Thinking aloud

The situation that BJP is in at this point of time can only be described as a BIG MESS. But I am not surprised that things came to such a dismal state. Once the party failed to find an alternative to take over as the opposition leader from Advani, it was clear that something will give way sooner or later. But, the Jaswant saga came as a shock. While the way he was expelled leaves a lot to be desired as far as party democracy is concerned, I believe it was high time the party started taking discipline seriously. Remember the days when BJP used to be a ‘party with a difference’. Having said so, the party cannot be seen to have different yardsticks for different people. No, I am not talking about the old Jinna episode triggered by Advani himself. I am talking about the sudden rush of messiahs and repentant old men from in and around the party. I understand there is a generation of party men who were in line for the top jobs after Vajpayee-Advani era. Now that it is clear that none of ...

Every year from January to April we witness the government departments flooding the money allocated to them in the annual plan outlay down the drain, with very little to show for it. Especially in the last three months of very financial year, these mandarins manage to spend more than 60% of what the total allocation. Needless to say, this smacks of criminal negligence on the part of officers who are supposed to implement different projects in a time bound manner all through the year. As for the ministers, we know very well they are not really capable of doing much other than making atrocious and often indecent comments at the slightest provocation and wasting public money on decorating the ministerial bungalows. There are some good ministers in the cabinet, but they are the exceptions rather than the rule. Then from May to August-September, we have the grand spectacle of the Government, so called socio-religious organizations and other managements and the officials playing with the ...

The happenings in God’s own country are frustrating to say the least. Life seems to be going around in circles while the rest of the world marches ahead. The frustrating part is that the mistery keeps repeating in at periodic intervals and brings with it a fresh bout of shameful play act from the clueless rulers, officials and the unfortunate common man including myself. The immediate provocation for such an observation is the fever epidemic that is on the rampage for almost a month in northern parts of Kerala, and especially in Kozhikode. As the doctors keep diagnosing it as pneumonia, chikenguniya, dengue, malaria and all sorts of myriad varieties of fever, the common man has nowhere to turn for help. This has been a recurring incident for the last 4-5 years in Kerala. Each year different parts of the state are devastated by epidemic fever, claiming the lives of hundreds of hapless victims. The health minister and the ministry keeps coming up with fresh statistics and is seen as b...