Political parties

The great capitulation

September 2009
Praful Bidwai

Indians and Pakistanis have to develop a common, rational understanding of the partition story that is free of nationalist prejudice -- although Jaswant Singh makes little contribution to this.

UPA’s early drift

July 2009
Praful Bidwai
The government has not made a break with conservative and neoliberal policies despite the election’s message and its own promises.

Back to basics

June 2009
Praful Bidwai

The Left can recover from its rout only through radical rethinking and mass mobilisation on working people’s gut-level issues

Cross of Charter impasse, unfolding economy

June 2009
Walden Bello

With its representative institutions severely weakened by unscrupulous political machinations, the fate of our constitutional democracy will once again depend on the direct democracy of the streets

Factional War Grows As The Party Sinks

June 2009
Praful Bidwai

The BJP’s multiple crises are now set to worsen—including its ideological confusion, its political mobilisation crisis, and its organisational crisis.

A caring State

June 2009
Praful Bidwai

Unless Left parties acknowledge their blunders and rebuild their links with progressive intellectuals and civil society activists, and involve them as well in changing course, they will face marginalisation and a historic decline.

After Congress‘ rejuvenation in election 2009: need for an indigenous New Deal

June 2009
Praful Bidwai

The great story of Election-2009 is the Congress’ rejuvenation on an inclusive pluralist-secular platform and the electorate’s emphatic rejection of the BJP’s divisive, communal politics. The Congress has got its second wind and overtaken the BJP by 90 seats and a hefty 10 percentage points in votes.

A mixed bag

June 2009
Praful Bidwai
The UPA’s key appointments reflect conservative foreign and security policies and a “free market plus social security” approach to the economy.

AFTER three long weeks of consultation, deliberation and jockeying, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) finally formed a Council of Ministers. But the result is not authentically representative of India’s diversity, or the sources of its own victory.

The left must keep left

June 2009
Achin Vanaik

Perhaps the single most significant consequence of the recent elections is the dramatic decline of the reformist left of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPM. This decline was sharpest in West Bengal and was undoubtedly related to the tragedies of Singur and Nandigram for which Buddhadev Bhattacharya bears principal responsibility.

Reading the verdict

June 2009
Praful Bidwai

The Indian electorate has delivered its judgment on parties - the BJP has been punished for its divisiveness, the Congress rewarded for inclusiveness, and the Left told it must correct course