A Necessary Yatra

21

The attempt on Pramod Mahajan's life has been shocking and unfortunate to say the least. As the BJP leaders and the public rightfully send him fervent wishes of support for a speedy recovery, at a later juncture when it's appropriate the party should also dwell on the concerns that Pramod Mahajan expressed recently with candour regarding its current state and prospective dilemmas. Since the last General Election, the party has been in thrall to indiscipline and disgruntled factionalism. It's almost as if the party has a penchant for internal friction. From coping with a maverick Uma Bharati's outbursts to disenchanted members at the local level, the tide of discord has swelled to a stage that would be a folly to ignore. Madan Lal Khurana's resignation from the party this month brings this brewing in-house dissatisfaction once again before the public eye. It is time for the BJP....

Of Small Towns and Big Ambitions

10

A few months ago over lunch, an acquaintance enquired after my roots in India. I let her know, I'm from Indore. This disclosure sparked off an expression of bewilderment. She exclaimed, "Oh really! I would have thought that you were from Delhi or Mumbai". That a Cambridge educated lawyer residing in Delhi should be so surprised to learn that the Malwa plateau is also capable of sending its citizenry into the wider world was a revelation unto itself. In this vein, as the travelling cricket juggernaut reached its finale with India's win in Indore in the seventh one-dayer, thoughts harkened to the city. A comic digression can't be resisted here: Readers may recall that in 1997, an India vs Sri Lanka encounter on Christmas day in Indore was aborted due to the alleged "diabolical nature" of the pitch. Among the voluble malcontents that day in the crowd was....

Let's Talk Without Reservation

10

The UPA Government has dropped a real clanger with its proposal to increase reservation in central and state-funded universities from 22.5 per cent to almost 50 per cent. The HRD minister sprang out of the woodwork with this controversial initiative, taking everybody by surprise. After the stormy constitutional tussle of the last month, a period of self-imposed silence on the part of the Congress would have been prudent. The public has had enough of its ongoing shenanigans. Clearly, the party thinks otherwise. The manner and the timing of this announcement lend themselves to dissatisfaction. No consultation papers or parliamentary debates preceded these proposals. The public has been kept entirely in the dark. This is a decidedly regrettable approach to constitutional governance. An important change to public policy that will affect millions should not be relegated to the status of a slipshod edict and a few measly sound bites.....

A Tale of Two Scandals

2

This is a tale of two scandals, one in Britain and the other in India. The facts are different but the underlying themes are similar: the uneasy cohabitation of politics and big business are at the heart of both. It confirms the era of supermarket politics. When a seat in parliament is allegedly up for grabs to the highest bidder, when politics can be reduced to a space where vendors meet prospective purchasers, it is time to take a deep look at the prevalent political culture and ask some difficult questions. The "loans for peerages" scandal broke out last month in Britain when it emerged that some businessmen who had loaned the Labour party vast sums of money were subsequently nominated by Downing Street to the House of Lords. Under British electoral law, donations of over 5000 pounds are declarable to the public. The same applies to all loans....