Two Faces of the Left
2008-03-08 03:55:00
Does the Left have a coherent policy vis-a-vis the US? On the one hand, they’re ready to end support to the UPA government over the 123 agreement, which will finally see India acknowledged as a member of the nuclear club. This has led many others, some of them the good and the great and many wiser than yours truly to wonder if our communist parties are acting as a Chinese fifth column. Evidently, the Left is unaware that China has already signed this agreement.On the other hand, the West Bengal government welcomes a trade team from California. Are policies that are good for West Bengal or China not good enough for India?This kind of blinkered vision is not restricted to the Left--it also operates elsewhere in Indian politics. It appears that, 60 years after Independence, some people hav
International Women's Day
2008-03-08 03:42:00
On this International
Women
’s Day, we should really try to understand what the entry of women into the political and economic lives of their nations has meant. Many have reached the heights in their chosen professions and many women have also lead their countries. Others are trying their best to fight gender biases through education. Many more have taken up careers hitherto confined to men, that too in traditional milieus. This, in a society where there is little, if any, protection for women within the law. However, the very fact that most people now see the raising of children and the running of a home as being equally important as being a breadwinner is also a victory--these often thankless tasks have been solely a woman’s preserve. But men, too, feel a need to spend ti
Taking a Leaf...
2008-03-08 03:12:00
Yesterday, I saw an interesting documentary on the History Channel, Bollywood mein Hindi, which documents the impact that the use of Hindi in Bollywood movies has had on the status of the language worldwide. This documentary has been screened as part of the 8th World Hindi Conference, in New York. Of course, the Hindi used in Bollywood movies varies widely, from flowery Urdu, to down-to-earth Bhojpuri, Bihari and Mumbaikar-speak, to Hindustani--this is not really the Sanskritised Hindi popular with Doordarshan newsreaders of yore. While watching this documentary, I could not help but think over what Shyam Benegal had to say--that rather than make movies in a regional language, he preferred to make movies in Hindi, because the market was larger. I wonder why film-makers, who make movies in
Read more: Taking
Left Hand vs. Right Hand
2008-02-29 06:17:00
Why can’t our MPs and politicians act like adults? Yesterday, they allowed the Finance Minister to table the Economic Survey in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, then spent the rest of the day raising Cain in the house, which led to Parliament being adjourned. The excuse? They wanted their various electorates to know that they had raised the issue of waiving agricultural loans in Parliament, before the issue was raised in the Budget. If they expect their electorate to be impressed by their childish tactics, they’re sadly mistaken. Those who have TVs will have seen the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, reprimanding his charges, rather like an exasperated headmaster with a bunch of unruly children. However, comparing our not-so-honorable MPs to children is an insult to the latt
Read more: Right
Irresponsible Car Advertisements
2008-02-25 09:48:00
We’ve had the great and the good from the Mumbai film industry refuse, frequently, to accept responsibility for encouraging violent social behaviour, smoking and other vices through their doubtless well-performed appearances in films and advertisements. However, there are certain car advertisements that should be given a second look,keeping in mind the car accident near India Gate early this morning. I’m referring to the car ads in which Shah Rukh Khan is shown racing against a female driver and another in which Saif Ali Khan tries all kinds of driving stunts to persuade Rani Mukherjee to join him for a coffee. Car makers should remember that:India has the world’s worst drivers--they don’t follow rules and use the horn indiscriminately.India also has, or will soon have, a high traf
Read more: Advertisements
Balkanizing India
2008-02-16 05:05:00
So now Raj Thackeray wants the India
n constitution to be rewritten, to allow for both provincial and national citizenship. He now claims to be an Indian Thomas Jefferson fighting for states’ rights. In my not-so-humble opinion, Bal Thackeray resembles John C. Calhoun, whose greatest claim to fame was as the inspiration for the secessionist Confederate States of America, whereas Raj Thackeray resembles Jefferson Davis, the leader of the Confederacy in the US Civil War. His diatribes against north Indian migrants working and living in Maharashtra have seen factory workers in Nashik voting with their feet. The fact that so many people flock from all parts of India to work in Mumbai or in Maharashtra should be a matter of pride--it means that there is more than enough work for everyone. And
End Goonda Raj
2008-02-14 05:35:00
The Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra arrested Raj Thackeray and then released him on bail.This did not prevent the departure of many non-Maharashtrians (10,000 at the last count) from Nashik and other cities in Maharashtra. It also failed to prevent the death of one Maharashtrian and the destruction of public property, such as buses, which were burnt, as is the ritual with ostentatious demonstrations of anti-government, if not anti-constitutional sentiment. Anti-constitutional, because the Indian constitution does not prevent a citizen of this country from settling in any part of this country. As a Punjabi from Delhi, I have every right to go to Chennai and take up a job there, as does any other Indian. We do not have a system of dual (national and state) citizenships, as exists in t
Need for IPLs in Other Sports Too!
2008-02-02 05:49:00
So BCCI has managed to get the rich and famous all over India to bid for the favour of owning their cricket teams. Maybe this is a trend that other sports organizations in India should follow--it might help the Indian women’s hockey team to free themselves of government control and state patronage, which is sometimes extremely irksome. For instance, team members were not told of a dedicated grant of 5 lakhs given to the Indian Hockey Federation to purchase equipment. And members of the women’s team had to spend an extremely uncomfortable night in the Karnail Singh Stadium dormitories due to sheer negligence. One is aware that the Ambanis, Mallyas, Juhi Chawlas and Shah Rukh Khans of this world do not patronize cricket out of a spirit of altruism--owning your own sports team does wonder
Read more: Sports
Provincialism vs. Nationalism
2008-02-02 05:15:00
Raj Thackeray, formerly of the Shiv Sena, now of the Maharashtra Navnirma Sena, has chosen to criticise Amitabh Bachchan’s interest in Uttar Pradesh,even as he demands that festivals celebrated in North India and Bihar not be celebrated in Maharashtra. This is all of a piece with the Shiv Sena ideology of the 1970s--Maharashtra for the Maharashtrians. However, this kind of provincialism goes against the spirit of Indian nationalism--unlike the US states, the Indian states do not have a separate citizenship. An Indian is an Indian, never mind where he comes from and where he chooses to live and work. Moreover, Thackeray’s statements could lead to bad blood in Mumbai, between its Maharashtrian and non-Maharashtrian population. It seems that both uncle and nephew feel they can only come t
Read more: Nationalism
Elevated Roadways and Railways in Delhi
2008-01-27 07:50:00
It appears that not only will Delhi get an elevated roadway from the Akshardham temple to New Delhi Railway Station, but that South Delhi will have the doubtful joy of an elevated corridor of the Metro running through the Lajpat Nagar-Nehru Place stretch of the Delhi-Badarpur line. However, the resident's welfare associations (RWAs) of South Delhi have yet to hear from the High Court, although the Group of Ministers, headed by Pranab Mukherjee, has insisted on the elevated corridor, due to time and budget constraints. They say that construction of an underground link will take too long--the Metro link to Badarpur must be ready by 2010. This despite the RWAs' concerns regarding noise levels (which will be heeded) and other health hazards, and despite the support of Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit.
Another Year--but the Same Old Problems
2008-01-19 03:50:00
So the New Year arises from the ashes of the old--what with Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the appointment (or the anointing of her son Bilawal as her successor as PPP Chairman). If the Americans congratulate themselves on their comparative woman-friendliness and their democratic credentials, they should look at this analysis of Hillary Clinton’s victory by Susan Faludi--she shows how Clinton exemplifies the competent care that Hillary Clinton and women of her generation exemplify, the kind of care a mature state such as the United States requires. My dream team would be Clinton-Obama--let us hope it does come to pass and does not remain a dream.Looking homeward, it was good to know that twelve people were convicted in the Bilquis Bano case in Gujarat. However, it was horrible to r
What Does one do with a Problem Called Modi?
2007-12-24 10:44:00
So there’s cheer and hubris in the BJP party office, as they dream of replicating their Gujarat triumph across India.At the risk of sounding facetious, I wonder what the BJP leaders would drink to celebrate victory. If they’re teetotalers, champagne would be out, so would they celebrate with Gangajal instead? Although, considering the level of pollution in India’s holiest river, I wonder if they would risk it--they’d probably end up with some horrible digestive disorder.Of course, the Modi victory has been hailed abroad, amongst the Gujarati diaspora. I’m being very cautious here--no one spoke of responses from the Indian diaspora as a whole. It seems to be a sad fact, but once Indians go abroad, they tend to cling to people who share their caste and language affiliations, rather
Read more: Problem
A Victory based on Filmi Histrionics
2007-12-23 10:19:00
So the voters of Gujarat have proved wrong the old adage that "you can fool some people all the time and all the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time." They have been cleverly manipulated into electing a man who may well have been behind the riots of 2002. His victory is not dissimilar to that of another demagogue who was supported by the business class in his country and eventually led it to defeat and ruin some twelve years later. In fact, Adolf Hitler too was a media manipulator and orator who pushed the Germans into World War II, talking of a hundred year reich and gave them a defeated, broken, divided and humiliated nation some six years later. One hopes that Modi will not do the same to Gujarat, if not to India. The fear is that the BJP might decide
Read more: Victory
Limping towards Columbine?
2007-12-19 04:19:00
The incident in Gurgaon, where two teenage boys shot dead a third, has set everyone on edge. Here we've been talking about how wonderful our way of life is compared to the US or the UK--no illegitimate teenage pregnancy waves, no violence, very little sex (evidently someone is NOT looking at the Indian birthrate!) and all due to the influence of the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) as the saas-bahu serials would have us believe. And yet, two schoolboys shoot dead a third who was boarding the bus to go home. All three protagonists--the victim as well as the perpetrators--belonged to upwardly mobile families who wanted them to do well in the world. Evidently, the victim was a bully and the perpetrators were avenging themselves on him. And it appears, from newspaper reports, that the father of o
Read more: Columbine
Gujarat Elections
2007-12-09 04:52:00
So now the Election Commission will question Sonia Gandhi about her "merchants of death" remark, which led to Narendra Modi’s admissions regarding the Sohrabuddin encounter killing.Modi and the BJP claim that his remarks on the Sohrabuddin case were in reaction to what Mrs. Gandhi said about him. This is a wonderful illustration of the Hindi idiom, ulta chor kotwal ko dante (the thief rebukes the policeman). Let’s also hope the Congress president decides to let those party members who stand accused in the 1984 riots get their just desserts. There are basically two points of view regarding the remarks made about and by Modi, which are stated very clearly by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar and Vir Sanghvi. According to Aiyar, the "merchants of death" remark made by Mrs. Gandhi and the sub
Read more: Gujarat
, Elections
Jaywalkers Fined Rs. 100...but Where are the Footpaths?
2007-12-05 08:17:00
The Delhi state government, in its wisdom, has analyzed accident data and realized that every second victim of an accident is a pedestrian. So they’ve decided to slap a fine of Rs. 100 on every pedestrian who does not use the zebra crossing, does not observe the traffic flow when crossing the road or does not use the footpath, foot-bridges and subways wherever provided. However, there’s a sticking point--where exactly are the footpaths?That’s an easy question to answer if you live in Lutyens’ Delhi--the footpaths are nice and wide, if a little too high for even the able-bodied, let alone people with disabilities to use. But where in South Delhi can you find a footpath? For instance, if I look at the road that leads into Saket from the Sheraton end, the footpaths have all been dug u
Response from a Reader
2007-12-03 09:59:00
This is the response I received from one of the readers of this blog. I feel it is necessary to respond to some of the points raised--my correspondent has chosen to put together several issues in an effort to express his ideas:Just one thing I would like to disagree with and definitely what I will say is not politically correct but its the truth nevertheless and I fear that in trying to be politically correct we are edging towards loosing our freedom in our own country. My point is regarding the parallel you have drawn between Taslima Nasreen and Maqbool Fida Hussain and would like you to note that both are extremely different situations which cannot be compared. Maqbool Fida Hussain depicted Mother India and the Goddesses of the Hindu Religion as Naked Women in obscene postures and both M
Read more: Response
, Reader
Who's Afraid of the Fundamentalist Wolf?
2007-11-30 09:06:00
Everybody, it seems, is out to appease the fundamentalists, whether they be saffron, green or dark blue. Especially so, if the appeasers happen to be politicians. Taslima Nasreen has decided to withdraw some lines from the second volume of her memoirs, Dwikhandita, because her descriptions of 1980s Bangladesh under military rule hurt the sentiments of the Jamaat-ul-Islami. Of course, this was after Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, suggested that those seeking asylum in India should take care not to hurt the sentiments of their fellow citizens. Her decision has been warmly welcomed by CPI(M) representatives, despite the fact that Comrade Prakash Karat had at one time thundered against the bourgeois parties’ inability to fight fundamentalism. Meanwhile, in Amritsar, the Shiro
Read more: Fundamentalist
Managing Disasters in India
2007-11-28 04:38:00
While conducting a search on disaster management in India
, I came across this government site on the subject. It includes a lot of information for architects and the ordinary citizen on how to survive an earthquake but I wonder whether the department in question has done much to publicize its work. They have colouring books for students on how to face disasters, but are they carrying out drills to show students what to do in the event of an earthquake or a fire? I remember, when I was a hostel resident in the UK two years ago, how fire drills and alarms were a regular part of our life. Fire alarms were always checked on Wednesdays, not just in the hostel but also in the university. People knew where to go in case there was a disaster. Are Delhi residents similarly well-informed? What about
Read more: Disasters
State-of-the-art Training in India
2007-11-28 04:15:00
It’s good to know that a UK university will provide training in multimedia, animation and gaming creation to India
n students in Bangalore. We need more such ventures--professional organizations should look at future trends and select training options accordingly. IT, because it is such a foreign exchange earner, and because so much work is already being outsourced to India, is a front-runner in this area. How about construction, specialized areas of management, such as HR, and publishing? There is a lot of construction going on in India itself, but the techniques and tools used to bring a project to completion as per client and regulatory authority specifications could be improved. Moreover, our construction specialists could also work in markets where Europeans or Americans might not fi
Read more: State
, Training
Earthquake in Delhi
2007-11-26 07:05:00
Did anyone notice that we had an earthquake last night? It measured 4.5 on the Richter scale and occurred some 20 kilometres underground on the Delhi-Haryana border. Evidently, the epicentre was at Bahadurgarh. I hope no one was injured or killed and no homes were damaged. What does worry me is the fact that no one knows if the Delhi government is prepared to face an earthquake in the city. So I’ve been checking up on some foreign earthquake survival sites. Here’s some information that I got from the FEMA site. They’ve provided the following earthquake survival tips:Create and practice a family/personal earthquake plan.Bolt tall furniture to wall studs.Tie down items, such as computers, televisions and bookcases, which might fall during an earthquake.Install and use bolts and latches
Read more: Earthquake
"No!"
2007-11-25 08:33:00
The newspapers and television channels carry regular updates on the Taslima Nasreen affair--how she has been hounded out of Kolkata due to the fury of Islamic fundamentalists and is now living under heavy security in Rajasthan Bhawan. What amazes me about the Indian political system is the ease with which fundamentalists of various hues--especially saffron and green--can hold it to ransom. Remember the Shah Bano case and the banning of Satanic Verses?Although the BJP demands that Ms. Nasreen be treated as a political refugee and be given asylum, they have also targeted M. F. Hussain in the past, for his nude paintings of goddesses. What these so-called protectors of Indian culture seem to forget is that women have been depicted bare-breasted in paintings and sculpture of the ancient Indian
Nasreen an Excuse for a Riot?
2007-11-23 07:39:00
So the rioters have driven Taslima Nasreen away from Kolkata, just as they drove her away from Hyderabad in August. Why are the politically orthodox Muslims so afraid of this woman? What has she said that has offended them so much? Evidently, she has criticized the manner in which Islamic clerics (and clerics of other religions) treat women. What followers of the revealed religions fail to understand is that although they might believe they are upholding the word of God, those who have to suffer through their interpretation of revelation also have a right to speak up and be heard. However, Islam today, as Christianity as late as the early twentieth century and Hinduism not so long ago, has to learn to listen, not just to the voice of God as embodied in its holy book and other traditional
Read more: Excuse
Frisking the Three Service Chiefs
2007-11-22 09:28:00
It seems anybody who has heard of the Civil Aviation Ministry’s decision to frisk the three Service
Chiefs
(and not a certain gentleman, who was lucky enough to marry the daughter of an assassinated PM) is livid.Most people rightly feel that those who have been entrusted with the security of the entire country can certainly be trusted with the security of a civilian aircraft on which they’re travelling. I think the Civil Aviation Ministry will soon have to extend the no-frisk rule to the three Service Chiefs. Kolkata has been in an uproar--not just because of Nandigram, but also because of the Bangladeshi author, Taslima Nasreen, whose only fault appears to be her feminism and her refusal to kowtow to those who appear to control religious institutions. However, a lot of the violence ap
Read more: Three
Congestion Tax OK BUT...
2007-11-21 04:39:00
The Delhi State government is evidently taking advice from Mayor Ken Livingston of London, on how to deal with global warming. The Mayor will probably encourage Delhi’s government to use a congestion tax to reduce the number of cars that run on Delhi roads. However, what the Delhi bureaucrats should keep in mind is the fact that London can afford to tax private transport because it has (compared to Delhi) an excellent transport system. You can easily plan your journey online from one part of the UK to another, without a hitch. However, Delhi just does not have the same facilities. Our Blueline and DTC buses are better known as agents of manslaughter than as a part of a well-thought-out public transport system. And a very small section of the Metro has been completed to date. So, insistin
Read more: Congestion
Much Ado about Caste
2008-06-02 10:13:00
So the Gurjjars have been on a rampage lately--evidently, they want to be included in the list of Scheduled Castes, so that they also have a chance to get government jobs. Rajasthan saw a lot of violence, and Delhi saw a strike the other day. There are indications that this agitation will also affect neighboring states--Punjab, Gujarat and UP. I think we need to take a long, hard look at the s
Why the CBI?
2008-06-02 09:47:00
A young girl, the daughter of a dentist couple, gets murdered--and we not only see a media feeding frenzy, because of the plethora of 24/7 news channels--but we also see the Noida cops behaving abominably, with no reprimands forthcoming from the UP administration. So, as is usual with all cases that are bungled by the local police force. the CBI is called in.Why is it that our politicians and babu
Hooligans in Politics?
2008-06-08 10:56:00
It appears that, even as the UP CM has asked one of her cabinet colleagues to resign because of his involvement in murder, yet another political career is being created in Maharashtra based on an attack on a journalist. It seems that politics is now a refuge for all the hooligans, scoundrels and lawless elements in India. All that Mr. Ketkar did in his Loksatta editorial was to ironically comment
Read more: Hooligans
No Surprises from the Left
2008-06-30 03:33:00
As usual, the Left stands firm against the 123 deal, and also against any Indian attempts to discuss safeguards with the IAEA. However, is their stand in the interests of the Indian people, especially the proletariat, whom they profess to represent? Considering the fact that the Indian public has to face double-digit inflation, much of it brought on by the rise in fuel prices, is it not a wise ide
The Countdown Begins
2008-07-21 02:13:00
So, Dr. Singh has finally moved the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. He's finally rid of an enemy posing as an ally and the Left parties have lost their chance to show what they could have done as part of a Central government. They've shown themselves to be petty-minded and unable to break out of a Cold War mindset, despite the fall of the Berlin wall over 17 years ago. Well, it's their loss,
Read more: Countdown
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