India Political Blog

Communist problems over internal politics, and perceptions

Ashish — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:03:15 +0000

How quickly the mighty can fall ! Lest that sound like gloating, it is not, it is something that some of the more clear-thinking of the Communist crowd in India must be thinking. Just a couple of years back, they were top of the Government of India. If they said ‘nay’ to a proposal by [...]

Delhi High Court rules that gay sex is legal

Ashish — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:14:50 +0000

The world over, different countries have different concepts revolving around homosexuality. There are states in the United States that have made marriage between homosexuals as having the same legal sanctity as that between a man and a woman, there are other states where this is a matter of huge debate and controversy (with the Catholic [...]

Maya and her fascination for statues

Ashish — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:02:28 +0000

It is common knowledge that Dalits in India were a oppressed lot (and still are), being treated as a political base by the Congress party. It was the emergence of Kanshi Ram, who resigned from his Government service and setup the Bahujan Samaj Party for giving the Dalits a voice. In our modern word, it [...]

Lalgarh operation - security forces seemingly successful

Ashish — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:24:30 +0000

There are several sections of India that are semi-controlled by the Red Army, by the Naxalites. When I mean semi-controlled, it essentially means that they are regions where Naxalites and Maoists can move around without much fear of being encountered by security forces, and where they can in turn strike at state presence such as [...]

Consumer: Man gets succour from Delhi High Court after hand gets crushed

Ashish — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:00:22 +0000

One reads in the newspaper all the time about some accident whereby a person gets injured due to rash or negligent driving by the driver of a vehicle (in numerous cases, this rash driving would be done by the driver of a bus or truck, and because of the size and weight of this large [...]

Consumer: DDA fined Rs. 50,000 for delay in giving possession of a flat

Ashish — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:32:37 +0000

The Delhi Development Authority had developed a huge number of flats in the Indian capital, and settled large sections of the capital (as per its mandate). However, experiences of people vary in terms of the customer-friendly nature of the Authority. For example, the Authority has been known to delay in handing over properties, land, and [...]

BJP in huge trouble and internal turmoil after the 2009 elections

Ashish — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:53:23 +0000

When the results for the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha (Parliament) elections were out, everybody was surprised by the scope of the Congress victory. The Left would have been shell-shocked by the scope of their reduction in seats and dramatic bad run in both West Bengal and Kerala, but it was the BJP that was most [...]

Not a totally easy path ahead for divestment, need to aim higher

Ashish — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:45:40 +0000

When the Congress Government came back to power with an enhanced mandate and higher numbers (and consequently, a less dependence on allies to make up its numbers), the markets welcomed the step, with people talking about a re-start of the earlier stalled divestment process. In fact, with the amount of money that the Government has [...]

RTI empowering differently abled citizens

Ashish — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:39:34 +0000

We are typically more sympathetic to the concerns and feelings of differently abled people (or who used to be called as handicapped people), and one expects that Government departments, who act as enablers for providing support and services to the citizenry of this country, would also act the same way for differently abled citizens. However, [...]

Consumer: Telecom: Reliance Commnications fined Rs. 10,000 for being deficient in services

Ashish — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:15:40 +0000

Getting an internet connection in modern India should be very easy, and it should almost be like a commodity. The customer pays for a connection, and the company provides the connection, and it works with minimum down time. But what do you when the company provides you with a connection that is old, even though [...]