The day of coronation appears to be coming closer…The machinery seems to be working full-time to establish the dynasty in the “hearts and minds” of the people of India.
First you had the “celebrations” around the Prince’s coming of age. Last week we witnessed the pleasing face of the late patriarch beaming from hoardings, posters and advertisements in newspapers…Today, I was alerted to this painstakingly compiled photo album, courtesy NDTV that talks of (emphasis added):
“Priyanka’s aura…that definitely cannot be ignored

Wait there is more…
Her poise and elegance coupled with her settled attitude, …

Here is what I read this weekend….
First, a strong case by Prof R Vaidyanathan on why our “kirana” stores need to be supported (emphasis added):
…More than 125 lakh kirana stores provide a source of livelihood to 16 crore people…The retail trade comprises all kinds of people and formats — from street vendors to departmental stores of various types, shapes and characteristics.
More than 80% of trade is accounted for by partnership and proprietorship forms — often called the unorganised sector. The kirana shop adjacent to my home opens at 7am …

There is a new kid on the block. (S)he is called “Hindutva Terror” (aka “Hindu Terror”).  Chances are you have heard the word before; Chances are you have got annoyed, perhaps just a little bit angry and moved on. Chances are you have never paused to think who – and what – is this “Hindutva Terror”? Until a few days ago, I was in the group of people who – when they heard the word – would get a little annoyed, perhaps a little angry and then move on.
हिंदी अनुवाद …

Thanks to Sanjeev for alerting me to this article. From UN convention misunderstood, and it’s not working by Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor of  The Australian comes this startling excerpt – offered without comment (emphasis mine):
Here is where the unintended consequences and perverse incentives come in. The best book on these issues ever written is Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West. With a mountain of irrefutable data, Caldwell establishes beyond doubt that the vast Muslim immigration to Europe in recent years is simply a …

Please share your thoughts on the Bandh AND what would have been your preferred strategy of protest and channelising public discontent.

<br /> <a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3432260/” mce_href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3432260/”>Was “Bharat Bandh” good for India?</a><span style=”font-size:9px;” mce_style=”font-size:9px;”><a href=”http://polldaddy.com/features-surveys/” mce_href=”http://polldaddy.com/features-surveys/”>customer surveys</a></span><br />
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And what would have been your…

<br /> <a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3432315/” mce_href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3432315/”>Preferred strategy of “protest” and channelising public discontent</a><span style=”font-size:9px;” mce_style=”font-size:9px;”><a href=”http://polldaddy.com/features-surveys/” mce_href=”http://polldaddy.com/features-surveys/”>online surveys</a></span><br />
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Comment and thoughts welcome.

Other Polls on || Satyameva Jayate ||
Should there be certain “selection criteria” for MPs?

What’s stopping you from joining active politics?

What should be India’s top developmental priority?
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2009/01/18/selection-criteria-for-mps/

Courtesy NY Times, I learnt today that a certain “militant group”
..has expanded its operations in Afghanistan, inflicting casualties on Afghans and Indians alike, setting up training camps, and adding new volatility to relations between India  and Pakistan
Curious to know who this “militant group” is?

It goes by the name of Lashkar-e-Taiba and inconveniently happens to be a designated foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department.
Of course the State Department cannot control NY Times’ use of words…but I wonder…when we cannot even name the enemy, what hope is there to win …

Start your weekend with these excerpts from a conversation between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and an IAS probationer, Shri Yuvaraj Karan in 1950, reproduced from the print edition of the monthly magazine “Secularism Combat” (thanks Jiggs).
…Shri Yuvaraj Karan, a former IAS Officer, who is also one of the escapees from Pakistan has written a book “Understanding Partition” published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. When he was at the IAS training institute in Dehradun, in the first batch IAS trainees, Jawaharlal Nehru was invited to address them. At the end of Shri …

As Manipur tries to sleep through the *60th night* of blockade…

…girls paint their bodies with World Cup slogans in far-away Moradabad…

…the top two “Most Read” news-items on Timesof India’s website are “Bride turns out to be a boy” and “Big B Wishes speedy recovery to SRK” (which reminds me, can we please request SrBachchan to put Manipur on the national agenda through his blogs/ tweets?)

…the top 2 “Most Shared” news item are “Five foods every woman must eat” and “Bride turns out to be a boy”…(can you please share …

From Buddhists allege NSCN-IM threat (emphasis added):
…“The people in Wangnong and nearby villages (in Arunachal Pradesh) have been passing sleepless nights. They are all Buddhists. An armed militant group belonging to the NSCN(IM) has ordered them to convert to Christianity,” said Ven Aggadhamma, the highest religious leader of the Buddhists in Changlang and Tirap districts.Aggadhamma said that on May 13, a group of armed men came to the village, gathered the village head and other senior members of the village and ordered them to embrace Christianity. “These persons came to …

An alert reader sent me this photograph of a poster put up at the Saharanpur rally (29th March) of Varun Gandhi – his first foray into UP post the elections (Thanks VS).

The slogan at the top – roughly translated – reads (emphasis added):
He is not Varun (Deity of the Sky and the Oceans) but “Aandhi” (Storm);
He is “Doosra” (i.e. second or another) Sanjay Gandhi.
I guess the BJP’s strategists need to be a bit more careful..
And for the reading pleasure of ~50% of Indians who were perhaps not even born …

Dear All: I came across these four links in the last 30 hours – and they made my weekend (not). Together, they read like a sad – very sad – commentary on the state of affairs. You either have to be totally lacking in integrity to be blind to this level of circumstantial evidence – or completely compromised (yourself) and hence unable to do anything about it.
I will leave you to guess on which side Hon PM, Sh MMS falls. Read on. The first excerpt from More murky twists to …

Last month, Hon Sh Chidambaram speaking about the national census called it the “biggest exercise since humankind came into existence“.
As many of you may know already, the enumerators working on the census are aided in their task by a “Census Manual”.  Below are instructions related to Item no. 11 related to “Nationality” (Pg 25) of the Instruction Manual for filling up of the NPR Household Schedule in the Census:
Nationality for each of the enumerated person has to be asked from the respondent and recorded.
Please record the nationality of the …

This is what I’m reading as I find myself stuck in a travel black hole…
1. R Jagannathan on why “Manmohan Singh is the dynasty’s fall guy” (emphasis mine)…
Both the prime minister and the home minister have minced no words in calling a spade a spade. While Manmohan Singh has called the Maoists the biggest security threat to the country, P Chidambaram has promised tough action to deal with it. But here’s the point: months after launching Operation Green Hunt, it is not clear who’s hunting whom. The Maoists have been …

I was alerted to this by E E* (name protected on request). Please click on the image below.
Notice anything odd?

Questions for all of you:

How does a supposedly “secular” state reconcile this contradiction?
Does this not give an unfair advantage to Christians?
What happens in case a different date of birth is recorded in the municipal/high school records from the one in the Baptism Certificate?

Comments and thoughts welcome.
If any of you have seen any similar ad(s), please do bring to my attention.
I am also writing to Sh Devdas Uchil, AGM(HR-O), Mazagon Dock Ltd. …

*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
Most of you reading this may not have visited Bareilly. And if you are not a particularly avid follower of twitter or any of the “newfangled-tech-stuff”, you may be wondering why on earth am I talking about Bareilly on a lazy weekend morning.  I don’t blame you – especially if you rely primarily on the English mainstream media for your dose of news.
Bareilly is a small city in Uttar Pradesh in a region called Rohilkhand. It is one of the hundreds of sleepy cities in “Bharat”. …

…so am I.

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Images courtesy: The Hindu, ET, ToI, IE
Related Post: Explaining AfPak to a 14-year old

This post was triggered by two unrelated links I read last weekend.  The first: Is Sonia Above Questioning? by Sh Rajinder Puri from which this brief excerpt:
…The BJP has taken up the secret Indian Swiss bank money issue. Does it seriously contemplate recovering the money? Or is it just a poll gimmick?
…Are they political opportunists? Do they or don’t they really intend to deliver results on the Swiss money? If the BJP is serious about fighting corruption there is no dearth of issues. Take one glaring example.
On August 15, 2006 …

A brief & hurried dissection of  Exposing Indian democracy – the Op-Ed in today’s The New Indian Express. Comments and thoughts welcome, as always…

It has now become abundantly clear that Qatar has offered M F Husain citizenship, though it is not entirely clear yet whether one of India’s greatest artists has accepted the offer yet.
What is abundantly clear is that Sh Husain does not have to accept it. It has been offered not forced on him.
If he does, he will have to renounce Indian citizenship. And that, as members of …

Some thought-provoking excerpts from The Human-Rights Facade Is Beginning to Crumble by Noah Pollak (Hat Tip: Kaushal):
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…The UK Times was impelled, finally, to give some space to the fact that Amnesty, one of the two largest human-rights groups* (the other being Human Rights Watch) has been promoting Begg, a former Gitmo detainee and booster of terrorists and radicals. What finally attracted press attention to this outrageous state of affairs was the appearance of a whistleblower from within the ranks of Amnesty.

Meet Gita Sahgal, the head of Amnesty’s …

2 snapshots from the “Aman ki Asha” Facebook Page presented below without comments…

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Snapshots taken at around 1030pm IST.
Comments and thoughts welcome.
Image logo: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/amankiasha.cms