The Samajwadi Party's resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls is certain to add more heft to the Federal Front - the alliance of non-Congress, non-BJP chief ministers put together by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Mulayam Singh Yadav's party was handed a decisive mandate by the electorate, and it will not have to be dependent on Congress, or any other party for its survival. The snub by voters in...
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Aruna Roy, Indian social activist interviewed by Kanak Mani Dixit
Kanak Dixit: We have with us Aruna Roy, from Devdungri village in Rajasthan, who has, among other things, been able to take the Right to Information (RTI) from janasunuwais, or public hearings at the village level, all the way to national legislation that encompasses all of India. It is a movement that is truly global in scale. Aruna, a question that has been troubling me quite a bit in the context...
More »Difficult to digest by Jyotika Sood
After much debate, the Cabinet cleared the food security bill. Will it really ensure food for every Indian? THE lokpal bill debate may have ended in a fiasco but 2011 ended on a positive note for the Congress-led UPA government on another count. Its pet project, the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament. The bill seeks to address widespread hunger in the...
More »Professor Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University interviewed by Smruti Koppikar
Professor Arjun Appadurai is a Mumbaikar at heart; coming to the city is an annual pilgrimage for this internationally renowned cultural theorist and anthropologist. Appadurai, 62, who studied in Mumbai’s Elphinstone College, is currently Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He has been consultant and advisor to a wide range of public and private foundations such as The Smithsonian. In his seminal work Disjuncture and...
More »BJP’s Team B by Dhirendra K Jha
The mask is off. Team Anna and his lieutenants are batting for the BJP On 30 October last year, when Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was actually supported by the RSS, the remark conveyed palpable nervousness and attracted criticism from Team Anna. Three months later, as Team Anna launches its voters’ awareness campaign in UP, there is not even an attempt to keep its secular mask intact. The mask,...
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