Politics

Talking about the Mumbai terror attacks two years down the line (and while not making this article perfunctorily and callously coincide with the anniversary) is a good idea. Serious issues need to be debated when passions don’t run high. No, the idea is not to dwell on why Kasab has not been executed till now. The point is also not to thrash out the issue of terrorism. We need to go beyond the headlines. If you can recollect the outburst of people, especially in the social media networks like...

Twenty years after the fall of the Communist regime, politics in Hungary has come a full circle. It has virtually abolished freedom of the press and also assumed presidency of the European Union (EU). The new media law passed on December 21 by the Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz), which enjoys a two-thirds majority in parliament, accords the government sweeping powers to monitor the press. Ironically, Hungary also marked its metamorphosis from being a mere satellite State of the erstwhile USSR...

It's foot-in-the-mouth season for the Congress. Digvijay Singh, P Chidambaram and Rahul Gandhi have made statements that have been derided by one and all. No one takes Digvijay Singh seriously anymore. Rahul Gandhi is not known to wear a thinking cap. But it is the suave, Harvard-educated, lawyer Chidambaram who is a cause for worry. Not only we have at hand a Union Home Minister who talks first and thinks later like Digvijay, he is also a grossly uninformed demagogue like Gandhi. Chidambaram is...

The month of November saw two uncannily similar elections ― in Myanmar and Egypt. In both cases, the ruling dispensation carried the day at the hustings marred by repression, violence and electoral fraud. Democracy stood ruthlessly murdered. The regimes in power reined in the media in the run-up to the elections and smothered all dissent. Both elections were a mockery of democratic processes and the regimes in power won handsomely. The difference, however, lies in the details; among them is the...

Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera is being used as a “bargaining tool” by Qatar to further its position internationally, US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks claim. Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has, however, described it as an American assessment only. In a cable sent on November 19, 2009, Ambassador Joseph E LeBaron wrote that the station could be used "as a bargaining tool to repair relationships with other countries, particularly those soured by al-Jazeera's broadcasts, including the United States"...

Two months back when an all-party delegation visited Kashmir Valley, the buzz was about confidence-building measures (CBMs). Everyone agreed that the Constitution of India provides ample scope to accommodate any legitimate political demand through "dialogue, civil discourse and peaceful negotiations." The fact that protests are not rocking the streets of Srinagar and other towns now, does not mean that public resentment has died down. The Valley hasn't turned greener in the last two months, it...

Interpol has placed Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, on a red notice wanted list over allegations of sexual misbehavior by a Swedish prosecutor, the police organisation has announced on its website. The notice said Assange, 39, is wanted for “sex crimes” on an arrest warrant brought by the international public prosecution office in Gothenburg, Sweden. Interpol is based in Lyon, France. The Red Notice does not amount to an arrest warrant. It asks people to contact...

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." Cassius, Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141) One often gets to hear and read this thing about us, in a democracy, getting the politicians that we deserve. This clamour had hit a feverish pitch during the last general elections in 2009. From Facebook status messages to tweets, the underlying message was this: we should elect politicians who are clean. One year down the line, even a cursory look at the day’s...

Dialogue is crucial to democracy. The communication gap between the people of Kashmir and the rest of India created by the Union and Jammu & Kashmir governments along with a pliant India media had long created a situation had created a lopsided situation where the voices of one side were not heard at all. Given this backdrop, Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Executive Council member, Bilal Gani Lone's trip to cities in mainland India was a welcome step. The Mirwaiz's intention was...

Nitish Kumar's victory at the hustings in Bihar is being described as the that of development-oriented governance over caste-based politics. On the face of it, this rightly sums up results. The numbers of the poll results, however, hide others — the darker side of this victory. A total of 141 MLAs out of 241 analysed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 NGOs and other citizen-led organisations, had...