Jairam Ramesh advises NGO leader to stay away from politics

Times View - Can't farewell social work
Counter View - Activists are not politicians


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Jairam-Ramesh-advises-NGO-leader-to-stay-away-from-politics/articleshow/12235940.cms

-The Times of India, March 13, 2012

The final countdown in Nepal

"Political parties have less than three months to resolve three issues — integration of Maoist combatants, form of government, federalism — that will shape state structure for years to come."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : The final countdown in Nepal: By any stretch, these are enormously challenging tasks. Instead of getting embroiled in short term power-sharing games, Nepal's political leaders would be well advised to focus on the big issues with long-term consequences, and fulfil the mandate of the 2006 People's Movement. 

Adrift in Andhra

"Nothing seems to be going right for the Congress and its government in Andhra Pradesh. If it's not Telangana, then it's the revolt within that keeps the Kiran Kumar Reddy government permanently in a crisis mode. Far from providing any respite, the disqualification of 16 Congress Members "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Adrift in Andhra: At stake is not just the survival of the State government but the long-term future of the Congress in south India's largest province. Going by the way it has mishandled the political challenges posed by the Telangana and Jagan factors, the party will be struggling to hold its own in Andhra Pradesh.

Numbers in search of a narrative

"Using voter turnout to predict the outcome of an election is fraught with risks."

Increased voter participation can have many causes. And the voting pattern is as varied as the causes. Unless there is one pre-dominant (and, therefore, easily identifiable) factor in an election, there is no way to analyse how an increased voting percentage will affect the outcome. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Numbers in search of a narrative If the factors are varied, then one factor could counteract another, making any prediction hazardous.

There is no simple co-relation between voter turnout and election outcomes. Without going into the specifics of which section in which area voted in increased numbers, it is pointless to talk about how turnout will impact on the result. The turnout is dependent on voter interest, and this, in many cases, is not any one thing.

No one grand theory will hold; no one methodology is adequate.

Why caste persists in politics

"An internal code, culture and values make a caste special to its members."

The reason for the persistence of caste in politics has to do with the internal code of the caste, its positive aspects, its culture. This aspect erodes more slowly, if it erodes at all, because it is felt. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Why caste persists in politics:

The fact is that the Indian votes confessionally. For him or her, merit comes from caste values. This condition may not be forever unalterable. But it is evident that modernity by itself has thus far not dented it as it has the prescriptive aspect of caste.

Home, work and worship are precisely where caste is embedded most powerfully, and the reason why caste consciousness persists in 2012. Voting is only an extension of this consciousness that has, in fact, not changed that much.

Labor against itself

"As expected, Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has easily held off former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd's leadership challenge with a ballot of ruling Australian Labor Party MPs"

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Labor against itself: The party has been very badly tarnished; Ms Gillard will want to get on with policy, but will need to communicate far better with the voters.

Check the criminality

"If the cruelly apathetic handling by officers of the Kolkata police of a serious complaint brought before them by a woman of having been raped and assaulted in the heart of the city wasn't bad enough, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's misinformed or hubristic attempt to dismiss her charge as a story that was cooked up to malign her government, was even worse. "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Check the criminality: Such atrocious remarks might be driven by political expediency but they are typical of how sections of Indian society continue to view crimes against women.

Ms Banerjee and her team need to do some serious introspection with regard to the State government's will, and ability, to put the lid firmly on criminality of all kinds that pervade the State.

Wilting saffron, flailing government

"In its only southern stronghold, the BJP is adrift and discredited."

With one year left for the next assembly elections, the BJP in Karnataka is adrift and discredited, its track record tainted with corruption scams, its support base dissipating, and its ideological agenda unravelling. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Wilting saffron, flailing government: How did this happen to a "party with a difference," one that promised to make Karnataka the springboard of the BJPs expansion in the south by providing model, corruption-free governance?

Beholden to powerful factions within the party, notably the mining lobby and the land mafia, the party has never been able to seriously address its pre-poll promises to the people. To make matters worse for the scandal-ridden government, it was losing its moorings in Hindutva, further alienating it from its core support base.

Stranded between an unfulfilled mission of governance, a floundering ideological project, and the demands of its faction-ridden support base, the BJP’s Karnataka paradigm is steadily coming apart.

Arresting tales of M. Natarajan

"AIADMK's powerful mystery man, a.k.a. Sasikala's husband."

Natarajan is in the news after being arrested on a charge of land grabbing, an action seen as part of an ongoing political purge following the expulsion of Ms. Sasikala from the Jayalalithaa household and the party, along with a host of family members. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Arresting tales of M. Natarajan

The latest arrest of Natarajan is unlikely to end speculation on what his real role is in the political drama playing out partially before the public eye and largely behind it.

Elsewhere, there may be a mystery behind every crime; in Tamil Nadu, the mystery is more in the arrest than in the offence.

A determined attempt to cleanse administration

The Hindu : Opinion / Interview : 'A determined attempt to cleanse administration'

Year Of Protests

2011 shows that no government can take its people for granted

Article - Year Of Protests

-The Times of India, December 23, 2011

Cleansing party and administration

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Cleansing party and administration: