Journalist, social science researcher, human rights activist and Rediff.com contributor, Praful Bidwai has passed away. He was 66.
In his last column for Rediff.com, Praful Bidwai joins issues with those lauding India's covert operation against Naga rebels based in Myanmarese territory.
'No party has endangered "national security" as severely, as the BJP, by dividing the nation and severing it from the very people who constitute it. And none has tried to drive such a wedge between Hindus and others, and among the Hindus themselves.'
'We must not let the anti-terrorism fervour get the better of the law and of human rights. Mr Dhingra's judgment must be overturned. Vengeance is not justice,' says Praful Bidwai.
'Never before has an Indian politician made such huge electoral gains on dead bodies. For the moment, Vajpayee is speaking the language of the VHP-RSS,' says Praful Bidwai.
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Recent growth has wrought enormous environmental destruction and degradation in India, says Praful Bidwai.
The political situation in the country is fluid and could change significantly. But as things stand, India could be headed for an unstable minority government dependent on uncertain "outside" support, says Praful Bidwai.
Most rich and upper-middle class Indians are greatly under-taxed. Worse, the government annually writes off over Rs 5 lakh crores through exemptions. This practice must be ended if the growth-development disconnect is to be abolished, says Praful Bidwai.
India's regional policy has fallen between the two stools of pragmatism and principle. It's time India revisited and rectified its approach. Relations with neighbours deserve nothing less, says Praful Bidwai.
India and Pakistan, says Praful Bidwai, have to get out of the deeply ingrained habit of regarding their Hot-Cold War as something normal and inevitable, and move towards demilitarising their borders.
For the Kashmiri people, the gun remains India's main face, and coercion or deception by New Delhi dominates their consciousness, says Praful Bidwai after a recent visit to the valley.
The mother of intolerance is the Union home ministry, run by ultra-conservative bureaucrats who are inclined to take a hard line on matters ranging from fighting insurgencies to putting citizens under surveillance to outlawing dissident groups, says Praful Bidwai.
Nuclear-tipped missiles don't give security, says Praful Bidwai
To put it starkly, the Congress, and with it, the United Progressive Alliance, is sleepwalking into a minefield by blundering on land and Aadhaar, says Praful Bidwai
Amidst the glowing tributes for National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, who died last week, it must not be forgotten that he was pivotal to bringing about far-reaching but questionable shifts in India's security and foreign policy stances and forging a hard-line national security apparatus, says Praful Bidwai.
Sustaining the Bolivarian revolution after Hugo Chavez won't be easy. But we must all celebrate its considerable achievements and wish it well, says Praful Bidwai.
Three important developments in the nuclear sector have put the department of atomic energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India on the back foot, says Praful Bidwai
The Congress could have regained some lost ground had it returned to welfare and a pro-poor platform. Instead, it has moved in the opposite direction. Rahul Gandhi's upper middle class-based political mobilisation strategy is likely to fail badly, says Praful Bidwai.
Sharad Pawar's real grievances have to do with the frustration of his prime ministerial ambitions, and his inability to gain high stature, including the Number Two slot in the Cabinet, says Praful Bidwai
It won't be easy to fight entrenched patriarchy and male-chauvinist prejudice without an extensive campaign of social reform, says Praful Bidwai
The BJP and the Left have come out poorer, while the Congress was galvanised to push Pranab Mukherjee's into the race. The political permutations and combinations also indicate the possibility of a non-Congress, non-BJP 'third front' being in the fray for the 2014 general elections, says Praful Bidwai.
More details will doubtless pour out about Sudipto Sen's rackets as investigations proceed. But one thing is certain. The vast majority of Saradha's victims will only get a pittance from the Rs 5 billion compensation fund set up by the Mamata Banerjee government, to be part financed by an additional levy on cigarettes, of all things. But the investors' stake is estimated at Rs 170 billion, if not more, says Praful Bidwai.
Praful Bidwai pays tribute to General Vo Nguyen Giap who was a legend in his lifetime and hailed as one of the greatest military leaders of the 20th century.
Even if the SP doesn't immediately withdraw support, the UPA government will remain helplessly dependent on the SP and the BSP. Withdrawal of support by either could destroy the UPA's paper-thin majority. It will have to do a balancing act between these two rivals on a day-to-day basis, says Praful Bidwai
The Congress's plight, self-inflicted and terrible as it, should give very little consolation to the Bharatiya Janata Party which is itself in bad shape, says Praful Bidwai
Praful Bidwai deciphers the election verdict's real meaning.
Contrary to the CAG report, the true scam is not exclusive to the UPA, or one for which it bears the prime culpability. Rather, it's a collective or collusive scandal, with both the UPA-ruled Centre and the non-UPA states reaching a nice 'match fixing'-style arrangement to snatch away coal mines from public sector companies and allot coal-mining leases to shady business interests, says Praful Bidwai.
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