Passionate About India

The recent suicide of Capt. Megha Razdan again brings to the forth the pertinent and tragic issues of fragging, chronic depression and mass desertions, which have been marring the Indian Armed Forces since long. Even though the death of Capt. Megha Razdan is yet to be confirmed as a suicide, that there is a grave problem with the armed forces of our country cannot be ignored. In the last year itself, it has been reported that almost 100 soldiers have taken away their lives. In addition to this, another 32 have been killed by their colleagues. In fact, the spate of suicides, particularly within the Army, had been on the rise. Reports state that since 2004, of the 408 soldiers that died, around 333 killed themselves. International media too has put forth the concern that Indian Army is loosing more soldiers by the way of suicides than fighting on the borders. So what has gone so wrong that soldiers who were supposed to guard the nation against contingencies, have started pulling the trig...

Despite their unquestionably perfect ideology of an equitable State, unfortunately the communists world over have always been dictatorial. Dictatorship, though, is not the way Marx wanted his ideals to be propagated worldwide. However, for the communists, the typical formula has been to come to power by appealing to the humane instincts of mankind – by speaking of equality – and then retaining power through brutal force (though any good work done would’ve got every communist regime in the world back to power democratically as well). The story has been the same in West Bengal. Years ago, the great Maratha swadeshi leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale is believed to have said of this very State that “What Bengal thinks today India thinks tomorrow.” Yes, West Bengal boasts of the most intellectuals in this country thanks to years old tradition of literature, art and culture. She boasts of the three great Nobel laureates of India, Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen as well as India...