His valiant efforts to defend India’s position on climate change in the face of US opposition at the Paris Conference accounts for Prakash Javadekar’s elevation to Cabinet rank (in the Ministry of Human Resource Development) but does not fully explain his abrupt exit from the Ministry of Environment & Forests. … Read More
Much of the early commentary following Britain’s sensational vote to quit the European Union was conspicuous by an aversion to admit that Brexit represents a revolt of the poor, marginalised working and middle classes that have long been at the mercy of a dehumanizing system of mobile capital aggravated by … Read More
A swift and massive resistance launched by Jammu For India (JFI) has compelled the coalition People’s Democratic Party – Bharatiya Janata Party government to scuttle the Jammu and Kashmir Alienation of Land and Transfer of Property Act by referring the same to a select committee of the Assembly. The Bill … Read More
Cracks are appearing in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central Government led over the issue of Genetically Modified (transgenic) crops. The Union Ministry of Environment & Forests has revived a committee to consider proposals on new GM crops (Minister Prakash Javadekar bats for the technology on grounds of food security), while … Read More
It would have been fitting for the Government of India to designate the miniscule Hindu community that was brutally driven out of Kashmir valley in 1990 as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on the occasion of the United Nations-sponsored World Refugee Day. Instead, Hindus who fled West Pakistan after the war … Read More
In recent times, two books have captured the essence of the dilemmas and challenges facing the contemporary Muslim world, viz., The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State by Tarek Fatah (2015) and Jihadist Threat to India by Tufail Ahmad (2016). By a strange coincidence, both authors are sub-continental Muslims who … Read More
Startling allegations have surfaced from Kairana, a small town in Shamli district of western Uttar Pradesh, that for the past two years Hindu families have been forced to migrate out of fear of a dreaded gangster, Mukim Kala. Kairana is barely 124 kms from Delhi. The news, broken on June … Read More
Tensions are rising in Jammu province following the Jammu & Kashmir Speaker’s decision to accept a Private Member Resolution by Congress MLA G.M. Saroori for a separate Chenab Valley Hill Development Council, on the lines of the Leh & Kargil Hill Development Council. On May 31, the Speaker also accepted … Read More
The India-Iran-Afghanistan trilateral would be a momentous development even if it did not coincide with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s convincing victory in Assam and gains in other States. The Chabahar port and connectivity project leapfrogs Pakistan’s implacable opposition to an Indian presence in Afghanistan and will transform the Iranian port … Read More
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has triggered deep unrest in large sections of the State with her decision to appoint Siddiqullah Chowdhury as Minister of State with Independent Charge of Education, Library and Parliamentary Affairs. Banerjee had already startled the nation with her decision to take oath of office … Read More
