Revitalising higher education

His next class act

While our army of the unemployable increases we suffer from crippling shortages of not just engineers, doctors and managers, but also of nurses, welders, electricians, plumbers, masons, carpenters, teachers and of course social scientists. Engineering, management and medicine at least have their IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. What brand name can Indian social sciences and the liberal arts boast of? They, in fact, have a bigger problem than lack of resources: lack of intellectual freedom, diversity of thought and opinion. The few social science centres that we have, therefore, produce clones. Usually these are clones of professors steeped in the heady ideologies of the ’70s incapable or unwilling to notice that the “revolution” has passed them by. JNU is a perfect example.

Excellent four part article by Radha Ranjan - must read

The articles dissect why the BJP lost and the current situation of the BJP. Also discussed are the relations of BJP with the RSS and the idealogy that inspires millions of SwayemSevaks of the RSS including yours truly.

Part 1 - When ambition overrode ideology

Part 2 - On parasites and spitting partners

Part 3 - Abandoning Kurukshetra before the war is won

Part 4 - RSS - unwilling parent

WHAT TRULY unites Zionism and Hindu nationalism

India and Israel: Diverse in a homogeneous world

There is a connection between the contempt for Hindu nationalism and the disdain for Zionism that exists in many circles. They are widely condemned for similar things. Both are accused of inventing a history for their people and religion. Both are accused of inventing and perverting archeology. Both are accused of being anachronisms in a world that is supposedly multicultural. Both are seen as militant and anti-Muslim.
But there is another connection that is often overlooked. Both were unlikely victims of Gandhi's sometimes misplaced pacifism. Gandhi condemned not only Zionism but also encouraged the Jews of Europe to voluntarily submit to Nazism and throw "themselves into the sea from cliffs" to please Hitler. Gandhi, a Hindu, penned an introduction to the Koran, a book that is deeply prejudiced against pagan Hinduism, and during the partition of India he excused the ethnic cleansing of Sikhs and Hindus in Pakistan, while encouraging India to protect her Muslim minority.

Existential struggle of the condemned Hindu continues

‘Revive Nepal as a Hindu State’

“A country with more than 80 per cent Hindus should not be declared a secular state”, the participants opined.
The participants also said that a nation-wide campaign needs to be organized to create awareness among the population to re-declare the country a Hindu state.

Pope visit stirs emotions in Israel

Pope’s visit upsets more than it pleases

Vaticans attempt at global hegemony continues..

The Pope's latest crusade

Spam the world with the Christian message


FORMER MEMBER of the Hitler Youth and now infallible Pope, Benedict XVI thinks it is a nifty idea for the yoof of today to spam others with Christian messages.
The Pope, who has offended right wing Jews by forgiving right wing non-Jews who don't believe that Hitler killed many of their relatives, and Muslims by quoting a 15th century Catholic saint, is now having a go at network managers who will have to unclog their networks from shedloads of Catholic spam.
Speaking at the Roman Catholic Church's World Communications Day, the Pope told young people to bear witness to their faith through the digital world. They should employ new technologies to make the Christian Gospel known, he said.
A Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, will be linked to the social network Facebook so that young people can send the Pope's message to their friends. This is assuming that they will still be their friends after getting a message from the Pope.
Fortunately few Catholics under the age of 40 listen to the Pope much any more as his doctrinal stances are increasingly less relevant to the problems of today's world. This means there will probably be few modern yoof willing to take part in the children's spam crusade. µ

Religion of Love might be loving a little too much

Thousands beaten, raped in Irish Catholic reform schools

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
"In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine. ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."
Victims of the system have long demanded that the truth of their experiences be documented and made public, so that children in Ireland never endure such suffering again.
But most leaders of religious orders have rejected the allegations as exaggerations and lies, and testified to the commission that any abuses were the responsibility of often long-dead individuals.

SuryaPrakash analyses BJPs election defeat

BJP failed due to problems within

Why did the BJP fare so badly? The reasons are many, but here are a few. The first of these is that there is no indication that the party has learnt even a single lesson from its crushing defeat in 2004. There was no credibility in anything that the party said, be it on terrorism, corruption or relations with the US. Having released dreaded terrorists during the Kandahar crisis, it did not lie in the BJP’s mouth to attack the Manmohan Singh Government on 26/11. That is why the party could not convert even 26/11 into votes.Nor could the BJP encash the corruption of UPA Ministers: Of the 15 scamster MPs caught on tape taking cash to ask questions or sanction projects under the MPLADS Scheme, eight were from the BJP. This party also has the distinction of having an MP who was found involved in human trafficking. He was smuggling people into Canada on passports given to members of his family! The list is endlessIndiscipline at the top, with many leaders pursuing their own personal agendas at the cost of the party and the larger movement to which they belong, is yet another factor. Fourth, some of the most arrogant and conceited politicians can be found in this party. They lack the humility to listen to others and they are beyond learning. Last, there is no party high command, as in the Congress or the CPI(M), and therefore many party leaders are answerable to no one and are beyond party discipline. Is the BJP capable of sincere introspection and course correction? Given the party’s track record post-2004, I would not put my money on this.

BJP abandons idealogy and get a swift rebuke

BJP apes Congress, fails

During the latest campaign, the BJP downplayed ideology (except erratically in the Varun Gandhi incident) and betted all on ‘good governance’. Some BJP State Governments have provided that, to be sure, and in these States the BJP has been rewarded. But it could never be a decisive election-winner because Congress hasn’t done too bad in that regard either. Ever since Mr Manmohan Singh read out the 1992 Budget, the world sees his signature written all over India’s economic success. Even BJP contributors to that success, like erstwhile Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, won’t deny him that honour. In these circumstances, only a clear ideological profile, mature but distinct, could have won the election for the BJP. If it didn’t want that ideological distinctness and was content to remain the Congress’s B-team, the party could have learned from Mr Sarkozy to show this only after the election. Before, it should at least have kept up the pretence of being a party with a difference.

Provocation for Chickmangalur church attacks

‘Hurt sentiments led to attack on church’

Janakriram, a coffee grower, said that the hillock known as Rashi Gudda had a cave with a small opening. Hindus used to visit the spot, drop stones into the cave and listen the echoing sound.Later, Christian coffee growers bought the entire hillock and helped a church come up right at the place. The opening to the cave was closed and the hillock rechristened as ‘Shilibe Gudda, which hurt Hindu sentiments. This resentment led to attack on a church at Maagud near Aldoor, Janakiram told the Commission. The Commission also accepted the statement of N Shetroji Rao, a retired government employee.

Prabhakarans Death - something fishy

Prabhakaran`s final hours

It was upon investigating the ambulance that 3 bodies, one of which resembled Prabhakaran`s body structure was discovered. The body was blackened and beyond facial/physical recognition. But the Army knew it may very well be Prabhakaran. There was no other way for him to escape.

But major Indian newspapers and some across the world have published what seems like a perfectly intact though lifeless body of Prabhakaran. So what am i missing? But whatever is the case, peace in the region at last. Click the links below for some of the photos,

http://www.itn.lk/news_03_20090519.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Prabhakarans-body-found-Lanka-army-chief/articleshow/4551107.cms

BharatRight Opinion - Bengal elections

http://www.bharatright.com/indexOrange.php?zftemplate=sidOrange

One of the few good parts about this extra-ordinary elections has been the loss of the leftists in West Bengal. But, has the country traded one evil for another? Will lives of people of West Bengal really improve? Mamata Banerjee has fought on a platform which is basically anti-development. In their opinion, industrial development of a major state of India is less important than orderly displacement of a few farmers. Therefore, while most left policies are regressive, Mamata has won this election on an even worse policy platform.Secondly, we believe that the Congress/Trinamul performance is mainly due to a religious factor, which has long-term security implications. Singur issue became bigger mainly because most affected farmers were Muslims. If you look at the map of voting pattern of West Bengal (simply click on West Bengal area on India's map to see details of voting pattern in West Bengal), you will notice that all the seats won by UPA are contiguous to Bangladesh's borders. There are the areas where illegal Muslim immigration from Bangladesh has a deep-rooted impact. These are the voters that deserted the leftists this time, as some of their co-religionists, even if upto 200 kms away, were being asked to vacate their land for a compensation! Muslims voted en-masse for the UPA, and that is the real reason leftists lost in W. Bengal. Is this a good development? In our opinion - NO.

Swati Parashar on the Election Verdict

Elections 2009: The Myth of ‘Secular’ Verdict

The single most important outcome of this election verdict has been the defeat of the Leftist brigade along with other staunch and ‘committed’ champions of ‘fanatic secularism’, such as Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. In UP too, ‘secular’ Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav have incurred losses, owing to the gains made by the Congress Party. The importance of this verdict cannot be overlooked. Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have never hesitated to claim their alpsankhyak (minority) Muslim vote banks in their capacity as upholders of real secular values. The same vote bank could not come to their rescue as Bihar gave a decisive mandate to Nitish Kumar for the development work he has been doing as also for the personal image Nitish enjoys among the electorate. It was interesting to note that not one media report was keen to portray Nitish Kumar’s victory as the victory of the ‘communal’ forces considering he is officially still with NDA. Those who have memories of Lalu’s Bihar and his rise to ‘absolute power which corrupted him absolutely’ will heave a sigh of relief. Similarly, Mulayam’s Muslim vote bank could not do much for him and in fact sufficiently lowered his bargaining power because of the gains made by the Congress. Mayawati, who was being projected in the Indian and Western media as the possible first Dalit Prime Minister of India, is now blaming the Muslims for her defeat. She also has a few political lessons to learn. People vote for progress and that identity politics (of either caste or religion) does not always yield the best results in a democracy.

Radha Rajan - When ambition overrode ideology

Election 2009 - The BJP got what it deserved

Karan Thapar accurately summed up the election results in a telling one-liner – while both the Congress and the BJP faced a host of problems until 3 weeks ago; the Congress’ problems dissolved into nothingness while the BJP tripped over them. A truer thing was never said. What Karan Thapar did not say was that while all of the Congress’ problems were external to the party, the BJP’s problems were all from within. Behind Karan Thapar’s one line summary lurked a sordid tale of epic proportions.
The BJP suffers from seven problems – Advani, Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh; each one’s coterie expanding their personal agendas in an oceanic circle, some of them expanding across the Atlantic and the Pacific and then coming back to Indian shores as returning currents with ambitious jetsam and flotsam riding on their crests. Venkaiah Naidu for some reason opted out of the race in 2004. They all think they are Prime Ministerial matter; after Vajpayee, Advani thought he had the automatic right of inheritance while the remaining six think they have automatic right of inheritance after Advani. The Problem Seven, in the last 10 years have done two things – they have ruthlessly decimated or kept at bay other challengers to the throne in the states and in Delhi, while simultaneously doing everything to make sure that the other six in the group do not take even half a step in the direction of becoming party president which is the penultimate chair before the throne; and that is why, despite losing the elections in 2004 and now in 2009, Advani continues to remain at the top. Advani’s continuation is the only way to prevent the others from getting there. The top leadership is therefore septuagenarian or octogenarian, the second rung leadership is already aged and the third rung is aging fast and frustrated. This group has held the BJP hostage through their coteries, each coterie more cut-throat than the others. These cut-throat operators have rivals in the camp even in the states; the results are there for all to see in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where an ascendant Congress is pushing the BJP out. Cut-throat coteries and destructive overarching ambitions have destroyed the BJP beyond salvage in Uttar Pradesh, in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where local cut-throats with personal patrons in Delhi have over-run the party; going by the fact that there are cut-throats waiting on the sidelines in Karnataka and Gujarat, these two states may well go that way, sooner than later. The degeneration of the BJP from the vibrant Hindu movement that it was in the 1990s, as a party with a vision and an agenda, to what it has become today – a vehicle for individual ambitions - can be best gauged by those whom the BJP has chosen as its face and voice, as its power-brokers, as its point-persons, and as its strategists. Ask any ordinary political minded Hindu on the street what he/she thinks the BJP stands for and we will have the answer to why the BJP’s downward slide is unstoppable. The BJP’s descent was accelerated with Advani’s public pronouncement that good governance does not need ideology. This was as good as saying that a family is only an involuntary collective of individuals and can function efficiently without family values. For all that the BJP claims it is different from the Congress, any one who has studied the freedom movement, not as insipid history in school text books but as a real drama unfolding through its dramatis personae, would realize that the BJP today finds itself in the same position that the INC found itself repeatedly, first in 1908 when the Hindu nationalist leadership Tilak, Aurobindo and Savarkar had been decimated and the Congress floundered leaderless and clueless and without an identity until Gandhi began to use it as a vehicle for his agenda; then in the late 1930s decade when Gandhi had failed on all fronts but refused to relinquish control of the INC and again in 1948 when after Gandhi, Nehru thought he had automatic right of inheritance. From 1947, the Congress party was not driven by ideology; it was driven only by cult worship of individuals – first Gandhi, then Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi, her sons Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, his wife and widow, Sonia Gandhi and now her son Rahul Gandhi. His sister Priyanka Gandhi, like Narendra Modi, is watchfully biding her time. Closet spouses of unknown nationality and grand-children are already positioned as future heirs to the mantle. The Congress today, manipulated by an Italian and her Italian/Indian children, has come full circle and is once again a creature of colonial intent. The Gandhi family is willing to throw crumbs from their high table to those who they consider share the same pedigree lineage and who have therefore been allowed to come close to the table and sit at their feet, with smaller crumbs thrown to those waiting outside the gates, and have thus managed to silence murmurs of discontent. Undeserving and unworthy individuals have been placed after careful calculations, at the head of high national institutions, and invitations to periodic high-teas served on the lawns has subordinated the highest pillars of democracy to serve family interests. The Gandhi family has used the crumbs of totalitarian power as an effective silencer within the Congress. The Congress party has been transformed into a willing mechasnism of slave labour to oil the ambitions of one family. The role of the English electronic media and the leading English print media with regard to this usurper family and its steamrolling methods raises serious questions about the media’s integrity and nationalism. The BJP began with the pious intention of positioning itself as a contrast to the Congress. It chose ideology to define its self-identity because it had no dynasty to define it. When the BJP stepped into the national political arena, it was still carrying memories of its previous nationalist incarnation the Jana Sangh and was driven by a Hindu nationalist ideology as embodied in Tilak, Aurobindo, Savarkar and then in the RSS as conceived of by Dr. Hedgewar. The BJP’s political agenda was determined by Hindu nationalism and there was convergence of intent between the two most prominent of the RSS siblings – the BJP and the VHP. The first steps in turning the BJP around on a deviant path, away from its defining ideology was taken by Atal Behari Vajpayee when he privileged coalition partners over party ideology. The slide was perceptible then and the writer used the platform offered by Vigil Public Opinion Forum to voice this concern. “Coalition Politics and the Death of Ideology” was a landmark public meeting in those times and the writer still remembers the anguish of a senior RSS pracharak over the choice of title. He refused to accept the possibility that the RSS (he, like many even today did not make a distinction between the BJP and the RSS) could ever compromise or give up on ideology. The Vajpayee years saw the rise of two or three individuals who influenced and later controlled not only the leadership within the BJP but also within the RSS. Nothing could be thought, said or done without their approval. No decision could be made and no action executed without being micro-managed by these individuals. Ideology was what these individuals said it was and it was during these years that the BJP began to package rank opportunism as some kind of brilliant Kautiliya strategy and this lemon was sold to the RSS leaders and the rank and file down the line by these two or three individuals. One sold the lemon in the North while another sold it in the South. The RSS was convinced into accepting the argument that the BJP must be allowed to place its defining and exceptional agenda for the nation on the back-burner to keep its coalition partners. This was no Kautilya, Rasputin was more like it. The BJP’s slide acquired momentum with the rise of these individuals.

Christian aggression in Bangalore

Swapan Dasgupta - Post Election Analysis

Congress won conclusively

The NDA has not merely fallen significantly below its own psephological expectations; it has been rejected by the electorate. Perhaps the rejection is not quite so categorical as that suffered by the Left and the partners of the Third Front (with the honourable exception of Naveen Patnaik). But this is really a debate about whether a 80 run defeat is worse than an innings defeat. After the 1991 election, The Economist had a report entitled, “The winner came second”, testifying to the BJP’s surge and its ability to dominate the agenda. This time there is not even pretence of a moral victory. The winner has taken it all.

Church asks congregation to vote for Christians

DMK may have the last laugh in Kumari

But then, the Sunday service in the various churches across the district seemed to have turned voters in favour of the DMK. While most Catholic churches
have openly declared Helen Davidson, who is also a Catholic, as their favoured candidate - not the other Catholic, Bellarmine - to clear the doubts of the community, some pentecostal congregations were told by preachers to vote for her.

Hindus attacked in Pakistan

http://www.cctv.com/program/worldwidewatch/20090515/105365.shtml

As the Taliban aims to gain a stronger foothold in Pakistan, increasingly violent assaults against religious minorities are further evidence of what many perceive to be the militants' growing power and influence in the volatile country.
These attacks add to the instability of an already highly unstable country. In dozens of interviews from Karachi to Peshawar, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus told of attacks and threats and expressed an overwhelming sense of fear.
Amarnath Motunal, President of Hindu Community, Karachi, said, "We are more in risk, we were in risk, but this present situation has put us in further risk. We are looking for shelter where we can save our families if anything bad happens in Pakistan."

Hindus discriminated against in Trinidad

Students vow to stand guard after school orders Hindu flag removed


"It was not the first time something like this happened. Over the past two years, efforts were made by a small group to destroy the Indo-Trinidadian cultural practices that formed part of the school's activities," one pupil said.
Devant Maharaj, spokesperson for the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, said students have reported the incident. He said a large number of students attending the school belonged to the Hindu religion and while a decision was made to remove the jhandis, symbols of other religions remained. "The school is a part of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious community. It is where we teach children the pluralism of Trinidad and Tobago. If the authorities allow the jhandis to be removed, they would be creating a breeding ground for intolerance among the children," he said.

Jews criticize Interfaith commission for ignoring non-Semitic sysstems

Jews condemn European Commission & Parliament for snubbing Hindus


Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California, supporting the cause spearheaded by acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement said that Commission and Parliament leaders should study their constitutions carefully to find the words "equality" and "fairness" written somewhere and grasp their meaning.Rabbi Freirich argued that it was not the job of Commission and Parliament to prefer one religion over the other or ignore some of those completely in interreligious gatherings. Commission and Parliament officials needed to go back to school to take "Comparative Religion 101" and "Interfaith Relations" classes.The Jewish leader further said, "How could one ignore Hinduism, which is one of the oldest religions of the world with about one billion followers and a presence in every country of Europe? Hindus have made many positive contributions to the European community and believe in peaceful coexistence."

Post Election analysis - BJP forgot Delhi often comes via Lucknow

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/clicklit/entry/bjp-forgot-the-roadmap-delhi

We all know that the road to Delhi is via Lucknow”, Atal Bihari Vajpayee reminded the national council of the BJP in December 2006. Even if he does usually speak a tad softly, a point as basic as that mustn’t have been that difficult to catch. A pity, then, they didn’t pay him much heed.
Contrary to the widely shared opinion, going by television debates, that the BJP’s primary error was its sustained campaign against Manmohan Singh, I don’t think the BJP really made an gigantic electoral blunder by picking a ‘negative campaign’. Or by attacking Manmohan. Or in its choice of alliances, or the lack of them. The BJP got the plot fundamentally wrong the day it got so enamoured of its own success in social experimentation, that it began to equate its electoral epicentre with Gujarat — forgetting the fact that it had been steadily, irretrievably, losing it completely in its actual epicentre, UP.

Death Knell for Indias world aspirations

After the counting and other stories

India would have had a chance, but not with the UPA in power. An old gentleman, whom I have no reason to disbelieve, once told me of an incident with a Communist leader in Kerala [Images], who opposed prohibition. In a private conversation, this person questioned the minister about the obvious fact that the consumption of liquor by men was impoverishing their families and preventing them from rising up to the middle class. Whereupon the leader told him, in effect: "We don't want to end poverty. If there is no poverty, who needs us?" This accurately reflects the UPA's beliefs as well. Their slogans will have no takers unless there is a large, hopeless underclass.
The UPA has demonstrated that it can only think of India as a vassal state throughout the last five years of craven behaviour towards the US ('India loves you, Mr Bush,' said the PM). The opaque manner in which the nuclear deal was rammed through was preposterous. India will pay tens of billions of dollars for nuclear fission reactors from the US and its allies, and will go into 'cap, rollback and eliminate' mode as it is blackmailed into the NPT, CTBT and FMCT.

Delhi entangled in the Dragon's String of Pearls

India is losing out to China

"We don't have a grand strategy," admits retired admiral Arun Prakash, among India's finest strategic analysts. As navy chief, he had initiated several steps to increase India's influence in the Indian Ocean.
"We are aware of China's efforts in the neighbourhood. But the question is whether we have a comprehensive strategy to counter them and to secure our interests," says a senior official who looks after the region for his agency. The official, who is not from the external affairs ministry, is clear whom to blame: the ministry and its diplomats.

EVMs lack transparency?

a post that is doing the rounds -

Hi All,
The outcome of the election is completely shocking. And the more shocking news is the possibility of tampering of EVMs to manipulate the results through out india. And now there was a PIL filed in supreme court over the possibility of tampering of the EVMs by one of the technologists.
Please see the link below.
http://www.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=45296
"Computer chips that control the EVMs can be easily programmed to do all kinds of improper manipulations. For example, after a certain number of people (perhaps hundreds) have voted, the rest of the votes may be channeled to a chosen candidate. This is just one among many mischievous tricks possible."
Also, a similar news appeared at a technical magazine called Linux Journal, citing that the hardware and the software used in the EVMs are not open sourced and hence the functioning of the EVMs are still not clear.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7561
More over, there is large possibility that the EVM can be programmed, reprogrammed at anytime of the election process, and the data can be altered even at the last minute.
In my home constituency Namakkal, a new caste based party was formed few months before, and this party contested in around 11 places. Since my constituency has majority population of that particular caste, the new party was expecting around 2 lakh votes. But after the results, they got only 52,000 votes, which is unbelievable.
They had successfully got the wide support of their caste but, in many of the booths, where their caste people were 90%, the votes polled to them was just 10-20 votes. This is yet again another proof of manipulation of results.
I believe, this has been done in most of the places in Tamilnadu. and it has been done in all other states.
IF we could analyse the statistics further, we can arrive at lot of things. For example, in Andhra pradesh, TDP got around 105 MLA seats, but only 9 MP seats. This is unbelievable. The 105 MLA seats convert around 15 MP seats.
Also in telengana, its hard to believe that congress won over TRS, TDP and the communists combine.
I request you all to pass on the information to the party people in your contacts.
Regards,
xxxxxx

1,00, 000 Crore telecom spectrum scam by UPA

A scam, a yawning deficit



Facts that have recently come to light indicate that the telecom spectrum scam is the biggest financial scandal in the history of Independent India, involving an amount not less than Rs 50,000 crore and possibly as high as Rs 1,00,000 crore — as much as one-fortieth of the country’s national income. This sum is certainly more than the total amount spent by the Central government in a year on health-care and roughly three-fourths of the fiscal deficit indicated in the Union budget for the current financial year.
The scam acquired a new dimension when promoters of three Indian companies holding telecom licences decided to offload a hefty part of their equity stakes in these firms. Swan Telecom sold 45 per cent of its shares to Etisalat (of the United Arab Emirates) for Rs 4,100 crore; Unitech Wireless offloaded 60 per cent of its stake to Telenor (of Norway) for Rs 6,200 crore; and Tata Teleservices sold 26 per cent of its shares to NTT DoCoMo of Japan for Rs 13,230 crore.

"Poor Gentleman" Quattrochi?

PM’s concert in ‘Q’ major

As a grand finale to its subservient five years in office and as a tribute to its benefactor and mentor, the Manmohan Orchestra is now playing ‘Concerto Quattrocchi’ at the Delhi Opera. Members of this orchestra — who constitute the biggest ensemble of Italy-trained political musicians — are playing their hearts out to impress the presiding deity at 10, Janpath. Beginning with the conductor, everyone is hoping for renewal of their contracts after May 16, smug in the belief that the people of India will reward them for their unstinted sycophancy.The Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, has surely established himself as a conductor par excellence in the eyes of his benefactor by defending the withdrawal of the ‘Red Corner Notice’ against Ottavio Quattrocchi. He has declared that the Quattrocchi case is an “embarrassment” for the Government because the world sees this Italian fugitive and friend of Mr Sonia Gandhi as someone who is being “harassed” by us.

"Yes we can" con them Indians again

U.S.-India nuclear deal: Bereft of transformative power

Today, while India gropes for strategic benefits from the nuclear deal, the U.S. is set to reap non-proliferation and economic benefits once international inspections begin and contracts are signed. It is unfortunate that intense partisan rancour was kicked up in India over an oversold deal, which was pushed through with no public scrutiny, although it thrusts an uneconomical energy choice and carries long-term implications.