Columns

Modi and Lokayukta ruling

The Gujarat Lokayukta ruling has left constitutional mandate to respect federalism, rights of a popularly elected government and scope of governors’ duties and rights at crossroads in the face of interpretation of the provisions of the Gujarat Lokayukta law. The Gujarat high court ruling also means the institution of Lokayukta is more isolated than ever, also increasing th

A rail passenger called Gandhi...

Sixty-four years ago on this day, on 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. India has several statues, universities and roads named after the Mahatma. Almost every city in India has a Gandhi statue. Mahatma Gandhi roads are found in many cities. Mahatma Gandhi Setu is a bridge over the Ganga connecting Patna and Hajipur, 5.575 km long and was considered the longest bridge in India un

For just a drop of water

[After sending this column, our columnist said, "I hope at least one reader will change his or her habits (after reading this)." We would be happy to hear from you if this column lead you to reflect on your behaviour.] The recent 28th shodhyatra in Mizoram has been quiet cathartic for me personally. I had been aware of the need to conserve water and proper practices w

Negative campaign flies high

In a democracy, where elections matter, negative campaigns add a tangy twist to the atmosphere. That’s what has been seen in primaries of the US presidential elections and five state assembly elections in India. However, comparing both would be like comparing apples and oranges. In the runup to the Uttar Pradesh election, the issue of Uma Bharti being an outsider is being raised i

Latest from the Katju

If his guns go blazing the way they are now, justice Katju has the potential to soon force the editors to create a new reporting beat exclusively for his comments which are so regular and riotous. Right now, the media is not taking him as seriously as the other way round. There is so much of warmth, a sense of caregiving, an overseeing benign eye when he tells media persons, “You have los

Identity politics of a different kind

The unique identity (UID) initiative seems to be the latest causality of a turf war between the finance ministry headed by Pranab Mukherjee and the home ministry headed by P Chidambaram. The discomfort between the two senior Congress ministers was evident in many cases whether it was the reported bugging of the finance minister’s office or the finance ministry note to the

Thank God, Vodafone could dial the court!

Taking a cue from the Supreme Court’s lessons to the taxman on basic principles like jurisdiction, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called Law Minister Salman Kursheed within minutes to take his own lessons on basic principles of law. If only the government ran refresher courses on such elementary issues, the economy  would have been rated a few notches higher by Moody’s for o

Sweeping failures at Delhi Lokayukta

The man responsible for inquiring against top public functionaries in the national capital territory (NCT) of Delhi hasn’t been given the elbow room to decide whether he can have a new sweeper in his office. For more than two years, Justice Manmohan Sarin, the NCT Lokayukta, has suffered two sweepers given to him on lien by the state government he is supposed to rap. The s

Google and the Grand Inquisitor

Pardon me for my long-windedness. But we have to get this straight. When a smart young stalker got hold of Angelina Jolie’s mobile number and started bombarding her with text messages and obscene calls from random numbers, cyber experts from the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) had to step in. After around a month they caught him. A criminal case was filed in the Los Angeles superior

Fixing education — let Sibal’s kids study with ours…

Pratham’s report on the state of education in rural India is both predictable and shocking. Predictable because it repeats the same set of findings year-after-year – (a) school enrollment remains over 90 percent but (b) quality of learning, both reading and mathematical abilities, continues to be pathetically low and declining, (c) attendance of students and teachers als

Time to invest in quality education

When I visited a youth resource centre run by an NGO in Trilokpuri in east Delhi a few months ago, I saw many children from nearby localities attending free Math and English tuition classes. These children studied at government schools in the area. Their families were poor and therefore could not afford the English-medium private schools. Thirteen-year-old Leela explained the situation

And I ask why should I vote?

When Harvinder Singh delivered a tight slap right across Sharad Pawar’s face, the resounding echo elicited reactions from all strata of society and political parties. While a slap may not be an accepted form of protest, it did indicate the level of frustration felt by the Indian middle class at an increasingly unresponsive political system. The violence of the action came in for justifiab

The all-pervasive dumbing down

Look at the national scene unfolding before your eyes and you are sure to be submerged by a spate of negativity: high inflation, plummeting rupee, general economic decline, government in limbo, policy paralysis, corruption and most other ills associated with a flailing state. There are endless debates – in print, on television, in private parties and also on public platforms – on ea

In the court of justice Katju

Case: A newspaper reader’s plaint — early morning confusion. Court: Of justice Katju, the press council of India chief. Complainant: The argumentative Indian.   Your Honour, I’ll begin with a word of praise for the chair. I have become a sincere newspaper reader ever since you to

Pay tax and cover Maya’s extravaganza!

The choice between use of public funds for development priorities such as health, education and nutrition on one side and the need to create a larger than life stature by riding on the need to uplift the self-esteem of the Bahujan Samaj by constructing statues of her own and her party symbol, elephant, on the other side – was very easy for Mayawati and led her to blow up a few thousand cr

Why can’t president find time to decide mercy pleas?

The UPA government seems to revel in keeping the death sentences hanging and this is what is reflected in the affidavit it filed before the apex court on Tuesday to explain the delay in deciding the mercy plea of Khalistani terrorist Devender Pal Singh Bhullar. Bhullar is a convict in the 1993 bl

Why call malnutrition `national shame` now, Mr PM?

Prime minister Manmohan Singh has said the country’s child malnutrition figures are matter of “national shame”. He has said that before and he said it again on Tuesday while releasing a report of ‘Hunger and Malnutrition Survey’, prepared by Naandi Foundation on Tuesday. [

Et tu, justice Markandey Katju!

For those who don’t know: justice (retd) Markandey Katju is the closest we have to an elected conscience keeper of the Indian press. As veteran editor Kuldip Nayar reminded the Editors Guild AGM on Saturday, like all moral conscience keepers, the Press Council of India (PCI), which Katju now chairs, wasn’t given control over anything substantive. It’s hardly surprising therefo

Lessons in higher education

In the Indian Science Congress last week, prime minister Manmohan Singh bemoaned the fact that China had overtaken India on various indicators of performance in higher education. It is ironic that while China is ruled by a single party and India is a democratic country, the institutions of higher learning in China have more autonomy at all levels. In India, some of the institutions fear autonom

Another Dirty Picture?

In Taoist philosophy, quiescence is described as a still state that is unlikely to easily change. Just as the stillness seems here to stay, life happens - forces of shade and light - Yin and Yang - arrive. These seemingly opposite forces churn the stillness, causing mayhem, till an altered quiescent state emerges anew. 2011 has been a churning of Yin-Yang forces over the Indian consciousness.

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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