In the run-up to Barack Obama’s visit, we are given an impression that India and the US are now equal partners, but Washington remains a big brother among these brothers in arms. And the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), according to a section of observers, is more than willing to play the second fiddle. An indication to this effect comes from the
Congress party president Sonia Gandhi addressed the AICC meet on Tuesday and made no reference to the series of corruption scams that have maligned her party and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in the recent past. She made no mention of the Adarsh Society or the Commonwealth Games, let alone the 2G scam that happened under the watch of her hand-picked prime minister. Instea
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presides over a government that is beset by corruption scandals involving thousands of crores of rupees. The telecom scam involving Union minister A Raja and the mega contracts doled out in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games are just the most brazen among such examples. Yet, the prime minister himself has never been accused of corruption. He continues to
A 30-storey building comes up in Mumbai’s Colaba in gross violation of various civic and environment laws, providing houses to the Army’s top brass instead of war veterans and widows it was meant for. At least two former Army chiefs, General Deepak Kapoor and General Nirmal Chander Vij,
Arundhati Roy has famously described herself as a mobile republic – an individual outside the state. She has lent her support to Kashmiri separatists, which either fits well within her anti-state or anarchist ideology or is an attempt at gaining cheap publicity, depending on which side of the debate you happen to be. In the latest episode, she said in Srinagar that Kashmir was never integ
The principal opposition party, BJP has demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam . The UPA government had dismissed the demand but few leaders like urban development minister Jaipal Reddy have stated that since the whole process was transparent there is no reason that the government should shy away from a JPC probe. The governme
In an exclusive interview with The Times of India newspaper, Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, has claimed that he can definitely win from anywhere if and when he chooses to contest an election. The businessman husband of Priyanka Gandhi did not rule out the prospect of joining politics at a later date but added that he would do so only when he felt he could mak
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s idea of presenting one consolidated budget, instead of separate railway and general budgets, may not be a revolutionary one but is certainly something that is long overdue. That is mainly because the railways no longer constitute the larger chunk of the government expenditure. Now it is a small part of the expenditure and as such doesn`t call
“Spectacular” and “dazzling” are the adjectives the media has used to describe the opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games as well as India’s performance in the event. All of us are glad. Some of us are also glad that it’s over. Given that it was the costliest ever CWG, it must have required special efforts to mess things up till the last mom
Gujarat recently conducted the first ever e-polling in the elections of six municipal corporations - Ahmedabad, Sruat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar. A total of 387 voters registered for e-voting across these corportations of whom only 182 were qualified for e-voting. Amongst these 182 voters only 124 exercised their franchise through e-voting. The Gujarat state election comm
Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar has written a letter to all ministers, asking them not to use the names of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in naming welfare schemes or schools and roads and bridges. The reason: if a scheme named after Indira Gandhi is not doing well, it may impact
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Bhopal that he saw no difference between the RSS and the banned outfit SIMI as both were “fanatical” and held “fundamentalist view” is unlikely to go uncontested. Both may hold fanatical and fundamentalist views but even a casual acquaintance with their activities and modus operandi is suffice to say th
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is a Congress spokesperson as well as lawyer, has withdrawn from a case in the Kerala High Court, in which he was representing a lottery distributor charged with irregularities. His move came after pressure from the party leadership. This is not a one-off incident. More and more lawyers are getting into politics. Both the Congress and BJP have a battery
“An ancient land opens its heart to the world,“ ran the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald. The report on the Commonwealth Games 2010 opening ceremony went on to say that the grand opening - minus any expected hiccups - came as a surprise. The world media which had been critical of the arrangements for CWG was astonished at the spectacular start which was witnessed by ove
The Allahabad high court’s verdict on Ayodhya would seem to suggest that the resolution of the long-standing dispute lies in building both a temple and a mosque at the site - a perfectly secular solution for a secular country. But there is one jarring note. The claim for a temple seems to have been granted on the basis of “faith and belief of Hindus”, rather than legal
The civil society has flagged the unique identity project citing concerns of privacy violations. They have, infact, launched a campaign against it - `No UID`. The unhappy with UID include include eminent people like Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Aruna Roy, Justice A P Shah and others. The activists say that the project will lead to multiple concerns on civil liberties and the state may misu
Delhi now has dedicated lanes on almost all routes to the Games village and venues - and these are shut to the general traffic from September 20 to October 16. Not only are these lanes no-go zones for the public, anyone found entering these lanes will get exemplary punishment - under a zero-tolerance policy the Delhi Police has adopted. A criminal case will be registered against violato
The fuss over the formality of declaring the upcoming Commonwealth Games open is getting curiouser and curiouser. First, it seemed the media had got it wrong when it reported that both Prince Charles and President Pratibha Patil wanted to be the one to delcare the games open. Given the state of preparations, with the organisers hell-bent upon restoring India`s traditional image as a land of sna
Until even the beginning of this month, there was a fond hope that the government would somehow manage to put up a passable show during the Commonwealth Games. Preparations were way behind schedule, the venues were still not ready, commuters were having a hell of a time as the entire city seemed to have been dug up and every new revelation seemed to point to a systemic loot of public funds mean
Chief justice of Allahabad high court JI Rebello issued two administrative orders in August slitting all PILs into two categories, civil and criminal, and assigning them to two different judges. As a result, the Rs 175 crore Taj Corridor scam, in which UP chief minister Mayawati and her PWD minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui are accused, has been taken away from Justice Pradeep Kant and given to Just
