S Dasgupta: A truth nobody will ever admit
The long campaign for a grand Ram temple on the site of the 16th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was, at a very basic level, an issue of faith.
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Columnists, Leading Writers and Columnists | The Times of India
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:37:16 GMTM J Akbar: Does justice matter after 17 years?
Democracy is a volatile game played in the open. What was there left to inquire into?
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Santosh Desai: Accelerating change: No easy way out
Change will not occur with the speed and thoroughness that is deemed ideal unless we accelerate the process through forceful and specific interventions.
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M J Akbar: Next time, the volcano
The Left emerged out of the chaos and violence that fractured Bengal; as it dissipates, will the vacuum be filled by violence? It is tempting to see the immediate future as a mirror image, with variations, of the 1960s....More
S A Aiyar: Killing me softly with your beedis
Why have finance ministers over the years not done this? Because the beedi is the poor man's smoke, and the beedi industry employs millions. Yet, these are horrifying, cruel reasons for tax concessions for proven killers.
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S Dasgupta: Why the twitter-bugs can't change Iran's regime
It is possible the angry young men and well-dressed women in Victoria Beckham sunglasses in Tehran - the only place where Mousavi outpolled Ahmadinejad - have different ideas.
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Vinita Nangia: When did you last really look?
God they say is in the detail and he who has mastered the art of focusing on the minutest details, has mastered the art of blocking out the unpleasant......More
MJ Akbar: The US advice on Kashmir is lunacy
There is nothing particularly new about the proposal of an interim balm for the wounds of Kashmir, demilitarization on both sides of the Line of Control. What is novel is the heavy Washington endorsement of this Pakistan-promoted option.
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Shobha De: Why Sheetal and Kalavati are women on top
Both ladies are media savvy — they have perfected their sound bites. Their lives are not all that dissimilar — they make headlines for the wrong reasons.
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SA Aiyar: An open letter to Kapil Sibal
Kapil Sibal, your new government is committed to affirmative action for the historically disadvantaged. This can be an excellent launching pad for school vouchers.
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S A Aiyar: India is now flooded with $1 billion per week
After six months of financial drought, global money is flooding into India at the rate of $1 billion a week. If sustained, this will be the mother of all financial stimuli, eclipsing the finance minister's budgetary endeavours.
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Swapan Dasgupta: Don't tar all of Australia as racist
The feeling of cultural superiority that coexisted with the exercise of power in the pre-World War II era has yielded place to a new moral relativism....More
M J Akbar: Some dangerous liaisons in July
India is ready to accept this reality. Pakistan might need persuasion. It has to be told that there is nothing to be
gained by the complications of discussion, and everything to achieve through clarity....More
Vinita Nangia: O-zone: Dear Betty
As Archie Andrews gears up to propose to Veronica Lodge, here is a heartfelt letter to Betty Cooper......More
Bobilli Vijay Kumar: Federer awaits tryst with destiny
Federer, probably nudged by his own providence, sensed his opportunity: he woke up from his sleepwalk and began playing like himself again; inside-out forehands, down the line backhands and tantalising, though desperate, drop-shots....More
What SRK should learn from Kalam
A celebrity is blessed with good fortune in many ways. A reporter, for instance, has to search for news. ...More
A truth nobody will ever admit
The long campaign for a grand Ram temple on the site of the 16th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was, at a very basic level, an issue of faith.
...More
Hellelujah, It's Straining Men
There seems to be no end to the self-flagellation of men. It is so persistent that that we may have to replace 'masochism' with 'manochism'....More
Slumdog Oscar-aire
It is about a slum kid who stumbles into the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Kaun Banega Crorepati) and manages to answer all questions to win the big prize.
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To kill a tree
The tree was young and strong and it took a long time to kill. It took two workmen with axes two days, including tea breaks.
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Time to improve relations between police & minorities
As the country copes with the aftermath of the horrors of Mumbai, the hard work of reconstruction, of rebuilding - of reimagining our country-has begun....More
Everybody loves bad boys and a bit of scandal
Showbiz is a strange destination. It’s a planet in itself. Those who occupy it, create their own rules. Hollywood is full of rapists, too. ...More
Jaswant pays price for telling the truth
For decades, Congress and BJP have jointly nurtured the myth that Britain teamed up with Jinnah to impose Partition on India, to institutionalise divide-and-rule even after leaving. ...More
Mukesh's Sacrifice
Corporate affairs minister Salman Khursheed created quite a stir recently when he warned companies to refrain from paying "vulgar salaries" or face the music. ...More
Return to Ayodhya
Ayodhya belongs to us all, like Ram. Having made the nation wait for 17 long years, the Liberhan Commission report hasn’t made even an iota of difference.
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Federer awaits tryst with destiny
Federer, probably nudged by his own providence, sensed his opportunity: he woke up from his sleepwalk and began playing like himself again; inside-out forehands, down the line backhands and tantalising, though desperate, drop-shots....More
O-zone: A moment of madness
What makes a person give up an entire life in a moment of unbridled passion? In the extremes between reasoned thought and heedless emotion, is there a twilight zone which can nudge you towards crime or creativity?...More
Accelerating change: No easy way out
Change will not occur with the speed and thoroughness that is deemed ideal unless we accelerate the process through forceful and specific interventions.
...More
rediff Columns
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:30:18 GMTNo end to this circus called Budget
For how many more years will the annual Budget circus continue in its current form? This is a question often asked at post-Budget seminars held across the country every year around this time....More
Why govt must NOT focus on slum-free India
In his recent Budget speech, the finance minister reiterated the government's plans to make India "slum-free" within five years. ...More
How safe are your dollars?
They may well be, but investments in euro-denominated bonds will give higher safe returns, says Martin Feldstein....More
Why the Oscars weren't worth waking up for
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards were, without question, the most badly written and weakly produced show in the last two decades, and quite likely one of the most drab shows of all time....More
Chinese media: Half a step towards openness?
Like everything else in China, its largely State-controlled media too is changing, and changing rapidly, writes Nitin Gokhale....More
Only miracle can save the women's bill now
There was shock within the non-Congress Members of Parliament to see how the government remained inactive within the Rajya Sabha when the Women's Reservation Bill was tabled on Monday....More
Tharoor is a victim of Hinglish?
But why is Tharoor so much an attraction for the uppish media and the conceited politicians? Here is someone, a new entrant to politics, made a minister despite being a first time MP, well-travelled, armed with a formidable curriculum vitae, techno-savvy and witty. Need any more reasons for good old envy?...More
Please give Mamata an air ticket to China
Mamata should travel to China to see how the Chinese railway system is expanding, says T N Ninan....More
A Gandhi in Egypt
Today, ElBaradei is emerging as the Gandhi of Egypt, advocating a civil disobedience movement to bring about change after 30 years of "stillness and subservience". His return to Cairo after acquiring respect domestically and internationally was, in some respects, like the return of Gandhiji from South Africa to his motherland. He has kindled hope for change, even if the odds are heavy...More
Why the vote on the women's bill is important
Political pundits, sociologists, political scientists, feminists and historians and almost everybody has said that if the bill becomes an act then it will be the biggest socio-political news since independence. This will have the impact bigger than the Mandal Commission that gave reservation to lower castes and it will go deeper than the Ayodhya movement that attempted to ignite Hindu identity cutting across caste barriers....More
The Hindu - Opinion
Wed, 10 Mar 2010Vision 2010: a dangerous myopia
minority and surviving as barely literate, malnourished multitude. minority and surviving as barely literate, malnourished multitude. minority and surviving as barely literate, malnourished multitude....More
Editorial and Opinion | The Times of India
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:37:56 GMTShifting Ground
Women's Bill will alter political equations at the Centre...More
All For One
Major parties should get together on security...More
Language Without Barriers
Knowledge of English is an aspirational ideal and a practical, enabling tool...More
You need to be ready for it
People often harbour flighty notions about married life. And they pay for it.
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The Losscar goes to....
You could title it ‘The Hurt Shocker’. That sums up what happened to the women’s Bill on Monday even as The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s unflinching film on
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Golden Rules
He who knows not and knows not he knows not,
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How to bond with the best
It does seem that pain and misery don’t fit in this beautiful earth. Then why is it that many of those who set out in life with a heart of gold, take up noble causes......MoreA Milestone Moment
Passage of women's reservation Bill will alter social reality
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In Poor Shape
New health mission could improve things...More
Busting Urban Legends
If India is so smart, then how come it is so rural?...More
'For tribals, development means exploitation'
B D Sharma is one of India's foremost experts on tribal issues. He has served as collector of undivided Bastar district in Chhattisgarh and commissioner for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and has campaigned extensively to protect the rights of tribals. Currently, the coordinator of Bharat Jan Andolan, a network of grass-roots organisations, Sharma said that current notions of development are at the root of the Maoist insurgency....More
Lenten Season
When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast....More
A latter day religion
Humans have a basic need to perceive themselves as part of a grand scheme, of a natural order that has a deeper significance and greater endurance than the petty affairs of daily life.
...MoreBlock And Tackle
Fourteen years after it was first tabled, the women's reservation Bill - which faces stiff opposition from regional outfits that depend on caste vote banks for political survival - looked set to be passed fairly easily in the Rajya Sabha yesterday when the BJP and the Left pledged support....More
Rape Ruckus
On the eve of International Women's Day, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan came up with a strange suggestion....More
rediff Top Interviews
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:30:25 GMT'We think IT spends will pick up this year'
Bangalore-based information technology services firm MindTree has set up an ambitious target of becoming a $1-billion (around Rs 4,600-crore) company over the next five years. ...More
'Our Indian operations are a great success story'
Andrew Witty, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world's second-largest drug company, was in India this week as part of the dedication of an albandazole manufacturing facility at Nashik to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s global programme to eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis. ...More
'No matter what, we will achieve Telangana'
M Agamani, the leader of the Osmania University Joint Action Committee, says that things on the campus are getting depressing, but that won't act as a deterrent to stop their fight for Telangana....More
'I now know that there is a God'
Indra Soundarrajan on penning the Tamil TV serial, Yamirukka Bayamaen....More
'The 3G money raised may be more than estimated'
There is scepticism in some quarters that the Budget for 2010-11, while spreading cheer, may be skating on thin ice. For instance, some of its assumptions will give way if the non-tax revenue projections turn out to be castles in the air....More
Revenue Secretary on the govt's challenges
By partially rolling back the stimulus that was provided through fiscal incentives in the excise duties and by retaining the service tax at 10 per cent, we are primarily signalling that we are going back to a unified goods and services tax, says Sunil Mitra....More
'The entire music industry is collapsing'
Canadian guitarist Michael Brooke talks about his music for Road, Movie....More
'Mukesh Ambani is one of the world's best CEOs'
Entrepreneurs are visionaries since they build what has not been built before, says Ram Charan....More
FM on how the govt plans to tackle inflation
Taking into account all the increases, inflation will be around 0.4 per cent in the wholesale price index, says Pranab Mukherjee....More
'The downturn is not yet completely behind us'
In fact, we expect the first half of 2010 to be at least as challenging as the first six months of 2009, says Kishor Patil, MD & CEO, KPIT Cummins Infosystems....More
'I have been cautious, not adventurous'
'This year was a very difficult time for me, or for any finance minister.'...More
'Unrecognised schools hardly have any teaching'
Unrecognised schools have been given three years to fix their infrastructure and five years for their teachers to get the necessary qualifications, says Kapil Sibal....More
'In India, you have to be a smart bowler'
Twenty-year-old South African pacer Wayne Parnell talks about his sudden rise, his experiences on his maiden tour to India and, of course, the IPL....More
'Don't want to be labelled Test or ODI specialist'
Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath says it wasn't easy to bat, let alone score runs, in his Test debut against South Africa earlier this month....More
'India has great campaigns, poor branding'
India indulges in the most sophisticated marketing campaigns but has poorest branding, says Shombit Sengupta, Founder, Shining Consulting....More