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Congress deserves to lose India’s electionsBy Razeen Sally , The Financial Times, LondonPublished: April 15 2009 21:55 Last updated: April 15 2009 21:55Indians will from Thursday begin heading to the polls in a month-long election for a new government. The Congress party is standing on the record of the government it has led since 2004. But polls are taking place when the Indian economy has taken a sharp turn for the worse, in a climate of global economic crisis. This exposes the do-nothing, zero-reform record of Manmohan Singh, prime minister, and his government. More generally, it lays bare India’s huge reform gaps and its brittle, decaying institutions. Finally, it deflates the “India hype” peddled by smooth-talking upper-caste politicians, ambassadors, businessmen, management consultants and some academics. A word about India hype. It highlights high-end services, and now manufacturing sectors, with their globalising, world-beating companies. But it overlooks reform deficits in ag...

The Tribune Thursday, April 16, 2009, Chandigarh, IndiaIt is true that the defence forces have their conduct rules and are known to those who intend to join the services (Letters to the Editor, “Veterans’ agitation” by Neeraj Kishore Sharma, April 7). But does it mean that the armed forces have to be mute spectators to their continuous degradation in status and pay vis-a-vis other government employees as has been happening in India over the past decades? The Sixth Pay Commission was the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back. Serving in defence forces may not be mandatory but so is the case in other departments of the government. If the civilian employees can indulge in agitations on flimsy grounds, why can’t the retired defence personnel take recourse to peaceful protests to highlight the injustice and humiliation being routinely heaped on them? Are they bonded slaves or lumpen elements to be shooed and snubbed at will? “One rank, one pension”, the main demand of the veterans, is a...

An Answer to Congress on Kandahar by ravilochanan on Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:20 pm I simply do not understand as to why Advaniji and the BJP is unnecessarily going on the defence on Kanadahar issue. Why is Advaniji saying that he did not know about the release of terrorists? It is NOT a proper answer to the criticisms.The plane was hijacked from Kathmandu (NEPAL) not from Indian soil. Therefore, it was not a security lapse on the part of the Indian government. After that, the government did its best to safely bring back all the passengers.But what about the following episodes during the Congress rule:1. Did not Congress exchange terrorists for the life of a SINGLE lady, the daughter of M.M. Sayeed? Considering that Sayeed and his family do not have an inkling of patriotic feeling towards the Indian nation, how can it ever be justified? Atleast the BJP government brought back the 'TRUE' citizens of this nation not some secessionist.2. What about the Hazratbal incident? Why did the Co...

I was born in a small village called Gorur in Hassan district of Karnataka. My father was a poor school teacher and a farmer as well. I went to a Kannada-medium school till Class V after which I was selected at the Sainik School in Bijapur which had just been set up to cater to students in Karnataka. Incidentally, I failed the first time I appeared for the entrance exam as the paper was in English of which I did not know a word. My headmaster, however, was a very determined man and he wrote to the defence ministry asking them how they hoped to recruit boys from villages in South India if the paper was held in English and not in their mother tongue. I was able to appear again for the exam, this time in Kannada and that's how I got selected. After completing school, I got selected to the NDA (National Defence Academy) and went on to be commissioned in the Indian Army where I spent the next eight years and fought in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war. I quit the Army to come back to m...

NGOs, Teesta spiced up Gujarat riot incidents: SIT14 Apr 2009, 1213 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNNNEW DELHI: The Special Investigation Team responsible for the arrests of those accused in Gujarat riots has severely censured NGOs and social activist Teesta Setalvad who campaigned for the riot victims. In a significant development, the SIT led by former CBI director R K Raghavan told the Supreme Court on Monday that the celebrated rights activist cooked up macabre tales of wanton killings. Many incidents of killings and violence were cooked up, false charges were levelled against then police chief P C Pandey and false witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents, the SIT said in a report submitted before a Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam. The SIT said it had been alleged in the Gulbarg Society case that Pandey, instead of taking measures to protect people facing the wrath of rioteers, was helping the mob. The truth was that he...

One of the reasons why the Sixth Pay Commission (SPC) had substantially raised the salary for chairmen of all the regulatory bodies was to make that job a little more attractive for professionals and experts from the private sector. The time has now come to check out if the government has indeed used the better pay package for its regulators to widen the choice and attract private sector people. A few weeks ago, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government selected Dhanendra Kumar, a retired IAS officer, as the chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). There were many candidates in the fray, but most of them belonged to the civil service. Once again, a large number of the candidates in contention for the Trai chairman’s job are civil servants belonging to the IAS. Only one of the candidates belongs to the private sector. Will the government’s search committee make a departure by recommending a non-IAS officer for the job? This appears unlikely. Civil servants get upset...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 SCPC: Anomalies Aggregated by Successive Pay Commissions to Dupe the Defence Forces Ex-Servicemen Being Denied their Rightful PensionsThere are three glaring omissions by the Ministry of Defence which affect a vast majority of Ex-Servicemen and others, which the Ministry is not prepared to listen.. Since these are detrimental to defence personnel and our representations to the all in the channel including our Hon’ble President the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces has not yielded any results, we have been compelled to air it through you to public so that they may know as to what treatment is being meted to the Defence Forces who give the best years of their life in service and security of the Nation and progressive development wherever called for and now even their genuine grievances are not being redressed.The three points are as follows:1. The 4th CPC granted Military Service Pay, called Rank Pay, over and above the normal Pay, for the peculiar Service con...