The horrific and coordinated ISIS attacks at six locations in Paris should reawaken the slumbering chattering classes to the most serious danger the world, in particular the west, faces from ISIS's Islamist bloodthirsty totalitarian ideology. The ISIS continuing its brutal ways should have been enough of a constant reminder....

Watching the post election NDTV analysis of the exit polls in the great Indian state of Bihar I felt something in me shatter into a million shards: it was the idea of India as a progressive, secular and united country where elections would be run and politics done based on...

At most gatherings of the Indian diaspora conversations invariably turn to India. The progress India has made gets the mention with a healthy dose of pride along with a lament for the cancers and curses of caste, corruption and poverty. It is but natural for Indians to be talking about...

Canada has been in the midst of an unofficial election campaign preceding an impending but yet uncalled election. For  months the governing Conservatives have been campaigning at public expense in the form of innumerable funding  announcements and government advertising. The US is gripped by the next presidential race dominated on...

I had decided to follow up my last blog on corruption in India by detailing further unsavoury disclosures and revelations in the ongoing saga of the decadently unethical and incestuous relationship between businessman Lalit Modi and the related business empire on the one hand and foreign minister of India Sushma...

June 26, 2015 Dear Prime Minister Modi, For over a year I have watched you from afar with hope and expectation for India, my motherland. Your oratory has been charming and exhortations to Indians to build a better India quite impressive. Living in Canada and retired from active electoral politics...

The Rohingyas are the most persecuted minority in the world, according to the United Nations. They are a minority in Mayanmar, formerly known as Burma. They are not recognised as citizens of Mayanmar though their roots in the country go back several hundred years. Some scholars date their presence in...

I was outraged when Rona Ambrose, the federal minister of health said she was outraged at the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of medical marijuana holding not just smoking, but eating or drinking pot to be legal for medical reasons. In other words medical...

Canada had been a multicultural country long before the Europeans came to its shores. On the west coast alone the aboriginal communities had diverse cultures, traditions and spoke several score languages. The European diversity added to and moulded, often quite oppressively, the diversity they found in Canada. The Charter of...

Anna Hazare is no Gandhi. Yet his contribution in advancing the war on corruption in India is indisputable. He had galvanised thousands into the epic battle of ethics against the omnipresent corruption that ails the Indian society. While corruption remains rampant Anna has lost his sheen and the battle has...

Some weeks ago I wrote what some felt were scathing bolgs on Modi titled  Modi: A Madari or A Nation Builder? on January 1, 2015 and Mr. Modi The Great Orator: Please Break Your Silence! on January 5, 2015. In both of them I expressed the hope that the smart...

The decimation of the grand old Congress and deathly humiliation of the ruling BJP in the Delhi election at the hands of AAP still in its infancy is good for India and Indian politics. Political pundits will read different things into the disaster that just knocked the living daylights out...

New anti terrorism legislation introduced by the Harper government will soon be voted upon in the House of Commons. Despite reservations with respect to lack of oversight of the security agencies Justin Trudeau has let it be known the Liberals will be supporting it. The NDP may follow suit despite...

I smell an election coming. Not in October 2015; much sooner than that. Harper has just unveiled the new anti terror legislation with new and enhanced powers for police and CSIS. The legislation allows various agencies to share information to enhance safety of Canadians. It also allows prosecution for promoting...

Had Chanakya and Machiavelli his more recent incarnation been alive today they would have declared that in Washington and New Delhi Modi and Obama were not doing any favours to each other. They were simply transacting international business as dictated by their respective national interests. Nations only have national interests....

Voters of Delhi! Beware of the undemocratic proclivities of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Ms. Kiran Bedi the former cop who has coveted political power for the longest time. It was obvious for all to see. The power is now within her gasp. There is nothing wrong in seeking power;...

Not on many occasions in my life have I made written speeches. But for the occasion of being presented the inaugural Civil Courage Award by the Wallenberg Sugihara Civil Courage Society on Sunday, January 18th at the Jewish Community Center in Vancouver in the presence of over 400 people I...

Terrorism in the name of religion is at war with us. It is at war against reason. It wants to intimidate us back into the dark age of unreason and blind obeisance to religious authority; such authority as perceived legitimate by the terrorists. It uses an illegitimate and self induced...

In a spectacularly ignorant and ill advised ordinance the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government of an erstwhile Indian royal Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan has imposed minimum educational qualifications for contesting village panchayat(council) elections. In so doing it has replicated in reverse the franchise extending actions of the pre-independence British government...

For many days I have been meaning to write a few lines about the sheer madness of the 'Ghar Vapsi' (back to home) conversions of Muslims, Christians and other minorities back to being Hindus. As the ancestors of most non Hindu Indians were Hindus the religious right directly or indirectly...