Joke 1: News channels flash ‘breaking news’. Why? Delhi Police arrived on time at a crime scene. Joke 2: Police would now get training from Domino’s guys in how to arrive at a crime scene within 30 minutes. Those are the jokes going around on social media soon after Zee News aired an interview with the Delhi gangrape and murder victim’s
C Rangarajan’s suggestion to increase the marginal tax rate on those with higher income will garner a lot of popularity. At first glance it seems to be a valid and well thought out suggestion. After all the rich are getting richer. They always did. But after liberalisation the pace at which the rich have gotten super-rich is astounding. The battle-scarred victor of many a fiscal war and c
The justice delivery system in our country offers some protection to juveniles. Their identities are kept a secret, they are kept in rehabilitation homes away from dreaded criminals in jails, and they are dealt with softly to allow them scope to be better citizens in future. But these applications sound fine only when the magnitude of crime in question is small, in keeping with the off
After a common New Delhi woman — yes, a common New Delhi woman — who just wanted to watch a movie with her friend on a Sunday evening was raped and brutally assaulted by six men in a bus, a lot has been said, primarily by politicians, about the poor, the slum dwellers, and the migrants to the big cities. And their combined retrograde attitude toward women. The netas explaine
It is an amazing coincidence, but this is about the two C`s that matter to us most: customer service and coincidences. You know, about how Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln (or is it the other way around?). And how your call is important – not to Kennedy or Lincoln, but to customer service. Some coincidences have already become classic
December 29 in Indian history will go down as a day when the nation was shamed first in the eyes of its own people and then in Singapore when the 23-year-old Delhi girl succumbed to the brutalities meted out to her in a moving bus by six young men, who are neither beast nor human. An enraged nation is bruised and battered today with no explanation to offer to its people on the question: are we
Geography 101 taught us that winter solstice comes when the sun is at its lowest on the horizon. Around December 22-23, the Indian state dug itself into a similar hole. As the nation seethed over the gangrape of a 23-year-old medical student, each of us had our favourite Hades. Most blamed an apathetic, semi-literate, lecherous constabulary, and its chiefdom grown on courting
For a country whose history textbooks generate so much controversy (either allegedly too Leftish, a.k.a. the CBSE books, or purportedly too Rightish Hindu revivalist in BJP-ruled states), we learn little from history. Forget the textbooks; to take just one example, even Bollywood tells us that most freedom fighters were hanged early in the morning, and their bodies disposed of quietly w
There are times when a society discovers new meanings in existing idioms. The death of the 23-year-old, who was violated brutally by some youths on a Delhi bus, is one such moment that has now become an idiom. An idiom that will change a few things forever. I am convinced that it will be very difficult for the ruling class to dismiss these things and give tickets to candidates carrying
Yes, we all have to something to say. She fought the good fight and died. In some ways, however gross that sounds, she has been relieved of pain. It also brings the death penalty on the table for the creeps who did this unspeakable thing. They took a life in cold blood. Now, pay for it. It kind of knocks the new year mood for a loop as our first response is one of h
Was he, was he not? That’s the question of the day thrown up by ABP Ananda’s report on Abhijit Mukherjee’s gender sensitivity. Was he high? Was he not? While reports that Mukherjee has relocated to Mars after being too high proved to be rumours, unconfirmed reports said the vehicle he had booked for the trip had gone to the workshop. Yes, to get dented and p
The government of Delhi and the centre recently announced that they were ready for a partial transition from the public distribution system (PDS) to transferring cash to the poor. This decision once again opened up the debate about whether ‘food’ is better than ‘cash’, and whether this proposed move is simply one more right-wing, neo-liberal reformist measure aimed at di
At a time when his father, President Pranab Mukherjee, was trying to find a solution to women’s safety and trying to address the slightly violent streak the anti-rape demonstrations had taken over the weekend, his Member of Parliament son Abhijit Mukherjee tried to comprehend the nature of protests taking
At times, what are politicians for if not to provide fodder for a daily dose of mirth and musing? Welcome today’s benefactor then, ladies and gentlemen: Abhijit Mukherjee, a.k.a. Member of Parliament from Jangipur in West Bengal and better known as President Pranab Mukherjee’s son. No sooner had he made that eloquent comment today than the twitteratti took the attack straigh
It is an extraordinary story of triumph of pragmatic economic interests of both the countries overtaking long-term historical problems and tensions. China has about 25 billion dollars worth of trade surplus with India which the Indian prime minister recently pleaded with Chinese leadership to reduce. But if we were to calculate the knowledge exchange index as a measure of global innovation lear
In retrospect, the Indian government may be as much responsible as the GMR Group for the latter’s ejection from the airport project in Maldives. The decision by the island neighbour had its roots in issues related to corporate governance (GMR’s decisions), local socio-politico-economic dynamics, and New Delhi’s diplomatic fiasco. Recently, Male terminated the Indian firm&rsquo
Shame on all Indian cricket lovers. What a shabby, pathetic way to say goodbye to the king. One day before we play Pakistan in a historic ‘open the gates’ series we dump our biggest asset without pomp, ceremony or grace. This man, Sachin Tendulkar, broke every record, climbed every mountain, forged every river, gave us years of mind-numbing excitement. And we discard him lik
I don’t ever want to be in that position but what would I do if I was present when a young girl was being raped or some individual being brutalised by a gang of savages in a public place? I don’t know but I pray to God I would have the moral courage to do the right thing even if it meant injury to myself or worse. If there had been people on the bus in Delhi would they have all
I have a friend who refuses to write cheques. His signature never matches with the doodles he drew while opening the bank account. It’s not that I recall such characters usually on weekday mornings but reading the newspaper headlines this morning somehow made the brain do a bit of jogging backward. Most missed the drama that lay readers like me looked for after the adrenaline rush
Development as vote-catcher Unlike 2002 and 2007, there was no communal angle in 2012, save a bit of the Ahmed ‘Miyan’ Patel talk on one side and the minority-in-danger from the other. Then, it was essentially a vote on Narendra Modi’s model of development. And it has worked. (In 2007, too, it was probably the same story except that the Soh
