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).
CONGRESS TROUNCED IN PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS: WHAT’S NEXT?
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
The defeat of Congress in the four provincial (Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh) elections was more spectacular than even the exit-polls had predicted. In Delhi (70 seats), Congress, which had ruled the state for 15 years, won only 8 seats against 31 won by BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) and 1 by its ally Akali Party, and 28 won by the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In Rajasthan (199 seats) the ruling Congress won only 21 seats against BJP’s 162. In Madhya Pradesh (230 seats), Congress won just 58 seats against 165 by BJP. The contest was closer in Chhattisgarh (90 seats) where Congress won 39 seats against 49 won by BJP. Mizoram was the sole saving grace for Congress; it retained its rule winning 33 of 40 seats. Read more…
COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN 2013 (PART – I)
Irfan Engineer
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and the Director of IB Syed Asif Ibrahim in the recent conference of DGPs of all states highlighted that some mechanism should be worked out for early warnings of communal riots, and riots should be prevented before it occurs. Sadly, police have been ignoring early warnings, such as even writing on walls, and doing too little too late. Read more…
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…
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