Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
JYOTI BASU (8 JULY 1914 – 17 JANUARY 2010): A COMMUNIST OF AND FOR THE NEW ERA
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
Jyoti Basu, the most respected leader of the communists in India, passed away recently.
JYOTI BASU: MASTER OF THE POLITICS OF FEASIBILITY
Ashok Mitra
[A younger comrade, pays homage to Jyoti Basu, a leader who died with his faith in the historical process unimpaired.]
Farewell to a comrade by one of the highly respected communists, Ashok Mitra, who had been associated with Jyoti Basu’s party for a long time.
JYOTI BASU: CASKET OF POWER, CASCADE OF PEOPLE
Unceasing flow to pay homage, followed by crack of rifles: The last journey of Jyoti Basu
Manini Chatterjee
A moving account of the final farewell to a great leader of India.
A TRIBUTE TO JYOTI BASU
Javed Akhtar is the foremost lyricist of India and Jagjit Singh is an accomplished musician. Listen to their tribute to Jyoti Basu…
INDIA: WHY ARE SOME LEADERS PLAYING GAMES WITH MUSLIMS?
Kaleem Kawaja
Sixty years after independence one of the ongoing tragedies of the Muslims of India is that some of their own leaders, activists and intelligentsia are continuing to play games with them. It is well known that in today’s Indian Muslim community the record of building institutions, spreading education, developing socioeconomic programs to help the impoverished community climb out of its backwardness is very dismal.
PAKISTAN-INDIA: ANGER SANS REASON
I.A. Rehman
(Photo by Akhtar Soomro of Reuters of protesters burning an effigy of Indian Premier League (IPL) Chairman Lalit Modi in Karachi, not reproduced)
One wonders as to how long it will take India and Pakistan to start regretting their part in the affair of the so-called Indian Premier League’s snub to Pakistani cricketers, for neither party can claim to have reason on its side.
SRI LANKA: THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2010 IN SRI LANKA AND THE PEOPLE
(Statement of the Ceylon Mercantile Industrial and General Workers Union-CMU: From The Sunday Island, January 17, 2010) Abridged
Abolition of Executive Presidency has been a longtime demand in Sri Lanka. The current President Rajapakse has called for new elections without dealing with this matter and without addressing the national question of Tamils and Muslims of his country. [As of January 28, the news is that Mahinda Rajapakse has been re-elected but, as happened in Zimbabwe, there is serious dispute and army is on alert].
BANGLADESH: RELIGION AND POLITICS
Huma Yusuf
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has affirmed a ban on religion-based parties. While this could be in line with the founding principles of the country, it is feared that this might encourage illegal extremist fundamentalist activities as happened in Pakistan.
AFGHANISTAN: NEW WAVE OF WARLORDS BEDEVILS U.S.
(Submitted by Muhammad Anwar Pasha)
How a person one would never think of entering extremist politics has emerged as the prominent leader of Afghan resistance following the same method as the Taliban.
PAKISTAN: FIRST INTERNATIONAL WORKERS/PEASANTS CONFERENCE
Kiran Omar
Hopeful signs of unity among progressive formations in Pakistan.
NEPAL: NEPAL’S MAJOR PARTIES TO DECLARE HIGH-LEVEL POLITICAL MECHANISM
In what appeared to a major political breakthrough, the big three parties – Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN-Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) [CPN-UML]- announced the much talked about High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM).
THE NEW U.S. COUNTERINSURGENCY STARTEGY IN AFGHANISTAN; THE ROUTE TO SUCCESS OR ALICE IN WONDERLAND?
Sam Noumoff*
Confronted, as it was with the post invasion Iraq insurgency, which the U.S. and its accomplices in the “Coalition of the Willing” were utterly unprepared for, the U.S. military set out to develop a new strategic doctrine of counterinsurgency designed to meet the challenge. The architect of this new approach was General David Petraeus and the result was US Army Field Manual 3-24. As the approach has become the guiding force behind the current NATO strategy in Afghanistan it warrants very careful analysis.
IS AL QAEDA A CONSPIRACY AGAINST MUSLIMS ?
Kaleem Kawaja
Al Qaeda approach goes against the core principles of Islam and the 1400 year old ethos of the Muslim Ummah. The article analyzes how do five million ordinary Muslims of America react to it and how much harm can Al Qaeda inflict on Muslims.
WEARING BURQA WILL NOW BE A CRIME?
Asghar Ali Engineer
Burqa is the choice of the woman and/or the family. Either way, the state has no business legislating the use of a particular garment.
OBITUARY: HOWARD ZINN (1922-2010)
Historian who challenged the status quo
Mark Feeney
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of Boston University president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, California, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.