BY PRAFUL BIDWAI ‘Scorched earth’ is the kindest phrase to describe the approach of the last budget (rather, vote-on-account) of India’s United Progressive Alliance in its inglorious second term. Finance Minister P Chidambaram savaged social-sector spending, cut productive capital expenditure by Rs1.5 trillion, and pampered the elite. He even made a 31-percent cut in the […]
BY BRIAN LOFFLER Once in a lifetime a truly game-changing event reshapes global society. Think back to 1833 when the British Parliament finally bowed to public pressure and the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. The writer speaks to Polly Higgins who is campaigning tirelessly to do for Earth Rights what the abolitionists did for Human […]
BY JAWED NAQVI India’s feisty Dalit leader Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar scarcely finds place in our historical consciousness, having been airbrushed from much of the discourse about the freedom movement though he has been assigned the innocuous pedestal of the father of the Indian constitution. Ambedkar has been virtually deleted from the India-Pakistan debate as well […]
BY SHAHID JAVED BURKI Pakistan, ever reliant on external financial assistance, faces a very different international situation as the government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif heads towards completing its first year in office. It would be helpful to recall history a little bit in order to understand the external environment in which the […]
BY FARHANA QAZI Visiting Kashmir was like slipping down the rabbit hole. Like Alice, who was surprised by talking birds and beasts in Wonderland, I discovered a floating vegetable garden, a palace named after fairies called Pari Mahal, houseboats gliding along Dal Lake, and royal gardens. Kashmir’s untouched beauty captured Western imagination. Known as “the […]
BY COLIN TODHUNTER There is currently a battle waging across the planet over genetically modified (GM) crops. It seems like not a month goes by when a new report is released on the health, environmental or productivity aspects of GM organisms. The GM biotech industry tries to assure governments and the public about the safety […]
BY URVASHI BUTALIA My office is located in an urban village in the heart of Delhi. Originally surrounded by fields where people grew crops, these areas now house apartment blocks and shopping malls. All that’s left of the old village is the cluster of houses in which many of the erstwhile residents live, and where […]
BY JUGGUN KAZIM There are times when just about anyone will drain your energy – a friend going through a divorce or a career crisis, or a close relative having marital problems. But then there are others who always leave you feeling low. How do you gauge if someone is an energy drainer or just […]
BY MUNIR AKRAM Europe and the United States have successfully encouraged a revolt against Viktor Yanukovych, the inept and corrupt, but elected, Russian-oriented president of Ukraine. A pro-Western interim administration has been installed in the capital Kiev. But, neither the new Ukrainian leaders, nor their Western backers, appear to have a plan for what to […]
BY ROBERT FISK Tarif Khalidi is a big, bearded bear of a man, the kind you would always choose to play Father Christmas, or perhaps a Cossack leader sweeping across the Russian steppe, reins in one hand, sword in the other. But Tarif – or Uncle Tarif as I invariably call him – is an […]