I AND MY WORDS

The Nautanki of Nayantara Sahgal - Much Ado About Nothing (Courtesy - The Hindu) Of late, we have been seeing writers across the board returning their Sahitya Akademi award for great creations. It all started with the niece of the hallowed Jawaharlal Nehru, Nayantara Sehgal, followed by people like Ashok Vajpayi, Uday Prakash and many other people, including the likes of Surjit Patar joining the list, totaling to a grand number of twenty one. "Freedom of speech being throttled", "no space for free speech", "vitiated communal atmosphere" are phrases that are being bandied about as reasons for the protest. A cursory examination however demolishes many of the facts that are being loosely thrown around recklessly to vitiate the atmosphere. Most of the writers have just announced returning of awards. A news report by the Indian Express has specifically noted how many of these 'eminent' writers have been more than eager to announce in the media

नव युग के नव प्रभात में नव पंकज तुमको है खिलना रंग प्रकाश सुगंध भाव संग क्षण भर भी विक्षन्न न होना स्मरण करो उन बलिदानों को शूल छिन्न उन अपमानों को मत भूलो इतिहास की वेला क्या कुछ नहीं है तुमने झेला चक्र चला है आज अनोखा समय द्वार पर पालक देखा सत्य बधिर, मूक कण्ठ धारे चहुँ ओर माया का फेरा शब्द असत्य, चित्र असत्य कण कण में है घोर असत्य अंतःकरण को कर भ्रमित है मिथ्या की पाशों ने जकड़ा अवसर आज, अस्त्र भी साथ कर में थाम तू कर प्रहार मिथ्या के पाशों को काट कर स्वतंत्र तू सत्य को आज हुई पराजय बीते कल में छीनो उससे विजय को आज करके पलटवार पुनः तुम सत्य का दामन थामो आज देखना तुम, इस बलिदान से विजय पताका संग के साथ नित्य संघर्षरत रहो तुम अवसर मिलेगा फिर न आज नव युग के नव प्रभात में नव पंकज तुमको है खिलना रंग प्रकाश सुगंध भाव संग क्षण भर भी विक्षन्न न होना

Isn't it surprising that we have people shouting themselves hoarse on absolute non-issues in India just to ensure a slant in the coverage of India? Well it should not surprise anyone. However the examples are just so many that one can lose track of the shoddiness (perhaps deliberate) in presenting half-researched stories as an 'alarming Hindutva fringe attack on India'. Sample these: 1. A girl in Mumbai who works in a media house shouted herself hoarse claiming she was denied a house because she is Muslim. The media went overboard and pointed how intolerance is rising within India? We had editorials and discussions by the hallowed likes of Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai extolling secular values. However, research done by Mid-Day, a Mumbai based paper showed that the real matter was something else. Apparently, the girl had already lived in the same apartment for over two years and was having problems with the broker of the apartment. In fact, there were Muslim families c

"My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do" - Rajan in a decisive mode (Courtesy NDTV) Raghuram Rajan, the hallowed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), caught everyone by surprise today by announcing a 50 basis points (bps) cut in the repo rate , which is down to 6.75%. While the corporate world can sing hosannas about capital now being available and bankers can go gaga in turn while slashing their own rates, there are a couple of points that can get overlooked in this hyperbole, and need to be seen at carefully. The RBI has clearly noted that the availability of capital can be a potential problem in pushing for economic growth, due to which the forecast was redefined. It is particularly telling that the cut has come at the time of the initiation of disbursal of loans to small and medium enterprises under the MUDRA scheme. The cut complements the initiative of the government and its funded banks very well. This also shows that the RBI governor, unnecess

I am going to stick my neck out and say that the Bihar elections are being oversold by the media as a mandate on one government or the other. There are several reasons to it, and we shall examine them in some depth as follows. 1. Bihar has a footprint on national politics Not anymore. With the creation of Jharkhand, the number of seats in the Lok Sabha from the state of Bihar came down from fifty six to forty. That makes West Bengal and Maharashtra more important (forty two and forty four respectively) in the national political scenario. Even in terms of Rajya Sabha, Bihar is no different from these states, and even if the state assembly elections are lost by the Bharatiya Janata Party in this state, they can make up for the Rajya Sabha numbers through smaller states that they seem set to sweep (Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir and Uttarakhand) within a short span of time. 2. Bihar will decide Narendra Modi's fate Bihar already decided his fate in 2014. It does not

Hum Saath Saath Hain - NDA Chief Ministers Talking to Narendra Modi at a NITI Aayog Meet (Source: Indian Express) In the din of the last three weeks in Parliament, the amendment to the Land Acquisition Act (2013) was shelved without much notice. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, during his meeting at NITI Aayog with the respective state Chief Ministers clearly stated that states will have to take the lead on this matter, since the issue cannot be resolved at the federal level very easily. The numbers in the Rajya Sabha would never allow the passage of such a bill; also, constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) expressed their reservations on the bill repeatedly. Contentious clauses such as the ones on Social Impact Assessment and minimum compensation amounts were hot potatoes that most political parties think were too problematic to their electoral prospects.While it is a pity that electability has become an excuse for not taking decisions on 'se

Last Man Standing - Sonia Gandhi Protesting Outside Parliament During this Monsoon Session In Parliamentary democracy, it is not that we do not see stand-offs. Taiwan and South Korea's National Assemblies are notoriously famous for the brawls that the elected representatives regularly indulge in. Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria are quite famous for their punch-ups, and Jordan has the unique reputation of a member of parliament firing an AK-47 in the building. Kicks, slaps, moshes (oh yes, they look no different), blockades - you name it, they do it. Despite this confrontational approach of the opposition benches, irrespective of who occupies them, business eventually does get done. Vibrancy of the democratic set up gets displayed in a rather perverse manner however; brazenness is considered to be an undesirable trait by everyone, and efforts are never stopped to reconcile the various parties. The effort never stops - not only because there is no intransigence on the part