The Rajasthan Congress took one day to expel Manchand Khandela, vice president of its Intellectual Cell, after his 250-page polemic against the ‘dynasty’ made it the laughing stock of Indian politics. Although Mr. Khandela didn’t tell us anything new, he did shine the spotlight on two unsavoury aspects of Gandhi … Read More
A quiet revolution brewing in arid Rajasthan may well be the blooming of the desert through sustainable techniques of water management along the rediscovered Sarasvati riverbed. Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ms. Vasundhara Raje, who led the BJP to a spectacular 120-seat victory two years ago, and then went on to astound … Read More
Having never been a sports-watcher, I just didn’t notice that Sania Mirza was playing in skimpy skirts rather than shorts until the bellicose Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind issued dire warnings about her ‘un-Islamic’ attire. Avid secularists promptly pleaded that the tennis star be allowed to live like a ‘normal’ 18-year-old and Kolkata Police … Read More
Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Government has done well to recognize aggressive evangelical activities by missionaries as the primary cause behind communal unrest in the country, particularly in sensitive states like Gujarat and Rajasthan. Despite opposition from prominent Christian activists, the UPA Government pressed ahead with the agenda paper for the recent … Read More
A friend recently offered a profound insight, viz., the Rand Corporation headquarters at Santa Monica, visible on its website, is shaped like the “Jesus fish,” the secret sign by which Early Christians recognized each other and under which they organized to overthrow the Roman Empire. Today, the Jesus fish is … Read More
Evangelical Christianity, funded and backed by the United States, is threatening to escalate into China’s new Opium War. Unless timely measures are taken, the land of Confucius, degraded by Chairman Mao into a spiritual, cultural and economic wasteland, may well emerge as a major outpost of a new imperialist thrust … Read More
With Islamic fundamentalists determinedly leaving their signature tune upon hitherto unvisited world capitals, and religio-ethnic violence taking a grim upturn in Jammu & Kashmir with the recent beheading of a woman and slitting of throats of five men, India needs to take a pro-active interest in getting the United Nations … Read More
The Hindu mind, it has been said, is subtle when it analyses, simple when it believes. Though intended as a barb, the statement has some merit. Hindu intellectual subtlety is without parallel; surrender to the Divine is the hallmark of faith. The American mind presents a stark contrast: crude when … Read More
Even as the public uproar following the Deoband Dar-ul Uloom’s fatwa annulling the marriage of 28-year-old Imrana after her alleged rape by her father-in-law refuses to die down, at least two other cases have come to light in which the victims of a similar tragedy had their marriages terminated … Read More
Since West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is more mature than his Assam counterpart, there has been no unseemly controversy over Governor G.K. Gandhi’s warning that the State is sitting on an “infiltration time bomb” (Pioneer 21 July 2005). Mr. Gandhi has informed President Kalam that unchecked infiltration is creating … Read More
