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 ...

Or How Hindusim Came Into Being; Brief History Of Hindu Religion For Zoomers-n-Boomers Who Refuse To Pick Books Ayodhya Temple As Of Today. Courtesy: Newslaundry.com I was just on a call with my distant neighbour who after the regular round of questions asked me if I had received the Ram-Mandir-Rice (akshata). For those who haven’t and don’t know about what’s going on, people associated with BJP-RSS have been going door-to-door and distributing some posters related to the new temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh along with some colourful uncooked-unbroken-rice in tiny plastic pack (hardly 20 gram). Akshata basically consists of uncooked un-broken pieces of rice which is mixed with turmeric. It is sometimes used to bless bride and groom during weddings. Akshata is also sprinkled during other auspicious ceremonies. When Akshata is offered to a deity, it is believed to be the finest offering that a devotee can make. Akshata is believed to be equal to offering clothes, jewelry, food, or ...

    We are against terrorism. Aren’t we? I don’t remember anyone defending Ajmal Kasab. Or for instance Masood Azhar. But now I doubt we were against terrorism then or are now with respect to Azhar for instance. We have just elected ‘Sadhvi’ Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused awaiting trial in the 2008 Malegaon bombings with astounding margin nonetheless. That doesn’t fit into fighting terrorism, does it? There are other things to read from this and previous elections too. By and large, we all despise hate speech and also to an extent hate religious fundamentalism. Remember Zakir Naik? He was hounded and rightly so. But then we have just elected Ananth Kumar; again with a huge margin, yes, a man well-known for hate speeches. And in case we forgot, we have Ajay Mohan Bisht aka Yogi Adityanath, the less talked about him the better. What do these tell us? This doesn’t say much about us hating terrorism or despising hate speech; in fact, it shows us warmly embracing it. Then ...

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 ...

Data, data and data! Data is everything. One who has information is the king. Like Napoleon Bonaparte once said, War is ninety percent information. Past is long buried but history should never be buried without learning the lessons it holds. That’s how we progress as a society. Wars have been won and lost with that last bit of trivial information. So undeniably, information is at the heart of everything we do. In a 21st century where information can be obtained by few clicks, we are at a larger risk than ever if that important piece of data stored in remote machines lands into wrong hands.  The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a central government agency of India. Its objective is to collect the biometric and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralised database, and issue a 12-digit unique identity number called Aadhaar to each resident. (wiki) People have always questioned Aadhaar; BJP and PM Narendra Modi (then CM of Gujarat) i...

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...

  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...