Editorial

Election Results Show Need for Radical Electoral reforms

FOLLOWING the recent elections to the state assemblies, the BJP is all set to form a government on the basis of its own strength in Haryana and a government led by it in Maharashtra. These results have come after the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were in government for a long fifteen years and a Congress government in Haryana for two successive times lasting ten years. This has been the people’s verdict in these assembly elections which was, by far, fair and free given that there were no major complaints by any of the contesting parties.

Modi Govt’s Deadly Cocktail

THE deadly cocktail of imposing greater economic burdens on the people, on the one hand, and sharpening communal polarisation, on the other, continues to be intensified under this Modi-led NDA government.

Much is being made about a fleeting decline in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), according to the data released by the union commerce ministry, which shows that the annual rate of inflation, based on the monthly WPI stood at 2.38 percent in September 2014 compared to 3.74 percent in the previous month and 7.05 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

Vicious Cycle of US Military Intervention

THE United States’ military intervention in Iraq and Syria is inexorably leading to a wider conflict in the region. President Obama announced bombing strikes in Iraq in August against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, now Islamic State). The air strikes were said to be a humanitarian intervention to save the Yazidis who were threatened by the IS. Obama, however, declared that there was no time limit in the fight against the IS and it could go on for years. Obama also ordered more US army advisors into Iraq.

PM’s Visit to New York & Washington Lack of Substance: A Dangerous Portend

PRIME Minister Modi’s visit to New York and Washington on the occasion of addressing the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) turned out to be, as the PTI reported, of the nature of a “rock star celebrity”. His speeches at the Madison Square Garden and the annual rock star ritual that takes place every year on the occasion of the UNGA at New York’s Central Park confirmed once again that the mindset of a continuing Indian election campaign has not yet been discarded by Prime Minister Modi.

On Chinese President’s Visit to India

THE Chinese president and general secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan paid their maiden three day State visit to India. This is the first visit of the Chinese president after his election to these positions in 2012. Sixteen agreements and memoranda of understanding have been signed, eleven of them with the central government and another five with the state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

On Bye-Election Results

AS we said earlier, normally bye-election results do not constitute a major reflection on the national standing of any political party, particularly that party which heads the central government at the moment. However, if the recent three rounds of bye-elections since the BJP’s single party majority victory in the Lok Sabha and formation of the government at the Centre are taken together, the trends appear of certain significance.

PM’s Japan Visit: Yet Again Goebbelsian Methodology

THE RSS/BJP appears to have once again fallen back on their tested methodology that is based on a dictum advanced by Hitler’s fascist propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. During the period of the rise and consolidation of Nazi fascism, with all its consequent horrendous acts that eventually plunged the world into the bloody Second World War, Goebbels conducted the fascistic propaganda on the basis of his dictum: Tell a big enough lie frequently enough for it to be accepted as the truth by the people.

By-election Results Signify a Trend of Waning Modi “Euphoria”

EIGHT days before it completes its first hundred days, the Modi government and the RSS/BJP suffered a major setback in the recently held by-elections in Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. Out of a total of 18 seats, the BJP could only win ten this time. In comparison to the leads that the BJP and allies registered in the 2014 general elections, when they had eight out of the ten seats that went to polls in the by-elections in Bihar, they could win only four seats. And, that too, with very narrow margins. For instance, it won the Banka seat by a wafer thin margin of 711 votes.

Prime Minister’s Independence Day Speech: Talking & Walking in Opposite Directions

INDIA’S new prime minister Narendra Modi’s maiden speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of our Independence Day evoked appreciation from the traditional drumbeaters of the RSS/BJP and a widespread adulation from the growing tribe of `fresh converts’ – including some erstwhile pretentious secular liberals – who seem to be bending over backwards to earn brownie points in the race for some official patronage or appointments to share the spoils of office.

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