Category: Editorials

Our rupee related woes

  By Vijay Darda | 26-08-2013 It may sound like a case of told you so, when some calamity strikes and a friend tells you that he had warned about it beforehand, and you had dismissed his caution with derision. You are left with no option but to wring your hands, and live through the situation with a hope that

Missing the spirit & essence of I-Day

  By Vijay Darda | 19-08-2013 I have to admit that this Independence Day we did not acquit ourselves with the dignity that is demanded by the sanctity of the occasion. We as a nation collectively forget that our freedom from the colonial rule and imperial dominance of centuries came at a great price. We seem to be taking this

A much deeper problem

  By Vijay Darda | 13-08-2013 Not a mere ceasefire violation The internal political heat generated by the brutal attack by Pakistanis who violated the Line of Control (LoC) and ambushed our jawans to kill five of these bravehearts has subsided. Union defence minister A K Antony has rightly laid the blame at the doorsteps of the Pakistani Army. In

Be gracious and grant Vidarbha without much ado

  By Vijay Darda | 05-08-2013 As a practicing politician, and a media person, I am aware that the suggestion that I am making will sound amateurish. But cooler reflection on the part of everyone concerned will reveal that sooner or later this is the only right course of action, and taking any other route will have costly and avoidable

Now, Vidarbha can’t be put off

  By Vijay Darda | 31-07-2013 It is a historic day today. The Congress Working Committee has resolved that a separate state of Telangana should be formed. It has also laid out a road map for the creation of the new state. We the people of Vidarbha welcome this decision with just a cheer. The CWC resolution refers to the

As Amartya rejects Modi

  By Vijay Darda | 29-07-2013 When Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen rejected Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for the prime minister’s job, we witnessed a very instructive episode for our polity. The unambiguous rejection came in the backdrop of a determined effort by the BJP-RSS combine, as well several sections of the media and the corporate world to change

Mid-day murder or meal scheme

  By Vijay Darda | 22-07-2013 It would be unfair to dismiss the recent Bihar tragedy as a case of food poisoning, in the right perspective it is simply an act of murder. This was not a case of poison in food, but actually a case of food in poison. It was sheer criminal negligence. But then Bihar may be

Food security: Ordinance last resort

  By Vijay Darda | 08-07-2013 Last week, we crossed a major milestone in the evolution of the rights-based architecture for our people. We already have a constitutionally guaranteed right to work, education and information paradigm and now to this we have added the right to food element. Under the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh a

Disturbing distortions: Mindset malady

  By Vijay Darda | 01-07-2013 I am aware that some comparisons are not apt. For instance, there is nothing that is common between the army fighting a war, and the cricket team playing an international tournament. True in both cases the prestige of the nation is at stake, but that is the end of the comparison. In a war

Nature’s fury, human failures

  By Vijay Darda | 24-06-2013 It is now more than a week since nature’s fury struck the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. For want of a better description we can stick to the expression ‘Himalayan Tsunami’, but then let us not ignore the fact that very little is known about the magnitude of death and destruction in