Tag: news

In The News, My Take

Of Books and Controversies

Mr Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress is the Leader of the Opposition in India’s Lower House of Parliament, the hallowed Lok Sabha, Recently, there was a sensation in the Lok Sabha when Mr Gandhi, whose supporters project him as a youth leader despite his being 56 years old made serious allegations about the ruling Government’s handling of the Galwan Crisis of 2020. He said the allegations were based on the writings of India’s former Chief of Army Staff, General M M Naravane (retd) in his memoirs ” Four Stars Of Destiny”. Initially he said he was quoting from an article in The Caravan. Later he was seen exhibiting a physical copy of Gen Naravane’s book. Interestingly, Penguin Random House India declared categorically that the book had not been published! Apparently the Govt of India has not yet cleared the book manuscript. Rahul Gandhi was seen on television programs saying that General Naravane’s book is published and is available abroad.

From the point of view of an author I must say this: Thanks to Mr Gandhi, millions who had not heard about General Naravane”s book- have now heard about it- and how! As of now, it remains to be seen in what form or shape the book will be officially published. I am sure Penguin Random House India will reap a rich harvest from this book as will General Naravane whenever it is finally published!

General Naravane’s book is not the first- nor will it be the last -book to stir up a controversy. Some books have been controversial. Some have been banned. Some have been controversial and banned!!

Over the decades, many books have been banned in India by ruling Governments. I came across this interesting blog post recently in The Himalayan Writing Retreat –“10 Books Banned In India- To Read or Not To Read? ” .

I had heard of some of them, of course, like “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. The Government of India, banned the book in 1988, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. You may recall how Sir Salman ( Mr Rushdie was knighted in 2007) was attacked in New York in 2022 -decades after the book was first published! . He spoke about his recollections of that day in a BBC interview in 2025.

Mr Rahul Gandhi’s mentioning General Naravane’s to be published book in Parliament – in a move to attack the “failures” of the ruling Government in dealing with the Chinese perhaps boomeranged on him. The gist of the allegation is that the Govt and Prime Minister Modi was ambiguous in his direction during the crisis. A feeling was sought to be created that the Army Chief felt let down due to a lack of clear direction. The Govt defended itself by saying that approval was given to the Army Chief to act as he deemed fit. The Prime Minister cannot be expected to act like a platoon commander on the ground.

The Parliament ruckus had two interesting-but perhaps unintended – side effects. The first is that a new generation- millions of Indian youth fed largely on social media – is hungry to know how the Congress dealt with such crises in the past. They have heard about the 1962 debacle in the hands of the Chinese in 1962 from their grandparents. They want to know in a crisp conducive to social media manner what actually happened way back in the early 1960s.

The second is that for more serious readers- several books that are based on events on the Indo-China War of 1962 are getting a new lease of life and a huge boost in the bargain. It is well settled that many published books were highly critical of the failures of the then ruling Congress Government of Jawaharlal Nehru. He was Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather.

I have read books like “The War That Wasn’t” by Shiv Kunal Verma; “The Battle of Rezang La” by Kulpreet Yadav; and “JKF’s Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA & The Sino-Indian War” by Bruce Riedel, to mention but a few. Every author has written of how those days were characterised by poor strategic vision and policies, total lack of preparedness, and oscillating between bravado on one day and abject surrender on another. These led to India’s defeat at the hands of the Chinese. India’s image ( and that of Mr Nehru in particular) took a brutal beating in the eyes of our own citizens if not the whole world. What stood out was the bravery and valour of poorly equipped Indian Army troops fighting against great odds and exhibiting immense courage in most cases.

In The News, My Take

Remembering A Legend: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

On January 23, we paid our respects to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whom I consider one of India’s greatest leaders on his 129th birth anniversary. Naturally there were many articles /podcasts/interviews posted on this day about Netaji and the impact his leadership had on India’s freedom struggle. As a keen student of history, I read most of them with avid interest. I would like to share some which caught my attention.

In this Press Conference,, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Rajya Sabha member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) elaborated on the reasons why the British finally decided to leave India just after World War II. The chief reason – their confidence in the Indian men who served in the Indian Armed Forces was not as strong as before. This change started when Netaji Subhas Bose led the Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army since July 1943. By 1945, though the Allies had defeated Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy to won the Second World War, Britain was a spent force. Many – even amongst the Allies- believe had it not been for the economic and technological power of the United States and the massive manpower of the USSR, the war would have gone on for many more years.

The British feared they would not be able to control a mass revolt of troops in India. The mutinies of some units of the Royal Indian Navy and the Indian Army in 1946 came as the last straw. Britain decided to quit India. The decision to quit India was really not triggered – as is often believed – by the Quit India movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942.

It was equally interesting to hear India’s senior most military leader, General Anil Chauhan, the Chief Of Defence Staff speak about Netaji. In his address at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, he lauded Netaji as a classic military leader with strategic vision. I particularly liked the point that Netaji led by example. His dramatic escape from India in January 1941, an arduous journey to Germany and his return to Asia by sea, travelling in a German U-boat and later a Japanese submarine have become part of the Netaji legend. In contrast, I could not find – in all these decades since Independence- any account of India’s leading freedom fighters like Gandhiji or Nehruji, facing British bullets or lathis at the head of a freedom fighters. They were arrested many times but were confined in comfort as political prisoners. Indeed, Nehruji wrote his most famous book, ” The Discovery of India” while in Ahmednagar Jail.

This article in The Organiser traces how Netaji broke away from the Gandhi-Nehru Congress way back in 1939 as they disagreed on the way to get freedom from the British. It is often said that history is written from the point of view of the victors and not the vanquished. General Chauhan mentions this too in his talk referred to earlier.

I wonder if the youth of India know of Netaji’s achievements as they have not got the publicity they deserve. On October 21, 1943 he announced the formation of the Azad Hind Government while in Singapore at the height of the Second World War. This was the first Government in exile to be formed for India. As many as 11 countries accord recognition to Free India. He hoisted the flag of Free India in the Andaman and Nicobar islands in December 1943. Netaji visualised and implemented the printing of currency, hoisted the National Flag in December 1943, and gave the new country the anthem of the Azad Hind Fauj.

Looking at distant events as we now do in 2026, we can only admire and pay homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He was undoubtably one of India’s greatest sons and arguably the first Prime Minister of Free India. Jai Hind!!

In The News

India’s Women’s Cricket: Rawal and Mandhana’s Record Partnerships

As I write this post, my prayers – along with those of millions of cricket fans in India- are with Pratika Rawal. The opening batter sustained an injury while fielding in India’s match vs Bangladesh a few days ago. India has qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC ODI World Cup for Women. The next game against Australia is most crucial. It is a do or die match as the loser gets eliminated from the tournament. Sadly, it appears unlikely that she will be able to play in this match.

Pratika, a 25 year old from Delhi, has carved a niche for herself as the opening partner for Smriti Mandhana in the Indian Women’s Cricket team. Her presence in the match versus Australia would have meant a lot to the Indian team. Let me explain why.

India has always done well when Mandhana and Rawal have given them a solid start. The match versus New Zealand a few days ago was again extremely important for India. They had to win to enter the semi-finals. Mandhana and Rawal scored 212 in their opening partnership to give them a dream start. Both scored centuries- Mandhana 109, and Rawal 122.

Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal : Picture courtesy: Firstpost

This was the highest partnership for India in the Women’s World Cup. They broke the previous record of 184 between Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur in 2022.

This opening pair has shown promise to be potential world beaters. In the year or so that they opened the batting for India Women, they have put together 7 century opening partnerships. Out of these, 5 have been in this calendar year! This is the most for Indian women and is jointly the second highest in the history of women’s cricket. In January 2025, they started with a 233 run opening stand against Ireland with Rawal scoring 154 and Mandhana 135.

Till date, they have the distinction of having scored 1557 runs in the calendar year 2025. This is fairly close to the highest so far- 1635 runs by the legendary pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly in 1998. In the ongoing ODI World Cup, they are No 1 and No 2 in the runs scored- Mandhana 365 in 7 matches and Rawal 308 in 6.

Yes, India’s women cricketers have truly come of age. Recently, Smriti Mandhana scored a century in 51 balls- making her effort the fastest century for an Indian- man or woman- in One Day Internationals. Till now the fastest 100 in an ODI was by Virat Kohli and came off 52 balls! Mandhana has hit 29 sixes this year which is a world record for women beating South Africa’s Lizelle Lee who hit 28 in 2017.

Pratika has shown that she has matured vastly as a young batter. She was the fastest in women’s cricket to reach 500 ODI runs- reaching this in just 8 innings. She beat Charlotte Edwards of England who had achieved this way back in 1997. She recently became the joint fastest in the world to reach 1000 ODI runs achieving the feat in 23 innings.

With Pratika’s injury, unfortunately it appears most unlikely that she and Mandhana will break the Tendulkar-Ganguly record for the most runs as an opening pair in a calendar year. After the World Cup, the Indian women tour Australia in early 2026. Let’s hope their partnership continues to flourish there too. Mandhana and Rawal certainly have it in them to be world beaters in the opening slots for women’s cricket.

In The News, My Take

Remembering The Emergency

On June 25, 2025, some five weeks ago, I don’t know how many of you remembered June 25, 1975 – the day the infamous Emergency was declared in India 50 years ago! All of us old enough to do so remembered the Declaration of Emergency by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress Government on that day. More than the declaration day itself, we still vividly remember the horrors perpetrated during the Emergency which ran from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977.

For those who have no idea what went on all those decades ago, this Factsheet released by the Press Information Bureau throws considerable light on those dark days. All of us were affected, some more than others. Some of us were lucky to come away unscathed. A few images still haunt me after all these years. The first is of George Fernandes shackled like a criminal. The second is of actress Snehalatha Reddy who died a mere 5 days after her release from prison. The third is men being forced to undergo sterilisation.

While there were many acts that went against the principles of a free democracy, the sterilisation campaign was by far the most heinous. At that time, I worked for a cement company in a remote part of the country. One day the Headmaster of the School our Company ran for the benefit of the employees’ children was considerable agitated. He said he had received orders – verbal of course- from the relevant Government authorities to marshal all the male staff of the school to a public hospital. The reason for this was clear. They were to be sterilised as that Officer had a target to achieve! Luckily, this was not a Government run School though it was recognised by the Government. It received no funds from the Government. This and the firm diplomatic nudge by our senior management enabled the Headmaster and his staff escape a fate -inevitable for the less fortunate.

I laugh to myself when I read reports in the newspapers in which opposition leaders accuse the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being fascist! Fascists like Adolf Hitler carried out over 4,000,000 sterilisations during 12 years of Nazi rule. In our 1975-77 Emergency, 1.07 crore sterilisations took place. Written as numerals that is: 10,700,000.

In The News, My Take

Man Made Tragedy at KSCA Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

As a huge fan of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) I was thrilled when we finally won the Indian Premier League (IPL) on June 3, 2025 after a wait of 18 long years! Like me, millions of fans celebrated- some long into the night and upto the early hours of June 4. It was a momentous victory coming after so many heart breaks. Remember, we had reached the finals on 3 previous occasions( 2009, 2011, and 2016) but failed to cross the line.

Naturally there was an explosion of emotion which was only to be expected. We were told there would be a grand victory parade and crowds in their thousands flocked to the Chinnaswamy Stadium hoping to see the function. Rumours/announcements of free tickets ( even if on a limited basis) added to the crowd frenzy. There was an unprecedented function on the steps of the majestic Vidhan Sudha. Even when the State team of Karnataka won the Ranji Trophy such an honour was not bestowed on the team. We watched the Chief Minister, Dy Chief Minister, and many Government big wigs with their families bask in reflected glory as the RCB players were honoured. The general public were kept far away. Yet they reached there in their thousands based on public invitations given by the CM no less. People perched precariously on lamp posts, tree tops, and even the roof of the High Court nearby. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Sadly, bad news was to follow. Near the KSCA’s Chinnaswamy Stadium there was total chaos. Survivors have described how they were not walking but carried away in the waves of frenzied fans. In the man made tragedy, 11 precious lives were lost. All were young persons. aged less than 30. They had come to celebrate but died without even catching a fleeting glimpse of the RCB players.

The print and visual media have given graphic and gory details so it not for me to repeat all that happened. The question is who is accountable? Who authorised the function in front of the Vidhana Soudha despite the warnings of senior police officials? Who was in a hurry to have the functions on June 4, when the police force were barely recovering from harrowing night of June 3 when Bengaluru celebrated RCB’s victory? Who made the announcement of free passes and the day’s program early on June 4 morning? Who decided that there would be two and not one function that day- adding to the stress of the limited police force? Who allowed the KSCA stadium to have far more people than the capacity warranted? These, and many other questions need to be answered.

The Chief Minister said he was invited by KSCA to the function so he attended. The Dy CM was present in the Chinnaswamy and pictures of him holding the trophy were splashed everywhere. The police say they did not give permission. The Police Commissioner- no less- has been suspended along with a few other senior police officers. The Secretary of the KSCA, Mr A Shankar,( an eminent CA, known to be extremely influential and powerful figure in Karnataka) and the Treasurer, Mr E S Jairam, have submitted their resignations accepting moral responsibility although they claim their roles were very limited. Nikhil Sosale, Head of Marketing for RCB, seen more prominently than even RCB skipper Rajat Patidar in the Vidhana Soudha function, has been arrested. Whether he was fleeing or not, can’t be said, but he was arrested in KIA Airport.

The State CID has been tasked to investigate the case. The High Court of Karnataka has suo moto taken up this matter for hearing on June 10. Compensation for the 11 victims was initially announced as Rs 10 Lakhs by the State Government but has now been increased to Rs 25 Lakhs.

I fear with the passage of time this story will get buried like every other. Fans need to get real. They should understand the real dangers of in being in the midst of mobs. The politicians are thick skinned. They aren’t going to lose sleep over 11 deaths- that too of people who were not celebrities. These deaths will not hurt them politically. If at all, perhaps M/s Shankar, Jairam and Raghuram Bhat ( former Karnataka and India left arm spinner and President of the KSCA) may be haunted by the last plaintive cries of innocent victims who lost contact with their loved ones and were trampled to death.

Yes, there are so many lessons to be learned by this 100% man made tragedy at KSCA’s Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Life In The City, My Take

Exploring San Francisco in a Waymo Driverless Car

Perhaps in 2019, while walking in San Francisco’s Mission District, a white coloured car with some gizmo rotating on its roof caught my attention! I hadn’t seen anything like that before. I was told it was one of those experimental driver less cars! The stuff on the roof were sensors, cameras, and God knows what which enabled the car navigate busy city roads without a human being at the driving wheel!

Cut to October 2024. We were back in San Francisco and were eagerly waiting to take our first ride in a Waymo- a self-driving/driverless car service, which is become increasingly popular by the day. These cars are now called autonomous vehicles or robotaxis. It was very simple really. I downloaded the Waymo App, created an account and was ready to go!

Shobana and I decided to visit Cole Valley for old times sake. Using the App, we hailed a Waymo for a ride from the Luma Hotel where we were staying. The Waymo pulled up to exactly where we stood. The App had advised me to pull the door twice. Once to unlock the door and the second to open the door. As we settled ourselves comfortably in the spacious back seat of the all electric Jaguar IPACE, we couldn’t help marvelling that there was no one in the driver’s seat to take us to our destination! Our thoughts were interrupted by an announcement reminding us to fasten our seat belts! We did that- and we were off.

Our ride took about 24 minutes and covered 4.5 miles in San Francisco traffic. Never once did we feel nervous. Not even when our Waymo halted at the top of a steep slope when the lights changed to red. When the lights changed the wheel spun and we were off again taking a perfect turn.

There was light music playing in the background. We could have changed the music and chosen something else but we were much too busy enjoying the ride. To our delight at a traffic signal, we stopped and another Waymo pulled up beside us!! It was mind boggling for us to see our Waymo speed up when required, slow down when appropriate, stop where and when required- all without a driver!!

I have written about our personal experience of the ride. For those who want more in depth information of how it works, please do check out The Waymo Driver in their website.

Soon after, we reached our destination at exactly the time projected at the start of our drive! Congratulations to the folks at Waymo! This was a memorable experience for us. Our Waymo ride was way more comfortable and exciting than we expected!