Kedarnath and Badrinath, two most beloved northern tirthas, have for the past two weeks witnessed an apocalyptic spectacle of pralaya with an enraged god and angry goddess stomping a dance of death in fierce tandem. As clouds burst, mountainsides crumbled, and torrential streams hurtled multistoried buildings, hydel projects, roads, humans … Read More
Maoist sympathiser Sheetal Sathe was granted bail from the Bombay High Court on Thursday, June 27, 2013, on humanitarian grounds (being in an “advanced stage of pregnancy”) after the Public Prosecutor’s office did not oppose the bail plea. Sathe becomes the third Naxalite to receive bail from Justice Abhay Thipsay; … Read More
The unseemly controversy over assistance rendered and offered by a State Chief Minister to flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, particularly the peevish behaviour of the Union Home Minister in trying to obstruct his visit on grounds that it could hinder relief efforts, deserves careful scrutiny on several counts. What is relevant here is … Read More
Modern Indian consciousness about the perils that unchecked deforestation poses to the fragile Himalayan ecology begins with the Chipko movement of 1973, when the hill peoples of the then Uttar Pradesh, now Uttarakhand, offered their lives to preserve their forests, causing shock, awe, and admiration in a somnolent nation. Barely … Read More
In its performance audit of Uttarakhand’s hydropower development through private sector participation for 2008-09, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that the State’s policy was silent on the vital issue of maintaining downstream flow in the diversion reach – the stretch of the river from the point of diversion … Read More
Senior intelligence officer (RAW), the late B Raman, expressed deep concern over some aspects of the charges made by investigating agencies against some Hindus accused of acts of terrorism against Muslims. Writing on August 7, 2010, Raman noted (Arrest of some Hindus as Terrorists: Curiouser & Curiouser) that in July … Read More
An important aspect of the Malegaon blasts, overlooked by the mainstream media when the National Investigative Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet last month, is that there were two separate blasts, one in 2006 and another in 2008, and that there seems to be a deliberate attempt to compact the two … Read More
In supporting Nitish Kumar, the BJP patriarch has hurt his own party Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), swiftly followed by ex-convener Sharad Yadav’s ‘offer’ to return if ‘the party’ is headed by LK Advani, is a Freudian admission of the deep links between … Read More
Something is wrong with the way the world is handling gold and lesser mortals like us shall probably never make sense of it. Still, given its eternal significance, some of the activity and thinking around gold merits our attention. For centuries, international trade ran on the basis of the gold … Read More
The patriarch, in his last lap, seeks to destroy Narendra Modi Disgruntled BJP leader LK Advani has surprised friends and foes alike by the rapidity with which he has launched his last political yatra – scuttle Narendra Modi’s ‘campaign Red Fort’. Unless checked firmly, this will happen even at the … Read More
