Posts

Narendra Modi's words of another kind - Cutting through propaganda

No I am not defending Narendra Modi. I don't oppose him either. However, I think it is ridiculous when everyone takes it for granted that Narendra Modi has said nothing. Let us see a blog entry by ad world worker Preet Bedi put up on Firstpost as an article, and try to deconstruct what we have and what is not reported in an otherwise shrill mainstream media of our country. 1. What is Modi's big idea for India? Modi has so far expressed two big ideas for India - Minimum government maximum governance is one, The other is 'Indian Talent' plus 'Information Technology' is equal to 'India Tomorrow'. To each its merit, but to say that he has said nothing is sheer injustice even by the Devil's standards. 2.  What is the Gujarat Model? Will It work for other states as well? Gujarat model is one where the state administration does not depend on the Centre to ensure its development, as Tamil Nadu saw during much of India's independence. The Gujar

Delhi Technological University will never really be world class - Here's Why

Here's a sample of why the institution, from where I graduated, will touch global nadirs. DTU is certainly one of the many educational institution in India that is run by the public administration that does not even possess a Complaint Register. This, when these institutes hire people through the government channels and follow those procedures, are run by money paid by taxpayers, and charge significant quantum of fees today (especially in the engineering colleges and MBA institutions). The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi enacted THE DELHI (RIGHT OF CITIZEN TO TIME BOUND DELIVERY OF SERVICES) ACT, 2011 and enforced it the same year, but conveniently excluded educational institutions under its ambit from this Act. Thanks to this divine loophole, students run helter-skelter in hope of collecting relevant documents, ranging from transcripts to degrees to marksheets and even minor documents like a semester was dropped liked headless chicken. The laxity ensures that

Language of Democracy and Inability to Talk to the Youth

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. -Paul Valery   A friend of mine recently remarked that while he agreed with the idea of the struggle of democracy in its present avatar, he also failed to understand why the youth, the catalyst of change, talked in the language that they do with respect to the political space. He expressed his concern on the short memory and confrontational attitude that the youth possessed with respect to the ideas and issues that affect everyone. In my opinion, much of this has been due to the failure to incorporate the youth into the mainstream. It also has much to do with the failure of political language used to converse with the youth. Arnold Kling has recently written a book called the ‘ The Three Languages of Politics’, which offers some interesting perspectives as discussed by him here . Kling has stated that the three schools of American politics – republican, libertar

The Fight for More Democracy

Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those others that have been tried.   - Winston Churchill The world, or at least its youth, the torchbearers of our society, culture and democracy, are really angry. They are angry about lack of jobs. They are angry at inflation and price rises. Go to the European countries fighting recession, and there is a strike a day targeting government betrayers and vested interests (namely the financial world) for leaving them high and dry on every front, ruining their prospects for a better tomorrow. China is worried about the repercussions of the inability to absorb millions of fresh graduates in the next few years amid suicides over pathetic salaries for making iPhones. Brazilians were angry over increased bus fares in the light of abysmal low wages. They are angry about the state of law and order within their countries. Brazil, India and even Nepal have seen massive protests where law and order has been a major topic