Krishna Kiran's

As a student, I have heard the word Religion in Social Studies class when my class teacher Ms. Ranjini at N.S.M. Public School taught us about the German economist Karl Marx’s phrase ‘the religion is the opium of the masses’. As a child, religion meant occasionally going to the temple with parents, praying at home ( the prayers were intense during exam and unit test times) , celebrating various festivals and wearing new clothes (if we could) during Diwali and Sankranthi.  In the class, like in any other school, we had friends from all religions. The names didn’t ring anything in the mind at that point in time nor do they now except being proper nouns. They were just friends and classmates, not a Muslim or a Christian or a Hindu. They are friends for life. We have Christian missionary schools that contributed a lot to education in India and continue to do so. There are teachers from all religions working in such schools. Every school or college in the country is a mini-Indi...

Fight against corruption is the buzzword in most Indian political parties’ manifestos. It is also one of the biggest evils plaguing not only our nation but the whole world. Especially in India, it is a serious problem given our population and the poverty rate as corruption is bound to affect more people and leave the poverty to remain at the same levels even after multiple changes of governments. Though political leaders/parties say that they would fight against corruption but none really follow what they say. People are so vexed with corruption that they made a hero out of Arvind Kejriwal who fought along with Anna Hazare against corruption. Indirectly, the subject of corruption helped Kejriwal to launch a political party AAP that has become quite popular in a short span of time. According to me that is the only positive outcome of recent fight against corruption in India - the birth of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Nobody needs to be told that corruption is the result of man’s greed f...

Looks and profession can be deceptive most of the times. Look at this person in the picture who is around 65 years of age and whom I have engaged from Rajghat to Connaught Place in Delhi. He runs this recently introduced eco-friendly rickshaw to carry at least five passengers on share basis to eke out his livelihood. The maximum speed it can touch is 35km/hour and costs around Rs.1.2 lakhs. Anyway that is not of much  relevance here. He is very friendly and seems to have a permanent smile on his face.In the 15 minutes pleasure ride I had on this rickshaw in the company of my colleague Saroj Kumar Singh, interesting things have been realised that illustrate the power of technology and how it has made even ordinary people powerful and well informed. His name is Abdul Rahim and he is an AAP sympathiser, that too because of Arvind Kejriwal's association with Anna Hazare in the past during the anti-corruption drive. He is proud to wear the AAP badge on his shirt but feels that A...

I am a voter and I am neither anti-Congress nor pro-BJP but against the way Congress has been governing this country all these years. I am for progress and growth that should become visible in real terms across the length and breadth of this country and not just in a few posh localities of cities and towns.   I am pro-change . I am an ordinary citizen vexed with the system of governance. At the same time confused as to what to do and feeling helpless. The only weapon I have is a vote and I own nothing else that could bring change. Our votes only changed governments and not the lives of the millions of people of India who continue to live in penury election after election. Political parties that do not serve the people’s aspirations and fulfill the promises made in their manifestos can be classified into two categories: CAT parties and DOG parties. All these years, we have been voting for either of them because only they have been contesting in the elections. ...

Dear Shri.Narendra Modi ji Firstly, congratulations for being the PM hopeful for this vast nation called India. While your detractors are ruling you out, most of the Indians are already seeing you as their future PM especially the stock markets that are bouncing up in joy every day. That in itself is no mean task and you deserve all appreciation for that. As an aam aadmi , I would like to draw your attention to the issues that bother us, not that you do not know, but to reassure ourselves.   Taxation – Whatever happens in this country, whether it is the price rise or corruption or any other issue, it is the employees of either private or any other sector who are the most affected. As their sources of income is salary , they are easy targets for the governments to tax them heavily at the source with the result they take home less than what actually they would need for a comfortable and happy living. Please find ways that would put more money in employees’ pockets and tho...

The recent remarks on media by AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, the issue of paid news and the Big Fights(NDTV, etc.,) that happen on the subject of media and politics prompted me to write this column. Before you proceed on reading this, let me make it clear that this is not a generalization on media industry as there are always exceptions. I   respect all such media companies who never compromise on editorial supremacy which keeps the spirit of democracy alive. The Prelude 1 .      The moment one talks about media, the first thing that comes to mind is the print. It is only in the last three decades that electronic media has evolved. Of course, the latest development is that of the digital media that includes social media. Print is the longest surviving media in the world. 2.       James Augustus is considered as the Father of Indian Press as he started the first Indian newspaper, a weekly, from Kolkata, the Bengal Gazette in January ...

Decisive, Not Divisive Politics More Regional - More Anarchy The present political scenario in India is quite disturbing to say the least, not that it was less disturbing earlier. One of the root causes of this disturbance is our so called national parties. Majority of India’s population lives in states run by BJP and Congress , yet due to their inept governance in some states, they are not able to win enough seats on their own to form a stable government. The national parties are creating further chaos by splitting states in the most undemocratic manner for garnering more seats by invoking more regional divide in people adding fuel to the existing fire. It is a matter of great concern that since 1989, no single party has been able to form a government at the Centre without the support of smaller regional parties which are actually single-state parties. The smaller parties with only regional interests are jeopardizing the state of democracy and thereby causi...