It is singularly unfortunate that Team Anna has been pushed into contemplating a political party. Whether they finally take that call or decline it might depend upon their reading of the public mood. But it bodes ill for civil society in India. Team Anna has a fan following as much as it has its critics. But none can dispute their constitutional right to campaign, agitate and mobilize public op
Who is Anna Hazare? Which section of civil society does he represent? What is he fasting for this time? Will Anna enter politics, form a political party or just support ‘clean’ candidates of other political parties? Does Anna believe in democracy and parliamentary procedures, and respect the constitution? Does he endorse the call of core members of his India Against Corruption team
Western media has described Monday’s failure of northern grid as the world’s worst power crisis in recent years. We will wait for another day to see what they have to say now after we achieved the feat again in less than 24 hours – this time on a much larger scale. Tuesday’s failure of northern, eastern and northeastern grids have plunged over 19 states into darkness. Wh
Electoral reforms have been a topic of discussion for several years now. The provocation for this particular piece is the 52nd report of the parliamentary standing committee on law and justice, in whose jurisdiction the election commission of India (ECI) falls. The report, presented to the Rajya Sabha and laid on the table of the Lok Sabha on May 21, is actually on the demand for grants for 201
By questioning every established institution, Anna and his Team A are on a suicidal path. But there`s no law to stop them. Hence the tragic derailing of the war against corruption. Attempting to commit suicide by a person is an offence under the Indian penal Code. But what if some persons are causing a movement to commit suicide? We still don’t have a law to deal with such
In all fairness, it is the underarm that matters. So they say. Those who set our social agenda (i.e. the advertising and marketing people) have spoken. And their verdict is clear – keep your underarm fair and you will land the man of your choice. So far they have been silent on men keeping their underarms fair and landing the women of their choice. But like that other fairness cream, it i
Just as the euphoric hype over India’s chances of a few medals in London Olympics (which opens in a couple of days) was building up, a newspaper story of Santhi Soundarajan, India’s silver medallist in the 800 metres event at Doha Asiad in 2006, has burst the bubble. Santhi, celebrated for her second place in a tough field, was cast out after she failed a sex test. Stripped of her m
The Olympics is about to start and the skeletons have been stumbling from the closet. Huh! What is the big deal here? The skeletons were already there in the closet. It is just that, now, they are falling down. Definitely, gravity is at fault. The story is long, but let us begin from the Beijing Olympics 2008. Medals, honors, awards, rewards etc for the winners and a firm resolve
The human body is a maddeningly complex system that rarely reveals its inner workings to the outside world. Consider this. The average human being is exposed to a billion different kinds of bacteria, viruses and micro-organisms on a daily basis. Each of these invisible creatures can cause anything from a feeling of feverishness to a fatal brain haemorrhage. Yet most of us keep going on about ou
Former Army Chief General VK Singh, before stepping down, had written a secret letter to the defence minister AK Anthony saying Indian Army lacked a lot of basic warfare gear such as ammunition for tanks. He had also stated that the tanks in use were night blind as they were not equipped with thermal imaging sensors. The Army Chief stressed that the force had enough ammunition only for three-to
There is a crisis in the country at all levels. Most institutions, elite or otherwise seem to be becoming more centralised, impervious to the feedback from below, lacking horizontal and vertical accountability and are also getting alienated from common interest. Why is such a spectacle being enacted? On one hand we see widespread upsurge of democratic aspirations all around the world, a
Book details The Battle for Employment Guarantee Edited by Reetika Khera Oxford University Press, 264 pages, Rs 695 MNREGS has been a topic of hot debate, even before the law was enacted. Critics see it as wastage of huge public money in ‘mud work’, whereas supporters think it answers the need to save the
Mamata Sharma, chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW), had to associate herself with the Guwahati gang-molestation affair in a manner distasteful to her. She felt compelled to apologise before the media after Alka Lamba committed a faux pas by naming the victim at a press conference. Lamba, despite not being part of the NCW, virtually led its fact finding team to Guwahati. The only
Strange are the workings of the human mind. Just a few weeks back Rajesh Khanna was trending on twitter, massacred for his advertisement for Havells. There’s no question the ad had no business to be made. But the viciousness of its critics left your columnist trying to defend: `Don’t deny a man his right to a living; don’t just show case him in a time warp!’ Not
Perhaps it was Carlyle who said, “Give me a man who sings at his work.” Fatigue, or more simply lack of interest in the assigned work or office environment, is common. This happens perhaps because we do not question ourselves or introspect. Do we have an attitude where a humbler existence is felt owed to certain duty vested in us that empowers us to be useful to others? The question
There is something sad about a poll to discover the second greatest Indian. The top job is taken, let`s celebrate the also-rans. Once that joke has had its run, what next? A poll to find the 16th greatest Indian Woman Who Was Born in the First Half of a Leap Year? This can go on and on, and perhaps will. Nobody, as Edmund Hillary might have said if someone had cared enough to as
The khap panchayat in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district has its own way of dealing with the problem of women being harassed by the “roadside Romeos”. It has issued a firman barring women up to the age of 40 from going to market unescorted, using cellphones and going for love marriages. They have also warned women to be ready to face consequences in case of a violation of the kh
On June 20 this year, four-year-old Mahi fell into a bore well in Koh village in Manesar near Gurgaon. It was her birthday. She made front-page news in all leading newspapers and ate into prime time TV. Reports stated that help arrived 90 minutes later. Too late, they said. By the time she was pulled out 80 hours later, she was dead. Everything in India is late, except the media, the ever-waiti
In Manipur the movement for the introduction of the inner line permit (ILP) system is gaining momentum. On 5 July, a public interest litigation (PIL) that had been pending in the Gauhati high court was withdrawn, the ILP Demand Committee formed in 2006 by Federation of Regional Indigenous Societies (FRIENDS) was superseded and a Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit (ILP) was formed. The Joint C
Four weeks ago, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, basking in the light of Gujarat’s progress, remarked that “casteist” politics had arrested Bihar’s development. Nitish Kumar’s riposte was swift and brutal. The Bihar chief minister asked Modi to mind his own business and not give gratuitous advice to others. That clash between two chief ministers, both
