On the road to Liberty

In the wake of the growing controversy surrounding the Indian Premiere League (IPL), and the accusations of illegal betting and possibility of matches being fixed, the Times of India, on 23 April 2010, invited a few people to comment on this issue under the title, " Legalize gambling, subject it to regulation ". I was one of them, and the following was my brief comment. Gambling is socially acceptable, but legally not. It is this dichotomy which is at the root of the periodic bouts of headlines about betting and match fixing that comes to haunt us. The IPL format was tailor-made for betting, and cricket could have benefited even more had betting been legal. By bringing the bets on the table, the competing interests of various stakeholders would have ensured that the prospect of match-fixing did not affect them. We will do well to remember that the epic tussle between the good and the evil in the Mahabharata could not have happened if people did not know that the game of dice...

There has been a lot of discussion about the growth of the Maoist insurgency in tribal dominated forest areas. While the security issues have dominated the debate, there has not been adequate attention on winning the hearts and minds of the local population by recognising their property rights in land. That is what I discuss in this article titled, " Pull the Land Issue Out From Under the Maoists " in the Wall Street Journal on 21 April 2010. India is girding for war against an internal enemy, the Maoist guerrillas known as Naxalites. This conflict will inevitably be bloody—in the last three years alone about 2,500 people have died in Maoist violence, about one-third of them civilians. However, counterinsurgency operations are won not only on the battlefield, but also in the hearts and minds of the people. While the government beefs up the security forces, it shouldn't neglect the main complaint of the population from which the Maoists recruit their fighters: a lack o...

Sri Lankans will go to polling booths on April 8, to elect a new parliament. The general perception is that the coalition headed by the president will win. There seems to be an uncanny parallel between the political siutation in India in the 1970s, and Sri Lanka today. I hope history will not repeat itself. Will Mahinda Rajapaksa choose to secure his own future or that of Sri Lanka? My article titled " Winning the War, Losing Democracy " in the Wall Street Journal was published on April 6, 2010. Sri Lankans will elect a new parliament tomorrow [April 8]. The election results are a foregone conclusion, but the future of Sri Lanka, unfortunately, may not be so certain. On the face of it the idyllic island nation seems poised to seize on a historic political opportunity at the end of a 25-year civil war against the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But the initial sense of hope that followed the total military victory over the terrorists last May has slowly dissipa...

The women’s reservation bill will disempower the voter, and reduce the incentive for the elected representative to be seriously concerned with the issues affecting the constituencies. It will also seriously undermine the prospect of inner party democratic structures, and empower the entrenched party leadership. More importantly, this amendment is completely unnecessary, since there is nothing that stops political parties to nominate more women candidates, if they were really committed to that cause. My article titled, " The political fallout of the battle of the sexes " was published in the monthly magazine, Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review, in April 2010. Symbolism plays a very important role in politics. So it was symbolic that on Monday, March 8th, 2010, the centenary of the International Women’s Day, the governing UPA coalition wanted to present the country with a constitutional amendment to empower women, by reserving 33 percent of the seats for women in nat...