Since May 15, the ‘Indignants’ movement in Spain followed by ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations in the US, street protests have spread and plans are afoot to take them to 951 cities in 82 countries. It is against corporate greed and biting cutbacks in welfare measures. The root cause is really the increasing disparity in income and blatant display of unproductive expend
I must admit that I have found the intent of AK Ramanujan’s essay patently un-Indian not only because of the tone set by the Romila Thapar’s undesirable comments quoted by Paul but also because it seems that there is a sinister design to place a few exceptions and rare extremes in such a manner that they just appear to be five simple examples and thoughts on the 300 Ramayanas. After
The slugfest between the centre and the Uttar Pradesh government continues on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREG) scheme in the state. After Jairam Ramesh’s letter to the UP government last week, Mayawati has accused the rural development minister of playing politics. With the state elections around the corner, Mayawati has rubbished Ramesh`s allegations by attribut
Anna Hazare has announced that he will continue with his maun vrat, vow of silence, citing health reasons for his decision. The veteran Gandhian has said that silence helps him recover from swelling in his feet. No, Digvijay Singh hasn’t issued a comment on Anna’s statement yet. But he will. He always does. Nobody knows what his real job is, but this one he performs w
The equations of electoral arithmetic can confound even the most profound of mathematical geniuses. Numbers are the bedrock of any exact science and there is no science as precise as mathematics. That is till it mingles with the rough and tumble of the dust bowls of heartland politics. Then blurriness replaces precision, numbers throw up unexpected combinations and bizarre marriages get pulled
“I am sure you are not bothered about the price rise and inflation because you have seriously taken your party’s slogan to heart which talks about aam aadmi (common man) and not aam aurat (common woman). Obviously the hardships caused by inflation and price rise largely affect women, hence you are genuinely not bothered to check it.” This was Gujarat chief minister Narendra Mo
1. Amend Rule 125A of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to provide for a ban for ten years in the first instance to any candidate withholding or providing incorrect information on Form 26 as prescribed under Rule 4A of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. A second offence should lead to a life ban. 2. Amend Section 8 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 to provide for the following:
Just when you thought it was safe to go out into the playgrounds again comes the news of a brand new fear – playgrounds might be too safe. What fear of injury hasn’t already removed from many playgrounds around the world – tall slides and high climbs, for instance – fear of litigation is steadily removing. No one has sued a park for its sandbox as far as I know, but all
Simone de Beauvoir, an outstanding novelist, feminist and companion of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Mandarins, which evoked an eternal dilemma for an intellectual or a public person about how to be truthful. When the dilemma is a choice between defence of an ideology and commitment to one’s conscience, how does one resolve it? The p
Thomas Friedman in `The World is Flat` talks about how laying down of optical fiber across the globe has provided people in developing world with level playing field, to stand at par, to share, to collaborate, to compete with their counterparts in the West. He lists ten factors which have led to the flattening of the world which, summarily, could be described as the innovation and advance
Anna Hazare and his team of civil society representative’s ongoing fight against corruption can on various levels be compared to the popular television show Bigg Boss. Let us assume the Bigg Boss house as a microcosm of democratic India. The lead actors in this house can be identified as the mainstream political parties being the Congress and BJP, with the smaller/regional political parti
After great expectation comes great disruption. This unenviable cycle of economy seems complete when there is a raging debate in the world over validity of the growth model. The wealth generated by the aggressive growth model may have led to expectations of comfortable and uncompromising rich lifestyle. But it entails a heavy cost on society. A World Bank report released in Octob
The sculptors in Uttar Pradesh are at peace now. They don’t need to see any goddess in dreams for inspiration. They see one in person: a goddess with a handbag. The innumerable statues ordered in bulk of the fastidious deity have honed their dexterity to a clinical precision, reducing the whole creative process to a matter of an indolent ease for them. If the luck favours them in the asse
Panic seems to have gripped the people who have purchased their long-cherished homes through power of attorneys and wills following the news about the ruling of the supreme court and its observations concerning the fate of immovable properties sold vide general power of attorneys and wills. Some common issues of concern and effect of the supreme court ruling are discussed here.
Let the crowd carry you to wherever it is headed. No rules apply if you are on the road. The crowds would have taken up the road entirely, a mile of which would have been closed for security reasons anyway. You may not be able to walk on the left side, something that you have known since elementary school as THE rule for pedestrians. So, don’t try and observe such rules. Let the crowd dir
Ramra is a typical west Uttar Pradesh (UP) village some 20 kms east of Panipat and lies on the left bank of the river Yamuna. Some 5, 000 voters (kudos to the democratic identity that rural India today prefers) strong, it is a good religious mix of Muslims and Hindus living in a single village spread over three identifiable hamlets. We were in Ramra to facilitate two back to back
The Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (MNREGS) is one of the few central schemes that have a large number of monitoring agencies keeping an eye on implementation. From the centre to the state to the district to the panchayat level, there is some agency or the other appointed to look into any allegation of irregularity in the scheme. However, call it the sheer brazenness
If you are feeling on top of the world, certain that whatever happens you inhabit this, the best possible of all worlds and feel convinced that you wear a rainbow around your shoulders, there’s an antidote. Just call up an insurance agent. He is guaranteed to de-rainbow you without even trying. And I am not talking about the kind of thing that happened to the poet Coleridge who had to lea
Penfriends are rare in this age. However, wherever there are two of them still exchanging letters; surprisingly, rules are the same old-school type. A veil of secrecy, a matador-like finesse in selection of words and an occasional, but deliberate, dropping of a surprise. In short, you have to go on in your preferably cursive longhand — like a ballerina on a pink sheet — without reve
A part of the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture delivered in the national capital on Tuesday by union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh is reproduced below: I am not just privileged but also truly humbled to be part of this prestigious lecture series launched a half century and six years ago by none other than C. Rajagopalachari. Many distinguished personalities have pre
