There is talk of who will be BJP PM candidate. Narendra Modi is most popular among BJP members. He has his rivals within BJP. L. K. Advani is prominent among them. He tries to undercut Modi by mentioning names of Sushma Swaraj and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Advani does not have support of RSS. Support from…
Bhullar case verdict
On 12/4/2013 Supreme Court delivered its verdict and rejected Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s petition for commutation of death sentence to life sentence on the ground of delay in deciding mercy petition. The judgment has implication for cases of Rajiv Gandhi assassins, Veerappan gang members, and so on. Maninderjit Singh Bitta was happy at the verdict. He…
Pran gets Phalke Award
On 12/4/2013 came the news that Pran will get Dadasaheb Phalke Award. As per one report some years back Pran was to get the award in 2004. The selection committee had decided to give him the award. Ravi Shankar Prasad, then I&B Minister, overruled them. He told them Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar have got…
Myth of patriarchy
There are women who say India is a patriarchal society. Women who are victims of rape and other sex crimes do not get justice because of men. Policemen are not gender sensitive. For women to get justice there should be women police, women doctors, women judges, and women investigators. Patriarchy is the problem. When women…
Pardon to Sanjay Dutt
There are people who are for or against pardon to Sanjay Dutt. Markandey Katju appealed to Maharashtra Governor K. Shankaranarayanan to pardon Sanjay Dutt. Soon others jumped into the fray on one side or the other. TV channels took up the matter and gave the controversy wide publicity. Many supporters of Sanjay Dutt are from…
India trounce Australia
On 24/3/2013 India won the Delhi Test against Australia on the third day and the series 4-0. It is rare for a team to win all four Tests in a series. It was India’s first 4-0 series victory. When the series began all possibilities were open. Australia was not expected to lose all four Tests….
Bombay bomb blasts case verdict
On 21/3/2013 Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Bombay bomb blasts case which had taken place on 12/3/1993. TADA Court had sentenced 11 persons to death. Supreme Court reduced the punishment to life to 10 of them. Yakub Memon was the exception. Besides the 10 there were 22 others who got life sentence and many…
Election of Pope Francis
I am glad that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, took the name of Francis because in my novel Pope the pope takes that name. In my novel Cardinal Victor Dias took the name Francis in honour of St. Francis Xavier. This pope, it is said, took the name Francis in honour of…
Ban surrogacy
No right is absolute. Right to have a child is not absolute. Right to have a grandchild is not absolute. Some people go to great lengths to have children. Science has made possible to have children in many ways. What is possible is not always desirable. It is possible for a child to have five…
USA shall have death penalty
There are some Americans who want death penalty in India abolished. They do not want to see the evidence that death penalty is a deterrent. They are dogmatic in their opposition to death penalty. Otherwise they would have seen what has happened in Mexico after abolition of death penalty. It is said that you can…