The terror of ‘criminal’ man-gods
By Vijay Darda | 24-11-2014 All faith is supposed to be blind. But just as wilfully leading a blind person into a ditch is a crime, similarly among all the emotionally exploitative deeds that are committed in our society, the worst form is the one that can be safely described as the betrayal of […]
Remember, honour, defend: Nehru the democrat
By Vijay Darda | 17-11-2014 It is nothing less than a national tragedy that on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the founding father of our democratic traditions, we have a polity divided over his legacy. No Nehruvian Indian will ever claim that there can be no debate over […]
Black money: Make good the promise
By Vijay Darda | 27-10-2014 We are witnessing a sharply divided political debate on the issue of black money. Both the sides are putting forth their viewpoint vigorously. There are some debates about the quantum of the black money stashed abroad. Some experts are also talking in legalese. But for me as a parliamentarian […]
BJP: Well-deserved win
By Vijay Darda | 20-10-2014 Congress: Self-inflicted loss The assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana had assumed a significance beyond the ambit of merely determining the shape of the political formation that would be ruling these two states. Coming within four months of the biggest success achieved by prime minister Narendra Modi in bringing […]
Alliances: Living beyond expiry date
By Vijay Darda | 22-09-2014 Quite in sync with the coalition era, we are accustomed to alliances and grand alliances in our state politics, and have never dreamt of an era of a single party rule, so we cling to the belief that whatever be the internal and external tensions these arrangements would survive […]
Making judges suspect post-facto
By Vijay Darda | 08-09-2014 In April 2013, when Chief Justice P Sathasivam ordered the quashing of the second FIR against Amit Shah in the Tulsiram Prajapati case nobody could have predicted that he had a ‘deal’ with the BJP. Indeed, at that time the Modi campaign had not even started, so the question […]
Confrontations we can do without
By Vijay Darda | 25-08-2014 Let us first get the size of the task clear at the outset. When the parliament passed the first constitutional amendment of the Modi government that seeks to replace the collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and high courts, it was not just an administrative or […]
Natwar’s memoirs: Seeking revenge through betrayal
By Vijay Darda | 04-08-2014 During the course of everyone’s life, relationships do run through several phases. There are ups and downs. The major difference for those in public life, is that they are critically exposed to the probing eyes, especially when they are down. These days, we are witnessing a public exposure of […]
Sena MPs add insult to injury
By Vijay Darda | 28-07-2014 Last week we witnessed some very unpalatable scenes. Even as television channels were showing visuals of Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare force-feeding a canteen supervisor at the Maharashtra Sadan, the MPs were denying that any such incident took place. Later, when they realised that such a denial was not […]
Getting better from worse: The Congress challenge
By Vijay Darda | 07-07-2014 After the May 2014 General Elections, the Congress party has been reduced to its worst-ever position in the history of democratic politics in our country. In states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra where it has been holding an unchallenged position for decades, it has been brought down to a […]