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).
HAVE ACCHHE DIN (BETTER TIMES) ARRIVED? THE EVIDENCE ONE YEAR LATER
Editors
In his election campaign last year, Modi promised “acchhe din” (better times) for the people of India. What is the evidence one year later? No doubt, better days have arrived for some, mainly the corporate cronies who were beneficiaries of the so-called Gujarat model of development. In this model, public assets and properties, land, water, power and so on, were essentially privatized at low cost and handed over to Friends of Modi (FOM) to make handsome profits – all in the name of development. This model is now sought to be applied to the whole of India. Read more…
DAYA VARMA’S MEMORIAL
Editors
On May 2, 2015, over 100 people gathered at the Centre Funéraire Côte-Des-Neiges Inc. in Montreal to celebrate the life of Daya Varma. Stephen Orlov chaired the meeting, with speeches from around 20 of Daya’s family members, colleagues and comrades. Through the two-hour program and the various speeches therein, a composite portrait of Daya re-emerged, as a scientist, an activist, a humanist and a human being. Read more…
MODI SARKAR’S FIRST BIRTHDAY
Irfan Engineer
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete one year in office on 25th May 2015. His swearing-in ceremony was on 26th May 2014. PM’s achievements remain contested true to his polarising personality. While the PM’s followers exaggerate his achievements as unprecedented, his detractors can only recount the promises that remain undelivered. An honest assessment becomes difficult if not impossible. However, here we are trying to capture some trends and directions of the Central Govt. headed by PM Modi. Read more…
ONE YEAR OF MODI SARKAR: HATE SPEECH GALORE
Ram Puniyani
The coming to power of Narendra Modi in a way gave an open license to all the affiliates of RSS combine to indulge in open hate speech against the religious minorities. The current agenda behind the hate speech is to consolidate the communal polarization of the society along lines of religion. The well known case of MIM’s Akarbar Uddudin Owaisi’s hate speech has been despicable and very rightly Akbarudin Owaisi had to be in jail for some time. The case against him should be pursued and the legal course of action must be followed. At the same time what about the hate speech indulged in by the likes of Pravin Togadia, Subramaniam Swami, Giriraj Singh, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sadhvi Prachi, Sakshi Mahraraj, Yogi Adityanth, Sanjay Raut and company? Read more…
INDIA: MODI GOVERNMENT – ONE YEAR OF DISMANTLING THE WELFARE STATE
Harsh Mander
A dominant feature of the first year of Narendra Modi’s leadership is the quiet dismantling of India’s imperfectly realised framework of welfare and rights, covertly, by stealth. Read more…
MEDIA JINGOISM ALIENATES NEPALIS: RISE OF ‘THE UGLY INDIAN’?
Praful Bidwai
Barely two weeks after a major earthquake which killed more than 8,000 people, Nepal suffered a powerful aftershock, adding to its misery and killing over 100 people. More than 3.5 million people are still in need of food assistance; 479,000 houses have been destroyed and 263,000 damaged; and only five percent of the $415 million aid Nepal needs has reached it. Given the extensive destruction and caving in of hill roads, it has been near-impossible to reach relief material to those in dire need. Read more…
RTI IS BEING SABOTAGED BY NOT ALLOCATING ENOUGH RESOURCES TO MAKE IT WORK
Shailesh Gandhi
India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act has caught the imagination of people in this country, while being appreciated across the world. A great change has come in India this decade in the power equation between the sovereign citizens of the country and those in power. This change is just beginning and if we can sustain and strengthen it, our defective elective democracy could metamorphose, within the next one or two decades, into a country where the promise of democracy is actualised. Read more…
DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
Ramachandra Guha
Smriti Irani is by far the most controversial cabinet minister, and with good reason, writes noted historian Ramachandra Guha.
When, a year ago, Smriti Irani was first chosen as the Union minister for human resource development, I did not share in the general scepticism about her appointment. I had seen HRD ministers in UPA governments, with a string of foreign degrees themselves, display a conspicuous lack of interest in their portfolio. Irani seemed energetic and articulate; perhaps keenness and interest would trump lack of formal academic qualifications. Read more…
RESIST DEGRADATION OF INDIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. RETIRED JUDGE JYOTSANA YAGNIK THREATENED; MURDER CONVICTS OUT ON BAIL
sacw.net
The undersigned civil society organizations and concerned citizens have taken serious note of a news report (IE May 11, 2015) about the intimidation of a retired judge, Ms Jyotsana Yagnik, who, in her capacity as special judge had, in August 2012, convicted former Gujarat BJP minister Maya Kodnani, former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 30 others in the 2002 massacre of 97 Muslims in Naroda Patiya. Ms Yagnik has received at least 22 threat letters since the verdict, as well as blank phone calls at her home. The 62 year old judge has informed the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team about the threats and phone calls, but instead of strengthening her protection, the government has scaled down her security cover. Read more…
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AND AN INSECURE PAKISTAN
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
A wise man once said, “I am not sure if Pakistan was created in the name of religion but it sure is being destroyed in the name of religion.” The bus attack in Karachi claiming at least 45 innocent Ismaili lives is just one in a series of such heinous religiously-motivated atrocities that Pakistanis continue to face on a regular basis. Whether the victims are the Hazaras of Quetta, Christians of Youhanabad in Lahore, Bohras offering Friday prayers in Karachi, or the children targeted in the Army Public School attack in Peshawar, the root cause is the same. It is the belief that one has a right to judge others based on their faith and if they are determined religiously deviant (as in the case of other sects or religions) or religiously wanting (as in the case of the majority sect), then they are fair game. Read more…
PIPFPD CONDEMNS THE BRUTAL ATTACK ON ISMAILI COMMUNITY IN KARACHI
PRESS STATEMENT
Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD) strongly condemns the brutal attack in Karachi where 47 people including women were gunned down. The attackers targetted an Ismaili community bus. Jundullah, an anti-Shia militia and a splinter group of Tehrik-e-Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Read more…
MASS MURDER OF ISMAILIS BY FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISTS IN PAKISTAN
Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians
The Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians offers its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the terrorist attack on May 13 in Karachi and to the religious community they belonged to, the Ismaili Muslims. We strongly condemn the perpetrators – religious fundamentalist terrorists who claim to be Muslims – of this cowardly attack on innocent and defenseless women and men. Read more…
A TRIBUTE AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY: REMEMBERING PEOPLE’S HISTORIAN AMALENDU GUHA (1924-2015)
sacw.net
Bonojit Hussain and Mayur Chetia
I have no desire for heaven,
Instead I go to the brewhouse,
Gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes – bringing them together
I sing of hope, sprinkling ashes from my soul’s pyre:
In flocks the phoenix flies to the sky.
— My Poetry” Amalendu Guha 1960 Read more…
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