The supreme court last week gave several headline-making verdicts, at least one of which has set off a debate. The verdict itself, asking Chhattisgarh to disarm Salwa Judum, is not the matter debated, but the comments the judges have made in their written judgment. Several editorial commentators have focused on the judges’ diagnosis that “neoliberal policies” were feeding the
Doping scandal has put many of our bright young athletes and one of their coaches from Ukraine in the dock. They will obviously pay a heavy price for this and they must. There are no excuses for taking banned substances. But are they the only ones responsible for the mess? This is not the first time that some of our sports persons have been caught taking banned drugs. And coaches, doctors, nutr
Prime minister Manmohan Singh interacted with five editors for nearly two hours on Wednesday. It was the first of such regular meets that the prime minister has decided to hold. The decision comes after the Congress Working Committee took note of the party’s dwindling public image and home minister P Chidambaram told a television news channel that the prime minister should speak
Anna Hazare has declared that he will sit on a protest fast for the second time if an effective Lokpal Bill is not passed by August 15. The government, through the Congress party`s rant for all seasons Digvijaya Singh, has indicated that Anna Hazare will receive pretty much the same treatment as Baba Ramdev if he carries out his threat. Despite the government`s nine-round stalling mechanism cal
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh has said that it is time Rahul Gandhi became the prime minister. "It is for Rahul Gandhi to take a call on the matter. He is now a mature person with sound political instincts and can become the prime minister," Singh is reported to have said on the Nehru-Gandhi scion`s 41st birthday. Singh, who is believed to be close to Rahul Gandhi, has
Ahead of the June 15 meeting of the drafting committee on Lokpal Bill, the central government has been speaking in different voices on the demand for inclusion of prime minister within the ambit of the proposed corruption watchdog. Anna Hazare`s team, which comprises half of the drafting committee, has been demanding the inclusion of PM along with higher judiciary and other officials. However,
Belated publication of the list of Indians holding secret accounts in LGT Bank in tax haven Liechtenstein (in Wednesday’s Indian Express), which the government has refused to make public on the plea that it would violate confidentiality clause signed with Germany, throws up an interesting
Not for the first time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sought declarations from his cabinet colleagues about their business interests along with their assets and liabilities. In fact, the latest directive extends to the ministers in state governments and members of the families of central ministers as well. And the idea, we are expected to believe, is to make it easier to spot the corrupt mi
When four ministers of the central government rushed to meet Baba Ramdev at Delhi airport on Wednesday, a section of the media speculated that the Manmohan Singh government was trying to woo the yoga guru even as it had snubbed Anna Hazare. However, when the yoga guru emerged from the talks and announced that he would go ahead with his proposed indefinite fast on June 4, it became clear that th
The finance ministry has commissioned a study to estimated black money. It is expected to throw light on this huge underground economy. The report, to be prepared by three premier think tanks, is expected by September 2012. A laudable move, indeed, except that in the last couple of months the supreme court has admonished the government repeatedly for not being serious enough in tackling the pro
The National Advisory Council (NAC) has suggested that for industrial projects, the state government and not the private firms should acquire bulk of the land. This is contrary to the current thinking of the government that calls for state role only to cover up the remaining bit of acquisition. The NAC suggestion can help resolve land acquisition rows as it puts onus on the elected state govern
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh says the faculty of our prime education institutions – IITs and IIMs – are substandard. He says it is in fact the great quality of students, selected after tough entrance tests, that has given these institutes the eminence they enjoy. While there are no two opinions about the quality of students, are their teachers not up to the mark? How could the
Karnataka governor H R Bhardwaj has been proving to be a headache not only for the state’s BJP government. His latest report recommending the president’s rule has been rejected by the centre. IN the past one year or so, he regularly made headlines for his alleged political machinations to destabilise the first BJP government in the south (which too needs to clean up its act, regardl
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has come to power in West Bengal, riding on people’s aspirations for change. However, her own track record so far is mixed at best. In railway ministry, she has not worked wonders or delivered a turnaround. Her main theme in the Rail Bhavan has been populism and parochialism. Outside of the ministry, her political career so far has been more the
The results of five assembly elections are out. Corruption, which along with misgovernance has been the most talked about issue at the national level for the past year or so, has not found resonance with the voters, except in Tamil Nadu (where it did, very strongly). The Congress, heading the UPA government that is facing criticism over graft charges, has remained victorious in Assam and
Results of the assembly elections in five states are coming out on Friday the 13th. While each state has its own dynamics and issues, the overall national discourse over the past one year or so – on a series of corruption scandals and misgovernance – can also be expected to have played on the minds of voters. The Congress or its ally is a key contestant in each of the states that we
Issues raised by the Air India pilots’ strike go beyond their salary hike demands. They have alleged that the government has over the years mismanaged the national carrier – a charge that will stay even if the strike is called off or their salaries are hiked. In fact, what is happening to AI is precisely what has happened to several public-sector entities that have been sacrificed t
Among the casualties at Abbottabad on Sunday night was the worst-kept secret of Pakistan`s double game in the US-led war on terror. Osama bin Laden was taken out by the US Navy`s elite Seal Team Six just yards from the Pakistan Military Academy. The al-Qaeda chief had been living in an oversized house in the heart of this garrison town. And yet, predictably enough, Pakistani president Asif Ali
Osama Bin Laden is dead. So should be the wishful thinking among a large section of India`s policymakers that Pakistan can be trusted. The US forces that hunted down the al-Qaeda chief in Pakistan not only avenged the 9/11 terrorist strikes but also exposed our treacherous neighbour for what it is. Pakistan has survived for decades at the largesse of the US. And now it has been proved that the
Now that the debate has finally begun on the actual contours of the long-pending Lokpal Bill, the first major disagreement has surfaced over the inclusion of the prime minister within the ambit of the proposed anti-corruption watchdog. Those who advocate that the prime minister should be brought under the jurisdiction of Lokpal do so simply because they believe the anti-corruption watch
