View Articles

New Delhi : The participants of 24th Know India Programme (KIP) from seven countries including South Africa, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago, Mauritius and Canada called on the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi here on Tuesday.

New Delhi: Conscious of the growing Chinese presence in the neighbourhood, India has planned to ensure timely implementation of measures envisaged under the second phase of Coastal Security Plan

So low has the United Progressive Alliance fallen under the impact of numerous corruption scandals that the more it tries to cover them up, the more it discredits itself by getting tangled in a spiral of manipulation and lying—and yet more scandals. Worse, it undermines institution after institution and inflicts lasting damage upon India’s embattled and poorly governed democracy.

All political lives, unless they are cut off in mid-stream at a happy juncture, end in failure, said the British Conservative Party leader, Enoch Powell. Manmohan Singh appears to be heading in this dismal direction although a caveat may be entered to ask whether he can be regarded as a true-blue politician at all. Essentially an academic, who reportedly impressed other presidents and prime ministers by speaking without notes on economic affairs, he was, as he admitted, an accidental prime minister.

Twenty weeks are too short a period to pass any judgement on the performance of a new government. But the period is enough for analysing emerging trends and quality of governance. The reference is to the functioning of Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government, which had taken over the reins of Himachal Pradesh on December 25, 2012.

BHOPAL: Several eyebrows were raised when the birthday of Uma Bharati was celebrated in a big way in Bhopal on May 4. In the course of the daylong celebration, she gave a clear impression that she had no intention of keeping away from Madhya Pradesh and its politics.

Surat : Lambasting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s tall claims of development, a noted Muslim cleric brought to focus that the minority community in the state were lagging behind in the development process and were unable to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Development is the catchphrase of modern times. No word has gained so much political currency as development in the last few decades. The popular media in India is abuzz with many kinds of development talk today. We constantly hear about Modi style of development with the tagline ‘maximum governance with minimum government,’ or Sonia-Rahul Gandhi style of development, which is said to be a welfare state model, or even the Nitish Kumar style of development, which some claim is an inclusive one. Media often relishes in pitching one kind of development against another as if no other form exists for the people of India.

The election results in Karnataka have demonstrated a definite trend — the days of hung house and unprincipled coalitions in the states, unlike in the Centre, are over. One may say that electorates in states show more maturity than when they vote in Lok Sabha election. In 2004, assembly and Lok Sabha elections were simultaneously held in Karnataka; the same voter, at the same instant, voted differently.

School textbooks are interesting things and the vision of the world they impart upon you can involve years of unlearning – in most instances, complete delearning is not possible at all. It is from such school textbooks we get our ideas of history – at least that is wherefrom I got mine. In that framing of the past via history, kings and their stories of building and losing kingdoms have centrestage.