By Sanjay Jha “ I have a huge double-storey mansion in Srinagar. It houses over 12-15 rooms, which is no big deal. We have not lived in it for two decades now . What do we go back for? No, the cops, security forces and militants are not occupying it. It is lying idle, depreciating away into nothingness. I visited it sometime back, and all I came back was with memories. Of a family and a home that was once ours”. This is a statement of a Kashmiri Pandit ( he spoke to me just two days … [Read more...]
RAHUL FINALLY BECOMES A GANDHI
August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Rahul Gandhi reclaimed the political legacy of grandmother Indira and reached out to the alienated tribals, making a weighty political statement in a land where Maoists hold sway Vedanta Plans Scuppered As Gandhi Scion Trumpets Tribal Victory BHUBANESWAR: It was a classic case of David turning into Goliath almost overnight. Less than two days after the environment ministry rejected Vedanta’s bid to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa, the odds swung heavily in favour of the … [Read more...]
Nitish, Lalu, Paswan rakhis a hit in Bihar
August 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PATNA: They have a tough electoral contest ahead, but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his rivals Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan are also jostling for supremacy in Bihar's rakhi markets. A day ahead of the festival, rakhis named after the three were doing brisk business Monday with reports that Nitish Kumar had a slight edge. "Demand of rakhis with pictures of Nitish, Lalu and Paswan are high among girls, youth and children," Santosh Kumar, a shopkeeper here, said a day ahead of Raksha … [Read more...]
‘Our freedom was born with hunger, we’re still not free’
August 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
On August 15, 1947, 22-year-old Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan famously headed for Auroville even as almost everyone else in Madras seemed to be bound for Marina Beach to celebrate the birth of a free India. Later, he would choose to study agriculture rather than medicine, rightly judging that plentiful food production had an important role to play in keeping a country independent. He went on to play a leading role in India's Green Revolution of the 1960s. In 1999, he was one of only three … [Read more...]
YEH TO BADA TOING HAI : BCCI EXPOSE
August 16, 2010 By 1 Comment
(What happens when IPL TV commentators come on the pay-roll of BCCI?) -By Sanjay Jha The BCCI passed a unanimous resolution that it would henceforth compensate IPL commentators directly for their professional services. Naturally, the select panel of chosen veterans was as thrilled as the bubbly bimbos queuing up to serenade Rahul Mahajan. But with the erstwhile IPL Commissioner now under permanent exile , the BCCI big guns were prodigiously anxious; how would they ensure sponsor … [Read more...]
Kashmir gunfight: Rains hamper Army operations
August 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
JAMMU: Heavy rains hampered the operations of security forces against armed militants in an ongoing gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Monday, a day after a soldier and two terrorists were killed. The shootout in Thanna Mandi area, about 180 km north of Jammu, began on Saturday when an Army team led by Major S K Mahapatra traced a group of militants in the forested area. In the ensuing gunfight, Mahapatra was injured and a soldier was killed on Sunday. "Today … [Read more...]
Cong core group to discuss oversight for Games today
August 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
NEW DELHI: With the spotlight relentlessly trained on the muck enveloping Commonwealth Games, Congress leadership has been forced to explore the feasibility of setting up a mechanism to oversee preparations for the mega event. The issue is to be discussed by the Congress core group, the party's top decision-making body, at its meeting on Friday. The government had ruled out the option of creating an oversight panel, with sports ministerM S Gill turning down the demand made by … [Read more...]
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Speech on Jammu and Kashmir
August 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
NEW DELHI: The following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech on Jammu and Kashmir: "I welcome you today with grief in my heart, but hope in my mind.I grieve for all those who have lost their near and dear ones in Kashmir and in the Ladakh region.I propose that we rise to observe a minute’s silence to pray for the departed. The Government of India will continue to provide relief and other assistance and help the State Government in providing rehabilitation for all … [Read more...]
THE MISSING RAGE
August 10, 2010 By 5 Comments
The Commonwealth Games is symptomatic of the deeper decay, decadence, and debilitation of our moral and ethical standards. It is not just about Suresh Kalmadi. It is about much more. By Sanjay Jha At the peak of the IPL scam in May earlier this year I was frequently asked by many;” Just why don’t you guys leave Lalit Modi alone ? If he is made money, so what ? At least he has given us a great summer entertainment .You guys are just party-poopers”. They would then proceed to book … [Read more...]
Kashmir not for talks
August 8, 2010 By 1 Comment
By Sanjay Jha (As Published in The Sunday Pioneer on Sunday, August 8th 2010) Will China hold talks with anyone on the future of Tibet? Has Pakistan ever involved India on the issue of Baluchistan insurgency? So, why should New Delhi engage Islamabad on Kashmir? K-word should be non-negotiable for us As I drove past the seedy-looking dilapidated single-screen Edward Theatre near Princess Street, Mumbai, the irony was not lost on me. It was playing the classic romantic film, Kashmir Ki … [Read more...]
