Articles

By Abdul Hannan Siwani Nadvi for TwoCircles.net

By Arun Kumar Washington : As police investigate an attack on a Sikh man in California as a hate crime, a media report said violence...

By Ajmal Khan and Anish for TwoCircles.net, Professor Kancha Ilaiah had well predicted that Narendra Modi would become the next Prime Minister under BJP, and he has also been instrumental in raising criticism on how Indian Left failed to understand the caste question. After the parliament elections, he described how the caste equations has been used in the country by the BJP. As soon as the BJP came into power, many decisions have already been taken by the ruling government, which will have far reaching consequences on the lives of dalits, adivasis, Muslims and Bahujans. In this context, Ajmal Khan and Anish engaged in conversation with Kancha Ilaiah, writer, a dalit rights activist and former Professor and head of the Political Science department at the Osmania University, Hyderabad, on contemporary politics in India, particularly on Muslim, Dalit and Bahujan politics. He argues, that Muslims will have to form their own national party or a national coalition of all the Muslim parties by retaining their political and social identity.

By Vatsal Srivastava, The first quarter of 2014 saw bearish news flow out of China on a regular basis. Out of all the disappointing economic releases - the first corporate bond default, the shrinking export numbers, and the PBOC intervention to abate the appreciation of the yuan - it is perhaps the risk of the property bubble bursting which poses the greatest risk to the global macro recovery.

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net Aurangabad (Maharashtra): “Thodi si neki karle pyare …Allah ne mauka diya hai” (Do some good work dear …Almighty has given you...

By Mohammad Allam, The purpose of any educational institution is to develop all-round personality of the student through keeping education in the centre. If education is not in the centre, no model of students union will work to improve the educational culture of the institution and all-round personality of the students. To achieve the aims and objectives, the function of the concerned educational authority is to construct such a model which inspires the students to perform better at all levels by placing education in the centre.

By Sanjay Suri President Zail Singh could not get through to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi when he needed most to, when thousands upon thousands...

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,

By Sushma Ramachandran, IANS, The fact that World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said that China's yuan may become the global reserve currency over the next 15 years assumes significance not just for the world but also for India. It has the potential to make Indian goods relatively more competitive as the Chinese currency today is highly controlled.

By Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

A Year-long Series on Education, Sponsored by The Aligarh Forum : - A Mirror on our Efforts, our Successes & our Shortcomings ; Stories...

By Ram Puniyani,

By Vinay Bhat,

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net, India, it seems, has evolved a new yardstick for development. More the farmers’ suicide more ‘developed’ the country or state is. This is not figment of imagination of any prophet of doom, but the impression one gets after going through the figures provided by none else but the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, in Rajya Sabha on May 7.

By Hardeep Singh Puri and Omar El Okdah, Between February 17-19, a large conference on 'Countering Violent Extremism' convened in Washington, bringing together political and diplomatic representatives from over 60 countries, law enforcement officials, religious leaders and experts.

By Charu Bahri, TwoCircles.net It has been more than a month since UPA government came back to power but still they are hashing out the 100-day agenda of the government. Before any government makes any policy decision or sets the nation on to a course for the future, it should take into account hopes and aspirations of the people.

By Lt Gen (retd.) S.S. Mehta, IANS

The budget 2008-09 has taken the necessary steps to boost consumer demand and revive manufacturing in the light of emerging global slowdown and inflationary pressures. The strategy to revise upwards the slabs for personal income tax, reduce excise on key items and reduce Cenvat from 16 percent to 14 percent will help bolster flagging consumer demand, and consequently favourably impact the consumer durables segment.

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net Lucknow (UP): In a significant decision, the Lucknow Bench of Armed Forces Tribunal has ruled that the declaration of oral...

By K. G. Kannabiran,

A few years back I raised the question “whether a Political Party not subscribing to the Constitutional value system so clearly spelt out by the Preamble and the other provisions in the Constitution, have its party registered to contest and participate in the country’s election?

By Bilal Ahmed Malik for TwoCircles.net The concept of culture is fundamental to sociological and anthropological discourse. E. B. Tylor, a prominent pre-modern anthropologist, has...

By Asghar Ali Engineer,

Democracy is supposed to be the best form of governance but experience both of western and eastern countries show a wide gap between theory and practice. Nothing that pertains to human beings can approximate, let alone be equal to ideals. Philosophers also say real is not ideal and ideal is not real. Democracy is no exception. Democracy is an ideal but its practice within a given society makes it operation extremely complex.

By IANS, New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Thursday asked journalists to keep refreshing their knowledge to better disseminate facts including on parliamentary processes to the public.

By Rohit Bansal, IANS, Some years ago in the US, Saurabh Narain, a top banking executive, was hit by a distracted trucker. His BMW turned...

अफ़रोज़ आलम साहिल, TwoCircles.net नोखा (राजस्थान): डेल्टा मेघवाल की लड़ाई अब किसी एक वर्ग या जाति की लड़ाई नहीं रह गई है. यह इंसाफ़ की...

By Animesh Banerjee, IANS, As a majority of the Indian population lives in its 650,000-odd villages, there has been a consistent attempt by successive governments since Independence to develop rural India. Despite these attempts, the sad truth is that due to ineffectiveness in government or public delivery systems the policy benefits hardly trickled down to the targeted beneficiaries.

By Nasiruddin Haider Khan I have been to Gujarat for the third time this year for my studies and work. Every time I have returned with a new experience. New dimensions get added to my database which I have gathered by reading and talking to others.

By Suhail Reza,

By V.S. Karnic, IANS,

By Saeed Naqvi, In President Barack Obama's initial list of the coalition against the Islamist State (ISIS) are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Jordan. Others are being cajoled, tempted, lured but are not quite there. India too was sounded. Mercifully, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is embarked on a mission of economic diplomacy. He will tiptoe out of this one.

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net,

Patna: The Bihar School Examination Board has been surprised by a large number of impersonators caught this year in the Class 10 exams that...

Once described as Paradise on Earth, Kashmir has now become a synonym for violence. Caught in the crossfires between the two neighbours of the Indian sub-continent, Kashmiris are living a life that is devoid of peace. What is the solution to the Kashmir issue? TwoCircles.net's Kashif-ul-Huda catches up with Syed Ali Safvi, Associate Editor of the newly-launched newspaper Etalaat. An AMU post-graduate in Mass Communication, Safvi talks about the solution to the Kashmir issue.

By Ram Puniyani,

By Vatsal Srivastava, IANS, The trading sessions Tuesday in the main global markets, notably the US and Europe, were driven solely by one event --...

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net

By Bhamy V. Shenoy, IANS,

By Daniel Gavron, CGNews,

By Rahul Vaishnavi Atali (Haryana) : The eerie calm in violence-torn Atali village in Haryana's Ballabhgarh district at the edge of Delhi threatens to explode...

By Amit Kapoor, The world is becoming increasingly connected, both physically and digitally. It has raised the fundamental ‘death of distance’ debate. According to the debate, the pro-side believes that the world is becoming increasingly flat while the opponents point to the relative non-availability of data about internationalization to conclusively say that distance is dead. While we believe that, 'distance' still matters, we do feel that increasingly there is a movement towards distance becoming irrelevant over a longer time frame.

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net, Every coin has two sides and visibly these sides will always remain completely contrasting to each other. Incidentally this standard...

By Iqbal Ahmed Nazrawi,

By Mohd Mudassir Alam

By Prem P. Batra, IANS, The massive oil depot fire that raged for days in Jaipur has dramatically but tragically illuminated the woefully inadequate fire service infrastructure in India. While conceding that the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot fire in Jaipur was colossal by any standard, the routine fire accidents that occur on a daily basis reveal the institutional flaws in the entire fire protection capacity at a national level.

By Balraj Puri

Among many challenges and hurdles marking the Indian Muslims in 2013 like a beacon of hope comes across for Indian Muslims in 2013 is the story of Mira Road.

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net TCN Malabar series- part 2

By Carl Schreck, IANS,

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi,

By Brajendra Nath Singh At least one thing is sure. Call drops don't just affect the common man. Even ministers are victims of the sudden...

By Mohit Dubey , Lucknow: The wily Yadav from Uttar Pradesh has done it once again. Never known for his political loyalties and infamous for...

By Syed Zahid Ahmad, Despite all due respects to ministers and other managers of economic policies of our great country, It is disappointing to read statements where it is repeatedly stated that the next year may be economically tougher, GDP growth rate may further decline, fiscal deficit may increase over the revised budget estimates and Indian economy may not turn around unless the global economy recovers. However, once the global economy shows the signs of recovery, India's turn around will be sharper and swifter; backed by our strong fundamentals and the untapped growth potential.

Rajesh Solanki, Convenor of the Jati Nirmulan Committee (‘Caste Annihilation Committee’) is a noted Dalit leader from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In this interview he talks with Yoginder Sikand about the Dalit movement in Gujarat, Dalit-Muslim relations and the challenge of Hindutva fascism. YS: How did you get involved in the Dalit movement?

By Veturi Srivatsa, It is not easy to please Indian cricket fans; they are too demanding. Not many seem to be willing to wager on...

By Joshua M. Z. Stanton Even as a Jew in New York, I know what it is like to be Muslim in France. While studying abroad in the French city of Strasbourg in 2007, I decided to grow a bushy beard. Little did I know that in France only traditional Jewish and Muslim men don anything but the most finely trimmed moustache or goatee. Since I did not wear a yarmulke or other head covering, people who saw me on the street assumed that I was Muslim.

(Oct 20 is World Osteoporosis Day) By IANS,

By Asghar Ali Engineer, After the fatwa from Deoband (some of the Deobandis deny that fatwa was ever issued) that Muslim women cannot work with strangers from amongst the men and that in that case her earnings will be haram (prohibited) to her family, a debate is raging on the need for ijtihad (creative reinterpretation of law) and it is often suggested that gates of ijtihad were closed after sack of Baghdad in 1258 and that these gates be reopened.

By Vatsal Srivastava, The futures contracts for August delivery in the COMEX gold in the New York commodities exchange was trading at a 15-week low of $1,265 per ounce, down $25 from its open. There was no fundamental news flow pertaining to the yellow metal itself as bears took over.

By Ram Puniyani, In order to gain larger legitimacy, the RSS has been making claims of sorts. One that was made few months back was that Gandhi was impressed by functioning of RSS. Now, came another distortion that Ambedkar believed in Sangh ideology (Feb 15, 2015). This was stated by RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat. Recently on the occasion of Ambedkar’s 124th birth anniversary many programmes were held by RSS combine giving a pro-Hindutva tilt to presentation of Ambedkar.

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi,

We have one of the oldest and India's first masjid called the Cheraman Jama Masjid exists at Kodungaloor in Kerala. As inscribed on the masjid's stone-plate, (where this writer has been after the historic Tsunami in 2004), it was built about 1400 years ago in 9 Hijra or 629 CE). Kodungaloor was the capital of the kings of Kerala, and in 622-628 CE (Hijra 2 to 9) the ruler was a great savant, by the name of Cheraman Perumal Bhaskara Ravi Varma. In those days, the seniormost of the rulers of Kerala was called as Cheraman Perumal.

By Ellen Francis The "axis of evil" has no relevance for me when I think of Iran, a country I've found to have a human, loving, hospitable face throughout 40 years of encounters. I lived in Iran between 1968 and 1978, and started returning again, this time with peace delegations, in 2005. It is one of the great joys of my life to see the layers of misunderstanding and fear gradually fall away from those who visit Iran today for the first time.

By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS,

By Mohammad Mudassir Alam,

By Gokul Bhagabati New Delhi : Offering more reasons for men to share power with women, psychiatrists have said that gender equality can prevent...

By NM Sampathkumar Iyangar,

By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,

By Mahtab Alam, Last week, a friend from Jamia Millia Islamia sent a text message asking, “Muslim Youth for India kya organization hai (What...

By Aziz A. Mubaraki,

By Sarwar Kashani and Ruwa Shah Srinagar : Months after taking over as the prime minister two years ago, Narendra Modi, sporting a woollen cape-like...

By Amulya Ganguli The fallout from the Samajwadi Party's infighting is clear in Uttar Pradesh. Till the fratricidal strife broke out, the party had...

By Syed Shahabuddin,

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,

By Bhaskar Menon,

By Amulya Ganguli, The imprecations directed at Rahul Gandhi - "joker" - and at his advisers - "rootless wonders and spineless creepers" - by sections of Congressmen and the recent signs of organizational disarray in several states suggest that it is still a far cry for the Congress where recovery is concerned.

By Osama Khalidi

By Anil Giri , Kathmandu: Nepal police have apprehended four Indians from Nepalgunj along the India-Nepal border Friday evening with a huge cache of foreign...

By George Abraham, On my recent visit to Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, at the refugee camp of the September 2013 riot victims, the name of Amit Shah often came up during discussions. Mr. Shah is the newly appointed campaign manager for Narendra Modi in Western U.P. For those who are keeping a close tab on the human rights situation in India, Amit Shah‟s name rings an alarm bell.

By Ilya Kramnik, MOSCOW : The Aero India-2009 air show, which opened on February 11, ended. Although nothing sensational took place there, as no winner of India's tender for the delivery of 126 fighter jets was announced, the air show was successful and promising for Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation.

By Amulya Ganguli With no sign of the unrest in Kashmir subsiding, the state is passing through one of the worst phases of...

By Syed Ali Mujtaba, With Narendra Modi on the hot seat being the Prime Minister of India, the beginning of the RSS rule seems to be on the anvil, notwithstanding BJP’s effort to enlarge the NDA fold. Behind the velvet gloves it shall be the iron fist of the RSS rule that seems to be tilting India to the right of centre.

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS

Considering that the Manmohan Singh government has generally been seen to be bullied by the Left into retreating on various issues such as the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, economic reforms and so on, it is worth noting that the prime minister has been able to consistently hold his ground on the India-US nuclear deal.

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net, The fresh political realignment in Bihar is actually the byproduct of a bitter lesson learnt by the former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in the recent Lok Sabha election. He has come to realize that development works do not get translated into votes. This is the line adopted by his former bête noire Lalu Prasad. It is this belated realization that had forced him into the lap of the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, with whom he broke away exactly two decades back.

New Delhi : A remark attributed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh by CPI-M member Mohammad Salim during the debate on intolerance triggered turmoil in...

By Ghulam Muhammad

By Asghar Ali Engineer, Now the BJP leaders are protesting, and rightly so, on use of the term 'Hindu Terrorists'. But they would have been indeed more consistent if they had similarly objected to the use of the term 'Islamic Terrorist's. Mr. L.K.Advani who is so exercised at the use of the term 'Hindu Terrorists' is not known to have ever objected to the term 'Muslim Terrorists', let alone 'Islamic Terrorists'. I wish he had objected to use of the term 'Islamic Terrorism', he would have sounded much more authentic.

शरीक़ अंसर, संघ लोकसेवा आयोग (यूपीएससी) द्वारा आयोजित सिविल सेवा परीक्षा में इस बार भी लड़कियों ने अपनी प्रतिभा का लोहा मनवाया है. इस बार...

By Aziz A. Mubaraki,

By TCN News, New Delhi: Sharing his enormous experience of social works and philanthropy in India, Manzoor Ghori, founder and Executive Director of US-based Indian...

By Aziz A. Mubaraki,

By Amulya Ganguli, Notwithstanding the cheers which Prime Minister Narendra Modi received while announcing the Rs.1.25 lakh crore special package for Bihar at an election...

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,

By Mubasshir Mushtaq, Is the Congress only party which works on the basis of master-servant relationship? Sonia Maino Gandhi has challenged that assumption by breaking the sound of silence. All these years, her long and stoic silence was being considered as a sign of acquiescence. Sonia has proved that she is indeed the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, who dealt her opponents with an iron fist.

By Feroze Mithiborwala,

By Ram Puniyani,

One has been hearing a lot about the conversion activities of Christian missionaries. That there is a threat to Hindu nation due to Adivasis converting to a 'foreign religion' is becoming part of social common sense. The real face of the conversion came to fore when after the attack on nuns in Alibaug (March 2008) was followed by a massive conversion to Hinduism, Shuddhi ritual (April 27, 2008) in nearby Mumbai. The person involved in both these has been the same.

By Danish Reyaz,

Peace brings prosperity and peace brought in by AMUSU president Abdullah Azzam was one of the most important factors that helped AMU get the NAAC accreditation. The NAAC team is known to have said on record that AMUSU has helped AMU grow into healthy campus. By Kashif Ilyas, Student politics is a necessary and vital part of a healthy campus life. It is not only the breeding ground for future leaders, but also a great educational tool that allows the students to learn and experience many life skills.

By Ram Puniyani,

By Monish Gulati, The AAP's clean sweep of the Delhi assembly polls is a remarkable display of people power. The overwhelming mandate with its weight of expectations, as Arvind Kejriwal himself terms it, is "scary". The nature of the verdicts took pundits, pollsters and punters alike, by surprise. The victory has been seen as the rebirth of the anti-corruption movement by some and attributed by others to Modi's designer suit, Kejriwal's staid pullovers or a blowback from the introduction of biometric attendance in government offices. The perceived causes of such an electoral win, deserves a second look.

By Amulya Ganguli , While making the unwarranted and unsubstantiated allegation of how the judiciary is scared of "five-star" activists belonging to NGOs, Prime Minister...

By Talajeh Livani, CGNews, Iran's parliament convened last month for the first time since the April 2008 elections. The results of the parliamentary elections are in and all the votes have been counted. Surprisingly, or perhaps alarmingly, women now account for a mere 2.8 percent of this new conservative-dominated parliament. This is a decline from the already low 4.1 percent representation in the previous Iranian parliament.

By Arun Kumar Washington: Amid reports that Pakistani Army chief Raheel Sharif had raised the Kashmir issue with Secretary of State John Kerry, the US...

By Ram Puniyani, What is called as Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is as such dealing with the personal laws (marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody...

By Moosa Raza,

By Hisham ul Wahab P for Twocircles.net, The news lines in the inner corners of print and visual media, which we have been reading in...

Despite the large number of positive court judgements in favour of Muslim women in India, the media prefers to endorse the view that once...

By Parthasarathy Chaganty, IANS,

By Ram Puniyani, A fortnight ago (January 2010) Shah Rukh Khan, the celebrated film star, voiced his opinion that Pakistani Cricket players should not be prevented from playing in IPL cricket League. This sparked a big row of protest from the local Shiv Sena supporters, who criticized Khan and tore the posters of his film, ‘My Name is Khan’, they also went on to say if Shah Rukh’s ‘Khan’ is awakening he should very well go to Pakistan and be there.

By Prof. Dr. Rameeza. A. Rasheed for TwoCircles.net, If your exposure to Muslim lives is through popular media then you believe that Muslim’s main profession is smuggling. Every beard and skull cap wearing men, particularly youth is at least remotely connected with a terrorist group. Neighbors don’t move closely, with the Muslim families who follow their dress code. It is propagated constantly that, every Madrasa is a breeding ground of violent actions. It is believed that, they don’t teach Islamic principles and general education but, implant principles of vengeance and Jihad (most misunderstood word).

By Saeed Naqvi, Werner Adam, the late foreign Editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine, used to tell me a story about his meeting in Moscow with India’s...

By IANS,

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov) - Pakistan has started talks with the Taliban in the northwestern province of the country bordering on Afghanistan. Kabul authorities fear that Islamabad will stop military operations, thus giving the Taliban a chance to become more active in Afghanistan. The two proposals on stabilizing Afghanistan, which Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made during his visit to China in mid-April, do not look surprising in this light.

By Vishnu Makhijani, Is there a pattern emerging between Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370, American aviator Amelia Earhart and the Bermuda Triangle? For one,...

Chennai/New Delhi : Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday assured Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa "all possible help" as she sought funds to...

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter नई दिल्ली: काकोरी कांड के शहीदों के 88वें शहादत दिवस पर ‘इंकलाबी जन एकजुटता’ अभियान के तहत जामिया नगर के बटला...

By Sushil Kumar, New Delhi: Distancing the Narendra Modi government from controversies such as the meat ban in parts of India and "ghar wapsi” call...

By Ashok Yadav & Khalid Anis Ansari,

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi It is an unfortunate fact that in a democracy nothing is achievable without united agitations. This time again the Muslim social and political leadership in India is failing to unite strongly against a very genuine demand and clear hypocrisy against them in guise of women empowerment.

Candles melt, candles burn out, candles can be blown out. But Azeem is a candle who will neither melt, nor burn out, or be blown out. Working as a counselor, spreading light all around by bringing people out of their shells of fear, shame, shock, depression, dismay and hopelessness, Azeem Bolar has shown how one can turn one’s disability into a positive ability to help others. By Nigar Ataulla for TwoCircles.net,

By Ram Puniyani,

By Lateef Mohd. Khan,

By Saeed Naqvi, A week ago, the Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, had a free run of Yemen. In Tikrit, Iraq, the Shia militia, led by Iranian officers, and helped by the largely Shia Iraq army, had cornered the ISIS in Saddam Hussain’s palaces. The fall of Tikrit would add to the halo on the Iranian-led Shia fraternity.

By C. Uday Bhaskar, IANS,

By Juliette Schmidt Last week I began a virtual tour of Ramadan around the world, inspired by the stories of my Moroccan, Pakistani and US-based colleagues at Search for Common Ground, a non-profit conflict transformation organisation. This week, as even Toronto buzzes with invitations to fast-breaking iftar dinners, I look to Lebanon, Indonesia and Guinea.

By NM Sampathkumar Iyangar for TwoCircles.net Pravin Mahajan is no more. The younger brother of late Pramod Mahajan – top leader of Bhartiya Janta Party, known as its Chief Fixer – died on March 3 at Jupiter Hospital in Thane after a prolonged illness. He had been admitted there in mid December 2009 after suffering a stroke while on parole. That was eight months after he came out with a tell-all book titled My Album. Pravin’s book raised several shocking questions about his dead brother’s life and times.