Dheeraj Kalgutkar

India is a diverse nation, our strength lies in our unity or so are we told since school but what we are not taught is how this very diversity is time and again exploited by certain elements to sow seeds of hate in the society we live in. Just last week we saw this happening in Delhi where a parking feud spiralled into communal confrontation , a boy went missing (?), a temple was vandalized, quickly came the men with slogans and then there was more. There is a lot to learn from this but I’m quite sure we would not. There is a reason why riots keep happening in India and people who until that day lived shoulder-to-shoulder burn each other’s houses and seek more blood. Until we understand this pattern and intentions behind people who initiate these ghastly crimes, the kind of unknown non-local faces who visit the disturbed towns, we will continue to reel under these riots. India has seen many riots since 1980. Far too many. And one must try to retrace their origins, reasons why ...

Before I even start, I must just warn you of the unprecedented propaganda that was and is done to demean and to make fun of Rahul in public eye to an extent where no commentator starts pieces like this with, you see, I don't think Rahul is the leader we deserve but blah blah. Certainly, we deserve better. No doubt. But is Modi the leader this largest democracy deserves? Absolutely not. But we elected him. We saw him shake every fabric of this republic. We saw him break rules, disrespect parliament by undercutting it, making a mockery in face of NaMo tv (I know he isn't it's CEO or chairman!). Truth is, that propaganda has worked. The fake news has flourished. And Rahul tweeting smart things or visiting a college or two won't change it. Television isn't gonna help. It has become too imbalanced for his or his party's message. So here are few things that will go a long way. It is no secret and now there is no point hiding from it, Congress has the most ...

Screenshot of the post from a RW website So a right-wing friend of mine who believes Congress is the worst thing that happened to India and Modi the best, sent me this piece ( How the Congress Party has Surrendered to the Breaking India Forces) to read, so that I get aware of how Congress looted India. I usually do not indulge my time into these recommendations if they aren’t from known and reputed sources but this request was coming on repeat and from a school friend so I dived in. Here’s what the article had. Unbelievable gobbledygook. Our ancient political thinkers didn’t randomly make politics subservient to civilization and culture — it was the result of deep, sustained philosophical reflection on the nature of things and the nature of fundamental human impulses itself. Who are these thinkers? What did they say? How did what they said made politics subservient to civilization and culture? No answers. We are just presented with wisdom like a good old relig...

Across the world, democracy is seeing a fast decline. Now one may deny, dismiss or raise unwarranted doubt over this at one’s own risk but it is an observable fact across the globe. "In Turkey and Egypt, Hungary and Poland, the Philippines and Venezuela, we are witnessing pseudo-democracies taking hold. Meanwhile, democracies that once inspired - South Africa, Brazil - are now marred by depressing stories of corruption. For the 12th consecutive year, Freedom House released its annual survey of democracy being pushed back: between 2000 and 2015, democracy broke down in 27 countries; 71 countries suffered 'net declines in civil and political liberties'", said former director of BBC news, James Harding in his Hugh Cudlipp lecture. Propaganda is fast becoming the chosen tool of politicians and what more, we are seeing that it is working, authoritarianism is on rise everywhere, people especially the young are losing their belief in institutions, citizens n...

People including Modi who are saying Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his ideals would be remembered for ages to come are lying. No, they will not. For a decade or more now Vajpayee was inactive in politics but he was alive yet his ideals weren’t. Forget ideals, even his picture slowly disappeared from BJP’s billboards and made way for Modi and Amit Shah’s. His close confidant Advani was sidelined so much so that he is hardly ever given chance to speak in parliament now which he regularly attends, unlike our PM. All these people who day in and day out spew hate against Nehru forget that although Vajpayee was Nehru’s opponent he wasn’t a bitter man. When he had become Foreign Minister, he noticed how Nehru’s portrait that was always visible in South Block was missing. He immediately inquired and had it restored. He opposed Nehru on his policies bitterly but not the man. Upon Nehru’s demise, speaking in parliament, Vajpayee rendered heartwarming elegy “a dream has remained half-fulfille...

I’m a slow reader and a human, there are times when I miss reading something and there are times when I choose to not react if I feel I know not enough, West Bengal’s Panchayat elections were one of them. This one is on West Bengal and the elections that were concluded some time back, but do not fret, what happened in Bengal wasn’t a stray incident that loses its relevance after a day or week, the Bengal election will come to haunt us in future if we do not pay attention to it. In West Bengal, Of the 58,792 seats in total, one-third is where opposition (left front and BJP) didn’t field their candidates. Mamata Banerjee’s TMC won them uncontested. Across the country we see these uncontested seats where candidates win without a fight and people (or supporters of that candidate) celebrate this as some macho victory but they forget that this is anathema to the practice of democracy. What do you think? All the people in a constituency love their one leader, so much so that not one ...

Let me tell you an important story which for all reasons will be retold for years to come as our democracy transforms in coming decades. Way back in March 2014, 10 days before the general elections, the Delhi High Court found both BJP and Indian National Congress guilty of accepting foreign funds . The court ruled that these parties were violating the FCRA and were slated to be disqualified because both of them had taken donations from Vedanta and its subsidiaries — which are foreign entities — between 2004 and 2012.  — via Newslaundry.com I know how you are feeling. This was just before the biggest elections that voted in Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of the Republic of India. Imagine those elections without BJP and Congress; just imagine.  If this is indeed true (which it is), how come both parties fought the elections? That’s the interesting bit to know how political parties fight their battles and unite with ‘rivals’ when need be but we will come ...