Indian Democracy - Evolving by the second

Cutting across the boundaries of age, sex, caste and other regular criteria for seggregating between the people one comes across, the most common opinion which possibly could be found is a strikingly similar dissatisfaction with the entire political system (or in some cases limited knowledge as well)..........but surely something has to be right with this...someone somewhere has to be doing something right for the economy to grow at the rate it does.......for our country to achieve the stature it has in the international community......One thing which i am not prepared to accept is all the success our country has had is despite the politics and the politicians....it requires the politicians to contribute as well...........Agreed that there might be shortcomings.....agreed we have lots to achieve.....but there are examples of how strongwilled politicians in the government can drive things.....one prime example of it would be the nuclear treaty driven by one of the most qualified, knowledgeable and possibly the most effective prime minister of all times......the way the government handled Satyam is possibly the best way it could have been handled....timely intervention and a perfect exit.....A logical consequence (a difficult one at that one must admit) of induction of a certain Nandan Nilekani into the Unique Identification Number project would be more active involvement of the members of the private sector....Look forward to the day when selection of ministers is done cutting across party lines.....the person most suited to a ministry should get the job irrespective of which party he belongs to.....

In Need of Austerity

Till somedays back, the news channels were feasting on the austerity measures introduced by the Congress Party.....the most publicized being the public admonition of Shashi Tharoor and S.M. Krishna for putting up at a five star hotel (at their own expense mind you) till their official accomodations were set right....Bang after it came the public debate with members of parliament flying cattle...oops....sorry....economy class...another measure which was not given as much coverage as the above was the decision of the Congress MPs to take a cut in their remuneration....all media channels jumped at the ruling party saying all the measures were just symbolic and were done keeping in mind forthcoming elections.....While there may be some truth to what they were saying, the thought which came immediately to the mind was ..whats wrong if one does it for a purpose...as long as they do it....In fact, in a country like ours, dont think we need droughts to roll out austerity measures...With so much poverty around.....the priveleged few who have had access to education should build in a mechanism of giving back to the society...and even if the Congress Party does it for the sake of elections ...thumbs up to them..........since they might pull other parties and respective supporters to match their efforts...

Looking beyond cricket

To read that the India - Pakistan match at the Champions Trophy failed to attract the eyeballs it usually did gets one thinking. Is it really the decline of only one day cricket or the general decline of interest in cricket? Probably the latter. There may be viewpoints but think the tremendous success of IPL was probably the beginning of the end of the cricket's dominance in India. The BCCI just killed the goose which laid golden eggs for around 25 years. From the crazy TRPs which cricket matches in India generated, they are now moving to more sane levels comparable to other cricket playing nations. And this represents a tremendous opportunity for the Vijender Singhs and Somdev Barmans of this world. The Commonwealth Games along with the first Formula One race is hitting the country at probably the most opportune moment when cricket is struggling with an identity crisis. And last but not the least. Indian cricket would never be the same after Sachin Tendulkar and golden quartet of Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Kumble and one fathoms MSD and Yuvi may just be the last of the glamorous cricketers who hog all the headlines.............Looking forward to the new breed of sporting superstars..............