Pakorakorner | A personal portal with a strong Asian Indian flavor on a whole range of topics.

In response to my recent article on Parliament vs. Team Anna, some readers responded by expressing their sense of despair and helplessness over the failure of the anti-corruption struggle in achieving a strong Lokpal bill. “Our corrupt political system is not going to change overnight. Our politicians are not going to turn righteous and pass a strong Lokpal bill. How do we get to our desired end-goal?” This seems to be the popular sentiment among those who genuinely care about ...

In a rare moment of bi-partisanship, the entire Indian Parliament joined hands to condemn Team Anna for its attack on the political class. Interestingly, Sushma Swaraj of the BJP, unwittingly highlighted the irony of the predicament when she said, “If MPs were looters, corrupt and rapists, then why did Team Anna send three of its demands to be incorporated in a resolution passed by Parliament.” The answer to this question says it all. The civil society has no other option ...

he recent assembly elections have, as always, thrown up some surprises. The biggest among them is the sweep by the Samajwadi party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP and the complete rout of the Rahul Gandhi led Congress. Mayawati, another victim of the SP wave, who spent the better part of her tenure as CM erecting statues of herself and her elephants, is now plotting her next move towards the Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, the Congress government in Uttarakhand is ...

Team Anna announced a discussion titled “Save the Republic” to be held on Republic Day. I can almost imagine Team Anna’s critics going, “They first wanted their own version of a bill passed. Now they have problems with our democracy and want to Save the Republic.” Let’s start by setting aside the emotion and the ideological differences and objectively evaluate the state of the Republic after 65 years.   Today, India is run by a coalition government at the center and several ...

Team India’s recent dismal failure in Test cricket has resulted in a mad frenzy to find scapegoats. Leading the pack of scapegoats currently is VVS Laxman, followed by the captain, MS Dhoni himself. Many experts profess that the veterans should be phased out, beginning with VVS Laxman. Others believe that Dhoni’s stint as captain of the Test team needs to come under scrutiny. There are others who feel that the Coach Duncan Fletcher should be fired. Finally, there are those ...

There budget session of parliament is fast approaching. Hanging in balance is the UPA government’s commitment to pass its Lokpal bill - a ridiculously weak bill that no one but the Congress is in favor of Getting the “Jan Lokpal” bill passed is India’s Mission Impossible (MI). Each MI has a different feel to it. This one, in particular, is clearly an all-desi version packed with the rustic oratory of our MPs, juxtaposed with the evasive, smiling, smooth-talk of the ...

The crux of the Lokpal battle has finally boiled down to the issue of independence for the CBI. The fundamental problem today is that the CBI is under the clutches of the party in power. Further, every party is firmly under the control of its “high command”. What this means is that the CBI is completely under the control of a few powerful people from the ruling party. History is replete with examples of political parties using this control over ...

A number of myths have been propagated over the past year about the anti-corruption movement ranging from crafty attempts to derail the movement to gross mis-representation. 1. It is anti-Congress:  Those in the Congress (and unfortunately many among the general public) believe that the anti-corruption movement is against the Congress. The Hissar election is often cited as an example. The reality is that the Congress party is in power today as the head of the UPA and wields enough power to ...

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar said his faith in the BCCI was shaken because they have reneged on a commitment to pay him Rs. 5 crores. "Sharad Pawar and Arun Jaitley both promised me that my dues will be cleared." he said. The issue apparently came up for discussion in the working committee meeting after Gavaskar wrote to the BCCI.  Gavaskar talks to the BCCI chief and he offers him a verbal commitment of 5 crore rupees! No contract, no paper ...

According to a report in the New York Times, Union Minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal met with leading social networking sites in an attempt to censor messages posted on them related to India. According to the report, Mr. Sibal called legal representatives from the top Internet service providers and Facebook into his New Delhi office... At the meeting, Mr. Sibal showed attendees a Facebook page that maligned the Congress Party’s president, Sonia Gandhi.  “This is unacceptable,” he told attendees, and he asked them to ...