As if the numerous controversies the Congress is battling in recent times are not enough, the party’s MP from Kerala K Sudhakaran has added another one for the party’s troubleshooters to handle after he made offensive remarks against the Suryanelli rape victim, calling her a “prostitute”. And to make matters worse, he has refused to apologise. On Sunday, while ad
Press council of India chief Markanday Katju is a marksman par excellence. After relentlessly trying many targets, he seems to have hit through the right one. In a signed article that appeared in The Hindu on February 15, Katju questioned Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s s
“1949: Only socialism could save China 1979: Only capitalism could save China 1989: Only China could save socialism 2009: Only China could save capitalism” - Joke doing the rounds in Beijing after the global financial crash China, the world’s most populous country, with a population of 1.3 billion and the fourth largest count
President Pranab Mukherjee in a recent meeting with the vice-chancellors of central universities has proposed several initiatives which could perhaps help in transforming higher education and connection between academia, innovators and rest of the society. According to the press release dated Feb 7, 2013, he would interact with teachers
Governance Now and CVoter carried out a survey of the trust various institutions of governance inspire among the people. Read more about the overall findings of the survey here:Trust of the Republic survey: little faith in government
Union minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi has claimed that he was joking when he made an offensive remark to a woman journalist in Kerala. Asked about the Congress party’s stance on Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien, allegedly involved in the Suryanelli rape case in Kerala, Ravi responded, “Do you have anything personal against Kurien? Has something happene
Veteran politician and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar is livid with party leader and Maharashtra minister Bhaskar Jadhav for the “gratuitous extravagance” which the latter displayed at a social occasion. Jadhav, who is minister of state for urban development in the state government, was in news recently for the lavish weddings of his son and daughter. Accordin
On January 20, following two days of stimulating discussion and deliberation to perk up the party ahead of next year’s general elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said in Jaipur, “I assure you that I will personally continue to press for the passage of the law that would provide for one-third reservation for women in parliament and state legislatures.” It was a
In Dabangg 2, when the jeep of protagonist inspector Chulbul Pandey (played by Salman Khan) lands up in a large pit and the engine chokes to death in a cloud of dust, he asks his constable in his typical comic baritone, “Yeh kiska khet hai, Sharmaji.” And the constable replies meekly, “Sir, ye toh Kanpur ka main chauraha hai.” While the joke had viewers of
Saturday, February 9, would have been just another day had news channels not begun beaming the news of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging. Not that it made much of a difference to the man/woman on the street going about his/her business on an exceptionally sunny day, marking the onset of spring in Delhi. Not, also, that the news brought a collective sigh of relief
Governance Now and CVoter carried out a survey of the trust various institutions of governance inspire among the people. Read more about the overall findings of the survey here: Trust of the Republic survey: little faith in government or in print in the February 1-15 iss
On January 20, following two days of stimulating discussion and deliberation to perk up the party ahead of next year’s general elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said in Jaipur, “I assure you that I will personally continue to press for the passage of the law that would provide for one-third reservation for women in parliament and state legislatures.” It was a
At some strange level, the Indian political system has a deep, if not too apparent, connect with Bollywood. Like a half-decent Hindi masala flick, the Indian polity, and thereby the political system, sees and believes in only the colours black and white, with no chance in hell for the existence of a grey, let alone shades and tones of it. Like the sheriffs in the Western flicks, from where Boll
The government’s decision to secretly execute Guru just days before Maqbool Bhat’s death anniversary — Bhat was a symbol of Kashmir’s resistance against what many in the state believe is India’s claims over the region, who was also executed in the same Tihar jail 28 years ago — seems to have touched a raw nerve, especially among the youth of the Valley.
David Devadas, veteran journalist and author of `In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir`, wrote for the Hindustan Times on December 2 last year why Afzal Guru should not be hanged. We present the column, as a counterview. Courtesy Hindustan Times: Stick
God only knows that I was horrified when I heard my 10 years old cousin sang out loud in front of me "Main to tandoori murgi hun yaar, gatka le saiyyan alcohol se”. "Too much TV," I sighed. The government today has done probably what every parent has been secretly praying for: barred what are called `item songs` from TV telecast because of their explicit con
February 8 This must be the most tragic day in the forever-tragic republic. What have the poor politicians done to deserve this? The papers are full of reports that there are way too many of those security men protecting us. That’s nonsense; pardon me, but sheer human excreta. The supreme court seeking
“Ye dagh – dagh ujala, ye shabgazida seher/ Woh intezar tha jiska, ye woh seher to nahin.” (Light dirtied by stains and daybreak bitten by a poisonous night/ Is this the dawn we waited for?) As we celebrate the sixty-third birth anniversary of our republic, I am forced by an unexplained inner urge to cry aloud these apparently pessimistic lines penned ironical
The refrain — yes, that’s what it has become — “treat women with respect” has reached such levels that now the only reaction it elicits is that of psychic numbing. So, now it is UP minister Rajaram Pandey, who praised a district magistrate for her beauty — and for possessing a perfect body. Pandeyji is happy that every time he comes to Sultanpur there
India’s “virtual middle class” Those of us who sign online petitions, forward chain mails on fighting corruption, join threads of debate on blogs and ‘friend’ campaign groups on Facebook have finally arrived. The world-renowned trend-catcher Thomas L Friedman has captured this latest trend, naming them India’s “virtual middle cla
