September 1, 2007

While the Left-Congress standoff on the nuclear deal continues, the two sides have lately been able to reach some agreement on the mechanism to be adopted to address the objections to the deal as well as evaluate the implications of the Hyde Act on not just the 123 Agreement but on our foreign policy as well. Once the mechanism is able to go into the issues at stake the principled Left opposition to the nuclear accord would hopefully become all the more transparent.
In the meantime the (…)

Revered Prime Minister,
Onam salutations to you!
I address you, Dr Manmohan Singh, as a statesman who, when convinced, will change your view in tune with embarrassing truth and the inviolable obligation of high office to the supreme value of Swaraj which ‘We, the People of India’ won with dignity, in a do-or-die struggle, without a war. This great event was proclaimed at the Midnight hour of August 15 when a historic ‘tryst with destiny’ was made and the nation resolved to ‘wipe every (…)

[(CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan is the seniormost Left leader on the national plane after CPM patriarch Jyoti basu and former CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. This article of Bardhan is being published to help our readers get a clear idea of the Left position on the Indo-US nuclear deal as well as the Left parties’ approach to the present confrontation of the Left with the UPA Government on the issue. —Editor )]
The Indo-US nuclear deal has unleashed a big political (…)

A strange situation of apparently contradictory facets marks the present phase of India’s relationship with the United States of America.
Of late, there is a surfeit of talks about “shared values” ranging from commitment to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. To this has been added, in recent months, the government’s new economic policy which plays up private enterprise and underplays the public sector—at least that’s how it has been taken in the USA. And the government, in (…)

If optimism is a force multiplier, as former US Secretary of State Colin Powell once said, it has worked well so far for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. There were times in the past seven years when it seemed doubtful that the SCO would pull through, beating back the all-out US assault on its credibility.
It is certainly a measure of the SCO’s success that the United States and Japan are knocking at its door, anxious to gain “observer” status. But for Beijing and Moscow, the two (…)

[(Book Review)]
Locked Homes, Empty Schools: The Impact of Distress Seasonal Migration on the Rural Poor by Smita; photographs by Prashant Pranjiar, foreword by Amartya Sen; published by Zubaanbooks; pp. 200 Hb, 8"x11", landscaped, four colour photographs; ISBN 8189884174; price : Rs 695.
Locked Homes, Empty Schools is a chronicle of the tragedies of millions of workers and their families—men, women and children that are forced out of their villages as seasonal migrant labour. It gives (…)

The last three decades have witnessed unprecedented conflict within and among nations, and religion has often been misused and invoked to justify sectarian strife. The United Nations, which was created “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, sees interfaith dialogue and cooperation as an important step towards global harmony. The UN General Assembly adopted last year a Resolution on “Promotion of Inter-religious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace”. (…)

“The Indian political system is far from participatory. In fact, it is elitist.” —Prof Jean Dreze1
Although Prof Dreze’s observation is on India’s political system, even a cursory look reveals the same bitter truth about the Indian economy as well. Policy-making and subsequent reaping of its benefits is around the bunch of middle class Indians. Everything is subsidised by the Indian State at the expense of more deserving but politically voiceless hungry Indians. Media (…)