Dheeraj Kalgutkar

While AAP lost to BJP, Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia were also defeated in their respective constituencies      Many, especially people in Delhi, saw this coming. In a way, it is good. Or as someone mentioned, it was inevitable. Just like how it was important to defeat UPA at the height of their powers and ego trip in 2014, equally, it had become important and necessary to defeat the politics of Arvind Kejriwal. He was thinking that a mini-version of BJP's politics was the strategy to go by. He repeatedly projected himself as the better version of BJP's divisive politics - as if he could hate Muslims but continue to also provide free public services. At every step of the way in recent times, he projected himself as more religious and narrowminded than the BJP. He even avoided supporting his own Muslim legislator and rallied against admitting children of migrants in schools. Forget about his actions concerning Shaheen Bagh and CAA. And of course, he had grown hubris that he ...

Dear Modi supporters, Let me make it easier and clear for you. Remember the ‘Indira is India, India is Indira,’ cry of Congress. Well, you are increasingly imitating those sycophants. No matter who is the leader, India has been India, is and will remain so. Yes, Modi is the popular leader but there are still people in few (or most of) villages who don’t know who Modi is. So calm down. Here is something on Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), mocking India or celebrating India’s defeat in getting breakthrough at Seoul, banning Chinese goods to teach China a lesson they won’t forget and a bit more. First things first, yes China opposed India’s bid to become member nation of NSG but it was not China alone. In addition to China, Switzerland and Brazil, both nations which previously supported India’s claim, withdrew their support. Switzerland, in case you forgot, was the country which our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a tour of. ‘Futile’ is the word you must be looking for. Ap...

R K Laxman would have been happy to see his Common Man take centre-stage and not stay somewhere in corner The creator of Common Man, late RK Laxman sir would have been triumphant to see his common man script history on political mindscape of India. His common man is no more the silent spectator but have grown to be wise enough now to exercise his power which our system bestows him once in five years. He not just watches the drama unfolding before him but takes note of who is saying what and who is doing what, and then punches the vote so hard that even the man on whose sole shoulders a party rode to power with astounding majority fails to manage to save its face. Single digit for a party who stormed national and state elections few months ago is just sham and nothing! Did Aam Aadmi Party use any intelligent strategy, master-stroke in now-just-over-historic Delhi elections? They didn’t. The AAP precisely used the open nature of Indian Democracy where nothing is written...

Forget ‘How often’, when in history have we seen head-of-the-state sitting on  dharna  for change in his own state? When newspapers and electronic media dubbed AamAadmi Party ‘s rise as ‘history in making’, I personally giggled, for it was mere an entrant cracking exams in first attempt! Where was that‘new’ or ‘alternative’ in it? Yes, the idea of Swaraj (self-rule) which our constitution has laid out already but we never felt it, but then, it was just a talk, a manifesto to woo impatient voters. Such innovative, out-of-the-box manifestos were not new to Indian voters; each new election year, with old promises, we are sold for a few new ones and as-fast-as-that they are forgotten once they start travelling under VIP red beacons. Just as simple as that! Okay, AAP ended the VIP culture with no red beacons and put an end to ‘You-know-who-my-father-is’ dialogue- baazis . This was new for the state but then again, not the one to dub history-in-making,for we already ha...

  Arvind Kejriwal: Will he be the change India desperately look up to? Those familiar with power corridors will probably know how much pivotal, colossal of power, a sort of nucleus, Delhi is to the supposed yet-to-be superpower; that is India. And that nucleus of a powerhouse is scheduled to go for votes this winter on December 4 and unlike two parties that sweat here over and over again each time capital went to vote, this time people will have another in their kitty to chose from - Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the first time after its launch last October goes to poll this December. With that people will have three different choices or is it just two with BJP misreading writings on a wall? Time only will tell what! For those who keep a tab on record books, this time you will not be disappointed either way! If India's grand old party - Congress cracks the Delhi juggernaut, CM Sheila Dixit would rewrite congress' record books with her record fou...

After many days of silence and sober appearances Rahul Gandhi has taken a stand on something as grave and important as this ordinance which aimed to nullify Supreme Court order barring convicted MPs from parliament. In his strong statement, Gandhi scion has called the ordinance 'nonsense', thereby giving an all new dimension to Indian politics which survived barely on party whip and decisions taken from high-command. In a nation where politicians rarely speak their mind fearing an ouster from the party, this comes as a shocker from Vice President of India's grand old party that has precisely defined India of today in its decades long administration. Earlier, Supreme Court has passed an order making it impossible for 'criminal' MPs to continue in both houses of parliament. The order was seen as an effort, a move towards cleansing a rotten system crushing under dirty hands of corruption. Many had seen it as a move that will restore voters  confidence ...

There was a time when some pundits used to provide vague theories of rape, one was - Gen Y wear what's provocative so man gets weird thoughts of lust and it just happens. As simple as that! Is it?   Let us not waste hours in discussing what India must year and what not to, what should they eat or at least not on how should they behave in here or anywhere else on this planet. At last the recent tales of rapes from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh silences their theories where a four and five year old little children have been inhumanly raped by men of horrific age gives us more often a sense of how beleaguered and senseless society we have become. Just remember when in last year, a bench of HC had said, they find themselves clueless how a baby sleeping at home could incite lust in the mind of a thief who came to burglar but went on to rape and and dump her in drainage. No words of shamelessness could well aptly describe or shame those indulged in such crimes. There even doesn...