TRICKY POLITRICKS

A neighbour that we all despise. A country that was called ‘Global Migraine’ Madeline Albright, former US secretary of state. She was quoted as “My own sense is Pakistan has everything that gives you an international migraine. It has nuclear weapons, it has terrorism, extremists, corruption, very poor and it is in a location that is really, really important to us.”   It will not be wrong to say that a similar state also exists in India as well, just remove the terrorism characteristic, rather replace it with gangs and crime. A state that is not less than a migraine, but holds humongous importance for India. A huge landmass that is as large as Pakistan in terms of population but is approx one-third of it in area. Unfortunately, has GDP even lower than that of our neighbour’s. A state that is nothing but a bummer to India’s growth. While most of the states in India are showing trends of a shrinking population, this state is growing at a whopping rate of approx 2.7%. Appalling, this ...

For a change, we will be shifting from our usual theme of Indian politics while focusing on some international stuff. A few days from now is Thanksgiving, one of the biggest festivals celebrated in America. Today celebrated as the onset of harvest season, this festival has a story to it. A story that had a happy beginning but unfortunately ended with genocide of the people responsible for this festival of joy and, as its name suggests, gratitude.  The story begins in 1513 with the arrival of Juan ponce de Leon, the first European to reach North America, in present-day Florida. He was a Spanish explorer and the governor of Puerto Rico. After his first warm visit, Juan made another voyage in 1521 to the newly discovered continent with lots of lands. Unlike the first visit, Juan kept Europeanism with him for the second time and tried setting up a colony, which was not received very well by the natives. He was hit by an arrow and later succumbed to his injuries.  Juan Ponce de Leo...

Every year in winters Delhi and its surrounding areas gets engulfed in a smoke blanket. Disappointing is the fact that this blanket does not keep the poor from dying on roads but adds to the list of those prone to cancer and asthma. It is largely believed that crackers constitute a big chunk of the PM 2.5 suspended in the environment, the facts tell a different story. The sale of crackers in the last three years has gone down by almost 50 per cent.  To the disappointment of religious fanatics, this by no means indicates that crackers do us any good. But this is a message for the intellectuals that everyone is focusing on trivial issues and ignoring the elephant in the room. Courtesy: Bar and Bench The fact that pollution levels are rising every year despite a decrease in sales of crackers forces us to introspect. Also, it underlines that a fine or imprisonment for stubble burning and last moment interventions by the honourable Supreme Court are not helping the cause.  Imposing...

For the last few months newsrooms have been abuzz with speculations of a rising third front, comprising of non-BJP and non-INC parties, to take on the BJP. This is not the first time that such an attempt has been made, no it will be the last. But the question is whether it is rational to think of a third front in India? These talks have gained momentum after the Congress wipe out in Bengal assembly elections and a defiance of the usual pattern in Kerala. This time, it is the National Congress Party president Sharad Pawar and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who are putting wind in the sails of this boat.  West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has been travelling lately to states where the MTC presence has been negligible. Her visits to various states and attempts to fill the void created by Congress, by and large, have been successful on some front. Former Goa CM and veteran Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro joined TMC and after the fiasco in Punjab there have been speculations that A...