Passionate About India

Mumbai has become a living example of how terrorists can come at their will, kill hundreds of innocents, destroy property worth hundreds of crores, instill a state of perpetual fear in those who manage to survive and thereby blatantly spit on the face of Indian sovereignty, time and again. And the best that we can do is offer condolences for the aggrieved, and wait for the next blast to happen. No doubt, we have attained a state of shameless vulnerability and have almost epitomised it. And that is the reason why since the last few years, the incidence of terror attacks has not only seen an unprecedented surge, but has become increasingly blatant, gory and on the face. It is as if a blast or two a year has almost become an annual ritual. And every such blast also blows away into pieces the resolve that our government had taken during the previous attack – calling it a bold step against terror. And the saga continues... The matter of the fact is that today, not only do we lack political ...

My heart goes out for Mumbaikars! They face the worst of crisis time and again, despite being in the midst of plenty. Mumbai is our industrial capital and India’s richest live there. People come to Mumbai from all parts of India with dreams in their eyes to strike it big. Not that all of those dreams come true – 40% live in the slums of Mumbai. Yet, many strike it big and dreams do get fulfilled. More importantly, everyone is on the move and working hard – rich or poor. It’s in their culture. But then, from blasts to water clogging, issues just keep testing them and trying to slow them down – the latest one being their unending month-long water crisis, which is hitting everyone in the city, rich or poor. In the biggest and swankiest of buildings, there is hardly any water and people are now going to work very often without taking bath. Water comes from tankers and that too for a few hours only. The whole day, taps have no water. Tankers too are not easily available and there are offic...

Just as I was about to write this editorial, in the Times Now channel, a young man among those thousands who had gathered this evening near the Gateway Of India, said in the most unabashed manner, which typically reflected the mood of India now. He said in clear terms that he simply doesn’t understand what Manmohan Singh speaks and that he would rather prefer to die fighting a war than to die while dining in a hotel with his family. Just beside him was a placard in which was written, “A nation of lions led by donkeys”. The person stated that as a layman, he knew that there are terrorist camps in PoK, but couldn’t fathom why the Government of India was not doing anything about the issue, instead of begging to Pakistan. The man continued that a country like Bangladesh, which got its independence from India, is now becoming the biggest nemesis of India, sending Huji terrorists across the border every other day for terror attacks in Assam and West Bengal. What that young man was stating cl...

As I remained hooked on to Times Now (which, by far, gave the best coverage possible and reminded me of CNN’s Iraq war coverage way back in 1991), and without sleeping for a moment for the first twelve hours, saw the mockery of our democracy, I really felt sad for our brave policemen who gave up their lives – just like the many innocent people who also paid the price – for a non-committed, spineless, political class ruling this great country. Every time a political leader spoke, it was a feeling of shame that I felt somewhere deep within, and couldn’t help but wonder when we would see the end of this rotten, old and decaying lot who can sell this country to the dogs for a few hundred crores. It was indeed sad to see the nation pay the price for their uncommitted, visionless leadership. Haven’t we had enough of disgusting and shameless statements like ‘we are planning to modernize our equipments and increase budgets for our intelligence departments...’ etc? Forget having any kind of mor...