In J&K, the road to disaster
J&K is polarised as never before. Jammu is at odds with the Kashmir Valley, Leh leans towards Jammu and Kargil leans towards the Valley, but both Leh and Kargil also assert their identities.
We have a new governor of Jammu and Kashmir, a new chief secretary, a new director general of police and a new adviser on security. The best outreach to the people of J&K (especially the Kashmir Valley) that they could come up with was to hold elections to the local bodies (panchayats and municipalities) in […]
Reading between the rankings
A university’s culture is its most valuable resource. Feeding a repressive culture bodes ill for India
BY: Pulapre Balakrishnan Two recent developments draw our attention to the state of India’s universities. The first is the release of the annual ranking of the world’s universities by the Times Higher Education (THE). The other is an announcement by the Prime Minister, as reported in the press, which has an even closer bearing on […]
#MeToo Campaign is directionless without taking legal recourse
It is necessary and also the need of the hour that women come forward to report the cases of sexual harassment- yet another step forward towards women empowerment. This campaign should have proceeded and continued with an aim to create awareness among women and make them feel empowered by registering such cases in police stations. […]
The new non-alignment
Washington may frown, but New Delhi can’t afford to ignore old ally Russia.
By: Sushant Singh During or immediately after the 1962 India-China border war, Soviet Union provided no military assistance to India while Washington was generous with offers to Jawaharlal Nehru’s call for help. Barring that small blip, Moscow has always stood by India, both in providing latest military equipment and classified military technology — say, nuclear […]
#MeToo: Not without her consent
The #MeToo outpouring demands a new, fair system that delivers brisk justice
By: Veena Venugopal At last count, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar had been accused of sexual harassment by at least 10 women journalists. These accusations fall in a large spectrum — from inappropriate behaviour to acts of physical impropriety — and some date back to more than 15 years. That the clamour […]
Need for Reconciliation with Justice: Babri Demolition and The Aftermath
Idea of India
By: RAM PUNIYANI In a judgment delivered on September 27, the Supreme Court in a 2-1 split verdict refused to refer its judgment in the Dr Ismail Faruqui case to a Constitution bench. That verdict, given in 1994, had stated that mosques are not an essential part of Islamic practice. In the recent judgment, the […]
Human Development Report: Lessons for India
The superb performance of countries like Sri Lanka and China underscores the important role of public policy
By: Bhaskar Dutta How should growth and development be measured? The dominant tradition, at least in policy circles, continues to be an unhealthy reliance on growth in per capita national income. For instance, government spokespersons are quick to issue laudatory statements whenever gross national product growth figures are respectable, while those in the Opposition are […]
Sectarian conflicts in the Middle East can be resolved
Sectarianism is a modern-day phenomenon in the Middle East and should be addressed as such.
By: Marwan Kabalan Sectarianism and sectarian conflict in the Middle East are often presented as having centuries-old religious and theological roots. It is often said that sectarianism runs so deep in the region that it cannot be defeated, and we shouldn’t bother trying. This is a widespread view in the media, policy circles, and in […]
Is time really up for misogyny?
When a woman accuses a man of sexual misconduct, many men — and sometimes even women — leap to that man’s defence
By: Mehmal Sarfraz Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, had accused the then US Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexual misconduct. According to Ford, this incident happened when they were in high school. Ford is 51 while Kavanaugh is 53 years of age. This basically means that the allegation […]
If democracy subverts itself
The implicit contrariness of democracies is more a respite from singular trouble than an agreeable pact.
AN old-fashioned Marxist sobriquet for democracy we pine for and are frustrated by in turn is ‘bourgeois democracy’. Another word for it, which suits the Western palate more readily since the fall of the Soviet Union, is ‘free markets democracy’. For most purposes both are one and the same thing in usage, not too different […]
