My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

An expressway for elephants! EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 11 An expressway for elephants! July 02, 2012 12:00 PM By Deepak Parvatiyar Accidents on Indian roads cease to surprise. It has become a habit of our vehicle drivers to jump red light signals. We are used to cattle squatting on the roads or darting across in the form of traffic hazards, their excreta plastering the city paths. To drive on the wrong side is an excuse to avoid traffic jams and save time and fuel. While potholes are a regular feature, footpaths are not part of town planning in many of our cities and even if pavements are there, they are meant for the encroachers, roadside vendors and garbage dump. (In the locality where I stay, they are built so high that they look more like a parapet than a footpath. With no steps to climb them, the entire purpose of having a footpath is defeated). Even worse! More often than not...

Whose welfare? EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 10 Whose welfare? June 25, 2012 09:48 AM By Deepak Parvatiyar Look at the three major developments last week: • The economy on the verge of stagflation, i.e. simultaneous high inflation and low growth at a time when major international rating agencies have downgraded our economy. Similarly, “Secular” is another term that is not explained in the Constitution and can be “used as an instrument of unrestrained communalism or bigotry or even anti-religionism, as distinguished from ‘equal respect for all religions’” • Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar’s assertion that his Gujarat counterpart and prominent BJP leader Narendra Modi is not “secular”. (Though, this is not the first time the Nitish has raised hackles with Modi in spite of the fact that Janata Dal (United) and the BJP are coalition partners in the Nati...

Under the garb of Presidential election EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 11 Under the garb of Presidential election June 18, 2012 10:38 AM By Deepak Parvatiyar It goes without saying that the post of the President is highly political. The provision in our Constitution ensures that it is the political class that elects the President. However, it also goes without saying that the President is supposed to be above partisan politics and a highly distinguished statesman. This is by convention. However, it also goes without saying that the President is supposed to be above partisan politics and a highly distinguished statesman. This is by convention. While delivering the Draft Constitution, late BR Ambedkar, in his speech on November 4, 1948, had stated that President “is the symbol of the nation”. This is the reason why although the President is elected through an electoral college c...

WANTED: A Leader EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 31 WANTED: A Leader June 13, 2012 12:15 PM By Deepak Parvatiyar Do we really have any leader in our country who is above religion, caste, and sectarian politics and yet popular with the masses? Can you name any one name that is acceptable to the majority as a mass leader? My question assumes significance in the wake of what we witnessed last week. First, at the Congress Working Committee meeting the delegates raked up the issue of inaccessible ministers (how can they be leaders if they are inaccessible?) Yet, the most important issue was the lack of unanimity even within the ruling coalition itself over the choice of the next Presidential candidate. Thereafter, the BJP’s Gujarat satrap Narendra Modi delivered a power packed punch to claim the scalp of his little-known-much-discussed and elusive bête noire Sanjay Joshi. (Can Modi ...

Save our culture from filth EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 10 Save our culture from filth May 13, 2012 11:16 PM By Deepak Parvatiyar NEW DELHI: Soon after I entered the class room for a guest lecture to the mass communication students in a reputed Delhi college, I noticed a bubble gum wrapper lying on the floor. It was easy to find the gum chewing culprit. He was a lanky teenager attired in casuals and a pair of chappals. When I asked why he didn’t use the litter box, he came up with a stunning reply: “It is not in our culture sir.” Taken aback by his reply, I asked if he ever visited his place of worship without taking a proper shower. The youngster got the point and apologized. But what about the policemen of our national capital region, who are on an overdrive these days to remove dark films from the window panes of cars? They must have planned their drive quite meticulously – their te...

Why Arrogance? EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 7 Why Arrogance? May 20, 2012 05:30 PM By Deepak Parvatiyar - Would you hurl expletives at others in front of children, especially your own daughter? Ask Shahrukh Khan! - Would you support someone accused of offending the modesty of a lady? Ask Siddharth Mallya! - Would you walk out of a television show if asked some questions about your certain actions?Ask Mamata Banerjee! - Would you get outraged by a cartoon on late BR Ambedkar when Ambedkar himself had never found anything objectionable about it when it was first published way back in 1949?Ask our MPs! So what is common between Shahrukh Khan, Siddharth Mallya, Mamata Banerjee and our MPs? It’s anybody’s guess. They are the people who are looked upon as our icons. Shahrukh is a great entertainer, Siddharth, a scion of an influential business family. Mamata is a crusader par ...

Presidential talks EDITORIAL NEWS Share on facebook Share on blogger Share on linkedin Share on twitter More Sharing Services 4 Presidential talks May 29, 2012 06:27 PM By Deepak Parvatiyar Who should be our next President? A Brahmin? A dalit? A tribal? An OBC? A Muslim? A Christian? A Sikh?  Why not a Parsi? We never had a Parsi president. On second thoughts, why not yet another woman? Afterall, we only had just one woman president in the last sixty years! Another question... What should be the qualification of our President? Political exposure? Social stature? Exemplary achievement? Proximity to the rich and the powerful? Or, sycophancy? Yet another question… whose candidate will emerge victorious this time? The UPA’s? The NDA’s? or a perceived third front with the Left’s support? Please don’t misunderstand me. We have had some great luminaries as our Presidents. They have been extraordinary intellectuals, freedom fighters, scholars and educationist...