In the Interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high power committee would be set up to consider the challenges arising from 'fast population grown and demographic changes.' 'But who wants data? It pays to feed people's fears, insecurities and apprehensions. If such fears don't exist, they must be created,' her husband Parakala Prabhakar says in this fascinating excerpt from his book, The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis.
The Gujarat elections 2012 are not a contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress and the Gujarat Parivartan Party. It is not between Narendrabhai and Keshubhai. Nor is it between Modi and Rahul or Sonia Gandhi. It is a contest between Modi that is seen as a symbol of Vibrant Gujarat, and a Modi that is deeply resented Parakala Prabhakar.