June 02, 2007

North India is in the grip of turmoil and violence. First, a sectarian storm raged in the shape of the Sikh priests’ holy anger at the Dera Sacha Sauda sect’s head dressing himself up in the attire of the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, and there was every possibility of the tensions emanating from the incident leading to largescale bloodshed. Mercifully that has been averted even if close observers of the Punjab scene strongly feel that the present lull is deceptive and what has been won (…)

It has been more than a fortnight that Dr Binayak Sen, a paediatrician by training and profession and a human rights activist by choice, has received a new identity—a menace to public safety. The Chhattisgarh Police, whose own record of human rights violations would shame even the K.P.S. Gills, has used the provisions of the draconian Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (a substitute for POTA) to detain Dr Binayak Sen in the wee hours of May 14.
The question naturally (…)

The recent Bangkok meeting of scientists from all over the world has warned of dire changes in earth’s climate due to global warming caused by green-house gases. The polar ice will melt; the sea will rise and inundate coastal cities, such as Venice, Mumbai, Chennai, Shanghai etc. These are prognosis for the future. Let us look at what has already happened or is happening:
1. The Gangotri, Jamunotri and many other glaciers of the Himalayas have been receding by as much as several tens of (…)

A politically active young woman told me of a question which she had faced but had been unable satisfactorily to answer. The question was: “Why do you object to the Hindu Right’s actions in Baroda in regard to the art student although you were silent when Muslims reacted vociferously and sometimes violently to the Danish cartoons?”
Unlike the young woman, I do not have to formulate a party position on the matter: but I have to search for an answer because the question may well be put to (…)

The much-awaited and suspense-ridden UP Assembly elections are over to everyone’s relief. As expected, the collapse of the Mulayam Singh Government, which achieved the unique distinction of being disliked by a broad cross-section of society, has some interesting and useful lessons for all political parties. The elections have shown that no amount of cosmetic touch like befriending film stars, capitalists and loud-mouthed Sancho Panzas would help cheer the public, much less gain their (…)

The results of the UP elections have created avid interest among social scientists. Importantly, Dalits are emerging as the new ruler of modern India. The emergence of the BSP as a new ruling party will make a serious impact on the future course of Indian politics, striving, demanding and bargaining for more power in the years to come. Indian politics is witnessing a phenomenal change: the shift of power from the upper castes to the backward castes to Dalits. Interestingly, in the UP (…)

[(A CONSOLIDATED REPORT OF FOUR BLOCKS
In recent times mass distress of the people in Bundelkhand region (Uttar Pradesh), as manifested in alarming levels of hunger and malnutrition, water shortages and indebtedness, has attracted attention at the national level. To form a better understanding of this crisis Action Aid conducted a study in April in this region as a part of its Hunger Monitor Project. This study was conducted with the help and cooperation of voluntary organisations Parmarth (…)

[(There was a time when in UP and Bihar Muslim leaders like Z.A. Ahmed, Sajjad Zaheer, K.M. Ashraf and Ali Ashraf, Ali Amjad and Habibur Rahman etc. constituted the top leadership of the Communist Party. Now such leaders are almost totally absent in the Communist Party. Implementation of the Sachar Committee Report has opened an opportunity for the Communists to go to the Muslim masses on a large scale. Left parties, particularly the CPI, should intervene in a big way and an implementation (…)

[(BOOK REVIEW )]
India’s Foreign Policy Since Independence by V.P. Dutt; National Book Trust, India; 2007; Paperback Price: Rs 80.
Veteran and eminent academician, scholar and writer Professor V.P. Dutt, has done it again on India’s Foreign Policy. He has written in a style at once simple, historical and analytical for the educated layman as he says in the Preface. It is simple for it does not rely heavily on academic idiom-like unit level analysis, security dilemma or defence dilemma (…)

[(COMMUNICATION
)]
On May 14, senior human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Government on charges relating to contacts with the Naxalites. Dr Sen is Vice-President of the PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) at the national level and its General Secretary at the State level. A renowned doctor and health activist, he has made an invaluable contribution to several people’s health campaigns and has also advised the government on health-related issues. (…)