When the Frontier Corps picked up Balochistan Students Organisation-Azad (BSO-A) chairman Zahid Baloch in broad daylight, in the presence of three female colleagues and other local persons on March 18, 2014, Karima Baloch stepped in as acting chairman to fill the vacuum. She pioneered women’s political activism in the troubled … Read More
Activists for an independent Khalistan have successfully made this chimera a political issue in Canada, though the idea has little resonance in India’s Punjab that is supposed to be its heartland. The project, according to Terry Milewski of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, is funded by “thugs and political hustlers” in Canada, … Read More
The anniversary of December 6 this year will likely pass unnoticed, subsumed by the farmer blockades of major highways leading to the capital, ostensibly in protest against laws that had long been demanded by farmers’ unions themselves. This follows a little noticed precedent set on December 4, 2019, when protests … Read More
At a time when farmers should be fully engaged in sowing the rabi crop to the exclusion of all other concerns, a large number of farmers have left their fields in Punjab and moved to Delhi, carrying abundant provisions for a prolonged stay in the capital. Some conclusions are warranted … Read More
A hitherto little noticed Naxal outfit claiming lineage from Charu Majumdar, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (known as ‘Ma-Le’ in Bihar), has emerged as a surprising winner in the closely fought Bihar Assembly elections by riding piggyback with the opposition conglomerate (Mahagathbandhan). During the three-phase election campaign, national … Read More
The over-hyped green revolution of the late 1960s introduced varieties of dwarf rice and wheat in northern India, with a cocktail of chemical fertilisers and pesticides that sucked up ground water and gradually made it unfit for drinking as the chemicals leached into the soil and water. State-sponsored propaganda about … Read More
The new laws aim to end the license-permit raj and inspector raj in the agriculture sector. On a surface view, the exit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s oldest ally, the Akali Dal, from the government on September 17, 2020, ostensibly over the passing of legislation delivering long-demanded agricultural reforms, … Read More
Sonia Gandhi’s consistency and determination are admirable. A firm believer in dynasty as a legitimizing principle in politics, she first made her son the party vice-president in January 2013, thus indicating her intent, and in December 2017, despite a dismal performance in the 2014 general elections, anointed him as Congress … Read More
A split in the Congress party seems inevitable. Despite formal genuflections before the Rae Bareli MP, Sonia Gandhi is now only an interim president and neither offspring is acceptable as future president. Indeed, the Congress Working Committee meeting of August 24, 2020, called to address an explosive letter by 23 … Read More
An enduring mystery of the Ram Janmabhumi court battle is the failure of the Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court to mention the testimony of Goswami Tulsidas regarding the destruction of the birthplace of Sri Ram in their respective judgments. The Supreme Court’s 1045-page verdict gathered all evidence regarding Ramlalla’s … Read More
