Articles by Nireekshak

Low Farce Nireekshak THE new Congress, it seems, is nothing In it the old Congress in thin disguise At least this is what everyone

Old Hat on New Events Nireekshak THE Prime Minister's visit to the Soviet Union and President Podgorny's brief stopover in New Delhi on his way to Hanoi provided the opportunity to newspapers for reviewing Indo-Soviet relations. Much of the review based it- self on the joint statement issued at the end of Indira Gandhi's visit, and once again reassessed the Indo-Soviet treaty of friendship particularly, its im- pact of the Bangla Desh crisis. The Prime Minister's visit was covered quite extensively, hut not in any depth. A noteworthy feature of the reporting was that there was a team of Indian correspondents in full charge of it. Newspapers here could therefore afford to dispense with the service of the foreign news agencies altogether. Thus was, of course, more accidental than deliberate, and was possible largely because PTI happens to have a resident correspondent in Moscow.

Easy Judgments Nireekshak "WITH the ... invitation to India by the Sponsoring Committee of the Asian and African countries to participate in the table tennis tournaments to be held in Peking, and India accepting the gesture", wrote Hitavada recently, "a new era of international diplomacy and understanding has begun". Whether it has or not, many China- watchers have been busy airing their prognostications about the future of India-China relations. Earlier, all of them, without exception, had been smitten by Mao's smite. Their many interpretations of the smile would surely make Mao literally smile. But that was before the 'Sons of Heaven' showed a penchant for ping pong. Ping pong has since put the smile in the shade.

A Matter of Supplements Nireekshak FOR a number of years now, newspapers have managed to get by without expressing any special Independence Day thoughts of their own on August 15. The accent rather has been on the thoughts of others in the form of specially written articles in l-Day supplements, and, more specifically, on advertisements which only a once-a-year supplement can attract. Something seems, however, to have happened this year to slightly upset the established practice. To begin with, not many supplements were issued on the occasion and, probably because it was a Sunday, even such supplements as were issued were almost indistinguishable from the usual Sunday supplements

Right to Property, Above All?
Nireekshak THOUGH the Constitution had been amended 23 times already, the 24th amendment that has just been enacted as well as the 25th and 26th ones that arc pending have together caused more editorial hearts to ache for the future of the 'rule of law' than ever before. However, this simulated or genuine concern for future generations has been well-nigh smothered by the general welcome with which the Press as a whole greeted the constitutional exercise. Why the 24th amendment alone should cause such heartburn, when Parliament may be thought to have already established both its competence and the need occasionally to bring up-to-date the wisdom of the "founding fathers", is not difficult to see. The 24th amendment, which is designed to reverse the effect of the Supreme Court judgment in the Golaknath casti and to restore to Parliament its right to amend any part of the Constitution including the Fundamental Rights, is rightly seen only as a curtain raiser to the two other amendments yet to follow. The latter two seek to make inroads into the citizen's right to property which the Supreme Court has so far held to be fundamental.