Manmohan Singh's state visit to US..

It is good to see India getting recognized for it's contribution to the world. Barrack Obama was very effusive in his praise of India and Manmohan Singh. However it was dissappointing that Manmohan Singh was not more assertive. India is in a position where it has earned the right to demand some concessions from the US administration.

Immediate suspension of the export control regime, quicker operationalization of the civilian nuclear deal, more pressure on Pakistan to control it's rogue elements and terrorists and help with modernization of the India military are steps that will help India and strengthen the strategic goals of the US. It could also be a big economic boost to the US and the Indian PM needs to publicly demand these.

More Indians detained in Malaysia..

We have not heard much from our neutered politicians who have been acting like nationalists whether it be the nuclear deal or Shilpa Shetty's infamous big brother episode.

Shame on the BJP for not raising a peep on the open discrimination against Hindus in Malaysia. This just goes to show that our politicians have no principles, no understanding of our place in the world and certainly no notion of what nationalism means!

Backstabbing Devegowda...

It is amazing that the BJP formed an 'agreement' with the greatest political backstabber of all times. Do they not remember his shameless manipulations going back to when Ramakrishna Hegde was the CM? How dumb was the BJP to let Kumaraswamy become CM first when they were the majority party?

If there is a silver lining in this, Kumaraswamy did some decent work trying to build his reputation in the short 20 months. But the people of Karnataka should not reward this shameless political family. They should be dumped lock stock and barrel. If these guys come back, it is a sad testament to the state of our democracy!

Not that there are any good choices around...Kharge, Dharam Singh...It just makes you sick looking at the available options! Perhaps Yediyurappa may not be bad choice after all...

Seize the opportunity for peace with Pakistan...

The potential for a united Indian subcontinent are enormous in terms of social, cultural and economic benefits for both India and Pakistan. As anyone who has had Pakistani friends will attest, there is no difference among the people. It is the entrenched vested political and military parties who devised and are propagating this animosity.

Mr. Prime Minister, take a bold step and make the neccessary compromises needed to create a united sub-continent. As the big brother in this dispute, we can and should go further in removing this animosity. It is high time we stopped this bleeding on both sides and concentrated on solving the problems of the people.

Reservations for muslims and others....

The founders of our country never intended for reservation to be used as a political tool. It is time the caste based reservations are done away. Reservations should be based on the principle of providing equal opportunity to those who are financially or geographically disadvantaged in getting into higher education. Even here, there should be a minimum standard which everyone should meet in order to get into higher education. We should not dilute our academic standards for the sake of filling the reservation quotas.

Shilpa Shetty and the big brother scandal...

Before we get into the issue of the 'bharathiya nari's samman' as aptly put by another one of our ignorant hypocritical politicians, let us examine who Shilpa Shetty is and how she got into this mess.

She's a bollywood actress who signed a contract to be on this obnoxious show for a lot of money knowing fully well what to expect. After all, this is the same show on which contestants similated sex with a wine bottle!

I have no sympathy for her and she is getting exactly what she asked for. It has nothing to do with racism or anything else. The other contestants found her weak spot and they are exploiting it to win the contest! Everyone else, enjoy the show and please don't pull make it into a 'Indian' thing..oh the hyprocricy of it all...

'Nationalism' lacking in Indians?

The 'art of living foundation' founder Sri Ravishankar (I have no idea what this organization is or who Mr. Ravishankar is) says that Indians lack nationalism. He does bring up a very valid point but his notion of nationalism sounds pretty elitist. To me, nationalism means being involved in what happens with our country politically and socially and keeping the best interest of the country in our daily affairs.

If we were nationalistic, how in tarnations do we have Pranab Mukherjee from the old congress mafia still around and making major decisions?? How do people like Lallo Prasad become national leaders? Shame on us ...this is a true reflection of our lack of nationalism.