Ram Puniyani Twenty years ago (December 6, 1992) on this fateful day, Babri Mosque was demolished. This demolition remains a major blot in the history of India. It was the act of demolition by communal forces which reflected the changing polity of India and it in turn further changed the polity in a very adverse…
Ram Puniyani Gujarat is going to have the assembly elections in December 2012. As per the surveys and the claims of BJP and Narendra Modi himself, the ruling Chief Minister, will be winning with great majority. The media has created a larger than life image for him, Modi’s own media management firm has been creating…
Ram Puniyani The events taking place in different parts of the country in October-November 2012 have been very disturbing to say the least. It is the continuance and recurrence of communal events, communal violence in different parts of the country, in UP, Assam and Hyderabad in particular. In UP since the Akhilesh Yadav Government has…
Ram Puniyani The declaration of demise of Bal Thackeray (November 17, 2012) has brought the Mumbai city to a complete halt. Most of the news channels are relaying his death procession round the clock and having discussion about his tall stature most of the time. His grip on the city had been more or less…
Ram Puniyani Caste is a phenomenon deeply entrenched in Indian society and the struggle against it began in the late 19th century. Despite the social movements, initiated around the ideas of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and many such legendary figures, it continues to pervade in the Indian society like a malignant cancer, refusing to die easily. There…
Ram Puniyani Pakistan has been facing innumerable troubles, not entirely due to its own faults. The whole politics of oil, the designs of…
Ram Puniyani The spate of horrific rapes in Haryana in particular (Sept 2012) has drawn the national attention to this abominable phenomenon. Various diagnosis and prescriptions have also come forward about the causes and as to how to prevent these rapes is also being suggested by different people. Interestingly the world view of those advising…
Ram Puniyani The Union Rural development Minister’s remark that “toilets are more important than temples” (October 2012) was met with diverse responses. Ramesh was speaking at a launch of campaign to sensitize people about the ill effects of open defecation, a practice very common in rural areas and city slums, where sanitation facilities are poor…
Ram Puniyani Putting on masks with changing times are the compulsions of electoral politics for many parties, more so with a party like Bhartiya Janta Party. BJP so far has been doing this with great amount of ease, but lately its dilemmas are increasing in intensity due to its track record in the political arena…
Ram Puniyani Religious identity has come to the bigger prominence in the social-political space during last few decades. The rise of communal and fundamentalist politics has vitiated the popular perceptions about ‘who are we’ and this in turn has deepened the divides in the society. Recently RSS supremo, Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat stated (September 2012) that,…