I think democracies, in general, get the kind of governments the people deserve. I say 'in general' because what is generally meant by 'democracy' is the government elected based just on a simple majority –  and not on a proportional representation – but that is a column for another time.

I have written before on the curse that is the caste 'system' in India. What is so outrageous is that caste-based discrimination is still practiced in Tamilnadu - one of the first places in India that woke up to fight this unacceptable 'practice'. The fight was led by 'Periyar' E.V.Ramasamy and was quite effective - up to a point.

Prime Minster P.V. Narasimha Rao: The Scholar and the Statesman

So, finally someone in Congress(I) learned to say the word 'sychophancy'! I wonder why it took them so long when the whole country has been witnessing this phenomenon for god knows how long.

Mani Shankar Aiyar is one of the handful of ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet who just got down to business with no politicking around. So it came as a great shock when he was dropped from the Petroleum Ministry and was replaced by Murli Deora.

I was born long after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated - but the closest I came to meeting another such great man was in 1993, when I had the good fortune of shaking hands with Sunderlal Bahuguna. He had just delivered a speech at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on the implications of building the Tehri Dam.