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Who is robbing parliament’s dignity?
Published on 26 Aug, 2011 at 12:11 in Comments | Viewed 48 views times | No Comments
As the peoples’ uprising against a venal political class in India shows no signs of abating, a strange din is evident in some debates and comments. Apart from reeking of cynicism and a not-so-veiled contempt for the self-mobilising multitudes, they all essentially converge on a few broad points. Let us look at them point by point.
One. Parliament is supreme.
No, parliament is not supreme. The constitution of India is, says…
Behold India’s unfolding democratic revolution
Published on 24 Aug, 2011 at 13:00 in Comments | Viewed 55 views times | No Comments
A unique revolution is unfolding across India. No matter what is the immediate outcome of this popular upsurge, triggered by the inspiring determination of a 74-year-old man’s refusal to eat food till the first step towards containing the hydra-headed monster of state-encouraged corruption is taken, Anna Hazare’s fast has already become an event of great historic proportions.
Take a few recent developments in the so-called developed democracies of the West….
‘Annalogy’ of protest turns new chapter
Published on 24 Aug, 2011 at 12:57 in Comments | Viewed 44 views times | No Comments
A veritable wave of ‘Annamania’ has swept an angst-ridden, urban, middle India, specially in ‘Annapolis’ (read Delhi), giving the illusion of a new era christened ‘Anna Domini,’ marked by ‘Annalia’, mixing anti-establishment hysterics, populist entertainment and the romance of a revolution.
The over week-long spontaneous uprising against corruption shepherded by a fasting 74-year-old self-styled Gandhian has spawned a new vocabulary of protest and bred a popular mythology that is seductive…
Anna’s hyperboles may yet produce a strong Lokpal
Published on 20 Aug, 2011 at 14:44 in Comments | Viewed 41 views times | No Comments
Although the Manmohan Singh government has been battered and bruised by its inept handling of civil society activists, the latter’s claim of being harbingers of a second independence movement has also begun to wear thin.
The terms to which Anna Hazare agreed while negotiating with the government while in Tihar Jail – that he will not undertake a fast-unto-death…
Bill that will allow foreign law firms through back door
Published on 18 Aug, 2011 at 13:22 in Comments | Viewed 45 views times | No Comments
Relatively unnoticed amid the scams and agitations haunting the government, Law Minister Salman Khurshid set a time bomb ticking. Earlier this month, exactly 50 years after the Advocates Act, a bill was placed by the minister, a legal practitioner himself, for wide consultations that seeks to set up a new regulatory authority for the profession.
Called the Legal Practitioner (Regulation and maintenance of Standards in Professions, Protecting the Interest of…
Mumbai terror attack underscores India’s vulnerability
Published on 5 Aug, 2011 at 10:33 in Comments | Viewed 63 views times | No Comments
Even before the country could ascertain the implications of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s much-awaited cabinet reshuffle, especially since it is supposedly the last major one before the next general election, the Mumbai blasts reminded it yet again of its dangerous neighbourhood and volatile domestic scene.
For the present, the terrorist outrage appears to be the handiwork of an indigenous group, probably the Indian Mujahideen. But the curious coincidence of these…
India cannot ask for a greater occasion to stamp their authority
Published on 29 Jul, 2011 at 12:49 in Comments | Viewed 76 views times | No Comments
India are No.1 Test nation for over a year now. This is undisputed, and so is that India are the World Champions in the limited-overs cricket. Yet, there are murmurs that India will have to win a series in Australia and South Africa to be truly called world champions. Before that India will have to overcome England in the four-Test series, starting at Lord’s.
India cannot ask for a greater…
Supporting tobacco control in India through media (Comment)
Published on 5 Jul, 2011 at 1:03 in Comments | Viewed 92 views times | No Comments
Together with China, India has been the focus of the world’s attention this past decade for its economic potential and the huge opportunities the developed world sees in the Asian giant. But health is one key area where India has a long way to go. And the one time bomb which is ticking away is the menace of tobacco, whose use is taking alarming proportions.
India has the second largest…
May 21, 1991: The assassination that also killed Tamil Eelam
Published on 23 May, 2011 at 12:17 in Comments | Viewed 180 views times | No Comments
When a young suicide bomber dispatched by Velupillai Prabhakaran scripted history by assassinating former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi 20 years ago, it marked the end of the struggle for a Tamil state in Sri Lanka.
This may sound far-fetched considering that Sri Lanka had to endure 18 more years of bloodletting to finally subdue the Tamil Tigers, by when many thousands perished on both sides of the ethnic fence…
Ensuring milk security for the Indian consumer
Published on 21 May, 2011 at 12:46 in Comments | Viewed 180 views times | No Comments
During the recent past, milk being an essential food has become the most-talked-about products after petrol in urban India! Milk is a relatively new entrant amongst the food inflation-contributing items and is likely to be around for some time to come – the minimum retail price of milk and milk products on an average has grown around 27percent in a short span!
What is of concern is that the magnitude…
