President Kalam ready for a second term? »

Lalu Prasad Yadav justifies Emergency rule!
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stands isolated?
Politics as a calling is never kind to indecisive leaders!
Democracies: strong and weak democracies
Dictatorships: ideologically-based and military dictatorships
Democracies are facing new challenges everywhere. In India there are challenges now for our democracy, as coalition partners, the Left and the casteist allies, stand distanced from the [...]

Sir Isaiah Berlin - a biography »

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Sir Berlin was professor of political philosophy at Oxford during the late 50s. I used to attend his lectures as an undergraduate student. In his time Sir Berlin was considered the greatest living thinker of [...]

School Journal of Education »

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This is a journal with a long history. It was launched long ago in 1965 as an ordinary school newsletter when I was running a rural school. Through the years it had evolved into several [...]

Nanni A Palkhivala -Book Review »

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This is the latest biography of the eminent jurist. He played a leading role in interpreting the constitution of India. This is a beautifully written book by the veteran journalist M.V Kamath and gives a [...]

Nani A.Palkhivala »

The multi-faceted genius of a lawyer.
The book (Nani A.Palkhivala, a life by M.V. Kamath, Nani A.Palkhivala Memorial Trust, Hay House India, 2007, pp 524, Rs.595) is a rare one. A beautifully written book on a beautifully-lived life. The subject of the biography is a distinguished lawyer whose types are not born every time in these [...]

Changing political realities in India »

Sonia Gandhi’s future political leadership hinges on the Congress party’s performance in the next round of Assembly elections. Sonia Gandhi’s political leadership is not her own making. It has been thrust on her by circumstances not even wildly imagined by her. Yet, politics is politics and here she is, now saddled with such awesome responsibilities. [...]

Manmohan Singh naming Rahul Gandhi evokes speculations »

Who will be the next Prime Minister in India?
Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, while campaigning in UP touched upon only on one theme. That is to remind the voters that Rahul Gandhi is their future! This he did while knowing well (or completely ignorant of the ground realities in the state) that the Congress in [...]

Indian agriculture is becoming stronger! »

Wheat farmers are becoming assertive!
Yet they need correct market information to get maximum prices!
The wheat procurement season is on and the wheat output is good in Punjab, Haryana and MP and Rajasthan and UP. There is a sort of cold war between the various players in the wheat procurement trade, the government on the one [...]

CPM’s dilemma in West Bengal! »

Its past sins visit its present predicaments?
The Stalinist cult of “collectivized” agriculture, call it by what name you like, that had entrenched the idlers in the villages, panchayats and land holding patterns! Who said agriculture is not important? But the CPM in W.Bengal always touted its land reforms as the end of all socio-economic ills, [...]

Corporate responsibility! Narayanamurthy in the eye of a storm! »

Indian middle class stunned into silence!
Members of the Karnataka Assembly and Legislative Council take exception to his remarks on national anthem and Cauvery water issue. Mr. N.R. Narayanamurthy, the Infosys founder and mentor, had never doubted his luck. He earned his billions, made his name and became an instant middle class icon. The new generation [...]