'Governments have no business running temples. Governments certainly have no business deciding who is a Hindu and who is not a Hindu.'
We should not judge the Congress or the BJP by a Robert Vadra or a Nitin Gadkari. We must measure them by the standards set -- or claimed -- by the top leadership, namely the RSS and Sonia Gandhi. If one claims to be a moral exemplar, the other is the chief political leader in this country, says T V R Shenoy.
Various people have admitted -- off the record -- that the BJP had the same 'Vadra File'. Why did the BJP not speak out, asks T V R Shenoy.
Why is the UPA seemingly bent on pumping the oxygen of publicity to its critics? If you judge the result of an action by the results you must admit that the UPA has scored some spectacular own goals.
Is it time to grant more powers to individual Indian states to detect, obstruct, and capture illegal immigrants?
'Rahul Gandhi is one of the few in the UPA with the political clout to carry out those much-needed reforms in the railway and power ministries, even if it means bruising a lot of egos in the short-term. Becoming a minister without portfolio is undoubtedly the safer option, but if there is no pitfall neither is there the opportunity of solid achievement.'
Unlike Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Giani Zail Singh, one hopes Pranab Mukherjee will do a better job when asked to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution', says T V R Shenoy.
The Opposition says Pranab Mukherjee, who was the chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute Council, did not quit that office before filing the papers for his Presidential run. Mukherjee knows exactly how tricky these details can be, and how they can trip up even the most seasoned politician, says T V R Shenoy.
It is hard to say who is pursuing the more stupid course -- the CPI-M in Kerala or the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, says T V R Shenoy.
'The CPI-M faces multiple investigations, with the CBI, the SIT and the Kerala police pursuing different cases. It is said as many as 70 to 90 CPI-M leaders are under the scanner, and that as many as 30 of these leaders are under imminent danger of being arrested,' notes T V R Shenoy.
Years ago, as finance minister, Manmohan Singh popularised the term 'systemic failure.' Today he appears to believe it is a case of individuals being at fault rather than the system. I believe he was wrong then and is wrong now, says T V R Shenoy.
Did an Indian agency place a 'mole' within the Tatra subsidiary in Britain? Did powerful forces in India snuff out a life before anything emerged?T V R Shenoy asks some uncomfortable questions about the Tatra case.
The squabbles we are seeing today over the election of the next President will be nothing compared to the all-out war ignited by a fragmented verdict after the 2014 General Election, says TVR Shenoy.
Rahul Gandhi's remark 'I am a Brahmin, and I am general secretary of the party' would have been dismissed as a stray thoughtless remark if it were not for the fact that it shows a trend in his thinking, feels T V R Shenoy.
'A K Antony's office receives something like ten letters a week, all alleging corruption. That works out to better than an allegation a day on average, holidays included.'
'India faces a very peculiar situation where the two most honest men in the Union Cabinet are suddenly facing the charge that massive scams took place in their own departments. Is that just coincidence?'
'Make no mistake, that nightmare is inching closer to reality. What should concern the BJP, CPI-M, and Congress is the manner in which they are losing -- often coming third -- and the states in which they are losing,' says T V R Shenoy.
The Congress First Family seems more comfortable with somebody like Vijay Bahuguna -- a scion of a political dynasty -- than with a man like Harish Rawat who carved his own path, feels T V R Shenoy. That attitude, he recalls, drove out Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra.
If there is one lesson that should be heard by every political party it is that both candidates and campaigners need something more than a famous surname to push them over the winning line. T V R Shenoy lists the lessons of Election 2012.
The Congress has been reduced to dust in Tamil Nadu by its allies. The Trinamool Congress is set to do the same in West Bengal. And the NCP is gaining at the Congress's expense in Maharashtra, notes T V R Shenoy.
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