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Undemocratic Team Anna vs. democratically elected Government. Will the Lokpal eradicate corruption?

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Corruption it seems has become a marketable commodity today. Media houses, so-called civil society, political parties, common man all seems to have been bit by the anti-corruption bug. So much so that even the corrupt are becoming anti-corruption crusaders. Let’s take the case of Lokpal or Jan Lokpal as Team Anna loves to call it (as it is their version of the Lokpal). Lokpal or ombudsman as it is called elsewhere is a grievance redressal mechanism for the citizens. The Wikipedia definition: An ombudsman is an official, usually appointed by the government or by parliament, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens. As is clear from the ombudsman legislations of different countries, an ombudsman is a trusted intermediary (mediator) between the organization (govt.) and the internal/external constituents (citizens in this case). In simple terms he is a government representative hearing & medi
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Future leaders in the sub-continent. Who will prevail? You decide.

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Future Leader: India AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi takes part in a “shramdaan” (voluntary labour) at Pinjra village in Baran district of Rajasthan. ( pic courtsey : The Hindu) Future Leader: Pakistan Bilawal Zardari, son of Benazir Bhutto & Asif Ali Zardari, completely drunk at a night club/pub in UK
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The dance of democracy, shoe-ing of politicians, Varun, Tytler, et.al.

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Today the world's largest democracy went into the largest administrative exercise in the world - The Indian General Elections. The first of the five phases covered 124 constituencies all over India. Braving the harsh sun & the extremists' gun 62% voters casted their franchise to elect the next rulers of India. Some where in the middle of it a news item broke which should have caught the headlines but never did, thanks to the friends of BJP which are quite a many in the media. Except for Vinod Dua on NDTV India, no one bothered to highlight the event. And the event was - a khadau (wooden slipper) was thrown at the so called "majboot neta". And to add insult to injury the person to throw it was a BJP partyworker. The same BJP that spared no platform when a shoe was hurled at PC & supported the action indirectly is now mum & sees a Congress hand. Poor BJP worker is now arrested. Why did the BJP who took such a "moral high ground" & showed so mu
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TATA nano - A billion dreams fulfilled.

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This could've come from the Tatas only. The world's cheapest car - cheap only for the price tag but rich in features & design - was launched by the Tatas on Monday, 23rd of March 2009. Tatas are one of the handful Indian businessmen who honour their commitments & take pride in putting the common indian first. The nano is not a dream fulfilled of Ratan Tata only, but also of a billion+ Indians. It instills a sense of pride in every Indian to have achieved a milestone in the automobile industry worldwide with our frugal engineering capabilities & out-of-the-box thinking. The world is awed with disbelief that such a feat has been achieved. Everyone thought it was impossible to built a $2500 or a one lakh rupee car. People said - It will be more of a golf-cart like thing with rexine covers & all. But see the wonder called ' nano '. Not only is it a fully built car but beautiful at that, exceeding all emission & safety standards. There are features that
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26/11 & Lahore – Attacks or rehearsals?

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Does the events in Mumbai on 26/11 & more recently in Lahore on Sri Lankan cricketers on 3rd March point to something big in the making. Is a bigger attack or maybe a series of them, pending somewhere in the world, especially the US? Many would laugh at my assumption or conspiracy theory (whatever you choose to call it) but many may agree. I am not being Zaid Hamid, living in a make believe world and having a hidden agenda to subscribe to nor Amaresh Mishra, that I'll even defy logic to support my stance. I think my sanity still prevails. And I am also not saying what I am stating is right. It is just an assumption. The reason I am making this assumption is because of a few reasons that may have gone unnoticed. There were no hostages taken at all by the attackers – none in Mumbai & none in Lahore, though they had a great opportunity to do so in both cases. Some may argue that they did took hostages in Chabad House/Nariman Bhawan & in Taj, Trident/Oberoi but in reality t
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Arjun MBT - will the controversy end?

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The issue about Arjun MBT is as old as the blogosphere itself. No defence blog is complete without the talk of the Arjun MBT (Main Battle Tank). I am also picking up the same old story but with a view to make fellow ordinary Indians stand up to the cause in any small way they can. It is not to gather any kind of support for Arjun, neither against it but to put things in their right perspective. But it sure is an effort to create more awareness and support for the indigenous development programmes. Fellow bloggers are aware of the controversy surrounding the Arjun MBT & for the newbies – Arjun MBT is portrayed as a failure by (a section of) the media, defence experts & even the Indian Army. The Pakistanis especially are very vocal about it. They leave no chance (they create one if they don’t get one) to tarnish the image of Arjun MBT. It all started in 1972 after the Indo-Pak war when the Indian govt. thought to have a tank of its own. The task was assigned to Defence Research a
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Pakistan – At its messiest best?

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As the events unfold after Sri Lankan players were attacked in Lahore yesterday it seems very likely that another blame game is ready to be played. Some sections of Pakistani media & the establishment have started blaming India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) for the attacks despite being uncanny similarity with 26/11. Though a few saner media houses have rubbished the charges & instead blamed the home-grown, ever increasing jehadi outfits. Let’s for once assume it as being done by RAW. This assumption makes RAW the agency that is in control of Pakistan & I’ll try to explain why. For nobody knew which route the players will take to the stadium except the security agencies & even that route was changed at the last moment. They even knew which one of the three buses the players were seated in. That means an insider must have leaked it or the RAW got the route changed according to its designs. There is also a police station within a few yards of where the incident h
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