V.S. Sambandan

Dr. H.V. Hande, former Health Minister, Tamil Nadu, is a political leader who has seen the late former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, from close quarters; but always as a political opponent. Hande, who practises at his hospital in Shenoy Nagar, Chennai, sits in Room #1, and attends to patients with professional warmth. One of the highpoints of his political career, during which he was a member of the Madras Legislative Council and later the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, is his contest against Karunanidhi at the Anna Nagar Assembly constituency, in which he gave the former Chief Minister a tough electoral fight, and lost by a mere 699 votes. Verbal duels between Hande and Karunanidhi were a regular feature of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly when the former was an MLA and the latter was Chief Minister. In this conversation, with V.S. Sambandan, Chief Administrative Officer, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Hande shares his views about the late Chief Minister and his convictions, be it opposing the Emergency or working for the have-nots. Excerpts:

The ninety-one year old Dr. H.V. Hande, former Health Minister, Tamil Nadu, is a political leader who has seen the late former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, from close quarters; but always as a political opponent. Hande, who practises at his hospital in Shenoy Nagar, Chennai, sits in Room #1, and attends to patients with professional warmth. One of the highpoints of his political career, during which he was a member of the Madras Legislative Council and later the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, is his contest against Karunanidhi at the Anna Nagar Assembly constituency, in which he gave the former Chief Minister a tough electoral fight, and lost by a mere 699 votes. Verbal duels between Hande and Karunanidhi were a regular feature of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly when the former was an MLA and the latter was Chief Minister. In this conversation, with V.S. Sambandan, Chief Administrative Officer, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Hande shares his views about the late Chief Minister and his convictions, be it opposing the Emergency or working for the have-nots. Excerpts:

Chapter from India Elections 2014 - First Reflections. Eds: Einar Thorsen and Chindu Sreedharan. Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom (2015).

The chapter compares the political communication approaches of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress, with particular attention to the use of computer-mediated communication by the BJP, which was the victorious party in the 2014, Indian General Election.

Leading British historian David Washbrook, Research Professor in South Asian History, Trinity College, Cambridge, U.K., sees India at a crossroads with Bharatiya Janata Party in government. In conversation with The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, he shares his views on the decline of Nehruvian secularism, the attempts to rewrite history in India, and the status of research in Britain.
http://www.thehinducentre.com/the-arena/current-issues/article6689096.ece

This article, published at www.thehinducentre.com critically assesses the implications of a debate on the contributions of two distinguished economists, Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati, and revisits issues of growth and equity. It argues that that to better understand, and gain, from the debate, it is essential to place it in the context of India’s fight against poverty and the performance of its social sector.