Caste and religion based Reservations have already destroyed India. Reservations based on caste and religion must be done away with, if at all reservations are required then it must on economic consideration, this will provide equal opportunity to the intellects, irrespective of caste & religion. Intelligent poor must get support to compete. This way intelligent people will be promoted at the top and then they will be able to deliver the results. With the present reservation system highly intelligent, non result oriented and useless people are occupying high positions, where they are unable to deliver the results, leading to huge losses and waste of resources. The caste based system has done irreparable damaged to the country. Those promoted through this system are good for nothing except accepting bribes. They don't know anything beyond corruption. A classmate of mine who rose to high position through reservations, has ammased huge wealth is indicative of how reservations have resulted in huge corruption. This must stop. In order to garner vote banks, the caste based reservations which were initially meant for 10 yrs on trial basis were extended till date destroying the country. Reservations are breeding unimaginable corruption, which must stop earlier is better.

A well written article, impressive in its insight.

Finally someone spoke about it. Digital media and giants like google and facebook have allowed government to control narrative and use behavioural economics to map votes like never before

Being an avid fan of your independent journalism, I agree to the point the era of globalization has snatched a good sleep from our life. But, something remarkable is that, according to the British medical society's report, Indians get the best sleep in the world. That's about 68 percent of Indians get a more than 6 hours sleep which is better than USA, UK, JAPAN and all other tier 1 tech giant countries. The report is quite relieving.

Nice story. Somehow can't get it out of my head that 'Come Closer' has an unmistakable resemblance to this late 70's song by Chic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqPmqXy7nc . What say?

As with Trump's nonsensical statements, this seems to be a tactic to see how far one can stretch the truth. If the populace swallows absurdities without protest, it allows even greater and more sinister lies to be propagated in the future, as George Orwell tried to warn us. Unfortunately there are more people willing to believe self-serving lies than are committed to unflattering truths.

Excellent analysis. The tendency of present days critics to show up as neo-liberal and politically correct has been challenged, and rightly so. OUATIH is a brilliant film and something which takes time to sink in.

Oh oh, there could be a cess we don't know about on commenting.

Freedom for reporting the correct version is the need of the hour specially with this type of sensitive cases, as it has enlighten the minds of the educated masses, that is why the Press has to have the necessary freedom to report, specially if the Agencies to are supposed to investigate, try to suppress the truth under press from supporters of those accused.

1. Better compare government in absolute terms as % can be misleading. GDP has grown tremendously and absolute expenditure (not% of GDP) figures will give proper picture. 2. Look at this in a way that expecting government to be spending more would lead unproductive and corruption in expenses. 3. Why goverment should spend unnecessarily? 4. If Government is able to reduce it's expenses then isn't it good? 5. Where will goverment get money from for spending more? Raising taxes... do we want that? 6. If goverment can run well on low expenses then isn't it good for country? 7. Economy should run on it's own capabilities. 8. Agreed government should tighten noose on GST evaders.... Many still try to evade GST by no billing/Underpriced billing. 9. Agreed, that government should levy tax on agricultural income.... people show agriculture income and evade taxes and corruption money. 10. Why shouldn't there be tax on agricultural income above threshold? 11. Ever increasing population is a major and no. 1 problem for country and any amount of development can't benefit people on the contrary development will become problem for country.... no Government/economy can create employment for additional 1crore per year people which India is adding more than 1crore every year. So much of population increase causes pressure on resources....... Better we ask Government to seriously bring policies to contain population growth to zero or negative.

Excellent article. Very well expressed.

The whole point is that the army had investigated and clarified that the allegations of shehla rashid were false/baseless. Instead of accepting the army statment and gracefully apologizing, shehla continued to say her version is correct. So she should prove her allegation or at least substantiate it by naming who she talked to. But she won't do that also. Instead the army is vilified though it has clarified that her statement was false.

A bond film is always a reason to look forward to. Pure movie magic...

A great achievement considering the small presence of this great sport in a country as large as India...This milestone could be the biggest game changer for cycling as a serious sport in India

Of course Dr. Sen is right. However, to blame it entirely on Modi and the BJP is unfair and partisan. The Kashmir issue has been unresolved for 72 years because every Indian government since the beginning has tried to do exactly the same thing, which is nothing along the democratic lines that Sen proposes. Modi/BJP has merely taken it a step further by overturning article 370 of the Indian Constitution that had provided certain protection to the State and its population. Like Israel regarding Palestinian land, India too made status quo and facts on the ground her policy on Kashmir, hoping that if enough time elapsed, status quo would become the de facto truth. Unfortunately, for both Israel and India that has not proved to be the case.

The opposition & sane Indian people need to learn something from the Hong Kong protestors!

Post Offices are destined for extinction anyway.

Highly informative and very well written article. Thanks so much to the author.

The selection committee has made some wrong choices, the Sports Ministry must over see the recommendation and make a fair choice, Sanjay Bhardwaj has been chosen for a life time Dronacharya award becoz he happened to coach Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra, Unmuktchand. But the efforts of a veteran coach have totally been ignored, the coach who trained the U-15 World Cup winning Junior team-Cricket with powerful players like Mohammad Kaif, Haryana Cricket team captained by Kapil Dev who won both the Ranjhi trophy and Irani trophy and further more trained several cricketers at the Haryana Government Cricket Academy where more than 9 cricketers went on to play international Cricket, spearheaded the making of the Nahar Singh Stadium in Faridabad has been ignored. Apart from having a stellar cricketing career himself, Mr. Sarkar Talwar has not yet been recognised for his efforts even though under his guidance a team won the biggest tournament of the World defeating Pakistan in Lords in the year 1996. The man who ran a private academy for years and trained only a couple of celebrity cricketers is chosen over someone who worked with the government for years for the betterment of the Sport and showed amazing Results. I have personally learned cricket from Sarkar Sir, and i feel this is injustice. The Media must highlight such cases, just like Shri Jaspal Rana could have run a private academy and earned millions but chose to coach the Indian Junior Team which produced amazing results.

I think that Shastri has done enough to deserve another term. Complacency is unlikely as the Test championship will keep us on our toes. The talent bank is over flowing (Shaw, Gill, Shreyas, Vihari, Saini, Chahars) and it's only a question of nurturing these guys. The one day WC is 4 years away. The T20 WC comes around in 2020 but that has never been our focus. So that's OK.

Nice information

An excellent article, indeed. Kudos. What remains to be seen is whether the state takes stern disciplinary action against the errant police officials, after following due process of inquiry and law.

Writer has hit the nail on its head. Further , even in high courts there is no data which can inform public as to how many criminal/ civil appeals have been finally decided by particular bench in a quarter. Disposals of misc. applications only can not take the country forward on judicial reforms. In fact these are petty matters tagged with long pending appeals.

I think this review has by no means justice, I am on the final leg of the series. And I found it rather legitimate and a breath of fresh air, it went from a gangster's narrative to a Doomsday conspiracy. I don't know agree with scroll , there moment's of pondering that quite accurate, I have personally known of ashram's dabbling with mind alerting substances, in facet a South Indian university, run by a god-woman was rumoured to have added libido netrualising agents into the milk it's student's drank . What more can one ask for, I honestly think everyone has a perspective and are free to have one. However let's not forget the energy, the art and the script that has gone into it.

Definitely made my Independence day! Kudos to Scroll.

The whole notion of various people making a clarion call for abstaining our independence day commemoration, in the light of the recent revocation of Article 370, is preposterous, for the fact that it's a bit rich to demean and denigrate a day made to remember our greatest heroes of freedom struggle, in the name of a deplorable act done by the present right-wing ruling dispensation. Neither is there anything for us to cherish about the Sangh Parivar on what they have done to the country till now, nor what they did during our freedom struggle! Rather our celebration should be a refutation to their idea of India.

The thing worth noting is that no one is being the devils advocate or questioning the government on its policies they are either celebrating them or mocking those who are trying to question, the point where same pr exercise video of ajit doval was circulated everywhere the mea initial denial of protests and then their backtrack and the constant propaganda of lies has plagued the political scenario today. Media which was supposed to be one imp pillor of democracy has just become an extended arm of the government. And yes its coverage of kashmir most certainly is biased.

Whether or not this decision takes proper effect depends only on how it's managed on ground. Demonetization was a good step, but extremely poorly managed. GST is great, but on ground management is poorer than a school boy's. If this sensitive thing isn't managed properly on ground, this will lead to a far greater disaster.

The post is not based on facts as far as the firing in OIL Duliajan is concerned. Mr Ajit Sarmah of Jorhat was the Resident Chief of OIL, Duliajan at that time. The central government took decision to stop the oil blockade by picketers any how -if necessary by force and consequently, the magistrate on duty ordered firing in which several persons were killed and many were injured. Sensing the worsening situation and mounting tension, Mr Ajit Sarma resigned in a face saving bid. Mr Robi Mitra was the next senior official who was really a gentleman with good intention. He went to see the people who were hospitalised considering it his duty. As ill luck would have it, the unruly and violent mob dragged him out of his official car and bit him to death. Thus he was a victim by accident. The firing was ordered not for killing of Robi Mitra as written in the post. Rather he was a victim of.the fallout of the firing.

Profound article written by Mukul Kesavan. It unveils the BJP led NDA Govt. unscrupulous move in Scrapping 370 and re-making Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. It also unravels the disingenuous and hypocrisy of the so-called liberals, who have become proxies for the Govt. of the day. Their commitment to free speech and a secular politics is submerged under the deluge of authoritarian & majoritarian rule.

However the twitteratti may react, the Message was on environment. It was meant for Indian audience which is majorly hindi speaking and also international audience to show India's commitment to environment protection.

Gandhi was thinking deeply about everything in that way there’s bound to be mistakes. Holocaust is no laughing matter. But we should not reject Gandhi.

Yes the Congress looks like a spent force in its current form. Only die-hard ardent followers believe in them. But a greater part of the voting population still does hope that they redeem themselves and get of the baggage of dynastic politics, especially the one at the helm. There is a certain frustration and people feel disheartened to see that able leadership that's there in the party is never given the opportunity. Local capable leaders are almost always brushed aside and have to toe the central command. Remember most regional parties are breakaways from the Congress and goes to show that local leaders felt frustrated within the party's governance framework, if they have one in the first place. Well if they reform, good. Else, I am sure, if democracy thrives, then down the line, there will be someone to fill up the space and provide sensible leadership .

Commendable efforts from your side. There are now only select few media house who are concerned with India and common people.

It is leading from back. Nelson Mandela has experimented on this type of leadership trait and found it successful. The leader has to build pressure at the bottom. If they do well, naturally the leader's (and Party's) fame goes up. And that is the ultimate objective of Mr Modi and Mr Shah

It is one thing to criticise a political development, however strongly. That is the right of every individual. It is another thing entirely to drag in the world' s greatest epic in justification of a set of facile and dubious conclusions. In attempting a bogus analogy, the author mixes up his Mahabharata timeline , shows inadequate understanding of the motives and roles of some of the principal players and ,ultimately, makes a hash of his arguments . Fortunately, nobody would be taken in by this pathetic attempt at shallow scholarship. In the future, he had better stick to areas that he really understands. Shyamala Balasubramanian

The Home Ministry should offer free journalistic coverage of the Kashmir life. The authorities need not be afraid of an independent reporting if they have nothing to be afraid of

The fears that you have expressed feel palatable in the present circumstances but are unfounded to say the least. Take your mind back to prei dependent India where Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs and Parsis and people from every other religion, caste and creed fought the British together. The big divide started when our ex-colonial masters sowed the seeds of separatism with their infamous Divide and Rule policy. Then partition happened and scarred the community psyche out of proportions. In the 50's to 70's barring some stray incidents the Indian public at large buoyed by some secular jingoism from Bollywood was well on it's way to having normal behavior amongst each other when Congress and some parties unleashed the deadly weapon of Appeasement ..of Muslims and Dalits...purely to garner votes during elections. Appeasement included reservations, special privileges, regularing settlement of illegal immigrants etc etc. Our dirty neighbourhood was more than happy to take advantage and fueled the Muslims to become anti-hindus..and they succeeded to more than their own expectations in Kashmir. Then came the Modi government riding high on a resurgent mass Hindu sentiment who think this is a good moment to undo what the previous dispensations had done. One needs to be patient for things to settle down. Once the present euphoria of a so-called Hindu renaissance ebbs..sanity will prevail and there will be peace and brotherhood once more.

Can you actually point out the statement which implies that technology will result in job losses?? I was a part of this conference and not a single speaker spoke about job losses. Wonder where are you getting this from??

It's a shameless sentence said by the BJP MLA. Don't you have mothers and sisters in your house. Besides does BJP abolished Article 370 just to marry Kashmiri women. This shows the real difference between the Kashmiris and the people of other states. If this is the mentality of a representative I can't imagine what would be the level of mentality of those people who support him. These type of people are a curse for our country. Also Do you really think you would really go to Kashmir and ask someone to marry you and she would agree. Kashmiri women would prefer to die rather to marry you. Maybe you can try it in jammu with dogries or dalits but not in Kashmir. Because IT IS KASHMIR NOT UP In Kashmir there is no value of money. They only have respect for their principles, manners ,self respect, and a clean soul. Not for the people having such mentality. ITS KASHMIR It was ours It is ours It will be ours N also I would really appreciate if you would say the same sentence in Kashmir in front of any Kashmiri. I am dam sure they will teach you your lifes best lesson and for ever. Maybe that would be your lifes last lesson you will learn and the best one. KHUDA HAFIZ

Being in media does not permit anybody to flout rules. Irrespective of their status in the Media, they are subject to same laws as any other Indian. Prima facie the Roys appear to have committed offences. It is justified to prevent them from leaving country in light of the cases pending against them.

During the NDA 1 rule the goverment unreasonably big emphasis on fiscal deficit . For controlling deficit it increased fuel price to unreadable heights , made public sector companies pay dividend from reserves, even RBI had to pay dividend out of its reserves, increased tax etc whereby there is no 'consumer surplus' in the system. The present govt also increased the fuel price to meet the government's expenses. We are in a vicious circle. Government will increase the price of essential items (mostly items of price in-elasticity) , it will reduce consumption in other products and eventually spiral negative growth. Only solution for govt is to reduce unproductive expenses and increase outlay on investments and increase employment.

Breakdown of communications and clampdown on political leaders, leaving the people without freedom of movement and choice.. The suspension of democracy is most worrying. Without considering the means how can we achieve lasting peace? Without trusting the people of Kashmir, how do we build harmony and open dialogue.

It’s a given that there should have been trials. There is a reason all advanced sporting nations who have a system in place conduct trials across sports. But even if you ignore this for once, the form reason being given by BFI is totally absurd. There is so little that separates the two. Nikhat lost a very close bout (3-2) to Mary in Semis. Won a Silver in Thai tournament (with decent field) against Mary’s Gold in President cup, Indonesia against a low grade field of 2nd/3rd in line boxers from Australia and Vietnam. And are we really deciding form on just two tournaments? It’s clear Mary has used her power here to influence BFI. And as always it is with Indian NSFs with no vision and planning in place, they fucked up!!

This is the saddest and most heart-felt piece I have read since this madness started...most people would mock and not understand. Thank you for writing this..

what difference would the name make to the common man on the street

The battle between Steve Smith and Virat Kohli for the mantle of "the best test batsman of the generation" reminds me of the same battle between Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar. It's great to see these two great cricketing nations producing batting geniuses, generations after generations. These duels only enrich the cricket.

I can understand brother your feelings and anxieties. We all are with you but this also a fact that valley is being fuel by militants and separatist and kashmir never felt secure for last 70 years. This decision could be make the valley prosper and peaceful once again and will retain it's identity of 'heaven of earth' . Don't belive such foolish mentality buying lands etc and all that . I am sure you will sooner able to meet your family and gift you sister. All india and your indian always with you.

Have I violated any of your posting guidelines, looking to the pendency of approval for my post. Please do enlighten. It would help me meet your standards of civility in future posts!

We can keep talking ad nauseum about technicalities, but lose the bigger question about - - Aspirations of Ladakhi people - Settlement of Rohingyas by the state government, while not allowing Settlement of Indians - increasing influence of Pakistan on the locals - many more It's very easy to romanticize the Kashmir but the ground realities has to be handled. The government step is in the right direction.

A great soul full of compassion. A true daughter of Mother India.

The death of Sushma Swaraj is an insurmountable loss not only to the country but also to the people she loved.

Call it anarchy or tyranny or any other fancy word you may wish to but in nature, it was the most decisive step taken by the government post independence. When people say that the government should have tried to get the consent of the stakeholders aka separatist, why don't we realise they have been resisting it for the past 70 yrs.Scrapping the section 370 is anarchy then what good it does to the state faced with stone pedling and terrorism. The mainstream politicians have cashed the section to get votes. Be it the tranditional kashmiri handlooms or tourism which flourishes only for a few months, only few business has been flourishing. If the state government would have been so 'pro kashmiri', the state would not be in such a dreaded state. Section 370 ensured J&K was an integral part of India,why can't it just be a part of India like any other state.

Andrew Whitehead's book called 'A mission in Kashmir, gives an unbiased account of precisely what happened in Kashmir in 1947. The NWFP Pakistani Pathan tribesmen were sent into Kashmir to rape, murder and loot people. Thousands of Hindu Pandits, Sikh and Christian Kashmiris were murdered. This proxy terrorist action by Pakistani paymasters have been in play for the last 70 years. This is what has decimated the 'Kashmiri identity'. Also read 'Looking back' by lord chief justice Mehr Chand Mahajan regarding the politics behind Kashmir in 1947 and what took place. Then look at the current narratives.

Article 370 was a temporary measure says the govt. So are some other provisions in the constitution. For example, reservations. Will BJP government rescind it?

Govt may have a strong reason for bifurcating the state and an obvious reason for turning it into a UT. We may talk of democratic process to resolve the issue but kashmiri leaders had their own self interest in keeping the kettle boiling so they should not be complaining. BJP has taken an initiative after 72 years to resolve the unfinished agenda of partition. Lets all welcome it.

Please read the Instrument of Accession of J&K. It has no special provisions. It has language identical to every other princely state. J&K merged with India like any other. Article 370 came about after, after the Indian Constitution was written. It came as a Presidential decree. It is now going out as a Presidential decree. Don't distort facts.

This is suicidal move,to scrap article 370 and 35A by presidential order amounts to infringement of constitution itself,to demolish Babri Masjid in the year 1992 was the first historic blunder by Bjp regime and scrapping of article 370 and 35 A is second historic blunder by BJP regime It is like putting the whole country on the mouth of volcano! We will have to face international ramifications and even lead to war when our economy is in doldrums! It seems the time has come for the people of india to suffer a lot in the immediate future!

Modi and Amit shah know how to take bull by the horns. They have assured good securiry in Kashmir as a precursor to some big political announcement, probably of repealing of article 370. we love you Narendra Modi. Solve this kashmir problem once and for all. Only you can do it.

Marvellous victory for the pair.hope we see more of these wins in future also.

Saini has come along at just the right time when many of our top pacers were facing a huge workload from INternationals and were in danger of burnout. His pace was surprising, considering it came off a fairly wiry frame. He may have to avoid the full tosses , since they could be adjudged as a danger to batsmen and result in disqualification.

Not only does the author have to be alive, some prizes require the shortlisted authors to confirm their attendance at the event. In case they're not attending, they are certainly not going to win, they're told. Imagine the plight of an author who then has to travel across continents, at his/her own expense, to be at the ceremony and still has no guarantee that he/she is going to win. #TrueStory But credit where it's due: The JCB team, for example, that invested in strategic partnerships to ensure their shortlisted books were stocked well and visible in bookshops. There was a definite spike in sales and buzz around those books. Indeed, we need literary prizes to do more for the book(s) being rewarded -- a lot more than a ceremonial handshakes, prize monies and cocktail evenings.

This is an article by someone who is really devoted to scholarship. I wonder if this article will have any impact on people who have never introspected in their life.

why doesn't scroll give this kind of proportional representation in its own company

The system itself has become so critical that many genuine citizens of India can not pove their citizenship. The whole system of the process should be audited by some third party. It also to be checked whether all the cases have been evaluated in same scale.

More consumption will destroy all natural resources, climate, and other life. More production more consumption more exploitation is not growth. We must take care of the population, unequal distribution of wealth. We also should look after overseas production unit. The Americans using other land, labour natural resources, water and climate to keep their economy going. We are over saturated here and must explore new avenue. The Indian population can kill any economy with such small geographical area.

Good news! There is still some place where rationality and sensible journalism is appreciated. That is the best part of it. As far Ravish Kumar's work, every sensible person admires that.

Americans are at least 50 years ahead of us in scientific advancement. Americans are said to be keeping aside good bars equivalent to their dollar currency notes printed. Counterfeit US dollars currency notes are almost nil because that is the sort of technology they use in printing currency notes. On the other hand we could not even produce the sort of paper required to print our currency notes until recently and imported the said paper from country like Chechi Slovakia! At least there is one American in the list of Nobel prize winners, every time the said list is announced. What about we Indians? Simply the comparison is incomprehensible.

Assam NRC was mock test for Govt of India.

Nehru create wonderful education institutions, that is the base of Chandrakant and present culture and democracy system. What is the Modis service to our country. Honestly says in future India is face lot of problems.

If a social practice is made null and void in law, yet large sections of the society practice, or at lease state their determined intent to continue such practice - is there any other way but to declare the practice as a criminal offence? Child marriages were made null and void in law ages ago, yet this practice prevails in several places, some even enjoying legitimacy under the guise of customary law. Child marriage had to be declared into a criminal offence in order to curtail (if not totally eliminate) the practice.