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...

The last elections had invariably cast a heavy spell on BJP. As a result of which, over sometime now, the party had had been busy in meetings. And aptly so, these high profile and highly secured meetings had been named Chintan Baithak (‘thought sittings’). But ironically, the outcomes of these meetings have not been as thoughtful though! On the contrary, the party has been reeling under a perpetual conflict, and unfortunately all of this is coming from the leadership. The lineup of miseries starts with Arun Shourie’s remarks and stretches up to Vasundhara Raje's clichés with the party over her resignation and the suspension orders served to her loyals Rajendra Rathore and Gyan Ahuja. Before Raje’s episode could have been resolved any further, a new episode on BJP leader and party veteran Jaswant singh popped up, wherein he was recently expelled for writing a book on Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his thoughts on partition. On this, the two veteran leaders, Arun Shourie and Vasundhara Raje...

SRK's interrogation is not the issue. The issue is that Americans need to learn humility. The week’s big story was Shahrukh Khan's interrogation in the USA. True, as people would say, why give so much importance to SRK being detained in the airport for two hours, when there are so many more important socio-economic issues bogging the country – from poverty to illiteracy! But truth also is that while socio-economic issues should be picked up constantly – and we at The Sunday Indian do attempt the same most religiously – yet, there are the SRKs who will make news from time to time because they too impact the country in many ways. And this time around, SRK’s detention has brought to light the plight of thousands of others who go through a similar kind of a treatment on a most regular basis. Personally speaking, I haven’t ever been subjected to a detailed profiling; but yes, the kind of questions and the way I have been asked were good enough for me to decide years back that I woul...

THAT IS, THE POLITICAL MINDSET - TOO NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED IMMEDIATELY! The impending pandemic of swine flu has once again brought to the fore the hapless condition of Indian healthcare, the under preparedness of the government as well as the indifference with which the babudom tends to treat such incidents that generally plague the common man to a large extent. Incidentally, just as the news of swine flu is spreading panic like wildfire, these days there are also reports of thousands being affected by cerebral malaria in Bihar. Yet, that doesn’t make prime news; and won’t make much news even if the casualties there were to happen in multiples of those dying due to swine flu. And the reason? Well, deaths due to malaria and such diseases like dengue, Japanese encephalitis or say diarrhoea have a correlation with the socioeconomic conditions of the people affected by them. Thus, in the protocol driven corridors of babudom, the chances of these diseases creating any significant impact is ...