Even clever political heavyweights are blind about their sons. There is a well known syndrome in Indian politics known as the Dhritarashtra syndrome. Last week as expelled Samajwadi Party heavyweight Amar Singh held forth on the fate that has befallen the Samjwadi party and listed his grievances in exhaustive detail, it became clear that once again another political "outsider" had fallen victim to the Dhritarashtra syndrome. The blind parent, blindly partial to his own bloodline, usually alienates the second-in-command. In a fit of self-destructiveness, he fatally damages his own political achievements and legacy by becoming intent on anointing his son. Dhritarashtra, the blind king of Hastinapur has many 21st century avatars. The spirit of Dhritarashtra enters the bodies of men, who are always clever politicians who have built political parties, yet men who throw their cleverness to the winds, when it comes to the political future of their sons. The main reason for my departure, Amar Singh claimed, is because the...

Before I went to see Three Idiots watching the film had become something of a sacred duty. Friends telephoned from Mumbai and hissed furiously, "You mean you haven't seen Three Idiots? Why? It's the best movie ever." Cousins cornered me at family gatherings and shouted, "When are you seeing Three Idiots? Its brilliant, its excellent, it's the best." With a chorus of "excellent", "brilliant", "fantastic", "the best" ringing in my ears, jet propelled by the force of family pressure I dutifully lined up on a freezing January afternoon in Delhi, and accompanied by a glassy-eyed horde who had no doubt also been dragooned into the theatre by armies of friends and relatives, we all surged in, breathless with anticipation, to watch Three Idiots. And did Three Idiots the film live up to the hosannahs and eulogies that I heard chanted? Did the film deserve the tidal wave of frenzied applause that broke over my head every time its name was mentioned in any gathering?...

Our criminal justice system has once again failed. Once again the ghost of a young girl cries out to be heard. In a country that celebrates its woman president, its woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, its woman leader of the Opposition and its woman head of the Congress party, once again this country is in danger of failing a powerless young woman. The criminal justice system has failed Ruchika Girhotra, as it once failed Bhanvari Devi, Jessica Lal and Priyadarshani Mattoo. Indian society's horrifyingly patriarchal face, is revealed again, where a powerful and influential male babu or politician is able to twist the system so efficiently that for 19 long years not only is justice denied, but a modest family is harassed, driven out of employment, and forced into hiding out of fear. Justice denied so completely that a desperate child, alone in her solitary grief, has been driven to take her own life. That a mere six month sentence and a...

2009 marks the return of the English-speaking politician. Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh is India's new king of climate, leading our country's charge against Western nations who are forcing India to accept carbon emission cuts. The IIT-educated Ramesh is an unlikely nationalist folk hero, and in spite of being targeted by the Opposition on his alleged sell out to the West, it is he who now embodies India's national interest at Copenhagen. Even before Jairam Ramesh became Mr Green India, the Harvard Business School educated Home Minister P Chidambaram has already been consolidating his image as Mr Strong India. Chidambaram proudly claims that in spite of several attempts by terrorists, India has been able to foil all terror attacks in the last year. His speeches have charted a bold new position of defending the `Idea Of India' from "Islamic terrorism", "Hindu extremism" and "ideologically-driven violence." Then there is the St Stephen's College educated Mr Educate India, HRD Minister Kapil...