The hoo-ha about the Election Commission, about electoral rolls, and about EVMs suggests that irksome comic relief remains a part of the loud debates of our robust democracy.
India’s foreign policy today is driven less by Western alignment or global liberalism and more by domestic political imperatives — economic, ideological, and electoral.
I have just returned from the electric crematorium. There were people, and then there were more. No formal invitation had been sent, the news travelled from heart to heart.
The Army has plans for a technology thrust in the near term, including the use of AI to support decision-making. While well-intentioned, this may have unintended consequences.
It’s odd to see Smriti Irani's Tulsi Virani in the second season of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi cry so much, and beseech the powers that be to come to her rescue.
Allies do not forget when they are publicly insulted. Future US administrations will find themselves spending enormous diplomatic capital just to bring things back to baseline.
Munir indicates that he’s willing to go for broke, even if it risks taking his country “and half the world” down with him. It’s important to understand where he is coming from.
India’s industrial output growth saw a 10-month low in June, with Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growing by mere 1.5% as against 1.9% in May 2025.
Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.
Mr. Jaithirth Rao…a notable who intellectually pleads for a fictitious right-wing while politically supporting the expediently unhinged…bludgeons the reader with another of his over-stuffed, ill-formed, imperious rants.
As always, his opinion piece is peppered with summary observations and warped truisms, like: “It is universally acknowledged that Indian civil servants love these jobs. A person of unquestioned competence and integrity like the late Dr Manmohan Singh had opted for such a job.”
(Disclosure: I would love to own a super yacht.)
There are also a few wallops of jargon pertaining to the purported design of our EVMs currently in use, which we all are expected to swallow fully, with blind faith and obedient nationalism. This, from the founder of a company in the tech industry where any purported capability, any given assurance, and any delivered activity are all expected to be substantiated by an armful of third-party certifications, independent reviews, and repeated audits.
One can’t help but wonder why such an eminently public opinion-maker and corporate-figure argues that it suffices for an activity/service…as crucial, significant, massive, and expensive as a state or national election…to be conducted with much poorer assurances than those for a comparatively trifling corporate service contracted by a foreign firm.
The author further continues regarding the same: “…our EVMs are simply the ideal election machines for anywhere in the world. We should actively try to export them.”
To imagine that other countries would purchase our EVMS, remarkable though they may be, without first seeking design details, demonstrations, provision for conducting extended penetration tests…along with the host of certifications, third party validations etc. already alluded to, as is the norm!
The reality is this. For export orders to come, BEL and ECIL will need to provide far greater transparency and assurances to the world-at-large than what is being currently demanded by sceptics within the country.
Are exports of our sensitive military weapons burgeoning solely because of promotions in which tantalizing titbits of product information get revealed in the form of dulcet Urdu couplets?
The justification that gets conveyed in this stentorian article for the establishment’s misdeeds this week seems to be of the same unoriginal essence which is repeatedly used, ad nauseum, by the brethren that rules. Whether it be in the unquestioningly published web pages of ThePrint or be in the sessions of our hallowed Parliament.
Birds do it, bees do it
Nehru and the Congress could not help but do it
Now, it is our turn to do it.
So, the subjects should continue to live with it,
Even the Supreme Being better approve of it:
For we deem that it is righteously Hindu of us to do it.
(Hmm…Dr. Manmohan Singh has now become the paragon of integrity.)
Mr. Jerry Rao…IIM graduate., and thereafter…crooked banker, venal businessman, crony-capitalist, lower-rung oligarch…again bludgeons the reader with another of his over-stuffed, unbalanced, imperiously delivered opinions.
As always, his judgement is peppered with whiplash rebukes and ill-fitting observations, like: “It is universally acknowledged that Indian civil servants love these jobs. A person of unquestioned competence and integrity like the late Dr Manmohan Singh had opted for such a job.”
(Disclosure: I would love to own a super yacht.)
His Eminence has also added generous wallops of jargon pertaining to the purported design and deployment of our EVMs currently in use, which we all are expected to fully swallow, with brimming faith and nationalism. This, from the founder of a tech company in an industry where any purported capability, any given assurance, and any delivered activity are all expected to be substantiated by an armful of third-party certifications, independent reviews, and repeated audits.
Won’t it be natural to wonder how that company, under such leadership and in those times, ever managed to gain trust and fairly obtain any decent, above-board overseas deal? Or alternately wonder why an activity/service as crucial, significant, massive, and expensive as a state or national election in India need be conducted with much poorer assurance (practically…none) than that for a comparatively trifling corporate service contracted by a foreign firm?
For the reader whose brain is likely to have seized midway while labouring through the discursive, stentorian article…the gist of the justification given in it for the establishment’s misdeeds this week is the same unoriginal essence which keeps getting repeatedly used, ad nauseum, by the brethren that rules. Whether it be in the unquestioningly published web pages of ThePrint or be in the sessions of our hallowed Parliament.
Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Nehru and the Congress could not help but do it
Now, it is our turn to do it.
So, the subjects should continue to live with it,
Even the Supreme Being better approve of it:
For we have deemed that we act for all Hindus
and it is righteous of us to do it.
(Hmm…Dr. Manmohan Singh has now become the paragon of integrity.)
Incidentally, if the suggestions emanating from Travancore-Cochin had been accepted, it is quite possible that Kanyakumari today may have been part of Kerala, and not of Tamil Nadu. Something to think about.
Mr. Jaithirth Rao…a notable who intellectually pleads for a fictitious right-wing while politically supporting the expediently unhinged…bludgeons the reader with another of his over-stuffed, ill-formed, imperious rants.
As always, his opinion piece is peppered with summary observations and warped truisms, like: “It is universally acknowledged that Indian civil servants love these jobs. A person of unquestioned competence and integrity like the late Dr Manmohan Singh had opted for such a job.”
(Disclosure: I would love to own a super yacht.)
There are also a few wallops of jargon pertaining to the purported design of our EVMs currently in use, which we all are expected to swallow fully, with blind faith and obedient nationalism. This, from the founder of a company in the tech industry where any purported capability, any given assurance, and any delivered activity are all expected to be substantiated by an armful of third-party certifications, independent reviews, and repeated audits.
One can’t help but wonder why such an eminently public opinion-maker and corporate-figure argues that it suffices for an activity/service…as crucial, significant, massive, and expensive as a state or national election…to be conducted with much poorer assurances than those for a comparatively trifling corporate service contracted by a foreign firm.
The author further continues regarding the same: “…our EVMs are simply the ideal election machines for anywhere in the world. We should actively try to export them.”
To imagine that other countries would purchase our EVMS, remarkable though they may be, without first seeking design details, demonstrations, provision for conducting extended penetration tests…along with the host of certifications, third party validations etc. already alluded to, as is the norm!
The reality is this. For export orders to come, BEL and ECIL will need to provide far greater transparency and assurances to the world-at-large than what is being currently demanded by sceptics within the country.
Are exports of our sensitive military weapons burgeoning solely because of promotions in which tantalizing titbits of product information get revealed in the form of dulcet Urdu couplets?
The justification that gets conveyed in this stentorian article for the establishment’s misdeeds this week seems to be of the same unoriginal essence which is repeatedly used, ad nauseum, by the brethren that rules. Whether it be in the unquestioningly published web pages of ThePrint or be in the sessions of our hallowed Parliament.
Birds do it, bees do it
Nehru and the Congress could not help but do it
Now, it is our turn to do it.
So, the subjects should continue to live with it,
Even the Supreme Being better approve of it:
For we deem that it is righteously Hindu of us to do it.
(Hmm…Dr. Manmohan Singh has now become the paragon of integrity.)
Sigh.
Mr. Jerry Rao…IIM graduate., and thereafter…crooked banker, venal businessman, crony-capitalist, lower-rung oligarch…again bludgeons the reader with another of his over-stuffed, unbalanced, imperiously delivered opinions.
As always, his judgement is peppered with whiplash rebukes and ill-fitting observations, like: “It is universally acknowledged that Indian civil servants love these jobs. A person of unquestioned competence and integrity like the late Dr Manmohan Singh had opted for such a job.”
(Disclosure: I would love to own a super yacht.)
His Eminence has also added generous wallops of jargon pertaining to the purported design and deployment of our EVMs currently in use, which we all are expected to fully swallow, with brimming faith and nationalism. This, from the founder of a tech company in an industry where any purported capability, any given assurance, and any delivered activity are all expected to be substantiated by an armful of third-party certifications, independent reviews, and repeated audits.
Won’t it be natural to wonder how that company, under such leadership and in those times, ever managed to gain trust and fairly obtain any decent, above-board overseas deal? Or alternately wonder why an activity/service as crucial, significant, massive, and expensive as a state or national election in India need be conducted with much poorer assurance (practically…none) than that for a comparatively trifling corporate service contracted by a foreign firm?
For the reader whose brain is likely to have seized midway while labouring through the discursive, stentorian article…the gist of the justification given in it for the establishment’s misdeeds this week is the same unoriginal essence which keeps getting repeatedly used, ad nauseum, by the brethren that rules. Whether it be in the unquestioningly published web pages of ThePrint or be in the sessions of our hallowed Parliament.
Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Nehru and the Congress could not help but do it
Now, it is our turn to do it.
So, the subjects should continue to live with it,
Even the Supreme Being better approve of it:
For we have deemed that we act for all Hindus
and it is righteous of us to do it.
(Hmm…Dr. Manmohan Singh has now become the paragon of integrity.)
Incidentally, if the suggestions emanating from Travancore-Cochin had been accepted, it is quite possible that Kanyakumari today may have been part of Kerala, and not of Tamil Nadu. Something to think about.
Can Jerry Rao be requested to kindly explain this