Budget 2014-15: The Worst Yet to Come?

Surajit Mazumdar

A remarkable feature of the first budget of the Modi government was that the numbers in it (Table 1 for a summary) – of the revenues that are anticipated from different source, the expenditures allocated to different heads and the fiscal deficit which expresses the gap between the aggregates of these - were almost identical to those in the interim budget presented earlier in the year by the UPA government.

Rise of the Right and the New Religion of ‘Development’

Satyaki Roy

The verdict of the 2014 general elections marks an unprecedented rightward shift in public opinion in post-Independence India. It was an emphatic victory for the rightwing forces together with a decisive mandate for one party rule.

Diesel Price Deregulation: A Few Months to Go

Manish Kumar & Surobhi Mukherjee

There is no doubt that the newly elected government will favour deregulating the price of diesel as well as other petroleum products in lieu of subsidies or grants to the oil sector. At least on this issue both governments (NDA as well as UPA) are of the same view, despite the fact that under-recovery on diesel touched record low at Rs 2.80 per litre on 2^nd of June ’14 .(www.pib.nic.in).

Remembering Terezin

 Divya Kannan

A Discourse on Sign Language and the Rights of the Deaf C­­­­ommunity

Melissa G. Wallang 

Introduction:

Contrary to the popular beliefs that a language is a ‘real language’ only when it is spoken, sign language, the language of the deaf community, struggles for its status as a legitimate language. Although sign language cuts across all the geographical boundaries in the country (having regional variations), it still carries the stigma of being a language spoken by a ‘disabled’ section of the community. Moreover, since it seems to exist in every state, the concept of sign language as ‘linguistic minority’ in the country cannot be fathomed by many.

Freedom, Free Love and Equality: Revisiting Alexandra Kollontai

Ashmita Sharma

The Life and Times of Kollontai

 Born in 1872 in an old Russian nobility, Alexandra Kollontai emerged as a fervent revolutionary in the turning point of Russia’s historical epoch. 

She was the youngest and the most pampered in the family. Although her parents were well to do yet there was no luxury in the house but despite that she did not know the meaning of privation. This, in fact, became the root cause that shaped the revolutionary bent of her mind and further emboldened her radical fervor towards critical inclinations.

Ashok Mochi: Another Victim of the Riots

Interviewed by Sayeed Rumi Mundabra, translated by Aardra Surendran

(Ashok Mochi and Qutubuddin Ansari, the two familiar faces of Gujarat riot 2002 recently shared stage in a function organized by left cultural organizations at Kannur, Kerala)

 

Remember Ashok Mochi? While the image of Qutubuddin Ansari pleading for help spread all over the world as the face of the victims during the Gujarat riots, we knew Ashok Mochi's image as representing the rioters. Ashok Mochi- with a spear in his hand and a saffron headband. A demonic image that Indian secularism witnessed with disgust and horror. It told the world who and what the riot was.

The Question of Islam, ‘Islamists’ and Resistance within

Motiur Rahman Khan

Post-Enlightenment, Islam has been one of the major resisting forces against the Western colonialism and their ‘noble mission’ of civilizing the world. Sometime Muslim resistance became so powerful that it left its mark on the psyche of the colonial elite and revived bitter memories of the Crusades. At one point of time, Islam became nationalist voice against imperialism and racial oppression. History of nineteenth century saw a series of ‘Prophets’, ‘revivalists’ and a number of movements against unjust world equations.

On ‘Gujarat Model’ of Development

Surajit Das

Lots have been talked about the ‘Gujarat Model’ – the state of Gujarat has been projected as the ‘model state’ of India. It is not being called a model state because of the spectacular natural beauty of Gujarat and its beautiful people but, it is being called a model for development. The model is essentially the model of development by big capital led industrialisation.

Democracy and Representation: Questioning the 'First Past the Post' System

Taposik Banerjee

       

With the completion of the recent Lok Sabha polls the world's largest democracy has given yet another mandate. During the entire process of election it has been celebrated in mass media and public life through different activities ranging from round the clock news coverage to drawing room discussion to roadside adda. Much of this celebration had little to do with the final outcome or say the composition of the future parliament per se but was a celebration of the process itself.