A Prime Minister who deliberately turned a blind eye to the loot of national wealth. A Finance Minister – supposed to the guardian of national wealth – who did not deem fit to initiate action even when the plunder was obvious. A leadership so enamoured of power that it was ready to justify anything under the garb of “Coalition Dharma”…As scandal after scandal tumbles into the public eye, let us not delude ourselves.
Let us not delude ourselves that the present state of affairs is a failure of UPA…Let us not delude ourselves …

Did you know that the term “Secularism” – forced into the Preamble of the Constitution by Indira Gandhi during the dark days of Emergency – has not been defined in the Constitution?
The reason?
…presumably because it is a very elastic term not capable of a precise definition and perhaps best left undefined.

These are the words of Justice P Sathasivan quoted in a recent HT news-report. Lack of definition does not prevent anyone from “interpreting” what it means…and so we have Justice Sathasivan saying:
…in Indian context secularism meant “Sarva Dharma Sambhav” …

Stumbled this morning on these extracts from some IB reports and some conversations (in italics) & notes (in blockquotes) from the secret diary of a political leader (shall remain nameless)…and *no*, this is not meant to be funny.
***
IB Reports (sometime, Dec 2010): “Corruption” threatening to become a big issue; Public perceives government as weak, indecisive and thoroughly compromised; Party’s credibility at an all-time low. Baba Ramdev’s rallies are drawing large crowds – even in non-Hindi speaking states. “Anti-corruption” sentiment catching steam…
This Baba..does he travel with a translator? Are the speeches …

1 Day Leadership Workshop for Political Activists

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this guest post by Sh Ashok Chowgule re. some aspects of the Jan LokPal Bill. This post was prompted by – and is in response to – a recent article in The Hindu, titled, Jan Lokpal bill: addressing concerns by Sh Prashant Bhushan. Shri Chowgule has raised some valid points re. specific clauses of the Bill which I believe are worthy of further discussion and debate. Pl read on..
*** Jan LokPal Bill: Guest Post by Sh Ashok Chowgule ***
At two separate places, Shanti …

Courtesy Bhaskar Chatterjee, I stumbled on this “map” on a section of the the ToI website:

Might this be a strawman / trial balloon to see how a solution that makes the LoC as a permanent border is received by the public? or am I reading too much into this?
I remember the days when such a map in an Indian publication would have led to copies of the magazine/newspaper being confiscated and/or banned and the offending map censored. I also remember one of the first “official” letters I wrote in the IFS, …