#206

Hussain Haqqani has been a noted journalist and diplomat from Pakistan.  He was Pakistani ambassador to the United States between 2008 and 2011

 and has also been the High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.  This book is such a clear-eyed, frank and honest analysis of the kind of anarchy and disorder that symbolizes the country today.  As a reader from India, I am not taking any vicarious pleasure in the dangerously destructive situation in that country.  Because, in many ways, this book is also a cautionary tale for India, as to what happens when you allow religion and majoritarian agenda to take deep root in society.

#205

Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Congress party is my most favorite spokesperson among all the political parties in the country.  She is so cool, calm, courteous, and humorous that you often wonder, being a woman, how does she manage to remain so classy and poised in the rough and tumble of Indian politics?  In other words, she is everything that Sambit Patra of the BJP is definitely not.  When she appears on television, it soothes my nerves.  On the other hand, if I accidentally catch Smriti Irani on TV, I start to get a migraine and ulcer.

#204

The Parliamentary Affairs minister Mr. Ananth Kumar is a shameless liar.  Ms. Sumitra Mahajan is one of the most blatantly partisan speakers of the Lok Sabha that I have known.  She's been more interested in adjourning the house, rather than conducting its business.  Prime Minister Modi himself cares two hoots about the democratic norms and institutions, never mind all the pious talk from the pulpit from time to time.  This has been the least productive budget session of parliament in the past 20 years.  In fact, the finance bill itself was rushed through in 30 minutes flat without any debate or discussion amidst the chaos!  This is unpardonable.  No worthwhile business got transacted in the second half of this session.  Billions of rupees of taxpayers money have gone down the drain.  More than a few 'no confidence' motions were simply ignored.  This has set a very dangerous precedent.  I find it astounding that a government which is supposed to be enjoying a comfortable majority in the house is running scared to not only test its strength in the house but also engage in meaningful debate and discussion with the opposition.  The kind of chaos and disorder witnessed in parliament in the last few weeks have been clearly orchestrated by the ruling party so that they don't have to deal with any uncomfortable questions about the state of the nation.
     In any democracy, the Parliament is sacrosanct.  It expresses the sovereign will of the people.  By stalling parliament through the proxy in the guise of a handful of members who are technically not part of the government but are willing to do its bidding as part of some secret arrangements.  This cynical and scandalous brand of politics is going to throttle democracy forever.  We must not allow a megalomaniac like Modi to vandalize the edifice of our hard-won democracy.

#203

It's only been four years, but it seems like a lifetime, when I received these in a carton on a similarly hot afternoon, shipped all the way from New York by my sister Deepti.  She went to a considerable length of trouble to hunt for these books.  It was a moment of unadulterated happiness for me.

happiness for me.

Whether anyone likes it or not, the fact of the matter is that Modi government has a big problem with fake news. Its prominent members like Smriti Irani commands a vast army of online trolls, who keep supplying her with fake news and WhatsApp forwards in order to bolster their Hindutva credentials. It's other ministers and functionaries have been found to be promoting websites which try to vitiate the communal atmosphere. The prime minister himself follows a great deal of misogynistic Hindutva trolls on Twitter. Not just that, a couple years ago, he even hosted these people for a tea party at his official residence.

#201

The other day, I downloaded a three-hour in-depth interview with Salman Rushdie, conducted on C-span network's BOOK TV. It was such a wonderful show, where apart from the knowledgeable host, so many other intelligent readers from across the U.S. also had the opportunity via phone-in, to ask some real searching questions to their favorite author. Sometimes, I really feel envious of the people in the United States, for having the option of tuning into C-span, PBS, A&E, and NPR. These are the gold mine of knowledge. How I wish something similar was available in India.