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).
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…
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