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| | Account for Vote 2014 | | | | Though Vote on Account 2014-15 can merely be called an accounting statement, but the script seems to be written keeping an eye on elections in 2014. While preparing Vote on Account, which is last such presentation of 15th Lok Sabha as also the last budget of UPA II and also of P Chidambaram as Finance Minister of UPA II, he has shown all his masterly skills in (mis)representation of data; a statement, which may not face much heat of opposition but would prove to be a headache for the next government.
It is notable that in his presentation Chidambaram has stated that he has been able to keep the fiscal deficit within 'red lines' by curbing it to 4.6 percent of GDP; GDP growth in the current year would remain 4.9 percent despite global, especially in emerging economies' slowdown. Though tr... |  | |
| | | International Women's Day: Some perspectives | | | By Mushtaq ul Haq Sikander | |
| | Woman; humble, shy, docile, obedient, sacrificing and modest are the values that our literature, religion, culture and society has bestowed on the personality and being of a woman. Her behavior, worldview and way of life have been made synonymous with these values. She is supposed to uphold these values in all circumstances. An honest adherence to them can elevate woman to a status of a deity, and non conformity to the same can retrograde her to the abysmal pits of lowest of low. The notion of honor, sin, lust and vice has been mostly attributed to the women. The unjust patriarchal structures have rendered sin, wrongs, evil, vice synonymous to being a woman. Being an embodiment of all these ailments and the evil baffling humanity, she needs to be controlled through religion, social norms,... | | |
| | Victory of institutional injustice | | Cover of impunity to defend the indefensible | | | By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal | |
| | 14 years ago, 5 innocent civilians were picked up and killed by army in a staged encounter in South Kashmir's Pathribal area. After much delay, it took about 14 months for an army court to give a clean chit to all its indicted men including top officers and announce a closure, simply stating that evidence collected by it did not establish a prima facie case against any of the accused. No explanations were offered about how such a conclusion was arrived at, 14 years after several probes have indicted the army men with clinching evidence, highlighting one simple reality - in case of Kashmir, that Indian legal justice system allows itself to dissolve in pursuit of an abstract and misplaced 'national interest'. Pathribal case, a blot on Indian democracy, is a crude symbol of the patterns of h... | | |
| | | A premature history of the second cold war | | | | The first mistake of the Ukrainian revolutionaries was to abandon the agreement of 23rd February to create a national unity government, including some of the revolutionary leaders, that would administer the country until new elections in December. It would have left President Viktor Yanukovych in office until then, but with severely diminished powers, as the constitution would have been changed to restore the authority of parliament.
Leaving a man who ordered the murder of dozens of protesters in power even temporarily was a bitter pill to swallow, but it had tacit Russian support because it saved President Vladimir Putin's face. However, the crowds on Independence Square refused to accept the deal, and Yanukovych was forced to flee.
Parliament subsequently ratified his removal, but it... | | |
| | SIGNS OF THE TIMES | | Focus on women: Realities and rare feats | | | | As the International Women's Day gets closer, that expected focus on women and the realities they face. Before I write about an exhibition on the girl child and also my recent interactions with a medical doctor turned Sufi, I must write about this rather offbeat Spanish tradition. Last week at the opening of the Italian artist Simona Bocchi's exhibition I was introduced to the cultural manager of the New Delhi's situated 'Instituto Cervantes'. And as soon as he gave the visiting card I was somewhat intrigued by his name printed on that card …well, till he took the trouble of detailing.
'My name is Jesus Clavero Rodriguez. In our Spanish tradition we have to put the father's and also the mother's name along with our first name. Jesus is my name and Clavero is my father's name and my mom... | | |
| | | Economy needs protection from promises of freebies | | | | India's economy is in a continual state of convulsion due to reckless pre-poll promises. While the country goes to the polls every five years, at times in less than five years, assembly elections are due almost every or at least once in two years in some state or the other. Thus the nation is in poll mode for ever. And the people are made to listen to political parties pronouncing their economic policies.
Managing economy is a serious matter; but political parties hardly care and feel free to blindly announce gigantic schemes without specifying how they propose to generate the required resources. With the result, the fiscal deficit goes for a toss; the government of the day dangerously increases its debt repayment liability which it finds it easy to sweep under the carpet for the next go... | | |
| | | Disturbing Trends on Energy Front: Power purchases & SFC Report | | | | Jammu and Kashmir, as per latest surveys, continues to lose its scarce financial resources on mounting power purchases. During the last fiscal year, the State government spent around Rs 4000 crore, Rs 247 crore higher that the preceding year, on power purchases. A state with a total budget outlay of 38,000 crores in 2013-14, slashed by further 2-3000 crores because of non-release of funds by federal government, with revenues not exceeding 6000 crores to meet plan expenditure, with 13,500 crores pay bill-the emoluments of public servants, with 4000 crores to pay in pensions, with loans and liabilities approximately 42,000 crores cannot just afford to pay an energy bill of 4000 crores.
The figure of more or less 4000 crores as the energy bill was projected by the State government before t... | | |
| | | War and Peace: Reflections on a changing global scenario | | The best of times, the worst of times | | | Consider the fact that the current world is perhaps the most prosperous that humankind has ever come to create, with the global wars having fallen to their lowest numbers since a very long time. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy and other such indicators are also comparatively better than the average of the past millennia. Another front where we have made enormous leaps is communication, with our world more densely interconnected and interdependent. And yet there is a simmering discontent everywhere.
Simply stating, the two aspects don't add up. Dickens would say that we are in the best of times, we are in the worst of times, season of light, season of darkness, we have everything before us and nothing before us. He would be speaking the truth as well, for there is nothing more contradictory t... | | |
| | | Northeast on the mind: Women scholars focus on the region | | | By Ratna Bharali Talukdar | |
| | The northeastern stretch of India is still hardly understood, and the concerns of the women here have rarely surfaced in the country's public discourse or in its scholarship. On the few occasions that the Northeast has figured as a theme of academic pursuit or journalistic coverage, the focus has invariably been on issues of armed conflict, insurgency and counter-insurgency. Although these situations, unfortunately, still continue to remain prevalent in the region, what gets overshadowed is the parallel struggle spearheaded by the women here for an independent identity within their communities and a search for equality within the home and a voice in public life.
That is what made the location and deliberations at the 14th National Conference on Women Studies, organised by the Indian Ass... | | |
| | | Foreign militants jeopardise Pakistan's peace | | | | Terrorists from several countries, whom Pakistan hosted and used first, against the Soviets and, later US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, have turned against their host and are compounding the security problem facing the country. The latest air strikes in Swat and Waziristan by the Pakistan Army were directed mostly against them in retaliation for their attacks on military posts and convoys at several places causing casualties. With the operations in Afghanistan drawing to a close as foreign forces are due to leave by the end of this year, these foreigners are turning their attention increasingly towards the Pakistan State and its Army, demanding immediate imposition of Sharia rule.
In utter desperation, the Nawaz Sharif Government had opened Taliban factions, involving to strike a deal ... | | |
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