The Buzz & Beyond

http://ngkjrs69.sulekha.com/blog/post/2012/07/what-difference-does-it-make.htm  Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has become the 13th President of the Republic of India. Does that make any difference? I am perplexed that in a Republican State, the First Citizen of the country is not elected by the people but by its representatives. Whether you accept it or not, the fact is, the representatives of the people (say MLAs, MPs) are at first, representatives of their party. They hardly represent their constituent or its citizens.  Under such circumstances, how can we say that the President is the choice of the people? How many of us, in the wildest of our dreams would have opted for Pratibha Patil for the post of the President? The post of the President has become a joke ever since VV Giri occupied it. Fakruddin Ali Ahmed brought shame to the post and also got the post another name of rubber-stamp just by signing on the dotted lines without a single thought. The post of the President ...

http://ngkjrs69.sulekha.com/blog/post/2012/05/issue-out-of-no-issue.htm  It is not a matter of surprise that our representatives in the Parliament have selective priorities but it is an issue of concern. As if, there is a dearth of issues to be discussed and debated, our MPs chose to make out an issue out of no issue. Yes, I am referring to the recent episode of cartoon involving Ambedkar and the constitution. Not only they made ruckus in the Parliament, they went on to ransack the office of the gentleman who was involved in this issue. As expected no party condemned this violent act while they went berserk on the issue of the cartoon. Tirumaavalavan, is a MP from Tamilnadu who started a party Tamil Vidutalai Chiruttai (Tamil Liberation Panthers – christened obviously inspired by LTTE, the Liberation Tigers). Even Tirumaavalavan is not sure, from whom and for whom he wants the Tamils to be liberated! He initiated this issue in the Parliament stating that the cartoon is insulting ...

http://ngkjrs69.sulekha.com/blog/post/2012/05/why-this-hue-and-cry-do-we-really-need-this.htm  Sachin Tendulkar is nominated for the Rajya Sabha. One cannot describe whether this is a master stroke played by the Congressmen who were literally seeking some media attention. Of course, Congress was trying hard to draw the attention of media but despite all the bias, it was doing it for different or wrong reasons only. Had Sachin joined Congress, then there is no room for debate. He had accepted to be nominated to the Upper House or the House of Elders. If he is elder, he should have given room for younger ones in the team long ago. He is still continuing playing stating he is enjoying the game. May be, he might be enjoying but he never tried to realize whether the spectators enjoyed it or not.  If one asked whether Sachin deserved this post, then anybody can answer in negative. Till date, Sachin has never expressed an opinion in open with regard to the affairs of Cricket...

http://ngkjrs69.sulekha.com/blog/post/2012/03/imaginary-line-of-poverty.htm Not long ago, the Planning commission of India cut a serious joke by creating a new Poverty line at Rs 32/- per day and drew flak from all corners of the country. The commission was busy quibbling about the details of defining the poverty line. They came out with a new figure of Rs 28/- yesterday. With Bangladesh spoiling the dreams of India’s Asia Cup win, this story did not hog the limelight yesterday. I am not an economist as our honourable PM is, who is supposed to be an expert in this field but did little with his expertise to improve the situation in our country. As a layman, i am perplexed at the manner in which this poverty line is defined. Do these statistics really measure the right factors and if it measured, is it being done accurately? With these measures, what are we trying to do? Don’t these measures indicate only the buying power of a household? As I understand, this is the measure to indicate...