..compromising national security, India’s defence preparedness, investigations into corruption in high places and probity in public life. This is a lazy post comprising a series of very disturbing excerpts from various articles. It picks up from this post that I published earlier this week. If you think I am over-doing this topic, it is because it deserves to be overdone. National security is something that is fundamental to any country. It cannot be compromised. If questions are being raised about the state of our defence preparedness, they cannot be brushed …

From Prof M D Nalapat’s blog (emphasis added):
*** Excerpts from Gen V K Singh uncovers Armsgate Scam by Prof Nalapat ***
Delhi is the nest of no fewer than six dozen international arms dealers, and they are the most desirable of friends to have in the national capital of what is effectively the world’s fourth-largest economy. Every week, each of them throws at least one if not more parties, at which liquor flows in the same profusion was water into bathtubs. The pot-bellied, ageing politicians and civil servants – now joined …

Many of you may have seen this photograph of Raju Narayan Swamy, IAS 1991 circulating on the internet with the title, “Every Indian Must Read and Share This. Pls Share”

The note accompanying the photograph mentions, among other things how…
After a decade of meritorious service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy is being forced out of the IAS profession.
Leaving aside the fact that it is practically impossible to force anyone out of IAS, let us continue with the note (emphasis added)..
…Mr. Narayanaswamy is on the verge of leaving IAS to go to Paris …

..and below the surface to understand the real causes of what you see around you.
As an example, see this recent news-report about pending RTI applications…
Staff shortage results in a pile of 19,000 pending RTI appeals in Maharashtra
Does this surprise you? Probably not.
Which is why I keep making the point that the real solution must be to focus on “Open Government” rather than another law or more babus…That is how things should be..We don’t need a law (RTI) and then additional bureaucracy (staff to deal with RTI applications). Far better to insist on openness, …

Quote of the Week from the HT:

I believe and I claim that you can count the number of corrupt leaders of the political class.

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi

From a recent news-report on Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Lucknow (whose title is interesting in itself: गलती थी मोदी की तारीफ,आन्दोलन सांप्रदायिक हुआ तो अलग हो जाऊंगा’  - Modi’s praise was a mistake, will leave if movement becomes communal), a few excerpts & quotes that might set you thinking:
केजरीवाल ने बताया कि जब भी कोर कमेटी का विस्तार होगा, उसमें दलित व मुसलमान को भी शामिल किया जाएगा। बैठक में तय हुआ कि अब पोस्टर हिंदी के साथ उर्दू में भी छपेंगे।  [
[loose translation] Kejriwal said that whenever the core committee is expanded, …

Here is the set of slides that formed the backdrop of my talk on Politics, Governance and Entrepreneurship at IIM Indore last month…
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Politics, Governance & Enterpreneurship
View more presentations from B Shantanu

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The complete video of the talk is here.

Dear All: I finally managed to upload the video of my talk and Q&A at IIM-Indore on 1st Sept ’11…Here is the entire playlist (also below):

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These are my favourites of the lot:

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Interestingly, in an Op-Ed for Pioneer written a few days later, Shashi Shekhar made a point very similar to the one I mentioned in the Open Government, Information and RTI clip (emphasis added):
Hard questions need to be asked on why the focus of the RTI Act was not on creating an open Government where information was freely available, thus …

In the concluding lines of “India needs reforms not a super babu“, Kanchan Gupta writes:
Anna Hazare is right…
India does need a second freedom movement, but not to recreate the Inspector Raj of our socialist past.
We need a second freedom movement to secure economic freedom and freedom from a system that intrudes into every aspect of our lives.
That’s how democracies have dealt with the menace of corruption elsewhere in the world.
Tavleen Singh made a similar point a few weeks back:
Corruption has eaten into India’s soul and its future. It must be …

Dear All: Please join me and my fellow panelists for this online discussion tomorrow night at 9pm IST. You can view the discussion and join by clicking the window below…
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After Lokpal, what?
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