Nearly fifty years ago when Shiv Sena came into being it was on Marathi Manoos plank, basically directed at South Indians within Mumbai at that time. That the agenda has not changed in the last fifty years, though the target has, shows the lack of growth within the party both intellectually and physically. And this despite the fact that they have been in power in the state. Another indicator of their lack of their growth are their strained relations with RSS and BJP, who have quite categorically said that Mumbai belongs to India and not just Mumbaikars. A couple of years ago this would have been unthinkable. Also, it is rather ironical that Shiv Sena is desperately trying to spread it’s base into other parts of the country as well. With the kind of approach they have vis-a-vis Mumbai are they implying that their own members who are from outside Maharashtra are not welcome in Mumbai? I mean, wouldn’t that be a shame?

Posted on February 8th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Congress, Gandhi, growth, Mumbai, Rahul, Shiv sena, SRK, Thakeray. Comments: 5

Some people like Rahul Gandhi matured pretty early in life. Some people like Bakhtiyar Irani and Rahul Mahajan of Bigg Boss fame promise that they never will and yet there are some others like Akhilesh Yadav of SP who threaten to mature but do exactly the opposite. When SP lost miserably in by elections of UP it was maturity on his part to have accepted the verdict but he went absolutely bonkers when he took it so personally and went ahead and challenged Rahul Gandhi for the next battle in UP. And it helps him score brownie points with her too who must be feeling dejected after this loss. Though theoretically speaking there is one more possibility. Dimple Yadav may have told Akhilesh to take on Rahul Gandhi in a direct one to one challenge. Quite possible, theoretically at least.

Posted on November 13th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Akhilesh, Bigg Boss, BJP, BSP, Congress, Gandhi, Mahajan, Mayawati, Rahul, SP. Comments: 1

Whatever the Mahatma preached was nothing new to start with. Non violence and compassion have always been an integral part of Hinduism. We all grow up learning these values but over a period of time we get so involved in our day to day lives that we forget what we’ve learnt. They were just rediscovered by him so as to unite us against the British. He managed to shake the conscience of hundreds and thousands of Indians by focusing on those three things- non violence, compassion and equality. And we did become conscious of all these virtues while he was alive. The nationalist fervor that he whipped up created a country out of a colony.

Posted on October 3rd, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Gandhi, Hinduism, Politics, pranayam, Rahul, Ramdev, Swami, virtues, yoga. Comments: 7

I had initially written this post on 29 April 09 when CBI had given a clean chit to Ottavio Quattrochhi and the elections were just round the corner. Well, the country has moved on but apparently things have too. Congress has come back to power and today it has been revealed that govt is dropping the cases against Quattrochhi altogether. Not really unexpected given what I wrote earlier. Check it out. It’s still very much relevant.

Posted on September 29th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Bofors, broker, deal, Family, Gandhi, Quattrochhi. Comments: 4

Tell you what? It is just fine with me that we were partitioned because I’m not so sure whether we would have remained as one nation even for a few years more after 1947. We would have encountered resistance from Balochis, SIndhis, section of Punjabis, may be even Bengalis, Tamils or Kannadigas and God only knows who all. And take it from me there would have been many more riots between various religious and regional groups.

Posted on August 26th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Gandhi, India, Jinnah, nation, Nehru, Pakistan, partition, Patel. Comments: 8

On the face of it my statement may provoke diabolical response from people. After all, they say that he is one of the main reasons behind the victory of Congress. He may be but I have my very strong reasons to say that he’s not yet ready to be a minister in the cabinet.

Posted on May 18th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: berth, cabinet, elections, Gandhi, minister, qualifications, Rahul. Comments: 4

When Priyanka Gandhi said that she was wearing her grandmother’s sari it was national news. The media went berserk in trying to find the similarities between Priyanka and Indira Gandhi. Some said that she’s got her grandmother’s nose. Yet another said that her eyes are also similar to Indira Gandhi and blah blah blah!! Will someone please tell our media to stop this tomfoolery and grow up?

Posted on May 3rd, 2009 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: Family, Gandhi, Indira, Nehru, Politics, Priyanka, Rahul, Rajiv, Sonia. Comments: 15

If you believe Narendra Modi, Congress is 125 year old budhiya (elderly woman) who has become a burden on this country. According to him it’s a party which has to be carried on crutches and in such an old age it cannot do anything for the country. When Priyanka Gandhi was asked to comment on this statement of Narendra Modi she is supposed to have said,” Do I look old to you?” Now I agree that she doesn’t and a lot of you guys would not read too much into this. Quite innocent, you’d say. Sorry folks, but that would be like missing the point completely.

Posted on April 12th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: BJP, Congress, eldeerly, Gandhi, Modi, Priyanka, woman. Comments: 3

She says that it’s not what the Gandhis have lived and died for. Well, this is where I have some very serious problems with the Gandhi family, a family which is revered by people across the nation, for reasons which I very seriously doubt.

Posted on March 24th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Family, Gandhi, Gita, Priyanka, religion, Varun. Comments: 10