December 6, 2008

It is more than a week since the monumental tragedy unfolded on the night of November 26 with the terrorists striking high-profile targets in South Mumbai. The people of Mumbai have once again been compelled to bear the brunt of yet another massive terror assault, the major past attacks in the city having been the serial explosions on symbols of its commercial foundation in March 1993 and the serial train blasts in July 2006. The residents of the metropolis have yet to overcome the trauma (…)

[(Former PM V.P. Singh, who headed a non-Coongress National Front, at the Centre in 1989-90 and introduced the reservation system for the OBCs on the basis of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission that changed the course of the Indian polity, passed away in New Delhi on November 27. A steadfast champion of the poor and the downtrodden, he upheld secular values both in and out of power and in fact sacrificed his government at the Centre for defending secularism that was sought to be (…)

Our dear brothers in Pakistan,
In the intense grief that I am in due to the mindless raid and killings in the Taj and Oberoi Trident hotels which visitors from Pakistan or in undivided India would vividly remember, Nariman House, Leopold Cafe, the Victoria Terminus and Chowpatty which cost nearly 200 lives and many more injuries, I write with utter disbelief and shock that such a thing should have been the handiwork of any of the good people of Pakistan.
I have been to your (…)

India is a great country. India is a vibrant and resilient democracy. We can be resilient in the face of international economic recession, slowdown in our economy, we can be resilient in the face of economic sanctions imposed on us as we became nuclear for our country’s security, we can be resilient in the face of environmental disasters, we are resilient when politicians, political parties do not let a government last the full term of five years and make sure that a government falls by one (…)

Yet another terrorist attack on November 26 has rocked the entire nation. The country’s economic hub—Mumbai—was held hostage for over 62 hours leaving 195 dead and counting and injuring over 300 innocent people. Preliminary investigations reveal involvement of about 10-odd well-trained and well-equipped terrorists from across the western border in the blasts. The post-blast investigations will reveal several conspiracy theories. Some will be politically motivated while some might be (…)

No sooner had the guns fallen silent and the terrorist carnage ended in Mumbai than a keen three-way diplomatic tussle began involving India, Pakistan and the United States. The two South Asian nuclear powers are locked in a race to get the US on their respective side.
For the US, though, it is no longer a matter of acting as a fair-minded, neutral mediator. Today, Washington is a full-fledged participant with its own stakes in the South Asian strategic power equations, thanks to the (…)

The attack on Taj and Oberoi Hotels in Mumbai by a group of militants has united the middle classes on the need for greater security measure, zero tolerance approach to terrorism and the corollary to that is a zero tolerance to human rights concerns. The discourse on national security poses human rights as a threat to security and the necessity for a trade-off between national security and democracy.
In fact the need to uphold human rights values and build democratic institutions is (…)

Even After Sixtyone Years of Independence, the Vast Indian Humanity Remains Sunk in the Quagmire of Poverty and Hunger
Considerable rhetoric about violation of human rights is being heard all around us. But the negation of the most basic human right, namely, the right to life, fails to get the attention it deserves. In his historic speech in the Constituent Assembly at midnight of August 14-15, 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, inter alia, that the pledge that we shall take today is (…)

[(The following piece, which appeared within a fortnight of the demolition of the Babri Masjid (December 6, 1992), is being reproduced on the sixteenth anniversary of that infamous event.)]
To build a temple to mark the brithplace of Ram, a mosque was destroyed by deceit.
Those who swiftly and competently did the demolition job on Sunday (December 6, 1992), did so before the very eyes of those leaders who had been assuring Parliament and the public that the disputed structure would (…)

On October 3, 2008, at a press conference at Kolkata, Ratan Tata formally announced his decision to move out the Nano Project from West Bengal squarely blaming the agitation led by the Trinamul Congress for his decision to relocate the plant. This statement clearly reflected some of the discussions that he had with the Chief Minister of West Bengal with whom he was closeted for two hours before the press conference. He spoke persuasively with unwarranted venom.
One cannot blame (…)