By T.J.S. George The wonder that is Indian elections is losing some of its wonderness. Statistically, of course, it remains a marvel — 880 million voters (total US population is 328 million), 11 million election workers, 2 million voting machines, 2,300 registered parties. But the pride we had in the honourableness of the process has…
By T.J.S. George Winston Churchill told us that it wasn’t polite to refer to lies as lies, that we should be cultured enough to call them terminological inexactitudes. But such phraseological definitudes do not apply to party manifestos in India’s hit-and-run democracy. BJP Spokesmen call Congress manifesto a pack of lies and Congressmen describe BJP…
By T.J.S. George Everyone knows that this election is a game-changer. It is becoming clear that it is a convention-breaker as well. Things that were no-no in electioneering are now accepted norms. Things to which T.N. Seshan said “out” are now “in.” The founding fathers of America said that, even at its best, governments were…
By T.J.S. George Politicians big and small have commented variously on democracy. But the most perceptive observation came from an Anglican priest-turned-Cambridge-professor named W.R. Inge. “Democracy,” he said, “is only an experiment in government, and it has the obvious disadvantage of merely counting the votes instead of weighing them.” What a world of difference there…
By T.J.S. George The Congress and the BJP have one thing in common — each is led by a Superman. But the BJP’s superman has a bunch of subalterns with him. That is a force multiplier. The Congress superman is a solitary sentinel. That is poor war tactics. Narendra Modi uses his fire power as…
By T.J.S. George This is going to be the make or break election. It will either make the idea of India viable, or it will break it completely. The ruling dispensation knows that if they don’t win this time, they won’t win for a long time. And if they win, they’ll make sure they don’t…
By T.J.S. George Pakistan is ruled by its military and the military has an animosity against India that won’t go away. The reason is permanently engraved in a photograph — Gen. A.A.K. Niazi signing papers formalising his country’s surrender to India in Dhaka in 1971. The wiping out of East Pakistan and the creation of…
By T.J.S. George It is good that 12 fighter jets bombarded a terrorist camp in Pakistan with the intention of delivering a blow that would be remembered. More significantly, India crossed the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time to hit Balakot, the terrorists’ nerve centre. The message was heard in other countries as…
By T.J.S. George It’s now two months since the Union Government issued orders that turned India into a surveillance State. Ten investigative agencies were authorised to “intercept, monitor and decrypt” all computer material kept by all citizens. The authorities justified it by saying that the rules were framed by the Congress-led UPA Government. That is…
By T.J.S. George Prime Minister Modi had, and will continue to have, the backing of all of India in his stand against the terrorists who “made a big mistake” in attacking jawans in Pulwama. The attack must have given the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and its protectors in Pakistan a cheap thrill of achievement as they managed…
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