Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
IS THE POLITICS OF PEOPLE’S WAR RELEVANT TODAY?
Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
Does people’s war have a future in countries like Nepal and India? Read more…
UCPN (M) FORMALLY SPLITS; NEW PARTY NAMED ‘CPN, MAOIST’
The United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) or UCPN (Maoist), the largest party in the dissolved Constituent Assembly, has formally split with the hardliner Mohan Baidya faction announcing the new party, Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist. Read more…
FORGING A NEPAL FOR ALL ITS PEOPLE
Prashant Jha
Ongoing battle over the nature of federalism, is not a battle between political parties, but different social groups. Marginalised and excluded communities have come together to struggle for a federal structure that would break the hegemony of hill Hindu upper castes. Read more…
BJP, MINORITIES AND 2014 ELECTIONS
Asghar Ali Engineer
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to woo the Muslim minority to win the 2014 General elections. But can it, given its long record of waging war against Muslims the highlights of which were the demolition of the Babri mosque and Gujarat genocide of Muslim? Read more…
GUJARAT: MYTH AND REALITY
Bhalchandra Mungekar
A war of words has erupted between the chief ministers of Bihar and Gujarat. Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar has slammed Narendra Modi for taking pot shots at the state’s slow socio-economic growth. The altercation began with Modi saying that caste politics has ruined states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Hitting back, Nitish has said that Modi should look at the conditions in his own state before criticising others. Read more…
ANGUISH OF KASHMIR AND THE WAY OUT
Ram Puniyani
Time and over again while interacting with the youth from Kashmir what comes forth straight and striking is the pain and anguish of the youth, their frustration, their realization about the brutality of the system in which they live in Kashmir. Youth from Kashmir coming to different parts of India for various meetings and interactions generally display a high level of understanding of the issues involved and are vocal about the restlessness over their present and future. What have we done to be labeled as ‘terrorists, is one of the questions on their mind and lips. Why we in Kashmir have to face the torture from different quarters, including the one from Indian army. The restlessness is so much on display that one can gauge the depth of their feeling about the role of armed players, the militants and the Indian army both in different measures. Read more…
BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF BLIND FAITH
Ram Puniyani
No other country produces more holy men (and some times women) with spiritual powers as a thriving business than India. Here is a story of one Nimal Baba who became a multimillionaire solving problems of others. Read more…
THE CONVICTION OF SEEMA AZAD AND HER HUSBAND BY AN ALLAHABAD COURT
Press Release
The news of the sentencing of Seema Azad, along with her husband Vishwavijay Kamal, charged under Sections 121, 121A and 120B of IPC and also under the relevant provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for possessing objectionable literature, to life imprisonment by a court at Allahabad on 8 June 2012 has come as a shock to the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and thousands of human rights workers all over the country. Read more…
THE EXIT OF RANVEER SENA FOUNDER BRAHMESHWAR SINGH
(ML Update, a CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine 05 – 11 JUNE 2012
Brahmeshwar Singh, the founder of the notorious Ranveer Sena and the mastermind behind dozens of massacres perpetrated by the Sena in Shahabad and Magadh regions of Bihar between 1995 and 2000, was gunned down at Ara in the early hours of 1 June. The cremation took place in Patna on the next evening. Read more…
DE-STALINIZE MARXISM
Prabhat Patnaik
Economist and the former Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board Prabhat Patnaik has said that “the developments in Kerala over the last several days have been a source of great pain and anguish” for him and called for interventions against the twin threats of “hegemonized bourgeois liberalism” and “feudal Stalinism” preying the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in Kerala and elsewhere. Read more…
TESTY WITH TEHRAN – HINDUSTAN TIMES
Suvrat Raju
Last week, negotiations between Iran and a set of world powers, led by western countries, ended with no resolution except for a promise to meet again. The West wants Iran to shut down its nuclear program. Iran points out that international law grants it a right to pursue civilian nuclear activities, and that the West has failed to produce any concrete evidence linking it to nuclear weapons. Read more…
CUBA: A REGIME’S TIGHT GRIP ON AIDS
(The New York Times May 8)
Havana — Yudelsy García O’Connor, the first baby known to have been born with HIV in Cuba, is not merely still alive. She is vibrant, funny and, at age 25, recently divorced but hoping to remarry and have children. Read more…
BOOK REVIEW: JUSTICE BEFORE RECONCILIATION: NEGOTIATING A ‘NEW NORMAL’ IN POST-RIOT MUMBAI AND AHMEDABAD
Author: Dipankar Gupta
(Routledge, New Delhi, 2011, 186 pp., Rs 595, Hard Bound, ISBN 978-0-415-61254-8)
Review by Mahtab Alam Read more…
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