I really wonder on what grounds are Lalus and Mulayams protesting against the Women’s Bill. Their argument, is unconvincing and shaky. Even ideally, if for a moment, we think that poor Dalit women were to be indeed elected I’d damned if our highest governing bodies were to be made up of women who are absolutely illiterate and work as maids or do some such menial jobs. I really do not have anything against them but they do not have the aptitude or ability for this job, not as of now at least. As for my maid, I’m thankful to God if she completes my household chores satisfactorily, leave aside managing the country.

Posted on March 10th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: bill, BJP, Congress, Dalit, Left, quota, reservation, women. Comments: 13

RJD and SP have withdrawn support and their Rajya Sabha MPs have openly said that they will do anything implying physical disruption to stop the bill from being passed. After initial hesitation JD(U) has come around to supporting it thanks to Nitish Kumar. While there is no doubt that Lalu and Mulayam Singh do have a right to protest and they may have some logic in their argument as well but frankly speaking, their protests have very little to do with logic or their good wishes for women of Muslim community or Dalits for that matter, whose cause they seem to be espousing.

Posted on March 8th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: bill, BJP, BSP, Congress, reservation, RJD, SP, women. Comments: 4

It is quite ironical that while we expect Pakistan to act against LeT, JeM and other such terrorist organisations operating from Pakistan to create terror in India our own political leaders are reluctant to act against Maoists who are nothing but terrorists, in my view. They may have a just cause or they may basically be Hindus but their methods are wrong. If killing innocent villagers, govt officials/ policemen and detonating bombs is not terrorism, what is? If this is indeed terror why is our response to these activities any different than what it is against LeT, JeM, HUJI and others? Is it because Maoists are not exactly demanding a separate country, yet? Or is it because they are also fulfilling some political objectives of certain politicians?

Posted on February 21st, 2010 under India calling. Tags: attack, BJP, Congress, maoists, Naxal, Silda, terrorist, threat. Comments: 7

Jayanthi Natarajan will have us believe that indeed Congress does not prefer compulsory voting. She wrote an article Compulsory Voting in The Deccan Chronicle on 04 Jan 10 in response to Narendra Modi’s initiative to make voting compulsory in local body elections. She says that in a democracy voting should not be imposed on anyone. She also says that if people don’t really want to vote for anyone why should they be made to take the trouble of going to the polling booth and punch in ‘none of the above’. Well, her and her party’s stand, if indeed it is Congress’s stand as well, is rather understandable. Here are some numbers which will clarify why Congress and Jayanthi Natarajan do not want voting to be made compulsory.

Posted on January 5th, 2010 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: BJP, Congress, copulsory, elections, Modi, Narendra, voting. Comments: 10

No decision taken is a decision in itself. As you would be aware, those words are associated with our former PM PV Narasimha Rao. And these words ring so true for the demolition of Babri Masjid. He decided not to do anything to prevent the demolition not because he was unaware or he was too weak to do anything but because he actually wanted the structure to come down for the sake of Congress more than anything else. He knew that once the structure is gone BJP may seem to be victorious in the short term but eventually they would loose, as we have seen since then. It is for this reason that I say that BJP should not have demolished Babri Masjid. Not because it was incorrect to do so, which it was, but because once the masjid came down they lost a major rallying point on which they could swing public opinion in their favor. With the masjid now gone they do not really have anything which they can use for this purpose. Narasimha Rao saw this while he was ‘daydreaming’ as correctly put by the Liberhan Commission, but in the wrong context.

Posted on January 4th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Babri, BJP, Congress, demolition, Liberhan, Masjid, religion, temple. Comments: 12

If you really see both these recommendations are contrary to each other. On one hand you say that we should grant them autonomy and on the other you say that a referendum should be held in J&K to decide if and when Article 370 should be removed. I mean whom are you kidding? Autonomy is nothing but an extension of Article 370 itself. By giving autonomy, the resolution of NC clearly implies that, Kashmir would be “affiliated” to India for only defense, currency, foreign affairs and communication. In other words they would have all other powers like stipulating laws, having a separate flag, their own anthem, citizenship and property rights etc etc. Please note that they already have most of these powers by way of Article 370. Autonomy will only make the state govt more powerful on this score, something like ’state within a state’. If you grant them autonomy Article 370 would as it is become redundant in the state. They would enact their own more stringent laws wherein they may deny even Kashmiri pundits their right to own property in the valley. And the govt at the center would not be able to do anything in the matter. So what referendum are we talking about?

Posted on December 26th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: autonomy, BJP, Congress, J&K, NC, Omar, panel, report, Telengana. Comments: 4

The appointment of Nitin Gadkari as president of BJP shows that if we were all looking for a change in the party the appointment of Gadkari does not seem to be that change. For those of us who were indeed looking for a change in BJP ideology with another RSS man at the helm of it’s affairs I really wonder how different can he be from the rest. What BJP required was to associate themselves with the middle class of India who is more secular and for whom RSS does not mean a thing. Frankly with another RSS man as president I don’t really see that happening. Also, for those who say RSS interference in internal affairs of BJP should be minimum it is again very difficult for me to visualize Gadkari doing anything which RSS does not approve of. Another related and a very important issue is the discrimination of members of the party based on their association with RSS or rather lack of it, as we saw during the Jaswant Singh episode when he was sacked but Arun Shourie who openly challenged the BJP leadership on numerous occasions, was not. Quite possibly because Jaswant Singh had nothing to do with RSS whereas Shourie has everything to do with it. And to expect an RSS man who is new to the chair to correct this wrong would be rather naive on our part.

Posted on December 24th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Advani, BJP, Congress, gadkari, ideology, Mahajan, Modi, President. Comments: 13

The disease of trying to malign the victims in cases of rape is actually nothing new. We have seen this crap in so many Bollywood potboilers like Damini etc. And politicians from Goa are pretty good at it. Even in the case of Scarlett Keeling who was murdered in the city politicians tried to paint her mother as a characterless woman who did not take care of her child as a result of which she was raped and murdered. Whether the rapes are part of a plan by a section of Goans to limit the influence of foreigners in Goa or not may not be very clear as of now but I sure have very serious doubts that it is. Well if it is, I must say that this is a very poor plan. Not only is this criminal but it can also backfire. Imagine if Russians strike back at Indian women in Goa themselves or pay other criminals to do this dirty job for them. Like I said, it’s a very poor plan. As it is the Goan govt itself feels that Goa is fast becoming the rape capital of the country.

Posted on December 18th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: BJP, comment, Congress, fernandes, goa, rape, remark, Russian. Comments: 7

The entire problem has to be considered holistically. There is no denying the fact that there may be a case of genuine requirement of creating a few more smaller states. You cannot just brush away every other demand with one stroke while you accede to one. Or is it just first come first served basis? I know it sounds crazy but the way Pranab Mukherjee has dismissed the other demands sounds like it is. By saying that this was a very old demand also does not justify this action. I mean, are we deciding this issue based on it’s past history or whether it is being done based on the present situation in those regions? It’s something like a class teacher openly displaying favoritism towards one student while telling the others to shut up. You can see for yourself how ridiculous the whole things sounds.

Posted on December 13th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Ajit Singh, BJP, Congress, Harit Pradesh, KCR, Telengana. Comments: 12