What motivated Mrs Gandhi to release the POWs? What went on behind the scenes? Were there any compelling circumstances at play that have remained unreported?
Emergency and the nation’s current travails: Comparing the circumstances
“Globalization” may not have been part of the discourse 45 years ago when Indira Gandhi shelved civil liberties after declaring the Emergency but it is not possible to sketch that bleak episode on a wide enough canvas without touching such disparate points on the world atlas as Latin America and India’s cow belt.
Narendra Modi on Indira’s path?
It is the early days, but then there is an unmistakable impression that is gaining ground all over that Modi is fast emulating Indira Gandhi. In her days of glory, Indira Gandhi was simply unchallengeable. Modi seems to be in a similar situation today.
India’s role in the Muslim World: A Foreign Policy challenge
In the fictitious script Hillary Clinton says India has no clout in the region. Possibly true. But how did Nehru and Indira Gandhi have influence in the area.
A Congress leader and a Congress Session – both mysteriously forgotten
There is another instance which sheds light on the Congress attitude to inner Party democracy and, coincidentally, caste: the All India Congress Committee session in Tirupati in April 1992.
Ramdev, Hazare and JP’s movement
In brief, JP movement was to replace a left lurching Indira Gandhi. Hazare-Ramdev ball is being tossed up for political parties to smash it on a deft and durable Mayawati.
Details of US-Russia spy swap
A White House official has revealed that the Obama administration was considering a spy swap well before the 10 were arrested on 27 June. White House officials were first briefed on the spy ring in February, while President Barrack Obama was made aware of the case on 11 June.
“The idea of a swap was discussed among the administration’s national security team before the arrests were made,” the source added. According to the White House, the US itself chose the names of the four men to be freed by Moscow.
MNS’s rowdy act in Maharashtra Assembly
The Congress Party, it seems, has not learnt the lessons of history. By giving a long rope to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray and his goons the party hoped to marginalise the Shiv Sena. The strategy worked well as the results of the recently concluded state assembly polls showed. But the grand old party has failed to realise that it has created a Frankenstein's monster.
The MNS leader and his violent cadres have repeatedly taken law and order in their hands in the last two years. But the Congress-NCP combine did not take any strong action against him, letting him raise the issues Shiv Sena raked up in the past and hence cutting into its votebank.
