Vol. LXII, No. 48, New Delhi, JUNE 05, 2011

Dissecting the UPA Report Card UPA hides facts; fails in self-judgement By Naresh Minocha EMPEROR Ashoka’s First Pillar Edict states: “This world and the other are hard to gain without great love of Righteousness, great self-examination, great obedience, great circumspection, great effort … For this is my rule, to govern by Righteousness, to administer by Righteousness, to please my subjects by Righteousness, and to protect them by Righteousness.”    more > IN FOCUS UPA is out to destroy India’s famed institutions By K G Suresh UNION Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, known more for his controversial remarks, occasional bouts of activism and subsequent compromises, once again revived the debate on the state of the country’s higher education when he said there was little possibility of cutting edge scientific research happening in a government set-up and that institutions like the IITs or IIMs were doing well not because of their quality of research or faculty, but because of the quality of the students.    more > Thinking Aloud Don’t treat the country as your jagir By Dr Jay Dubashi COMING events cast their shadows before, and the shadows are long and dark on India’s political scene. The Marxists have been bundled out—in West Bengal and Kerala, and Karunanidhi & Co in Tamil Nadu. Next it will be the turn of Sonia’s Congress, which will be shown the door in New Delhi, and that will mark the start of a new era in Indian politics.    more > Editorial For seven years, UPA has floundered As an affront to our national pride The UPA- II has celebrated the completion of two years in office on May 22. It largely went unnoticed despite generously advertising in the media and holding a lavish party at the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s 7, Race Course residence. What was more evident was the lack of enthusiasm either among the partners or the Congress which holds them together.    more > INVESTIGATION An analysis of the Hindu vote in Kerala and Assam Can Hindus also vote strategically? By GVL Narasimha Rao THE commonly held notion is that caste based voting is common among Hindus but not bloc voting as a community, while Muslims tend to vote as a monolithic group. Media reports and our field reports suggest that Hindus have indeed voted as a bloc and tactically in recent state elections in Kerala and Assam. In the post-Ayodhya Rath yatra era, this is a discernible trend in voting patterns of Hindus and has significant portents for the future.    more > NCP’s co-operative bank scam Congress tries to corner NCP in MSCB board dissolution From Virag Pachpore EVEN as the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB), the apex bank of ‘progressive’ state of Maharashtra was celebrating its centenary year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 4, dissolved its 52-member board of directors and appointed administrators.    more > NEWS ROUND-UP Encourage domestic telecom industry: SJM - FOC Ashok Singhal conferred with Dharmashree Award - By Rajesh Padmar, VSK, Bengaluru Federation of Baba Amarnath Samiti objects to Agnivesh remarks - FOC VHP welcomes Baba Ramdev’s proposed satyagraha against corruption - FOC Narad Jayanti celebration by Samachar Bharati - Samachar Bharati, Hyderabad Sikh Sangat to apprise young generation of rich legacy of Sikh Gurus - FOC Tribute to Dr Upendra Shenoy - VSK, Bengaluru Political interference diluting quality of IIMs and IITs By Aditya Pradhan WHEN Jairam Ramesh, Union Environment Minister, opined that the quality of research and faculty of IITs and IIMs is not world class, he was only pointing to some bare facts. The reasons for the quality not being up to mark are many, and the government which is the chief promoter of these institutions is solely responsible for the state of affairs.    more > Prevention of corruption in private sector Recovery of money stashed in foreign countries By Gopal K Agarwal RECENT months have witnessed allegations of corruption of unprecedented levels. Dimensions of corruption have changed over past. Unchecked globalisation and economic development have created a situation where large amount of unaccounted money is being generated and is chasing limited available assets. This black money is generated through corruption, deficit financing and several welfare scheme freebies.    more > Grilled in Delhi High Court CBSE agrees to include Sanskrit in CTET By Pramod Kumar GRILLED in Delhi High Court by Sanskrit students, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) included Sanskrit in the list of the languages prescribed for Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET) 2011, to be conducted on June 26.    more > Symposium by SJM on ‘corruption and black money parked abroad by high profile politicians’ FOC SHRI S Gurumurthy, national co-convener of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, alleged that Sonia Gandhi and UPA government that have vested interest in protecting corruption, can never take action for prosecuting those who have stashed money in tax havens in foreign countries.    more > Uma Bharati on fast in Haridwar for protecting Ganga From Ravindra Saini in Haridwar SENIOR leader Uma Bharati is on fast in Haridwar for the protection of Ganga and historic Dhari Devi temple. She started hunger strike on May 10 raising prominently three issues—saving of Dhari Devi temple from submersion in the 330 MW Alaknanda hydro project reservoir, constitution of a separate Ganga Board to maintain the sanctity of the holy River and to look into the construction of hydro power projects and the involvement of experts and saints in the proposed Board.    more > The NAC: A super Parliament and a negation of democracy By Dr Hilda Raja THE news is that the National Advisory Council (NAC) has drafted a Communal Violence Bill with the purpose of presenting it in the Parliament and getting it passed. This does not auger well for democracy because the whole premise of the NAC is anti-democracy. The NAC has bypassed democratic institutions and is acting as a super Parliament.    more > Landgrab as the new face of globalization By Gopal K Agarwal DIMENSIONS of corruption have changed over recent past. Unchecked globalisation and economic development has created a situation where large amount of unaccounted money in the system is chasing limited available assets.    more > Chinese intrusions in North-East By Jagdamba Mall OUR country’s greatest security threat is methodically expanding its spheres of influence into the traditionally unstable regions of troubled North-East. Latest analysis reports of the South Asian Intelligence Review published said:    more >

Cover Page REPORT How Congress won Assam Gogoi plays the Hindu card, assures Bangla Hindu migrants to be treated as refugees By Nava Thakuria TARUN Gogoi, who has scripted his success story as the second politician after BP Chaliha to lead Assam government for the third consecutive term, maintained that the voters of Assam elected him for all the development works, stability and peace initiative (with various militant groups including ULFA).    more > The Moving Finger Writes We need national leaders By MV Kamath BY and large the results of the elections to the respective state legislatures of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala had been expected and there was hardly any surprise. In West Bengal the demise of the Leftists was inevitable.    more > Bookmark The most dangerous nexus exposed By MV Kamath Deadly Embrace : Pakistan, America, And The Future of The Global Jihad by Bruce Riedel, Brookings Institution Press, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036, Website - www.brookings.edu - Rate of the book is - 24.95$ - Pages-180 A well researched book on the origin of ‘OK’ By Tej N Dhar OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word, Allan Metcalf, Oxford University Press, Pp 210 (HB), $ 12.75 Get more by reading Getting More By Sarthak Shankar Getting More, Stuart Diamond, Portfolio Penguin, Pp 383 (PB), £14.99 Book Received Nine Decades of Marxism in the Land of Brahminism A fascinating inquiry into the universe By Manju Gupta Discoverers of the Universe: William and Caroline Herschel, Michael Hoskin, Princeton University Press, Pp 237(HB), £ 20.95 An autobiography of a leading barrister Six Decades of Law, Politics & Diplomacy: Some Reminiscences and Reflections, B. Sen, Universal Law Publishing Co, Pp 316 (HB), Rs 475.00 A romantic encounter By Jayant Patel Fish in Paneer Soup, Deep Ghatak, Rupa & Co., Pp181(PB), Rs 150.00 Spivs in the stock market Sense, Sensex and Sentiments: The Failure of India’s Financial Sentinels, MR Venkatesh, KW Publishers Pvt Ltd, Pp 336 (PB), Rs 595.00 Kids’ Org One life is more than enough By Manju Gupta IN Mithila, ruled King Nimi who, as he began to grow in age, decided to perform a yajna so that he would not grow old or weak. He wanted to remain strong and youthful as ever. He approached Sage Vashishta to persuade him to perform the yajna for him.    more >

Media Watch A midterm test of popular mood SO, the Assembly elections are over. And the communists and the DMK have received their just deserts. The results, said The Times of India (May14) “not only mark important developments for those states, but also represent vital trends for national politics”. The paper said that “the culture of patronage stifling the state’s public institutions and economy” had eaten into the Left’s “elaborately constructed support base” and “in the end it was toppled by a woman clad in a crumpled sari and chappals”.    more >

IN FOCUS Urgent need to arrest skewed sex ratio Silent genocide in J&K By Sunita Vakil WITH the census 2011 data scripting a shocking tale of missing daughters in J&K, there is little cause for celebration in a state that is considered a paradise on Earth. That the state has seen the single largest decline in sex ratio in the country is a frightening indicator that the ancient prejudice against the girl child still looms large in the state.    more >

Readers’ Forum Sri Sathya Sai Baba: A tribute (Organsier, 8.5.2011); Dr SATISH K KAPOOR, infinityami50@gmail.com The highest form of mysticism is that in which one comes to see God in humanity. Sai Baba’s social,educational and humanitarian work have carved for him a niche in the pantheon of true mystics. He was illiterate in the conventional sense of the term but had profound knowledge of scriptures. He had no training in management but created a vast ’religious empire’, and brought Puttapurthi on the global map.    more >

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