The Great Indian Tamasha

What I will argue for in this article is quite unorthodox and contrary to the conventional economic arguments that we are used to. I propose that in order to tide over the COVID 19 crisis and kick start the economy; the government should consider printing money and transferring the equivalent amount directly into the thirty crore Jan Dhan accounts. This will work to seamlessly ensure that the money reaches the masses while acting as a stimulant to revive demand. In economic terms, we call it monetizing the fiscal deficit that is a red herring in traditional economic logic, as most economists would rightly argue against printing money to finance deficits, citing inflation as a major concern.  The reason is that printing more money doesn’t increase economic output – it only increases the amount of cash circulating in the economy. If more money is printed, consumers are able to demand more goods, but if firms have still the same amount of goods, they will respond by putting up p...

I am currently reading "Freedom at Midnight" by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. It is an account of the last days of the "Raj" as viewed by the Last Viceroy of India. The chapter that really moved me to the core was the one where the days leading up to partition is described, especially in the context of Bengal and Punjab. These provinces were the most affected due to partition, with millions of people forced to migrate across both sides of the border, leaving behind their life-long earnings and losing their loved ones at the altar of wanton communal frenzy that gripped these provinces as the date of Independence approached and the boundary award was to be declared. An atmosphere of fear, anxiety and mistrust reigned in the cities of Lahore and Calcutta which along with Delhi signified the imperial dream that was British India. As the date of Independence approached, things began to unravel and the administration was on the verge of collapse. In orde...

Ever since Article 370 was declared null and void in Parliament, the debate on the past, present and future of Kashmir rages on unabated with most of them being ill-informed, jingoistic or hypocritical in nature, be it the Indian Government, the Pakistani establishment or the Kashmiri Leadership. Let us start with India itself and the claim of the current dispensation that Article 370 was the biggest stumbling block in the integration of Kashmir with India and was responsible for all the unrest, hence had to be abolished. Firstly, if Article 370 was such a stumbling block in the process of National integration then article 371 should also be treated similarly. Article 371, also has special provisions for other States, mostly from the Northeast, aimed at preserving their unique culture, much like the logic behind J&K. Why then Article 371 is continuing? Or could it be that national integration is more about integrating people than integrating plots of land...

In most countries across the world, a residence record spanning nearly 50 years, a record of service to the society in various capacities such as being a veteran, regular tax filing for decades, law-abiding behaviour etc. should be more than enough to prove citizenship, NOT in India though. A career soldier , a serving doctor , a mother who is deemed an Indian citizen but her daughters are not , a brother whose real brother is a citizen but he is an illegal immigrant , a sitting member of Legislative Assembly  in Assam excluded and even an ex President's family being omitted are some of the stories emanating from the unending human tragedy that is the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam. Authorities in the northeastern state of Assam have published a citizenship list that aims to identify genuine citizens and seeks to exclude "Bangladeshi immigrants". "Bangladeshi immigrants" are defined as all those who are unable to provide documentary ...

Why Politics? At the outset, I want to state that I am writing this piece for myself, because I want to answer this question for myself and in a manner that is convincing to me. If I am myself not convinced then I would never be able to convince others. Many thoughts and ideas float through my head but I need to consolidate my ideas through my writing and that is the attempt in this article. Firstly it may sound very clichéd, but I do not know when or why I fell deeply, madly and irreversibly in love with my country. I remember when as a child I sat and watched “Kahan Gaye who Log” and later “Param Veer Chakra” and idolized Sharukh Khan in   “Fauji”. In my mind as a child I figured that the best way to serve my country was to become a soldier, which I did by joining the National Defense Academy right after class 12 th as an Air force cadet. As luck would have it, I suffered a service injury and had to leave the forces after 3 years and that left a huge void in me, ...

Organizational Background  The Indian National Congress (INC) also commonly called the Congress is one of the two major contemporary political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is one of the largest and oldest democratically-operating political parties in the world. Founded by freedom fighter activists in 1885, it dominated politics nationally for most of the period from 1947–89. There have been seven Congress Prime Ministers, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru, serving from 1947–64 and the most recent being Manmohan Singh, serving from 2004-14. The party's social liberal platform is largely considered to be on the Centre-left of the Indian political spectrum. In the last general elections in May 2014, the party suffered its worst defeat ever at the hands of the BJP. A major contributor to the defeat was the lackluster online campaign of the party as compared to a very energetic and robust online campaign run by the BJP, which...