Indian Politics
Forum Post: The Best and the Worst
With highly-probable portends of an early election visible on the horizon, I’ve created a new category called Elections 2009.
Beginning with this post, I plan to record–very irregularly–a sort of a run-up of events, news, and other gossip–I’ll even create quizzes–leading up to the actual elections. It promises to be an interesting retrospect.
Let’s start with history. […]
Dear Mr. Ramachandra Guha…Cont’d
Via the Acorn, who in this excellent short-shrift to cricket-commentator-turned-pseudo Historian, Ramachandra Guha, adequately delivers the treatment the piece deserves. From the paragraph Nitin quotes,
We need to repair, one by one, the institutions that have safeguarded our unity amidst diversity…
I challenge Mr. Guha to name exactly one institution that has done all these.
Islamic Republic of Kashmir Redux
The hullaballoo over the Amarnath land controversy amuses me. I fail to understand the wail of the idiots who still think Kashmir is part of India. They have forgotten that Kashmir is governed by the Shariat law. Hindus in Kashmir are zimmis; only, they have the luxury of not paying the jaziya tax–at least, not […]
Political Incorrectness at its Best
In a superb article, Jakod De Roover rips apart the European Parliament’s presumptuous self-righteousness, which has compelled them to “come out with a policy statement” on how caste still rules India.
Recently, the European Parliament hosted a meeting on “caste discrimination in South Asia”. At the meeting, participants stated that “India is being ruled by castes […]
Mosque Demolition Meets Deathly Silence
This mosque demolition strangely stirred extremely feeble protests–if you can call them that.
Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August’s Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday.
China has characteristically cared a whit for the dreaded PR impact. […]
Recalling a Train Journey
About three years ago, Dilip D’Souza concluded that liberalization had done little to improve India’s economy. I had pointed out that his conclusion was fantastic because it was based on just one train journey and a few anecdotal evidences.
He now rarely writes about the economy but that shouldn’t deter me from ruminating on the […]
Did you say Sedition?
Barbar Indians’ latest post carries an interesting observation
The first involves the following statement by Narendra Modi:
“I want to tell the government in Delhi, lets sign a year-long pact, you don’t take any money from us and don’t give us any aid. And then we will show the Centre how we run the state. You all […]
Will this be Banned in India?
The Indian Express reports
A play inspired by a short story written in the 1960s, which prophesised the rise of religious extremists and bombing of mosques in Pakistan, was staged before packed audiences in the federal capital.
When Dhanak, the short story by noted Urdu writer Ghulam Abbas, was read out to a select audience in Lahore […]
In the Name of the Aam Aadmi
Or how the Congress Party Screwed the Aam Aadmi
Cut to 2004 when an euphoric Congress party declared its victory over the dark forces of communalism, rich-centric politics and related evils. It declaimed that its Aam Aadmi slogan had done in the India Shining slogan etcetera. Cut to present.
Consider the state of India’s economy, which the […]
Pragati: June 2008
The June 2008 issue of Pragati is out. Download your copy now.
This issue carries a modified version of my article on the perils of lending intellectual defense to terrorism.
For the original article, see below.
Defending Attacks on National Interest
In a public-life career stretched over more than three decades, D.V.Gundappa wrote tomes on every conceivable aspect of […]