India's tryst with another Gandhi

30

For a country that often uses democracy as a crutch to justify the anarchy and the underbelly of politics, India has not come a far way as far as the intrinsic nature of its politics is concerned. We still revere dynasties in one form or the other; if it is the young politician you are looking at, then many are in politics only because of who they are and not because of what they stand for and believe in. The Gandhi surname in India has almost the same mystique as the Kennedys in the United States: a family born to rule as it were. But also like the Kennedys, a Gandhi can do no wrong in India and when he or she does, it gets magnified several times over. If you go back in history, there is no doubt that while Mahatma Gandhi gave India its freedom, it took....

Why India needs a Nano?

10

When the Nano, the world's cheapest car, is launched at the venerable Parsi Gymkhana Grounds in Bombay, by Ratan Tata on Monday, March 23, it will not just be the launch of a car. Instead it will be the launch of a million possibilities. Indian possibilities. Indian engineering, Indian ingenuity and finally, a vehicle for Indian aspirations. And in these troubled times, India needs a symbol of hope; a symbol of the possible and one which can show the world that Made In India is no longer about off-shoring or about inexpensive services but instead about the capabilities that India has to not just dream out of the ordinary but also make that dream happen. There has already been enough noise in the media about the Nano. In fact in many ways, it has many firsts to its credit and the price is not the only one. From a....

Should hate always win?

10

It would ideally be logical to assume that a country of India's size and economic inequalities, development and social upliftment would be the ideal planks for winning an election, but sadly, things have not changed very much and hate is still widely believed to be a huge driver of votes. Or at least of media attention, which is why, it was not surprising for Jawaharlal Nehru's great-grandson, Varun Gandhi to spew venom against the Muslims in an election speech. It has put him in the spotlight; has created the kind of media frenzy that this Gandhi would have never imagined and placed him on a pedestal which is both communal on the one hand and right-wing on the other. Sadly, in all this melee of hate-speeches, Varun forgot, in a country such as India where names often suggest religion and caste, how will he ever dump his middle name:....

Who's sleeping with whom?

10

For all those who think this is going to be titillating, think again. I am not discussing Bollywood or for that matter the famous shenanigans of some famous Indians caught on tape in compromising positions with some Miss India from Canada: this is a simple treatise on the on-going bed-swapping amongst political parties and the repercussions this nation will experience as we go along. In the past few weeks enough has been written about how the next elections will have no winners: they will have rag-tag alliances which will come together as they always do, just to taste power and make some quick money while the going is good. Given what one sees around oneself, it is difficult to imagine how on earth the Jayalalithaas of the world will ever go to bed with the Communists but then before one could express shock, there was that mushy shot of....

The trauma of being in the BJP

10

Many people ask me if the BJP will ever come back to power at the Centre and my answer is just like we never imagined the Congress would, the reverse would be equally true. But the fact of the matter is that never has a national party been so ill-prepared after so much preparation. Never has a Prime Ministerial candidate (announced aeons ago) looked so un-Prime Ministerial and never has a cadre-based party been so divided as the BJP is today. The fact is that while the BJP may be quick to blame the Congress as a party saddled with dynastic politics, their own track record is equally abysmal as far as certain holy cows are concerned. One of them being the authority of the party President even though he may be a man of feeble intellect and negligible charisma. Unlike the Congress (which has one undisputed leader), the....