Content summary:

Activist, writer, journalist, teacher, philosopher and musician: Sanjay Sangvai who passed away on May 29 2007 in Kerala wore all these hats in the most unassuming way possible, but above all he was a tireless defender of people's struggles. We begin this issue with an obituary by the Narmada Bachao Andolan. We once again carry his November FOI 2006 piece on the politics of Special Economic Zones in India.   

This month's showpiece event was the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the G8 outreach summit, apparently to push the stand of developing countries on key geo political issues such as climate change. He got his 10 minutes with US President George Bush, which did not amount to much. Washington issued a statement that it will not agree to a deal on slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

Walden Bello, who attended the Alternative G8 summit at Rostock, writes that nobody expects much from this increasingly outmoded talking shop of the complacent rich. On the crucial issue of climate change, he says, the G8 goal was to get around the reality that the only effective response is reduced economic growth and consumption levels.     

Content summary:

This month's edition begins with an obituary to Minu, a comrade who fought the brave fight for Bombay. She died, in the city she gave so much to, on 19 April 2007.

The Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election result caught all by surprise. UP determines much of the political intrigue at the National Parliament in New Delhi and Mayawati's win is significant for the upcoming 2009 national elections. In our second article Asghar Ali Engineer terms the result as ' A Proof of Mature Democracy'. But the proof of the pudding (or rather kichdi) is in the eating.

In international fora, the Indian state does not miss an opportunity to proclaim its democratic credentials. Unfortunately back home, it has attacked those who have questioned the state and exposed its double standards. The recent arbitrary arrests of 2 activists Binayak Sen and Arun Fereira on the pretext of being Naxalite sympathisers is neither new nor original.