Columnists
The Iranian knot
Feb 08th, 2012To nobody’s surprise but rather earlier than expected the danger of a war on Iran that every sensible person wants to avoid has escalated ominously during the last few days.
Burma’s march to democracy
Feb 08th, 2012In January, the European Union (EU) removed visa bans on Burmese political leaders, including the President and top government officials.
Smiles and trials
Feb 08th, 2012Although the 2G octopus has surfaced again, its tentacles striking in all directions after the Supreme Court cancelled the 122 licences to telecom operators, 2012 seems to be going well for the UPA.
What a disaster!
Feb 07th, 2012The recent fire at the AMRI Hospital in Kolkata on December 8, 2011, claimed the lives of 98 patients. A similar incident at New Delhi’s Uphaar cinema on June 13, 1997, left 59 people dead and 103 injured. None of these were attributed to sabotage or terrorism. The Mumbai attacks by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba on November 26, 2008, generally referred to as 26/11, claimed 166 lives and left 293 people injured.
The Malta metaphor
Feb 07th, 2012Mario Mifsud, a Maltese travel agent in Valletta, is a devout Roman Catholic who spent a couple of months in Kolkata working voluntarily for Mother Teresa. He prays to Allah, not because Mifsud is an Arabic name but because Allah is the only word for god in Maltese. Maltese is the only Semitic language in the European Union, and is uniquely written in the Roman script.
All this nation needs is good governance
Feb 06th, 2012The higher the peak you climb the more peaks there are in front of you, stately and magnificent but challenging.
UN veto takes Syria nearer civil war
Feb 06th, 2012The stalemate over Syria in the UN Security Council is leading the beleaguered country in one direction: a civil war. It was as if the double veto exercised by Russia and China was preordained because Moscow was acting on its belief that it was an assault on Syrian sovereignty,
Our identity in a catch-22 cycle
Feb 05th, 2012How do you prove who you are? This is a question that can be troubling most times, but is becoming more and more bothersome now.
Test cricket going down the rabbit hole
Feb 05th, 2012Hopefully the beatings have stopped as I write this. It’s been a painful two months but apparently the quota of Indians that can be beaten in Australia has been exceeded.
The comedy of the colonised
Feb 04th, 2012“It went too soon, too soon That age when cats fiddled And cows jumped over the moon...” From Tension Nahin Leneka by Bachchoo On the strength of a few series of situation comedy for TV and the fact that I have written material for stand-up comics and parodists, I am invited to participate in a seminar on comedy at a German university. The particular department of the university has post-graduate students who learn through the medium of English and in the case of this seminar have chosen the option of what universities call “post-colonial” studies.
Flaws in our grand laws
Feb 04th, 2012The year is still new, and we are full of good intentions. This week we learnt that the government’s sporadic efforts — mostly weak and often mindless — to change anti-dowry laws for better implementation may include laying down rules on how much you can spend on weddings. The Planning Commission’s Working Group on Women’s Agency and Empowerment has recommended an income-linked ceiling on marriage expenditure, which would include gifts as well as celebratory feasts. In short, if you try to spend beyond your means on your daughter or son’s wedding, you’d better be ready for the dowry inspector.
Filmstars ko gussa kyun aata hai?
Feb 04th, 2012Break-up, patch-up, brawls, slaps — it’s all been there ever since the movies were invented — but whoa, the agony path didn’t make front-page news. There were no TV satellite channels to go hysterical over a thoda sa thappad ho jaaye incident at a Juhu hotspot. One channel presenter — looking as if World War III had erupted — reported that the fracas happened at Sanjay Dutt’s apartment when the combatants were dancing and drinking at a nightclub. Boggled me, how could the two be in two disparate venues at the same time? However since this isn’t a TV review, I will leave the Shah Rukh Khan-Shirish Kunder maara maari right at this full stop.
Puppetry in Pak
Feb 03rd, 2012In my last column (of impressions from my recent Pakistan visit, Warmth in Pak, Jan. 20), I dwelt on the astonishing fact that there is no country in the world where an Indian is made to feel more welcome than in Pakistan. At the same time, the warmth and affection lavished on Indian guests cannot obscure real differences of strategic perceptions (and actual actions) between the two countries.
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Back Syria’s people, not Assad regime
Feb 03rd, 2012New Delhi Will history repeat itself at the United Nations Security Council? The last time India was called to vote on a resolution on Syria, October 4, 2011, it chose to abstain, with South Africa and Brazil. By doing so, the Indian government empowered Russia and China to veto a draft resolution designed to pressure the Syrian government into ending the violence against its own people. The civilian toll in Syria was, according to the UN, close to 2,700 dead, including many children and women.
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Art of deal-making
Feb 02nd, 2012India and the United States resemble an old, estranged, couple who are too irked by each other’s frets and foibles to stay together but aware of too many shared interests to live apart. Their relations reek of familiarity even in their differences. These impressions are reinforced every time one engages with official Washington as happened last week whilst attending a conference as part of which I, along with three other Indian invitees, had the opportunity to discuss issues currently troubling bilateral ties with Republican congressman Steve Chabot, chairman of the sub-committee on West Asia and South Asia of the House Foreign Relations Committee and his staff, and separately with senior advisers to several US senators.
The seed emergency
Feb 01st, 2012Seed is the first link in the food chain, and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seed or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve, exchange, they have no seed sovereignty and consequently no food sovereignty.
India’s slip & slide act
Jan 31st, 2012When the rich and powerful of the world gather at an alpine ski resort, and the conversation turns to topics like “Is Capitalism Failing?” and “Global Risks 2012: The Seeds of Dystopia”, you know there are no certainties any more.
On Internet, a need for definition
Jan 31st, 2012Union minister for communications and information technology Kapil Sibal may claim to executives of Internet companies that he is ready to set fundamentalist hound-dogs belonging to a certain unnamed
Too sensitive to handle
Jan 30th, 2012Vayalar Ravi, the Union minister for overseas Indian affairs, could have taken a little more time to understand how in the United States the freedom of speech and that of the press, guaranteed by the
The banned critics of faltering India
Jan 29th, 2012Alexander Campbell was a Scotsman who served in the 1950s as Time magazine’s correspondent in New Delhi. In 1958, he wrote a book called The Heart of India, which was seen as so repulsive and diabolical that the government banned it in March 1959. Campbell also wrote travelogues called The Heart of Africa and The Heart of Japan. He is now a forgotten man. Yet the ban, immutable and constant, stays exactly where it is. Has anybody read the book in the past 53 years to understand why it was banned and whether it is still worthy of being denied to Indian readers?
High tea with Guv
Jan 28th, 2012I’m writing this the morning after the night before India’s 63rd Republic Day went off without an “incident”, and we should be so relieved. Imagine! It has come to that. For nearly a fortnight before January 26, there is an extra high alert all over the country, which means it is not the best time to be travelling, especially if Delhi is your destination. First, you deal with the notorious fog (surely, there’s a foreign hand somewhere?) that delays flights for hours on end. Then there’s the deadly red alert, which means further delays and mysterious procedures.
Must India downplay its secular credentials?
Jan 28th, 2012As part of a secular nation, one must be able to respect and appreciate religions other than one’s own without prejudice or dismay. And what better way to do it than as an academic and intellectual exercise? But is India ready to display its multi-faith credentials in an analytical fashion?
Inhumanity in Norway
Jan 27th, 2012The establishment of an all-embracing “nanny state” has been a cause of concern to many sensible, right-thinking citizens of the European Union (EU). In Britain, to cite just one example, there is anger and exasperation over the way apprehended illegal immigrants have been able to avert deportation by falling back on the EU’s human rights legislation. The so-called right to family life has been successfully used by those who have broken the law to prevent constituent nations from acting against them. So absurd is the situation that illegal immigrants were even able to cite the ownership of a cat and membership of a local cricket team to earn for themselves the right to stay in a country where they had overstayed their welcome.
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The making of generals
Jan 27th, 2012For the last few months, an unfortunate controversy has been raging over the date of birth of the Army Chief. This should have been resolved long ago. Gen. V.K. Singh is a competent general and known for his integrity. This case is now in the Supreme Court and, being sub judice, it should be left to that apex body to decide. Gen. Singh has recently clarified that by getting his wrong date of birth corrected, he is not trying to stay longer in his office. It is ridiculous to compare Gen. Kayani going to the Supreme Court in Pakistan with Gen. Singh doing so in India. The issues involved are entirely different.
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The emptiness of literary protest
Jan 26th, 2012The Jaipur Literature Festival saw the long shadow of The Satanic Verses displace any other controversy or literary debate. Four authors read out sections from the book to protest against Salman Rushdie’s absence, triggered in part by a threat to his life. The spectacle of the reading created an empty drama that left me oddly dissatisfied. Let me be clear. The ban on Rushdie’s work is not justified. Freedom of speech and creativity are vital issues when the state like a giant termite is eating up our freedom. But as writers, we have to ask what our responsibility for the riots or deaths that might follow the lifting of the censorship, is. I think Rushdie is a fabulous writer. But he was unfair to himself when he saw the protest at the festival as a defence of his work.
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Slippery slope of our illiberal future
Jan 25th, 2012Some years ago, Fareed Zakaria, the Indian-American political scientist and commentator, coined the term, “illiberal democracy”. The expression was designed to capture a class of states that did hold free and fair elections and saw an alternation of political parties but lacked many of the other attributes of liberalism— most importantly a healthy respect for civil and political rights. There is no imminent danger of India joining the ranks of that category of states.
Beware of the tiger on the mountaintop
Jan 24th, 2012The People’s Republic of China has once again hammered home to India its inflexible hardline on the status of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, considered by China to be their “lost territory” of Xhang Nan or Southern Tibet. A Chinese visa was recently refused to a senior Indian Air Force officer, a Group Captain from Arunachal Pradesh, proceeding to China as a member of an Indian defence delegation, on the grounds that being a resident of Arunachal Pradesh the concerned officer was actually a Chinese citizen and hence did not require a visa.
Republic of contradictions
Jan 24th, 2012Sixty three years ago, Dr B.R. Ambedkar spoke of the “life of contradictions” into which the Indian Republic would enter on January 26, 1950. He underlined the need for eliminating, at the earliest, the contradictions in the social and economic sphere lest they should imperil our political freedom and democracy. Were he to come alive today, he would be appalled to see the extent to which the contradictions have deepened and, that too during the period when the Republic saw one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Iranian paranoia
Jan 23rd, 2012Like time and tide national security/foreign policy issues await none, not even a government in Delhi distracted by the Foreign Direct Investment Bill, five state elections, the Uttar Pradesh one critical to the demise or consolidation of UPA-2, or flip-flops over religion-based quotas etc.
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A general mess
Jan 19th, 2012While the colonial-era tradition of Indian Army officers not discussing women or politics — issues with supposedly disruptive potential — in the officers’ mess may be intact, Army politics has always drawn conversation but rarely prompted bad feelings in the way it is doing now. The officer corps — disinterested members aside — is split between those partial to the izzat (honour) argument pushed by the current Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. V.K. Singh, and others, not all necessarily backing Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, GoC-in-C, Eastern Command, who worry that, whatever the merits of Gen. Singh’s case, the Army’s image has taken a hit.
Pangs of paribartan
Jan 19th, 2012Suo moto declarations are as valid as appraisals by external agents; by that reckoning, the eight-month-old government of chief minister Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal has delivered on each of the campaign promises as listed in the manifesto and the chief minister is confidently asserting “touch me if you can,” which is a paraphrase of a Bengali idiom that describes towering, spectacular achievement.
Chasing an elusive particle
Jan 18th, 2012When one year ends and another begins, that is an occasion to take stock of a field in order to see where we are and which way are we headed. In mid-December last year, I attended an international conference on gravitation and cosmology held in the pleasant surroundings of Mobor beach, Goa. It is perhaps a testimony to the interesting subject that the conference rooms were well filled despite the lure of the beach.
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The Google delusion
Jan 17th, 2012National harmony, national integration, national interest. Words like these typically pop out of school children’s civics textbooks or grand political speeches made on august occasions. No one doubts that these are necessary, but most people are content if they can figure out how to live in harmony with their spouse and neighbours.
UPA’s ides of March in February polls
Jan 16th, 2012Five Indian states go to the polls next month and which way they vote could have a profound effect on the functioning of the ruling coalition. By all accounts, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is currently stuck in a deep rut largely of its own making.
Ban order in tangled web
Jan 16th, 2012On Monday, January 16, 2012, the Delhi high court will continue hearing arguments about whether social media websites, web-hosting companies, and Internet search engines, which are located abroad, can be forced to block access to content deemed objectionable by the Indian government.
Lessons from relay of debacles
Jan 13th, 2012The financial crisis that erupted in 2008 in the wake of the infamous sub-prime mortgage lending in the United States dealt a severe blow to several economies in North America, Europe and even in the
The unmaking of a femmé fatale
Jan 07th, 2012The dead don’t talk back. If Parveen Babi had survived her mental disorders, she would have been 63 on January 20. It has been seven years since she passed away.
On India’s darkling plain
Jan 04th, 2012The conflicts and controversies over the institution of Lokpal remind me of the lines of poet Mathew Arnold: “And we are here as on a darkling plain/Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight/W
Proudly Indian
Dec 31st, 2011Urban India is in the throes of an obsessive examination of the corrupt nature of the polity and governance of our country. Anna Hazare’s movement against the corrupt has galvanised our cities into examining the state of our nation with missionary zeal. Some zealous followers of Team Anna tell us that our nation’s culture itself is corrupt. After all, don’t we sell our precious votes for bottles of liquor from a person from our “community”?
Status update
Dec 31st, 2011If I had to pick out one person, place or event of the year, one thing that truly defines what it means to be young today, it has to be this scene between Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Hrithik has just experienced deep-sea diving for the very first time, and his eyes shine with a new and different light. He understands the philosophy of the scuba chick, the idea of living in this moment — the only moment you truly have. It’s a philosophy which pretty much sums up the mood of a generation. And this mood is reflected in just about everything you do with your life.
Rising with the Sun in Asia
Dec 29th, 2011The recent visit to India by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan took place against the backdrop of important developments both in bilateral relations and international affairs. The visit is part of the annual India-Japan summit institutionalised by the strategic partnership launched in 2006. The fact that Japan is one of only two countries with whom India has such regular high-level interaction underlines the growing importance of the relationship.
Everything that could go wrong did
Dec 28th, 2011If you believed that the Congress-led UPA government achieved nothing on the economic front this year, think again! It is not every day that you manage to antagonise the entire political Opposition, from the BJP to the Communists, your allies, and some of your own party members as well. Add to that the disappointment of business classes and trade unions alike. The long-suffering aam aadmi and kisan, whose names the ruling combine invariably invoked to justify whatever actions it took (or, as in most cases, did not eventually take), had nothing to cheer them either.
My Indian Christmas
Dec 25th, 2011Christmas is meant to be a season of goodwill but each year I find it more and more difficult to feel any sympathy for those in Europe who would like to ruin the festival. I am referring to those who say we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas openly because it is a Christian festival. Some argue that to celebrate Christmas openly breaches the secular principle that religion should have no place in public life. It is also argued that celebrating Christmas offends believers in other religions.
Integrate & command
Dec 14th, 2011After Independence, joint committees were set up ensuring the supremacy of the civil over the military and quick decision-making with due participation of the military. Over the years all these committees have been wound up and a bureaucratic stranglehold established, marginalising the defence services from decision-making on defence matters. There has been no attempt to rationalise the higher defence organisation, not even after the great debacle of 1962 following which Jawaharlal Nehru died a broken man in 1964. Nehru’s defence minister Krishna Menon, Army Chief Gen.
Metro India, Retro India
Dec 13th, 2011The news of the government’s possible attempts to enact a law to monitor social media has understandably ignited a debate. There seem to be few takers for the government’s motives in the enactment of such a law. Governments across the world have rather low levels of credibility on such contentious issues as the expectation of the public usually is that their deeds are going to be different from their words. The general feeling is that the law might be a fig leaf for the government to muzzle anything on the Net and social media that they find inconvenient.
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New medium, old control
Dec 12th, 2011If Caxton’s contribution to the print world remained unmatched for centuries, the World Wide Web, through its real-time communication has expanded information sharing exponentially. Not surprisingly, sometimes through it, reports and comments on events spread even before established news agencies start doing their job. The comments are not tempered down, nor any pre-set line of reasoning guides them. They are not from a few but from as many as who wish to join, and in as many languages as there are keyboards made for them.
#BeSensibleSibal
Dec 11th, 2011The rise of social media has created global communities and new ways of interaction. All over, this has helped to give a voice to millions of people, largely the youth, and democratised society; in the recent past it has even helped change governments.
Mayawati: Too clever by half?
Dec 08th, 2011Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati seems to think that the proposal to split Uttar Pradesh into four states will help her win the 2012 elections. What she has not realised is that the four-way split will put the very existence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the dalit agenda that she has been carrying on in real danger.
Seducing Pakistan
Dec 05th, 2011Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent reference to his Pakistani counterpart, Yousaf Raza Gilani, as a “man of peace” has been greeted with scathing criticism. But it has been on predictable lines. One wonders what harm has been caused by his reference. India-Pakistan experts tend to be on the short fuse; as prime-time TV debates show, you utter one soft word about a Pakistani leader, dead or alive, and they pounce on you with the ferocity of a tiger! We all know what happened to L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh when they dared to make some laudatory references to Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
India-Pak: Change the narrative
Dec 04th, 2011As a Pakistani it is difficult for me to talk about the ghastly attacks on Mumbai three years ago and the response of its vibrant citizens. This is not simply due to the nationality of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured after the 26/11 Mumbai
India needs a home-built Navy
Dec 04th, 2011The Indian Navy, which celebrates Navy Day today and Submarine Day on December 8, and will be holding a grand President’s review of the fleet in Mumbai on December 20, would look back with some
Making AIDS history
Dec 01st, 2011In the last three decades, HIV/AIDS, a disease first reported in humans in 1981 in the United States, has spread across all continents and claimed millions of lives. It has posed one of the biggest public health threats known to man, and changed the course of history. HIV proved to be a formidable enemy, resisting drugs quickly and evading potential vaccines. But the story of HIV/AIDS is also a tale of triumph of human ingenuity, determination and commitment. Infection with HIV was once considered a death sentence.
A bout of Sinositis
Nov 30th, 2011The four-day Global Budhist Congress which commenced on November 26, with 900 attendees from 32 countries, instead of radiating Indian soft power, turned into an unseemly Sino-Indian
Saarc: Search for value addition
Nov 28th, 2011The emerging geopolitics of Asia envisages greater role for South Asian regionalism in strategic terms. The region seems to hold the key to stability in Asia and beyond. This larger context should not be missed in evaluating the recent 17th Saarc Summit in Maldives and assessing the Asean and East Asia Summit meetings in Bali. The Maldives summit also proved the considerable default value of Saarc as an institution once again.
The common man strikes back
Nov 27th, 2011Man slaps Pawar, NCP hits Mumbai” went the headline in a local evening paper, and it really said it all. As news came in of Harvinder Singh’s slap, Mr Pawar’s party workers went berserk, blocking traffic in various areas of the city, from mid-town Worli and Saat Rasta to the distant suburbs of Mulund, Bhandup, Borivali,
Keep the Maldives hope alive
Nov 20th, 2011A week from today, it will be exactly three years since the blasts went off in Mumbai to thwart what was perhaps the most promising peace process ever in the relations between Pakistan and India. The relations went into a spin. The impasse is not yet quite resolved though the improvement in the relations has been significant enough for India’s minister for external affairs S.M. Krishna to say at Addu Atoll in the Maldives on November 9 that India’s “trust deficit with Pakistan is shrinking.” What can now be done to ensure that the deficit is completely overcome?
Quiet flows reform in Uttarakhand
Nov 14th, 2011In today’s environment where citizens justifiably demand a transparent and accountable government, state administrations are on their toes to meet people’s expectations.
Holiday for the mind
Nov 11th, 2011It’s holiday time and everyone must be looking for a good holiday package.
Let’s debate more on the road to growth
Nov 07th, 2011Pursuing human development — defined as an enhancement of capabilities, an expansion of freedoms, an enlargement of choices and an assurance of human rights — is a laudable goal for a
Janchetna diaries
Nov 05th, 2011It was quite a weekend last week. First the surfeit of “ones”. That is Ra.One, G-one and Formula One. Then there’s that small matter of Diwali.
Confused on Kashmir
Oct 28th, 2011It has been said so often by so many but it still bears repetition that Pakistan’s foreign policy agenda has only one item on it — India.
Is our architecture destroying urbanity?
Oct 26th, 2011If 20 years ago, television journalists stood before India Gate to visibly connect their story to India, today they must stand before a shopping mall. Perhaps even a glass mall in old Bikaner. Coated in desert dust, heated to an unbearable summer stillness, and visibly uncomfortable in its historic location, the picture will tell you very graphically, the current sorry tale of Indian architecture.
Food Security Bill: Is it well thought out?
Oct 24th, 2011The efforts of the government to tackle growing hunger with food support schemes like the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren has a mixed record. The most recent in this line of efforts to improve the hunger situation is the National Food Security Bill (NFSB).
Federal reserve
Oct 16th, 2011As the political process unravels with renewed vigour, the politics over Telangana has reached a tipping point. The outpouring of sentiments reflecting the deprivation faced by the people of Telangana has paralysed Andhra Pradesh for close to a month now. The current impasse seems to be over the status of Hyderabad, a city that has come up as a global hub and has a large population from the Andhra region. However, we know that there is broad agreement amongst political parties on the imperative to create Telangana state, and now it is not a matter of whether, but when.
Anna’s unfinished agenda
Oct 13th, 2011How will history judge Anna Hazare? As a person who started the process of bringing down corruption? Or as a leader who breathed new hope and fire into rebuilding India?
A Greek tragedy
Oct 09th, 2011Greece is a country rich in history and culture that is peopled by a warm and friendly race. It is a must-visit nation for any tourist. Is it an important country, though? Not really. In European terms its economy is an insignificant rounding off error, contributing merely two per cent to Europe’s GDP (gross domestic product, a representation of national income). And yet, Greece is threatening to begin a financial domino cycle of chaos in Europe.
Measuring the poverty line
Oct 03rd, 2011It is no secret that India is doing quite poorly on a number of development counts. According to the Human Development Report, India languishes at around 130th rank among of 177 countries. The International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index ranks India 94th among 118 countries surveyed. The World Food Programme estimates half of our children suffer from severe or moderate malnourishment.
The canny captain from Pataudi
Oct 01st, 2011As long as men are born, men will die. No matter how hurtful to the immediate family, it's as simple as that, all of the time. But every now and then a man dies leading to countrywide mourning of unknown magnitude. A few days ago a very special Indian slipped away quietly and with great dignity, leaving behind a billion vulnerable Indians exposed to their own mortality! Tiger Pataudi was that Indian. The entire family stood by as morphine made his departure less painful. The disease takes time to take life yet there was no sign that it would gallop the way it did. The nawab, mamoojan to me, was too intelligent to be an escapist and knew his days were numbered yet he stood tall, giving his family the strength to deal with his departure.
The dashing prince
Sep 24th, 2011There are cricketers, personalities, and then there is Tiger. One uses the present tense as Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi aka Nawab of Pataudi junior aka Tiger will always remain in the minds and hearts of those privileged to have met him.
Which world do economists live in?
Sep 23rd, 2011On September 20, the Montek Singh Ahluwalia-led Planning Commission filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that anyone capable of spending more than Rs 965 a month (Rs 32 per day) in urban India and Rs 781 (Rs 26 per day) in rural India is not poor and, therefore, will not be allowed to benefit from Central and state government schemes meant for people living below the poverty line. Many may have forgotten that the aforementioned “generous” estimates were arrived at by the Planning Commission after it faced criticism from the Supreme Court for claiming in May this year that a person is not poor if s/he earns more than Rs 20 a day in urban areas and Rs 15 a day in villages.
Crime and forgiveness
Sep 21st, 2011Satyameva Jayate, it seems, must wait if it’s not forgotten altogether. We are all Jains now and the chant is “Michhami dukkadam”: I ask forgiveness for any hurt I may have caused you by thoughts, words or actions, knowingly or unknowingly. Readers of The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle (refer to BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman’s article “Modi-baiters and the ghost of 2002” on September 19) have also been told that embedded in these two words are layers upon layers of meaning: seeking forgiveness, forgiving others, forgiving self, hoping that forgiveness gets extended to all beings around us.
Courting justice
Sep 16th, 2011In whose favour did the Supreme Court’s September 12 order in the Zakia Jafri case go? Was it Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi or Ms Jafri? Too early to say one way or the other. The starting point of Ms Jafri’s appeal to the Supreme Court was her private complaint, dated June 8, 2006, seeking prosecution of Mr Modi and 61 others for allegedly orchestrating the post-Godhra communal riots in connivance with police officials and senior bureaucrats in which her husband Ehsan Jafri, former member of Parliament, was killed in the Gulberg Society carnage.
Power trips
Sep 16th, 2011The spectre of the 16th Lok Sabha has already begun to haunt political parties, especially the BJP. After having lost the Delhi throne twice, consecutively, the party has geared up to thwart the UPA’s attempt to hit an electoral hat-trick. To do this, the party leadership is desperate to champion the cause of anti-corruption and make its crusade against corruption an electoral plank. Of late, the saffron brigade has demonstrated astute political shrewdness in their overt support to the Anna bandwagon, a well-calculated strategy to eventually hijack the anti-corruption movement that has supposedly gained popular currency.
To beat inflation, win the mind game
Sep 16th, 2011The economy waits with baited breath to see what RBI governor D. Subbarao does today. Will he raise rates again — for the 12th time in 18 months? Since inflation is far from vanquished, he may well do so. On the other hand, it is abundantly clear that the monetarist approach to quelling inflation has failed to deliver results. Instead of depressing prices, it has suppressed growth — an outcome that the government, until not long ago, was vocal about not wanting.
Charioteer & his chase
Sep 12th, 2011BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani’s apparently sudden announcement that he would get on to a motorised “rath” or chariot and do a cross-country yet again — this time with the avowed intention of campaigning against corruption — has caught even his own party unawares. It should not have. The decision fits perfectly with the recent declaration of BJP president Nitin Gadkari that his party will march under the leadership of Anna Hazare. In fact, it can logically be seen to be in furtherance of that line. The tactical direction flowed from the RSS — around which the Hindutva bodies revolve — and given to the BJP as a political party to pursue.
Dhaka outcome bridge over troubled waters
Sep 10th, 2011Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has just concluded a visit to Dhaka. Sadly, exchange of visits between the Indian PM and his counterparts in South Asia are not as frequent as they should be. Perhaps the weight of expectations precludes this. The previous bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Dhaka was in 1999 when Atal Behari Vajpayee went over to inaugurate the Dhaka-Kolkata bus service. Deve Gowda had visited in January 1997 in the wake of the historic Ganga Waters Agreement the previous month. Morarji Desai visited in March 1979 to underline his commitment to good neighbourly relations.
Four furlongs to the promised land
Sep 02nd, 2011The recent developments around the Lokpal Bill have captured the imagination of India’s middle class, which clearly perceives poor governance and corruption to be a threat to its global aspirations. The middle class has demonstrated that it intends to play a decisive role in determining the terms of the national political discourse.
The Rajapakse way
Sep 01st, 2011To most Sri Lankans, Anna Hazare’s name would be unfamiliar, his Jan Lokpal Bill even more so. But the veteran social activist’s marathon fast did have an (unintended) effect on Sri Lanka.
Can Hazare teach Nepal some ‘civil’ lessons?
Aug 28th, 2011Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption in New Delhi has ignited a debate in neighbouring South Asian countries on the role that civil society can play in a democracy. Mr Hazare’s “apolitical” stature is built on the
Birth of the unborn
Aug 22nd, 2011Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form. (Bhagavad Gita 4.6). As the world heralds another Janmashtami, Sri Krishna Himself sets the tone for His appearance on Earth.
Fast and furious
Aug 18th, 2011Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption has gathered momentum. Arousing the conscience of the nation on the issue augurs well. But the spontaneous response of people to his detention and fast needs to be guided in the right direction. Peaceful protest is permissible and Mr Hazare’s motive in undertaking the fast is laudable, but compelling Parliament to enact his Jan Lokpal Bill is not constitutionally permissible.
Telangana’s Pak cousin
Aug 08th, 2011Bahawalpur state in Pakistan and Hyderabad state in India have interesting parallels. Both states were founded in the early 18th century — Hyderabad in 1724 and Bahawalpur in 1727 — by Muslim dynasties.
Laws for the land
Aug 07th, 2011If one issue has been grabbing the headlines every day in Tamil Nadu, apart from Samacheer Kalvi (uniform education system), it is the spate of arrests for alleged land-grabbing by members of the DMK. In the past two months, according to the state police, nearly 1,000 cases have been lodged with
No Left turns
Aug 04th, 2011A practitioner supposedly of iron-clad Leninist organisational principles, Kerala Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan has been a cunning playmate of “bourgeoise” democracy, all along trying to subserve his chequered proletarian career, spanning some 70 years. Facets of the political persona of Mr Achuthanandan, popularly known as “VS”, still remain inscrutable.
Heirs (un)apparent
Aug 03rd, 2011DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi has always been passionate about monarchies and mythologies despite living in a democracy and being a self-proclaimed rationalist. He often deludes himself in believing that he is a reincarnation of Rajaraja Chola. Mr Karunanidhi, known for revivalism, promoted rituals like the crowning of political leaders with laurels and sceptres.
Threads of freedom
Aug 01st, 2011Just last week the Union minister for rural development, Jairam Ramesh, found himself at the centre of a controversy. Having been greeted with a garland of khadi yarn at a meeting, Mr Ramesh used it to wipe his footwear! If nothing else, this insult points to an immense gulf of cultural values between the hosts and the guest.
Watch your mouth
Jul 26th, 2011A recent Bollywood film was feted, along with its cinematic accomplishments, for its extensive and unabashed use of abusive words and bad language.
The institution or the individual?
Jul 24th, 2011The formal powers conferred on an institution are relevant, but what’s more important is how the head of an organisation functions to achieve its stated objectives. Power is assumed by the individual in most situations, though it’s rarely granted to a person for free exercise.
All the king’s horses
Jul 22nd, 2011In Masoom (The innocent one), his brilliant debut film as director, Shekhar Kapoor had three children sing a nonsense rhyme, which remains popular to this day. “Lakdi ki kaati, kaati pe ghoda” was an ode to the rocking horse once all too familiar to children across the subcontinent of South Asia.
Minding the inner treasure
Jul 19th, 2011Are you aware of the greatest corruption of all? This is a corruption that goes on throughout the day. This is a corruption that almost all people indulge in. This is the costliest corruption of all.
Dharma in daily life
Jul 14th, 2011After attaining enlightenment, Buddha was inspired to share his learning with the five monks who were his fellow seekers prior to his awakening.
The Walk & the talk
Jul 04th, 2011I was not particularly astonished to find that the word “slut” does not have a male equivalent. In many languages other than English, there is no male word for “prostitute” or “widow”. Thus the entire debate over the “slut walk” is obviously centred on the rights and current disempowerment of women.
Canvas of intolerance, frame of freedom
Jun 13th, 2011If democracy is a shared value among many of the world’s states today, they still differ substantially in the tolerance of civil freedoms often granted to the citizens by their respective Constitutions. Let me pick up three out of numerous instances. In the late 1970s, M.F. Husain paints the Hindu goddess Saraswati in the nude. Nothing unusual.
The Husain question will linger
Jun 10th, 2011The passing of Maqbool Fida Husain on Thursday in a London hospital marks the end of an epoch in Indian art. Husain’s enormously vibrant palette — more devoted in recent times to the Arab civilisation than to subjects Indian, will be laid to rest. With it will also go silent the debates around the status of a minority artist’s engagement with Indian mythology, and the failure of the modern Indian state to protect him.
His legend will grow
Jun 10th, 2011How can he be gone? The man who never grew old? He strode across the firmament of Indian art for three quarters of a century like a colossus. Always one step ahead of his detractors, Maqbool Fida Husain continued till the very end to re-invent himself. Apart from a brief illness, he went out like a light, incredibly, at the age of 95, still at the peak of his abilities, his fame, his charisma.
Trunk call from India
Jun 05th, 2011Tanuja and Rajesh Khanna starred in the immensely popular ’70s flick Haathi Mere Saathi. The hero can do no wrong in a Bollywood film and in this one the elephant could do no wrong either. Rajesh Khanna sang and wooed, fought and emerged victorious with the haathi by his side. Little wonder then that Jairam Ramesh, the ebullient green hero of today, wishes to emulate the evergreen hero of yesteryears in adopting the elephant as the
Options for Kayani
May 26th, 2011If there is a fire next door, the neighbours are bound to get worried. The latest terrorist attack, on a major naval station near Karachi, may have been frustrated by the government forces but the crisis in Pakistan is much more serious than the events of the last two days portray. It should worry India, other countries in the region, the United States and other world powers.
The governor’s shastra
May 25th, 2011Those who were following reports in the press about the controversy in Karnataka, between chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and state governor H.R. Bhardwaj, were happy and relieved when the two called truce. However, it was soon clear that hostility between Mr Bhardwaj and Mr Yeddyurappa persists.
A mammoth blessing
May 20th, 2011Each religion has his favourite animal. Hinduism, which has a broad-minded ecological outlook, adores many animals. But still the elephant is one of the favourites since it is used in temples to carry the image of the deity. Also, the elephant is considered to be a symbol of Lord Ganapati. Elephants are a fixture in temples of Kerala.
The new puffballs of Bengal
May 15th, 2011Thirty-four years, more or less, of perceived frustration went into the EVMs (electronic voting machines) and delivered a merciless verdict that swept out the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and much of its Left Front coalition partners, bag and baggage. It was third time lucky for Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamul Congress.
Those who care can stay
May 15th, 2011The narrow majority obtained by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala spells more problems for the victor than the vanquished. The choice of the chief minister may not be difficult, but trouble will start with the selection of the deputy chief minister. The Muslim League, being the second largest party in UDF, will assume that that post is naturally theirs.
The more you give, the more you get
May 15th, 2011The recent Assembly election in Assam was the most tense in recent memory. Almost all polls and media reports suggested a hung Assembly, which meant that the Congress and its principal opponent, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), would have to look for coalition partners to form the next government. The hectic efforts in this direction
Too many rajas ate up the broth
May 15th, 2011The people of Tamil Nadu have dethroned the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in a decisive mandate, and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader J. Jayalalithaa is the prime beneficiary. But this is not a vote in her favour. The vote is essentially against the DMK. It is up to Ms Jayalalithaa to make it a positive vote by providing good governance.
India & US: Ties that don’t bind
May 13th, 2011The killing of Osama bin Laden comes at a time when India-US relations are at a low point of the roller coaster ride to which they have often been compared. After the visit of US President Barack Obama, which kindled hopes of raising relations to a higher level, it appeared as though India was distancing itself from Washington to assert its independence.
The sexuality of a celibate life
May 01st, 2011A celibate for the greater part of his life, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi continues to attract nearly unrivalled attention — apparently for the sex that did not take place. Even his friends and admirers, who revered him for bringing ethics to the political life, or for never demanding of others what he did not first demand of himself, were quite certain that Gandhi was unable to comprehend that a woman and a man might enjoy a perfectly healthy sexual relationship with each other.
Westerly winds
Apr 19th, 2011The remarkable shift in the locus of global economic dynamism over the last two decades has paralysed multilateral rule-making on a range of economic issues. The stalemate in the World Trade Organisation and the climate change negotiations, as well as the lacklustre showing of the Group of Twenty (G20), are symptomatic
Best, bright & blue
Apr 15th, 2011Sixty-three momentous years ago an ancient civilisation blossomed into a nation-state with a million promises to keep. But the lack of a strategic culture and unity in thought and action has haunted and weakened India over the years and it is now time to seriously address our endemic and congenital shortcomings
Freebies: Way to bridge the gap
Apr 09th, 2011The issue of freebies being offered at election time in Tamil Nadu cannot be isolated from the wider canvas of changes taking place in the state’s economy and its society. The pace of these shifts has indeed been rapid. The agricultural sector is under stress whereas the other two sectors are expanding rapidly, notably the service sector. People, in general, prefer to move away from the drudgery of agriculture to the more “modern” or “comfortable” non-agricultural sector. But this shift is painful and time-consuming, especially for the poor and the vulnerable.
Do Bigha Zameen, 2011
Mar 22nd, 2011John Stuart Mill wrote 160 years ago that “land differs from other elements of production, labour and capital in not being susceptible to infinite increase. Its extent is limited and the extent of the more productive kinds of it more limited still. It is also evident that the quantity of produce capable of being raised on any given piece of land is not indefinite. These limited quantities of land, and limited productiveness of it, are the real limits to the increase of production”. This is true for India today.
For tomorrow’s women
Mar 08th, 2011Dear Damu and Shanu, The day before yesterday your grandmother went to an event organised by a local non-governmental organisation. It was meant to felicitate and honour women of her generation who had been active in the movement for women’s rights. She was delighted to be there. Along with her were a handful of other women, some in their
Ignoring the poor, yet again
Mar 01st, 2011The “Continuing Budget of the United Progressive Alliance-II” is a slow and steady march towards crony capitalism without declaring the country a “capitalist nation”. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2011 will lead the country nowhere but towards the path on which the American and European economies got beaten black and blue.
Infrastructure will expand
Mar 01st, 2011Budget 2011-12 has several major initiatives for financing infrastructure projects and stepping up investment in this sector. The 13th Finance Commission had, in its report, suggested a path of fiscal consolidation. The Budget proposals of 2011-12 are in conformity with this and fiscal deficit is targeted to go down to 4.6 per cent as against 4.8 per cent indicated previously. Lower deficit will enable availability of funds for the private sector and this will ensure large flow of resources to infrastructure projects, too.
Study circle is Delhi-centric
Mar 01st, 2011The Budget is not as popular in developed economies as it is in developing countries like ndia. This is a reflection of people’s expectations and a Budget’s impact on their lifestyle. Hence, in our country, the Budget is not just a statement of accounts — it is about reforms in sectors that touch the economy, inflation, taxation and a whole lot of other things that impact the common man and businesses.
Promises ride on prayers
Mar 01st, 2011The main challenges we face today are to constrain inflation, particularly food inflation, moderate fiscal deficit to low inflationary expectations, deal with corruption and promote growth while improving the welfare of aam aadmi and aam aurat. One Budget cannot deal with all these issues. However, a Budget is an opportunity to provide a roadmap of how the government plans to deal with them.
Read the fine print, it’s not very nice
Mar 01st, 2011Budget 2011-12 marks a sharp retreat of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-2 government from the social and economic sectors. It has cut back expenditures in sectors that matter to common people, especially the poor. On the other hand, it has given huge concessions to the corporate sector in the form of tax cuts and exemptions.
Lacks farm focus, vision
Mar 01st, 2011BUDGET 2011 comes against the backdrop of an emerging global food crisis caused partly by extreme weather events in some major food-producing countries, including China, and partly by the escalating petroleum price due to the battle for democracy in West Asia. Add to this the continuing food inflation in India.
Reassuring tenor
Mar 01st, 2011The last few Budgets have had the recurring theme of inclusive growth, strengthening the social and physical infrastructure, and preparing the country for a set of institutional reforms. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2011 continues the tenor, which, by itself, is reassuring.
It’s not enough
Mar 01st, 2011There is nothing for us in this Budget. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee should have seized the day to safeguard the decade. But he has not. Nothing has been done to incentivise biotechnology or to ensure actual inclusive growth. For how long will we take incremental steps and avoid taking exponential steps? This Budget presented a platform to be strong not only in views but also on reforms.
Guns R not us
Feb 27th, 2011April 16, 2007, was like any other spring day on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Seung-Hui Cho, carrying a Walther P22 and a Glock 19 semi-automatic, opened indiscriminate fire, first in a residential dorm and later in several classrooms of Norris Hall. Cho was an English
Health tips
Feb 27th, 2011Healthcare is the most important, but highly neglected sector in India. Neither people nor the government focus their attention adequately on the issue of healthcare. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee have always said that health and education is their priority, but it’s time to make this into a reality. In order to address the challenges in the healthcare sector, one needs to have primary understanding of healthcare. No individual or nation can treat all sick people
Need start-ups to reboot IT
Feb 26th, 2011With The export sector looking at a resumption of 20 per cent-plus growth, the surge in domestic spending on information technology (IT) by the government and the corporate sector, the accelerating demand for IT hardware and software, the IT sector in India is witnessing a resurgence in fortunes.
Haisha, Huisha, they’ll all fall down
Feb 25th, 2011The one lesson that emerges from the tsunami that is sweeping across the Arab space is that in today’s inter-connected world no nation can remain an island any longer.
A farmer’s wishlist
Feb 24th, 2011The farmers are very clear about what they expect from finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget this year and even though beggars would ride if horses were wishes, one wishes that the finance minister, who has just returned from the Group of Twenty (G20) meet where there was a lot of emphasis on the need to invest in agriculture, refashions his Budget in favour of agriculture and the millions who produce food for the country.
The court’s not in order
Dec 29th, 2010That a country is theoretically governed by a just code of law does not necessitate rule of law or justice. It can safely be said that an accessible, affordable and quick justice delivery system is the foundation of the freedom of an individual against the excesses of a state or powerful individuals within it. It is no surprise that the first charter of liberties, the Magna Carta, guarantees in Clause 40, “To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice”.
Dear 2011, will you bring justice?
Dec 28th, 2010It’s been a frenetic year, closing a volatile decade in which the rapidity of economic and social change in some areas has been almost as remarkable as the continuing stagnation and decline in others.
Nehru’s neutral game
Nov 29th, 2010October and November 1962 were unforgettable months for those who lived through that era. On October 20, the Chinese crossed the Namka Chu and disseminated a brigade of the Indian Army. A month later, on November 19-20, they crossed the high mountain passes and came to the foothills of ranges on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river. It was the gravest moment in India’s post-Independence history.
Encash Obama’s UNSC cheque
Nov 20th, 2010U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement in Parliament that “in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed UN Security Council (UNSC) that includes India as a permanent member” was greeted with immediate euphoria. However, its highly nuanced formulation has subsequently raised many questions.
Meet Dilma, Brazil’s next Prez
Oct 23rd, 2010Dilma Rousseff may have failed to secure the widely expected absolute majority in the first turn, yet she seems certain to beat her rival, José Serra, in the run-off on October 31 and become Brazil’s
Young Pakistanis cynical about politics
Oct 10th, 2010One striking aspect of the last US presidential election was Barack Obama’s ability to connect with young Americans, and draw them into the political process. Alas, this kind of political engagement is entirely missing in Pakistan.
Insaniyat over insanity
Oct 03rd, 2010It is a strong logic. The answer to a dispute from mediaeval India might eventually lie in a mediaeval practice. Simultaneum mixtum first came to be used in the Europe of the Reformation less than five years before the conqueror Babar, or his general Mir Baqi, raised the Babri Masjid in 1528 AD over an area where Hindus believe a temple
First Saraswati, now Yamuna?
Sep 26th, 2010I pass the Yamuna en-route to my office everyday. For the past few years it has had the look of an affluent drain, or, perhaps, I should say effluent. It snakes timidly past the grandeur of the Akshardham Temple, slithers away from the frenetic bustle of the Commonwealth Games Village and slips under the vast spans of the DND flyover.
Forgotten Indians
Sep 25th, 2010The Roma or Romanies (in the singular Rom or Romany) have been in the limelight since July 2010 when their camps in France were demolished and they were sent back to Romania, France’s fellow member of the European Union (EU). The deportees are citizens with Romanian passports and full civil rights like any other EU or Romanian citizens, though heavily discriminated against.
Brain before brawn
Sep 08th, 2010In my article in The Asian Age of September 21, 2009, Naxal violence is a cry to be heard, I came in full support of the Prime Minister’s statement of 2009 on Naxal violence, calling it one of “gravest internal security problems” the country faces. Indeed, the Naxal problem is much more serious than the external threat of militants from
You and I can make Kyoto-2 work
Aug 03rd, 2010The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is due to begin in less than four months from now, at Cancun, Mexico.
Kashmir redux
Jul 09th, 2010Many photographs in newspapers and TV channels of 14- and 16-year-olds aiming bricks or stones at the security forces have filled our minds over the last few days as street violence in the Kashmir Val
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Europe had a dream
May 21st, 2010It is premature to sing dirges for the European Union (EU), but the path-breaking grouping that blazed a new trail after World War II and took a war-spattered Europe to a new trajectory of peace and prosperity is facing an existential crisis. What started as Greece’s financial meltdown impacting on the common euro currency has spawned an unprecedented soul-searching for answers.
The Second Chamber
May 10th, 2010 The Tamil Nadu Legislative Council Bill was enacted in Parliament during the last two days of the Budget Session and the debate on the Bill was not just reflective of party positions but also thr
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