Get it right in Kazakhstan

"Only robust democratic institutions can ensure the stability the country needs to be a trusted supplier of hydrocarbons and uranium to others."

Despite the recent election leading to widened representation, the internal democratic situation has not really improved. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Get it right in Kazakhstan. Both the election and the wider context, moreover, indicate deeper problems and latent instabilities.

The US, the EU, and even India, would face awkward decisions over whether to profit from the enforced "political stability" at Astana in order to ensure continued supply from Kazakhstan's substantial reserves of oil, natural gas, and uranium, and a range of rare earths essential for high-tech appliances, through supply routes other than those via Russia, or to encourage the consolidation of democratic institutions and processes within the country.

The best strategy under the circumstances for both Mr. Nazarabayev and the countries that seek to do business with Kazakhstan is to strengthen democratic institutions and practices there. Failure to do so could mean ending up with a country in meltdown!

Right step, not so the timing

"Recent plebiscite has paved the way for Croatia — part of the erstwhile Yugoslavia — to join the European Union as its 28th member state in 2013. "

Croatia enters the EU precisely when the danger of Greece's exit from the euro zone is looming and the time-table for the accession of prospective members appears indefinite. The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Right step, not so the timing. It is no mean challenge for the Balkan states to balance their cherished values of national independence and sovereignty with the more current imperatives of regional integration.

Consolidation of the EU would prove a formidable challenge owing to the machinations of extremist and anti-immigration parties! The bloc needs a new vision in the 21st century.

The revolution will not be tweeted

A little local censorship is less of an evil compared to messages being fully scrubbed out from the public domain worldwide. That would seem to be the logic behind micro-blogging website Twitter's proposed system of reactively withholding tweets in a specific country when there is a valid request from a legal authority.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : The revolution will not be tweeted: "The actual effects of the micro-censorship are yet to unfold, but activists have a point when they say internet giants are too willing to make compromises on online freedoms in return for expanded business opportunities. If commercial services looking for greater profit can be manipulated by governments, would it not be more attractive to develop non-profit, open source software, and social networking alternatives?"

"Twitter and others like it who crave the support of millions must decide whose side they are on, oppressive regimes or the citizen."

'It wasn't easy getting help from government departments to study Bose'

Q&A


Even as Subhash Chandra Bose's 115th birth anniversary was recently observed, Tapan Chattopadhyay, retired IPS officer who worked in the Intelligence Bureau for two decades, spoke with Rakhi Chakrabarty about how Netaji shook up the British Raj, the Indian National Army (INA) - and why many remain ignorant of Bose's role in winning India's freedom:


Interview - Q&A

-The Times of India, January 30, 2012

Whispering Forties

Cut down on cake, not the icing of human relationships


Whispering Forties

-The Times of India, January 30, 2012

The forties of one's life brings to the fore a clear distinction. How do the forties affect you? Or, rather, how does life affect your forties?

Letter From America: Blistering box-office barnacles!

"The Adventures of Tintin raises an interesting question about the cartoon character's popularity on the other side of the Atlantic."

The question really is, why has Tintin not swept the box office and the bookstores, the way Marvel Comics superheroes like Spiderman and Batman do? The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Letter From America: Blistering box-office barnacles!

The article opines that "Tintin's fate in the Americas may have been sealed owing to the monopoly muscle of Marvel Comics, since 2009 owned by the Walt Disney Company."


"Atlantic has proved more impermeable to the passage of Tintin than the many sands he crossed to enter the farthest reaches of Asia and Africa."

Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger

India should use Taiwan's help to break into the Sinosphere

Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger

-The Times of India, January 30, 2012

India's 'Look East' policy, which has so far ignored Taiwan, has to start setting its eyes on Taipei. This will help India break into the Sinosphere, "which could soon be (or has already become) the second most important cultural zone after the Anglosphere."

"Taiwan is a friendly country that can not only help India fulfil some of its domestic economic objectives, but also strategic goals vis-a-vis China."

The author, Mr. Ganguly, suggests that "New Delhi could sign a free trade deal with Taipei and invite it to help set up an industrial corridor between, say, Delhi and Kolkata (just as the Japanese are facilitating the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor)."

Such a partnership will suit the Taiwanese since they will, hence, not find "all their eggs in the Chinese basket."

"It is time to move towards a more robust partnership."

Identity, Please

Security shouldn't derail Aadhaar enrolment

Identity, Please

-The Times of India, January 30, 2012

600 million of 1.2 billion residents will be apportioned to UIDAI and the home ministry each. Such a compromise, although "mechanical and unimaginative," is welcome in order to keep the Aadhaar process ticking.

The Aadhaar holds benefits for poor, for example, "to gain access to services on the market like banking, provident funds, pensions and telecom." For this reason, the government should not look to rush through the process due to an "excessive emphasis" on security, because it may leave out the very people it aims to benefit - the poor and the migrants. 

The iron hand that rocks the cradle

"Almost all families attacked by Norway's ‘child protection services' are good and loving. Some need help but most of them need nothing other than to be left in peace."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : The iron hand that rocks the cradle: The 'child protection services' (CPS) smashes the family and destroys the individuals. In their ideology, family ties are unimportant; they speak not of parents but “caregivers.”

The CPS, in order to have work, wants children and they attack anybody who is vulnerable. That means mostly poor people, Norwegians as well as foreigners, because they are helpless to defend themselves.

The general population chooses to disbelieve and despise the families, to believe CPS lies, and to believe that they themselves could never be hit because they are such good parents!

Anna, Fading

By raising quixotic demands, Anna Hazare is diluting the anti-corruption fight

Anna, Fading

-The Times of India, January 30, 2012

Anna Hazare-led anti graft upsurge has gone astray, says the editor, in light of its recent "idiosyncratic demands" like a 'referendum commission' along the lines of the Election Commission, which seeks a popular vote to precede every legislative initiative.

Not only has it gone astray politically, but socially too. His endorsement of slapping "derelict politicians" has been strikingly different from the Gandhian image he seeks to portray.

In spite of discussions being held on the Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare has "demanded fresh laws, none of which are pragmatic or feasible."

In conclusion, the editor says, "Anna would do well to remember that civil society is larger than a particular individual, however popular he may be."