Dear Chetan, you are wrong. We don’t need to do an expose on ourselves..

…or look within. We need to think.
Dear Chetan, earlier today, I chanced upon your column in ToI, “We the Shameless”. You started your piece by saying: “It’s time to stop blaming just our politicians for corruption and look within”. You went on to write, “..organisations like the IAC should also send out the message that it is a lack of values within us..that has turned India corrupt” And in your concluding paragraph, you said: “it is time we did an expose on ourselves”
That was what tipped me over.
Frankly, I’m sick …

4 Lakh illegal rickshaws, 6 Lakh illegal vendors and Why Politics Matters – even to Entrepreneurs

In an earlier post on entrepreneurship, I mentioned how “the “burden” of government can be very heavy – which is why it takes 11 steps on an average, to start a business in India. Not just that, these 11 steps take about 89 days on an average!  In that same post, I also wrote: “I have nothing against the government trying to help entrepreneurs. It should; it must”.  What exactly did I mean by that?
Did I mean that the government should give handouts to entrepreneurs – or somehow select potential …

To say the ordeal is stressful does not begin to describe it..

“A rope is threaded through their nose to keep the animals together…
Sometimes the frightened cattle tug against one another and the rope rips their nose apart…
The animals are beaten mercilessly with sticks…
The cattle are forced to walk sometimes for days…and are not given food or water
It is no wonder many of them collapse.
But instead of receiving help, the animals who fall actually have chilli peppers and tobacco rubbed into their eyes and have bones in their tails repeatedly broken in an effort to get them on their feet.”
After this, I could not …

Is the problem at the heart of Islam, the silence of sensible Muslims?

Events of the last few weeks have once again thrown into sharp relief why numerous commentators across the political divide, ideologies & cultures worry greatly about Islam. Some do not just worry; they fear.
They worry about and fear an ideology that apparently condones killing of “followers” who may have second thoughts[i]; they fear an ideology which justifies war and violence against the “infidels” and enemies as long as it is for a “just” cause[ii]. They fear an ideology that shows no qualms in killing and maiming fellow believers simply because …

How can the government help me? Challenging the “mai-baap sarkaar”

Over the last few days, I have had the extraordinary opportunity to address literally hundreds of students and youngsters at workshops across the country on entrepreneurship. Can you guess the one common refrain that has taken me by surprise? It is a question that invariably gets asked in during the open Q&A session – tentatively at first – then supported by more voices.
The question is simple: “What can the government do for us?” My instinctive response to such a question is to relate the Reagan quip, “I am from the …

My first post on ToI blogs: Arvind Kejriwal’s Coming Out Party..

Dear Friends, I am delighted to say that ToI blogs will now feature some of my posts on politics, history and related topics on their site. Here is the first one, which went live earlier today..Enjoy and pl do share any comments – either here, or over at the ToI blog. Thanks for your unstinted support and encouragement as always..Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

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ENTER THE POLITICIAN: Arvind Kejriwal’s Coming-out Party
Amid the high-drama, turnarounds and volte-face by key members of IAC in the last few days, one thing has become clear: that the …