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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A Different feeling this budget gives, Mr.Chidambaram

When Finance Minister P.Chidambaram had presented his budget last year, there were very few people who had anything to complain, including the left parties, which were constantly at loggerheads with his policies. But this year a plethora of complaints from all sides, political, corporate and the common man, has taken the wind out of the budget. And the popular Tamil daily down south, Dinamalar, headlined PC's budget thus: Dog food becomes cheaper!

A blogger has even asked the Harvard-educated Chidambaram to learn from his rustic colleague and Railway Mantri Lalu Prasad Yadav! There could not have been a more damning indictment, I am sure from the finance minister's perspective. Read More...

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...

What it takes to be a superior nation than America in 2050

The other day as the nation was celebrating its 57th Republic Day, a newspaper headline the previous day kept playing on the mind. This was about India overtaking United States by the year 2050.

Watching two kids at the birthday party of the four-year-old, one could not help but think about where these kids, then in their late middle age, would be and what it would mean for them to be part of a country which would be more powerful than the United States of America.
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