By B.G. Verghese If ten years after his anointment as the future hope of the Party, last week’s CII address was to mark the new Congress Vice-President, Rahul Gandhi’s political coming-out, it was a sorry piece of tired rhetoric. The usually unshaven middle-aged Youth Congress leader, smartly shaven for the occasion, did not go beyond familiar generalisations. These have been… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese The more indefensible the action, the louder the protests. This appearsto be the flavour of the season. The Government properly stood its ground against the Dravida parties’ brazen attempt to take over the conduct of India’s foreign policy with regard to Sri Lanka, just as West Bengal, Punjab and J&K have sought to do so earlier.The DMK… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese In his famous closing address to the Constituent Assembly, Dr Ambedkar warned that no country could live on the basis of one man, one vote alone. It was as important that each vote be of equal value to ensure equal citizenship so that social inequalities did not tear the state apart. He pleaded that scourges like caste… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese Dr Manmohan Singh is a man of few words and slow to anger. He has sincerely sought to pursue peace negotiations with Pakistan against heavy odds, staking his prestige on this high endeavour. But he was compelled to tell the RajyaSabha last week that “there cannot be normalisation of relations between our two countries unless and until… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese The past weeks have seen India repeatedly caught flat-footed, with wrong responses by politicians and the media to national events merely vitiating the atmosphere when the need of the hour is national unity. The Hyderabad blasts are a tragic reminder of the mindless vocabulary of enemies within. The culprits, motives and mode of operation will be known… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese The hubbub over the recent cross-LOC firings appears to be subsiding following some deft handling by the Government of India in the face of an ill-considered clamour for immediate retaliation. There are two national versions of what triggered the action. There is substance in Delhi’s view that Pakistan once again resorted to covering fire to aid cross-border… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese Nostalgia represents a longing for both the near past, such as one’s childhood,and the more distant past with its wellsprings of cultural and spiritual heritage. This is not unnatural except when it tends to pre-empt the future or build on past images of glory or victimhood leading either to arrogance and chauvinism or self-doubt and a desire… Read more →
By B.G. Verghese The new President was eloquent and to the point in his Independence eve address to the nation. Public anger (at corruption or whatever), he said, “is legitimate but it cannot become an excuse for an assault on our democratic institutions… .when protest becomes endemic, we are flirting with chaos; legislation cannot be wrenched way from the legislature or… Read more →