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3rd April 2022

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  3rd April 2022 Musings……. SriLanka Burning  What can gross mismanagement of the economy give you ? Well the answer is Sri Lanka.  Once upon a time, this island nation was considered a budding tourist destination with a vibrant democracy. All this seems to have changed for the worse within a few years.   Sri Lanka’s history as we all know has been a chequered one.    There was long years of civil war between the Singhalese speaking Government and the Tamil speaking LTTE in broadly speaking terms.  The centre and southern part of Sri Lanka is predominantly Singhalese speaking natives who form the majority and hold power in every government. The Tamil speaking minority is restricted to the North of Sri Lanka including in the district of Jaffna, and form the minority.  This internal strife lasted for years and there seemed no respite. We Indians can never forget this as we lost one of our most    dynamic Prime Ministers Shri. Rajiv Gandhi to a terrorist attack by the LTTE, for trying to
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31st March 2022

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  31st March 2022 Musings……. Russians and the letter Z  The letter Z has now become a graphic rallying point of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  It is interesting to note that the letter Z was initially painted in white on Thanks and military vehicles headed to Ukraine from Russia.  Anyone supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine have been seen wearing the letter on clothes as badges including influencers and politicians.  The letter Z has often appeared on social media with the hashtag #СвоихНеБросаем meaning " we dont abandon our own " .    This symbol has become so much popular that, a picture of terminally ill children from a cancer ward joined to create the letter Z within the hospital compound, and the picture went viral on the internet.  The Russian Ministry of defense has since explained on Instagram that the letter Z represents a number of slogans that begin with the Russian word "for" (Za). " For Victory", "For Peace".  Symbols are
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1st February 2022

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  1st Feb 2022   Musings…….  We all watched the other day, how Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest Tennis players of our times lift the Australian Open.  This was Rafael Nadal’s 21st Grand Slam Tournament win and surpassed both Roger Federer and Novak Djokowich both holding a record 20 Grand Slam wins.  The Wimbledon Tournament in London played on grass, the French Open on Clay, The US and Australian Opens played on hard court, are the four main Grand Slam tournaments and is winning these is considered the epitome of Tennis world.  All three greats have achieved career grand slams, which means winning all four of the major grand slams.  This years Australian open final was special in a way as this was one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed in Tennis History.  In fact Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard has become the only player to win from being two sets down in the Open Era.  The Open Era is the current era of professional tennis. It began in 1968 when the Grand Slam tournaments allowed p
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25th January 2022

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  25th Jan 2022 Musings……. Ukraine  So what actually is Russia’s problem with Ukraine ? To know this we must go back a bit into History, and we must know that Ukraine was a part of the Russian empire for centuries before becoming a Soviet republic. Later in 1991 it broke away as the USSR broke up and gained independence in 1991.  Since then Ukraine has been trying to shed its Russian imperial legacy and the current issue is a continuation of this of simply put.  In 2014 when then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided to reject an association agreement with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Moscow, it led to mass protests and led to his removal.  Then Russia had responded to the rebuttal by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and supporting a separatist rebellion that broke out in Donbas - East Ukraine. Ukrainian separatists hold, as we speak, the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk both bordering Russia.  Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly accu
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21st November 2021

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 Musings……. Power of the Common Man  The Farmers bill being repealed by the Modi led Central government comes as no surprise. The crucial states of Punjab and UP goes to polls in February 2022 and its results will mostly decide the mood of the Opposition for 2024.  The three contentious Farmers  bills were wrought with problems right from the beginning. From its hasty implementation through ordinances to its passing in Parliament without debate through a voice vote, the bill was bulldozed by the Government.  Public sentiment was against the bill right from the beginning. However, the central government which pushed through Demonetisation and GST, became complacent.  Both GST and Demonetisation did humongous damage to the economy, and was deemed by every expert on Economy as a policy failure. Still the Government survived it through their propaganda machinery and agenda setting.  This time too the Government would have thought it could hush any dissent given time. However, they seem to
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29th October 2021

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  Musings……. Vinod Rai  What can be said about this civil servant. Today he has tendered his unconditional apology to court in a defamation case filed by a Congress leader.    To be more specific former Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam had filed a defamation case against Vinod Rai, then CAG for alleging that the ex MP had pressured him to drop then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s name from his report.  Vinod Rai a Kerala cadre IAS officer, rose to National stardom when he as CAG reported on the 2G and coal block allocations. This led to the UPA- II government to be portrayed as corrupt.  What subsequently followed is anyone’s guess. Congress led government was comprehensively voted out in 2014, leading to the rise of Narendra Modi to the helm.  Since 2014 India is under majoritarian, right wing, Hindutva led NDA rule. What has it produced ? Blunder over blunder right from Demonetisation to botched up GST law, to mismanagement of the economy to huge price rise !!  The Petrol- Diesel- LPG pric
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2nd October 2021

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 Musings……. My Gandhi  Gandhiji has always been an invisible presence in my house. Or so I think !  My childhood was spent in New Delhi where I did my schooling. In our Government quarters there we used to have a huge portrait of Gandhiji. This is one of my earliest memory of Gandhi.  Coming from a Congress family ( such families are dwindling nowadays ) I was introduced very early to Gandhiji and his works.  In junior school there used to be plays where students dressed up as Gandhi and other freedom fighters and had to come up on stage to read a famous quote from these freedom fighters. I never got a chance to dress up as Gandhiji, though once I was Nehru !  Civics and History was my favourite subjects in school and the Freedom struggle was one of my favourite topics. I was so good at it that I used to wait for History class in school. On the contrary Maths was like my enemy and I dreaded Maths period.  So early on itself I was in awe of Gandhi and his heroic struggle for Freedom fro
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