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).
CAN NARENDRA MODI BE STOPPED?
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
The possibility that Narendra Modi will lead the BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) and its appendages in the National Democratic Alliance to victory in the 2014 parliamentary elections is real and needs to be steadfastly opposed by all democratic and progressive sections of the people of India. Read more…
MODI PHENOMENON: AN ATTACK ON INDIAN DEMOCRACY
Ram Puniyani
Currently (August 2013) Narendra Modi is trying to dominate the media, print social and TV through his carefully constructed propaganda machinery and his potential of being nominated as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate by RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)-BJP. Modi has openly used the words like puppies dying under the car wheel, while referring to the victims of Gujarat carnage of 2002. He has also asserted that he is a ‘Hindu nationalist’. While most of the older allies of NDA (National Democratic Alliance), are deserting NDA, RSS-BJP hope that he will be able to win the 2014 elections due to his image of a non- corrupt, efficient administrator who has taken Gujarat to the heights of development. In social media and other platforms the polarized section of Hindus and the section of middle class are very appreciative of Modi and are creating a delusion of his becoming the next prime minister. Read more…
ASSASSINATION OF AN ACTIVIST: Who Killed Dr Narendra Dabholkar?
Ram Punyani
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Words have an uncanny ability of impinging on the receiver with clinical detachment. It is up to the receiver to unpack them or try to derive meaning out of them. It is still difficult to get over the sense of grief and shock one experienced when one received the news of the assassination of renowned rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar on the streets of Pune on August 20. Read more…
RESIST ANTI-SCIENTIFIC TEMPER FORCES
Gauhar Raza
We the scientist, rationalists, educators and intellectuals of the country learnt with shock and anger the brutal and inhuman murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar. This murder is part of the series of attacks that have been perpetrated by anti scientific temper forces in the country. The attacks on artists, intellectuals and rationalists, all over the country, have increased exponentially. Read more…
WHY DO ‘THEY’ LOVE NARENDRA MODI ?
Shankar Gopalakrishnan
On August 14th, Narendra Modi declared that his Independence Day speech would attract as much attention as that of the Prime Minister. He appears to have been right. The fact that this is hardly unexpected should not obscure the deeper puzzle that it hides. It is a rare occurrence for a state level leader to suddenly get so much prominence in the media, and that too for such a long period. Why, then, have powerful forces in our society – including most of the media – chosen to endorse Modi? Why the sudden promotion of this particular leader at this particular time? What is it that he and his regime are offering? Read more…
INDO-PAK RELATIONS: TIME FOR THE PRIME MINISTERS TO MEET AND PRESS FOR PEACE
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
Many of the saner political observers on both sides of the Pakistan-India border have noted with dismay the steady downturn in the relations between the neighbors since the beginning of this year. There was the reported killing of five Indian soldiers on the LOC (Line of Control) in J&K in January, including the gruesome beheading of Lance Naik Hemraj. This was followed by bellicose propaganda in the Indian media and among right-wing politicians against the Pakistan Army to cut off ten heads of Pakistani soldiers for every Indian one. Ever since then, there are almost weekly, if not daily, reports of cross-border shelling and small-arms fire causing the deaths of not only soldiers but also civilians in both countries. Read more…
LASHKAR FUELING HOSTILITIES BETWEEN INDIA and PAKISTAN
Pervez Hoodbhoy
A moratorium on cross-border firing, which largely held from 2003 to 2012, stands broken. About two dozen lives have been lost since the beginning of this year. Why? The breakdown did not come from Nawaz Sharif who, risking his popularity within his party, has been arguing forcefully for peace with India. Read more…
KANDHAMAL CARNAGE: AFTERMATH
Ram Puniyani
This August 25, 2013, it will be five years, since the biggest anti-Christian, violence, biggest communal violence in the Adivisi area, will complete five years. What has been the plight of the victims of the violence after this ghastly tragedy? What is the state of justice to the victim? Read more…
COUNCIL OF INDIAN MUSLIMS (UK) OPPOSES NARENDRA MODI’S VISIT
14 August 2013
Open letter to: Foreign Secretary William Hague, Home Secretary Theresa May, Conservative Party Chairmen Grant Shapps and Andrew Feldman. Labour Party Leader ED Milliband.
We, the British Indian Muslims, are writing this open letter to you, sirs and Madam, in utter disgust at the invitation by Labour and Conservative MPs to one of the most controversial and polarizing Indian politician, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, to visit UK. Read more…
TALKING PEACE IN THE TIMES OF WAR MONGERING
New Delhi, August 14, 2013: The seminar organized by the Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD-India) at India International Centre, on the eve of the independence days of Pakistan and India, reminded both countries that a permanent transformation to the India-Pakistan conflict can only come through dialogue processes between the two South Asian democracies and not through military methods and war. Read more…
BANGLADESH: STOP STIFLING THE WHISTLEBLOWER, ADILUR RAHMAN KHAN
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is informed that, at 10:20 p.m., on 10 August, officers from the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police have taken into custody, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, one of the most respected human rights defenders in Bangladesh, from his residence in Dhaka. Adilur is the Secretary of Odhikar, a prominent human rights organisation in the country, known for its critical assessments of human rights in performance and practice, by the Government of Bangladesh. Adilur has also served as the Deputy Attorney General of Bangladesh and is a Senior Lawyer practicing at the Supreme Court. Read more…
WHO ARE THE “TERRORISTS” AND WHAT DO THEY WANT?
Tapan Bose
(I was asked to prepare a note for members of PIPFPD on terrorist activities by different groups in India and Pakistan, its impact on the people of both countries and the relations between India and Pakistan. I do not claim any expertise in this area. However, I have attempted to analyze why the use of “terror tactics” has proliferated in this region, particularly among the Muslim groups, what are their objectives and locate this in the context global imperialism. I hope my efforts will be of some use to my fellow members – Tapan Bose) Read more…
FROM THE GRANARY TO THE PLATE
Jean Drèze
Despite its many flaws, the food security bill is an opportunity to end the leakages from the PDS and prevent wastage of public resources. Read more…
PUNYANAGARI (The Virtuous City)
Anand Patwardhan
Pune, Aug 22. Last night a FTII and Yugpath student organized screening of “Jai Bhim Comrade” began with a tribute to anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dabholkar, who had just the previous day been gunned down by fanatics in the same city. It was our 4th screening of the film at the FTII and as before, the large NFAI auditorium was overflowing. The screening and discussions went off without a hitch. Not a single audience question led me to suspect that Hindutva elements were in attendance. In fact I am always happy to get questions from opposite sides of the political spectrum as I believe that such debates and discussions benefit everyone and are precisely the function of the kind of cinema I believe in. Read more…
THE DALITS ARE COMING (A Poem)
Siddalingaiah
The dalits are coming, step aside-
hand over the reins, let them rule. Read more…
ISRAEL RISKS LOSS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN EU RESEARCH GRANTS
Bernat Armangue
Jerusalem — Europe’s tough new stance against Jewish settlements could cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars in EU )European Union) research grants, putting a hefty price tag on its refusal to stop building on lands Palestinians want for a state. Read more…
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