Scholar, Statesman, Gentleman

Web| Jul 26, 2007

Vice Presidency

Scholar, Statesman, Gentleman

Not just a 'bhadralok', he is also a man of firm and strong views and an impartiality of spirit, articulate and self deprecating, a warm and loyal friend. For once, one salutes those who had the discrimination to select him to uphold the honour of the country.

ARUNDHATI GHOSE Imagine having a friend nominated as Vice President of India! I am sure there are other people whose friends have entered high portals, but one would be hard put to find one so eminently deserving of recognition, one who does, not just his friends, but his country proud, as Hamid Ansari. The pride and glee are however, tempered with a hint of regret; no longer would we be able to have long discussions on the state of India’s educational system, the problems in the Middle East, gossip about the UN or India-US relations, in the lounge of the IIC or even on the telephone! Protocol, security will, and have already, reared their heads as Hamid moves into inaccessible circles One cannot really gossip with the Vice President of the country—or can one?...............

Govt. Should Not Mislead People

Govt should not mislead people

There is little doubt that, since independence, the majority of those who have been in state power, both civil and military, have varying degrees abused power and authority to amass public wealth. What is more, instead of investing the large amounts of ill-gotten wealth in this country, which would at least have contributed to a certain extent to its economic development, a major portion of the money has been illegally taken out of the country and deposited in foreign banks........

Let leadership grow from the ruins

Let leadership grow from the ruins
The state of emergency, crackdown on corruption suspects and ban on politics isolated the chiefs of the two large parties from most of their long-term colleagues. The difficult time has at least done one good thing – it has exposed the leaders to their followers spread up to the villages. True leadership emerges from crisis; not from guided reform formula mapped out in drawing rooms or somewhere else. A ‘test-tube’ political party is also unlikely to be the answer. Let the top leadership prove its ability in the present times of crisis, or let the new leadership emerge from the ruins, writes Titu Datta Gupta

THE ban on politics has apparently opened a floodgate of reform recipes with aging politicians vowing to do right now what they could not do in decades. Colleagues and silent party loyalists across the country are amazed, sometimes amused to see how some of their long-known leaders are turning into total reformists overnight........................

Strengthening Democracy ?

This is no way to strengthen democracy
Just as "command economy" failed, so will "command politics"
Mahfuz Anam
The only reason that the caretaker government has survived six months in power, and the chief advisor acknowledges it every time an occasion arises, is because the general public think of it to be an instrument to strengthen democracy. But now if this very instrument of 'strengthening democracy' becomes a symbol of mindless and arbitrary use of power, then how will the public distinguish it from such previous abusers of power and continue to lend it support? .........

Reforms: Facts behind Facts

Bangladeshs political reforms:
facts behind facts
by Dr Abdul Momen

BANGLADESH is currently facing great uncertainties political, business and legal. Other than these, more things are currently predominant: political reforms, arrests and transfers. Political reforms refer to negotiations between selected leaders and powers in eliminating the top two leaders of the two major political parties, former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party...........

Where Bihar leads India

Where 'backward' Bihar leads India

By Amarnath Tewary BBC News, Patna

For many years, Bihar in northern India has earned notoriety for being one of the poorest and most lawless states in the country.

Nobel-prize winning author VS Naipaul once described it as the place where "civilisation ends".

But all is not lost, perhaps. We discover five areas where Bihar might consider itself to be ahead of other Indian states...............

Time for Soul Search

Time for some soul searching
Nurul Kabir
It is indisputable that a significantly large section of our people was happy when the military intervened in the political arena on January 11. They welcomed the ‘caretaker’ government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed that was midwifed by the military the next day, to the extent that they were not much bothered by the imposition of a state of emergency that instantly took away certain ‘inalienable’ fundamental rights of the citizens. Indeed, a people who had once relentlessly fought against emergencies and military interventions in politics had their immediate reasons to passively accept, if not actively support, the new takeover by an apparently apolitical group of individuals..............

Rights gone wrong in emergency rites

Rights gone wrong in emergency rites
Interim govt completes six months Shahiduzzaman
Human rights violation has continued since the proclamation of a state of emergency in the country six months back, with 114 people killed in the custody of law enforcers and some two lakh people detained. The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, proclaimed a state of emergency on January 11 and the Emergency Powers Rules 2007 were promulgated on January 25, banning political activities, suspending fundamental rights of the citizens and detailing a set of guidelines for the media....................

Invading The Sacred

Invading The Sacred

The story of why I became involved with co-editing a book that analyzes the representation of Hinduism in American academia and the ensuing and ongoing politics when such representations are challenged both by the Indian diaspora as well as by academicians

ADITI BANERJEE
As I write this, I am surrounded by bookshelves full of English translations of the Puranas and the Dharma Shastras. In my puja room are texts of stotras and pujas that I am eager to learn but have not yet touched. A few blocks away, at the local Hindu Center, a Bhagavat Katha is taking place. Similarly, for the past several months, as I became involved in co-editing the book, Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America, papers I had planned to write--on Hindu models of feminism and narratives of my recent pilgrimages in India--went unwritten..................