Manmohan Singh formed his second government following the UPA’s comprehensive win in the election. There was some drama over ministerial allocations with the DMK trying some hard bargaining for a few extra cabinet berths. The beacon of change – Barrack Obama called up our Prime Minister. Maybe his inspirational effect will rub off on...
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The great Indian elections of 2009 are over after five phases of voting spread over a month, over 400 million votes cast, several thousand candidates, and billions of dollars spent by all concerned. The massive logistical exercise ended in a massive victory for the Congress, which gained plenty of seats at the expense of...
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The Great Indian Elections of 2009. Four phases down. Voter turnout in the fourth phase topped 50%. Last phase coming up this week, and a lot of political manipulation coming thereafter as the results are announced towards the end of this month. Some analysis of phase 3 and 4 over at offstumped. Good news...
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Phase three of the Great Indian Elections is over. Polling was held for 107 Lok Sabha seats last week. Mumbai turned out to be quite a spectacle, with celebrity after ignorant celebrity raising their middle finger to the eager cameras, after some logistical issues led the election agencies to mark their middle fingers instead...
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The third phase of The Great Indian Election of 2009 is all set for April 30. A total of 1,567 candidates, including 101 women contestants, are in the fray for the 107 seats going to the polls in round III. UP Chief Minister Mayawati raised her case for Prime Ministership on caste grounds saying...
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After months of exciting drama, India finally went to vote in the first phase of the 2009 General Elections. The voting for 124 Lok Sabha seats took place relatively peacefully with a voter turnout of about 60%, apart from Naxal attacks in which 17 people were killed. Earlier the Supreme Court snubbed the UP...
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George Bush may not be the US president anymore, but he sure left a legacy. During a press conference being addressed by P Chidambaram following CBI’s exoneration of Jagdish Tytler’s involvement in the 1984 riots, Singh lobbed a shoe at Chidambaram. It didn’t connect, but that didn’t seem to be his intention. He ended...
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The week began on a jingoist note as the hyper nationalists of Shiv Sena attacked lawyer Anjali Waghmare because she is going to be the lawyer for 11/26 terrorist Kasab. Poor woman is just doing her job – she was appointed by the court as Kasab’s lawyer. On the positive side, now that we...
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Here’s some of the prominent happenings from India this past week. Varun Gandhi continued to hog the headlines. After his anticipatory bail expired on Mar 29, he surrendered in Pilibhit. Only it wasn’t quite peaceful. Following a violent protest by his supporters, the UP government invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against him. Now...
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Here’s a short recap of what went on in the world this past week. NCP chief Sharad Pawar raised demands for a maharashtrian Prime Minister following the upcoming elections. Soon, Shiv Sena joined in. So is this how it is going to be? Maybe we will see a rotating policy for PM in the...
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Starting a weekly roundup of news and interesting events from around the world. Here’s edition number one. The week started with this CAG report on how Assam police personnel carried their fancy AK-47 assault rifles for two years, without any bullets. Looks like we need a law enforcement agency to take care of these...
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