December 8, 2007

A few days ago an eminent historian with distinct Leftist leaning had indigantly declared that “West Bengal’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is like Gujarat’s Narendra Modi”. What he had in mind was Buddha’s “paid-back-in-the-same-coin” statement following the CPM cadres’ (the harmad vahinis’) violent recapture of Nandigram in 2007 that sounded uncannily similar to Modi’s “every-action-has-an-equal-and-opposite-reaction” observation in the wake of the post-Godhra riots in 2002. In both cases the (…)

About the importance of the Comptroller and Auditor General in the parliamentary system of governance, Dr B. R. Ambedkar said in the Constituent Assembly on May 30, 1949: “I am of opinion that this dignitary is probably the most important officer in the Constitution of India. If this functionary is to carry out the duties-and his duties are far more important than the duties even of the judiciary-he should be certainly as independent as the Judiciary.”
Prof K. T. Shah was against (…)

[(The following piece, which was published as ’Political Notebook’ in Mainstream (December 12, 1992), is being reproduced on the fifteenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. —Editor )]
The vandalism that brought down the Babri Masjid structure on December 6 will remain a Black Sunday in the annals of independent India. Like the insensate violence of fratricidal communalism of the partition days that culminated in Gandhiji’s killing fortyfour years ago, the demolition of the (…)

Any discussion of contemporary West Asia must begin with three questions: What is happening in the region? Why is it happening? What is the way out?
The answer to the first question is obvious. It focuses on a set of well-known situations: A Middle East peace process that is lingering on promissory notes whose encashment has been deferred repeatedly; a quagmire in Iraq that has dented the prestige and power of the United States; a failure to abandon the doctrines of ’pre-emptive (…)

The ardour of Deepavali has been dampened in the whole State by the events in Nandigram. Several villages in Nandigram are oscillating from the deepest gloom to panic. Large numbers of armed persons from outside the district have, it is undeniable, forced themselves onto villages in Nandigram Block I and II for territorial assertion. Thousands of villagers have consequently been intimidated into leaving their homes in villages such as Doudpur, Amgachi, Jambani, Simulkundu, Brindabanchak, (…)

We are passing through critical times in which it is extremely important to defend the basic values of democracy, socialism and secularism. Another basic task is to protect environment and to evolve a path of sustainable development in these turbulent times of climate change. Last but not the least, we have to work harder than ever before for peace in a world of weapons of mass destruction as well as mass deception.
Alas!—in a world of such gigantic challenges, those who can be (…)

Rarely does Kolkata or West Bengal make headlines in Delhi, Bombay or Bangalore. But 2007 has proved to be different. On March 14, the West Bengal Government’s police, under orders from the Chief Minister of the State, marched on to a cluster of villages in and around the area of Nandigram, about 200 km from Calcutta, and in a bid to break the morale of protesting villagers, opened fire on peaceful demonstrators killing no less than 14 people. That created headlines all over India and till (…)

It is inevitable that when large-scale violence, which has the open or tacit support of the state, takes place, as in Nandigram 2007, Gujarat 2002 is recalled—just as Gujarat 2002 itself drew parallels with Delhi 1984. Such comparisons, by their very nature, are hasty, casual and therefore not wholly accurate, even though politicians belonging to the three major national parties, which have in their own ways presided over these three blots on India’s recent history, are partial to making (…)

[(Musings)]
If there is one thing that is painfully obvious it is that coalition dharma is nothing but drama—in fact, just empty, negative melodrama. When people talk of the coalition era, which has come to stay in India’s politics, and polity they are talking too hastily on ill-founded presumptions and suppositions. These are compounded by the torrent of misleading opinion surveys and forecasts, which only reveal contradictions and off-the-mark results.
History shows, not only in (…)

[(Book Review)]
Maoist ’Spring Thunder’: The Naxalite Movement (1967-1972) by Arun Prosad Mukherjee; K.P. Bagchi and Company, Kolkata; 2007; pages: 319; price : Rs 595.
The distinguished author of this interesting and important book was posted as the Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling district, West Bengal when the historic Naxalite movement erupted in the Naxalbari, Khoraibari and Phansideva sub-divisions of that district in 1967, which subsequently spread to the State capital Kolkata (…)