Breaking Views News - Page 25

Modi, Manmohan, Rahul: We love hypocrisy, false modesty

In India, we prefer the false modesty of a Rahul or Manmohan to the straight brashness of a Modi. But do we want to remain as hypocrites?

Why Manmohan-the-mouse should have roared sooner

Manmohan Singh's record of looking the other way when scamsters were at work and of failing to intervene when ruinous economic policies were being implemented signals a lack of authority. It will take more than a day's roar in Parliament to change that assessment .

Why the pundits keep getting it wrong on Narendra Modi

When prejudice masquerades as punditry, you are going to misread the public mood. This is why the pundits have gone repeatedly wrong on Modi,

Beyond Wharton: Can Modi continue to ignore his critics?

Modi perhaps reasons that the riots of 2002 are a closed chapter, and he has nothing to account for. But the efficacy of that approach may be tested more virulently in the year ahead as he goes national.

Why we love to hate Modi: We can hang our guilt on him

He is a smart politician who used 2002 to build his power base and then tried to do some good with that power and reinvent himself as a development man.

BJP will need more than 'Modi nama' to win in 2014

Projecting Modi as its candidate gives the BJP a head-start in the campaign for 2014, But an excessive reliance on Modi-mania - at the expense of attention to details of policy articulation - too holds risks for the BJP.

Why BJP seems ready to pitch for Narendra Modi as PM

Just as the dominoes of international opinion directed against Modi are falling, so too is opposition within the BJP to the project to anoint him the party's candidate for the 2014 elections. .

Woof! Woof! When Pak took diplomacy to dogs

This stray dog episode reflects why it’s so difficult to smoke the peace pipe with Pakistan.

Naming Bhandara rape victims: Mr Shinde goofs up... again

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde outdid himself when he made a statement in the Rajya Sabha today in which he named the three minor victims who were raped, killed and thrown into a well in Bhandara.

Snow White and 7 Dwarves of Budget 2013: Meet the stars

The nation watched P Chidambaram present his budget. But it was actually a casting call for a brand new edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Guess who gets to be the new Snow White?

Fudge or Budget magic? How Chidu works miracle with subsidies

Chidambaram's subsidy bills show a steep drop in 2013-14 - something which is difficult to believe

Union Budget 2013: 8 ways in which FMs fudge numbers

Budget numbers can be invented at the drop of a hat if finance ministers want to desperately show better figures. So watch out.

Budget 2013: The speech that Chidambaram won’t make

What kind of Budget speech do we really require from P Chidambaram this year? Here are some things he needs to say to put India on the road to recovery.

Will curbing the sale of acid alone protect women from attacks?

The outrage was strangely more against the free availability of acid rather than the practice of acid-attacks against women and the latter’s general vulnerability to violence.

Romancing the Railways: Why Bansal should focus on metros

If there's one thing that today's Railway Budget - for all its utter irrelevance - should focus on, it is on improving urban metro rail systems, particularly frequency of train service and an enhancement of safety and comfort levels.

Hyderabad blasts: How investigators are feeling their way for answers

The CCTV footage and other evidence in its present form is unlikely to lead the investigators looking into the Hyderabad blasts anywhere.

Why the NCTC cannot be set up at the cost of states

Why should the Central government not trust the states? In the operational functions the NCTC can always coordinate its activities with the state police.

Hyderabad blasts: Investigators' 'leaks' don't inspire confidence

Premature preening by investigators in front of media - even before the investigations are complete - only gives room for lively apprehension, born of well-merited cynicisim, that something is not quite right about the investigations.

Battle 2014: How does Congress look at Rahul Gandhi?

The Congress vice-president perhaps doesn't want to become a minister in this cabinet because that's not his focus at the moment.

Hyderabad blasts: Time to ban bomb blast tourism

Despite its frequent dates with terror attacks, India has never developed or followed a protocol in reacting to tragedies like the blasts in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad blasts: Is it time to revive the NCTC debate?

The States spiked the proposal for a National Counter Terrorism Centre on political grounds. The price for that is being paid by innocent civilians on the streets of Dilsukh Nagar and in other neighbourhoods across India.

Hyderabad blasts: The return of ISI-backed Indian Mujahideen?

The Hyderabad blasts appear to have the finger-prints of the Indian Mujahideen. It is also in keeping with ISI's new strategy of using local terror groups which it can then deny responsibility for

Shinde to Cameron: Why sorry seems to be the hardest word

Expressions of seeming contrition from politicians are always laced with a streak of insincerity that shows up their "half-apology" or "non-apology" or an "unapologetic apology" as a mere rhetorical device to enable them to "move on".

Chopper scam: Antony's 'honesty' and the perversion of politics

It's now come to the point where the perverse argument is being made that perhaps we don't really need a scrupulously honest minister like Antony: what we need is someone who can "strike a balance" between probity and effectiveness.

Budget session: UPA in damage control, BJP to go for the kill

The BJP is not buying the assurance of the prime minister and the defence minister that the government had "nothing to hide".

Why AgustaWestland chopper scam cover-up is like Bofors

By pre-empting AK Antony's effort to cancel the AgustaWestland copter deal if bribes were paid, the government is signalling that it is not sincere about cracking the case.

Katju has reinforced the corrupt patronage system

Too many judges like Markandey Katju are accepting post-retirement jobs - which compromises them with the system of patronage and corruption.

Beyond Afzal Guru: Centre has lost the plot in Kashmir

Ever since Guru's hanging, the UPA government has become a victim of its own schizophrenia and has allowed a vacuum to build up in the political discourse on Kashmir, which the separatists and hardliners have filled. It is time now for it to change the narrative.

Afzal Guru hanging: Why was the centre so cowardly?

There is now confirmation that the government never intended to inform Afzal Guru's family in time about the hanging. Is this how a state should behave?

Justice Katju has no one to blame but himself for his fall

With his partisan, extra-judicial, facts-be-damned comments on Modi, which relate to a domain far removed from his current responsibility as Press Council chairman, Katju has crossed the line of propriety for men in public office.