APRIL 2011

APRIL 2011

Cover Story and Featured Stories

Every evidence shows that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not going to take things lying down anymore. Despite the sharp shadows of uncertainty and scams that stalk his regime. Will the Centre hold?
Hardnews Bureau Delhi

TO DEFECT, OR NOT TO DEFECT?

To give anti-defection laws any legitimacy, inner-party functioning must first conform to the letter and spirit of democracy
Mohan Guruswamy Delhi

SINISTER STING

The cash-for-vote scam was far more complex and sinister than is usually understood. It took in its sleazy embrace not only most political parties, but also powerful business houses, media outfits and foreign powers. This article was first published in April 2011 print edition.
Hardnews Bureau Delhi

CAN JAYA ROCK THE DYNASTY?

Despite the 2G scam and a spate of allegations against Karunanidhi’s extended family, the DMK alliance may still make it at the hustings
Akash Bisht Delhi

WAITING FOR A CLICHÉ

Despite the popularity of a clean VS, the CPM might find its nose in the ground in the coming polls
Akash Bisht Delhi

THE ART OF SURVIVAL

Shamed by scams, a discredited DMK is pushing the dynastic threshold even as the autumn of the patriarch enjoys the greedy dynamics of power
PC Vinoj Kumar Chennai

JAITAPUR’S own Fukushima

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it’s time for a moratorium on all unsafe nuclear complexes in India
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi

LEAVES OF GRASS

If Kolkata’s streets and walls are indicators, TMC has already won the battle of the soul. The time for change has arrived
Amit Sengupta Delhi

Glamour undone

With a case in consumer court, a high-end beauty clinic is in the spotlight for irreversible damage caused to the eyesight, psyche and future of a young girl
Shaweta Anand Delhi

The Rising Son

In a tangential, sinister manner, he is a character straight out of Mario Puzo’s classic Godfather. Or a typical ‘don’ blockbuster. Being elder, he always fancied himself as the natural heir to his father, the Kalaignar, M Karunanidhi.
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi

A daughter’s lost paradise

Profiling Kanimozhi, who has emerged as one of the key protagonists in the 2G spectrum scam. It's a dark, sad poem for the Tamil poetess
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi

Come September

Till Israel frees political prisoners from its jails, there can be no solution to the occupation of Palestine
Mehru Jaffer Vienna

More Stories from this Issue

An evening star in a prison

Let's not forget he is still in jail, in solitary confinement, outside the 'national debate' on ethics and absence of ethics post Wikileaks, forgotten by the Indian Parliament, and the 'secular' ru

Faiz and Anthems of Resistance

I was roped recently into moderating a panel on Faiz at the Left Forum after the original moderator, David Barsamian, well-known radio journalist/producer, couldn't make it at the last minute.

Flowers of love and the Goan spring

The weather has not exactly cleared, but the two-week Festival of India that opened in Vienna recently is a colourful reminder that spring can't really be far behind.

Low Flyers

I have never been afraid of flying - not even after evil terrorists turned commercial airplanes into missiles of death and destruction on 9/11. The only thing I fervently pray for every time I'm aboard is that the food doesn't taste like sickening Founder's Day leftovers from a boarding school kitchen. I am saddened to report that god has never answered my prayers. I rather assumed he would when I was once upgraded to fancy First Class, but nope. This is one of the main reasons why I'm a hardened atheist.

An old-fashioned secularist

In his last days, an ailing Arjun Singh sat silently, sphinx-like, in the living room of his Akbar Road residence in Delhi, giving an impression of disinterestedness and ennui about what was really

Come and see the Blood on the Streets

A fact-finding team investigates why the body count was so high during last year’s uprising in Kashmir
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi