In a curious coincidence, Bihar strongman Lalu Prasad got his comeuppance – jail sentence for corruption – in the very week that witnessed the triple talaq bill – a cornerstone of ‘secularism’ – making progress in parliament. The two matters would seem unrelated but are in fact deeply interconnected. Lalu represents the best and worst of Indian
It could befit a welfare state to have a law that guarantees work and wages for unemployed citizens. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), now known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), was supposed to be just that. It assured 100 days of work in a year to anyone from a village who demanded work. It also promised wages within 15 days of the work we
Under president Yameen Gayoom, the Maldives has closed ranks with Beijing on a free trade agreement and the belt and road initiative. Recently, it suspended opposition councillors who met Indian ambassador Akhilesh Mishra in Male. The signals are that Maldives is neither comfortable with India, nor does it care for New Delhi’s interests in the Indian ocean region. In an interview with
After the end of the Cold War in 1991, the USA had not merely emerged as the sole military superpower but it was also leading the movement towards globalisation. Owing to the so-called triumph of liberal democracy over communism, optimists like Francis Fukuyama began to see the end of history, rather prematurely, as they visualised a marriage between welfare capitalism and liberal democracy sha
Close to 1,400 lives are lost to tuberculosis every day in India. The government has set itself the target of making India TB-free by 2025, under ‘National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Elimination 2017-25’. This would involve providing not just medicine to the needy, but also money so that they can buy nutritional food – a must in the treatment. The health ministry now
With the acquittal of all the accused in the 2G scam and conviction of Lalu Prasad Yadav in the chara ghotala, scams are in the headlines again. We Indians love scams so much that the word ‘scam’ is now part of all Indian languages though the meaning is not the same as in English. In Indian languages ‘scam’ is not any dishonest scheme but a big-ticket swindle involving t
It is the story of the exoneration of A Raja and the conviction of a metaphorical raja (Lalu Prasad used to call himself a raja of Bihar) that reveals a complex web of governance in India. Raja’s exoneration in the 2G scam was quickly followed by Lalu’s conviction in the fodder scam. Of course, in both cases, the respective CBI courts delivered verdicts which are con
Seventy years of independence and the questions and issues raised have not changed and the most astounding fact is that neither are the answers! So this Good Governance Day (December 25), as a woman I ask what has been done for that huge section of the population that I represent. Had governance been truly effective then there would never be a need to demand reservation for women. The women&rsq
This one definitely isn’t the typical fight witnessed within defence circles. The high-profile fracas over the Tejas fighter aircraft and the more subdued skirmish over the Arjun tank carry with it the potential to define what India is going to do over the next 50 years on its quest for growth, development and prosperity. For over a decade there has been an intriguing war fought in the by
The BJP is set to form the sixth government in Gujarat. Not counting a bump in 1996-98 thanks to its own rebel Shankarsinh Vaghela, the party has been in power since 1995, and shows no signs of anti-incumbency. What we are witnessing is comparable only to the long CPM rule in West Bengal. There are, of course, other states with a long period of one-party rule, or on
Walking along the row of multistory buildings swathed in a haze of pollution at the Nehru Place business hub in South Delhi, when you come across what looks like a forest, you are just outside India’s first office complex which has air as fresh as in Gulmarg or Davos. Paharpur Business Centre (PBC), an office complex, is the brainchild of Kamal Meattle, a scientist-turned-businessman.
More often, a colloquial proverb sums up a complex political situation more aptly than scholarly formulations. If one looks at the Gujarat verdict, nothing summarises it more perfectly than the adage: “Jo jita wohi Sikandar (the victor is the one who has won).” Of course, there is no denying that the victor in Gujarat c
Far away in the other world, she must be weeping seeing the flames of fire she lit for justice slowly fading. On December 16, 2012, the 23-year-old Delhi woman, better known as Nirbhaya now, was brutally raped. She eventually succumbed to her injuries, but not before triggering a storm acorss the country on women’s safety. Have things really changed five years later?
Have things changed five years after the Nirbhaya incident? I see Delhi as the capital of protest, not just capital of rape as it is often painted. In terms of legislation, in 2013 one-stop-centres were set up after the landmark report of Justice Verma Committee and Justice Usha Mehra Commission. There was amendment in the Criminal Law Act in 2013. The Sexual Harassment
Assembly elections in Gujarat, since 2002, have been like Churchill’s description of Russia – with a little twist: wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but eventually a non-riddle. They have been following the same script. When the campaign begins, the outcome looks utterly unpredictable. As the electioneering progresses, as Narendra Modi gets aggressive, his criti
Rahul Gandhi has become the president of India’s grand old party. Nobody else wanted to, since none contested. By any parameter, it is not a welcome move in a democracy. Regardless of your views on his leadership abilities, the fact remains that there was no contest, no election for the top post. The only justification, that not even one among the tens of thousands of Congress members was
Ending an extended period of stagnation, public sector enterprise Educational Consultants of India Limited (EdCIL) doubled its turnover in 2015-16 and has maintained it for 2016-17. In conversation with Praggya Guptaa, EdCIL’s CMD Diptiman Das talks about the PSUs future plans and the potential of educational market in India. Bill Gates recently expressed
Close on the heels of the new US policy towards Afghanistan, India gave a new meaning to its strategy towards the country when it took the Chabahar route to supply wheat to the insurgency-hit landlocked nation. In conversation with Shankar Kumar, Afghanistan ambassador Shaida Mohammad Abdali talks about these developments and praises India’s effort for peace in the region. He also sub
At a time (Mid-November) when the national capital was engulfed in thick smog, public health experts from Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and other parts of the globe were in Delhi to attend the annual meeting of the Pacific Basin Consortium for Health and Environment. The meeting was held in India for the first time in 17 years. Scientists, researchers and policymakers thought it was the
The ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report of the World Bank could not have come at a better time for the NDA government. The first anniversary of demonetisation, where everything from planning to execution went wrong, and whose impact had broken the back of the economy as never before, was only a week ahead when the report was released on October 31. It was just a week after announcing th
