Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

A Gorkhaland State: How Justified? * Saumitra Mohan            At a time when the Indian economy is in a tailspin with the rupee maintaining a sustained southward penchant to Newtonian forces, it is really quite disturbing and disconcerting to see some dormant statehood movements rearing their heads in the wake of the recent decision to form a new Telangana state through division of the extant state of Andhra Pradesh. Such demands inter alia include demands for a separate state of Gorkhaland (comprising Darjeeling and adjoining areas of Terai and Dooars), Kamtapur (comprising areas of Assam and North Bengal) and Greater Cochbehar (comprising most of North Bengal) in West Bengal, Bodoland  and Karbi-Anglong in Assam,  Harit Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh, Mithilanchal in Bihar, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Saurashtra in Gujarat.              It is really quite painful to know that e...

             Natural Disasters: Lessons from Uttarakhand                                                                    Saumitra Mohan             The recent cloud burst in Uttarakhand and subsequent natural disaster in the form of massive inundation should make many of us sit up and take notice. While it is true that notwithstanding all disaster management plans, man is helpless against the vagaries of nature as also borne out by the regular loss of lives and property from tsunami, tornados, typhoons and hurricanes in the developed countries like USA and Japan. ...

Chasing the Holy Grail of Pe ace in South Asia                                                                                     By Saumitra Mohan             The world seems to be slowly becoming enveloped in the pall of gloom and doom. The confirmation of the same is all around us if just take a look around us. Against the background of the globe reeling under the massive problem of recession and stagflation, the global peace index has also been worsening. And the situation is no different for the countries of Sou...

Understanding the Creation and Our Role                                                                         Saumitra Mohan             The empirical insights emanating from our everyday life experiences and the consequent cognitive comprehension of the intricacies of human ontology are quite revealing at times. Human life often appears so bright and beautiful. When everything goes well and smooth, one even desires immortality to continue clinging onto the savouries of life. However, when the going gets tough and the tough never seems to be going, one also feels that one h...

The Indian Civil Service Needs Servicing                                                           Saumitra Mohan                       In a classical democracy, it is the elected executive, which is supposed to lead the Government of the day in terms of charting out a customized path to the desired development based on the needs perceived and felt by it. However, it is always the permanent executive i.e. the bureaucracy which not only provides a semblance of stability between many elected governments which come and go, but also ensures the systematic execution of the developmental schemes and prog...

Strengthening Security in Naxal Affected Areas                                                           Saumitra Mohan                  With none other than the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself admitting Naxalite insurgency to be the country’s deadliest internal threat to          security, security in Naxal affected areas has always been a challenge to             reckon with. However, some intelligent thinking in recent times            has    ...