If you get a nuisance SMS, you should contact Trai. After the regulator has satisfied itself that the complaint is genuine, it should fine the offending telecom company R50,000 for every nuisance SMS received by every phone user.
Vir Sanghvi writes.
In recent times, Indians have done a fair amount of reflecting over the violence. The Maoists/Naxalites, in particular, have been the cause of extensive debate, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
In the high pressure, all-action world of 24-hour TV news, the anchors often lack the time to pull back and reflect. But if they did, I have no doubt that they would come to the same conclusion that I reached last week after appearing on a CNN-IBN discussion on the results of an opinion poll that HT and the channel had jointly commissioned, writes Vir Sanghvi.
Just before the 26/11 attacks on Bombay, a technician at the Research & Analysis Wing was monitoring satellite transmissions emanating from the Arabian Sea. Almost by chance, he picked up conversations that seemed to be coming from a dhow heading for Bombay, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Sadly, I do not see an alternative. There may be ways of reaching out to the tribals, bypassing the Naxalites. But all that will have to wait. First, the State must reassert the rule of law. Then, it will finish off the Maoists. And only then, will we tackle the serious issue of social justice, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
The agenda is to subliminally link every Indian Muslim to Pakistan and to question the patriotism of an entire community. It is time to ask: do these nutcases really deserve the kind of television time they are being given?
Vir Sanghvi examines.
Sania Mirza unites the bigots!No matter how much affection Indians have for American culture, India is too large and too important to be taken for granted. And Indians have long memories. No snub is ever forgotten, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
It is not difficult to see why the case of David Headley evokes such strong emotions among Indians. For us, 26/11 is as important as 9/11 is to Americans. The difference is that while the US knows pretty much everything it needs to about 9/11, India is still trying to piece together the details of the conspiracy, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
So, here’s my question: why did Modi’s career never take off in the eight years that followed the riots? Why is he still no more than what he was in 2002 — to quote India Today — a ‘hero of hatred’? Part of it, of course, has to do with the riots.
Vir Sanghvi examines...
I don’t know if you have realised this but the terms of debate in Indian politics have changed quite dramatically over the last decade, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
MF Husain should not surrender his Indian nationality and opt for a passport offered by an undemocratic regime — all in the name of artistic freedom. The battle for Indian secularism and free speech must be fought here, in India. And not at the feet of some Middle Eastern monarch, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
India’s record on covert operations has been lacklustre. We have preferred to fight terrorism either by relying on intelligence or by heightening security. When it comes to retribution, we prefer to go through legal channels rather than take direct action, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
It is absurd for India’s future to be held hostage to a dispute in the tiny Kashmir Valley. And who can deny that we are now in the same league as China and not Pakistan?
Vir Sanghvi writes.
It is instructive that at the end of over four decades in existence, all of them with Thackeray as its supreme leader (no other Indian party has been led for so long by a single individual), the Shiv Sena still has no positive agenda or dreams of glory to inspire Maharashtrians. Vir Sanghvi examines...
I’ve dwelt at length on the Chatwal case because the government seems determined, for some mysterious reason, to brazen it out and it’s important to expose the hollowness of its claims. But Chatwal is not the problem. He is merely a symptom. The real problem (as I wrote on this page two years ago) is the method by which we select the Padma awardees, writes
Vir Sanghvi.