Columns

It is generally assumed that the term “bureaucracy” pertains exclusively to the government. This is a misconception, the creation of a lazy media and ignorant public. It has been my experience that any organisation, if it becomes big enough in size and business, becomes a bureaucracy with all its attendant ills and lack of accountability.

To keep the synapses in my rapidly deteriorating brain functioning I always ask myself a trick question every week, and attempt to answer it the next week. The question for this week is: is it possible for somebody to be thick skinned and thin skinned at the same time ? If you’re the type who

Anyone who thinks that the anti-hijab campaign is about discipline and dress code needs to have his or her head examined. And anyone who thinks it’s about the emancipation of Muslim women needs to have a frontal lobotomy without any further loss of time. For it’s clear as crystal that this is just the latest

Delivering his Independence Day address in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced opening the gates of Sainik Schools in every state for girls. Sainik Schools are like regular schools preparing students for their school- leaving exams except that there is a lot of emphasis on sports, physical fitness and the cultivation of other qualities necessary

The present government at the centre is in no hurry to meet its grandly proclaimed targets. We have it on the authority of the Prime Minister himself that Acche Din have been deferred by 25 years. This year’s union budget is a ” hundred years” budget, presumably because it makes little sense for 2022. Minister

[ In medieval England a warm water bath in a tub was a luxury. So whole families would indulge in a community bath a couple of times in a month., all dipping into the same precious hot water. The kids came last, obviously, and by their turn the water in the tub was dark with

21st February or Ekushe February in Bengali usage is an iconic day in the history of the Bengali speaking people like me. The history is worth recalling briefly. In 1948, the Government of Pakistan ordained Urdu as the sole national language for the newly formed country sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority of East

I have for some time been convinced that Moses (of Old Testament fame ) was THE original bureaucrat. The anecdotal evidence is pretty convincing. He offered to his peoples the Promised Land, and then made them wander around in the desert for forty years. If this is not the classic bureaucratic run-around then what is

If you’re wondering how deep the rot has set into our society, and how autonomous the radicalisation of even the educated sections has become, you have to look no further than the open letter written by 32 assorted retired IFS officers on the 5th of this month in response to an appeal by more than