My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

By Deepak Parvatiyar The Narendra Modi juggernaut seems unstoppable in the Gujarat strongman’s home state. Yet it is to be seen whether the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate secures all the 26 lok sabha seats from the state for his party or not. In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009 though, the BJP could win 15 lok sabha seats against the Congress’s 11 seats which was an improvement of one seat from the 2004 elections. With the Congress in total disarray in the state this time, political observers feel the Aam Admi Party could prevent a Modi clean sweep in the state following grapevines that the political greenhorns may rope in some popular faces such as Amrita Patel –the chairperson of National Dairy Development Board, Anand, SR Rao – the legendary former municipal commissioner of Surat who transformed the city as one of the cleanest cities in the country after the outbreak of the plague there in the 1990s. Sources in the AAP say there are many such names which are doing rou...

Waterman Rajendra Singh launches nationwide campaign against flawed water policies

Meddling With Arms Despite a government ban,  arms  middlemen thrive in India Deepak   Parvatiyar ( An edited version was published in 12th May 2005 issue of Sahara Time, New Delhi ) Even as the government is preparing the ground for investigating the   arms  procurement deals during the tenure of George Fernandes as defence minister, it is becoming increasingly clear that most of  the  arms  procurement still occur through  arms  dealers. Even Fernandes has gone on record stating that middlemen are involved in defence deals. This despite a ban on taking commissions to push across  arms  sales and a structured defence procurement procedure.  The country  has no effective mechanism to deal with  arms  brokering and  even though authorities  pretend to be oblivious to middlemen playing important roles  in ...

FRONT PAGE REGION NEWS INDIA WORLD BUSINESS MAGAZINE OPINION VIDEO MORE Politics Crime Law & Policy Odd News Tech Health Activism N Bhojpuri is not the only language in Bihar   print this page September 1, 2012   By:   Anugya Chitransh The recognition of Bhojpuri as a National Language in the monsoon session of the parliament and Chidambaram’s promise to do so has made people sit up and take notice that Bihar has lots to offer linguistically. The growing popularity of regionally flavored mainstream movies like Ganagajal , Apaharan and Gangs of Wasseypur to name a few, have also added to this growing curiosity. “Maharashtra’s language is Marathi, Gujarat’s Gujarati, so it’s a popular conception that Bihar’s language will be Bihari”, says Pransu, an NRI who traces his roots to Bihar. In a country as culturally rich and diverse as India, languages change after every 10 kilometers or so. In this milieu, the lang...