A perspective on Union Budget FY 2024-25
On 23rd July 2024, the Union of India Budget day, Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us why she is on Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful Women list: She is ranked 32, and shares the list with Taylor Swift and Melinda Gates. During the 86 minutes of her Budget speech, investors, businessmen and taxpayers tuned in from around the country, to see what would happen to their bank balances...[By Philip Mudartha]
Billionaire Tax, Emergency, and By-polls
A group of former presidents and prime ministers of the G20 countries have expressed themselves in favour of "billionaire tax". In their open letter to the current leaders of G20 group, they wrote that this initiative is a rare political opportunity. The Indian National Congress (INC) asked what Modi’s position is on such a tax and what will India’s stand be when the matter is discussed at the G20 meet in Rio Janeiro later this month...[By Philip Mudartha]
The Crippled Dictator and other views
In the 18th Lok Sabha, the opposition is strongest in our political history, with the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) securing a record 234 seats. The BJP has a strength of 240, 32 short of the majority mark of 272. TDP and JDU together hold 28 seats and along with BJP’s other allies, NDA has formed the government. It’s no longer the Modi 3.0 government...
[By Philip Mudartha]
Why Modi is PM and not the Leader of Opposition?
Modi was set to lose 2024 like Vajpayee in 2004. Here’s what changed: If just 1 (one) out of the 66 people watching the government propaganda had changed their mind, the Supreme Leader would have been the Leader of Opposition today”. Yogendra Yadav, Shreyas Sardesai, and Rahul Shastri write in their opinion piece for the Print on 14th June 2024 based on voter..[By Philip Mudartha]
Inflation: This unannouced tax hits the poor hard
In earlier exclusives, I have dealt with two crucial issues: 1) Unemployment, especially youth unemployment due to which our youthful demographics is wasted. And 2) increasing inequalities of incomes and weath. To recap, the following pie-chart summerises the unemployment situation in India according to the “Mood of the nation”..By Philip Mudartha
The State of Inequality in India
Inequalities in Incomes and wealth declined since independence due to the socialist policies adopted by successive Congress-led governments till mid-1980s. The land re-distribution laws enacted by the state governments, especially in the communist ruled states contributed most. In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh staunch socialists like Devaraj Urs and PV Narasimha Rao enacted Land Reforms Acts. Thus, by redistribution of agricultural land to the landless tillers by state intervention of the state, farm outputs rose and they were lifted from extreme poverty...[By Philip Mudartha]
Wasting our youthful demographics
At the markets in Navi Mumbai where I shop for groceries, vegetables and fruits, young women and girl-children accost me and implore to buy garbage bags for a few tens of rupees. I wonder if they earn enough for two square meals a day. Then there are Swiggy, Zomato and other platforms whose delivery boys arrive at our door-steps with freshly cooked food from restaurants, daily essentials like fresh milk, eggs and bread etc. Have you wondered what they must be earning per day?...[By Philip Mudartha]
Women’s Day Special: Rev. Dr. Mariola BS-A Sister With Social Conscience
It has been a common perception that religious, either men or women who find vocation join the orders or congregations of their choice and live an isolated life of prayer, sacrifice and abnadonment of worldly responsibilities. This may be true in some of the cloistered religious comunities. However, with the chaninging times, the church has been quite aware of the need to serve the people not only spiritually but also respond to their social, economic, legal and emotional needs. Hence, a number of religious congregations encourage their community memebrs to take up higher education...[By Dr. Eugene DSouza]
Jai Sri Ram and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra
Given the political and highly contestable nature of the Ayodhya conflict, the 9th November 2019 unanimous verdict by a five-judge constitution bench expectedly continues to generate contrasting opinions. The bench had ruled that the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya be handed over to a trust to be constituted for the construction of the Ram temple at the site, and five acres allotted at a ’prominent site’ in Ayodhya to build a mosque. Many legal luminaries opposed to the judgment had pointed out that it was “bad in law” but “politically pragmatic”...[By Philip Mudartha]
Of Headline News Stories of past three months
After the hiatus of two months, I resume the series of exclusive articles. There wasn’t a dearth of news stories relevant to you. However, I must admit that my readers have been less than enthusiastic to express their views on these exclusives. Which, of course, affected my motivation besides suffering from a bout of seasonal illnesses...[By Philip Mudartha]
British Palestine during the 1920-1947 period
In April 1920, the World War-I Allies divided the former territories of the defeated Ottoman Empire. Syria and Lebanon went to France. Great Britain got Palestine. However, the Palestinian Arabs wanted an independent Arab Palestine within the Federation of Syria. Palestinian Arabs speak of 1920 as ??m al-nakbah, the “year of catastrophe.”...[By Philip Mudartha]
The emergence of Zionism and Eretz Israel
During the last decade of 19th century, a minority of Eastern European Jews rejected assimilation as minorities. Some others developed the modern European notion of nationalism. The emergence of nationalism deepened the Jewish existential crisis and Jews were forced to choose between their Jewish and national identities. Anti-Semitism, the prevalent attitude of European nationalists, resulted in the emergence of Zionism. A minority of Jewish thinkers concluded that the only way to secure their community..[By Philip Mudartha]
Partition of Palestine, State of Israel and Nehru
In my previous article, I referred to Fred Jerome’s book “Einstein on Israel and Zionism”. I read it with my subscription to internet archive which gave me the accurate picture of Einstein as a human-being of very high moral calibre though irreligious. The full texts of Einstein’s letter to Nehru and Nehru’s reply to Einstein are available on pages 243 to 252. I realized that Einstein and Nehru were very similar in outlook and shared the same vision for global order. Both Einstein and Nehru were secular, socialist, pacifist..[By Philip Mudartha]
The Jewish Homeland, Einstein and Nehru
Einstein was not an ardent supporter of Zionism, the Jewish Homeland project by the European Jews. He felt that the waves of arriving Jews could live alongside existing Arabs in Palestine. In 1938, he predicted that the Zionist project would be threatened by “fanatical Arab outlaws”. Yet, he professed that Palestine could become “a centre of culture for all Jews, a refuge for the most grievously oppressed, a field of action for the best among us...[By Philip Mudartha]
Hamas-Israel war and India
The Hamas cross-border terrorist attack on Israel in the early hours of Saturday, the 7th October was unprecedented. Over 5,000 rockets were fired at Israeli cities, and villages. Under the cover of rocket fire, over 2,500 armed men poured into Southern Israel using either para-gliders or SUVs, trucks and motor-cycles. They went on a killing rampage of unarmed civilians who were either dancing at a Supernova desert music festival or sleeping in their homes. Women, babies and elderly were not spared. They bombed police stations and over-ran security guard-houses before the army re-enforcements arrived...[By Philip Mudartha]
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