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).
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…
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