A vent in the Delirium

What transpired in our democratic nation, a week ago, was a disgrace to our Right to Freedom of Expression. An ordinary,benign cartoonist, Assem Trivedi was charged with sedition and raging war against the government. The fact that such ridiculous charges can be imposed on a cartoonist in a free country is obnoxious. Moreover, his is not just a one-off case but next in the line of a series of such ridiculous cases  filed against others like Binayak Sen, Arundhati Roy and others. It seems dissent is being made equivalent to sedition. Before we make up our minds as to what classifies as sedition and how does sedition and freedom of speech co-exist, we must understand what the law states. The law of sedition was inacted in the pre-Independence era by the colonial rulers, to suppress the public rebellion against the authority of the King of England. It made culpable any expression of contempt against the King. When our country got Independence, the first Prime Minister, Jawah...

It's teacher's day today. A day dedicated to the teachers in India for their contribution in nation building. This, however, should be used as an opportunity to look at our archaic, maligned and uninspiring education system. Our current education system is the product of the British Raj. Their intent was to produce slaves, capable of doing their work and understanding their language of communication. Hence, our current system is dominated by English, theoretical knowledge and discipline. Being innovative or creative is indiscipline in our system. Our education system is such that it doesn't let you apply your brains but forces you to apply your memory. A free mind with an opportunity to explore myriad different avenues is strangled into the classroom by books and exams. How do we expect to bring diversity in this nation of 1 billion when each individual is treated with same syllabus and subjects? Giving basic education about every subject is necessary, but the stud...

The society, we live in, is obsessed with labeling things either black or white. It plays the moral police for each of its individuals. Since our childhood we are made to see things as either good or bad. There isn't much scope for grey. Grey, which is in fact the reality but we live in pseudo realities which are much more comfortable to accept. The moral uneasiness which comes with accepting the evil in you, is hard to accept. Probably the most difficult thing to accept, morally, would be that the murderers, the rapists, the goons; are just the humans that we are. Their morals and ideologies are similar to ours. When the (fake) wall of morality that we build between THEM and US falls, our moralistic self will get a shattering. We are so comfortable feeling and believing moralistic that we fail to see the evil in us. The evil is always in others while we have achieved moralistic zenith. Gitta Sereny, a journalist known for her unflinching studies of Nazis and child crimina...

India, by virtue of its population, offers massive opportunities and challenges. The manpower and human resource that remains untapped presents myriad opportunities and providing civic amenities to such a large population poses vast challenges. The opportunities as well as the challenges go far beyond just these. One of the major challenge is ensuring food security for the 1.2 billion Indians. This basic necessity for human life is still at bay, six decades after our independence. In a country where almost 50% of the children are malnourished and their mothers weak and anemic; one would have hoped that food security would be one of the priorities of the government. But six decades after the independence, 12 five year plans later, we are still "debating" a Food Security Bill and our expenditure on food subsidy has been less than 1% for the past 5 years. At times when food inflation is at its peaks and the poor are struggling to make ends meet; its quintessential that ...

Watching "the wall" of Indian Cricket speak after his retirement was enchanting. A mixture of emotions in his voice and body language. A bit of sadness, lot of pride, satisfaction, courage and commitment. It was a lesson in aesthetics, of how one should carry oneself in public. He was a model of modesty and humility. He is someone who epitomised putting nation before self. He was a man who was involved in 2 three hundred plus partnerships and a day long partnership in tests, but at all occasions was overshadowed by his partner at the other end. Yet, he continued doing his best for the nation. He is the single most under-rated, under-appreciated cricketer of his times. If consistency is the measure od greatness, then he is the greatest of his times. If its easy to be good at home, then again he is the greatest of his times. If number 3 is the most difficult position to bat in cricket then he is the greatest of his times. He did any and everything for the TEAM . When ...

When Manmohan Singh made that speech on 24th July,1991, marking the beginning of economic reforms and opening up of the Indian economy; it was little out of choice but out of compulsion. With only 3 weeks worth of reserves for import left, it was on the verge of default and had open up as a result of the IMF bailout. To say that nothing has changed in the 20 years since then would be utter pessimism and idiotic. A lot has changed but the malice still remains in the system. The economy reached the highs of 9% GDP growth in 2007, is now the second fastest growing economy of the world and is being viewed as a major player at the world stage. But corruption, inefficiency and official laxity is still prevalent. Recently we got a reality check on the progress on the road to reforms, when government had to rollback its decision to allow FDI in multi brand retail. Since then it has not treaded the path on any further reforms. Diesel and Kerosene still remain to be heavily subsidised. ...

The turn of events over the recent past has made evident the increasingly pro-US foreign policy followed by India. From being the prominent member of the Non-Aligned Movement in the times of cold wars, to being a close ally of the Soviet Union, it has come a long way in the current capitalist economic world order. With the fall of USSR, and the rise of West and and the US, to being the world's biggest superpower, there was a clear shift in world order toward west. There was centralisation of power both economical and political. India's bond with the US is largely a measure by both parties to keep China, a heavyweight in the region, in check. Hence the many joint drills that are conducted by the two armies . Also the signing of much hyped Nuclear treaty between the two countries for civil nuclear projects. There are economical reasons as well. US is the third largest trading partner of India and its largest trading partner is the UAE which is pro-US. India's major d...