In recent times there have been demands for carving out smaller states, latest being great hoop-hulla around Telangana and anti-telangana agitations. The main apparent reason is sense of economic deprivation of certain areas in large states like UP, WB, AP MH etc. Cultural and political reasons are also responsible for such demands. It is argued that smaller and medium sized states will bring functional politics closer to people by making state government more responsive to local demands. Such an arrangement will also ensure proper distribution of centarl development funds to various regions of the larger states with subregional needs highlighted well. Read the rest of this entry »
jawaharlal nehru speech
Jawaharlal Nehru’s broadcast to the nation on August 15, 1948 is noteworthy because the words he uttered then hold considerable importance for our contemporary political life. Excerpts from that address are being reproduced here. Better late than never 
Let us not forget where we have failed or where we have erred. For our failures and errors have been many. Some of these are obvious enough, but the real failure has been a failure of the spirit and a falling away from the high standards set by the Father of our Nation, under whose wise guidance we had struggled and marched for over a quarter of a century. He taught us that worthy ends could only be achieved through worthy means, that ideals and objectives could never be divorced from the methods adopted to realise them. He had told us to cast out fear, for fear is not only ignoble but is also the parent of hatred and violence. Read the rest of this entry »
Regions of North-western South Asia
Proposed National Boundaries
I am starting this new series on “how to reorganize the South Asia politically” so as to have maximum possibility of peace and prosperiety. Division on lines of religion has been proven wrong. Base of my analysis is ethnic character of the India-Pakistan-Afghanistan-Nepal-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh-Bhutan. This analysis is based on data collected over the time and my understanding of south asia, everybody is welcome to put in their views as comments. Later I plan to bring it out as free ebook. Read the rest of this entry »
This post is by Ratnakar Sadasyula, our guest contributor. Ratnakar is an IT professional. Please welcome him on POR.
The BJP’s spectacular rise in the 90’s was due to the enthusiastic backing of the younger sections of the population, during that time. The BJP had a large support from the younger educated professionals, the college going students, and people in the 20-40 age category. While the older generation still voted for the Congress, a major part of the BJP’s support base came from the youth. For a Generation, fed up with the shenigans of the Congress, the failure of “champagne socialism” and “sham secularism”, the BJP seemed the best alternative. The BJP’s right wing Hindutva ideology had large scale support among the urban educated middle classes, while its espousal of a capitalist economy enthused the youth. The reason why youth, including myself, supported the BJP in large numbers was its no nonsense stance on internal security and the country’s safety. Many ex Defence officers joined the BJP, impressed by the party’s discipline, its decorum. While there essentially was not much difference between Congress and BJP on economic policy in the 90’s, the difference was pronounced on other issues, like relations with US, more friendly policy with Israel, Uniform Civil Code, repeal of Article 370, which did really attract the youth. Read the rest of this entry »
So, central government has banned CPI maoist, the main outfit of maoist and naxalite activities in India. It is a much awaited action and finally government woke up when these so called revolutionaries had taken over a large part of Lalgarh. Anyways better late than never. But it should not be stopped here. Government should start an all out campaign and mind you military/para-military campaign, not a police one to flush out all the naxalites from whole country, so that a right environment of development can be created in naxal affected areas. It is the best time to do so in last 60 years and looks like universe has conspired to give us that opportunity. Government must seize it with open hands and ruthless force. Here are the reasons why it is the best time to start an all-out flush out campaign against maoist and naxalites. Read the rest of this entry »
It looks like just yesterday when I changed my status message in GTalk, copying from someone else of-course “Congress in LokSabha and BJP in ShokSabha”, friends laughed and I was amused. Now it has been more than a month and BJP is still in ShokSabha. They have once again ducked the process of self-scrutiny and they are busy doing patchwork. In-fighting is in open, letters are being passed, leaders accusing each other, president trying to be a hero, oldest leader yet not leaving the posts and what to say more once a cadre based highly disciplined party is being pulled in thousand directions. Let us understand the plight of BJP, there are three major types of leaders right now in BJP. Read the rest of this entry »
The problem:
Whether it is Mr. Rajdeep sardesai on CNN-IBN showing his concerns for performance of Congress party or NDTV news reporters stating their clear preferences for Left in their news items, all are sources of worry for neutral functioning of media. Media which is by its very name, not supposed to favor one party or another, seems to loosing its way. All the media persons we are discussing here are very senior reporters and thinkers as such. But problem to separate fact from the personal values and preferences is looming large on media as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
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