Uttar Pradesh remains India’s most populous state anda politically important one, even though its stature stands diminished sinceUttarakhand was carved out of the northern state. It still is home to a sixthof India’s population and occupies about 15% of the seats in Parliament,giving it an elevated political importance. Still, it is no longer a bellwether state, as many considerit to be, and no proxy for the voice of the nation.
A two-year-old girl battling for life in a New Delhi hospital has put the media spotlight on a sordid tale of child abuse and prostitution in the world’s biggest democracy. Three weeks ago, a toddler with severe injuries was brought to the hospital by a teenager claiming to be her mother. The child, later named Falak (sky) by nurses, was in critical condition, with human bite marks on her body.
Dear Mitt Romney, Congratulations on Florida. Now that you are again the front-runner, and your campaign focus is returning to President Obama, I’d like to call attention to a line you have used repeatedly: “This is a president who fundamentally believes that this next century is the post-American century.
On Sept. 1, 2011, the students of New Heights Middle School in Jefferson, South Carolina trooped into the gymnasium to hear the Christian rapper known as “B-SCHOC” tell them that Jesus alone could save them. They cheered as a pastor named Christian Chapman vied to win their souls for Christ. At the end of the show, they were asked to fill in a form indicating whether they had accepted Jesus as their savior.
This blog, it might be worth reminding, closely monitors India’s steps and mis-steps as it strides on the global stage. On that count, it couldn’t have embarrassed itself more when it played a cheap trick to keep one of its finest authors since Independence, Salman Rushdie , from attending the Jaipur Literary Festival.
Cricket is a funny game. In November, Australia plumbed new lows in the game, beingbundled out for 47, its fourth lowest total ever. In December, it was beaten onhome ground by New Zealand for the first time in 26 years. MichaelClarke’s men faced the nation’s wrath. On the other hand, India was ranked the best Test team inthe world a little over six months ago, besides being the winner of the WorldCup.
What will be the nation’s agenda this year? Political and electoral drama, probably even a mid-term election?Long-delayed economic reforms and a renewed attention on growth? Or just arerun of the Lokpal debates that dominated 2011 without yielding the desiredresult? If their response to Team Anna’s third round of protest in Mumbaiis anything to go by, the people have spoken.
We are damned if we pass this Lokpal Bill and damned if wedon’t pass any Lokpal Bill. That seems to be the predicament facing not just theCongress Party and the Parliament, but also the nation at large. Given themanner in which political forces and Team Anna coalesced in the run-up to thedraft bill, it was predictable. Team Anna, expectedly, cries foul.
It is said that each Mumbai resident passes through the city’s iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus at least once. On Sunday, the railway station was the setting for 200 Mumbaikars to do something out of the ordinary. Thanks to Shonan Kothari, 200 people got together and danced in the middle of the crowded station, three years and a day after the November 26 attacks at the same place.
Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs banker who coined the term BRICs to capture the fast-growing emerging-markets quartet of Brazil, Russia, India and China, has fingered India as the BRIC that has disappointed the most over the past decade in terms of reforms, FDI and productivity. New Delhi’s latest decision to put on hold a landmark reform of its retail sector will only confirm this view.
In just 24 hours, in the Facebook alumni group of St Stephen's College, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal's ratings crashed faster than that of US President Barack Obama or what former telecom minister A. Raja, now in judicial custody over second generation (2G) spectrum case, ever had.
