYANAGARI (The Virtuous City)

Anand Patwardhan

 

Pune, Aug 22. Last night a FTII and Yugpath student organized screening of “Jai Bhim Comrade” began with a tribute to anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dabholkar, who had just the previous day been gunned down by fanatics in the same city. It was our 4th screening of the film at the FTII and as before, the large NFAI auditorium was overflowing. The screening and discussions went off without a hitch. Not a single audience question led me to suspect that Hindutva elements were in attendance. In fact I am always happy to get questions from opposite sides of the political spectrum as I believe that such debates and discussions benefit everyone and are precisely the function of the kind of cinema I believe in. Read more…

THE DALITS ARE COMING (A Poem)

Siddalingaiah

 

The dalits are coming, step aside-

hand over the reins, let them rule. Read more…

ISRAEL RISKS LOSS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN EU RESEARCH GRANTS

Bernat Armangue

 

Jerusalem — Europe’s tough new stance against Jewish settlements could cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars in EU )European Union) research grants, putting a hefty price tag on its refusal to stop building on lands Palestinians want for a state. Read more…

This issue of INSAF Bulletin is dedicated to school children who died of poisoned foods! 

WORLD’S LARGEST MID- DAY- FREE-FOOD-FOR-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN TROUBLE: A FEAST FOR CRITICS

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

More than twenty school children succumbed to death in the village of Gandawan in Bihar after consuming food contaminated by poisonous chemicals.  This unfortunate incident naturally caught the attention of national and international media. Speculations about the cause ran wild as was the case following the Bhopal disaster of 1984. This disaster has brought into question the desirability of the program of providing free meals to schoolchildren in India. Read more…

NATURAL RESOURCES ARE NATIONAL RESOURCES

Vinod Mubayi  and Daya Varma

 

In a just and rational, but ideal, world, natural resources anywhere in the world would be the common property of all the people of the world.  The oil discovered under the desert sands of Saudi Arabia was created by geological phenomena millions of years ago. Ideally, it should not be the property of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz or the crown prince any more than the people of India or China or other countries. Geophysical changes over eons produced hydrocarbons at one place and diamond at another. None are the product of the labor of any one as they were created long before homo sapiens came into being.  But the real world must be conceived not in such idealistic conjectures but the reality of nation states that are just one or two centuries old. Read more…

HINDU NATIONALISM VERSUS INDIAN NATIONALISM

Ram Puniyani

 

The debate around Hindu Nationalism and Indian Nationalism is not a new one. During colonial period, when the rising freedom movement was articulating the concept and values of Indian nationalism, the section of Hindus, keeping aloof from freedom movement asserted the concept of Hindu Nationalism. The debate has resurfaced again due to the one who is trying to project himself as the Prime-Ministerial candidate of BJP-NDA (Bhartiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance), Narendra Modi. In an interview recently (July 2013) said very ‘simply’ that he was born a Hindu, he is a nationalist, so he is a Hindu Nationalist! His Party President Rajnath Singh also buttressed the point and took it further to say that Muslims are Muslim nationalists, Christians are Christian Nationalists. So one has a variety of nationalisms to choose from! Read more…

WHAT ABOUT 1984?: POGROMS AND POLITICAL VIRTUE

Mukul Kesavan

 

The stock response of the Bharatiya Janata Party to the argument that Godhra makes Narendra Modi politically untouchable is “What about 1984?” There are several inadequate comebacks to that question and the best of them is that no one should use one pogrom to justify another. Read more…

PAKISTAN: WHY WE CAN’T RID SOCIETY OF WEAPONS

Naeem Sadiq

 

With each blast, massacre and killing, Pakistan as a state, fails one more time. How many citizens will be slaughtered or blown apart by militants before our delusion gives way to reality? Pakistan stubbornly continues to live in a state of denial, refusing to acknowledge that it is being brutally attacked by a bloodthirsty enemy from within and without. Read more…

CHANGING INDIA

Kancha Ilaiah

 

(The article below expresses the sentiment of and analysis by  a Dalit intellectual. Ed.) Read more…

INDIAN MUSLIM YOUTH: GROPING FOR EQUITY AND SECURITY

Ram Puniyani

 

In a most communities youth have a serious struggle on hand to look beyond the present for the future, especially their careers, longing for dignity and a decent existence. While this applies to all the youth, the struggle of youth from marginalized and discriminated against communities are much more. It is on this terrain that, Chetan Bhagat, the popular writer turned columnist, decided to advise Muslim youth about their future path, choices. His advice came in the form of an article, a letter from a Muslim youth, in a leading daily. The article was so insensitive to the plight of Muslims; it amounted to blaming them for their own plight; and so subtly advised them to opt for leaders like Narendra Modi. This was not a direct advice, Modi’s name was not spelt but the hint was obvious. Read more…

FACE TO FACE: MUKUL SINHA

Sadiq Naqvi

 

Mukul Sinha is an eminent lawyer and civil liberties advocate based in Ahmedabad. He has doggedly pursued the search for justice since the State-sponsored Gujarat genocide of 2002, case after case, in multiple testimonies to the commissions, investigations, inquiries and documentations, inside and outside the courts, and in the public and political arena. Despite all odds, and despite threats from powerful quarters and an atmosphere of sectarian terror prevailing in Gujarat since 2002, he has rigorously, meticulously and with extraordinary courage, evidence and resilience, pursued the process of justice, including the facts behind the many fake encounters. Here, he describes in detail the conspiracy behind the cold-blooded killings. Read more…

INDIA: NSSO RELEASE KEY INDICATORS OF EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the key indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India,  from the data collected in its 68th round survey conducted during the period July 2011 – June 2012. The NSS surveys on employment and unemployment are conducted quinquennially starting from 27th round (October 1972 – September 1973) and the last quinquennial survey was conducted in NSS 66th round (July 2009- June 2010) for which, the results have already been released. Read more…

NOTES FROM CHINA

William Dere

 

I want to give  some of my impressions of my month long travel through China. Read more…

OBAID SIDDIQI 1932- 2013: CATALYST OF A CULTURE OF CREATIVITY

K. Vijay Raghavan (July 26, 2013)

 

Obaid Siddiqi, once a young star of molecular biology and later a pioneer in neurogenetics was an extraordinary intellectual and scientist. In building the Molecular Biology Unit (now the Department of Biological Sciences) and then the National Centre for Biological Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, he showed how catalyzing a culture of creativity is vital to long-term institutional success. With his death following a road accident the world of science has lost one of its most thoughtful and questioning leaders. However, his science and the schools he as built will stay and through their quality demonstrate the stay of his deep influence. Read more…

ACCLAIMED SCIENTIST OBAID SIDDIQI NO MORE

(The Hindu, July 26, 2013)

 

Celebrated biologist Obaid Siddiqi, a scientist nonpareil whose pioneering work shed light on how taste and smell are detected and coded in brain, died on Friday. Read more…

PROFESSOR OBAID SIDDIQI PASSES AWAY

Obaid Siddiqi FRS, National Research Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) passed away on 26 July 2013. He is survived by his wife Asiya, sons Imran and Kalim, and daughters Yumna and Diba. Read more…

OBAID SIDDIQI: SOME REMINISCENCES

Iqbal Niazi

 

(Iqbal Niazi is a distinguished biologist and much older than Obaid. I requested him to write something about Obaid; although he is not in good health, he struggled to write the note produced below. Daya Varma) Read more…

OBAID SIDDIQI

Vinod Mubayi

 

I knew Obaid quite well when he was at TIFR in Bombay and I was there too. I also used to meet his wife Asiya  from time to time. His intellectual accomplishments in molecular biology are well known and is the subject of the obits we are carrying. Read more…

OBAID SIDDIQI: THE INTELLECTUAL SYMBOL OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA

Daya Varma

 

I have known Obaid Siddiqi since 1950. After a lapse of many years I met him when he was in Pennsylvania in 1960’s and again few times when he visited his son Kaleem and daughter Yumna in Montreal in 2000s. Read more…

SHARMILA REGE: 1964-2013

Divya Trivedi

 

 

Sharmila Rege, the scholar whose work on the interplay of patriarchy and caste oppression broke new ground for both sociology and women’s studies in India, died in Pune on Saturday aged 48. She had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer. Read more…

THIS ISSUE IS DEDICATED TO THE VICTIMS OF UTTARAKHAND FLOODS

2014 ELECTIONS: CONGRESS OR BJP?

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The parliamentary elections in India are due in 2014. As usually happens at such junctures, impending elections lead to unforeseen events. It seems that Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party have given up their Prime Ministerial ambitions, at least for the time being.  If Mulayam Singh’s son Akhilesh, the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) continues with his anti-Dalit and anti-Muslim policies, which seem to suit his temperament best, he is likely to sink himself and his father further politically, an eventuality hardly to be lamented. Read more…

MODI, ADVANI AND SANGH’S AGENDA

Ram Puniyani

 

The nomination of Narendra Modi as the chief of campaign committee of BJP for 2014 elections (June 2013) has created more than the proverbial storm in the tea cup. Incidentally it is the first time ever that such a nomination has created non-stop 24×7 news and controversy. It has a lot to do with the propaganda machinery, which Modi has created around him. Read more…

PUPPETS ON A STRING

(The Hindu Editorial, June 12, 2013)

 

The mutinous Lal Krishna Advani has retreated, leaving Narendra Modi’s supporters to rejoice and glory in their victory. Yet for all its popular appeal, the legend of the victor and the vanquished, one a disciple of the other, will not get past the serious analyst — for the simple reason that the plot and its ending were written and executed by a strategist technically outside the work area of the Bharatiya Janata Party but nonetheless accustomed to exercising control from behind the veil. Read more…

WHITHER JUSTICE: FABRICATED CASES AND STATE

Ram Puniyani

 

Rihai Manch, a forum for getting justice to the falsely implicated youth in the cases of acts of terror organized  (June 2013) a protest Dharna (sit in) to demand the arrest of police and IB officials responsible for the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid, to implement the R.D. Nimesh Commission report and to release the innocent Muslim youth implicated in acts of terror. This campaign is getting broader support from more human rights groups and affected community. This is the major effort by a civic society group to democratically protest against the insensitive and biased state machinery, to pressurize it to come to the path of justice. Read more…

TWO CONVENTIONS ADDRESS ISSUES OF MUSLIM COMMUNITY

Irfan Engineer

 

In May and June 2013, I attended two conventions organized by organizations in which Muslims lead and whose raison d’etre was to address issues of Muslims. I am deliberately avoiding calling them Muslim organizations as Hindus too are associated with both these organizations. One was convention organized by Maulana Azad Vichar Manch on 29th and 30th May 2013, while the other was convention organized by Tanzim-E-Insaaf on 15th and 16th June, 2013. There are some similarities in the issues the two organisations wants to address and major differences as well in the strategies they want to adopt. Let me first briefly recall the conventions as I witnessed them. Read more…

INDIA: “GHAR WAPSI” [A RETURN HOME] AND THE NOT-SO-VEILED THREAT OF THE SANGH

John Dayal

 

Most of Indian Muslims and Christians are converts. Fascist Hindu organizations are taking steps to force them back into Hinduism. Read more…

THOUSANDS OF LANDLESS DALITS AND ADVASIS DEMAND LAND FOR LIVELIHOOD AND DIGNITY!!

Ashok Bharti

 

The Bhoomi Adhikar Yatra leaders had no media machinery, no laptop carrying middle or elite class activists supporting them. Leaders of this Yatra could neither read or write English – the main language of discourse, communication or propagation of thoughts of Indian Civil Society. But the Yatra evoked good response and thousands of the Dalits and Adivasis and other landless people reached Bhopal demanding five acre land for all the landless people in Madhya Pradesh. Read more…

MAOIST ATTACK ON A PASSENGER TRAIN IN JAMUI: WHY HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS ARE SILENT?

Biswajit Roy

 

Human rights groups are still silent even 48 hours after the Maoist attack on a passenger train at Jamui in Bihar that killed three persons—two passengers and a railway policeman— and injured six including the guard and driver of the train. Read more…

MAOISTS CONTINUE TO MIRROR STATE VIOLENCE

Biswajit Roy

 

The CPI (Maoist) has justified the killing of Karma citing ‘revenge on behalf of the more than 1000 innocent tribals who were killed during the Salwa Judum and thousands who lost their homes’. According to the party release, Patel deserved his death due to his role in para-military deployment. Sukla too was in their hit list for pursuing the anti-people policies. Maoists regretted the killings of ‘innocent lower-rung Congress workers’ and offered sympathies to their families [1] Read more…

SRI LANKA: SPOILS OF VICTORY: Sinhala extremism finds new targets in Sri Lanka

Samanth Subramanian

 

Like the massacre of unsuspecting citizens in the Balkans on ethnic basis, the Buddhist chauvinists in Sri Lanka are waging a war against Tamil civilians ever since the defeat of LTTE in 2009. Read more…

PAKISTAN: WHY THEY KILLED ARIF SHAHID

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

On the evening of May 13, an assassin stepped out of a car that had just driven to the doorstep of Sardar Arif Shahid’s residence in Rawalpindi. Why? Read more…

THE SUPER RICH

Sreenivas v.p

 

There is no surprise. In  democracy , this is very easy. If a person wants to sell false ideologies or acquire huge amount of wealth, democracy will pave the way. Read more…

NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY BILL DEBATED IN INDIAN PARLIAMENT

Tariqa Tandon

 

 

India’s reports on hunger and malnutrition are abysmal. For a rapidly developing country, showing much promise for the future, it still remains a country with one of the highest rates of malnutrition and hunger. Read more…

THE LEFT FOR PEOPLE’S RIGHT CAMPAIGN IN U.P.

Atiq Khan

 

 

Pledging support to the people’s right campaign launched by convener of All-India People’s Front (AIPF) Akhilendra Pratap Singh, the Left parties and the Rashtriya Ulama Council (RUC) on Wednesday resolved to expedite the people’s campaign and agitation “for establishing the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh”. A meeting will be held soon for finalising the strategy. Read more…

COVA APPEAL FOR DONATIONS FOR VICTIMS OF UTTARAKHAND FLASH FLOODS

The Flash Floods in Uttarkhand have caused unprecedented destruction and damage in about 40,000 sq. kilometre area affecting thousands of pilgrims and  thousands  of local residents, with apprehension of deaths of over 5000 people. Thanks to the untiring and heroic efforts of members of the armed forces and some local agencies and groups, over a lakh pilgrims and local residents have been rescued to safety. However, hundreds of villages and towns have been totally devastated and the locals have lost everything and are starving. Read more…

CHINA AND SOCIALISM: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Initiated by William Dere, Response by  Sam Noumoff

 

China is approaching the US as the world’s biggest economy. While many on the left have already passed a verdict that China is capitalist, the political economy of China is more complex. Here is reflection by two  scholars well versed with the internal situation in China and Marxism. William Dere is a Chinese Canadian and a Marxist.  Sam Noumoff was  Professor of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Read more…

OBITUARY: SATPAL DANG (1920-2013)

AB Bardhan

 

I first met him in December 1941, at the Patna All India Students Federation (AISF) Conference – he a delegate from Punjab and I from the then Madhya Pradesh. There was something attractive about his fair, handsome, lean but wiry demeanour, with a very intelligent look, which drew attention towards him. Read more…

OBITUARY: VINA MAZUMDAR (1927-2013)

Urvashi Butalia

 

With her passing, Indian feminism has lost one of its earliest icons. Read more…

OBITUARY: INDRANATH MAJUMDAR (1933-2013)- A TRIBUTE

Anirban Biswas

 

In the late sixties of the last century a book-selling concern started its business in Kolkata. The concern was unique in the sense that it dealt in rare books, books unavailable elsewhere could be found there. The founder, Indranath Majumadar, was a person with little formal education but his enterprise drew a large number of scholars, teachers and students to him, and they came to beleaguer him with orders. Then he, along with this business, started publishing quality books. Read more…

OBITUARY: DAVID J. JHIRAD (1939-2013)

Vinod Mubayi

 

David Jhirad, a close friend for many years and a colleague of the editors of INSAF Bulletin, and a progressive hailing from India who contributed to the goals of energy and the environment, as well as to rational and scientific analysis of the use and development of resources, passed away in Washington, DC in June 2013. Read more…

OBITUARY: PIERRE MAUROY (1928-2013)

Julia Pascal

 

Pierre Mauroy, who has died aged 84, was France’s first socialist prime  minister under the Fifth Republic. When François Mitterrand was elected president in May 1981, he put Mauroy at the head of a government intent on radical social reform. Though his tenure lasted just three years, he remained a significant figure in the French Socialist party (PS) for the rest of his life. Read more…

IN MEMORY OF ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER (1939-2013)

This issue of INSAF Bulletin is Dedicated to Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer (1939-2013), the Contributing Editor of this Bulletin.

 

In the articles that follow, there will be repetition; however, they reflect the sentiments of the authors and no attempt has been to edit these articles. Tributes to Dr. Engineer have also appeared in several newspapers and periodicals such as Outlook India, Tehelka magazine, Deccan Herald, Dawoodi Bohra Forum and so on. The articles below are personal notes.

ALVIDAH ASGHARBHAI!

Vinod Mubayi

 

Asghar Ali Engineer was a very unique individual in many ways.  His breadth of interests was extremely wide as was his knowledge.  In trying to recover from mourning his death, I have tried to reflect on our 43 years of deep and abiding friendship and association that began in 1969 and lasted until a few days before he passed away when I spoke to him last in the fervent hope that he would recover. Read more…

UNITING THE NATION: ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER’S STRUGGLE FOR PRESERVATION OF PLURAL ETHOS

Ram Puniyani

 

The events of last over two decades have shown us, more than before that the efforts of dividing the nation by communal forces have been a major obstacle to social peace and process of development. In India while the communal violence began with the Jabalpur riot of 1961, it is from last couple of decades especially from 1980s that the divisive politics has tried to drive a wedge between different communities along religious lines. The regret is that it is only few social workers and scholars who took this issue in all its seriousness and Asghar Ali Engineer can be counted amongst those few. He also spent major part of his social efforts to fight against the ideology and machinations which led to communal violence and the victimization of minorities, time and over again, year after year. Read more…

LEGACY OF DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

Irfan Engineer

 

A storm has destroyed everything in my life. I am not even beginning to come to terms with the loss in my life. Death, like storm, is in God’s hand and you are so helpless. Never knew that death would snatch my very loving father Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer from us. I was not prepared yet for this colossal loss! But let me remember what he has bequeathed to me. My sister Seema rightly told a reporter that our father wanted us to inherit his legacy equally – legacy of his teachings. In the lull after the storm I am trying to reflect on his legacy to gather some pieces of my inheritance. Read more…

THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

Jyoti Punwani

 

Scholarly, courageous and secular, Asghar Ali Engineer spent his life combating regressive beliefs and practices while presenting a modern, humanistic interpretation of Islam. Read more…

REMEMBERING ASGHARBHAI

Anand Patwardhan

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA6bX6JV9vk

ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER (1939-2013)

Zahir Janmohamed

 

I first met Asghar Ali Engineer in January 2002 in Mumbai. I was a fellow with the America India Foundation and a few weeks later I would be posted to work with an NGO in Ahmedabad. Read more…

SAD DEMISE OF DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

COVA -Team

 

We are shocked to read news of sad demise of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer. He completed  his journey of life successfully  and left us all  today morning at 9.15 a.m.  after a long illness. Read more…

Dr. ENGINEER AND CERAS IN MONTREAL

Daya Varma and Shree Mulay

 

South Asia Research and Resource Center (CERAS) is a Montreal-based organization concerned with social, political and developmental issues in  South Asia; Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer was invited by CERAS on numerous occasions. Only on one occassion, in the wake of controversies around  Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” his visit was sponsored by a McGill University student organization. Read more…

MY DAY WITH DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

Pritam K. Rohila

 

Spectacled and dressed in an Indian kurta-pajama-waistcoat outfit, I found Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, on January 22, 2004, standing outside the Arrival Hall of the Portland International Airport. After arriving there, around 8:00 p.m., by the United Airlines flight from Washington D.C., he was waiting to be picked up by me. Read more…

MEMORIAL MEETINGS : REMEMBERING DR. ENGINEER

A Memorial meeting was held on May 27 in Mumbai. Other memorial meetings are planned at New York on July 13 at Brecht Forum (451 West St. New York: info: 212 242 4201) as well as at  Montreal (date to be announced)  and Hyderabad on June 5 at  Salarjung Museum at  4.30 pm.

PAKISTAN ELECTIONS

Editors

 

Pakistan election outcome serves as a window to the clash between democratic and anti-democratic forces in South Asia. Whereas the regional importance of political forces in Pakistan reflect the diversity of South Asia, Pakistan elections expose the hollowness of many commentators who were debating whether or not Pakistan is “a failed state”. Overall Pakistan elections are a window to a bright future for South Asia. Below we reproduce a few articles.

A GOOD DAY FOR DEMOCRACY

Feroz Mehdi

 

May 11, 2013 was an important day for Pakistan and a good day for democracy. My five years old daughter will remember this day when she grows up, not only because it is her birth day but also because it was a promising day for the people of her mother’s country of birth. General elections were held which saw the first transition between civilian governments in a country since 66 years of its existence. Read more…

PAKISTANI ELECTIONS 2013 – DEMOCRACY INCHES FORWARD

Kiran Omar

 

The recently concluded general elections in Pakistan were a landmark in several respects; they marked, the first time in the tumultuous 66 years of Pakistan’s existence, a civilian transfer of power from a democratically elected government completing its mandated five -year term. They marked a robust voter turnout, above 55% of the total registered voters, and a surge in first time and young voters. Most importantly, these elections will be long remembered for bringing to fore a third political force in the hitherto two-party paradigm. Read more…

DEMOCRACY, DICHOTOMIES, AND SHADES OF GREY

Beena Sarwar

 

The recent elections in Pakistan show that the country is finally on the right track notwithstanding the rigging, the violence and the brutal prevention of women from voting in some areas by representatives of all the political parties. The huge turnout of women and first time young voters risking their lives to exercise their right to choose is something to celebrate and strengthen, says the writer. Read more…

PAKISTAN: THE WORLD’S BRAVEST DEMOCRACY

Murtaza Haider

 

Pakistan may not be the world’s largest democracy, but is certainly the world’s bravest. Over 50 million voters braved heat, violence, and terrorism to cast their votes and wrote a new chapter in the history of democracy. Read more…

“IT IS MORE THAN JUST A ROTTEN TOOTH….!”

Fr. Cedric Prakash sj

 

As the poll results of the Karnataka Assembly elections trickled in on Wednesday, 8th May, the one person who was in the eye of the storm was Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Read more…

ON MODI’S SOCIAL ENGINEERING

Subhash Gatade

 

The system of untouchability has been a goldmine for the Hindus. This system affords 60 millions of untouchables to do the dirty work of scavenging and sweeping to the 240 million Hindus who are debarred by their religion to do such dirty work. But the work must be done for the Hindus and who else than the untouchables? —Dr B.R. Ambedkar

 

Can shit collection or cleaning of gutters—which has condemned lakhs of people to a life of indignity since ages—be considered a ‘Spiritual Experience’? Definitely not. Everybody would yell. Well, Mr Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, has a different take on this, which he mentions in the book ‘Karmayog’ (publication year 2007). Read more…

WHY GARMENT FACTORIES TURN INTO KILLING FIELD?

Anu Muhammad

 

We have witnessed the worst industrial disaster in Bangladesh , one beyond any wild calculation and more horrifying than we could even imagine. On April 24, 2013 another garment factory, Rana Plaza in Savar near the capital city of Bangladesh , Dhaka , suddenly turned into a mass grave. The death toll continues to climb and, rising quickly after a few hundred, has already passed 1000, many are still missing. I don’t think anybody has the capacity to capture the extent of grief, heartache, discontent, and anger this horror has created. Read more…

THE BANGLADESH TRAGEDY EXPOSES THE CRUEL FACE OF POVERTY

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

An editorial   titled “Blood Garments” in Economic & Political Weekly (Vol. 48,  May 25, 2013)  says: “The Bangladesh tragedy exposes the callousness of the garment business. The collapse of the eight-storey Rana Plaza in Bangladesh on 24 April that crushed over 1,127 people, mostly women garment workers, and injured more than 2,500, is now being called the worst industrial accident since the gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. But neither Rana Plaza nor Bhopal should be thought of as “accidents”. In both instances, the reason for the disaster was deliberate and callous neglect for which the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of those who built the structure, as in Rana Plaza, or those who owned and ran the plant, as in Bhopal.”  Read more…

MUSHAWARAT CONDEMNS THE CUSTODIAL MURDER OF KHALID MUJAHID

The Milli Gazette Online (Online:  May 19, 2013)

 

New Delhi, 19 May, 2013: All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations and eminent personalities, condemned here today the custodial murder of the terror-accused Khalid Mujahid who had been exonerated by the Nimesh Commission but Uttar Pradesh government was playing politics about the release of the falsely accused in the case of the U.P. courts blasts. Nimesh Commission, constituted by the previous BSP government, had presented its report to the state government on 31 August last year. But instead of tabling it in the state assembly with an action taken report, the SP government resorted to gimmicks to show its false concern. The Nimesh report, since leaked, clearly exonerated Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Qasmi and recommended action against named police officers who framed them and fabricated evidence to implicate them. Read more…

DEMOCRACY NEEDS THEIR SONG

Anand Patwardhan

 

They use poetry and song to fight for a just society but the state brands them Naxalites. Anand Patwardhan on the ongoing saga of the KabirKala Manch. Read more…

A HISTORY LESSON FOR MUSLIMS (IN UTTAR PRADESH)

Jamal Kidwai

 

The death of Khalid Mujahid in the custody of Uttar Pradesh police has once again reinforced the perception that the Akhilesh Yadav led-Samajwadi Party has failed to provide security to Muslims in UP. Read more…

“MUSLIMS ATACK” ANOTHER REVERED SHRINE IN DAMASCUS

Saeed Naqvi

 

Millions of Muslims will, in the next few days, observe the birth and death anniversaries of Fatima Zehra, Prophet Mohammad’s daughter. But during this period, the world famous shrine of her daughter, Saiyada Zainab, outside Damascus, holy to millions around the world, will be in grave danger. That remarkable chronicler of London’s “Independent”, Robert Fisk, ascribes the danger to “Salafist mortar fire”. Read more…

BALRAJ SAHNI CENTENARY

Harsh Thakor

 

On May 1ST 2013 we celebrate the centenary of the legendary  Indian actor Balraj Sahni. He was born in Rawalpindi, in Punjab  on May  1st 1913.It is so appropriate that he was born on the historic occasion of May Day as he himself devoted his life to the liberation of the working class. Read more…

PUCL (PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES) ON RECENT KILLING BY MAOISTS

May 26, 2013: PUCL Condemns Killings of Congress Party leaders, their PSOs and Ordinary Villagers by Maoists in Dharba Ghati of Sukma District, Chhattisgarh. Read more…

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY IN INDIA

Dear Friends,

 

We would like to invite you to attend the conference “Campaign Against the Death Penalty in India” to be held from 3pm to 9pm on 10 May 2013 at the Constitution Club of India, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. Read more…

STEPHEN HAWKING BOYCOTTS CONFERENCE IN ISRAEL

Guardian May 9, 2013

 

The celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking became embroiled in a deepening furore today over his decision to boycott a prestigious conference in Israel in protest over the state’s occupation of Palestine. Read more…

INTERVIEW: PHYLLIS BENNIS

Paul Jay, Senior Editor, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to this edition of The Bennis Report with Phyllis Bennis, who now joins us from Washington, D.C. Phyllis is a fellow and the director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. She’s the author of the books Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Terrorism and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. Read more…

OBITUARY: JAGJIT SINGH LAYALPURI (1917-2013)

(From ML Update, May 29, 2013)

 

Jagjit Singh Layalpuri, 96, veteran communist and a lifelong crusader for left unity passed away in Ludhiana in Punjab on the night of 27 May at 11  p.m. He was a renowned communist and freedom fighter who dedicated his life  to the struggle for the people’s emancipation. He was among the few in  Punjab who initiated the formation of CPI(M) in Punjab from 1964 onwards. Read more…

OBITUARY: VETERAN COMMUNIST LEADER COM JS LYALLPURY (1917-2013)

(Editor–For a People’s Democracy;  May 28, 2013)

 

Veteran communist and all India general secretary of Marxist Communist Party of India (united) MCPI (U) Comrade Jagjit Singh Lyallpury passed away on May 27,2013 at 11:30 pm after brief illness. Read more…

MAY DAY – AN HISTORIC OCCASION TO CELEBRATE THE STRUGGLES AND SOLIDARITY OF THE WORKING CLASS

Editors

 

In the pre-capitalist era, May Day was a pagan ritual celebrating the advent of spring. But under modern capitalism, the origin of May Day is bound with the struggle of the working class against capitalist exploitation, which began with the demand for a shorter workday – a demand of major political significance for the working class. On May 1, 1886, workers took to the streets in a general strike throughout the entire United States to force the ruling class to recognise the eight-hour working day. Over 350,000 workers across the country directly participated in the general strike, with hundreds of thousands of workers joining the marches as best they could. Read more…

WHY SOCIALISM?

Albert Einstein

 

(Albert Einstein is the world-famous physicist. This article was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949). It was subsequently published in May 1998 to commemorate the first issue of MR‘s fiftieth year. The Editors [of Monthly Review])

 

Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is. Read more…

APPROACHING SOCIALISM

C.T. Kurien

 

In the mid-1980s, when the socialist People’s Republic of China showed tendencies of turning to the capitalist path of development, a commentator from the West remarked that socialism appeared to be the quickest route from feudalism to capitalism. While that was some kind of a snide remark, the rest of that decade showed that there was reason to raise doubts about the nature and future of socialism, which for a few immediately preceding decades, had appeared to be a global alternative to capitalism. Read more…

HEALTH IS A RIGHT

World  Federation of Trade Unions (25 April 2013)

 

The rate of blood that the working class pays in capitalist countries is unacceptable. At a global level, the professional illnesses continue to be the main cause of death that has their origin in the workplace. According to estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) out of 2.34 million workplace deaths, 321,000 are due to accidents and 2.2 million are caused by illnesses related to work. This means that every day 6,411 workers die as a consequence of their work. Read more…

THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM STILL MEETING ITS’ CHALLENGE

Immanuel Wallerstein

 

The World Social Forum (WSF) has just ended its now biennial meeting, held this time in Tunis. It was very largely ignored by the world’s mainstream press. It was attended by many skeptics who pronounced its irrelevance, something that has occurred at every meeting since the second WSF in 2002. It was torn by debates about the very structure of the WSF. It was filled with debates about the correct political strategy for the world left. And despite this, it was an enormous success. Read more…

THE NINTH CONGRESS OF CPI (ML)-LIBERATION

Daya Varma

 

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation held its 9th party Congress at Ranchi from April 2-6, 2013. Read more…

INDIAN TRADE UNIONS ARE GETTING BIGGER, COINCIDING WITH SLOWDOWN

Sreelatha Menon

 

This is also more than the total membership size of all trade unions in the previous survey conducted in 2008. Early data emerging from the ongoing survey of trade unions in India have revealed they are growing by leaps and bounds from what they were five years ago, contrary to popular belief they are losing their sheen and diminishing by size with the rapid contractualisation of labour. Read more…

CRUSHED LIVES, CRUSHED DREAMS

Omar Rashid Chowdhury

 

Bangladesh stands petrified as an unprecedented horror unfolds in Savar, near the capital city of Dhaka.  In the morning of the 24th of April, a nine-story building crashed down in Savar Bazaar.  Thousands of garments workers were in the building.  The death toll, as of this writing, was more than 175 [as of April 28, the death toll is estimated to reach 375], with over 1,000 injured, according to a Dhaka daily.  Thousands are still trapped under the pile of concrete rubble. Read more…

BANGLADESHIS BURN FACTORIES TO PROTEST UNSAFE CONDITIONS

Julfikar Ali Manik, Jim Yardley and Steven Greenhouse

 

DHAKA, Bangladesh

 

Thousands of garment workers rampaged through industrial areas of the capital of Bangladesh on Friday, smashing vehicles with bamboo poles and setting fire to at least two factories in violent protests ignited by a deadly building collapse this week that killed at least 324 workers [perhaps as many as 1,000]. Read more…

BANGLADESH FACTORY DISASTER: HOW CULPABLE ARE WESTERN COMPANIES?

Brian Montopoli

 

“How many more workers have to die, before these corporations are willing to take the steps necessary to put an end to this parade of horror?”

 

A Bangladeshi rescuer looking for survivors gestures from beneath a concrete slab of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, April 25, 2013. Read more…

APPEAL FROM JAIL: STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH US FOR JUSTICE

Maruti Suzuki Workers Union

 

We are workers of Maruti Suzuki, who are behind bars since July 18, 2012 as part of a conspiracy, and without any just investigation. 147 of us are inside Gurgaon Central Jail. Read more…

TRINAMOOL CONGRESS (TMC) TERROR IN WEST BENGAL

(ML Update, CPI (ML) Weekly, 16–22 APRIL 2013

 

The custodial killing of student activist Sudipto Gupta in West Bengal sparked off protests all over West Bengal and beyond. Since then, a veritable reign of terror of the ruling TMC has been unleashed in West Bengal. Offices of Left parties, including several CPI(M) offices and at least one CPI(ML) office, have been torched and vandalised in the State. And the attack by TMC cadres on Presidency University (presumably because of the fact that many Presidency students have been vocal and active against several acts of high-handedness by the TMC Government) has underscored that the TMC Government is at war with dissent and democracy. Read more…

SHADOWS OF TRIDENT: MODI AS PRIME MINISTERIAL CANDIDATE

Ram Puniyani

 

From last several months (April 2013) the Bihar Chief Minister Niteesh Kumar is becoming more vocal about his opposition to his electoral ally BJP projecting Narendra Modi as the Prime ministerial candidate. He went on to say that the PM candidate should be one who has a secular image, in obvious reference to Narendra Modi’s role in Gujarat carnage of 2002. Read more…

DEFEAT COMMUNAL FORCES IN THE FORTHCOMING GENERAL ELECTIONS

Irfan Engineer

 

UPA (United Progressive Alliance) – II, now in minority but supported from outside by SP , BSP and RJD is about a year away from facing general elections. In its final year the Central Government is experiencing various pulls and pressures from tough allies. The largest party in UPA-II – Congress is negotiating space for pushing economic reforms desperately needed by the elite class and the corporate sector to increase their surplus rapidly which is euphemistically called growth by economists and development by political class. Read more…

MAULANA ABDUL KALAM AZAD

Shorish Kashmiri,  Matbooat Chattan, Lahore

 

Congress president (Late) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad gave the following interview to journalist Shorish Kashmiri for a Lahore based Urdu magazine, Chattan, in April 1946. It was a time when the Cabinet Mission was holding its proceedings in Delhi and Simla. Azad made some startling predictions during the course of the interview, saying that religious conflict would tear apart Pakistan and its eastern half would carve out its own future. He even said that Pakistan’s incompetent rulers might pave the way for military rule. Read more…

MARGARET THATCHER DEAD: (The Iron Lady took too Long to Rust, ed.)

Morrissey blasts former PM as “barbaric” just hours after her death (April 8, 2013)

 

The musician has been a long-time critic of the former Prime Minister and aired his views in songs like Margaret On The Guillotine Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: UNTOUCHABLE GOD

Author:  Kancha Ilaiah

 

Reviewer:  Poornima Joshi

 

 

Kancha Ilaiah is not an easy scholar to digest, with his brutal polemic against the Brahminical dominance of the Indian caste order. His latest assault, appropriately titled Untouchable God, is a progression of the unique line of argument he has forwarded since he burst onto the Indian sociological scene with his seminal work Why I am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy. Read more…

OBITUARY: JUSTICE J.S. VERMA (1933-2013)

Farah Naqvi

 

To pay tribute to the man who left a legacy of justice is to promise to keep the fight ongoing. Read more…

OBITUARY: SHAMSHAD BEGUM (1919-2013): THE ‘TEMPLE BELL’ WILL TOLL FOR LONG

Ziya Us Salam

 

I heard about the passing away of Shamshad Begum, quite appropriately, on ‘telephoon.’ After all, Shamshad was the one who sang into the nation’s collective memory with Mere Piya gaye Rangoon, Kiya Hai Wahan Se Telephoon, deliberately pronouncing telephone as ‘telephoon’ just as people were prone to doing in the late 1940s. The duet with C. Ramachandra in Patanga became a whole generation’s second most identifiable point with Rangoon, the other obviously being the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was buried in the Burmese capital. Read more…

OBITUARY: HENRY A. PRUNIER (1922-2013)

Douglas Martin

 

Henry A. Prunier taught Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who withstood the armies of France and the United States, how to throw a grenade. Read more…

EDITORIAL

 

Implications of the Assaults and Killings of Shias (and other minorities) by Sunni-terrorist groups for the State in Pakistan

 

In recent months, an unprecedented wave of killings of Shias in Pakistan by terrorist groups who identify themselves as Salafi or Wahabi (extremist Sunni sects) has taken place in Quetta, in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, and in the metropolis of Karachi.  Read more…

SOME NOTES ON THE SHIA-SUNNI CONFLICT IN PAKISTAN

Dr. Omar Ali

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” (Karl Marx) Read more…

DESTINED TO FAIL

(Editorial in Dawn on Shia-Sunni Conflict in Pakistan, March 5, 2013)

 

We can go on talking about the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi till we`re blue in the face. Or about the specific forms that sectarian violence takes in flashpoints such as Quetta and Karachi. But as long as we continue to pretend that Pakistan`s militancy problem is that limited in scope, innocent civilians will continue to die. Read more…

EXCHANGE BETWEEN FEROZ MEHDI, VINOD MUBAYI, AND ARSHAD KHAN

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013, Feroz Mehdi wrote:

 

This article (i.e. Item No. 1 above) gives us an impression that there is a popular war between Shias and Sunnis. The Islamic history sure points out the origins of differences between Sunnis and Shias but the killings today are done by terrorist methods. The killings are not done by organized groups of Sunni citizens with connivance of police and administration.

Feroz Read more…

FORUM FOR SECULAR PAKISTAN CONDEMNS ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS

(Supplied by Irfan Engineer, March 10, 2013)

The Forum for Secular Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on the Christian Community of Joseph Colony, Badami Bagh Lahore, in which 178 houses of the low-income community, as well as shops and 3 churches were looted and burnt to ashes, the Pastor was attacked and the father of Savan Masih, the youth falsely accused of blasphemy, was beaten up and subsequently arrested. Read more…

MUSHAWARAT CONDEMNS STATE TERROR AND VENDETTA IN BANGLADESH

Published Online: March 2, 2013

New Delhi, 2 March 2013: President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations and eminent personalities, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, condemned here today the unjust verdicts being passed by the controversial “International Crimes Tribunal” in Bangladesh and the daily toll of dozens of protesting civilians being mowed down by the trigger-happy Bangladeshi security forces.

Read more…

PAKISTAN: THE MISSING DEMOCRATS

Christophe Jaffrelot

On Saturday [March 16, 2013], the Pakistan National Assembly was dissolved after completing five years. This is an unprecedented achievement. Even under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, no democratically elected legislature had lasted for a full term. And the work accomplished by this legislature is in many ways truly remarkable. Not only have Pakistan’s MPs restored the parliamentary character of the 1973 Constitution, but a whole series of constitutional amendments — starting with the 18th — have promoted federalism at the expense of Punjabi domination, significantly upgraded the independence of the judiciary, created a powerful Election Commission and introduced a procedure for conducting elections the democratic way, a procedure that implies the designation of a caretaker prime minister during the time of the campaign. Read more…

‘I WAS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BECAUSE I AM MUSLIM’

( Express news service <http://m.indianexpress.com/columnist/ens/ Supplied by Sukla Sen)
(As told to Irena Akbar)

In 2008, a youth was arrested from my neighbourhood in Hubli for alleged links with the Student Islamic Movement of India. He was studying to be a doctor and had no history of indiscipline or run-ins with the law. His family was traumatised, and still is, for he continues to languish in jail.

 

If that could happen to a young, educated Muslim like him, it could happen to me, too, I thought then. Five years later, that passing thought became an ugly reality. Read more…

INDIA’S FANTASY OF DISLOYAL MUSLIMS MAY COME TRUE

Pankaj Mishra

 

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is fond of boasting that not one of India’s almost 180 million Muslims has been discovered to be a member of al-Qaeda.

 

He could underscore an even more remarkable fact: None of the foreign jihadists caught fighting alongside the Taliban has turned out to be from the country with the world’s third-largest Muslim population. Read more…

INDIA VOTES AGAINST SRI LANKA AT UNHRC, DMK SLAMS GOVT FOR DILUTING RESOLUTION

(Supplied by P. V. Srinivas [pv.srinivas@gmail.com; PTI | Mar 21, 2013)

 

 

Geneva: The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a US-sponsored resolution on human rights violation in Sri Lanka with 25 countries, including India, voting in favour of the document in the 47-nation strong body. Read more…

DMK, AIADMK SLAM CENTRE FOR STAND ON LANKAN TAMILS ISSUE AT UN

AIADMK and DMK on Thursday accused the UPA-led government of “diluting” the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council by not moving any amendments demanded by it. Read more…

FILM ON MN ROY “THE KOMINTERN BRAHMIN”

An award winning  Film on M.N. Roy (Manabendra Nath Roy 1887-1954) “The Comintern Brahmin -The Untold Story of M.N.Roy” (128 minutes)  made by French  Director Vladimir Leon was shown at 6.30 PM, 19^th March, 2013 at Auditorium, India International Centre, 40, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi (near Lodhi Road). Read more…

DELHI GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS CERTAIN DEMANDS OF SLUM DWELLERS

(Circulated by Ramendra Kumar, Secretary General, Delhi Shramik Sangathan: Abridged)

 

The Delhi Government has accepted most of the demands of the Sangathan & amended policy has been notified on 25^th ‘February’2013. The benefits of amended slum policy of Delhi will reach to the hundreds of slum clusters and lakhs of slum dwellers of Delhi.

Read more…

CONSOLIDATING THE DISCOVERY OF THE HIGGS BOSON

Atul Gurtu

 

“4 July 2012: The most expensive and painstaking hunt in fundamental science is over and a new chapter is beginning. The Higgs boson is finally pinned down; the so-called ‘God Particle’ unveiled. Elation, not only among the practitioners of particle physics, but headlines the world over.” (Atul Gurtu: INSAF Bulletin 125 September 2012). Read more…

THE IRAQ RETROSPECTIVE WE DESERVE

Anthony DiMaggio

 

 March 19, 2003 marked the 10^th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.  For those who remember those polarizing days, it doesn’t seem like so long ago, although I’m constantly reminded of how much time has passed every day when I lecture with my 18 year old students who were just eight years old at the time of the invasion.  Sadly, the youngest generation of American adults remembers little about this war in light of the failure to promote critical awareness in our K-12 educational system.  University professors have hardly fared any better from what I’ve seen, as most seem preoccupied with esoteric research of limited practical utility.  When it comes to teaching, most professors avoid controversy or engagement in real world politics like the plague. Read more…

IRAQ: LIVING WITH NO FUTURE

Dahr Jamail

 

26 March, 2013 (TomDispatch.com)

 

Back then, everybody was writing about Iraq, but it’s surprising how few Americans, including reporters, paid much attention to the suffering of Iraqis. Today, Iraq is in the news again. The words, the memorials, the retrospectives are pouring out, and again the suffering of Iraqis isn’t what’s on anyone’s mind. This was why I returned to that country before the recent 10th anniversary of the Bush administration’s invasion and why I feel compelled to write a few grim words about Iraqis today. Read more…

NEW CHINESE LEADER FACES TOUGH CHOICES IN SEEKING BREAKTHROUGH REFORMS

Manoranjan Mohanty

 

General Secretary of the CPC (Communist Party of China) Central Committee Xi Jinping’s early performance has created positive vibrations in China and abroad. However, on some crucial issues, the extent of Xi’s new policies has yet to be evaluated. Read more…

BASKETBALL IS NOT PING-PONG

Sam Noumoff

 

The recent visit of Denis Rodman and members of the Harlem Globetrotters to North Korea raises the spectre of Ping-Pong diplomacy in the normalization of relations between China and the U.S. Tragically, this is an unlikely parallel. Ping-Pong was known internationally as the premier Chinese sport, while basketball has never been associated with North Korea. More importantly the China-US rapprochement was always driven by the US wanting to take advantage of the Sino-Soviet dispute as part of its cold war strategy. Read more…

OBITUARY: HUGO CHAVEZ (1954-2013)

Sam Noumoff

 

Much has been written about Hugo Chavez in recognition of his devoted commitment, not only to Venezuelans, but to all those fighting against imperialism and exploitation. Affectionately known as El Comandante, Chavez reminds us how powerfully important leadership is in any struggle. It is not leadership, in the Latin American context of the Caudillo, but rather that disenfranchised masses require a skillful and articulate spokesperson to mobilize their voice. This they found in a military officer, who while he taught at the Military Academy found his own platform for his early political career and an audience who echoed his own reality. As it has turned out, Hugo Chavez, as a Paratrooper officer spent two years in prison built his own network within the military, which aided him in any blocking and coup attempts from within the military after founding his 5^th Republic Movement. Read more…

OBITUARY: CHAVEZ AND TCDC/ECDC

Vinod Mubayi

 

[Hugo Chavez was an inspiring leader in many ways as was his companero from an earlier generation, Fidel Castro.  His untimely death from cancer is a setback in some ways but if his successors can consolidate the Bolivarian project he began, it could be a landmark in Latin America’s struggle to sustain a progressive future for its countries and peoples, hitherto in the shadow of the superpower colossus to their north]. Read more…

OBITUARY: V.B. CHERIAN (1945-2013)

V. B. Cherian, Vice President of the NTUI and President of the NTUI Kerala State Council passed away after a long fight with ill-health in Kochi yesterday evening. He was 68 and is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son and several thousand comrades in Kerala and throughout the country. Read more…

EXECUTION OF AFZAL GURU: A SHAMEFUL ACT

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

Compounding its shameful act of executing Mohamed Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013, the Government committed a series of equally shameful (and shamefully petty) actions before and after the execution – refusing to let Afzal’s family meet with him before his death, sending the notice of execution to his family via Speed Post instead of a phone call, burying the body in a secret grave inside the jail instead of returning it to the family – and behaved, in general, with a complete lack of transparency so that the condemned man was given no chance to challenge the President’s rejection of his mercy petition, which was constitutionally open to judicial review. Read more…

LET NOT AFZAL GURU EXECUTION BECOME AN EXCUSE TO DISMISS THE JUSTICE VERMA COMMISSION REPORT ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

As stated above, the execution of Afzal Guru was not only a mockery of justice but also a display of inhuman conduct on the part of the government towards the family, especially the wife and the son, of the victim. It was natural and justified that voices against Guru’s execution were raised by the democratic strata of India. Read more…

A MAN WAS HANGED WHO WAS NOT GUILTY BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT

Anjali Mody

 

After the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament, the government said it was an attack on India’s sovereignty, and those involved would be shown no mercy. Read more…

FAMILY SEEKS PERMISSION FOR PRAYERS IN JAIL

(Delhi: The Hindu, February 10, 2013, day after the hanging of Afzal Guru) (The file photo of Tabassum, wife of Mohammad Afzal Guru not produced)

 

Hours after the news of his death by hanging broke, Mohammed Afzal Guru’s lawyers Nandita Haksar and N.D. Pancholi made their way to the Tihar Jail here, carrying with them a letter from his family seeking permission to say a prayer at his grave. Guru, who was convicted for the December 2001 attack on Parliament, was hanged and buried inside the heavily fortified Tihar Jail on Saturday morning. Read more…

PUCL STATEMENT ON THE HANGING OF AFZAL GURU

The PUCL condemns the hanging of Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail early in the morning of February 9, 2013.

 

The tearing hurry with which Afzal Guru was hanged, accompanied by the flouting of all established norms by not giving his family their legal right to meet him before taking him to the gallows, clearly indicates that there were political considerations behind taking this step. Read more…

ON THE MURDER OF 12-YEAR OLD SON OF LTTE LEADER PRABHAKAAN NDMLP

Statement to the Media on the Channel-4 photographs

 

No lies or distortions can cover up the wicked deeds of the military action carried out by the defence forces of Sri Lanka in the name of “humanitarian war” during the final stages of the war in 2009. Information and evidence about them have already been released by international democratic and human rights organisations. As a continuation of such information, the TV channel, Channel-4 had recently release photographs relating to the killing of the 12-years old son of Prabakaran. Read more…

MY NAME IS KHAN AND… Pain of a celebrity being an Indian Muslim

Ram Puniyani

 

Shah Rukh Khan is no ordinary celebrity. Being the lead actor with a very vibrant presence on big and small screen makes him to be very much on the top. Recently the communal elements asked him to produce his patriotism certificate. Khan in one of his articles in The New York Times- Outlook Turning Points ((January 2013) suggested that India has a bias against Muslims and goes on to say that “Political leaders have made me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India.” Read more…

VICTIMS AND VICTIMHOOD (SALMAN RUSHDIE)

Jawed Naqvi

 

Salman Rushdie, a much-feted victim of intolerance, was vigorously promoting his memoir recently when I asked a friend in London to send me a copy of The Rushdie Letters. Read more…

ANTI-MODI PROTESTERS AT DELHI UNIVERSITY ALLEGE MANHANDLING

(The Hindu New Delhi, February 7, 2013

 

The Hindu Protesters raising slogans against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi on Wednesday. Read more…

THIRTY-FOUR PERCENT OF CHILDREN IN GUJARAT ARE UNDERNOURISHED: NGO

(February 7, 2013)

 

NGO ‘Wada Na Todo Abhiyan’ said it has analysed the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) data of Gujarat and found that 34.05 per cent children in the state fall under various categories of under-nourishment. Read more…

DHULE VIOLENCE: CHANGING ANATOMY OF COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

Ram Puniyani

 

The violence in Dhule Maharashtra seems to be the new face of communal violence in India. As per the report of a major national daily (Jan 26, 2013), the evidence with the newspaper shows the evidence of police looting and destroying the property. The video clips in possession of the civil society groups also show one police official exhorting the rioting mob to move on. So far even if it was there it was not so blatantly clear. One sensed the partisan nature of police as discerned through different inquiry commission reports, but this type of role of police is a new and downhill chapter in the history of communal violence in India. Read more…

DRUG RESEARCH RIDDLED WITH HALF TRUTHS, OMISSIONS, LIES

Excerpted from Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients (2012) by Ben Goldacre

 

Sponsors get the answer they want.

 

Before we get going, we need to establish one thing beyond any doubt: Industry-funded trials are more likely than independently funded trials to produce a positive, flattering result. This is our core premise, and one of the most well-documented phenomena in the growing field of “research about research”. It has also become much easier to study in recent years because the rules on declaring industry funding have become a little clearer. Read more…

ISRAEL MUST WITHDRAW ALL SETTLERS OR FACE ICC, SAYS UN REPORT

Alternatives International Journal (Friday 1 February 2013)

 

Harriet Sherwood

 

Israel must withdraw all settlers from the West Bank or potentially face a case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for serious violations of international law, says a report by a United Nations agency that was immediately dismissed in Jerusalem as “counterproductive and unfortunate.” Read more…

RAVI SHANKAR (7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012)

T.K. Raghunathan (Kabir Cultural Center, Montreal)

 

“I still remember the first time I saw him. He was coming down the stairs, he was so handsome and godlike that I was just frozen to the spot.” – Sukanya Rajan, Wife as told to Kavita Chhibber Read more…

LINE OF CONTROL (LOC ) ON THE BOIL AGAIN – TRADE AND TRAVEL AFFECTED

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

Once more, when better relations between India and Pakistan were on the horizon, expected to be anchored by significant easing of the onerous visa requirements on the citizens of the two countries and a major expansion of cross-border trade, a series of tit-for-tat attacks across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir has plunged relations back to the murky depths from which they were due to emerge. Read more…

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CAN BE PREVENTED BY GOOD GOVERNANCE

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The fatal rape of a young aspiring woman in Delhi evoked massive protest by civil society. It is a heartening development because this is the first protest of this scale on an important social and cultural issue. The deceased woman might well prove to be the saviour of thousands upon thousands of girls and women and the forebear of a more civilized India. Read more…

WHO IS AFRAID OF JUSTICE VERMA COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS?

(Liberation News Service:  Forthcoming : ML Update editorial)

The Justice Verma Committee Report marks a milestone in the struggle for women’s rights in India. The Report is a powerful vindication of the central demands of the ongoing movement against sexual violence, and is also an equally powerful challenge to the Government and the political establishment. Read more…

THE CHAUTALA FORMULA: MEANWHILE ACROSS THE BORDER

Garga Chatterjee

 

It has been more than a month since the serial rapes in the Indian state of Haryana shot to the headlines. Now that our eyeballs have moved to newer headlines of the year in this holy land, and the urban liberal condemnation brigade has moved on to newer issues, let me spoil the momentum and bring back the issue. Read more…

PREVENTING CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN: ARE STRINGENT LAWS THE ONLY SOLUTION?

Ram Puniyani

 

The death of the Delhi gang rape victim in Singapore (Dec 28, 2012) has created a massive wave of anger and protest. As such after this ghastly act, which took place nearly two weeks ago, the anger and protest of the people came to the streets and one witnessed the unfortunate police action. This gang rape was so horrific that the attention of the people from all the sectors of society was drawn to it, and the rage amongst people was limitless. Read more…

RISING SHADOW OF TRIDENT: MODI’S VICTORY IN GUJARAT

Ram Puniyani

 

The recent electoral victory of Narendra Modi, his third consecutive one (Dec 2012), has drawn lot of applause from a section of society and he is being projected as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. It’s another matter that BJP, itself is in shambles as far as electoral arena is concerned and its NDA allies are unlikely to endorse Modi, given his aggressive communal politics and the authoritarian style of his functioning. One knows that this victory of Modi was predicted by many exit polls, one also knows his victory was not a smooth sail, as by now the dissatisfaction from his policies, his style of functioning is adversely affecting a large number of Gujarat population. The people of Gujarat turned out in big numbers to cast their vote. Read more…

JOINT PUBLIC STATEMENT ON HINDUTVA TERROR

24 January 2013

 

While one may or may not agree with the terminology employed by the Home Minister in his recent speech at Jaipur, we feel that for long prejudice has ruled investigations, obscuring the role of organizations and their multiple affiliates in planning and executing of attacks and bombings in the country. The veneer of ‘nationalism’ — narrow, exclusionary and based on hatred for minorities as it is– cannot hide the violence that Sangh and its affiliates beget and peddle. Read more…

COMMUNAL RIOTS -2012

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

Like other years in the post-Gujarat era, this year too witnessed several riots and riot-free India remained just a dream. India is a too vast and complex a country and one cannot expect uniform development all over the country. North, Central and Western India is far too sensitive to communal politics. South, it must be said, is less prone to communal violence though Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are more communally sensitive than Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Read more…

CUBA SHOWS THE WAY

Don Fitz

 

Furious though it may be, the current debate over health care in the US is largely irrelevant to charting a path for poor countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. That is because the US squanders perhaps 10 to 20 times what is needed for a good, affordable medical system. The waste is far more than 30% overhead by private insurance companies. It includes an enormous amount of over-treatment, creation of illnesses, exposure to contagion through over-hospitalization, disease-focused instead of prevention-focused research, and making the poor sicker by refusing them treatment. Read more…

ISRAEL ADMITS ETHIOPIAN WOMEN WERE GIVEN BIRTH CONTROL SHOTS

Talila Nesher

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera. Read more…

OBITUARY: Padma Shri Prof. Mahdi Hasan (1936-2013)

Abbas Ali Mahdi

 

Padma Shri Professor Mahdi Hasan was  born in 1936 in village Gadayan, Akbarpur, then in Faizabad, now Ambedkar Nagar, U.P.). He  was a Senior/Honorary Scientist of the Indian National Science Academy and Honorary  Professor of the Department of Anatomy, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow and formerly Principal and Chief Medical Superintendent (1983-87), Dean (1992-94), Professor (1972-96) and Chairman of Anatomy (1983-87,1990-93), Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University. Read more…

THERE IS LITTLE  CHANCE THAT THE NEW YEAR WILL GET ANY BETTER BUT LET US  STILL HOPE!

CULTURAL DEGENERATION OF INDIA NO ANSWER

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The existence of feudal cultural values in a society where mass poverty exists together with a boom in upper middle-class wealth exacts a horrific social cost. The main victims are the minorities and women. Read more…

CAN HORROR OVER RAPE PROMPT CULTURAL CHANGE IN INDIA?

Stephanie Nolen

 

Women demand justice at a vigil in New Delhi Thursday after a young student was raped and left near death in the city Sunday. (photo by Associated Press not reproduced) Read more…

A RAPE CHARGE IS NO BAR FOR POLITICIANS

260 MLAs and MPs contested polls while facing sexual assault charges

 

Political parties may have joined the entire nation in expressing outrage over the gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in the Capital, but they have never shied away from fielding in elections the candidates facing charges of crimes against women. Read more…

DEMAGOGUES AND DEMOCRACY

Vinod Mubayi

 

Two demagogues, whose actions and words transformed Indian polity for the worse, have been in the news recently.  One of them, Bal Thackeray, who ruled Maharashtra and Mumbai, particularly, as a Mafioso Godfather, is, fortunately, no longer around although his poisonous legacy will likely foul the political atmosphere in the metropolis for many more years.  The other, unfortunately, is going on strong; Narendra Modi, the orchestrator of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, has completed a hat trick by winning the state elections for a third successive time.  He can take full credit for transforming Gujarat from a “laboratory of Hindutva” when he began his career 15 years into a full-fledged “factory of Hindutva” it has become today. Read more…

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS OF MINORITIES: Effects and Repercussions

Ram Puniyani

 

There is a need to introspect about the status of Human rights in India as we observed on more Human rights day, this December 10th. Human rights is a concept which is founded on the democratic norms. Last many decades, after the coming into being of United Nations in particular, the concept of human rights has been picking up in a strong way. The global community through UN has tried to evolve the norms for these rights for all the people of the world. Many a countries, including India are signatories to the norms, charters prepared by UN. Though India is a signatory to these charters, it needs to be seen as to what is the status of human rights of minorities in India? Read more…

SIR SYED DAY AND ITS UTILITY

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

Seventeen October happens to be Sir Syed’s birth day and every year all those who have studied at Aligarh Muslim University celebrate it with great enthusiasm and arrange dinner on that occasion. Read more…

CASTE, RELIGION AND UNTOUCHABILITY

Vidya Bhushan Rawat

 

Ashaq Ali Wattal hails from a community which has the sole ‘right’ to clean the toilets in Jammu and Kashmir. Hailing from Doda, Wattal moans at the continuous negligence by the state government and its authorities towards the community of manual scavengers in Jammu and Kashmir. Read more…

BABRI MOSQUE DEMOLITION: TWO DECADES LATER

Ram Puniyani

 

Twenty years ago (December 6, 1992) on this fateful day, Babri Mosque was demolished. This demolition remains a major blot in the history of India. It was the act of demolition by communal forces which reflected the changing polity of India and it in turn further changed the polity in a very adverse direction. Read more…

PERSISTENCE OF A SORE: COMMUNAL VIOLENCE TODAY

Ram Puniyani

 

The events taking place in different parts of the country in October-November 2012 have been very disturbing to say the least. It is the continuance and recurrence of communal events, communal violence in different parts of the country, in UP, Assam and Hyderabad in particular. Read more…

THE TWELFTH FIVE YEAR PLAN: TAKING “INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT” FROM MYTH TO REALITY

Mazher Hussain

 

The Planning Commission of India posted the draft Document of the 12th Five year Plan on its website in the first week of December 2012 for feedback from the public before it is adopted by the National Development Council (NDC) on 28 December and declared the Five Year Plan for the country from 2012 to 2017. The stated vision of the Plan Document is “of India moving forward in a way that would ensure a broad-based improvement in living standards of all sections of the people through a growth process which is faster than in the past, more inclusive and also more environmentally sustainable”. This mantra of “faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth”’ is indeed ideal and laudable, but the question is how can we make it possible? More importantly, what could be the consequences if we fail? Read more…

COORDINATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS (CDRO)

Press Release 19 December 2012

 

Police kills unarmed villagers and terms it ‘encounter with Maoists’ in Odisha.

 

Following an outcry against the alleged killing of five tribals/Maoists in an ‘encounter’, near Bhaliaguda village of Gajapati district of Odisha, a six-member team of individuals representing CDRO and Women against Sexual Violence and State Violence (WSS) visited Odisha from 8 December to 9 December 2012. Our purpose was to understand what had actually unfolded and who the people died were. Read more…

ALL INDIA PEOPLES FRONT

(Supplied by Akhilendra Pratap Singh)

 

New Delhi, Nov.24. 2012, In a two day meeting cum workshop in GPF organized by the National Campaign Committee where the constituents of NCC and some other democratic organizations resolved to launch All India Peoples Front, retaining NCC. Read more…

WHAT THE AMERICAN MEDIA WON’T TELL YOU ABOUT ISRAEL

Noam Chomsky

 

The savage punishment of Gaza traces back to decades ago. Read more…

SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Was Not a Grand Design But a Grand Entanglement Resulting from Faulty Intelligence, Excessive Secrecy, and a Paralyzed Leadership, According to Conference of Former Decision-Makers. Read more…

CANADA FORMALLY JOINS THE AXIS OF EVIL

Feroz Mehdi

 

So here we are. It is November 29 2012. November 29 is the international day in solidarity with Palestine. It is also the day when the UN passed the resolution for partition of Palestine in 1947. It is today in 2012 that the World Social Forum-Free Palestine was launched in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is today that the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of giving a non-member state status to Palestine. Read more…

CELEBRATING THE PRINCE OF PEACE IN THE LAND OF GUNS

Michael Moore

 

Moore writes: “After watching the deranged, delusional National Rifle Association press conference on Friday, it was clear that the Mayan prophecy had come true. Except the only world that was ending was the NRA’s.” Read more…

WHEN RAVI SHANKAR WAS COMRADE ROBUDA

Sankar Ray

 

One of the maestro’s greatest contributions, the music for Saare Jahan se Achchha, brought him to the Indian People’s Theatre Association. Read more…

EULOGY

 

“Momma Loves You, Little Man”

 

The mother and uncle of 6-year-old Noah Pozner delivered a messages at his funeral reflecting on the life of the little boy killed on December 14, 2012 school shooting at Newton, Connecticut, USA. Read more…

BAL THACKERAY – SELF-PROCLAIMED HITLER ADMIRER PASSES AWAY

Vinod Mubayi

 

Since independence, there have been two examples of what can be termed the authentic face of Indian fascism.  The first, Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sena leader, Marathi chauvinist par excellence and self-proclaimed admirer of Hitler who dubbed himself “Hindu hriday samrat” (emperor of Hindu hearts) died, thankfully, a few weeks ago; the other, Narendra Modi, coordinator of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 is, unfortunately, still around. Read more…

AN AUTHENTIC INDIAN FASCISM

Praveen Swami

 

The Shiv Sena chief gave voice to a Nazi impulse in Indian politics — one that poses an ever-growing threat to our Republic. Read more…

LEADER (Thackeray ) WHO BROUGHT ETHNIC POLITICS TO MUMBAI MELTING POT

Meena Menon

 

 

Bal Thackeray, the man who could bring Mumbai and the entire State of Maharashtra to a standstill by a single command and whose ethnic and communal rhetoric added a strain of perpetual menace to an already fraught metropolis, died on Saturday, November 17. He was 86. Read more…

STRUGGLE TO ERADICATE CASTE: HIDDEN AGENDA OF SAMAJIK SAMRASTA

Ram Puniyani

 

Caste is a phenomenon deeply entrenched in Indian society and the struggle against it began in the late 19^th century. Despite the social movements, initiated around the ideas of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and many such legendary figures, it continues to pervade in the Indian society like a malignant cancer, refusing to die easily. Read more…

GIRISH KARNAD ON NAIPAUL

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

In a literary festival organized by Times of India Group in Mumbai Girish Karnad, a theatre celebrity and a secular activist attacked, in his speech the committee which decided to give award to Naipaul on the grounds that Naipaul had communal attitude and did not deserve this award. Some people objected to Karnad attacking Naipaul on this occasion. He could have spared his remarks for some other occasion. Read more…

DRONES: THEIRS AND OURS

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

Vocal as they are about being bombed from the sky, most Pakistanis – including many on the Left – suddenly lose their voice when it comes to the human (Muslim) drone. Read more…

CANADA’S MISSING DAUGHTERS

Murtaza Haider

 

It is taking place even in Canada. Parents are aborting female fetuses because they prefer sons instead. The practice, however, is more pronounced amongst immigrant parents from India. Read more…

2012 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: RELIGIOSITY LOST, LEFT WON

Rajasekhar Ramakrishnan
It is an understatement that my family is happy with the  election of Barack Hussein Obama as the President of the United States for the second term in November 2012. Read more…

JOINT APPEAL OF INDIAN MUSLIMS ON AUNG SAN SUU KYI VISIT

The Milli Gazette Online

 

New Delhi, 14 November 2010: Myanmar opposition leader Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is visiting our country and getting the treatment of a head of state as a result of her long struggle and suffering for democracy in Myanmar which also won her a Nobel Peace Prize. But we are pained to see that Ms. Kyi has disappointed many by her continuous silence and ambivalent attitude towards a section of her compatriots known as “Rohingyas” who mainly live in Rekhine province, formerly known as Akyab. The Rohingyas, who are Muslims, have been termed by a UN report as the most persecuted religions community in the world. Read more…

NEW DELHI PROTEST AT ISRAELI EMBASSY AGAINST ATTACK ON GAZA

Hundreds of protestors, which included students, youth, teachers, trade unions and women raised slogans at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi on November 19, 2012, protesting Israel’s assault on civilians in Gaza, and US support for this aggression. Read more…

MUSLIMS POSE AS HINDUS TO GET JOBS (IN INDIA)

Radio Australia (31 October 2012)

 

Muslims in India are adopting Hindu identities to avoid discrimination. Read more…

WELL-KNOWN PAKISTANI JOURNALIST MARVI SIRMED SHOT AT

(Press Trust of India <http://www.ndtv.com/search?q=Press+Trust+of+India>; November 02, 2012) 22

Islamabad: Unidentified gunmen today attacked prominent rights activist Marvi Sirmed in the Pakistani capital. She escaped unharmed. Read more…

SYMBOL OF COMMUNAL HARMONY IN FAIZABAD ATTACKED

Sandeep Pandey

 

We remember visiting the office of Sayed Manzar Mehdi, who was the Bureau Chief of Urdu periodical ‘Sahafat’ then in Faizabad just before the Godhra incident in 2002. He was vividly describing how Muslims in trains leaving Ayodhya for Gujarat were being troubled by the Kar Sewaks who had ostensibly come to build the temple. Read more…

A VISIT TO BHAGAT SINGH’S VILLA

Haroon Khalid

Amongst the numerous Punjabi patriots that have been borne over centuries, arguably, Sardar Bhagat Singh’s personality stands as the tallest in stature, fame, and sacrifice. However, a strange event occurred after the death of this son of Punjab. The land that he called his mother got divided into two parts. This partition not only divided land but also mentalities, families and heroes. A strong sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ were forged, to invoke patriotism, justifying the partition, or the betrayal, fueling nationalism. What is Indian is anti-Pakistani and vice-versa. Read more…

DISENCHANTING INDIA: ORGANIZED RATIONALISM AND CRITICISM OF RELIGION

Author: Johannes Quack

Reviewed by Dilip Simeon (Published in H-Asia, November 2012; supplied by Sukla Sen) Read more…

THREATENING IRAN, BOMBING GAZA

Vinod Mubayi

 

To any rational, fair-minded person with no stakes in the outcome, the current fuss over Iran would seem puzzling indeed.  Iran is a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; it allows inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its nuclear facilities; and, under the rules of the treaty, it is allowed to enrich uranium to produce fuel for use in civilian nuclear facilities, such as power reactors or reactors for producing medical isotopes.  There is another state in the Middle-East, however, which is known to possess hundreds of nuclear weapons, including bombs and missiles, acquired clandestinely, has not signed the non-proliferation treaty, and, of course, does not permit IAEA inspectors entry into the country or into its nuclear facilities.  The latter country is Israel. Read more…

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA (CPC) AND POLITICAL REFORM

William Dere

 

The Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was  held from November 8 to 15 at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. Hu Jintao was replaced by Xi Jinping as the General Secretary. A significant issue discussed at the Congress was Political Reform. Below are two commentaries (Eds.)  Read more…

POLITICAL REFORM IN CHINA: THE WAY TO GO

Hu Shuli

 

In the 18th Party Congress report, the single area that has justifiably generated the most attention is references to political reform. But, in fact, views on this report will rely entirely on initial expectations. Read more…

EUROPE UNITES IN AUSTERITY PROTESTS AGAINST CUTS AND JOB LOSSES

 

Tom Kington in Rome, Helena Smith in Athens, Kim Willsher in Paris and Martin Roberts in Madrid

(The Guardian,  14 November 2012)

Millions take part in strikes, stoppages and marches on day of co-ordinated action as eurozone teeters on return to recession. Read more…

OBITUARY: ASAD REHMAN: ’CHAKAR KHAN’ (1950-2012)

Being Punjabi like Asad

 

Harris Khalique

 

Sheikh Asad Rahman breathed his last in an Islamabad hospital on the night of Monday, October 29. He developed a severe heart condition about two weeks ago and struggled under a ventilator before his body systems finally failed him. I had met Asad a day before his heart attack. Appearing fighting fit, he was in his true element, when speaking of human rights movements in Pakistan, reflective when deliberating on development challenges faced by communities in the length and breadth of the country, and passionate while tracing the history of the struggle for the rights of the Baloch people. Read more…

OBITUARY: SENATOR IQBAL HAIDER (1945 – ,2012)

Kiran Omar

 

On 11 November, 2012 Senator Iqbal haider breathed his last at a hospital in Karachi after a long illness. Senator Haider had a long, and illustrious career as a legislator, human rights activist and lawyer. He was a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, co-Chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan(HRCP), a former Senator, Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and a former Attorney General. His contribution to the Law, its application and interpretation, was invaluable, and his passion for championing human rights was inspirational. Read more…

OBITUARY: SRIMATI KAMALA PANDEY (1930-2012)

Ashok Choudhary
Lucknow, 26 November. Deep condolence was conveyed in an emergency meeting  of the board of trustees and well wishers of the Anurag Trust on the sudden  demise of Mrs. Kamala Pandey, the chief trustee of the trust, renowned  leftist social activist and chief editor of the children magazine ‘Anurag’. It was resolved to further her life mission through the activities of the  trust. Read more…

FEMALE INFANTICIDE: THE WAY INDIA WILL END

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

South Asia has many political, economic, social and cultural problems. While much is written and talked about the political and economic issues, which can easily be attributed to laxity or failure of governmental policies, less is said about social and cultural issues to which every one is a party in varying degrees. One such issue is the relegation of women to a secondary status. This is true among all religious communities and all castes of South Asia. Female infanticide is the extreme expression of anti-women prejudice. Read more…

INDIA LOSES THREE MILLION GIRLS IN INFANTICIDE

Source: Liberation News Service, October 9, 2012

 

In an alarming trend, girl child numbers in India have shown a sharper decline than the male children in the decade beginning 2001, leading to a skewed child sex ratio. Read more…

THE GIRL WHO CHANGED PAKISTAN: MALALA YOUSAFZAI

Shehrbano Taseer

 

Over the screams and tears of the girls, a teacher instructed the bus driver to drive to a local hospital a few miles away. She stared in horror at Malala’s body, bleeding profusely and slumped unconscious in her friend’s lap, then closed her eyes and started to pray. Read more…

FAITH VERSUS SANITATION

Jairam Ramesh’s Remarks On Temple, Toilets

 

Ram Puniyani

 

The Union Rural development Minister’s remark that “toilets are more important than temples” (October 2012) was met with diverse responses. Ramesh was speaking at a launch of campaign to sensitize people about the ill effects of open defecation, a practice very common in rural areas and city slums, where sanitation facilities are poor or non-existent. Ramesh said that open defecation was the main reason for the hygiene related problems and that there are more temples than toilets in the country. Read more…

LETTER FROM LUCKNOW PRISON

Tarique Quasmi,

 

A prisoner in Lucknow Prison has released the following letter dated 22nd September, 2012. Read more…

THREE THOUSAND SIKHS TO VISIT PAKISTAN ON NANAK’S BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

Sikh pilgrims from India and other countries across the globe will start reaching Pakistan on Tuesday (tomorrow) to celebrate the birth anniversary of the first Sikh Guru, Sri Guru Nanak Devji. The authorities concerned have finalised the arrangements to accommodate the visiting pilgrims, security arrangements and other facilities. Read more…

FOREST RIGHTS RALLY AND MASS EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN BIHAR

October 11-12,  2012 Kaimur Bihar

 

More than 5000 tribal, dalit and other forest dwellers did a historical rally in Adhoura Block of Kaimur district Bihar jointly by Kaimur Mukti Morcha (Jan Mukti Andolan) and National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW). Read more…

INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS DEMANDS OF LANDLESS & HOMELESS

(Liberation News Service; October 14, 2012)

 

Landless and Shelterless Poor to get agricultural land, homestead rights, fast track courts, free legal aid, effective implementation of PESA and Forest Rights Act through a time bound program!! Read more…

POLICE AND COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

It seems quite a stale topic as we know how police behaves during communal disturbances or even before and after that. Recently Prime Minister of the country also expressed serious concern about increasing incidents of communal violence in the country during his inaugural address to one-day conference of Directors General and Inspectors General in Delhi along with intelligence officers. The Prime Minister of the country expresses concern and draws their attention to a problem it could be nothing but very serious indeed. Read more…

ATTACK ON FAIZABAD MOSQUE CONDEMNED

On 24 October 2012, when the immersion procession of Durga was going on, a girl was molested by few miscreants. Making this as a pretext few people started stone throwing in the nearby areas. A rumor also spread in Faizabad that Muslims are doing the stone throwing. The mob went on to burn nearly 25 shops of Muslim traders. They also rampaged the office of bilingual (Urdu and Hindi) paper Aap Ki Takat. This paper is continuously giving the message of Peace and calling for Hindu-Muslim unity. They also rampaged the mosque. Read more…

BODOLAND : THE KILLING FIELD

Santosh Rana

 

Santosh Rana was a leading member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [CPI-ML] formed under the leadership of late Charu Mazumdar. He left CPI-ML in 1971 and constituted PCC CPI-ML in 971. He  contesting as an independent, won the Gopiballavpur seat in West Bengal in 1977. Below he presents a detailed history of BODO people who are recently targeted by Assamese chauvinists. Read more…

JAPANESE MILITARISM & DIAOYUTAI (SENKAKU) ISLAND

Kiyoshi Inoue

 

Based on history, there should be no dispute on the ownership of these islands (they belong to China). Read more…

SIXTY-FOUR COMMUNIST PARTIES OPPOSE ISRAELI THREAT AGAINST IRAN

In the mostly widely supported joint declaration for decades, 64 communist and worker’s parties across the world join forces to declare “We are totally opposed to any military action against Iran!”  Read more…

SWEDISH SHIP TO GAZA

(Press Release Oct. 22, 2012 from Adam Keller Gush Shalom: otherisr@actcom.co.il)

 

The Israeli activists detained on board the “Estelle” were released Elik Elhanan: excessive force was used against us, without any reason. Read more…

HARI SHARMA MEMORIAL LECTURE 2012

Speaker: Jan Myrdal

 

Topic: “Neoliberalism and Revolution: the Task of Solidarity with the Peoples of India”

Time and Place:  November 17, 2012: 2 pm; Simon Frazer University Harbour Centre Room 1900. Read more…

OBITUARY: ERIC JOHN ERNEST HOBSBAWM (1917-2012)

Martin Kettle and Dorothy Wedderburn

 

Had Eric Hobsbawm died 25 years ago, the obituaries would have described him as Britain’s most distinguished Marxist historian and would have left it more or less there. Yet by the time of his death at the age of 95, he had achieved a unique position in the country’s intellectual life. In his later years he became arguably Britain’s most respected historian of any kind, recognised if not endorsed on the right as well as the left, and one of a tiny handful of historians of any era to enjoy genuine national and world renown. Read more…

THE CRISIS IN THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT: INDIA IS CATCHING UP

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

The Indian communist movement is almost a century old.  It began in the aftermath of the Russian revolution as an expression of militant worker struggles against capitalist exploitation during the colonial era.  It maintained a critical alliance for a while with the main anti-colonial freedom movement led by the Congress Party. In 1947-48, the CPI launched the anti-feudal Telengana struggle, which managed to create, at its height, a liberated zone of over 5000 square miles, ousting landlordism in the erstwhile feudal state of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Read more…

NEPAL: LONG MARCH, BACKWARDS

Editorial, The Hindu

 

The churning in Nepali politics has entered a new stage with a split in the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Read more…

VICIOUS CYCLE OF ISLAMOPHOBIA

Ram Puniyani

 

We are going through strange times. While the science, technology and rationalism has given us physical and intellectual tools to better the lot of humanity, we are witnessing the production of provocative material, literature and films in particular, which demonize the particular religion, Islam to be precise, and the prophet of Islam. On the other hand there is a section of community, feeling threatened and insecure coming to the streets to protest against such humiliation and insult of their religion. There are debates on freedom of expression, but how come the freedom of expression always goes to humiliate and demonize one particular religion only? Read more…

DEVELOPMENT DYNAMICS IN GUJARAT

Summary of the Findings

 

Is Gujarat the lucky star rising on the Indian horizon! Or Is Gujarat a story of Rousing Growth Amidst Raging Disparities?  A recent study, conducted by researchers from the Jawaharlal Nehru University and supported by the Institute of Development Communication, Chandigarh suggests that there is more to worry about Gujarat then some decades ago. Today, 21st century ‘developed’ India is more concerned about ethics, justice, and sustainability of development. Evaluating the experience of development in Gujarat, particularly in the last decade or so, the study tell us that Gujarat is a story where goals like social equality, sustainable livelihoods, access to education and health, justice and peace have been missed by governance in high-speed lane. Read more…

THE LETTER TO NARENDRA MODI ON HIS STATEMENT ON MALNUTRITION

The letter demands apology from Modi for his remarks during an interview with Wall Street Journal.  Modi’s statement  only shows his disrespect to  women and girls of Gujarat the state, but also reveals  his rudimentary understanding of Indian society at large. Read more…

BANGLADESHI’S IN INDIA: MYTH AND REALITY

Ram Puniyani

 

The Assam violence between Bodos and Muslims, alleged by many to be Bangldeshi infiltrators, has a long chain of repercussions. The number of dead is nearly eighty. Killings are continuing and the people who have been displaced have been over 4 lakhs. There is no exact statistics to tell us how many of the displaced are Muslims and how many are Bodos, still roughly some investigators have put the figure of Muslims 80% and Bodos 20%. The few reports which have come out tell us that the condition of the all refugee camps is abysmal, much worse of those where Muslims are living. Meanwhile many a voices have come up to express their own opinions. Read more…

INDIA AND SECULAR DEMOCRACY

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

Till yesterday many were saying that communal temperature has come down in the country and some even questioned wisdom of passing the Communal Violence and Targeted Violence Bill by the Parliament. People thought perhaps Gujarat riots have given enough shock to the country and now no major riots shall take place. And now we are not only witnessing series of riots in U.P. but also very major Gujarat like riot in Assam and now suddenly people from North East are being targeted in Southern states. Read more…

POLITICAL ISLAM IN PAKISTAN

Jan Breman

 

Abandoned by their government, the poor of Pakistan have turned to the Taliban and other fundamentalist groups for support and solace. At the same time, a growing pressure for emancipation presses against fundamentalism. Which force will triumph? A report based on travel in rural Sindh. Read more…

PERSECUTION OF MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN

Faraz Aamer Khan

 

When Jinnah said that “religion and state should be kept separate”, he could not have more appropriately warned the people of present-day Pakistan where the constitutionally supported, man-made religious doctrines issued by fundamentalists continue, to ruin lives. Read more…

BHAGAT SINGH CHOWK

LAHORE, Sept 29: District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal on Saturday directed City District Government of Lahore officials to rename Shadman Chowk (roundabout) as Bhagat Singh Chowk. Read more…

PAKISTAN: STATE PATRONAGE FOR THE HIJAB? WHY COMPETE WITH FUNDAMENTALISTS?

Tazeen Javed

 

Barring random news items and a few opinion pieces, the hijab debate has never really been part of the national narrative of Pakistan. Those who wanted to wear hijab/niqab/burqa wore it and those who preferred the traditional shalwar kameez and dupatta chose that without any problem. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran or Turkey, there never was governmental coercion or pressure on women to wear a particular type clothing or to ban them from wearing a particular type of clothing in state institutions. A woman’s clothing was her own business as it should be anywhere in the world. However, things are changing. Read more…

PAKISTAN: THREE LEFT PARTIES TO UNITE

Statement by the Awami Party Pakistan, Labour Party Pakistan and the Workers Party Pakistan Read more…

DALIT WOMEN AT THE RECEIVING END

Liberation News Service (September 25, 2012)

 

Data and research show how Dalit women are doubly marginalised subjected to a patriarchal set up at home and caste prejudice in society “Would you like to compromise?” That’s the first question a judge asks when a caste atrocity case comes up for trial, says Manjula Pradeep, of the Gujarat-based non governmental organisation Navsarjan. A study done by Navsarjan on atrocity data obtained through RTI for Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu found that between December 2004 and November 2009, “there were convictions in only 0.79 per cent of cases (three cases) of violence by non-Dalits across the three states. In Gujarat there were no convictions at all.” Read more…

LESSONS OF THE QUÉBEC STUDENT MOVEMENT

William Ging Wee Dere

 

 

Through its seven month strike and mass action, the Québec student movement can claim a victory after the newly elected Parti Québécois (PQ) premier Pauline Marois issued an order in council to repeal the university tuition increase for this school year. However she is calling for a summit meeting of the student organizations with the government before the end of the year to try and legitimize her plan to index future increases in tuition fees to the cost of living. Marois also repealed the repressive Bill 78 (Law 12) which was passed by the previous Liberal government to limit mass protests. Read more…

THE MANIFESTO OF CLASSE: We Are Many Youth, But With One Struggle!

 

William Ging Wee Dere

 

During its congress on August 11th and 12th, 2012, CLASSE adopted the Manifesto « We are many youth, but with one struggle ». This text, already endorsed by dozens of student organizations around the world, reminds us that the student struggle in Quebec is also in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of young people and students who are struggling around the world for a quality education which is accessible and public. Read more…

TONY BLAIR SHOULD FACE TRIAL OVER IRAQ WAR, SAYS DESMOND TUTU

The Guardian

 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be hauled before the international criminal court in The Hague and delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation caused by the Iraq war. Read more…

WHY THE WESTERN MEDIA ARE ANGRY AT TEHRAN NAM SUMMIT

Kourosh Ziabari

 

The 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran was unquestionably a diplomatic triumph for Iran, and the Western politicians know this very well. Perhaps it’s in this context that the frustration and annoyance of the Western state-run mainstream media at the Tehran summit can be explained. Read more…

CANADA CUTS LINKS WITH IRAN

Gideon Polya

 

Pro-Zionist Canadian Government war crimes exposed

 

Canadian Government has broken off diplomatic relations with remote, peaceful Iran and justified this with a comprehensively false litany of allegations. Read more…

OBITUARY: A.K. HANGAL, ACTOR (1924-2012)

Suhasini Mulay

 

Veteran actor, A K Hangal, faced the camera for the first time when he was 50. At 93, he “walked” the ramp in a wheelchair for the designer, Riyaz Ganji. He faced the cameras for the last time when he was 94, for a Television series, “Madhubala – Ek Ishq Ek Junoon”. Read more…

OBITUARY: ALEXANDER SAXTON, HISTORIAN AND NOVELIST, DIES AT 93

Paul Vitello

 

Alexander Saxton, who would go on to become a prominent historian of race in America, summed himself up in a blurb on the dust jacket of his first novel, “Grand Crossings,” published when he was 24. Read more…

NORTH-EAST TO SOUTH-WEST: REGIONAL DISPARITY AND POVERTY TAKE A VIOLENT TURN

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

The violent incidents in Kokrajhar in Assam, where hundreds of people, most of them Bengalis who happened to be Muslim, were killed by a segment of the Bodo tribals, were sad and scary enough.  But their aftermath, especially in major cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, could be more threatening to the survival of India as a nation, unless some major steps are taken by the government to address the problem. Read more…

A STUNNING VERDICT [WORTH REJOICING]

(The Hindu, August 30, 2012)

 

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and its various affiliates including governments run by its political wing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) have committed many crimes and have been let off many a times. Also so far the murderers of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 are roaming free. The conviction of BJP legislator Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi along with 30 others for their role in the Naroda Patia massacre in a recent court judgment restores some confidence in Indian proclaimed secularism. Read more…

OUTBREAK OF VIOLENCE IN MUMBAI – ASSAM AND BURMA KILLING OF MUSLIMS

Asghar Ali Engineer

The way things were happening for last few weeks it was not surprising that violence on such scale took place. It was, as if, in store, large scale propaganda was going on that Muslims are being killed all over the world. There is conspiracy to kill Muslims everywhere and on Bodo-Muslim clashes and about Rohingiya Muslims in Burma prayers were being organized in every mosque and SMSs were circulating about it. Urdu papers were carrying articles saying there is world-wide conspiracy to kill Muslims articles simply appealing to emotions, not to reason. Read more…

PREVENTING SECTARIAN VIOLENCE: ROLE OF STATE

Ram Puniyani

The horrific violence in Assam has once again brought our attention to the malaise of communal violence in India. In the recent times one has witnessed such a violence in parts of UP, (Kosi Kalan, Barailly, Pratapgarh) and also in Gopalgargh in Rajasthan. In most of these acts of violence one has to confront the reality that there is a lapse on the part of state, the police and civic administration, due to which the violence sustains itself after the initial spark has been thrown by someone. The present spate (July, 2012) of series of acts of violence reconfirms that there is a lack of accountability, there is state complicity and impunity due to which the innocents are done to death and the culprits generally get away. Read more…

RIOTS & THE BOGEY OF BANGLADESHIS

Banajit Hussain

Many Muslims from erstwhile East Bengal settled in Assam in early 20th century. But vested interests are out to prove that their descendants today are illegal migrants. Read more…

STATUS OF MINORITIES: A TALE OF TWO NEIGHBORS

Ram Puniyani

Pakistan and India, these neighbors got Independence in the mid August 1947. Today 55 years after the Independence where do these two major countries of the subcontinent stand vis a vis their religious minorities, is the question which we need to answer to ensure a better and more democratic area. Read more…

THE STATE OF MUSLIMS IN GUJARAT TODAY

Commentary
Despite the continued ghettoization of Muslims in a polarized Gujarat, the Muslim community in the state has through sheer hard work shown some advances in education and wealth generation. The denial of justice to the victims of the 2002 Gujarat pogroms, despite strenuous efforts by civil society activists and interventions by the higher judiciary, remains a major issue for the community. Read more…

OVER 4,000 WORKERS PROTEST MARUTI MASS SACKING

Times of India, |Aug 18, 2012

 

Gurgaon: Around 4,000 workers from the Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera industrial belt gathered in the city on Friday in protest against Maruti Suzuki’s mass dismissal of over a third of its workforce, who were found to have been complicit in last month’s violence at the carmaker’s Manesar plant. Read more…

INDIA: DOMESTIC DROUGHT LOOMS LARGER THAN GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

Jason Overdorf

 

Insulated from the international market, India’s massive stockpile of food grains will see it through the crisis.

 

The prospect of a failed monsoon at home poses bigger problems for India than the spike in global prices for corn, soybeans and wheat resulting from America’s worst drought since the days of the dustbowl, agriculture. Read more…

INDIA: FOOD ROTS AS PEOPLE STARVE

Jason Overdorf

 

The Indian government stockpiles grain to prop up prices and prevent a food crisis. The trouble is the crisis is already here — and has been for years. Read more…

HYPE OVER SUBSTANCE: THE MACHINERY BEHIND THE MODI MYTH

Sanjukta Pathak (Ahmedabad)

 

Is Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi really the great achiever he is made out to be or is he a grand myth manufactured by an incredibly efficient public relation machinery? The jury is still out on the first one. There are many ways to interpret `achievement’ and given the extreme irrational excitement any discussion on Modi evokes, it is futile to expect a satisfactory answer. The second question is interesting though. Read more…

KILLING OF INNOCENT SIKHS IN WISCONSIN

Vinod Mubayi

 

Six innocent Sikhs, including two children, were shot down and butchered in cold blood by a white supremacist while they were preparing for religious services at their gurudwara in Oak Creek, WI.  American media explained it as an issue of mistaken identity.  The shooter mistook the Sikhs for Muslims because the Sikh men wear beards, as if killing innocent Muslims would have been any less reprehensible. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Reviewed by  Michael D’Alimonte 

Integrating three years of research and reporting, Katherine Boo has streamlined the complex issues and social dynamics of a Mumbai slum into the compelling narrative, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Set in Annawadi, a slum in Mumbai surrounded by modern airports and hotels, Boo recounts the lives and hardships of its many residents in a manner that is both striking and yet very familiar. Despite the fact that the entire plot and its driving factors are based in foreign affairs and cultures, Western readers will find that the tale is surprisingly relatable. Read more…

PRESERVING THE PASSION OF INDIA’S ROOTS MUSIC

Nida Najar
Raneri, India — In this tiny village almost 400 miles southwest of New  Delhi, where women wash dishes in the sand to conserve water, and electricity is scarce, Lakha Khan sat on the floor of a stone hut, legs crossed and white turban in place. There he coaxed a bright, high-pitched, dizzyingly fast melody from his violin-like Sarangi. Read more…

SOUTH AFRICA COMMUNIST PARTY ON ATTACK ON MINERS

 
Statement by General Secretary Blade Nzimande Read more…

HINDUTVA POLITICS ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE IN ASSAM

Editors

 

The clashes between Bodos and Assamese Muslims have led to an officially estimated 58 deaths, which is widely acknowledged to be a gross underestimate, and over 4 lakhs have been made refugees in the last few weeks. While the violence was sparked by a few incidents that were unfortunately not responded to by the police and local administration, the area has witnessed past episodes of violence, including the ghastly Nellie massacre in 1983 when almost 3000 innocent Muslims were killed.  BJP is now adding a considerable amount of fuel to the fire by raising the slogan of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants as a way of both discrediting the ruling Congress government in the state and creating further cleavage between communities on the basis of religion that suits the Hindutva agenda.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the area and urged the state government to take steps to counteract the rioting and also provided relief to the victims.  As the accompanying article by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer indicates, all steps have to be taken to oppose the vicious propaganda by Hindutvawadis and others about migrants from Bangladesh as the cause of this crisis.

ASSAM AND BODO -MUSLIM CLASHES – REASONS AND ANALYSIS

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

Much has been written in newspapers by now about the disaster that occurred in lower Assam, in Kokrajhar and three other districts. About 58 persons have died since 6th July though main clashes occurred from 19th July onwards and now some kind of uneasy situation prevails. More than 4 lakh have become refugees living in 27 different camps of which 3 lakh are Muslims. Newspapers generally narrate events and hardly analyze or give reasons on the basis of in-depth study. Read more…

ON THE ONGOING ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN ASSAM: A STATEMENT

The following is the text of a Statement issued in Delhi on 27 July 2012, endorsed by a number of concerned organizations and individuals. Read more…

FOR RETIRED MAOISTS, REGRET AND ISOLATION

Vivekananda Nemana

 

Since the founding of communist parties the world over, some of the best and most sensitive members of the society have been joining the party and major developments especially setback result in some of them leaving but never with regret. In India, it happened after the great Telangana peasant struggle, after the setback in Naxalbari movement and disillusionment with the Maoist movement. It is perhaps the first time, journalist Nemana has undertaken to document the experience of the Indian Maoists. Read more…

CLASH AT AN AUTO PLANT IN INDIA TURNS DEADLY

Vikas Bajaj and Sruthi Gottipati

 

Mumbai, India — One person was killed and more than 70 others injured during a violent struggle between workers and management at a car factory near New Delhi on Wednesday night, illustrating a sharp escalation in labor tensions. Read more…

MANESAR: CLASS STRUGGLE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Amaresh Misra

 

While right wing sections inside the media, fanatically anti-working class bloggers, vested interest in the Haryana establishment, and other sundry forces are baying for Trade Union/Communist blood in the unfortunate incidents that took place inside the Maruti-Suzuki plant at Manesar, sober assessment reveals a different picture. Read more…

NEW YORK CITY TAXI DRIVERS WIN A VICTORY

Vinod Mubayi

 

Many taxi drivers in New York City are of South Asian origin, Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. Many struggle to make a living driving cabs leased from owners of large fleets. For several years the taxi drivers have represented by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance NYTWA), a progressive union, led by its executive director Bhairavi Desai, which has consistently fought for a better deal for its members. On July 12 the NYTWA achieved part of its goal when the Taxi and Limousine Commission, a New York City agency, voted to approve a 17% fare hike with almost all of the benefits going to the cab drivers. Read more…

JUSTICE FOR BATHANI TOLA MASSACRE VICTIMS DEMANDED

Mohammad Ali

 

In 1996, armed thugs of Ranveer Sena ransacked the village Bathani Tola in Bihar and massacred  21 poor peasants. Twenty three of the accused were convicted by the Ara Session Court in 2010. However, on an appeal, the Patna High Court acquitted all of them, naturally and appropriately eliciting  the anger of the civil society. Read more…

VIOLENCE AND ‘CLEAN CHITS’: SANGMA BACKS BJP ON KANDHAMAL

Ram Puniyani

 

Purno Agitok Sangma, a former speaker of the Indian Parliament and Chief Minister of Meghalaya as a member of the Congress Party took many turns, the latest being a support for the misdeeds of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which sponsored him for the post of the President of India. Such opportunism is not unheard of in India, but Sangma symbolizes one of the most despicable examples. Read more…

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