There is no question, in many ways, the Indian politician is coming ever closer to the archetype American one. The fact that Manmohan Singh had to write to his entire council of ministers telling them how to behave and what to do is a sign of the times to come. The fact is that this time round, most of them will have to listen since the mandate ( Read more... )

The Republic of India finally has a Government in place  but not one of surprises. One would  have expected a cleansing of sorts but that has not  happened. Nor has competence been  rewarded adequately. Which should have, given the  mandate that the Congress Party  received during the elections. But this is perhaps  where Indian frailty rests. I ( Read more... )

Singh is King was a blockbuster Bollywood film of 2008. Very few ever dreamt it would haunt us, in a very welcoming way, in 2009 and that too post a general election.

Never has an Indian election been so bitter, so debased and deprived of real issues. Never was an election fought sans issues. Never was a general election in India witness to ( Read more... )

Much has been said and written about the shoe that was thrown by a Sikh journalist at P Chidambaram, India’s Home Minister when he refused to address the concerns raised about the Congress Party nominating Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Delhi: where in 1984, these two gents were alleged to have ( Read more... )

The Indian election scenario has always been predictable. And despite the any changes that one sees with regard to the rise and rise of regional parties, some of the fundamentals never seem to change. There has been enormous brouhaha over the manner in which some candidates have been handing out cash in blatant violation of the election conduct ( Read more... )

For a country that often uses democracy as a crutch to justify the anarchy and the underbelly of politics, India has not come a far way as far as the intrinsic nature of  its politics is concerned. We still revere dynasties in one form or the other; if it is the young politician you are looking at, then many are in politics only because of who ( Read more... )

When the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is launched at the venerable Parsi Gymkhana Grounds in Bombay, by Ratan Tata on Monday, March 23, it will not just be the launch of a car. Instead it will be the launch of a million possibilities. Indian possibilities. Indian engineering; Indian ingenuity and finally, a vehicle for Indian aspirations. And ( Read more... )

It would ideally be logical to assume that a country of India’s size and economic inequalities, development and social upliftment would be the ideal planks for winning an election, but sadly, things have not changed very much and hate is still widely believed to be a huge driver of votes. Or at least of media attention, which is why, it was not ( Read more... )

Many people ask me if the BJP will ever come back to power at the Centre and my answer is just like we never imagined the Congress would, the reverse would be equally true. But the fact of the matter is that never has a national party been so ill prepared after so much preparation. Never has a Prime Ministerial candidate (announced aeons ago) ( Read more... )

For all those who think this is going to be titillating, think again. I am not discussing Bollywood or for that matter the famous shenanigans of some famous Indians caught on tape in compromising positions with some Miss India from Canada: this is a simple treatise on the on-going bed-swapping amongst political parties and the repercussions this ( Read more... )