Passionate About India

I remember when Tehelka did the sensational sting exposing the dirty world of Indian defence dealings. To me, it was inspiring. So was each of the stings carried out by them later, and then by India TV quite oft en. And as a mark of respect to the brave torch bearers of sting operations who put almost everything they have at stake to show the world the truth, we at The Sunday Indian started our sting operations cell. Our past stings have exposed the fake passport racket in India and the way cow bones are used to make statues of gods and goddesses in India. But I think those stings were nothing compared to the sensational sting operation that we carried in our last issue... It showed the world how an Abu Salem or a Kasab can enter India – despite being well known – and then systematically get a driving licence, a house ownership, a house on rent, a bank account, a mobile number and even a PAN card! All we didn’t do was to apply for an Indian passport on that basis; I am sure we would’ve...

Although on paper, we are one of the largest democracies in the world, but in a lot many ways, we are functionally more feudal. Otherwise, there is no other reason for such a hue and cry about the current austerity drive carried forward by the Ministry of Finance. In fact, the resistance against such a drive is justified simply because over the past sixty years, people’s representatives have indulged themselves so much in wasteful expenditure and made it such a norm, that any minor deviation from it looks abnormal. And here, the Ministry of Finance is all set to aggressively jam the brakes on every such expenditure. To begin with, the Ministry plans to cut the expenditure on domestic and foreign travel, publications, advertising and purchase of vehicles, by a whopping 10%. These heads are just a part of the non-plan expenditure, which is pegged at a staggering Rs. 6.9 trillion. Going forward, the Ministry also plans to cut the other components of the non-plan expenditure (excluding int...

TO STRENGTHEN THE WHOLE JUDICIAL SYSTEM! As a media house, from the very beginning we have been extremely vocal about the Indian judiciary. For we strongly believe that a poor justice delivery has been the root cause of most of our problems. It goes without saying that India has a weak, or rather a limping justice delivery system, which makes sure that justice is denied in most cases; and even if delivered, does not hold any value, thanks to the time (read lifetime) it takes. In the given scenario, the decision of the Centre to clear all the pending cases in the Indian judicial system is indeed a bold and welcome move. By its (the Centre’s) own admission, there is a staggering number of nearly three crore court cases pending at several stages in different courts of India. While in many cases, the petitions have been pending in most of the lower courts, on many other occasions, even after getting a favourable verdict, the common Indian has to again fight it out at a higher level court. ...

it would be his biggest contribution to the nation! In retrospect, the results of the 2009 General Elections have proved that the legacy of the Gandhi family and its deep union with the Congress Party is not just for namesake. The handsome numbers of seats with which the UPA roared back to power proved many pundits wrong – though the fact is, a deeper analysis of the factors which made the decisive victory of UPA possible indicates that probably even the UPA did not expect the mandate to be so much in their favour. Frankly speaking in terms of performance, the previous term of the UPA regime was not at all exciting, at least not enough to earn them such a landslide win. Although they had taken a few steps in terms of NREGA (which they have further consolidated, post their win) or the rural loan waiver scheme, those alone couldn’t have been so decisive in making the victory so seamless. Moreover, the nation then had just recovered from the mayhem of 26/11 and was reeling under an econom...