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Having worked at the grassroots for some years now, what I have often grappled with, is the utter lack of representation of the poor in elite discourse, in a substantial way. In rare moments, when they are, they are collectivised as faceless herds, too numerous and too unimportant, to merit individuation, let alone respectability. My own personal journey of breaking away from this cruel ‘understanding’ has been slow and humanising.

During my recent (February 19-28, 2013) ten-day visit to Pakistan, I realised that the country is divided into two distinct camps. One comprising those who want friendly and cordial relations with India and the other made up of those who encourage hostility and enmity towards India. The first group consists of intellectuals, literacy personalities, professors and also an overwhelming section of the students.

Punjab’s regression had begun with the once country’s one of the economically most prosperous states turning into an economically ruined and heavily indebted state. This was followed by the stints of lackluster governance, which has touched new lows during the six years of the Akali-BJP coalition regime. The last week’s developments show that our elected representatives are now out to render the functioning of the temple of democracy –Assembly- redundant.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam had proved to be the most dreaded organization; no other militant organization violated human rights so unabashedly as the LTTE did. In its bloody 26-year-long history, it had let loose a mayhem not only in Sri Lanka but in India too. Over one-lakh civilians, 22,000 soldiers and 30,000 LTTE rebels were killed in the civil war in the island nation. The LTTE, for the first time, pioneered the use of suicide belts.

The coming summit of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) at Durban on March 26 and 27 gives a big opportunity to the BRICS nations to take a major initiative to speed up the process of developmental cooperation among the member countries by setting up the BRICS Development Bank. The proposed bank will help the BRICS nations to organize their developmental finances more easily and also help other developing countries to get assistance for key developmental projects on soft terms.

New Delhi : The Indian Defence Minister AK Antony complimented the top brass of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for their remarkable achievements in recent years, most notably, for Agni-5 and the BrahMos missile systems.

New Delhi : India has been finally successful in striking a diplomatic deal with Italy for sending back its two marines, Salvatore Latorre and Massimiliano Girone to face going trial in the country.

With the Italian government finally agreeing to return the two accused sailors in the Kerala fishermen-in-sea murder case, the ground that was fertile till yesterday for some reaping of patriotic crops has been scorched. Nothing works better than some good old Italy bashing to make ‘proud Indians’ out of us. But for these Italians, how else could the homegrown saffron Goths, constantly plotting the fall of an imagined Roman regime in New Delhi, rehearse another episode of their ‘India, good or bad’ drama?

India’s two-decade-old economic reform policy is finally exposing its weaknesses. Initially, the reform was all about phased liberalisation of the economy, selectively ending the licence-permit regime, embracing globalisation of trade and commerce in keeping with WTO protocols, easing sectoral restrictions on foreign direction investments (FDI), lifting curbs on foreign institutional investment (FII) in company stocks and domestic fund management, financial deregulation, easier corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A), transparency in business and government deals, etc.

LUCKNOW: In view of development taking place at the centre, the political parties in UP are apprehending Lok Sabha polls by September-October 2013, instead of scheduled for 2014.