SlashIndia - Politics

Justice for Subhas

Tue, 15 May 2007 05:19:36 -0500

I'd like to draw your attention to the efforts being made to seek an end to the Subhas Bose death case. The matter is being complicated by the Govt, which is hell bent on not releasing several files connecting to the case. The matter also being pursued under the Right to Information by a couple of guys. The following is the latest news:

Destroyed Netaji file: PMO asked to respond in 15 days

In 1972 when GD Khosla Commission was inquiring into Subhas Chandra Bose's reported death, a suspicious thing happened in the PMO.

What do you think about Manmohan Singh's Independence day speech.

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:24:29 -0500

You surely must be joking Mr. Prime Minister

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:06:29 -0500

Manmohan Singh addressed the nation today with a speech, so rabid and full of oft repeated and done-to-death cliches of building the so called modern India.

Even though he talks about building "An India that is united in thought, not divided by religion and language. An India that is united in our Indianness, not divided by caste and region.", he is all for providing caste based reservations in our institutes.

Mr. Prime Minister, if its not so much to ask, please give us a break.

The Next Partition of India

Wed, 24 May 2006 07:20:48 -0500

Subhash Kak writes an emotional piece on Rediff revealing the true nature of the struggle against reservations.

It seems such an unequal struggle: the cold apparatus of the government on the one hand, and the passion of the students on the other. The students appear to echo the words of the Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar:

Man ki bandhi umange asahaaya jal rahi hain
Armaan aarazoo ki laashen nikal rahi hain
inake liye kahin se nirbheek tej laa de
pighale hue anala kaa inako amrit pilaa de

(Our mental aspirations are burning
desires and wishes have become dead
let the light of fearlessness be brought
let us drink the nectar of molten fire)

....perhaps the agitating doctors in India are crying out for something much more than just the reservation of seats in colleges. They are fighting against the impending partitioning of India's soul.

Read the entire piece here.

Arjun Singh's take on Reservations

Tue, 23 May 2006 04:50:16 -0500

CNN IBN interviewed Arjun Singh in Devil's Advocate. The text of the interview is available here.

"Karan Thapar: It says, that looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled. So, again, even in Delhi University, reservations are not working.

Arjun Singh: If they are not working, it does not mean that for that reason we don't need them. There must be some other reason why they are not working and that can be certainly probed and examined. But to say that for this reason, 'no reservations need to be done' is not correct."

This clearly shows the homework our honourable minister did before making a law. In the entire interview he has not been able to justify the case for reservation and asserts that it is a decision taken by parliament. So he is not even ready to take any responsibilty for this. He is not at all concerned with the solution working or even figuring out if this is a solution after all.

The real impact of reservations

Sun, 21 May 2006 15:46:57 -0500

Copied below are the views of Prof. M Balakrishnan, a computer science professor at IIT Delhi as expressed at the iit4equality yahoo group.

Nearly six decades after independence, this country is planning to announce that majority of its population is backward and does not have equal opportunity to pursue education and employment. Along with this, it is going to open up a Pandora's Box by various caste groups to be classified as "backward". What an interesting way to begin the 21st century when finally India was beginning to emerge as a serious player in the new knowledge economy! The major carrot that is being doled out is the seats in the elite medical, engineering and management Institutes. What bothers me is no one is interested in even consulting the people who have built these institutions and brought them to this stature. I have strong views on efficacy of reservations in general but here I would confine myself to the issues concerning IITs. At least here with my three decade long association, I can claim to know something. Many of these arguments may be applicable to the other elite Institutions in medical and management disciplines as well.

Lok Paritran splits

Thu, 18 May 2006 01:34:46 -0500

It seems that the IIT political party Lok Paritran has split.

Lok Paritran, a party launched by some IITians and other educated youth vowing to usher in a clean administration, has split with four of its seven candidates, who contested in the recent elections, quitting the outfit.

The faction accused the "national leadership" with financial bungling and lack of transparency.

Lok Paritran hits the ground running in Tamil Nadu

Mon, 01 May 2006 09:11:58 -0500

The geek political party Lok Paritran has set it sights on the forthcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu.

The Lok Paritran has hit its campaign trail on a rather ambitious note. 38-year-old Ilanthirumaran, an IIT alumna, is the party's candidate for the Chepauk constituency.

And guess who the former US-based software professional will take head on? None other than DMK chief ministerial candidate M Karunanidhi!

But the fact that he'll face a tough contest from a veteran has not unhinged Ilanthirumaran.

Read more at Yahoo India, and if you are in Tamil Nadu, please VOTE.

What do you think about the proposed 49.5% caste-based quota (reservations) in IIT's, IIM's and other institutes :

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:49:02 -0500

Nuclear pact between U.S., India draws fire

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:24:02 -0600

India and the US have finally negotiated a nuclear pact that allows India access to Western civilian nuclear technolgy, while putting some of Indian reactors under international observation. However, the US Congress and the Nuclear Suppilers Group (NSG) still have to agree to the pact. MercuryNews has a piece on how the nuclear pact between U.S., India draws fire

A landmark nuclear pact reached Thursday by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced tough scrutiny by Congress and international regulators amid concerns that it would allow India to expand its nuclear arsenal by hundreds of weapons.

While welcoming the accord, several senior Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said they would give it a rigorous review.

The accord also will have to pass muster with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. It was formed to regulate civilian nuclear trade after India detonated a device in 1974 using plutonium obtained from a Canadian-made civilian reactor that was supplied with heavy water by the United States.

US welcomes India in from the cold

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 04:02:56 -0600

The Telegraph reports US welcoming India from the cold!. The article states:

"America is preparing formally to recognise India as a fully-fledged nuclear power this week as the world's most powerful and the world's most populous democracies hail a new era of joint co-operation."

The article talks about US giving India a special status and access to nuclear technology denied to other countries that have not signed the NPT.

What do you think about the geek political party Paritrana.

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:01:51 -0600

Is this the beginning of change ?

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 02:52:49 -0600

Five IIT geeks have come together to form a political party - called 'Paritrana'

The core team of "Paritrana" comprises Rajpurohit , Shukla, Amit Beesen, also the vice president and a B Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay and a LLB graduate, Chandrashekhar (national treasurer), B Tech (computer science) from IIT Kanpur, Bharat Sundaram, the PRO of the party and B Tech from IIT Kanpur and PhD in electronics from Melbourne.

"Paritrana means complete relief from the various causes of distress, and that is what we want to do for our people", added Chandrashekhar. Low funds have not discouraged them in their efforts of holding door-to-door campaigns in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and parts of Maharashtra

Way to go geeks.

Justice by fractions

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 01:13:41 -0600

We recently covered the scheme by the Congress to divide social sector funding in proportion to the minorites population.

IndianExpress is running another editorial which which helps clear the political motives, and the social repurcussions behind the scheme..

The UPA’s proposal also highlights — through its extreme measure — the gradual erosion of the equality of opportunity by recourse to identity politics. That equality guaranteed in the Constitution is meant to be enhanced through affirmative action and safeguards for the rights of minorities. Instead, by lazily opting for easy measures like reservations in ever more sectors and institutions, successive governments have been transforming affirmative measures into proportional representation.

Read the entire article here.

Congress spearheads the second partition.

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:22:49 -0600

The UPA Government is ready to announce social welfare programmes which earmarks a percentage of the funds for minorities based upon their relative population.

Not only this, the plan, prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, says that the schemes and funds shall be "further split state-wise for each minority community in the ratio of the populations of the minority community in each state."

The Supreme court has earlier disapproved of such a scheme arguing that: "Encouragement to such fissiparous tendencies would be a serious jolt to the secular structure of constitutional democracy...We should guard against making our country akin to a theocratic state based on multi-nationalism. Our concept of secularism is that ‘state’ shall have no religion"

IndianExpress reports.