Random notes

“Has your wife stopped beating you?” Many henpecked husbands, troubled by their own nagging spouses, in an attempt to achieve a sense of come-uppance with their co-victims use this phrase especially as the respondent is unable to answer it. A ‘yes’ would mean acceptance of the humiliation in the past and a ‘no’ would mean its continuation in future.* “Is Congress anti Hindu?” is a similar question. A ‘yes’ would mean a confirmation that Congress’ practice of competitive communalism projected as secularism is actually Anti Hindu whereas a ‘No’ while giving some solace for the present would mean an internal acceptance that a party is trying to project an image with the populace based on latter’s religious identities. The answer though would be a 'yes' from many cadres, most supporters as well as all detractors. If it wasn't, the questions would not be needed to be asked. But the pertinent point here is not about the answer but the adequacy & relevance of...

It is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cadre which seems to have delivered the deadliest blow to the ambitions of Arvind Kejriwal, by creating and hyping the imagery of the Mufflerman! Just look at the situation that prevailed when LG took a decision to dissolve the assembly. Kejriwal was picking up the pieces after the disastrous performance in parliamentary elections and subsequent flip flops between demanding elections and asking Congress to support an AAP government when re-elections became a certainty. He was believed to be an honest politician who did not get the opportunity (Even a Raja could not have done anything in 49 days), an opportunist who would not hesitate in taking support from the people he has fought earlier, an ambulance chaser who would not hesitate in eulogizing the terrorists and defaming a police officer if he could get few more votes, an unprincipled one who would change his enemy from corruption to communalism just because it was convenient to do so a...

A riot happens in Delhi, the capital of India. It happens on the day of Diwali, the festival of lights.  Now, riots in India can start due to any reason, a property dispute, misbehavior with women, a perceived desecration of place of worship or even a dispute on the volume of loudspeakers. Nevertheless, as usually happens in case of riots in India, police takes some time to control it but finally some people, some of them rowdy and some innocents are put behind bar and riot is  controlled.  So far, so good. Media does not cover it. MSM behaves as if the riot never happened. There is no tyranny of distance or any instructions by administration not to enter the area. Probably, MSM feels that since the riot happened on Diwali, it is easy to identify ‘the’ community responsible and that may not be the politically correct thing to do, as usual. But two days later, without any declared schedule, Election Commission announces dates for by-poll in Del...

So, P. Chidambaram thinks that Indian National Congress might elect / appoint a non Gandhi as President. This piece is an attempt to analyze the possibility of such an occurrence. In the prevailing political situation, average Congress worker does not believe that Rahul Gandhi can lead the party out of its current morass. Forget about a victory at hustings, the worker on the street has lost faith in his ability to lead a spirited campaign which the opponents will take seriously. They squirm at the way opposition simply laughs off his attempts to deliver a game changing speech and are also tired of waiting for their prince charming to come back from his frequent absences (rumored to be vacations, possibly abroad) to take out some time to attend to the political issues. Next rung leaders are behaving like zombies, ambling around without purpose or direction. They Life is tough, Mom. don’t know whom to blame for the loss in parliamentary elections, whom to give credit for t...

With due apologies to H.G.Wells, I used his time machine to go 10 years in the future and being the ultimate armchair analyst, went to the virtual world first. I came across and interesting investigative report on a worrying situation in politics. The report is reproduced here. Since I am publishing it in their past, there are no troubling copyright issues. Incidentally, the author name is same as mine.   Politics faces Brain-drain New Delhi, 28 th Feb 2024 A surprising trend has been noticed in the political circles; the political parties are not finding enough candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Confirming this trend, our source in a national party said, “It is quite surprising, in fact shocking. Till last elections we used to have thousands of hopefuls standing in a queue for the party ticket to parliamentary elections. They would use all means possible, ethical or unethical, legal or illegal, democratic or fascist to impress, bribe, threaten ...

Sheikh Chilly needed to go to his in laws place to bring his wife home, as per custom of those times. Sheikh Chilly had to go to his in laws place and he did not have a good pajama. He still had the Sherwani his in-laws had given him for the wedding but not a good, usable pajama to go with it. A friend came to the rescue and offered his pajama with a condition. He (the friend) would also accompany Sheikh Chilly to his in-laws.  Sheikh Chilly, being the simpleton like the Indian voter, gratefully accepted the offer. The pajama that the friend produced was very old, stained, tattered and almost at end of its useful life. It did not even fit him properly. It was definitely much worse than Sheikh Chilly’s own which he had not used for a long time but Sheikh, bound by his own word and the code of ‘takalluf’, accepted it without much complaint. The journey began and after a short distance, they came across a caravan travelling from the opposite direction. The travelers of th...

Most of us would have heard or read this story before but its relevance to the current situation makes a retelling necessary. A sword smith came to the King’s durbar (any King, let’s be secular) and declared that he had the world’s best sword. It was so good & sharp that it could pierce any shield, repeat any shield in the world.  The claim was tested on the few shields available and when found to be true, the King became happy, and as usually happens in such stories, gave a lot of gold and other jewels to the smith and sent him off. A year or two later, the smith came to the King’s court again, this time brandishing a shield which, he claimed, no sword in the world could pierce. The people were simple in those days and he was believed.  The King was about to be relieved of some more gold and gems but then, one smart Ram Singh remembered the sword that the smith had sold earlier. He got up and reminded the king of the impossibility of both claims being true and a...

This is a rejoinder to “ I ask therefore I am Hindu ” by Sagarika Ghose. In any comment on an article which deals with both faith and politics (of education), the chances of the discourse being adorned with adjectives like malicious, hateful, divisive, etc., are very high. Hence it is better to start with a story to lighten up, to dilute the bitterness which is likely to develop during the discussion. The question was simple. If ‘A’ is equal to 2 and ‘B’ is also equal to 2, what would ‘A+B’ be equal to?  Four people, a teacher, an accountant, an economist and one MSM anchor were invited to answer it. The teacher came and responded ‘4’, promptly & unequivocally. The accountant came, fiddled with his instruments, created a spreadsheet, referred to some books and finally decided that ‘4 ± 10% would be a safe answer, for the time being. The economist (No, not MMS) came, shut the door and closed the blinds, switched off the reading lamp and whispered in the que...