Blogs

 O nce recognised as an important court of the last resort in the Commonwealth the Supreme Court of India has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons: Convicting the prominent Indian lawyer Prashant Bhushan of contempt of court for penning two tweets mildly critical of the court that in Canada or the USA would hardly merit a second...

In the pantheon of India's Prime Ministers something about Narendra Modi makes him an exceptional Prime Minister. Understanding the exceptionality requires a review the regime he has given India. In 2014 Mr Modi burst upon the national political scene like a tornado promising what he presented as a new way of doing government, e...

There is much inanity circulating on social media. I delete much of what I receive without ever watching, listening to or reading it. In my daily schedule a special time is reserved for culling the incessantly spewed internet excreta. Perched upon the toilet to do the daily deed every morning, listening to CBC Radio One, I Invariably select most of...

  When Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America, paraphrasing the old "Manchurian Candidate", I wrote of him as a "Russian President of USA"...who shall.. " always remain illegitimate ". His disgraceful and despicable performance in Helsinki has unfortunately proven my assessment to be correct. Acting as Putin's faith...

  Growing up in the afterglow of India's independence one had the impression that the country's freedom movement had been a crucible of the fight between good and evil and the former had forever vanquished the latter. As a young child one didn't know that the storied cauldron of the struggle for freedom had also produced and weathered the colo...

I have no truck or trade with the political parties in India. From time to time I've supported various causes and movements in India that I thought might benefit the country. Even now India really lacks and desperately needs a broad based social and political movement for fundamental change. I would be prepared to participate in one that I felt was...

  The apparent standoff between the Collegium that recommends appointments to the senior judiciary and the Modi government on the question of Justice Joseph's appointment to the Supreme Court of India is disquieting if not downright disruptive. As the law stands the Collegium proposes and the government appoints unless it has any legitimate co...

  Since I wrote my last blog on the plight of Rohingya on January 28th, the Vancouver Sun of February 2, 2018  has reported The Associated Press confirming "the existence of five new Rohingya mass graves." This is further evidence, if any was needed, of the "systematic slaughter of the persecuted Muslim minority in Mayanmar's western...

  In Mayanmar violent attacks on Rohingya Muslims continue unabated. In December 2017 Canada's special envoy Bob Rae had issued his interim report on the situation. His ability to provide a meaningful final report will depend on whether he is granted free and fair access to the Rakhine State and whatever is left of the Rohingya population in M...

  The Supreme Court of India (SCI) has had a stellar reputation amongst the apex courts of the Commonwealth. It is always in the news; it is in the news again. But this time, unfortunately for India, it is in the news for the wrong reasons--about its internal turmoil. Four senior Judges have made public the letter they had sent to the Chief Ju...

  In Karnataka, Dhanyashree, a young woman barely twenty years old, has taken her life; I say she was cruelly driven to her death. She was harassed on social media and in person by the Hidutva vigilantes in their fight against the so called Love Jihad. This heinous vigilantism has been unleashed, or rather uncorked, by the many fronts of the H...

  Prime Minister Modi is the best orator on the Indian political scene today. He is the undisputed king of political one liners, alliteration and rhyme. That is the good part; kudos to him and the BJP for that. Now the bad part: He can compete with the best of them in hurling political and personal insults at his opponents. With his constant a...