Passionate About India

Even before the dust over the one and half month long Gujjar agitation, which killed more than forty people and brought the whole of North India’s rail network to a standstill, could end, India is getting besieged again with another round of violent agitation; and this time in its eastern front. With the agitation of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha taking a violent turn and having called an indefinite strike in the hills from 16th of June, the impending crisis and the fear of the Punjab like situation of the 80s is haunting the Indian government once again. Nevertheless, if one looks in retrospect at the series of events that have been taking place in the last few years, it does not portend good about the future of a country which has for a long period of time boasted of being the paradigm of unity in diversity. Whether it is the agitations in Maharashtra for giving a preferential treatment to Marathi speaking people, or the age old conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharin...

The world might not subscribe to China and its policies for many reasons but they definitely are worthy of credit for their amazing farsightedness. They have proved this time and again and are all set to prove it again. In the given scenario wherein crude oil prices are showing no sign of respite, each and every government is untiringly trying to secure themselves with respect to their ever growing energy demands, it is as if the Chinese had thought of this imminent energy crunch a long time back and had started planning accordingly. In fact, the way they are going about it is also worthy to note. Particularly over the last one decade, the world has been witnessing that a country, which has never bothered to look beyond its immediate neighbourhood was suddenly becoming very keen about Africa. Billions of dollars from China have been poured into countries, which otherwise have been a pariah for global investment. It is being reported that China’s trade with Africa has been growing at al...

The Indian Premier League Twenty 20 (IPL T20) is finally over. And it ended in the most spectacular manner one could ever imagine in any form of sport – the team which came into the tournament as least favourites and as underdogs, finally grabbed the trophy in a clincher! In fact, when the IPL was about to commence, I was very apprehensive about the success of the entire event. For I believed, that for a nation which has no history of club culture, to accept IPL – which was based on a club format – was a challenge in itself. Moreover, in India, where cricket is like a religion and players of Team India are almost like demi-Gods, to be accepted by fans to play against each other in a club format, was another challenge. Thirdly, after the debacle of the Indian Cricket League (ICL), which was almost on a similar format, the success of IPL was looking grim. But the manner in which IPL happened, completely shook up the entire nation. IPL’s success has been primarily on account of the manner...

Recently I came across a very interesting analysis in the Wall Street Journal, adapted from Mr. Douglas J Feith’s (Under Secretary of Defense for Policy - July 2001 till August 2005) memoir - “War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism”. As per Mr. Feith’s analysis – “between September 2002 and 2003, President Bush delivered nine major talks about Iraq. There were, on an average, approximately 14 paragraphs per speech on Saddam’s record as an enemy, aggressor, tyrant and danger, with only three paragraphs on promoting democracy. In the next year – from September 2003 to September 2004 – Mr. Bush delivered 15 major talks about Iraq. The average number of paragraphs devoted to the record of threats from Saddam was one, and the number devoted to democracy promotion was approximately 11”. Clearly indicating the double standards of President Bush and his Administration on the Iraq issue! However, it is not just with Iraq. President Bush has been maintaining al...

It was exactly 17 years ago that Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumbudur. In these 17 years, the entire political landscape of India has gone through a sea change. And thanks to political leadership, things have become worse from what they used to be during Rajiv Gandhi’s era. Among other things, the two most visible changes have been: firstly, the erosion of equity of the two big national parties (Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party) and the advent of regional parties at the forefront. And the second evident change that took place is the dawn of coalition politics. In fact, the genesis of both is almost the same. It is not that having regional parties at the national scene is a matter of concern per se, but the concern here is their increasing dominance. It goes beyond doubt that the emergence of regional parties has primarily been on account of the fact that the political leadership of the two big national parties have failed to engage with the country as a whole. And this fai...