November 2009

“Yours is the first official state visit of my presidency, it’s fitting that you and India be so recognised.” With these words President Barack Hussen Obama warmly welcomed PM Manmohan Singh in the White House on November 23.
The US head of state, whose momentous and resounding presidential election victory precisely a year ago was greeted by millions across the globe (and they included countless Indians savouring the breathtaking event in the world’s most powerful democracy), spoke (…)

The Liberhan Commission was set-up to probe the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Justice M.S. Liberhan submitted the Commission’s report to the government on June 30, 2009—after 17 years and numerous extensions. The government tabled the report (running into almost 1000 pages) and the 13-page Action Taken Report in both Houses of Parliament on November 24, 2009, a day after The Indian Express carried large parts of the Liberhan report thereby triggering a (…)

Discourse between India and Pakistan can be deceptive—like when cats hiss. You can never quite tell dalliance from discord. The fact remains that at different levels, despite their occasional shrill rhetoric, contacts have been going on between Delhi and Islamabad, including some unprecedented highly sensitive lines of communication, which neither side publicises. India has also kick-started parallel efforts aimed at reaching out to Kashmiri opinion, with Pakistan in the loop.
At the (…)

Leaders of the global economy are pleased these days. Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank Ben Bernanke sees ‘green shoots’ showing up on the economic landscape. Master investor Warren Buffet has claimed that ‘the financial panic is behind us’. I have doubts, though. It seems to me that it is instead likely that the world economy will slide into a yet bigger crisis in the coming two-to-three years.
Hope of recovery comes from the pick up in growth rate in the United States to a (…)

The events in Lalgarh and Jungle Mahal portend a grim disaster. Even if it is temporarily suppressed by large concentration of security forces, the resentment will be smouldering. More powerful and more widespread protest movements will emerge later. Unless handled with deep understanding of the genesis of the unrest and profound concern for the people, it can lead to a countrywide adivasi revolt in the first phase, which can develop into peasant-lower middle class-student revolt—in a word, (…)

November 27 this year marks the eleventh death anniversary of P.N. Haksar, the eminent administrator and distinguished diplomat as well as one of the country’s foremost thinkers. The former Principal Secretary to PM Indira Gandhi was also a recognised authority on foreign policy. On this occasion we offer our sincere homage to his abiding memory by reproducing the following article from the December 1980 issue of Man and Development, the quarterly journal of the Centre for Research in Rural (…)

I feel humble to remember a distinguished son of India, Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar, diplomat, statesman, architect of the Simla Agreement 1972, an Indian from Kashmir but truly a citizen of the world. Above all, he was great friend of Bangladesh. Ever since the death of P.N. Hakser on November 27, 1998, I have continued to suffer from a sense of personal loss. I have also felt that it has been a national loss to Bangladesh too. Haksar was a symbol of humanism. His humane approach brought him (…)

In the last one month two Presidents of European countries visited Kazakhstan. One was the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the other Austria’s Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. Sarkozy visited the country for the signing of an energy pipeline deal. Two other major deals were signed. One was restructuring of the banking system that was hit hard in the recession. Sarkozy went to establish good terms for energy-rich Kazakhstan with the French companies. The French companies (…)

The government had an awkward time facing an angry Parliament on the sugar price scandal. Although the adjournment motion could be defeated by the government in the Lok Sabha by the sheer force of its brute majority, it was clear to the members of the Treasury Benches that in the wider arena of general public all over the country has come the perception that not only mismanagement but sufficient black money deals might be involved in it to graduate the scandal into the category of a scam. (…)

The recent appeal for austerity due to the hike in oil prices has become a burning issue to discuss and deliberate upon. Whereas a number of sensible reasons can be attributed for such calls in our country, some of them are obvious. Any country where income is unevenly distributed, poverty is prevalent, illiteracy and ill-health of people is persistent has to have austerity as part-and-parcel of its socio-economic policies. It is imperative for institutions and individuals to practice (…)