Dear Friends, I will be on an intense work and travel schedule for the next several weeks. Blog posts are likely to be few and far between during this period. I expect to be more active on facebook and twitter though. Do join the ||Satyameva Jayate|| page on facebook if you have not already done so.

Your comments are likely to take a while to appear if they are in the moderation queue. I am unlikely to have time to respond to any of them. Below are a few subscription options if you still prefer …

Dear Friends, continuing my series of interviews with inspiring people around us who are fighting hard to make a change, below is a short (edited) interview with Shanthala Damle, LokSatta candidate for Basavanagudi Legislative Assembly constituency in Bengaluru..
Pl do read – and more importantly, share with ALL your relatives, friends and acquaintances in Bengaluru..Shanthala and all of us need all the help we can get. More about her Shanthala here. You can also follow her on Twitter and on facebook.
*** Interview Begins (edited for brevity) ***
Q. What is your stance towards …

Dear All: This post is being written with the explicit purpose of clarifying a few misconceptions and misunderstandings about FTI, about some of my FTI colleagues, their utterances, my views and such.
I am purposely making this a matter of public record. Hopefully this will go some way in helping my colleagues, potential FTI members, our potential allies and fellow political activists/organisations understand where we stand on certain matters & statements that may cause confusion and/or misunderstanding (and potentially even ill-will). It should also help in clarifying the differences in stance …

Dear Friends, below is a horrifying and truly gut-wrenching 3-minute video that will shock you to the core. I was alerted to this courtesy, Radha Rajan-ji of VigilOnline. It comes from a slaughter house in Kerala (to be verified). As Radha-ji mentioned in her email (emphasis added), there is a good chance
…most of you will not watch it because our stomach turns in guilt, shame and intense pain because our inaction, our silence is also complicity in the crime.
This is not an ethical way to treat animals leave alone ethical …

Like most of my FTI colleagues, I have been reading news of arrest of Loknath Bharti (brother of Somnath Bharti, FTI member and friend) with mixed feelings of shock and horror..  Somnath is hardly a “Lightweight”. Besides being a successful lawyer, he is the current president of the IIT Delhi Alumni Association and legal advisor to Aam Aadmi Party. He is also fighting several legal cases involving corruption, loot and misdeeds of the current regime, including a case against the Delhi Police “…in Constable Subhash Singh Tomar’s death saying they have …

Shubh 2013 to all. 
May the year bring you & your loved ones peace, joy, happiness & prosperity. 
Stay safe, stay healthy. 
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

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Dear All: Tomorrow I embark on Tirth 12 (12/12/12!). a trip I am really looking forward to. I have consciously decided to stay “offline” during the next 3 weeks and will not have my laptop with me. It is very unlikely that I will blog during this period. I hope to get some writing done but the posts will have to wait until I get back!
Note that I will not be able to reply to or moderate comments during this time…

In the meantime, track me via my tweets below
..or just follow me …

 
Please Note: This Poll is now closed.
Related Post:  What’s stopping you from joining active politics?
See an interesting comparison of responses between 2008 and 2012 below:
2012 

 2008

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Further Update: Some interesting “Comments” which were part of “Other” reasons:
 

Introvert but willing to do background and research jobs
I have to learn a lot before I start doing things for others.
Political parties dont display drafts-the’l bring,if elected. So unreliable .
stage fear
Too much uncertainity thanks to lack of clarity across board
Don’t know where to start.
Lack of a level playing field (FPTP system is insanely harsh on …

तीर्थ १२ – एक यात्रा
Dear Friends, this post was written in Hindi. It felt more natural. A rough English translation follows below.
प्रिय मित्रों, आप में से कई पाठकों ने मेरे राजनैतिक गतिविधियां व उससे सम्बन्धित प्रवासों के बारे में मेरे ब्लॉग पर लेख पढ़े होंगे | परन्तु आज जिस प्रवास के बारें में मैं बताने जा रहा हूँ, वह अत्यन्त विशिष्ट है – और मैं बहुत अरसे से इसके बारे में सोचता रहा हूँ |  अर्धांगिनी के सौजन्य से – व ईश्वर कृपा से यह इच्छा कुछ ही दिनों …

“A rope is threaded through their nose to keep the animals together…
Sometimes the frightened cattle tug against one another and the rope rips their nose apart…
The animals are beaten mercilessly with sticks…
The cattle are forced to walk sometimes for days…and are not given food or water
It is no wonder many of them collapse.
But instead of receiving help, the animals who fall actually have chilli peppers and tobacco rubbed into their eyes and have bones in their tails repeatedly broken in an effort to get them on their feet.”
After this, I could not …