Narendra Modi vs the Dynasty: Contrasting Ideas of India

[SanjayC]

she has obviously been tasked to check out his views and confidence level...maybe throw in a couple bouncers as well to see which way he ducks or attempts to hook. couple of note taking officials who are present would be well trained CIA psychologists watching and taking notes.

why give them any opportunity / chance to waste precious time - give them a confirmed appt for June end.

Modi should play along as a great patron of strong India-US relations despite the "unfortunate misunderstandings" of the past between him and Goras. American businessmen have soured on Cong as they are not happy with difficult access to Indian market, and are looking for alternatives. The US ambassador is meeting Modi to judge if he can deliver for US businesses by providing better access and increase trade. If Goras see him as a promising candidate who can boost American business interests in India, they will not spoil Modi's party through EVMs and may actually rig them to help him get a clear majority. If Modi acts snooty and rebuffs them, Goras will make Third Front a clear possibility as they control the EVMs. All they have to do is swing 25 seats AAP's way.

[Hari Seldon]

"Mujhe Odisha se ikkis kamal bhejiye..." NM in Odisha. Unsparing on Naveen (without naming naveen).

[manju]

I have one humble suggestion for NaMoji:

I think that when talking to foreigners, including foreign journalists and ambassadors, he should not speak in English.

He is not very fluent in English, and these people take advantage of it and twist his remarks like they did in the "puppy" case.

Let him speak in Hindi or Gujarati, and let a translator translate.

After all, why should fluency in English be required for Indian political leaders? Do the leaders of China, Russia, Japan, Germany etc. give their interviews in English?

agree 101%

[Hari Seldon]

Manohar Parrikkar, as close to an aam aadmi CM as we can have in India, minces no words in tearing apart the sAAP.

Totally must-read interview in ET, also for the insider gyan on the state of things within the BJP after NM's rise....

People don’t want an anarchist, says Goa CM Manohar Parrikar

[rajkumar]

Manohar Parrikkar, as close to an aam aadmi CM as we can have in India, minces no words in tearing apart the sAAP.

Totally must-read interview in ET, also for the insider gyan on the state of things within the BJP after NM's rise....

People don’t want an anarchist, says Goa CM Manohar Parrikar

What's your opinion of Kejriwal and his austerity, since your personal style is compared to his?

Simplicity is an intrinsic part of a personality; it is separate from your ability to administer. When it is advertised, it loses its value and becomes an election plank. Simplicity has to be lived through. My simplicity can only strengthen my character, but not my administrative ability. It's like the cause they are advocating, the Janlokpal Bill. The Bill in itself will no ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... aign=cppst

[abhijitm]

Parrikar is a damn smart person. I always hold him in very high regard. He is very well capable of being PM of India, if not as good as NaMo. BJP must start now grooming him NaMo backup in next 10 years.

[Sagar G]

Namo shouldn't meet the US ambassador before the election, it's pointless. After becoming PM he must take steps to fulfill his promise of making India a manufacturing/R&D giant, the resulting business loss for the Americans will make up more than enough for a good revenge.

[Shanmukh]

Parrikar is a damn smart person. I always hold him in very high regard. He is very well capable of being PM of India, if not as good as NaMo. BJP must start now grooming him NaMo backup in next 10 years.

The real next NaMo could be Babulal Marandi - an excellent administrator, an honest person, and someone who has built himself from the ground, despite his poor background. I would like the BJP to make every effort to return him to the BJP and groom him for the Jharkhand CM-ship. He is young comparatively (early 50s), and in 10 years, after he has won two elections, the BJP can start preparing him for the PM ship.

[gandharva]

No picture of Modi

[chaanakya]

I have one humble suggestion for NaMoji:

I think that when talking to foreigners, including foreign journalists and ambassadors, he should not speak in English.

He is not very fluent in English, and these people take advantage of it and twist his remarks like they did in the "puppy" case.

Let him speak in Hindi or Gujarati, and let a translator translate.

After all, why should fluency in English be required for Indian political leaders? Do the leaders of China, Russia, Japan, Germany etc. give their interviews in English?

+1

Could not agree more. It should become mandatory for IFS staff to speak whatever Indian native tongue and employ a translator. The translator could be very well from RAW.

+100000000

I have seen Japanese, french, German Spanish speak their native language and use translator during all official engagements even when they know English pretty well. Outside of Office work they tend to speak in English if you speak in English and are very happy if you are able to tell few sentences in their languages. We should do the same and around it a whole lot of job opportunities would crop up for students of foreign languages in India.

[Rahul M]

Invoking the legacy of Biju now, is this good idea?

yes. for all his faults biju patnaik was an inspiring figure whose memory continues to carry much weight in orissa.
some of his actions are the stuff of jingo legends. e.g flying Indian troops into srinagar in 1947, rescuing Indonesian leaders from under the nose of dutch colonials. (he responded ''Resurgent India does not recognize Dutch colonial sovereignty over the Indonesian population" when they threatened to shoot him down)

[sudarshan]

Isn't he the one who named the daughter of Sukarno as "Meghawati Sukarnoputri?"

[chetak]

More termites.

SIT shielded Modi during Gujarat riots probe, claims new book

A judicial commission and a Supreme Court-appointed special investigation that probed the 2002 Gujarat violence glossed over crucial evidence to shield Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a new revealing book says................( not alleges!! )

[Suraj]

Yes, Biju Patnaik named Sukarno's daughter. She has brothers named Guntur and Guru Sukarnoputra.

[negi]

Ye wahi chootiy@ hai.

http://deshgujarat.com/2012/05/09/a-jou ... it-report/

A journalist of top daily drafted Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit:SIT report

[Hari Seldon]

Sid War-da-raja-n has lost it entirely...



Amusing.

[RajeshA]

Hope US will apply uniform standards of human rights in: PTI

Dealing with Modi: Khurshid

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) Ahead of US envoy Nancy Powell's meeting with Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today hoped America will apply with regard to the Gujarat Chief Minister the standards consistent with its policies in dealing with issues like human rights.

Holding that the US was free to interact with Modi, Khurshid, however, said "there are lot of things that they will not and we should not put behind.

Now we have our own EAM begging US to discriminate against Indian leaders.

Funny is that they say this stuff, as if it is fully normal to make such a comment. A banana has far more backbone than this man.

[muraliravi]

Hope US will apply uniform standards of human rights in: PTI

Dealing with Modi: Khurshid

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) Ahead of US envoy Nancy Powell's meeting with Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today hoped America will apply with regard to the Gujarat Chief Minister the standards consistent with its policies in dealing with issues like human rights.

Holding that the US was free to interact with Modi, Khurshid, however, said "there are lot of things that they will not and we should not put behind.

Now we have our own EAM begging US to discriminate against Indian leaders.

Funny is that they say this stuff, as if it is fully normal to make such a comment. A banana has far more backbone than this man.

Rajesh ji, cut him some slack, this is all expected onlee. The joker is on the verge of losing deposit in his own seat (Farrukhabad). He is trying to appeal to the faithfuls to vote en masse even though that will is unlikely to carry him through.

[Prem]

Hope US will apply uniform standards of human rights in: PTI

Dealing with Modi: Khurshid
Now we have our own EAM begging US to discriminate against Indian leaders.Funny is that they say this stuff, as if it is fully normal to make such a comment. A banana has far more backbone than this man.

And He is proud son of Baabar. Wait till Cong project this RNI candidate for PM Gaddi.

[svenkat]

Ahead of US envoy Nancy Powell's meeting with Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today hoped America will apply with regard to the Gujarat Chief Minister the standards consistent with its policies in dealing with issues like human rights.
Holding that the US was free to interact with Modi, Khurshid, however, said "there are lot of things that they will not and we should not put behind."Khurshid hoped Americans, Europeans and other countries will apply standards consistent with their policies in dealing with issues of human rights.

He said that in the past, India was lectured by a number of countries on human rights and it would be interesting to "know what Powell tells Modi."

"He is not the example that should be seen as an Indian.

We are a country that believes in Gandhian way of life, compassion, service without recognition and none of these terms applies to Modi," he said.

Khurshid said "as far as any other country treating him or for that matter any other political party dealing with him, everything has to be done on merit.

"They (US) have to understand that they are dealing with particular set of circumstances, they are dealing with particular background with the person they are dealing with.

But it's their decision. We did not persuade anyone not to give a visa and we are not going to say that you give a visa," the External Affairs Minister said.

"There are lot of things that they will not and we should not put behind. The holocaust is not put behind and if holocaust is not put behind who are we to lecture them to say you put holocust behind?.

"Similarly, if we find that there are certain things that still have to make accountable, then that's our decision as a country as people and they should not by any act of theirs or by any decisions of theirs undermine something which is our democratic entitlement. I am sure they would not want to undermine our democratic entitlement," Khurshid said.

The External Affairs Minister also referred to conviction of Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Modi government, in a riot case.
"Maya Kondani has been convicted for most horrendus slaughter that had taken place. She was a Minister in Modi's government. I only want to know if Modi or somebody in his government feels responsible for what Maya Kondani

[panduranghari]

Funny how these uber secularists invoke Gandhi at every moment. Perhaps Gandhi was a Russian orthodox Christian in an Indian body.

[Vipin_Upadhyay]

A picture says thousand words ...

Event function to celebrate Polio Free India.

[Gus]

cursed hits a new low rivaling doggy with "Hope US will apply uniform standards of human rights in dealing with Modi"

so now a constitutional authority expresses effectively that indian institutions and judiciary are crap and US state department is the supreme authority on who is culpable and who is not.

[Vikas]

^ What do you expect from a man who mentions deep satisfaction among Muslims when Sikhs were killed in 1984 riots or who is accused in swindling of funds meant for disabled.

[disha]

Think it other way, US and its State Department has been #pappufied in the internecine war between CongIs and Bhajpa.

Currently our own internal differences surpass their stupidity. Imagine for a moment, how much a united India can #pappufy US?

[Victor]

Plain and simple PANIC. Sit back and enjoy. Warm popcorn and cold beer.

[vishvak]

Shouldn't EC take steps against people prodding foreigners against PM candidate of opposition!

[KLP Dubey]

The US ambassador is meeting Modi to judge if he can deliver for US businesses by providing better access and increase trade. If Goras see him as a promising candidate who can boost American business interests in India, they will not spoil Modi's party through EVMs and may actually rig them to help him get a clear majority. If Modi acts snooty and rebuffs them, Goras will make Third Front a clear possibility as they control the EVMs. All they have to do is swing 25 seats AAP's way.

There is some misunderstanding. US companies are already well engaged with Gujarat - I personally know a long list of people in the chemical and energy sectors engaged with a whole bunch of companies operating in GJ. Why is there a feeling that Shri Modi would be acting snootily and rebuffing US business ? Shri Modi has several times said he wants to see long lines of US people applying for Indian visas instead of vice-versa.

The specific point of discussion is regarding meeting with US ambassador. That is a meeting with a strong "political and strategic" underpinnings. IMO there is absolutely no need for such a meeting right now.

[Lilo]

Rise of Narendra Modi plays on Indians’ real anxieties
With elections just months away, it does seem the right time to be suspicious of Modi’s formidable cheerleaders

Pankaj Mishra

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thinks he will be a “disaster” for India. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen deplores his administration’s “terrible record” against minorities—the heavy taint of an anti-Muslim pogrom and extrajudicial killings. His authoritarian traits have divided members of his own Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Nevertheless, India’s biggest businessmen want Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, to be the country’s next prime minister. As I wrote in my previous column, Modi’s bountiful concessions to India’s corporations at a time of political dysfunction in Delhi naturally make him seem like the right man to restart India’s thwarted economic modernization. Bollywood celebrities who touch his feet (literally) may be hoping to buy themselves some insurance against the storm troopers of the Hindu right, who now routinely assault any artist or entertainer they deem offensive.
But a simple quid pro quo doesn’t explain the effervescent cult of Modi among upper-caste urban Hindus, including some of my own friends and relatives, or the fervor among even a section of the intelligentsia for a leader whom Ashis Nandy, one of India’s most respected public intellectuals, describes as a “classic, clinical case of a fascist”, with “clear paranoid and obsessive personality traits.”
The great national drama of Modi’s ascent is not fully captured by economic history, political science, anthropology or indeed any specialized academic discipline, let alone by a corporate-owned news media wholly mesmerized by him; it still awaits a cultural historian, who can do justice to changing sentiments and self-perceptions as well as material transformations in India in recent decades. In the meantime, the phenomenon of Modi seems the most revealing symptom and effect yet of India’s fraught attempt at economic liberalization since 1991.
Uneven growth has generated both wild fantasies of a “Global Indian Takeover” (the title of a regular feature once in India’s leading business daily, the Economic Times) and deep resentments. Modi has in turn emerged as their shrewdest manipulator in Indian politics. This helps explain many apparently contradictory aspects of his programme and appeal.
For instance, the reflexive fear, loathing and distrust of Muslims—the country’s most impoverished and depressed minority—among Modi’s well-off Hindu supporters may seem strange. But, as the New York University anthropologist Arjun Appadurai argues, such hatred helps stave off anxieties that even many recent beneficiaries of globalization feel about “their own minority or marginality (real or imagined)” in a time of “unruly economic flows and compromised sovereignties.” Beating up minorities becomes another way of creating identity and rekindling a sense of kinship.
Modi has also played the periphery-versus-center card well by speaking of Gujarati achievements that are allegedly ignored, if not mocked, by India’s arrogant and upstart rulers in Delhi. In this morality play, Gujarat’s son-of-the-soil brave entrepreneurs are ranged against “foreign”-seeming dynasts (read, the Italian-born leader of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi), deracinated pseudo-secularists and deluded socialists.
Modi’s party has long advocated a backward-looking programme of economic self-reliance. Yet, among an aspiring class of urban Indians, many of whom revere Adolf Hitler as a terrific organizer, Modi has effectively deployed the idioms of management, national greatness and security, fusing them with emotive appeals to racial and religious community. His retrograde Hindu nationalism looks contemporary as a result, an exemplar of technocratic skill.
Most important, Modi uses the most beguiling discourse in underdeveloped countries—that of “development.” Promising bullet trains and 100 “smart cities,” Modi offers to the Indian middle class, which has long suffered from Singapore-envy, its utopia of a “neat and clean” urban environment in which the poor are miraculously absent.
Modi-mania is also an epiphenomenon of India’s recent political and economic crisis—particularly, the abrupt collapse of the Global Indian Takeover project. Many of those invested in this absurd delusion have suffered both material and psychic losses. They, just as much as Indians left behind or pushed back by uneven growth, are vulnerable to demagogues promising a national regeneration.
Of course, the pied-piper’s tunes of national unity and purpose, the scapegoating of minorities, and the mobilizing of malcontents have also been witnessed elsewhere— most prominently in countries that started much later than their peers the process of building strong nation-states and then underwent disastrous setbacks and crises.
Social unrest within Germany and Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries also generated mass veneration for apparent strongmen, and authoritarian-minded groups tried to forge a sense of community by intensifying hostility to people perceived as aliens and outsiders.
The great poet Heinrich Heine expressed early the overpowering German longing for salvation through a robust leader:
Chase out these clowns, and close the show,
Be their critics and chastiser;
Shut down this parody of the past—
Come soon, come soon, O, Kaiser.
Something like this savior-delirium seems to have infected many urban Indians today. It is too early to say whether “salvation” by Modi will also portend a catastrophic breakdown of social order and moral restraint. But, with elections just months away, it does seem the right time to be suspicious of his formidable cheerleaders and to redouble faith in the wisdom of Indian voters, and in India’s great political and social diversity. Bloomberg

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/r8mt9pi ... eties.html

Pankaj Mishra.Second part of his artecal on bloomberg .
This artecal whets my appetite in expectation to see their *real* squirming to begin in full flow once their bete noir ascends onto dilli ki gaddi.

By the way "Pseudo Secularist" and "Deracinated" (Atri ji !) both have gone mainstream !!
First it was the stupid bimbo recently in her farticle.
Now its none other than Paki Mishra - the toast of the leftlib sikular circuit complaining about these terms.
Way to go internet Hindus. Btw wonder if both these words were first coined and predominantly used in brf ?
Now waiting for Sikularism too to make an appearance.
In another news Jason Bourke, Al-Guardians resident agent inserted a quaint quip of Jaswant Singh being the probable FM in modi's govt - in his todays artecal on NP hitting on Modi. After a few hours these lines curiously disappeared from the artecal.
Now we know the preferred candidate for Indias FM by the Western Govts-MNC nexus. And hope jassu bhai continues to remain in the dog house wrt modi.

[Karan M]

this pathetic cretin pankaj mishra, wrote a bunch of mediocre trash, inveigled his way into NYT etc by promising dollops of caste-cows-fascist indoos verbiage which NYT loves to write about primitive indians.. basically another rich good for nothing type loafing around, enjoying life, and then looking down on indians living in india who want a better india.

two groups of india love socialism and to look down on middle class aspirations for growth & a strong nation, strong economy. the loony tunes socialists and the rich upper class who want for nothing, and hence think all that is gauche.

[Lilo]

Now, AAP trains its guns on Narendra Modi
TNN | Feb 12, 2014, 03.32AM IST
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party has sharpened its attack on BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Since Monday, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav has let loose a torrent of barbs on Twitter, which are being amplified by party volunteers and supporters, all of whom are questioning Modi's alleged "closeness" with the Adani Group as well as the performance of the Gujarat government.

Party sources say that it was imperative to take on Modi directly in order to "expose" him. "Modi's image is based on lies and the fact is that nobody questions him. The Gujarat government owes Rs 1.45 lakh crore to the Centre. Its budget allocation for education is 18th on the all-India list, it has given undue benefits to corporates and this is just the tip of the iceberg," said parliamentary affairs committee member Sanjay Singh.

On Monday, Yadav started the party's campaign against Modi by asking, "What is the exact relationship between Modi and Adani group? How has Adani become super rich in just 10 years?" He followed it up with questions like "Why are the BJP and Modi silent on gas pricing scam by Congress?", "Where does money for NaMo campaign come from? Shouldn't the BJP be transparent about its funding?", "What is the record of Modi govt on farmers' suicide, infant mortality, quality of schooling? A model for the country?" and "Why does Babulal Bokharia continue on Modi's cabinet despite being convicted? Can we trust NaMo to end criminalisation?"

The party's social media cell co-ordinator Ankit Lal said that once they had the go-ahead from Yadav, AAP's highly active twitterati jumped in and posed several more questions to the Gujarat CM. All through Monday night and part of Tuesday morning, before #RILGasScam took over as the trending handle, the questions were thrown at Modi.

"Modi is a pack of lies and it is easy to see how his image is a farce because of the immense support AAP has received in his state of Gujarat," claimed Sanjay Singh. "The party has more than 2 lakh members who applied through forms while several more have registered online. Several Congress and a few BJP members have joined AAP and the party has established a strong base in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Gandhinagar, Rajkot and Baroda."

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman alleged that AAP ideologue Yadav is playing to the tune of the Congress. "Congress is out to stop Modi at any cost. Yogendra Yadavji is dancing to the tune of the Congress. The issues raised sound more like a diatribe against Modi than seeking information. These are not new, they have been in the public domain for a long time and answers have been given on various different fora as and when they came up," she said.

http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Now-AAP ... 243424.cms

Massa begins negotiations and as if on que sAAP jolts into an overdrive against him.
Time for all nationalists including RM ji to strengten him (at this balpradarshan stage) for him to make the strongest possible deal for bharat .

[gandharva]

Modi sets conditions, US swallows Meet on third attempt

New Delhi, Feb. 11: The US made Narendra Modi wait for more than eight years. But in the end, it was the Gujarat chief minister who forced Washington to plead — not once, not twice, but thrice in the past three months before agreeing to terminate a diplomatic spat that began when the US denied Modi a visa in 2005.

US ambassador to India Nancy Powell will meet Modi on Thursday in Gandhinagar, ending America’s boycott of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate ahead of the Lok Sabha elections where he is widely viewed as a front-runner.

But it is the US embassy here that was eventually made to sweat for the meeting by Modi after a series of tense attempts at ice-breaking that failed, Indian and American officials aware of the details of the outreach have confirmed to The Telegraph.

Modi eventually agreed only to a meet strictly on his terms, the officials said. The location had to be Gandhinagar; the choice of subjects had to be in tune with his national role; and the US had to discomfit his rivals, the Congress-led central government, by obtaining its approval for the meeting even though Modi and Powell could have circumvented the foreign ministry nod.

The US, left alone in its boycott of Modi for the 2002 Gujarat riots after the European Union and Britain made up with him, accepted the conditions.

“He got what he wanted, and he got it exactly the way he wanted,” an official said. “In the end, they (the US) were chasing him.”

Modi first snubbed the US in November, when the American embassy requested a meeting between Powell and him in New Delhi on the margins of a series of rallies he was to hold in the last week of the month leading up to state elections in the capital.

A meeting on the sidelines of a public event would have helped Washington limit the criticism of an about-turn on its human rights concerns that a full-fledged, one-on-one meet would trigger.

It would also eliminate the need for Powell to seek prior approval from the external affairs ministry. The foreign office, under diplomatic protocol, only expects to be consulted for pre-scheduled, one-on-one meetings between foreign diplomats and constitutional office-holders in India. The foreign ministry, officials confirmed, was not told about the attempted November meet.

But Modi refused to meet Powell on the sidelines of any public event in New Delhi, insisting that any meeting take place in his Gandhinagar office.

The US embassy spokesperson hinted at the November attempt at brokering a truce, but did not comment on details.

“This (the February 13 meeting) is a part of our concerted outreach to senior political and business leaders that began in November to highlight the India-US relationship,” the spokesperson told The Telegraph.

The second snub came in December, when US Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo from Barack Obama’s Democratic Party wanted to meet Modi along with five Republican Congressmen. Republican Congressmen had earlier too met Modi, but the presence of a Democrat was meant to signal a thaw from Obama’s party.

But Modi turned down a meet with the delegation, citing the arrest of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York on charges of visa fraud.

The Gujarat government then told the US embassy that Powell would need the foreign ministry’s approval for a meeting with Modi. The US embassy wrote to the foreign ministry in January, officials said.

Although Modi and the Congress leadership have traded vitriolic barbs in election campaigning, the government had no reason to block the meeting, and approved it on February 7, officials said.

When foreign diplomats meet chief ministers, talks usually revolve around investment. But Modi and Powell will talk about India-US relations, in a willing recognition by Washington that he may be Prime Minister in a few months.

Modi’s snubs appear rooted both in the US delay in breaking the ice with him, and in a specific spat in September 2013.

The BJP had invited Powell to attend Modi’s rally in Delhi on September 29, but the US embassy indicated that Powell would not be able to attend the event.

Washington had begun a thaw in ties with Modi that began on November 16, 2010, when then American consul-general in Mumbai Michael Owen met him in Gandhinagar.

But in September, 2013, the US was still contemplating whether to formally signal an end to its boycott --- a message that would need a meeting between Modi and a senior representative of the Obama administration like the American ambassador to India.

The European Union’s top envoy in India and the ambassadors of Italy, Germany, Greece and six other European nations had already met Modi earlier in the year. And in October, British high commissioner James Bevan travelled to Gandhinagar to meet Modi, the highest diplomatic contact between the UK and the chief minister since the riots.

An angry BJP withdrew the September invitation, leaving US officials worried that they may have burnt under-construction bridges with Modi, who had earlier that month been declared the party’s prime ministerial candidate. This Thursday, the reconstruction will start.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140212/j ... vqxz_hY4nk

[Hari Seldon]

BJP in West Bengal draws in big names

BJP leaders in the state have seen at least 20 high profile people join the party within a month.

"Commoners and professionals from various fields are joining the BJP. Even high-ranking officials are joining the BJP," said state BJP president Rahul Sinha said.

"Former DGP R.K. Mohanty, former joint director of the CBI Sujit Ghosh and former State Election Commission officer S.K. Madan have all joined the BJP. Film actor Nimu Bhowmick is also in the BJP now." {No mention of Bappi da? Sacrilege....}

We are talking to more people about this. Good people from all walks of life are coming to the BJP. We are not taking in people by making some sort of a deal. When we see some person to be the rightful owner of the seat, we will give ticket to that person," Sinha said.

But the Opposition said it was just a momentary change.{And what else would you expect them to say, anyway?}

IMO, lotus should take some bold and unconventional steps in a little-to-lose state like WB. Like holding proper primaries among registered party workers and even, heck, the general public. Will both save ticket distribution backroom dealing and will attract attention tot he talent surfeit in the party. JMTPs.

[devesh]

Ahead of US envoy Nancy Powell's meeting with Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today hoped America will apply with regard to the Gujarat Chief Minister the standards consistent with its policies in dealing with issues like human rights.
Holding that the US was free to interact with Modi, Khurshid, however, said "there are lot of things that they will not and we should not put behind."Khurshid hoped Americans, Europeans and other countries will apply standards consistent with their policies in dealing with issues of human rights.

He said that in the past, India was lectured by a number of countries on human rights and it would be interesting to "know what Powell tells Modi."

"He is not the example that should be seen as an Indian.

We are a country that believes in Gandhian way of life, compassion, service without recognition and none of these terms applies to Modi," he said.

Khurshid said "as far as any other country treating him or for that matter any other political party dealing with him, everything has to be done on merit.

"They (US) have to understand that they are dealing with particular set of circumstances, they are dealing with particular background with the person they are dealing with.

But it's their decision. We did not persuade anyone not to give a visa and we are not going to say that you give a visa," the External Affairs Minister said.

"There are lot of things that they will not and we should not put behind. The holocaust is not put behind and if holocaust is not put behind who are we to lecture them to say you put holocust behind?.

"Similarly, if we find that there are certain things that still have to make accountable, then that's our decision as a country as people and they should not by any act of theirs or by any decisions of theirs undermine something which is our democratic entitlement. I am sure they would not want to undermine our democratic entitlement," Khurshid said.

The External Affairs Minister also referred to conviction of Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Modi government, in a riot case.
"Maya Kondani has been convicted for most horrendus slaughter that had taken place. She was a Minister in Modi's government. I only want to know if Modi or somebody in his government feels responsible for what Maya Kondani

mildly nauseous.

[Hari Seldon]

First Narendra Modi tea stall in Silicon Valley: Professionals from MS, Cisco, Apple join hands (ET)

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 233797.cms

[Rahul Mehta]

The rumor mill says that BJP-leaders are going to promise policies in manifesto that will make it easy for MNC-owners to open banks in India and also devor land. So my conjecture that MNC-owners will use AK-420 to force BJP-leaders to make policies to favor MNC-owners policies may come true.

This is rumor. May not come true. But may come true. Lets wait.

My take is --- we dont need banks except for fund transfer and storage. There is no need for loans and savings business -- it is scam of worst order. And land should be owned ONLY by Indians, and MNC-owners should have ONLY rental agreement for at most 20 years. If we are going to hand-over plots and plots and plots, and banks and banks and banks to MNC-owners, then might as well elect Rothschilde as PM of India.

[JE Menon]

Which Rothschild? Will Jurysys stop that from happening? (Answer in another thread please... I think the thread that you opened must still be existing somewhere...)

[Yogi_G]

Whatever happened to Srinath and Kumble joining BJP? Modi should go after them and absorb.

[panduranghari]

Pankaj Mishra.Second part of his artecal on bloomberg .
This artecal whets my appetite in expectation to see their *real* squirming to begin in full flow once their bete noir ascends onto dilli ki gaddi.

By the way "Pseudo Secularist" and "Deracinated" (Atri ji !) both have gone mainstream !!
First it was the stupid bimbo recently in her farticle.
Now its none other than Paki Mishra - the toast of the leftlib sikular circuit complaining about these terms.
Way to go internet Hindus. Btw wonder if both these words were first coined and predominantly used in brf ?
Now waiting for Sikularism too to make an appearance.
In another news Jason Bourke, Al-Guardians resident agent inserted a quaint quip of Jaswant Singh being the probable FM in modi's govt - in his todays artecal on NP hitting on Modi. After a few hours these lines curiously disappeared from the artecal.
Now we know the preferred candidate for Indias FM by the Western Govts-MNC nexus. And hope jassu bhai continues to remain in the dog house wrt modi.

The withdrawal of Doniger book has lead to assortment of people coming out to condemn 'Hindus' when the main reason for the withdrawal was the order from the court.

I have been trying to document these peoples and the list is kind of endless;
Salil Tripathi
Shikha Dalmia
Nihal Arthanayake
Tunku Varadrajan
Fuschia Dunlop
Naresh Fernandes
Piali Roy

Most all living in the west and writing for some rag or another.

[gandharva]