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).
INSAF Bulletin
SALUTES THE HISTORIC MAY 1, THE INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY!
DANTEWADA MASSACRE AND INDIAN MAOISTS: SOME REFLECTIONS
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
The Dantewada massacre executed by the CPI (Maoist) highlights the contradictions latent in Indian society. Various descriptions of the CPI (Maoist) philosophy and reasons underlying their actions have appeared over the last few years; the Maoist violence has an appearance of a qualitatively different character, characteristic of movements like LTTE in Sri Lanka and Tehrik-e-Taliban in Pakistan. What is the essence of the Maoist movement and what is its future?
NARENDRA MODI: TRAVAILS OF TRAVEL ABROAD
Ram Puniyani
As big corporations of India embrace Narendra Modi as a man of action and foresight, men and governments of conscience around the world find him, and rightly so, as a despicable person patterned on Hitlerite ideology.
RESERVATIONS: DILEMMAS GALORE
Ram Puniyani
The Indian Parliament passed a law assuring a minimum of 30 percent reservation in elected offices for women. However, many political formations in India and naturally religious bigots find it would encroach upon their spheres of electoral control. The issue is not complex but it has become so.
Pakistan: THE BARBARITY THAT KNOWS NO END – MULTIPLE BLASTS SHAKE LAHORE
Kiran Omar
This piece on bomb blasts in Lahore was to appear in April issue of the Bulletin. However, with the April Bulletin dedicated to the memory of Hari Sharma, Kanu Sanyal and G.P. Koirala, it is being produced in May. It is a sad story of mindless killing not new to Pakistan but somewhat new for Lahore.
REINVENTING PAKISTAN
Pervez Hoodbhoy
It’s March 23, Pakistan Day, and time for the usual flag-waving. But let’s face it: things have not gone well for Pakistan. It has been a state since 1947 but is still not a nation. Missing is a strong common identity, mental makeup, shared sense of history, and common goals. The failure to effectively integrate flows from inequalities of wealth and opportunity, absence of effective democracy, and a dysfunctional legal system.
Pakistan: BEHEADING ISLAM IN PESHAWAR
Dr. Shah Alam Khan
The author argues that by beheading two innocent Sikhs in Peshawar for money, Pakistan, the Talibans are attacking Islam.
INTERVIEW WITH RENOWNED ARTIST M.F. HUSAIN ON ETHOS OF HINDUISM
This interview of Hussain, by Shoma Chaudhury from Tehelka Magazine, is dedicated to all those who claim MF Hussain hates Hinduism!
India: CPM ‘BESIEGED’ IN BENGAL, KARAT TELLS TOP HISTORIAN
‘One of the three developments that surprised me was “the collapse of the CPM (Communist Party of India- Marxist) in West Bengal, which I really wouldn’t have expected.” Eric Hobsbawm.
Nepal: MAIN PARTIES PLEDGE ‘PACKAGE SOLUTION’ IN NEXT MEETING
The much anticipated meeting of the High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) on April 21, 2010 failed to arrive at any decision to resolve the protracted political impasse, but leaders claimed they would reach a broad understanding at the next meeting of the mechanism slated for April 24.
THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF FASCISM
Jairus Banaji
The author rejects Comintern’s (equivalent of Communist International) understanding of the political basis of fascism as articulated by Georgi Dimitroff in his book “The United Front.” He dwells on alternative views expressed by Wilhelm Reich and Arthur Rosenberg, one a committed socialist and other a committed communist, who analyze the factors behind the mass base of fascism. In a way it is the latter analysis and not the Comintern’s analysis, which corresponds to what is happening in India under the leadership of RSS.
ARUNDHATI ROY AND HER SLEEPWALK IN THE “RED CORRIDOR”
Soumitra Ghosh
Indian activist Arundhati Roy, the spokesperson for a section of left intellectuals, recently wrote an article in the Indian magazine Outlook narrating her exciting experience of meeting Maoists in their heartland. This article and the next article in this issue of the Bulletin examine the source of her delirium.
MOONWALKING WITH THE COMRADES
Anirban Gupta Nigam
The similarity in the title of this and the preceding article could not be accidental, rather these titles reflect the essence of Arundhati Roy’s travel diary in the Outlook magazine. She wrote for an effect. The preceding article and this one examine the nature of that effect.
INDIA WORKSHOP AT MIT: CHALLENGES TO SECULARISM AND RULE OF LAW IN INDIA
Kaleem Kawaja
Over 150 people gather at MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA, USA to listen to top academics and law makers analyze the causes and effects of violence in India challenging its secularism.
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION OF SADBHAV MISSION, MARYLAND, USA
Draft Resolution
Sadbhav Mission holds an annual convention in the Washington area of the USA; its focus has been secularism and communal harmony. The Convention felt that Indian democracy has taken a severe blow in the last 25 years. To find out what went wrong and why and what to do.
PAKISTAN PRESIDENT SIGNS 18TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BILL INTO LAW
ISLAMABAD, April 19 (APP) – President Asif Ali Zardari Monday gave assent to the landmark 18th Constitutional Amendment bill making it a law, that reduces President’s powers to sack prime minister and dissolve the parliament. President Zardari signed the historic document at a grand ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, which was witnessed by top political figures of the country, that rid the Constitution of all undemocratic clauses inserted into it by successive dictators. “Let no one think of subverting the Constitution,” the President said in his address.
SRI Lanka: INDIAN VISA IN JAFFNA
COLOMBO: The Indian government will open a visa application collection center in Jaffna on 5th May, the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K. Kantha said a short while ago while delivering the address as the chief guest of the Jaffna trade fair. With the opening of the new office Jaffna residents will be able to collect and handover their visa applications in Jaffna instead of traveling to Colombo.
SRI LANKA WOOS INDIAN TOURISTS
COLOMBO: A year after the defeat of Tamil rebels who had made parts of Sri Lanka a no-go area, the island hopes to entice tens of thousands of tourists to places that appear in one of Asia’s most celebrated religious sagas.
THIRD INTERNATIONAL PEACE FESTIVAL 2010
The event will include eminent singers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, poetry readings, audio-visual presentations and speeches from the South Asian and Canadian community leaders. More than 500 participants are expected to take part in this event.
A JOURNEY ACROSS INDIA: IN SUPPORT OF THE WOMEN’S RESERVATION BILL
Shabnam Hashmi
After 14 years of struggle the Rajya Sabha finally passed the Women’s Reservation Bill on March 9, 2010.