tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255557495662705322025-07-31T22:26:48.387+05:30GET TO THE COREVinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.comBlogger516125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-25229693813559242772019-07-25T12:46:00.000+05:302019-07-25T12:46:34.318+05:30

In a column in The Times of India on 21 July 2019, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar makes a pitch for Sonia Gandhi and her family, and posits that the family is the glue without which the Congress party will disintegrate. He then proceeds to compare former prime minister Indira Gandhi with Sonia Gandhi—apple and orange—and deviously employs election results post-Rajiv Gandhi

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-80011895552060861432019-07-09T11:31:00.000+05:302019-07-09T11:31:44.720+05:30

More than 10 years too late, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have finally been forced to look at the writing on the proverbial wall. The Congress president has formally taken responsibility for his failure to lift the grand old party, even marginally, above the shocking and humiliating bottom it hit in 2014, and resigned. Unfortunately, not even a whiff of contrition or respect for the

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-33298795135200082652019-07-03T11:38:00.000+05:302019-07-03T11:38:13.324+05:30

The people of India have given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi a second term with an even bigger majority than they did in 2014. The party has won 303 seats on its own and has got more than 50 per cent vote share in as many as 16 states and Union Territories. In fact, the BJP along with its allies — they too rode the Modi wave — got the same vote share, 45 per

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-58381421898120362092019-06-25T09:16:00.001+05:302019-06-26T11:45:01.778+05:30

Not enough attention has been paid to the visuals of Congress President Rahul Gandhi playing with his mobile phone for 24 long minutes during the President’s address to Parliament. Was Gandhi being the kid that some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders believe he still is, or was he deliberately doing so to insult the President of India with entitled disdain? Having been a member of

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-58002521653340419172019-05-30T11:41:00.000+05:302019-05-30T17:19:54.911+05:30

View of New Delhi’s Khan Market (@sahajloi/Twitter) Snapshot In the aftermath of the 2009 UPA victory, the Khan Market Gang had proclaimed triumphantly that their ‘Idea of India’ had conclusively defeated the BJP and would prevail for all time to come. Also, Amartya Sen is on the dot when he says that BJP has won “something in terms of power, but nothing particularly serious in the

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-62584295920144715322019-04-23T09:26:00.002+05:302019-04-23T09:26:32.314+05:30

No one quite took Delhi by storm, not even Narendra Modi, like he did. For a people silently suffering what they perceived to be a humongously corrupt and terror-friendly government led by Sonia Gandhi, for a people who had become disillusioned with politicians as a class, he rode in on a pristine white horse, with a halo so luminous that it mesmerised even the most cynical on both sides of

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-79604084058332691832019-04-17T16:09:00.000+05:302019-04-21T21:38:20.196+05:30

BJP rally (Arun Sharma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) Political pundits have given their judgment: This is not a wave election. 2014 was a one-off, and not only will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) struggle to cross the 200 mark this time, but even Sonia Gandhi might pull it off on the back of regional leaders who, they believe, will dutifully line up, like Rajas of yore, to offer their

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-84432815293052408802014-06-10T11:50:00.000+05:302014-06-10T11:50:16.224+05:30

 "Should not there be a war memorial? I feel some good things have been left for me to do."  This was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sentiment—four months before he rode to power in a wave election of hope--at a function to mark the golden jubilee of Lata Mangeshkar’s immortal number, ‘Aye mere watan ke logo.’ For sixty seven years, India has not been able to find space

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-46188352910109964652014-03-28T08:24:00.001+05:302014-03-28T08:25:33.148+05:30

No general tells his troops—that too in the hearing of the enemy—before going into battle that they are fighting to lose. That is exactly what Lal Krishna Advani, widely credited with having taken BJP from 2 seats in 1984 to 182 in 1999, did in 2012, 20 long months before the general elections, further demoralising despondent supporters of the party. It gave them—and the country—no comfort

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-32750683619111760122013-03-07T09:02:00.000+05:302013-03-07T18:05:15.634+05:30

“India has decided to uproot Congress,” thundered Narendra Modi at the recently concluded National Council Meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party. And when he added -- to rapturous applause of BJP workers who had jampacked Talkatora Stadium to listen to him -- that “sweat and hardwork of BJP Karyakartas will ensure that this happens,” he re-ignited the flame that had forgotten itself and

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-36688208703217593002013-01-30T09:05:00.000+05:302013-01-30T09:05:09.876+05:30

You cannot change geography. This is the mantra often chanted by Indian peaceniks to explain their embrace of and love for Pakistan, the logic being that since you cannot wish away the rogue, it is best to hug him and hope for the best. Some analysts go a step further: they believe India’s interest is best served by so strengthening democratic and liberal voices in Pakistan that they become

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-69401438233181527672013-01-26T08:49:00.000+05:302013-01-26T08:49:07.900+05:30

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s outrageous allegation that “BJP and RSS conduct terror camps to spread terrorism” is not a shot in the dark. Made at Jaipur in the presence of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, it has not only not been disowned by them, but has actually been backed by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid who says it was based “entirely on facts.” The timing and import of

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-35137517499578568002012-11-15T15:24:00.001+05:302012-11-15T15:26:24.429+05:30

There are no shades of grey here. The BJP is now tarred with same black that the Congress has been for the last few years. Nitin Gadkari – his innocence or otherwise notwithstanding -- has hurt his party badly, as the latest Hindustan Times survey indicates. Yes, the survey most likely has a not-so-subtle spin in favour of the Congress since the paper is owned by a Congress MP and has on its

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-34469727405983674692012-09-02T18:02:00.000+05:302012-09-03T20:06:14.047+05:30

The real game-changer, they have been saying of late, is Priyanka Vadra, nee Gandhi, the attractive wife of Robert, a once small-time Moradabad businessman who has become a billionaire almost overnight They have been forced to run to Priyanka not because Rahul has failed to learn to mount, forget ride, the majestic royal elephant placed at his exclusive disposal, but because he is simply not

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-666717654627214462012-07-26T07:46:00.000+05:302013-07-26T19:12:52.333+05:30

One more Kargil Vijay Diwas is here. Another day to briefly remember India’s forgotten soldiers and push them out of sight again. As they have been for the last 65 years. Hard to believe, but the bitter truth is that Independent India has yet not found an inch of land to honour those who have made the supreme sacrifice for their motherland, with a National War Memorial in Delhi. What is being

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-2925491032712661512012-04-14T10:55:00.003+05:302012-04-14T11:30:59.651+05:30

(Hafiz Saeed's song for India)Embrace us, do, we will hug you too,To make you forget what we remember;Many tiny cuts we will evermore inflict,To bleed you dry and then dismember.Every weapon on to bring you down,Great we won’t let you again become;A mongoose and a snake's enmity this,No mercy or respite till you succumb.At war we are, you pretend it is peace,You talk to prolong it, we parry to

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-9647870080300548892012-03-22T17:42:00.006+05:302012-03-22T18:16:01.236+05:30

They are rich, they are famous, they are powerful. Their debating skills are unbeatable, their ability to twist facts unparalleled, their talent for dramatising the mundane unmatched. Their ideology is as flexible as a snake’s spine, ethics never seem to hold them up, money drives them crazy.Together, they have everything that it takes to make the most explosive political combination India has

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-28837805439729507622012-02-28T09:39:00.002+05:302012-06-02T13:05:50.993+05:30

Politicians fume when shown the mirror, But will not fumigate Parliament ever; We are supreme! they scream in horror, Even thieves, rapists and criminals clever. Unelected tyrants! challenge us not, We are the voice of the indigent lot; Ask not why the PM hasn't fought, Or even the opposition’s main mascot! Parliament, recall, is the people’s temple, Their will outsiders have no right to tamper

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-46536263359915283332011-09-20T14:45:00.001+05:302011-09-20T14:45:22.627+05:30

Men are often put through fire by the Gods. Ordinary men are consumed or burnt by it; a chosen few emerge from it cleansed, purified and strengthened, and rise to meet the great demands that Destiny has penned for them.The life-chart of Narendra Modi seems to have been scripted elsewhere. Right from childhood, this brahmachari leader who has been most inspired by Swami Vivekananda, has tread a

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-37788252414295146182011-09-09T13:19:00.008+05:302011-09-09T14:02:57.760+05:30

It is not Sonia Gandhi alone who has returned to a changed India after spending five weeks at an undisclosed location for an unknown surgery. Lal Krishna Advani too is in the same boat, despite having been in Delhi all the time.Whether Sonia Gandhi will be allowed to see the clear writing on the wall by the wall of advisors who have kept her insulated from the people for all these years, will

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-6374400739523500242011-08-23T14:54:00.014+05:302011-08-23T16:03:26.128+05:30

Well before Change arrives, discrete signs of the impending tumult start appearing, with increasing frequency and magnitude. Unfortunately, it is often in hindsight that seemingly stray straws are seen for what they really are: pearls on one string. In 1947, we inherited -- and have persisted with -- 19th century colonial laws, administration, judiciary, police and other institutions of

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-38545038494884774102011-08-21T22:06:00.007+05:302011-08-21T22:37:53.993+05:30

Anna is everywhere. Everyone has something to say about him. And almost no one has read the anti-corruption Jan Lok Pal Bill (JLPB) they are supporting or savaging. The debate, therefore, is, for most part, along the same ideological, political, religious and social fault lines that emerge in their ugliness whenever any contentious issue comes to the fore. This time, however, another

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-38050416372512223322011-07-23T14:21:00.017+05:302011-07-23T15:16:05.522+05:30

The whitewash, sa’fai’, of the damning Faigate revelations that have sinister implications for India, both internally and in its responses to Pakistan, has begun. And, as expected, the usual suspects are at it.Prannoy Roy and Barkha Dutt’s NDTV, chastened by "guilt-tweets" of Ms. Dutt before and after the Radia tapes rash hit and claimed her, continuing histrionics notwithstanding, has chosen to

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-76065934638826068342011-07-15T16:02:00.011+05:302011-07-15T16:54:32.422+05:30

Mumbai has been hit once more. Will be hit many times over. Given the trajectory that our leaders and policy makers have put this nation on, it not a question of whether but when another terror strike will take place.Notwithstanding Rahul Gandhi’s baseless claim that 99% terror attacks have been prevented, it is true that the frequency of attacks has reduced since 26/11. But this is not because

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525555749566270532.post-1898048368512262522011-07-12T00:27:00.010+05:302011-07-12T13:28:15.068+05:30

Sunetra Chaudhury’s stunning revelation about the sexual harassment she was subjected to by a senior politician has raised issues much more disturbing than the trauma she went through and had the courage to speak about in the public domain.Ms. Chaudhury, if one can believe what her senior colleague at NDTV, Barkha Dutt of Radia fame, tweeted some days back, is one of the brightest journalists

Vinod_Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14654167848186778789noreply@blogger.com1