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Courtesy: The Hindu

Kaun Banega President?

So who is going to be our next President? If one start delving into the newspapers of previous one month, one can easily come up with names of some eminent personalities whose names were either proposed or were in the race for the coveted seat of India’s first citizen. The names include from the God of Bollywood to the IT Mogul, from a world renowned noble laureate to the head of India’s premiere research institution. But as the time passed, Indian politics has started showing its color and we are now left to guess and to debate on the candidature of Mr. Bhairo singh Shekhawat and Mrs. Pratibha Patil. Yesterday I was watching a news channel and suddenly I came to know that President Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam is game for contesting the presidential election if he has fair chance of winning. I was appalled with a hint of glith but no sooner I started writing this post, again I saw some sort of breaking news that Mrs. Patil has resigned the Post of Rajasthan governor and now its almost certain that she is all set for being the first women president of India. But as I have started penning my thought, let me finish this post.
This could have been interesting…
If we go by the popularity in the masses, Present President is overwhelmingly ahead with whopping margin from other two but he has introduced some clauses with his announcement and so its now in the hands of politicians and the fate of him is in hand of BJP.
Now come to the second Candidate, She is quite unknown before she was announced as the UPA candidate. Actually she is an accidental candidate and came into the frame when others were not figured out. But she is quite able candidate for the post ( her recent remarks over veil can be termed as exception ) as she is coming from sub national level and she represent the women class. Apart from this she has already proved herself at several places. She is governor of Rajasthan and had sent back the controversial conversion bill. She is the politician by heart as she started off her journey in politics as early as when she was just 27. She has never tasted a defeat in any direct election (and probably this time too, she will emerge as a winner) and very few people know that she has been a TT champion. Up to now, she is leading over other contestants
The third Candidate is Mr. Bhairo Singh Shekhawat, our present vice president and backed by NDA. He is the most experienced politician in the race and a good candidate for the post (after all Indian Presidents are more often than not the previous vice-presidents).
Some people argue that President is just a rubber stamp and has no or little significance in Indian Government system and so it doesn’t matter who is going to be the President. Actually its somewhat true as we have noticed in the office of Profit bill case, but an able, intellectually strong President can find many ways to show his power and some of it is the time of hung parliament, to send back bills, the President ruling etc. So we should keep our fingers crossed and probably the best candidate will hit the block. My vote is for Kalam J but now its herculean task to overshadow Mrs. Patil by anyone.
All the best Mrs. Patil, we hope you will win our hearts.

Image courtesy: The Hindu

Should G8 be extended?

G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany(June 6 – 8) is concluded with some positive notes and Germany chancelor hailed it as a success ( Its matter of debate that what success she is pointing to). The group comprises the most powerful and developed nations of the world and the newest entrant of the group is Russia ( still trying to cope up with step behavior of the rest ). In the summit, growing economies China, India, Brazil , SA and Mexico were also invited to discuss the various issues faced by world political economy. The outcome was...

• G8 and O5: Permanent co-operation



• A good climate for the climate



• Africa - a continent of the future



• Global trade: Creating opportunities for all



• Working on things together: The spirit of Heiligendam
  

Now the as one of the outcome of the summit is the realisation of the need of the permanent cooperation between G8 and O5 (Heiligendamm process), The question arises, why this Group cannot be extended? Why the Other most developing countries cannot be added into the elite club. Its now evident that these growing nations has enough impact over the world and no decision global influence can be made without taking these into confidence .
It’s the high time that the G8 member extend their hands to befriend the growing nations like India China and invite them to actively participate in G8 activities as these countries has the one third population of the world and are market driven economy. Without the inclusive participation of these, the G8 can not come up with any solution of the global problems. Consent of these is equally if not more important on any policy change and decision which may influence the world.
On the other hand one may argue whats the need of joining the G8 , if at all the group itself didn’t achieve its goal and objective. The world is not just about these developed nations. The other developing countries can form their own group, as opined by the president of the one of the groing nation, Brazil. Delhi quickly discarded this opinion of new G5 citing a new group cannot be a solution to the restricted G8, rather developing nations have to show their will and integrity on policy and decisions so that the elite group may bound to include them. And the recent invitation is the fruition of this belief. It may be a matter of few years when the G8 will be no longer G8 and will extend their hands to include the nations who deserve to be one of them. India and China are the firsts in the queue
If the terrorism was not enough, world is facing a new threat in the name of Global warming and Environment degradation. (Although its not new but the danger is of the mark and it require imminent and immediate action). Today the leading industrialised nations can no longer meet many of the challenges they face on their own. The big emerging economies - China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa (the so-called O5) - have an increasingly important role to play. Merkel hit the nail on the head: "We can't get along without each other."

Amit

Should sting operations be banned?

Sting operation is again making news. This time its NDTV, which has conducted a well researched and deliberate sting operation to expose some unscrupulous interests of R K Anand (who is defending Sanjeev Nanda, the main Accused of BMW hit and run case) and special public prosecutor I U Khan. Both were trying to influence the primary witness of the infamous BMW hit and run case, Sunil Kulkarni and caught red handed by the NDTV journalists.
Govt. has proposed a draft code for television in which, suggestions to ban the sting operation is given and after this the debate over the sting operation is again on.
The sting operation has come of age from the Defense deal scandal (TAHELKA) to casting couch episode (India TV) to MP bribery expose (AAJ TAK). It have always been said that the sting operation is unethical whatever may be the motive and outcome of the same. It’s mere an entrapment and cant be justified. There’s no gainsaying that justice should not be denied but why the media using this mode to wake people up ? And it’s not the media’s job at the first place. More often than not, the victim of sting operation is entrapped the media presents half baked stories as a gospel truth to increase the their TRP. Media’s laziness is at best with sting operations, the 24 hr channels has nothing to serve spectators and so they sensationalize every thing and when they don’t get enough stories, sting operation spring up as their savior. The argument of Sting Operation supporters that they expose the wrong doing seems specious too as the fine line between investigative journalism and Voyeurism is increasingly blurred.
The other side of the debate is, who are these politicians to decide what is ethical and what is unethical. Probably they have something to hide. And when we talk about freedom of expression why don’t we allow to use journalists their own mode of journalism after all they want to expose the flaws of the system and society that is surely facilitating in waking people up and more informed, which in turn facilitate limiting corruption is one way or other (fear of public rage or the social blot associated with expose).
To sum it up, it will be a good idea to introduce some law and clauses so that the sting operations do not come up just for sensationalisation and sure the voyeurism should be avoided by media, but it shouldn’t be banned as it is some how exposing the wrongs of the system and society.

Inspiration: TOI