On the weekend before the trust vote had the opportunity to listen to the Indian Ambassador to the United States, Ronen Sen of the “headless chickens” fame. Whether it was the nervousness on the fate of the government or memories of the outrage in Parliament, the Ambassador’s remarks were a little off color but nevertheless profound. After wandering around a little bit he found his voice. It perhaps was the audience, for a convention hall packed with a 1000 odd IIT Bombay alumnus spanning 5 decades would have been overwhelming for even the mpst accomplished of public speakers.
IIT Bombay alumnus celebrated the Golden Jubilee of their Institute in Manhattan New York? over the weekend in a one of a kind gathering without parallel according to most accounts. This blogger had the good fortune to participate in the event and what he witnessed reminded him why India will eventually win.
The event spanned 3 days and included speakers ranging from Robin Meredyth of the Forbes, Frank Wisner former US Ambassador. It had its highs and lows with a festive colorful collage of South Asian fashions by designer Aliya Khan to a very sobering moment when present Director of IIT Bombay, Prof Ashok Mishra announced his resignation to a shell shocked audience.
But here is what made the event different and made it pertinent for this blogger to post. The nearly 1000 attendees spanned nearly 45 generations of IIT Bombay alumni from the seniors of class?of?1963 to the fresh grads of the class of 2008. In attendance were stalwarts like Victor Menzes, ex-CEO of Citibank, Rajat Gupta ex-CEO of McKinsey. Missing in attendance but very much on everyone’s mind was Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani. But setting the mood for the gathering were Entrepreneurs and Technocrats from the 1970s and 1980s who were pivotal to shaping the IIT Brand.
Sitting at lunch with this august audience one could see the history of the rise of modern India across generations all under one roof. When the IIT Mumbai Director announced he was stepping down at that Luncheon, speaker after speaker reminded the audience how the show will go on for despite the political parties in government and the bureaucrats in the governing councils, it is the alumnus who are the permanent stakeholders to this modern day temple of learning who will always have the long term strategic interests of the Institute and the nation at heart.
That is the kind of stuff great Institutions are about. And to prove it IIT Bombay has embarked on a 10 Great ideas that will change the world contest open to the extended family of IIT Mumbaikars.
Offstumped Bottomline: As India looks to stake its rightful place in the league of powerful nations, it fills this blogger with great optimism and hope that despite all the petty politics that pygmies masquerading as leaders may indulge in, the Indian middle class will continue to grow and invest in great Institutions that will be the bedrock for the future of this great nation.
Filed under: jeetega-bharat
May be of interest.
Manmohan & friends
Anti-Americanism and anti-Congressism will peak in the months running up to the general elections, says N.V.Subramanian.
….
All in all, while the UPA may have won, the country has lost. An opportunity for statesmanship presented to Manmohan Singh, but he preferred to be a politician keeping the company of the likes of Amar Singh. Many, many voters will remember this in the coming general elections.
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=1691
May be of interest.
Manmohan & friends
Anti-Americanism and anti-Congressism will peak in the months running up to the general elections, says N.V.Subramanian.
….
All in all, while the UPA may have won, the country has lost. An opportunity for statesmanship presented to Manmohan Singh, but he preferred to be a politician keeping the company of the likes of Amar Singh. Many, many voters will remember this in the coming general elections.
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=1691
Spot on NVS is spot on….
However, I feel that the Congress has only one saleble face and that is Manmohan Singh for the PM.
Mama Maino and Baba Rahul do not belong to that league,it is easy to fool villagers in UP but not the urban populace, which is dead against them coming to power.
I coudnt agree more with NVS , that it is this victory going thru. the head of MMS will eventually lead to his downfall. Lets not forget that the Congress party is Mama maino’s personal fiefdom, we all know she got rid of Sitaram Kesari.
Heartening read.
Refreshing that no netas and politics are anywhere mentioned in the post.
Echoing the sentiment at the conf, the only thing India needs to win is for government to step out of the way…..
BTW, isn’t Rajat Gupta an IIT-D alum?
Rajat Gupta is from IIT-D , but he just might have dropped by to show his solidarity with IIT network…
He is one of the most Globally recognised face of IIT…
The optimism after attending such an august meeting is a natural one. However, I would like to say, and may be that is out of place here, that such optimism has to be accompanied with caution and rather a bit of scepticism if not cynicism. After attending the IIT Vision 2020 in New Delhi, I also had a similar feeling of optimism and I was quite convinced that the nation can not go wrong if there are so many people committed to the good causes. The euphoria however has been painfully evaporating with the disastrous policies of Larjun Singh, who with his most pernicious and insidious plans, we are left wondering about the product of the academic institutions when they are corrupted with the divisive feelings on the campus itself. And to repeat the famous lines quoted by Yoss, “where the mind is without fear”…sounds in serious trouble, even before, these ideas were to be realised.
The moment Congress loses the next elections, MMS will be sidelined and would be forced to take all the credits for the losing the elections. If by the stroke of some luck, and God forbid,the congress does well, and Rahul is in a position to become the premier, we can depend on Sonia to dump MMS. In any case, we would find MMS to be dumped in due course of time. In a sense, one should sympathize with MMS to a great extent, the guy has been humiliated every day, in every way and the only claim that he would have on his departing time, and that claim he can make with conviction that he was loyal to his Madam. The guy has been made a pawn in the whole game being played solely for the personal gains of one family who did everything under sun to make sure that the dynastic rule continues.
Kundan Kumar, in a dharmyuddh one need not sympathise either with pawns or planners of the unholy adharmic alliance. If the pawn has been humiliated , he always had an option to choose and not be humiliated.
Every person is judged by his actions , his legacy.A tear shedding Benazir saying ‘Indo-Pak bhai bhai ‘ does not make one’s heart melt , neither should a crying pawn makes us lose focus.Just my opinion, that if a person fails to abide by his dharma of putting the country before everything, he deserves no respect
I perfectly agree with you SK, and in fact, even though he evokes sympathy or at least he tries to evoke sympathy, we need not sympathize with him. When I say, one should sympathize with MMS, probably that is more like a general statement made by the media and thrust upon us and is probably widely-held feeling among good cross section of population. Personally, I would not give very high marks to MMS, and neither I think, that guy is a bechara , a good person among the company of bad guys. I am confident, the guy is a shrewd politician, and quite distrustful and these sort of images of a sincere guys (Buying his first Maruti car with the PM’s salary!!)have been cultivated around him by the spinsters. Let us not be fooled by these images, and I am sure, the guy is having a jolly good time in the government. He in fact seem to be involved in the tantrums of resigning every other day, but the truth might be the guy is an extra-smart politician. You are very right, the guy really deserves no sympathy.
You guys obviously did not read Atanu’s commentary on the pan-IIT meet
No, I have not read. Please, where is the link? Thanks in advance.
Guys, this reservation in faculty in IITs will destroy them in the long run. A lot of IIT alumni join the faculty after giving up cushy jobs in the US. They will stop doing that when this issue of caste based reservation hits the workplace in the faculty.
…that it is this victory going thru. the head of MMS will eventually lead to his downfall. Lets not forget that the Congress party is Mama maino’s personal fiefdom, we all know she got rid of Sitaram Kesari.
And how many of us care to remember that it was Manmohan Singh who worked behind the scene to boot out Kesari? While the Congress thugs heckled and manhandled Kesari, MMS kept a dignified silence, having earlier dumped another mentor of his – PVN Rao’gaaru. And so has he kicked aside Pranab Mukherjee who is the person who picked him out for a Congress enforcer in the 1st place. MMS is old – 76 and the Congress will not have much use for him in a while.
I am seriously thinking “when will India have an alternative to this tamasha which goes on in the name of ‘news’ in these stupid channels”?
I was reading Dainik jagaran the other day. I must say, the editorial in the paper is jus superb. The paper was after all started by freedom fighters and lives upto its founding standards even today which can be clearly seen from the nationalist undertone of the paper. I am thinking, “Why don’t the owners of DJ start a news channel”? I mean they have a readership of 21 million so they must have enough money. They have news and information itself, maybe need to refine and distil it a little bit for TV audience. So why not a 24 hour news channel?
I heard they had started a channel but it was shut down. I am not 100% sure though.
You can read Dainik Jagran online.
http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/national/politics.html
BJP -SAD alliance not going well.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=43087
Cong asks SAD to clarify on alliance
Press Trust of India / Chandigarh July 24, 2008, 16:43 IST
A day after ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said it was open for alliance with any non-Congress party, the Congress today sought a clarification from SAD on whether it will choose NDA or UNPA.
“Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal must clarify whether his party will prefer the UNPA or the BJP… Does Badal like Advani to be the Prime Ministerial candidate?” Congress spokesman Bir Devinder Singh asked while speaking to reporters here.
SAD supremo Badal had said in a statement yesterday that the party was open for alliance with any political party, barring the Congress. “The SAD seems to be in a confusion, especially after the Manmohan Singh Government won the confidence vote.”
He alleged that relations between SAD and its ally BJP were not cordial.
“Both SAD and BJP are singing different tunes about the nuclear deal after the trust vote, indicating that fissures have developed in the alliance.”
Singh said SAD MPs were unhappy as they felt that “they committed a blunder by not voting in favour of the trust vote.”
Arvind…
Dainik Jagran group publishes the D.N.A newspaper in Mumbai and trust me with Gautam Adhikari as the editor, it is as trashy as any other news paper.
Aw…arjun….
Dont read much into it…SAD and Shiv Sena are the oldest allies of the BJP.
There is some problem, but not what the media projects it to be.
Jiggs, actually there have been issues with SAD-BJP tie up. BJP has been expanding into SAD’s rural base and SAD does not like that.
In any case, SAD depends on BJP for their govt. But BJP should try to smoothen the relationship.
I would concur with Jiggs that too much should not be read into this media story. Generally, the media keeps projecting even small disagreements as very consequential disputes. The journalists finally need to plant some stories, and if there are no, then create some stories, and if every thing fails, imagine some stories. There is no denying that in the coalition, the disagreements would be there, but I do not expect that it has reached to the level where SAD would be pondering over the ‘mistake’ of not favoring the INC. This possible divergent views about the nuclear deal is a certain fantasy. Frankly, I do not expect SAD to have some real opinion on this deal and simply put, they need not/would not bother about this deal.
The article is pointless…a Kangressi in Punjab trying to stir up some tension, but while there definitely is some, it has nothing to do with the national level, but some bickering between BJP and SAD at state power-sharing level.
Speaking of optimism there is plenty to be optimistic about in the events that went down recently.
* the uber-traitor commies are out ! finally ! much needed economic reforms can finally go through, which the BJP has said it will support. It’s not evident yet, but if there is any blood letting between the former UPA partners, BJP stands to gain.
* Congis stand maligned in the eyes of the nation.
(1) kangressis have lost election after election recently, the people has rejected them
(2) the wheelin and dealin’ in the lok sabha, and the subsequent dalali victory, definitely plays in the BJP’s storyline that Congress is only in power because of dalali deals, with either traitor commies or mullah mulayam, not by the people’s support. The BJP needs to learn to market this storyline.
(3) the 14% inflation in the remainder of their days will not only neutralize any populist measures like NREGA or the Loan waiver scheme, but also rip a hole in the kangressi ‘aam aadmi’ rhetoric, again BJP needs to go to town with this “kangi inflation” rhetoric.
* the media stands discredited, enough been said in this blog about that, their campaign has been proven impotent in karnataka, gujurat.
* Mullah mulayam will demand his pound of flesh for his new found nationalism, and lets just hope it is going after Behanji, giving her more reason to ally with the BJP.
* In terms of the BJP, this is not a real defeat, again, it depends on how successful it is in getting its story out. And hopefully this ‘defeat’, will spark a debate and the need for the M.O.D. to step up to the plate, with his proven ‘kangi-killer’ instincts.
Similar to what Vajpayee said in the past, the circumstances are ‘pregnant’ with several optimistic outcomes for the BJP.
Aryan, agree with you. If the BJP gets the tainted vote story across to the voters successfully, it will negate some of the other setbacks it has suffered recently.
I would just say the best way for BJP to silence everyone and emerge successful in the dharmayudh, is to just keep quiet and win the 4 elections in MP, Chat, Raj and delhi. If they dont screw up, they can win all 4 and then all the momentum will be back. Modi however busy he is, will definitely campaign for BJP in all 4 elections. So just 3 months to go for the 4 state elections. BJP shd pull that off and congress story is sealed.
I would also say we shd start discussing more abt the local issues in all the 4.
Delhi: They can easily win without campaigning also.
Rajasthan: They are fine now, vasundhara shd be able to pull it off
Chhattisgarh: I dont know much abt this state, but reports suggest raman singh on a good wicket
MP: This is the shaky one, i wud say 50:50.
But i also have a feeling that Modi has given up on bharat. i mean the gujrati voter understands the ground scene and he votes overwhelmingly BJP. looking at things going on i would not be surprised if modi inside his mind things “damn it man, there are still so many people in this country who keep voting congress despite whatever crap they do”. But he has been trying maharashtra a lot of late, only elections will tell
Murali,
more then just winning, BJP should learn to ‘hold’ what they win like in Modi’s Gujurat, especially in urban areas like delhi with it’s sympathetic urban middle class. The way BJP can do that is by setting a standard thru efficient governance so that the kangressis are left licking the leftover bones, like in gujurat. BJP has left no political space for kangressis in gujurat. Kangressis are left supporting every anti-gujurati, anti-hindu agitation just in order to show their presence in Gujurat like recent events have shown. Guj congressis are pathetic, and that is what they should be reduced to all over India.
well yes aryan,
so have the pre poll predictions on these states started kicking in. i am sure yogendra is working on it. if bjp wins these, it means they are holding on.
How can you say “Jeetega Bharat” when the nuclear deal has ensured the capping and rollback of our nuclear deterrent ? Even Pakistan is not opposing it strongly. Is’nt that enough proof that the deal is bad ? At this rate we might become a wealthy country, but not a powerful sovereign nation that can defend its interests at all levels.
There has been tons of postings in the last couple of days. Guys, Don’t expend all your energy now itself. Election is still far away and let’s wait for the right time to peak.
SAD will have a tough time in the next assembly & general elections to hold its ground in Punjab – since it made two cardinal errors for which the public in Punjab will punish them :-
1. did not support the Sikh prime minister
2. voted against the N-deal
It does not have the option to join UNPA because UNPA can never change its position w.r.t. the N-deal. That leave it to align with either NDA or UPA. It can stay with NDA only if NDA changes it’s position on the N-deal (which will embarass the current BJP leadership severly).
In a nutshell, SAD has very little option left, and the writing is on the wall !!
Kangressi RoW
Did you do work with Yogendra Yadav-CSDS to come with this type of findings for Punjab?
Lol.I am extending your spurious communal logic and drawing the following conclusion
OBC’S in India are furious that Advani/Modi’s party was defeated in the trust vote and hence they will vote against UPA
All Dalits are seething in anger that Maya was denied ascendancy to PM’S post by UPA and will vote against it
Take your logic to CNN-IBN Studio and it will be well appreciated
Those who mercilessely slaughtered the Sikhs in 84 genocide are still part of the Congress dispensation and are close to 10 janpath.They were evn Ministers in the UPA government
I think Congress largely banks on Hindus in Punjab.They have decisively shifted to BJP in the last elections.Dalit community in Punjab will strongly rally behind Mayawati.Congress will be decimated in Punjab
well said prasanna,
ROW take ur logic elsewhere, we guys here have seen all ur psec logic on elections.
RoW…
I told you yesterday, come gen.elections BJP is forming a government and whatever you psec pinkos have done will be either scrapped or will be re done with pure NATIONALIST approach.
Dont believe me just walk down any road in India and you will get to know, why we are so confident that BJP will win…..
BTW, I am not seeing your type Rajdeep Slurdesai much on his lousy channel….Whats wrong…looks like he’z yellow…
News reports are coming in of 7 ? low intensity blasts in Bangalore. After Jaipur , has terrorism reared its ugly head in Bangalore?
And the plot thickens……
CPM targets Reliance’s role in PF management
http://www.ndtvprofit.com/2008/07/30163732/CPM-targets-Reliances-inclusi.html
The CPM Politburo has come down heavily on the government for allowing private players to manage employees’ provident fund. The Politburo also targeted Reliance Capital’s inclusion as one of the fund managers.
The reported late selection of Reliance Capital as one of the fund managers is an indication of the cost of support to this tainted government, the Politburo said in a statement.
This is an obvious hint at the last minute rescue by Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh to save the government, it added.
Meanwhile, Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes has defended the decision to appoint fund managers, saying the EPF trustees had started the process of finalising them much before the Left had withdrawn support.