The other day TV channels were talking about the Rs 15-lakh loan that the sacked Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal got from his son’s firm. “Where will you get loan for a mere three per cent?” Screamed a TV anchor. Little did he know that this year alone, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has provided roughly Rs 6.5 lakh crores of crop loans to the rich and resourceful agribusiness industry at a nominal interest rate of 4 per cent.

The brazenness with which the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has interfered with the working of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe into the Coalgate scam has left citizens wondering whether any institution will remain intact when someday this government and this prime minister bow out of office.

After the Mughals and the British, it now appears to be China’s turn to encircle, enslave and make India a surrogate power. Apparently, China firmly believes that two tigers cannot live on the same mountain.

On November 16, 1905, two days before he left India for the last time—and in controversial circumstances—Viceroy Lord Curzon delivered a remarkable speech at the Byculla Club in Bombay. The popular expectations from a Viceroy, he suggested, were unbearably exacting: “He must be prepared to speak about everything, and often about nothing.

The 10-kilometer-deep Chinese military intrusion into a highly strategic area in Ladakh shows India’s political and army leadership in poor light. The episode brings out how China is exploiting the leadership deficit and political disarray in India to alter the realities on the ground.

For four years, the government dithered on the proposed national food security bill. From the Planning Commission to the Ministry Agriculture and then to the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs, the bill continued to be tossed around. But as the 2014 elections are nearing, the urgency to bring in a legislation that provides for a legal guarantee to reach food to the hungry becomes all too apparent.

In true “filmy” style General Musharraf fled from the Islamabad High Court, after the judges had denied him bail and ordered his arrest.  The Court was hearing the cases relating to the detention of 60 judges after Musharraf had imposed an emergency in 2006.

Speaking on the role and functions of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in the Constituent Assembly on May 30, 1949, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said that this officer was “probably the most important officer in the Constitution of India” because he is the one man who is going to see that the expenses voted by Parliament are not exceeded or varied.

Soft power as a strategic instrument was popular among the ancient Chinese. It remains popular in modern times too. According to Confucius, the great ancient Chinese philosopher, “there is good government when those who are near are made happy, and when those who are afar are attracted”.  This Chinese philosophy continues to drive China’s domestic as well as foreign policy direction in the contemporary world.

After standing on false prestige and even becoming vindictive against those who suspected the integrity of electronic voting machines, the Election Commission has finally acceded to the demand that the machines must issue a paper receipt to voters.