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POSTED BY freya
ON Mar 07, 2013 AT 22:26 IST
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Edited At: Mar 07, 2013 22:26 IST
"When are you getting married?"
In this country of ours, anyone who is between 21 and 30 has heard this question being repeated over and over again, with minor syntax changes of course, by all and sundry. After that, they sort of give up and the question becomes a why.
One might wonder why everyone seems so interested in this very mundane detail about every young person’s life or why is it so necessary for everybody to want to do the same thing, almost at the same time, but let’s not get into that. So it should not be any surprise to anyone to find that even Rahul Gandhi is not quite safe from the nudging mausijis and maami jis. Since he generally hangs out with a bunch of 70-year olds and considering the amount of affection his party wallahs have for the little Rahul Baba, one can imagine his ordeal. 
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POSTED BY freya
ON Mar 07, 2013 AT 22:26 IST, Edited At: Mar 07, 2013 22:26 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Nov 05, 2012 AT 15:26 IST
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Edited At: Nov 05, 2012 15:26 IST
Taking Dr Subramanian Swamy's charges forward, N Sundaresha Subramanian & Kavita Chowdhury ask in the Business Standard: Did Congress pay Rs 89.5 cr to Sonia and Rahul through Young Indian?
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has, in effect, paid Rs 89.5 crore to Young Indian, a Section 25 company (meaning a not-for-profit one) controlled by party president Sonia Gandhi and her son, party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
From the notes of accounts, it appears this sum has effectively given the mother-son duo control over real estate assets running into several hundred crores of rupees.
Sonia and Rahul own 38 per cent each in Young Indian; party seniors Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes own 12 per cent each.
The notes to accounts for the year ended March 31, 2012, filed by Young Indian auditor Pradeep Shah and signed by directors Suman Dubey and Motilal Vora this April, give some clues on the actual structure of the transaction. “In pursuit of its objects, the company has acquired loan owed of Rs 90,21,68,980 by the Associated Journals, presently engaged in achieving a recast of its activities so as to have its main object congruent to the main object of the company, for a consideration of Rs 50 lakh,” the note said.
Thus, this transaction effectively has the effect of cleaning up the books of The Associated Journals (publishers of the now defunct National Herald daily, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru), wherein the entire liability is taken over by Young Indian.
The newspaper goes on to explain the various ramifications of the transaction, raising a number of questions prompting R. Jagannathan of the First Post to ask further, inter alia:
Why is Young Indian, which now effectively owns Associated Journals, not able to say what the real value of the assets acquired in the process is? The answer really lies here: if Associated Journals owns assets that are greater than Rs 90 crore, then the Congress essentially gifted Sonia and Rahul free ownership of assets in excess of Rs 90 crore – even if it is held in a non-profit company.
If, as Swamy alleges, the assets are valued at Rs 1,600 crore, then the nature of the impropriety is extraordinary. Nobody, even a non-profit, can acquire property worth several hundred crores with Rs 90 crore loans from a political party without explaining the reason for the same.
Earlier, Sandhya Jain provides more details about the Associated Journals in the Niti Central: Congress’s unique book-keeping culture
Associated Journals was set up at the initiative of Jawaharlal Nehru on November 19, 1937 (birthday of his daughter Indira) under the Indian Companies Act, 1913. It had a capital of Rs 5 lakh divided into 2000 Preference Shares of Rs 100 each carrying a fixed but non-cumulative dividend of five per cent per annum and 30,000 ordinary shares of Rs 10 each.
The Memorandum of Association announced its objective, “To establish and to carry on in the United Provinces and elsewhere the business of news agency, newspaper and magazine proprietors, printers and publishers and all similar and incidental trades thereof and in this connection to do all such things as may appear to the Directors to be in the interests of the Company” [3 (a)].
The signatories included Jawaharlal Nehru, Purushottamdas Tandon, J Narendra Deva, Kailash Nath Katju, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Mohan Lal Sakra and Krishna Dutta Paliwal. The document was witnessed by Govind Ballabh Pant.
That this venture was intended to be commercially viable is stated in article 3 (d) that the company may carry on any other business “which may seem to the company capable to being carried on in connection with the above or calculated directly or indirectly to enhance the value or render profitable any of the company’s property or rights”....
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Nov 05, 2012 AT 15:26 IST, Edited At: Nov 05, 2012 15:26 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Nov 02, 2012 AT 23:32 IST
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Edited At: Nov 02, 2012 23:32 IST
In Karan Thapar's Last Word on CNN-IBN, the Janta Party president, was asked why his charges against Rahul and Sonia Gandhi were not as big front-page news as Arvind Kejriwal's charges against Robert Vadra, or Aaj Tak's charges against Salman Khurshid, and if this was because the press was biased against him:
from around 11:48 onwards:
Subramanian Swamy: The press is not biased against me but the press is amenable to pressure and since I have many members of my family who are in the press, I get an inside view of how that pressure works - whether it works through an SMS or a direct telephone phone call...
Karan Thapar: Can you be explicit? Pressure from whom?
Subramanian Swamy: Pressure from people in authority.
Karan Thapar: The Congress party or the Gandhis directly?
Subramanian Swamy: Well, of course the Gandhis. Definitely they've their hatchet men who perform that role...
Karan Thapar: Can I interrupt and ask as to how come that pressure didn't apply when Vadra got exposed as that was front page news repeatedly for a long time.
Subramanian Swamy: Well, I can say that there is an explanation for that. You want to hear that explanation?
Karan Thapar: Very quickly, yes.
Subramanian Swamy: Well, I think Mr Vadra is not a very popular man in the Gandhi family... and there is... I know... you'd say I am getting into personal matters, but there is a separation process going on...and there is a division of property which has become very messy...
Karan Thapar: You are being Machiavellian. Are you suggesting that the Gandhis themselves saw it in their interest to allow stories about Vadra to hit the front pages?
Subramanian Swamy : That's right, that's right...That's what I am saying...
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Nov 02, 2012 AT 23:32 IST, Edited At: Nov 02, 2012 23:32 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Oct 12, 2012 AT 19:29 IST
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Edited At: Oct 12, 2012 19:29 IST
Rahul Gandhi said 7 out of 10 or 70% yesterday during his visit to Punjab
Chander Suta Dogra reported in January last year:
Although there has been no comprehensive study yet to determine the number of drug addicts in the state, a couple of surveys conducted by the state health department has thrown up the fearsome estimate that between 50 per cent to 60 per cent of young people between the ages of 16 and 35 are addicted to drugs...
A recent study by Dr Ravinder Sandhu of Guru Nanak Dev University shows that the incidence of such crimes in Punjab is nine times the national average. Between 1999 and 2008 (the years when Punjab was recovering from the aftermath of terrorism), such crimes registered a staggering 245 per cent increase. Punjab became the state with the highest number of narcotics-related crimes, surpassing Mizoram which earlier held this dubious distinction.
But, is there an accurate estimate? Guru Nanak Dev University sociologist Ranvinder Sandhu, told Jason Overdorf of the Global Post in May this year, no one really knows. Jason Overdorf wrote:
nobody knows how many of the state's young people are addicts. But the problem is bad enough that when a series of newspaper articles misquoted a study conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University sociologist Ranvinder Sandhu that claimed nearly three-quarters of Punjab's 16- to 35-year olds were addicted to drugs, hardly anybody batted an eye.
“As far as the extent of the problem is concerned, no study has been done,” Sandhu said in a telephone interview with GlobalPost. “There are many articles which are misquoting my study, saying that 73.5 percent of youth is hooked to drugs in Punjab. That is wrong. I studied a sample of 600 addicts, and among them I found that the majority were from 16-35 years of age. That is the 73.5 percent.”
This is perhaps what accounts for Rahul Gandhi's figure.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Oct 12, 2012 AT 19:29 IST, Edited At: Oct 12, 2012 19:29 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 22, 2012 AT 18:26 IST
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Edited At: Sep 22, 2012 18:26 IST
Aditi Phadnis in the Business Standard:
Singh conveyed to Chidambaram well before he was made finance minister that he was getting the job. Chidambaram had some conditions. “It is easy to be finance minister during a boom,” he told Singh. “But times are bad.” Just as PV Narasimha Rao had backed his finance minister (Singh), would Singh back him and keep the wise men of the party out of his hair? Singh told Chidambaram that he would get his full support. He also promised to intercede on his behalf with the party.
Actually, this was unnecessary. Chidambaram has a new place in the dispensation at 10 Janpath since he became home minister in 2008. He has taken a lot upon himself, including the blame for making an “announcement” offering to think about granting statehood to Telangana — when it wasn’t his idea at all but that of the MP from Amethi; in fact he had counselled against it. The party realised later that it was a mistake and it was left to Chidambaram to take the flak — which he did without complaining. When he became finance minister, Chidambaram met Congress President Sonia Gandhi several times to explain how delicately poised the Indian economy was, between stupendous success in hard times and complete disaster...
...at the end of the day, the transition from “with Mamata” to “without Mamata” has, if you think about it, been pretty smooth — leading the chatterati to ask why it wasn’t done sooner. The answer seems to be: because Chidambaram was not the finance minister...
..Is Chidambaram becoming to the government what Mukherjee was? Actually, a lot more. It is Chidambaram, with his unique powers of persuasion, who is now going to act as the channel of communication between 10 Janpath and the PMO. Unlike in the past, nothing will be lost in translation.
Read the full piece at the Business Standard: The Knight In Veshti
So why is the Rahul-was-behind- the-Telangana-statehood-announcement story out now? One obvious possibility: it was clearly a blunder way back then, but now when Congress is close to granting it, perhaps it wants some of the goodwill in the new state to transfer to the yuvraj.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 22, 2012 AT 18:26 IST, Edited At: Sep 22, 2012 18:26 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 11, 2012 AT 23:59 IST
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Edited At: Sep 11, 2012 23:59 IST
The Economist takes a look at Aarthi Ramachandran's Decoding Rahul Gandhi and concludes:
Since the poll in UP Mr Gandhi has made little impact on Indian politics. That would change quickly if he is indeed promoted to a higher position and takes on a bigger role. But the growing impression of the man—certainly the one promoted by Mrs Ramachandran’s “Decoding Rahul Gandhi”—is of a figure so far ill-prepared to be a leading politician in India.
Just possibly, therefore, this is the moment for Congress to dare to think of something radical: of reorganising itself on the basis of policies, ideas and a vision for how India should develop, and not on a particular dynasty that seems, after various iterations, to be getting less and less useful. Mrs Ramachandran’s book does not touch on this thought, but it is high time for the powerful within Congress to think about it.
Read the full article at the Economist: The Rahul Problem
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 11, 2012 AT 23:59 IST, Edited At: Sep 11, 2012 23:59 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Feb 22, 2012 AT 23:30 IST
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Edited At: Feb 22, 2012 23:30 IST
Rohit Pradhan in rediff:
Sure, it appears that Rahul Gandhi believes fervently in redistributionist policies, but what exactly are his economic policies?
Indeed, is there any discernible difference between the economic agendas of Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati? Or Uma Bharti, for that matter?
Rahul Gandhi's performance as a political leader is perhaps the most disappointing because unlike the Jaitleys and Swarajs he faces no internal challenges.
He can force the Congress to get rid of its old socialist baggage and become a truly secular and forward looking political formation. Instead, he has confused minority communalism with secularism and entitlements with development.
In India, affiliation to a storied family name and being of certain age almost automatically confers on dynasts the title of 'youth icon.' Rahul Gandhi is a youth icon, we are told. So is apparently Akhilesh Yadav. But to his credit Yadav at least has attempted to move the Samajwadi Party away from an era of openly hobnobbing with criminals and encouraging goonda raj.
In contrast, with Rahul Gandhi at helm, the Congress is rapidly and happily riding and embracing the past.
Read the full article at rediff: Rahul is too busy now to worry about India's future
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Feb 22, 2012 AT 23:30 IST, Edited At: Feb 22, 2012 23:30 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Dec 27, 2011 AT 07:48 IST
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Edited At: Dec 27, 2011 07:48 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express:
Ashis Nandy once made the powerful point that communalism was not about the “facts of religion”. It was about its self-conscious use as a political tool, often by people who did not believe in it. Casteism, is also not about the fact of caste. It is about the use of caste to make three claims. First, that people have compulsory identities which they cannot transcend, ever. Institutions should act as if no one can be more or less than their caste. Second, the point of social policy is not to empower individuals to escape the deprivations of caste, but to trap them in it. Third, that the only possible test of the legitimacy of institutions is if they mirror social reality, not if they transform it into something better. All of the Congress’s actions, from its support of the methodologically dubious caste census to its policies on reservation, suggest that it has become casteist in this sense.
It has also become communal in the sense that Hamid Dalwai so presciently diagnosed decades ago. It perpetuates the idea of minority as a political category, so that it can keep them in its place and use them. And, in the context of the Lokpal bill, it has cynically used them again. The Congress has ruled India for more than 50 years. But if India is more unjust along caste lines, minorities are more marginalised, surely the Congress is to blame. What is it about its paradigm of politics that it can effectively help neither Muslims nor Dalits? The caste parties may have narrow agendas; sections of the BJP may be pathologically incapable of thinking beyond identity. But what is the Congress’s excuse?
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Dec 27, 2011 AT 07:48 IST, Edited At: Dec 27, 2011 07:48 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Dec 15, 2011 AT 02:04 IST
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Edited At: Dec 15, 2011 02:04 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express, last week:
Dear Mr Gandhi: The elections in Uttar Pradesh are, understandably, your major preoccupation. It is difficult to predict the result. But even if you do well, will India have reason to celebrate? Electoral success will show that you are better than the opposition. But that bar is now so low that it is almost an embarrassment to trumpet that one is merely better than the opposition. In 2009, the Congress got as propitious a mandate as any party could have expected. There was hope and expectation. The opposition, both on the left and right, was decimated. But what did India gain? It frittered away the good times. Instead of using growth to lay a secure foundation for the future, and create conditions where the scourge of poverty can be removed, we undermined the prospects for growth. We have high inflation, worrying public debt, slowing growth, uncertain currency prospects, falling investment, crushing interest rates...
Your party may not have some of the worst, exclusivist tendencies of your rivals. But you have not found ways of transcending the traps of identity politics that have kept India small...
Your party is trapped in two illusions. First, governance and politics are different issues. Second, only those policies that specifically address poor people affect the poor. You wreck the macro-economy in the name of the poor, and then cheat the poor because you refuse to govern...
Read the full piece at the Indian Express: Tomorrow's Battles
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Dec 15, 2011 AT 02:04 IST, Edited At: Dec 15, 2011 02:04 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 14, 2011 AT 23:06 IST
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Edited At: Sep 14, 2011 23:06 IST
Samar Halarnkar in the Hindustan Times :
This is why we widely tolerate — even applaud — police brutality; why middle India will rise to back Anna Hazare but ignore Irom Sharmila; why we want Kashmir and Manipur to remain with India but could not care less about the Kashmiris or Manipuris.
India’s new nationalism demands conformity, not rebellion, and it will back only issues of self-interest; it proclaims all Indians are equal, while being blind to or condoning discrimination against minorities.
As the middle-class expands in number and aspirations — both material and political — its nationalism of self-interest will demand political subservience.
Narendra Modi realised very early that the middle class is growing, its soaring aspirations require good governance, and it will accept a strong, even autocratic, leader. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are yet focused on old, paternalistic politics that promote handouts, loyalty and state munificence over efficiency.
This will change. No amount of Dalit homestays and parachute trips to troublespots will help Gandhi unless he engages with India’s new nationalism.
Elections, particularly national elections are complex issues, and the Indian middle class is certainly not homogenous. Does the above seem like simplistic theorising? Or does it capture a reality?
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 14, 2011 AT 23:06 IST, Edited At: Sep 14, 2011 23:06 IST
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