South Asia Citizens Web

Analysis on the elections in Bangladesh. Debate on India Rajya Sabha TV Guests: Hiranmoy Karlekar (Senior Journalist) ; Veena Sikri (Former Diplomat) ; Pinak Ranjan Chakravarthy (Former Diplomat) Anchor: Bharat Bhushan

Aam Admi Party has aroused a lot of enthusiasm among the people of India after its spectacular debut in the Delhi elections. Though AAP could not get majority and was not even the single largest party, it was obliged to form its government. AAP was nudged by both – Congress as well as the BJP to form its Govt. in the National Capital Territory - Congress by extending unconditional support and BJP, by deciding to sit on opposition benches in spite of being the single largest party.

The history of the Sikhs in independent India is a history involving laughter and tears. On the one hand they were identified with both irrepressible joy and industriousness, qualities converging in the figure of the farmer. Propagandist photographs of the success of Punjab’s "green revolution" necessarily required a picture of a Sikh on a tractor. The martial Sikh – no one could doubt his valour or patriotism – had taken up, if not the ploughshare, then the latest fertiliser (although a disproportionately large number of soldiers in the Indian army were and are Sikh), and achieved successes on farmland comparable to battles fought and won. Alongside such uplifting stereotypes were ruder ones, comprising the well-known "Sardarji" (the Hindi colloquialism for the Sikh) jokes, portraying a dim but well-intentioned personage.

The Left in India has lost touch with the instincts and knowledges on which it has traditionally based its theoretical and practical positions.

I first became conscious of politics as a student of economics in Kirorimal College, Delhi University in 1969 when I was elected to the students union executive committee. The same year I was persuaded by a senior to stand for the Delhi University Students Union’s Supreme Council. The latter body elected the DUSU office bearers. These were heady days with some of the leading pro- Naxalites students, students like Avdesh Sinha, who later became a highly respected IAS officer, and Rabindra Ray now a sociology professor in Delhi University. Another leading star who has written on his experiences was Dilip Simeon. I also became Left but did not agree with armed struggle. At this stage I watched the mainstream Left parties and along with Marxist texts read some Left Party pamphlets.