Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In recent months, the aura of invincibility around Modi and the BJP seems to be wearing off. As Santosh Desai writes , there are signs of jitteriness in the BJP about the elections in Gujarat, the “effects of demonetisation continue to reverberate through the economy”, GST implementation is having its share of issues, and the “cultural agenda too ends up with too many unhinged statements”. And in this backdrop: “Being on the back foot does not come naturally to Mr Modi and his reactions lack the surefootedness of an earlier time.” So who could rise now in the Opposition? Nitish went to the NDA, the Yadavs are barely standing, and Mamata never grew beyond Bengal, writes Chetan Bhagat. No wonder then that Rahul Gandhi seems to be on the rise, at least on the Net: “There seems to be a new zing in his tweets and statements about the government, particularly PM Modi. It is like someone took boiled daal and gave it a tadka. His lines are spicier (or more entertaining), which i...

Ever since Satya Nadella took over Microsoft, the company’s changed course. Because Nadella accepted the (obvious) reality that “mobile is replacing the PC as the dominant computing platform” , as Ben Evans put it. So Nadella ditched his predecessor’s approach of trying to use the weight/power of Windows and Office in the PC world to gain a hold of the mobile world. Instead, he started making all of Microsoft’s applications (Office etc) work on the mobile OS’s that rule the world: iOS and Android. But here’s the billion dollar question: given that most apps on the phone/tablet are free (include Office), how does Microsoft hope to make money? Nobody seems to know the answer to that… Rahul Gandhi, after the 2014 election slaughter, went to reflect/meditate/hide in Myanmar for 57 days. After he returned, he is a different politician. He wants to interact with people on issues that bother them: the land acquisition bill, construction laws that favour builders…basically, any g...

When Rajiv Gandhi overturned the Shah Bano verdict, he was just reaffirming that a uniform civil code need not be a part of the way we run our country. Turns out he has opened the doors for every group to say they can pick and choose which laws should be applied to them. It’s kind of ironical that the same “different laws for different people” policy is now attempting to be extended to require that his killers be left alive because they are Tamilians! Maybe we should amend the laws to state that Tamils and LTTE members cannot be executed. And while we’re at it, let’s extend the “death penalty not applicable” list to Punjabis and let that other guy on death roll, Bhullar, live as well. Omar Abdullah is right: how can it be fair to allow the persecution of Muslim women to continue (which is what overturning the Shah Bano verdict was all about) and at the same time, go ahead with the killing of a Muslim man, Afzal Guru? So let’s add Muslims too to the groups that are exempt from the de...

Rahul Gandhi, heir-to-the-throne, is a reclusive figure. He doesn’t give interviews. What are his views on different issues? What does he believe should be India’s priorities? How he intended to solve any of our problems? No idea. And now we get a hint about the man’s views, thanks to the WikiLeaks cables. He believes “radicalized Hindu groups” pose a greater threat to India than even LeT. And yes, he made this statement in 2009, i.e., after the 26/11 attacks. So let’s look at what Rahul Gandhi is really saying here. In terms of body count, did the 26/11 attacks kill more people than any other terrorist attack or religious riot in India? Obviously not: many religious riots have killed far more people. On the other hand, did any of those riots push India (even slightly) towards war with Pakistan? Of course not. But hey, to Rahul Gandhi, the prospect of a terrorist group pushing 2 nuclear armed countries towards war is less scary than those Hindu groups. Now at least we know ho...

Even with questions being asked about the integrity of the press based on the Radia tapes, we still don’t seem to care that the media never asks the hard questions to politicians. Sure, we have the odd show like Devil’s Advocate by Karan Thapar, but even that gets a bit too aggressive and in-your-face at times. And even Thapar only goes after people who are obviously wrong or guilty. But nobody in the media ever asks politicians what they are doing about even the basic minimum things they are supposed to do: stuff like providing good administration and development? No wonder then that it’s only students who ask questions the media won’t: like the student who confronted Obama about Pakistan’s terrorism. Or the student who asked Rahul Gandhi in Ahmedabad why they should vote for the Congress when Narender Modi has developed Gujarat so much more? Rahul Gandhi’s response? He compared Modi to Chairman Mao saying while both did develop their areas, they also caused a lot of de...