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Editorial

Violence in South Asia EACH country in South Asia seems to be hostage to violence. Look at the map and it appears that violence has become part of body politics and the very measure of life. These are not the fresh, occasional bouts of violence, but rather endemic. Look at the largest of the countries, India.  Except a few initial years of independence and there too, Kashmir witnessed large scale Kabiali  [tribal] assault backed by a nascent government in Pakistan.

Analysis

New Tory Government has a Bumpy Ride Ahead Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver THE minority Tory government took the reins of the country on February 6. The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper took the oath of the office along with his cabinet ministers, including David Emerson, who was elected as a Liberal MP during the January 23 elections. Emerson took everybody by surprise after being sworn in as the International Trade Minister in the new Conservative government.

Partners in World Peace Maj. Gen. Satinder Kapoor [Retired] FROM the bipolar configuration of the world prior to disintegration of the USSR, it has now become unipolar with USA  as the only super power.  with this distinction   America is increasingly  taking over the role  of the world policeman and is forcing the world  to accept its policies or suffer the consequences. It has also  assumed the role of a parallel UN and other international fora are virtually controlled by it.

Focus

Is India Shining: State of Education Gobind Thukral THERE is a general consensus in the country and everyone from prime minister to aam admi understands the urgent need to refashion the old moth eaten education system. Within India’s 5 million-strong academic communities also, there is a consensus that the nation’s moribund education system designed by Lord Macaulay over a century ago needs critical renovation.

Budget Making: Some Thoughts Professor Vinod Anand Budgets in India mostly address short-run marginal issues ad are statements of income and expenditure or about the expansion and liberalization of the private sector in the context of globalization. They seldom focus on basic long-run issues with seriousness. The fiscal and monetary matters and the whole gamut of economic issues remain untouched.

Comment

Politicians Blight Green Revolution Jyotika J. Thukral WE were assured that the Green Revolution is a success and India does not need even a single grain to import to feed its millions.  The rulers were also certain that we could export our golden grain; the wheat and India achieved that distinction a few years ago. Imagine a country where some millions died during the 1943 Bengal Famine could be a wheat surplus country. The only problem, the experts opined was how to feed millions of those below the poverty line.

Law and Justice

Will Judicial Council  Discipline Errant Judges? Joginder Singh Toor THE India nation is again affront of a debate that touches their paramount institution, the judiciary and the justice delivery system, sometimes its last hope. The reason is that judiciary is going the other institutions of democracy, lethargic and partly corrupt and there is no institution to oversee its working, though some checks are in place for lower judiciary. This has affected the justice delivery system.

Features

Punjab, an Opportunity Beacons Gobind Thukral WHEN freedom bells tinkled a little less than six decades ago, Punjab, the whole of Punjab of five rivers was soaked in gore and blood. The land when it woke to a new dawn of freedom lay devastated with a nearly million of its sons and daughters butchered by each other. Many times more were forced to flee across the artificial borders created by roguish imperialists in their last ditch effort to sow the seeds of hatred and due to chicanery politics of the two major political parties, the Congress and the Muslim league.

Bread and Science India Wasting Bounty Gobind Thukral Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has pleaded with the scientists to usher in the second green revolution to bail out the farm sector. Author of India’s “reform movement” has lately been talking a great deal about the poor, particularly in rural India who have been left out from country’s development. His concerns are genuine and there is nothing wrong in asking for help from the scientists, yet somewhere this economist turned politician has lost sight of the basics.

Newsbag

Nepal:  Fight for Republic Jyotika J. Thukral THE woes of Nepal are unending. The crisis that gripped this picturesque and yet poor nation when the royal family including the King was massacred in a mysterious manner and new King Gyanendra seized total power, dismissing democratically elected government, the country has seen worst blood shed.  All rights are suspended, radio stations have been closed down and worst censorship imposed on newspapers. Journalists are arrested, beaten up and even killed.

Sluggish Health Care Worry Canadians EVERY Canadian whether a natural citizen or an immigrant wants Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take care of their number one concern, the quality health care. That’s why Harper has announced quality health care in the form of a patient wait time guarantee. But the depressing fact is that both the Conservatives and Liberals have by and large ignored the challenges facing the stressed heath-care system during the federal election campaign.

More for War, Less for Welfare THE new trajectory for the American budget for 2007 spells heaviest ever defence spending, cut on domestic social and health security and on foreign development aid. President George W. Bush has submitted to Congress that Pentagon spending next year would rise to some 440 billion dollars. This does not include 120 billion $ that the administration is asking as a supplemental appropriation to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September, when fiscal 2006 ends.

Tsunami Victims Cry for Justice SOME 50,000 tsunami survivors in five Asian countries have been doubly devastated. They lost their loved ones in the December 2004 devastating natural calamity, and subsequently their human rights were trampled upon by their own governments.  Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives are accused of discrimination in aid distribution, forced relocation, arbitrary arrests and sexual and gender-based violence.

Reuters photographer: Finbarr O’Reilly REUTERS photographer Finbarr O’Reilly has been announced international competition in winner of the prestigious 2006 World Press Photo of the Year for his picture from the Niger famine in August 2005. 4,448 professional photographers from 122 countries entered a total of 83,044 images. The contest is the premier annual press photography.

Art & Films

Ram Sarup Ankhi and His latest Gelo Dr. Jaspal Singh MALWA region of Punjab after partition of the country in 1947 became very vibrant both politically and culturally. Lahore the epicenter of socio-cultural-political activity before Independence was left behind in Pakistan as the capital of West Punjab. On the eastern side almost all the towns and cities of Punjab were too small to become cultural centers of any significance.

Patriotism via Entertainment Delivering Tricolour to those Lost in Denim Jyotika J. Thukral OVER the years Bollywood has dished out a host of patriotic films like Upkar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Gadar et al based on Pakistan bashing and self-glorification. But here is a movie with a difference that deals with the bigger enemy than Pakistan. It is  enemy within the country, the corrupt politician who wreaks havoc on the nation.

Culture

VASTU SHASTRA: Architectural Lyricism ANCIENT Indian texts are deep and abiding source of knowledge. Be it polity, mathematics, medicine, yoga town planning and architecture, astronomy they offer knowledge and help develop our critical faculties. But over the past many decades, we have burying such fund of knowledge in deep down by letting charlatans and opportunists take over. Totally illiterate persons, masquerading as scholars and pundits, though earning easy and fast buck, have been spreading superstition, thus endangering our comprehension of the world around us. This way the very foundations of knowledge based civil society have been badly shaken. Former Nagaland Governor O.P.Sharma, a keen observer has delved into  these texts and feels deeply concerned about too many charlatans fooling people by spreading superstition.

In First Person

Literature and Life WE take pleasure in introducing the youngest of our contributors, Amrit Chahal. Here is a sensitive writer who while struggling against a serious health problem, fought to win two battles, one against the debittling disease and another to play, read and enjoy a normal life of a frolicking child. His unswerving parents made big efforts to bring the best in him. Amrit, now 18 is in the final grade of his school in Fairfax. Let us just be with him for a while and have the sense of his experiences.

Personal Notes: My Lahore Visit S.P.Dhawan AFTER a hectic teaching of over three decades, it is bliss to sit back and   savour the feast of memories.  It is a short but memorable visit to Lahore that enlivens the wits. Political upheaval resulting in the partition of India meant the loss of cherished places for the people in both the new countries.

Poetry

Vinod Anand "NAZAR" "Co-travellers" "Religion of Humanity"

Letters

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