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
Gujarat has always been a riddle for those who tend to apply conventional academic or intellectual tools to unravel the mystery. When confusion gets confounded, such analysts invent subterfuge to cover up their failures. Nothing illustrates this dilemma as starkly as the projection of the Gujarat assembly election as a Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi battle. And ironically some
As terror mastermind Hafeez Saeed walked free in Pakistan, Rahul Gandhi tweeted to ridicule prime minister Narendra Modi’s diplomacy, and in response BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao called him a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) sympathiser. Suitably chagrined by the BJP’s counterattack, the Congress once again played the emotional card. Congress leader Anand Sharma recalled the contribution
There is today a huge uproar about a film produced by Mumbai film-maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali that is rumored to contain scenes of a dream romance between Padmavati, the Rajput queen of Chittor, and the ferocious Muslim sultan Allauddin Khilji of Delhi. Paradoxically, there are a number of conflicting versions of the mythical story of Padmavati over the past 700 years. Now, an obscure Jaipur-ba
Is China behind the fall of Zimbabwe’s longest serving leader Robert Mugabe? The whole African region and the European continent are abuzz with speculation that toppling of the Mugabe government occurred at Beijing’s bidding. It took place soon after army commander Constantino Chiwenga`s return from China, which is not only a major arms supplier to the Southern Africa
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) celebrated its fifth anniversary on November 26. AAP has been a unique phenomenon in our politics: it’s the only startup of its kind, it’s the only party in recent decades to emerge out of a popular agitation, it’s the only party (outside Sikkim) to win nearly all seats going to the polls. Five years ago, AAP stood for all the hopes tha
Policy planners may already be engaged in analysing why the country does not look cleaner than it was three years ago. The central government has launched several schemes from time to time – Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC, Vajpayee, 1999), Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA, Singh, 2012), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA, Modi 2014) – for cleaning up the Augean stables, but they have not worked w
