LK Advani’s Blog

Without doubt, this month’s earth-shaking event has been Osama bin Laden’s execution in the Abbotabad compound where he had been living in hiding for some time past. Karan Thapar is an aggressive TV interviewer. He does a weekly feature DEVIL’S ADVOCATE on CNN-IBN. His last interview was with Gen. Musharraf in which he squeezed out of the General a reluctant statement that if he had been in charge of Pakistan today, he would have apologized to the people for what had happened. But try as much as Thapar would, he could not make Musharraf go even an iota beyond admitting that for Pakistan the event was an embarrassment simply because it was due to failure of intelligence.

For the rest of the world, however, some facts seem evident.

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On May 1, at 11.35 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, U.S. President Barack Obama made a dramatic television appearance to announce that Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 outrage, had been tracked down and shot to death by an elite team of U.S. forces.

For millions in the world the announcement brought enormous relief and satisfaction.  At last, justice had been brought to the thousands of innocent men, women and children killed ten years back.

But the announcement that day contained yet Click to Read More

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Some of the jokes one heard in the fifties and the sixties which the two principal adversaries in the Cold War used to coin about each other used to be quite bitter.

Comrade Krushchov, First Secretary of the USSR Communist Party, however, had a reputation of cracking jokes about himself. He once told a group of visitors to the Kremlin that the Moscow police was shocked one morning to find the Kremlin walls plastered all over with the dirty legend : “KRUSHCHOV IS A STUPID IDIOT”.

The slogan was promptly Click to Read More

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Dr. Manmohan Singh has been Prime Minister of the country since May 2004. The only serious trial of strength his government has had to face in Parliament was in July, 2008, when on the issue of India’s nuclear treaty with the U.S.A., the Left Parties withdrew support to the U.P.A. Government

The Government, reduced to a minority, decided to win the confidence vote by bribing MPs. And this was done openly and shamelessly. Three BJP MPs actually played the role of whistle-blowers and in the full glare of TV cameras dumped a crore of rupees on the centre table of the Lok Sabha on July 22 while the confidence vote debate was going on.

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In respect of Wikileaks, The Hindu has really made history by offering to its readers articles and reports based on a selection from 5100 India Cables, aggregating six million words.

To cap all these valuable reports, N.Ram, the highly acclaimed Editor-in - Chief of The Hindu travelled to the county of Norfolk in U.K. and in the course of an hour long interview with Julian Assange, Editor-in - Chief of Wikileaks was able to give the country a glimpse of the theoretical framework within which Wikileaks plays its role on the world stage, and what motivates and moves Assange.       Click to Read More

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After witnessing the World Cup Final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on April 2^nd, I had written that it was not just the thousands at the stadium who were exploding with joy, the entire country felt ecstatic and proud the moment they heard that India had won the cup. I am not surprised that reporting Government’s assurance to Anna Hazare on the basis of which the veteran has called off his fast, the Times of India’s front page Banner Headline says: INDIA WINS AGAIN !

On the evening of Friday April 8, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rang me up to apprise me about the terms of the deal government had been able to work out with Hazare. He said Government has assured Anna that the Lokpal Bill as drafted by the proposed Committee, would be introduced in Parliament during its Monsoon session.  My comment was: Let it be Click to Read More

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A confrontation invariably evokes excitement and expectation.

It may be a battle between two armies, or an election fight between two political parties, or a sporting match between two rival teams.

Success brings joy to the winner, and failure inflicts depression on the loser.

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On Friday March 25, 2011, the Budget Session of Parliament was adjourned sine die.  This may have been the shortest Budget Session in many years.

When the President had issued Summons to MPs inviting them for the Session the schedule indicated to them was :

            Commencement:                              February 21, 2011

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Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh made a statement in both Houses of Parliament on Friday last (March 18, 2011) making a frantic but futile effort to whitewash the biggest scandal that has taken place in independent India – the Cash for Votes Scam of July 2008. At their joint Press Conference in Parliament immediate after the statement the Leaders of Opposition in the two Houses, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley effectively punctured every aspect of the statement, and posed to the P.M. the following five questions which the whole country also would want him to answer :          

1. You are the principal beneficiary of the Vote of Confidence succeeding. There was admittedly a case of bribery. Even the majority in the Parliamentary enquiry has held Shri Saxena to be a bribe giver. Why have you or Click to Read More

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