Editorial, "India China Relations" in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31 May 2015 issue: Vol. 11, Part 1, No. 10.

INDIA CHINA RELATIONS

were never more chummy and euphoric than in the 1950s when all the stalwart idealistic leaders of the emerging post-colonial Asia were alive and zealously pursuing the peace agenda of a new anti-imperialist,  non-aligned pro-people new world order they had in mind. But we know how the supercilious conduct of our leaders, especially the Nehru-Krishna Menon-Kaul axis, had spoilt the ecstatic Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai climate. The Henderson Brooks-Bhagat duo entrusted by the Indian Army to look into the causes for the humiliating debacle suffered by us seem to have put the blame squarely on the aggressive forward policy and the disgusting favoritism followed by our top political, military authorities of the day. Unfortunately, this HB/B Report has not been made public even after all these decades, though its text seems to be readily available to all foreigners to point fingers and heckle at our incompetent and corrupt top brass. Just to quote the starting lines of an excellent introduction to the same by the world famous political analyst Nevill Maxwell, whose historic eye-opener account, “India’s China War” is still banned in India – “WHEN the Army’s report into its debacle in the border war was completed in 1963 the Indian government had good reason to keep it ‘Top Secret’ and give only the vaguest, and largely misleading, indications of its contents. At that time the government’s effort, ultimately successful, to convince the political public that the Chinese, with a sudden ‘unprovoked aggression’, had caught India unawares in a sort of Himalayan Pearl Harbour was in its early stages, and the Report’s cool and detailed analysis, if made public, would have shown that to be self-exculpatory mendacity” – would suffice to highlight the real problem between the two countries. Needless to stress that without solving the border dispute with an amicable ‘give and take’ perspective and a cordial forget-the-colonial-past and look-to-the-bright-future-ahead spirit, no amount of friendly ‘selfies’ taken or vasudhaiva kutumbakam (world is one family) exhortations made by our new premier would do to meaningfully improve the relations between these two Asian giants, especially in the background of raging international state and religious fundamentalist terrorism, the dagger of which is being pointed at us through our daayaadi (kinsman) neighbor now in so close terms with the newly emerging superpower of the world – so aggressively expansionist now as at no time in recent history. §§§

Editorial, A FIGHTING AND FESTIVE DAY, in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 May 2015, Vol. 11, Part 1, No. 9 issue

A FIGHTING AND FESTIVE DAY

No words suffice to hail this historic day of working class struggles, full of sacrifices and ordeals, that gradually led to each and every human right we the masses in its posterity enjoy today in international and domestic law spheres. The heroic martyrs of Chicago – Engel, Fischer, Parsons, and Spies – who were hanged or rather ‘strangled to death slowly’ on the gallows, who fearlessly swung singing the Marseillaise, the then international revolutionary anthem, and Lingg who preceded them by suicide, can never be forgotten and indeed it did eventually happen as Spies was reported to have shouted in his last moments, “The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.” Their sacrifices for the movement demanding eight-hours working day have not gone in vain and in every civilized country of the world it has become a norm, and often also a rule, and further shortening of the working day as also declaration of a longer weekend holidays have been progressing due to the concerted agitations of the toiling masses on whose labor and creative talents this entire modern economy is, and is being, built to ever majestic proportions. The resolution of the International Social Democratic Congress 1904 at Amsterdam declared: “The International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam calls upon all Social-Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace. The most effective way of demonstrating on May First is by stoppage of work. The Congress therefore makes it mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May First, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers.” And this was to be a step in the struggle for empowerment of the masses everywhere. So, it is very apt and essential that 1 May be and is celebrated the world over as the international working day – as a day of liberation, of festivity and of struggle of the masses. Thereafter, in course of time, the May Day has been declared a public holiday in several countries and in our country too; but, unfortunately, our Courts, which still seem to be steeped in the mire of feudal culture in this matter, neglect this historic occasion deliberately though they so easily shut themselves down on many an undeserving occasion. Well, eppur si muove… §§§

Editorial, AN INTERNATIONAL INQUIRY, in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 30 April 2015, Vol. 11, Part 1, No. 8 issue.

Editorial, ENCOUNTERS AGAIN, in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 April 2015, Vol. 11, Part 1, No. 7 issue.

Editorial, WISHING AND WAITING FOR A NEW DAWN, in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15-31 March 2015 Martyrs Memorial Special issue.

WISHING & WAITING FOR A NEW DAWN

That is what many of us have been doing ever since independence, especially since the turbulent sixties. This new dawn symbolism could be interpreted in two ways. One would be to see the entire decades since the ‘transfer of power’ as a long dark night belying the aims and aspirations of innumerable martyrs of our freedom struggle and leaving but travails and tears for the people – still waiting for a new dawn that could bring in the much needed libertarian, welfarist sunlight. Another way of looking at could be that several dawns have come and gone by ever since but that we fondly dreamt of has eluded us so far. One set of rulers has come and gone,  giving way to another, which meant not much in practical terms. Mannerisms and wordings may have changed, even radical democratic ethos oriented ideologies, laws and schemes might have come up, but yet real progress has not been made. A simple illustration would be of the so-called ‘radical and innovative’ Right to Information Act. Some good might have come about due to it in some places and times, but also many loopholes there for the authorities to avoid giving the needed information and make the process more costly and cumbersome for the people. Perhaps the good old method of petitioning to the public authorities, if buttressed by strong and quick judicial monitoring, could be more handy, inexpensive and beneficial to the people at large. Also we see the power and aura of mammon overwhelming almost all sections of society like a Macbethian tormenting spirit. The present get-rich-quick-by-any-means trend is spelling doom to all the grand dreams of a glorious egalitarian society based on the mutual aid of a basically good-natured, well meaning citizenry. We see the basic needs of common people starkly neglected and the remedial mechanisms including courts reduced to more and more sloth and inefficiency. The new surge of free market economy generating an atmosphere of extreme alienation and misery among the people is ruining all chances of humane social progress. The only remedy is for the executive and judiciary, with the motto – small is beautiful and simple is workable – to feel and act as real public servants and not like lords divine/secular. Only when they begin to use public transport, live in duly alloted quarters and conduct on-the-spot enquiries often instead of closing their eyes and ears to the pleas of the common man,  in a word return to the practice of ‘high thinking and plain living’, can they even think of rooting out the societal ills and it is the duty and task of we the people to make for such an eventuality by our concerted efforts and agitations, and usher in the fresh sunrise.  §§§

Editorial, 'If We Don't Fight', in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 28 February 2015, Vol. 11, Part 1, No. 4 issueat least let us have the decency to admire those who do. When a person wrote an evasive piece of withdrawal in Frontier recently, this editor was pained and remonstrated in a letter to its editor: “…reference to "Je Suis Charlie? Sorry. No" [Frontier, February 1-7, 2015] It is not the content of the cartoons published in Charlie but the right to publish such cartoons that is at stake. The words of 'Charb' the editor of Charlie Hebdo that "I am already dead if I have no right to speak out" and that "I prefer to die standing on my legs than to live on my knees" are to be the inspiration for journalists but not cowering at the threats and finding excuses to opt out of commitment and support to freedom of speech and expression. … If Biswajit Roy is opting for a totalitarian or bullied society [like ours] which shivers even in publishing cartoons of ostensibly suspicious and fake prophets, then of course his reaction is correct. But I don't think he will shirk to criticize or mock at Hindu [gods and goddesses,] Babas, etc. and perhaps even venture now and then to mock at Christian padiris but he will have no guts to do so to the Islamic brands. The reason is simple – self-censorship due to terror. I confess many of us do engage in such self-censorship for various reasons – 'discretion is the better part of valor' sometimes, it seems. But as Jose Marti spoke out famously: "If you do not fight, at least have the decency to respect those who do"!” This editor stands by it and sadly acknowledges that the ‘virus of faith’ has been claiming innumerable victims all over the world, even in our neighboring Bangladesh, a ticking time-bomb of explosive religious fundamentalist forces. The gory murder of the freethinker and human rights activist Avijit Roy at Dhaka on 27 February is another instance of the ‘brain-death’ and cruelty of such forces and also a pointer to the need for people to zealously and actively fight for the protection and promotion of human rights – including the freedom not to believe and the right to blasphemy. It seems that only a sort of secular socialist humanism can be the real antidote for all this venom spread in the hearts of the people the world over in the name of this or that religion. The ‘virus of faith’ should not be allowed to totally infect and ‘comatize’ humanity and urgent action needed to eliminate it through intelligent education of scientific principles of bio- and human evolution and societal development, combating all myths, superstitions and dogmas spreading hate and intolerance, and courageous campaigns for the promotion of the basic human rights. 

IF WE DON’T FIGHT

at least let us have the decency to admire those who do. When a person wrote an evasive piece of withdrawal in Frontier recently, this editor was pained and remonstrated in a letter to its editor: “…reference to "Je Suis Charlie? Sorry. No" [Frontier, February 1-7, 2015] It is not the content of the cartoons published in Charlie but the right to publish such cartoons that is at stake. The words of 'Charb' the editor of Charlie Hebdo that "I am already dead if I have no right to speak out" and that "I prefer to die standing on my legs than to live on my knees" are to be the inspiration for journalists but not cowering at the threats and finding excuses to opt out of commitment and support to freedom of speech and expression. … If Biswajit Roy is opting for a totalitarian or bullied society [like ours] which shivers even in publishing cartoons of ostensibly suspicious and fake prophets, then of course his reaction is correct. But I don't think he will shirk to criticize or mock at Hindu [gods and goddesses,] Babas, etc. and perhaps even venture now and then to mock at Christian padiris but he will have no guts to do so to the Islamic brands. The reason is simple – self-censorship due to terror. I confess many of us do engage in such self-censorship for various reasons – 'discretion is the better part of valor' sometimes, it seems. But as Jose Marti spoke out famously: "If you do not fight, at least have the decency to respect those who do"!” This editor stands by it and sadly acknowledges that the ‘virus of faith’ has been claiming innumerable victims all over the world, even in our neighboring Bangladesh, a ticking time-bomb of explosive religious fundamentalist forces. The gory murder of the freethinker and human rights activist Avijit Roy at Dhaka on 27 February is another instance of the ‘brain-death’ and cruelty of such forces and also a pointer to the need for people to zealously and actively fight for the protection and promotion of human rights – including the freedom not to believe and the right to blasphemy. It seems that only a sort of secular socialist humanism can be the real antidote for all this venom spread in the hearts of the people the world over in the name of this or that religion. The ‘virus of faith’ should not be allowed to totally infect and ‘comatize’ humanity and urgent action needed to eliminate it through intelligent education of scientific principles of bio- and human evolution and societal development, combating all myths, superstitions and dogmas spreading hate and intolerance, and courageous campaigns for the promotion of the basic human rights. §§§

Editorial, Ascent of a New Left!?, in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 February 2015, Vol. 11, Part 1, No. 3 issue

ASCENT OF A NEW LEFT!?

Our good friend Tarek Fatah has equated the resounding victory of the Aam Admi Party under Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi together with earlier convincing win by Alexis Tsipiras of a radical left coalition Syrzia, Greece, and of the still earlier rise of a new left party Podemos under Pablo Iglesias Turrión as the rise of a New Left on the horizon of world politics offering fresh breezes of hope and relief to the downtrodden or deprived people and an alternative to the current exploitative, degrading capitalist order. May be it is too hopeful a characterization and analysis, but certainly these are welcome winds in the present situations of acute misery, corruption, plunder of resources and demeaning of people’s lives by the pro-capitalist establishment forces the world over. This editor heartily acclaims the victory of the Aam Admi Party and its energetic and intelligent leader Arvind Kejriwal, though it would be too hasty to describe him, an avowed theist with the vagaries of a vote-catching populist, as a new left personality. Certainly, there are several pro-people measures he and his party proposed in their manifesto and we wish all success to them against all odds in working in a limited jurisdiction. However, this editor records his disappointment regarding their somewhat opportunistic adjustments if not alliances with communal and conservative forces, especially of the so-called minorities, and refusal/hesitation to openly and firmly condemn the Charlie Hebdo massacres in France that have galvanized secular and leftist forces all over the world in a new manner. Be that as it may, we wish AK would certainly take some pro-people measures to fulfill their very basic needs and rights before embarking on any grandiose schemes and without being embroiled in rote things like the Lokpal Bill once again. The young and active European leaders – Pablo Iglesias of Podemos, Spain and Alexis Tsipiras of Greece, unlike AK, are avowed atheists and professed communists/socialists who would like to restructure their countries in a new humane democratic socialist pattern without in anyway unduly bound by the trammels of any traditional state socialist policies and perspectives that spelt the doom of Soviet type socialism the world over. We sincerely wish them also all success.  §§§