My China connection is long and enduring! China is not an easy country to know and understand! What Narayanamurthy doesn’t tell! Yes, there is the latest news about India-China mutual suspicion persisting. No one tells the whole truth. That is diplomacy and in our national interest, everyone will tell you. That is okay. But what…
Common School System? A pointless debate!
Government-funded vs. private-funded education systems! All have become “exploitative”! Lost their value focus! Every time the education debate comes alive, there is this much-talked about promoting a common school system. The big names are all here: experts like Yash Pal, Krishna Kumar, Anil Sadgopal, social activists like Aruna Roy and others. What they say? Make…
Come October! Anybody has use for Gandhi?
Are we all not becoming small men? Yes, certain thoughts seem to keep coming! Indians have some months or even days devoted to some rituals. August 15. January 26. October is reserved for Gandhi Jayanthi. And what is more funny is the fact that each passing year we seem to be having men and leaders…
Don’t curb the NGOs in civil society activism!
Let us de-bureaucratize the delivery of public services! Menaka Gandhi in trouble! Accuses Sonia Gandhi CBI shouldn’t be doing odd jobs! There is news that Maneka Gandhi, former Minister under the NDA and the current Member of Parliament has been booked by the CBI alleging that she committed irregularities in distributing funds to NGOs….
What the youth think and aspire today?
The Hindu carried out a survey about the youth aspirations and where they are moving forward. It gave new insights and new thoughts. Here are some of the basic findings. First, the urban/rural information divides. Newspaper reading habits had grown up dramatically. 55% read newspapers and this 74% for the urban readers. On the other…
Bringing back fresh thoughts from Bengal!
Heroes of yesterday and today! My visit to Bengal this time came after a very long gap. So, what I learnt this time while I spent a few days in Calcutta city and also when I paid a visit to Santiniketan, after a day out, driving through the Bengal countryside, what I read afresh from…
Magsaysay awards, Bharat Ratnas and the civil society movement
Just now we read that one Indian, that too a civil servant, Arvind Kejriwal, had been awarded the prestigious Magsaysay award for community leadership, for fighting for the Right to Information Act. To fight corruption in India is not a joke anymore, as everyday we witness the growth of corruption. Not a day passes in…
Is the BJP articulating its policies better this time?
The publication of Mr.Jaswant Singh’s book, A Call to Honor, had justly created a storm. Apart from the more sensational disclosures about the existence of a mole or a spy in the PMO of Narasimha Rao and the circumstances that led to the IC-814 hijack to Khandahar, the other details about the Pokhran-II, Kargil, 9/11,…