Editorial: January 2013
Hardnews Bureau Delhi
JANUARY 2013
JANUARY 2013
Cover Story and Featured Stories
The protests in Delhi and elsewhere have become a collective catharsis, a cry for help, an angry assertion of the right to free movement, a life of dignity and freedom from fear of rape. But what will it change?
Rahul Roy Delhi
If Rahul Gandhi is a youth leader, how is he so totally disconnected from the thousands of young on the streets?
Sanjay Kapoor Delhi
Something had split apart, something had broken, hearts were broken and eyes were glazed. Fingers became fists. Fists were clenched
Amit Sengupta Delhi
Despite the BJP’s muscle-flexing, the Congress victory in the hill state, led by Virbhadra Singh, was predictable
Rohit Negi Kullu
Bonded labour stalks the feudal interiors of the desert state
Akash Bisht and Sadiq Naqvi Baran (Rajasthan)
Acute malnutrition stalks the Sahariyas of Baran, but the district collector cares two hoots
Sadiq Naqvi and Akash Bisht Baran (Rajasthan)
The lack of a clear successor is delaying the change in India’s captaincy in Test Cricket
Sandeep Kumar Delhi
Invoking Marx and Engels’s German Ideology, Anderson’s book sets out to test the ‘idea of India’ against the reality
Rajesh Sharma Delhi
Women became second-class citizens in Iran after the Iranian revolution of 1979. After the revolution, the Islamic regime forced veiling, invoked polygamy, gender segregation, surveillance, and revoked laws under the Shah which gave limited space and freedom to women
Shakeel Anjum Delhi
The free medicine project in government hospitals, including life-saving drugs, has arrived as a life-giving miracle for the people of Rajasthan, especially the poor, who were hitherto devastated by the huge cost of healthcare
Sadiq Naqvi and Akash Bisht Baran/Jaipur
More Stories from this Issue
All the young ones in the locality seemed to have withdrawn, there were no bonfires, not one cracker was burst, no dancing and partying, not one sound of a loud ‘Happy New Year’
Amit Sengupta Delhi
When Cairo’s Tahrir Square erupted against President Mohammed Morsi’s attempts to usurp all powers, the divide was clearly visible. On one side were the Islamists, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, and on the other were the secularists, animated by Muslim liberals, Coptic Christians and many of those keen to protect the secular ethos of the Gamal Abdel Nasser era. Women provided the spine to this opposition to Morsi as they feared losing their rights once the sharia laws began to sideline existing ones.
There is absolutely no way of knowing whether Muslim people annoy Narendra Modi as much as Jewish people had annoyed Austria-born Adolf Hitler who instigated and then lost the last world war.
But both Modi and Hitler are mentioned here in the same breath because of a sense of deja vu over the euphoria in Gujarat today.
While I’m really looking forward to 2013 with my fingers tightly crossed and several good-luck charms like four-leaf clovers cluttering my bedside table, I think it’s worthwhile to also look back at 2012. What are the important things we learnt, and such like. So, here goes: