'The Congress can't return to power unless it reins in prices, lowers interest rates, taxes the rich,' says Praful Bidwai. 'If this means sacking those most responsible for the UPA's pro-big business policies including Finance Minister Chidambaram, so be it!'
The Mars mission is overwhelmingly irrelevant to space science and won't advance the frontiers of knowledge. It will divert attention from the real technological challenges facing the Indian space programme, and will further distort our science and technology priorities, says Praful Bidwai.
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Crony capitalism will of course generate investment and ensure profit for private capital, but it won't give employment or income to the people. If you can make money by selling coal or speculating in land, why produce electricity, why invest in research and development, why even set up factories, asks Praful Bidwai.
Only three percent of Indians pay income tax; our tax-GDP ratio is among the lowest in the world. This must change. Our elites must realise that India's poverty has damaging consequences for them, and that they can help decrease it. The food security bill, with all its limitations, will hopefully contribute to generating such awareness, says Praful Bidwai.
Reason must triumph over blind faith, says Praful Bidwai in this tribute to murdered rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
'The Left's decline is now a reality, both nationally and in West Bengal.'Behind it lie: Ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated party programmes... a socially conservative upper-caste leadership,' says Praful Bidwai.
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India's fear of small states derives from memories of Partition and the paranoid view that it will break up under 'too many' states. It's time to shed such fears and bite the 'states' reorganisation' bullet. India won't crumble under a few more Telanganas, Vidarbhas or Gorkhalands, says Praful Bidwai.
India's nuclear establishment is continuing its march of folly at the expense of safety in the false belief that atomic power is the energy of the future. It's not. Nuclear power is in relentless global decline, says Praful Bidwai.
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It's perverse to rationalise 'controlled' killings or torture -- without going down a slippery moral slope. Once the state stoops to torture, it's liable to sink into tyranny, says Praful Bidwai.
The political situation in the country is fluid and could change significantly. But as things stand, India could be headed for an unstable minority government dependent on uncertain "outside" support, says Praful Bidwai.
For the Kashmiri people, the gun remains India's main face, and coercion or deception by New Delhi dominates their consciousness, says Praful Bidwai after a recent visit to the valley.
The mother of intolerance is the Union home ministry, run by ultra-conservative bureaucrats who are inclined to take a hard line on matters ranging from fighting insurgencies to putting citizens under surveillance to outlawing dissident groups, says Praful Bidwai.
More details will doubtless pour out about Sudipto Sen's rackets as investigations proceed. But one thing is certain. The vast majority of Saradha's victims will only get a pittance from the Rs 5 billion compensation fund set up by the Mamata Banerjee government, to be part financed by an additional levy on cigarettes, of all things. But the investors' stake is estimated at Rs 170 billion, if not more, says Praful Bidwai.
Even if the SP doesn't immediately withdraw support, the UPA government will remain helplessly dependent on the SP and the BSP. Withdrawal of support by either could destroy the UPA's paper-thin majority. It will have to do a balancing act between these two rivals on a day-to-day basis, says Praful Bidwai
Most rich and upper-middle class Indians are greatly under-taxed. Worse, the government annually writes off over Rs 5 lakh crores through exemptions. This practice must be ended if the growth-development disconnect is to be abolished, says Praful Bidwai.
Sustaining the Bolivarian revolution after Hugo Chavez won't be easy. But we must all celebrate its considerable achievements and wish it well, says Praful Bidwai.
India's regional policy has fallen between the two stools of pragmatism and principle. It's time India revisited and rectified its approach. Relations with neighbours deserve nothing less, says Praful Bidwai.
The Congress could have regained some lost ground had it returned to welfare and a pro-poor platform. Instead, it has moved in the opposite direction. Rahul Gandhi's upper middle class-based political mobilisation strategy is likely to fail badly, says Praful Bidwai.
India and Pakistan, says Praful Bidwai, have to get out of the deeply ingrained habit of regarding their Hot-Cold War as something normal and inevitable, and move towards demilitarising their borders.
'No BJP leader trusts him. His bid for the position will sharpen inner-party rivalries. The RSS is wary of him because he is too much of an individualistic autocrat and has destroyed the Sangh in Gujarat,' says Praful Bidwai.
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