Dheeraj Kalgutkar

Amartya Sen: Will return Bharat Ratna if Vajpayee asks it. Renowned economist and Bharat Ratna awardee Amartya Sen sparked debate  while he accidentally pressed the trigger of already upbeat Modi brigade. "As an Indian citizen I don't want Modi as my PM, he has not done enough for minorities or for the majority," said Sen in an interview with CNN-IBN. What followed later on was unfortunate of its  kind in a democracy as large as India which boasts of its liberal democratic principles and vividity at large. Narendra Modi is good or bad in itself is an altogether different issue. But don't we have right to have our opinions, don't we have right to speak our mind, shall we worry about the consequences before uttering anything? Where are we heading? Who is Modi after all? A CM of one Indian state and if all goes as one desires then will become Prime Minister of India. What difference will that make? Will it change how we speak or will it chan

40 MPs from Loksabha and 20 from Rajyasabha have pleaded with President Barack Obama not to grant Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi an US visa! Not a day goes literally without a statement from partisans across the political hue on Modi saying he is no threat to us, he doesn't symbolize bigger issue, we aren't afraid/worried of him, he is just another CM, no national leader, etc.. Alright. Then why this acts of impatience and intolerance? Don't they suffice enough to say how impatient our leaders have become about 'rise of Modi'? There is no problem in writing to US or China. Everybody has a right to it and they can do whatsoever permissible under constitution and constitution permits it. Issue to me is larger than what it appears on surface. They can write to Obama, in fact have plausible right to do so. But why only Obama and why only Narendra Modi and his visa issue. Why not anything else? And what if Modi gets an US visa? Why do you've pr

Mid-day meal which was supposed to be a game-changer of the sort is turning into a mass-murderer in many parts of the nation to which Bihar is a new entry after 20 children died and several seriously got ill after consuming meal served in school which allegedly was made using second-grade oil. Mid-Day meal on paper promises to eradicate malnutrition among children and to some extent encourage children attend schools and reduce high dropout rates which are staggering high in some remote parts of nation. But is it serving its purpose? Irony is in the way these scheme is handled across the nation. In some parts it's through NGOs and at few teachers themselves manage the same. In Bihar where this incident occurred it was teachers who used see its whereabouts. It was whole & sole there responsibility to see commodities are of good quality and to look at how it's cooked and served. It's sad to say the least that they have failed miserably. Their run-away from