The battle against forgetting

"If we accept Gujarat 2002 as something ‘in the past,' as some would like us to, we threaten the meaning of our present, and endanger our future."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : The battle against forgetting: These contestations are not just about many battles in courtrooms that must be waged. The contestation is about the meaning of citizenship. It is about the relationship between citizen and State. It is about challenging State impunity. Gujarat is the battle for collective memory against forgetting because it is ultimately the battle for the idea of India.

In 1950, India made a constitutional promise to protect the rights of its minorities to live with dignity and with full rights of citizenship. Time and again, that sacred promise has been violated. Institutional biases of the State machinery cannot be acceptable in any civilised democracy — that is the lesson of Gujarat.

We cannot legislate against communal prejudice and hatred in the hearts and minds of people. That is a battle that we as a society and a people must wage in a million different ways at a million different moments in our collective and individual lives. But we can and we must legislate to ensure justice to the weak.

We give up on the battle for justice in Gujarat at our own peril. For in giving up on Gujarat, we give up on hope for a better India — an India that is by right home to each one of us.

Why caste persists in politics

"An internal code, culture and values make a caste special to its members."

The reason for the persistence of caste in politics has to do with the internal code of the caste, its positive aspects, its culture. This aspect erodes more slowly, if it erodes at all, because it is felt. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Why caste persists in politics:

The fact is that the Indian votes confessionally. For him or her, merit comes from caste values. This condition may not be forever unalterable. But it is evident that modernity by itself has thus far not dented it as it has the prescriptive aspect of caste.

Home, work and worship are precisely where caste is embedded most powerfully, and the reason why caste consciousness persists in 2012. Voting is only an extension of this consciousness that has, in fact, not changed that much.

A rich and common past, a promising future

"Italy is eager to establish the truth of the Enrica Lexie incident."

Piracy is a common enemy. It is a menace we need to fight in close cooperation and with the strongest determination, if we want sailors to continue to navigate the seas safely. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : A rich and common past, a promising future: As peoples who live by the sea, both Indians and Italians strongly feel the loss of two fishermen who went out to sea that day, just as any other day, to do their job and support their families.

India and Italy have a rich common past. But the future is before us, open to new avenues for cooperation, in a world that is fast becoming more integrated and interconnected. We can work together for a better life for future generations. 

The author, Giulio Terzi is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

The UPA’s Committee Raj

In India, the best way of procrastination today is to form committees. The government, in its second stint in the center has been plagued by various problems and has found an ideal way to come out of this: form committees and let people forget it. In this column, Shankkar Aiyar exposes this brilliant 'problem camouflage tool' the government has developed, by pointing out to the various committees created during the UPA regime and their ineffectiveness to do anything towards the problem. And it is not just the government, but also the President's office, with its own committee exposing how much the country is being swamped by 'Committee Raj'.


http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/columnists/the-upa%E2%80%99s-committee-raj/367052.html

"When the UPA first came to power, I had studied this phenomenon of Committee Raj and discovered that in its first 11 months of existence, it had created 56 committees, roughly one a week."

"It is a spectacle. The government waits for committees to recommend, and committees wait for the government to act. It makes you wonder if the committees are a means to an end or an end in itself."

G-20 linking IMF hike to bigger EU ‘firewall' fund

"The G-20 nations are conditioning additional money for the International Monetary Fund on the European Union first increasing its financial stabilisation funds to ease concerns about the Euro zone debt crisis"

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : G-20 linking IMF hike to bigger EU ‘firewall' fund: There is broad agreement that the IMF cannot substitute for the absence of a stronger European firewall and that the IMF cannot move forward without more clarity on Europe's own plans.

Labor against itself

"As expected, Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has easily held off former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd's leadership challenge with a ballot of ruling Australian Labor Party MPs"

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Labor against itself: The party has been very badly tarnished; Ms Gillard will want to get on with policy, but will need to communicate far better with the voters.

The same old show

"Hollywood's ritual of self-congratulation, otherwise known as the Oscar awards, has become the most boring show on the planet."

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : The same old show: It is due to the utter predictability of the prizes. Was anyone really surprised when The Artist, a slight but charming ode not just to silent cinema but to Hollywood itself, left its competition in the dust with five wins? About the only award that quivered with an iota of suspense was the one for Best Actress.

The problem lies with the interminable stretch of honours announced in what has come to be known as “awards season.” And what the Academy does, essentially, is stamp their seal of approval on these awards.