Offstumped Community Portal

B Shantanu
Source: W’end Reading: Mossad, Rahul Gandhi, Sama Veda and Congress’ double-speak

Start this weekend with the story of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s assasination in Dubai.
Next, pl dwell on some insightful observations by Prof. Dipankar Gupta on Young Parliamentarians.

Move on to some thought-provoking mantras from the Sama Veda…
then to a remarkable initiative on the environmental front [...]

B Shantanu
Source: Lavan Vajra & The Art of Rain-making

I was alerted to this wonderful story by my brother-in-law, Prashant. An excerpt from Burnt tyres and salt leads to rain? (emphasis mine):
…Dr Raja Marathe, IIT Bombay alumni and a former Naxal leader who returned to India from the United States a few years ago, may [...]

B Shantanu
Source: From Britain, an extraordinary story of social re-engineering

As many of you would know, “Immigration” is currently a hot issue in Europe – including of course the UK. The issue was recently covred in Stratfor, the widely read commentary on strategic affairs and TIME Magazine had a cover story on this a few [...]

B Shantanu
Source: Exposing ExpressBuzz Op-Ed

A brief & hurried dissection of Exposing Indian democracy – the Op-Ed in today’s The New Indian Express. Comments and thoughts welcome, as always…

It has now become abundantly clear that Qatar has offered M F Husain citizenship, though it is not entirely clear yet whether one of India’s greatest artists [...]

B Shantanu
Source: Cups of Tea & Living in Hope: Notes from the road

Two things stand out from my visit to Bharat last week: lots of (sometimes too sweet) tea and a palpable sense of hope.
I managed to squeeze in four semi-public meetings during my 4-city trip, and several private conversations centred on political reforms and [...]

Following the moratorium on Bt brinjal, the draconian clauses of the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill have invited sharp criticism from scientific community of Orissa and the surprising hurry with which the Centre is planning to pass it.
While the earlier National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) Bill has now been modified to BRAI, [...]

When a public intellectual like Swapan Dasgupta is compelled to ask if the Liberal Left’s monopoly is on account of the opposition being crude and not modern, it is a wake up call for us to pause and ask how exactly should the Liberal Left’s monopoly be challenged ?

Offstumped is calling upon the leading lights of this intellectual movement like Swapan Dasgupta, Kanchan Gupta and others to join in on a live Internet Debate that can hopefully be organized on the Offstumped Community Portal.

It is a reflection on the effectiveness of Goebellesian anti-Sangh propaganda that despite marking the 60th anniversary of the Indian Constitution in 2010, that Guha can easily make phony claims on adherence in July 1949 to an Indian Constitution which was passed by the Constituent Assembly only on 26 November 1949, to come into effect on 26 January 1950.

Rajiv Gandhi once said that out of every rupee spent by the government on poor people only 10 paise actually reach their intended beneficiaries. In case you have not heard, the Garib Kalyan Melas that were held recently across Gujarat have changed this reality for better.

Fifty such Melas were held all across Gujarat within just 2 months. A whopping Rs. 1500 crore of funds (in the form of checks, auto and cycle repairing kits, cycles, sewing machines, cycles for the disabled, etc.) were distributed directly to 25 lakh poor people without the involvement of any middlemen.

B Shantanu
Source: Very very bad militants…

*** A ROLL CALL OF SHAME ***
PTI News:
Army captain, jawan, militant killed in J-K encounter
Srinagar, Feb 23 (PTI) An army captain, a jawan and a militant were killed in an encounter between ultras and security forces in Sopore district of North Kashmir early today.
DNA India:
Gun battle ends, 3 soldiers killed [...]