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Shall We Elect the President?

By Bala Murali Krishna Mon, May 07, 2012 7:16PM UTC View Comments

India may have run its course in tokenism as far as presidential choices are concerned. More than one Muslim has held the position as the country’s titular head; and a Sikh (Zail Singh), Dalit (K.R. Narayanan) and woman (incumbent Pratibha Patil) have each held the august office. Unless somebody comes up with a Christian or...

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India graduates from shoe throwing to slapping

By Sriram Vadlamani Fri, Nov 25, 2011 11:13AM UTC View Comments

P. Chidambaram, Naveen Jindal, LK Advani and Suresh Kalmadi all have one dubious distinction: they’ve had shoes thrown at them. I wish I could add India’s Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, to that list of shoe receivers. But Mr Pawar wasn’t as lucky as his colleagues. Mr Pawar got slapped. Now that’s progress. Harvinder Singh, the...

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Opinion: Slap-happy Singh deserves full force of the law

By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Fri, Nov 25, 2011 4:08AM UTC View Comments

Indian Harvinder Singh looks out from inside a vehicle after being detained by policemen in New Delhi, India, Thursday. Pic: AP.

However much politicians as a class might dither on introducing safeguards against corruption and however much some leaders may have a record that is not exactly clean, there is no way one can justify the moral brigade from going around slapping the Sharad Pawars and Sukh Rams. It is true that middle class in India...

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What will it take to end corruption in India?

By Bala Murali Krishna Wed, Apr 06, 2011 9:44PM UTC View Comments

Social activist Anna Hazare’s fast unto death, started on April 5, should provide us an answer to that question. For, his protest fast is a test not just of the politicians’ resolve to fudge legislation to fight corruption but a test of what civil society will do to back such movements. Over the last 48...

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In India, do coalitions lead to bad governance?

By Bala Murali Krishna Fri, Jan 14, 2011 5:05PM UTC View Comments

As the onion crisis has raged over the past several weeks, much has been made about hoarding by traders, the lack of agricultural reforms that can help farmers benefit from higher prices, and the lack of a refrigerated food chain that could rein in prices of all foodstuffs. All of them deserve due attention but,...

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