The time has come for Sonia to talk if she wants the Bofors ghost to be exorcised

For 20 years India has been haunted by a ghost, which refuses to be exorcised! The Bofors ghost has survived nine governments, eight prime ministers, innumerable hearings from the lowest court in the country to the highest, and an array of actors in the drama, some of who are dead and gone. It continues to periodically occupy our media and the mind space as politicians get excited or depressed, depending on which side they are.

Through it all, the Italian businessman and middleman in the Bofors deal, and one of the main accused in the scandal, Ottavio Quattrocchi has serenely moved from middle age to a senior citizen, and continues to evade the sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes conniving, sometimes disinterested CBI.
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Cauvery: Hard Facts not Parochialism is the panacea - Part 2

Now that the readers of this column have some historical perspective of the entire Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it would make better sense to tackle the problems and advantages that Karnataka faces with the final award.

Even as the politicians and some sections of the media indulge in competitive parochialism based less on facts and more on emotions, one needs to look at this issue as objectively as possible. Now is the final award unfair to Karnataka? This is an obvious question that has been dogging the minds of all fair-minded citizens in the State and outside. Read More...

Whom can Karnataka blame in the Cauvery dispute? History! - Part 1

Is it the end of a dispute or the beginning of a fresh one? This is the question, which has been haunting one's mind, ever since the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal came up with its final award, nearly 17 years after its formation, earlier this week.

As the Cauvery River ebbed and flowed during the last 25 years, sometimes giving bountiful water and sometimes making people thirst for a few drops, the two States at the centre of the dispute, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, have also reacted accordingly. Read More...

Cauvery--News Analysis

Many positives amidst few negatives in Cauvery Order for Karnataka

Despite the strong reactions from Karnataka politicians across the spectrum to the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, and the demand for its review, there are several positives which emerge out of it, apart from the few negatives.

One of the positives is that Karnataka will now be allowed to store and utilise surplus water in the basin, after it ensures the flow of 192 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) to Tamil Nadu. This would mean that Karnataka would have to build another reservoir at the border of the two States. The place talked about for long is Mekedatu, where Karnataka will not be able to produce power, but only store surplus water and also ensure efficient drinking water supply to Bangalore and its neighbouring towns. Read More...

A Multi-dimensional mess in Karnataka

The fading winter of 2006 was action-filled in the nation's capital. After more than a year and half of dull politics on the Karnataka front, suddenly it all came alive on Feb.1 morning, when the BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu called a press conference. The air was thick with rumours and speculations about the possibility of BJP forming a government with a breakaway group of the Janata Dal(S) lead by its chief, H.D.Deve Gowda's son, H.D.Kumaraswamy.

The press conference was arranged to present the younger Gowda to the media and announce triumphantly the formation of the first BJP government in the south of India. But that was not to be. After hectic phone calls and confabulations between the BJP leaders including B.S.Yediyurappa, Naidu, and Ananth Kumar, among others, it was decided that the only excitement that the journalists could be dished out that day was the impressive spread of dishes on the lawns.Read More...

SEZs: Back to the Drawing Board, Look At the Land Acquisition Act First

Better sense seems to have prevailed among the powers that be in New Delhi , when they decided to put on hold, earlier last week, any more approvals for the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). After months of controversy and agitations, the UPA Government has realized that the policies they were trying to pursue on SEZs are after all not so good, and the matter will now be looked into by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM).

Last week, this column had dealt with the issue and expressed apprehension how the nearly over 400 SEZs which have been approved or in the pipeline, may end up as real estate rackets.
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Nandigram? Look what's happening across the country!!

From Singur to Nandigram, the debate over the establishment of a Tata Motors factory for establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has taken a militant and also violent turn, putting the West Bengal Government and the CPI (M) on the defensive and sometimes even terribly embarrassed.

The way in which activists are making a beeline to Nandigram and surrounding areas and raising slogans almost reminiscent of the days of activism of the 1970s gives an impression that farmers of West Bengal are being taken for a ride by an oppressive Government.
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The Land People finally get to live on their own land peacefully

Tribals are Land People. If you look at the map of India and see where they are mainly located, you will find them concentrated in the heart of central India with majority dwelling in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Orissa and Gujarat.

And these Land People whose natural habitat are the forests, can you believe, had no right over the land on which they had been dwelling all these centuries?
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Soren and Sidhu: A study in contrast

It has been an extraordinary week for Indian politicians. Two MPs, including a Union Minister have been convicted for murder. This does not happen even in the most nascent of democracies. That it has happened in this country, with a history of 60 years of uninterrupted democracy, has mixed signals for all of us.

First the positive signal. That even Ministers and MPs, presumably with the backing of the powerful and the mighty, cannot escape the long arm of the law. It should be heartening for the families of the victims of these two influential men, that what they thought would not be possible, has happened.

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BJP: Old wine in older bottle

A few months back, a senior BJP leader also an MP, who has been responsible for the wins and losses of a few States, more wins actually, was distraught about the state of affairs in his party. Discussing informally with this columnist about it, he pointed out that one of the major challenges faced by the party was the question of leadership. A fact, he stressed, everyone and his aunt knew about. But sadly, he said, the two people who need to know about it just refuse to admit it. One does not need to be a very canny observer of politics to know whom he was referring to!

The leadership problem, he correctly analysed, was due to the unacceptability of any one of the second generation of leaders, by the others, which he candidly confessed included himself.

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The Lessons From Justice Sachar: Where is the Appeasement?

When the UPA Government set up the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee, which was known as the Prime Minister's High Level Committee for preparation of Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, it raised the hackles of many people in this country, both political and non-political.

These voices took some time to gain stridency. It was only in February this year, though the Committee was constituted in April 2005, that controversies reached a peak, forcing the Prime Minister's office to issue a clarification that it had nothing to do with the work of the committee.

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Ram Jethmalani ko gussa kyo aatha hai ?

On Friday evening, those watching the CNN-IBN were witness to a spectacle, which is not so often witnessed. An angry and obviously upset veteran advocate, Ram Jethmalani was spewing vitriol against the interviewer and the journalistic community in general. The interviewer/anchor's angst was why the "angry old man" had decided to take up the case on behalf of Manu Sharma, the alleged killer of the lissome late model, Jessica Lal.

Jethmalani, who is known to have lived and thrived by his own rules of the game, more so in politics, however was angrily throwing the code governing the conduct of the lawyers on the anchor and defending his decision.

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Of course Caste matters to get into any Ministry, Ask Ambareesh!

It is interesting to read and listen to the reactions of people whenever a Cabinet expansion takes place. "Oh, he has managed to get in only because of his caste, gender, region, language, etc.", are touted normally, and most of the times all this is true. The latest is the case of Ambareesh, the film star-turned-politician. There is no doubt that if there were a better choice available among the Vokkaligas, he would not have found a place ever in the Union Ministry.

And it is also a fact that he has been chosen, only because of the caste to which he was born in. As a Parliamentarian, in his third term, he has nothing otherwise to show, to merit a place in the Union Ministry.

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Sting operations

'Whether sting operations are in public interest or to make money have to be examined one day,' 'sting operations are generally outsourced...Very often these tapes are sold for lakhs of rupees by those who do the string operation.'--- Chief Justice Y.K.Sabharwal

The draft bill includes 16 do's and don'ts for TV news channels, including a provision that any media group which carries out a sting operation should be able to justify its undercover operation as being "warranted" by public interest. —Union Information Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi.
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The Man who changed India's Political Paradigm

From mouthing slogans like "Brahmin, Bania, Thakur Chor, Baki sab hum DS-4" to " Tilak, Taraazu aur talwar, maaro unko joothe char " to the present day, "Brahma, vishnu aur mahesh, haathi nahin hain yeh ganesh", the Bahujan Samaj Party and its precursor, Dalit Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti(DS-4) has come a very long way in its evolution as a political force in some major parts of the country.

Thanks to Kanshi Ram and his vision, this has been possible. So when he died last week, after virtually being in a coma for more than a year, he left behind a party, which can well, claim to be the first political party of, for and by the downtrodden. Just to think that some thing like this could have been done, when Kanshi Ram became a full time politician only in 1986, would have been scoffed at.

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From Nehru to Sonia: A Party in Transition

For the discerning participants and observers of the last week's Nainital conclave of Congress Chief Ministers, the most interesting outcome was the interplay between the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh.

Every time we see the two together, what is most striking is the affection and respect both have displayed for each other ever since the formation of the UPA Government. Nainital however went beyond it. It was an open display of bonding and confidence the two have among them, which must have sunk the hearts of those within and outside the party who have been hoping and plotting to drive a wedge in this relationship.

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