With just under a year to go to the Lok Sabha polls, I shudder to think at the mish-mash India is faced with if neither the Congress nor the BJP were to get a majority – or at least emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 1:27 am
Filed under India, politics · Tagged bjp, Caesar, Congress, Hindustantimes, karnataka elections, Lok Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party, Singly political, Sujata Anandan, Trinamool Congress
In a week full of scams and scandals and exposes all over the country, just some random thoughts about my overview of the state of the nation – or rather its leaders. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 1:43 am
Filed under India, politics · Tagged bjp, Congress, hindustan times, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party, scams, scandals, Sheila Dixit, Singly political, Sonia Gandhi, Sujata Anandan, Sushma Swaraj
Last week I heard with interest Rahul Gandhi, as the newly appointed vice president of his party, call for the identification of 40 to 50 people in the Congress in each state who could be leaders -potential chief ministers and prime ministers. Read more

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Back in those days when I was at college and Subramanian Swamy was a Havard-returned guest lecturer at our university, I remember one of our professors of political science watch the man grimly as he spoke more on economics than on politics. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, November 2, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Filed under India, politics · Tagged Congress, hindustan times, Janata Party, news, Rahul Gandhi, Ram Jethmalani, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, Singly political, Sonia Gandhi, Subramanian Swamy, Sujata Anandan
In a recent interview to an English TV channel, I was both startled and delighted to see Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi tongue-tied – though that’s a mild word for his reaction – to a question on whether he thinks he should apologise for 2002 to be able to clear his path to New Delhi. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, October 12, 2012 at 9:41 pm
Filed under India, politics · Tagged bjp, Congress, Gujarat Chief Minister Narenda Modi, hhindustan times, Narendra Modi, RSS, Singly political, Sujata Anandan
In 1995, when the Congress was pushed below the majority mark in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance was struggling to cop up one of their own, Sharad Pawar, the sitting chief minister, well, just sat back and did nothing. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Filed under India · Tagged Chandrababu Naidu, Congress, Dr Manmohan Singh, hindustan times, Jaganmohan Reddy, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Mamata Bannerjee, Mulayam Singh Yadav, news, Nitish Kumar, P V Narasimha Rao, Ramrao Adik, Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena, Sujata Anandan, UPA
The Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena like to believe that the Mangeshkar sisters belong to them. In fact, not just belong to them – the Thackerays believe that they own these national assets. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, August 31, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Filed under India, politics · Tagged Abeeda Parveen, Ajmal Kasab, Asha Bhosale, Azad Maidan¸ Vilasrao Deshmukh, Bal Thackeray, Congress, hindustan times, Lata Mangeshkar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Michael Jackson, news, Pakistan, Runa Laila, Shiv Sena, Shiv Udyog Sena, Singly political, Thackerays, UPA
During his first term as chief minister of Maharashtra, I had once quizzed Vilasrao Deshmukh about the general feeling of critics that his was a lack-lustre government that was really incapable of doing anything significant for the people. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, August 17, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Filed under India, politics · Tagged Babhalgaon, Bombay, Breach Candy hospital, Congress, Latur, Maharashtra, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Marathwada region, mumbai, Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar, Singly political, Solapur, UPA, Vasdantdada Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh
Now that Team Anna is contemplating forming a political party, I wonder why Anna Hazare had to go as far as New Delhi to look for a clean government. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, August 3, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Filed under India, politics · Tagged Albert Camus, Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Congress, hindustan times, IAC, India Against Corruption, Kiran Bedi, Lok Sabha, Nationalist Congress Party, news, Prithviraj Chavan, Singly political, Sujata Anandan, Team Anna
When Sharad Pawar split the Congress in 1999, he had hoped that the whole of the party will rally behind him and that Sonia Gandhi will be just left with herself and a handful of her close supporters. Read more

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Posted by Sujata Anandan on Friday, July 20, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Filed under India, politics · Tagged Congress, hindustan times, Maharashtra, NCP, news, Prithviraj Chavan, Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena, Singly political, Sonia Gandhi, Sujata Anandan, UPA, Vilasrao Deshmukh