Passionate About India

It doesn’t require the world to point out that Manmohan Singh is a puppet Prime Minister! The question actually is, who is the “real” Prime Minister? Unlike the perception of many, I don’t believe that Sonia Gandhi is or was the “real” Prime Minister. It was Pranab Mukherjee, the man who was virtually running the entire show of running the nation, while Sonia managed Manmohan and a large part of party politics. Can you believe it that out of a list of 40 plus EGoMs (Empowered Group of Ministers), Pranab Mukherjee was heading almost a whopping 66%? Yes, that’s the truth; Pranab Mukherjee was not just Congress’ crisis man, but also the man running the government and its intricacies. No wonder then that Congress was so nervous about announcing his candidature. And had it perhaps not been for the Mamata jolt, Congress might have still tried to think about alternatives! Now that the man – who should have been Prime Minister in place of Rajiv Gandhi long back, and definitely in place of his

I was watching a movie in the first floor of our house that fateful afternoon of '94 when that call came and changed our lives forever. It was my mother who had called from the ground floor of our house to inform me through her uncontrollable tears that she had just then received a call that my younger brother had died in a road accident. I rushed down hoping against hope that it was someone else. My dad was sure it wouldn't be someone else – as I drove our car frantically towards Gurgaon where the accident had happened – and advised me to drive slowly. He had done his maximum possible to see to it that we never developed a fascination for motorbikes. An avid reader of about a dozen papers everyday, my father was definite that a motorbike was a sure-shot route to disaster on Indian roads. So the soonest he could, he bought a car for us. I still remember that day in 1993, after he had bought a fifth-hand 1977 model Toyota, he entered the house, lay down on the bed in a relaxed m

It is inhuman! It is outrageous! And it is disgusting! The manner is which Pinki Pramanik, a national athlete who brought laurels for the nation at various international sporting events, is being sullied by all and sundry. Thanks to media, today she has become a household name, more infamous due to the controversy on her gender, than due to the gold medals she won at the Asian and Commonwealth Games. Pinki’s sporting achievements include a team relay gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games, another gold at the 2005 Asian Indoor Games, silver medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, beside many other medals at national and international levels. It is no secret that Pinki was recently charged of raping a woman – who was also her live-in partner – as it has been alleged that Pinki has both male and female reproductive organs. However, that is yet to be proved, as she is being forced into medical tests one after the other with inconclusive results. The moot point here is not with resp

Have you ever wondered why a Mulayam or a Mayawati is ready to extend the olive branch to UPA from time to time? Or why Karunanidhi, despite going through utter humiliation, ends up standing behind the UPA? Or how the UPA manages everyone so smoothly, except Mamata Banerjee? Well, the answer is in the central government’s massive manipulative control over the CBI, which can in turn then be used to blackmail anyone with any kind of shady dealing and existing CBI investigation; and given that most of our political leaders are corrupt, they can all be easily manipulated, minus rare exceptions like Mamata. Let’s look into some cases. Let’s start with UPA’s biggest problem, YSRC President Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy. He accused the Congress of using the CBI as a tool to harass its political opponents. Sakshi TV channel owned by Y. S. Bharati, wife of Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, aired an hour-long program defaming Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Following that, the CBI accused Jaganmohan Reddy of having disp