I find two items interesting today. One is an online petition titled “Demand for withdrawal of a flawed book on Hindu History published by PENGUIN” is making the rounds. Addressed to the presidents of the Penguin Group and Penguin India Pvt Ltd, it says, “The Hindus: An Alternative History” by Wendy Doniger “is rife with numerous errors in its historical facts and Sanskrit translations. These errors and misrepresentations are bound and perhaps intended to mislead students of Indian and Hindu history.” The other item is the story about M F …

It is time to get back to the basics. It is time for this blog to get back to what its primary concern is: to discuss matters that relate to India’s development. It is entertaining and diverting to once in a while engage with jholawalas like rajkamal and expose their hollow Islamic ideology but eventually we have to focus on the principal issues.

This is a temporary post. I will delete it as soon as it serves the purpose. Dear Mr Oldtimer: Please reply to the comment by Rajkamal on the post Open Thread: Comment Policy. Mr Rajkamal charges that I am adding comments under the pseudonym “Oldtimer”. Please do show that you are a real person. Thank you.

A item in the Times of India reports on “Retail loot: Mandi prices are a fraction of retail prices. What explains the wedge in prices?

Excellent profile of Paul Krugman in the New Yorker by Larrisa MacFarquhar. It is long and interesting. A few excerpts below the fold. This is a must read if you have even a passing interest in economics. Economics is about people and it is done by people. Among contemporary economists, Krugman is as good as they come.

The open thread on comment policy post generated a bunch of thoughtful comments. I think it would be nice to haul some of them out and put them in a post for consideration. Here are some.

I have started getting some abusive comments. I think it is mainly from Islamists and Congress camp followers. I understand where they are coming from.

This is simply intolerable. The site FaithFreedom.org is a terrible site. It has all kinds of information about Islam and its prophet. That is completely unacceptable as Muslims do not like it. When Muslims read it, many get very upset. Which is not a good thing. The government of India must take immediate action and block the site just like it banned “The Satanic Verses” and other things that Muslims find offensive. It will lead to communal violence. For peace and harmony, the government of India must ban FaithFreedom.org. That …

I think that one feature common to the majority of the third world countries is that they don’t have one law for all.

This is not a rhetorical question. Have you ever seen any Indian leader weep for the misery and hardship that millions of Indians endure throughout their lives and often die prematurely from natural but preventable causes? Have you ever seen any Indian leader weep for the thousands killed and mutilated by Islamic terrorism in India? If they do, they must do so in private and is not reported by the press.

That great Indian teacher, Gautama who became the Buddha, had once instructed his followers to stop dithering. He said, “Bhikshus, when you sit, you sit. When you stand, you stand. Don’t dither.”

I was looking at the stats of this here blog and was rather amused by the numbers. Here is a snapshot of how the numbers add up.

I have often wondered if there is a way to confirm whether or not someone was (is) genuinely good for India, or just inconsequential window dressing, or positively harmful. I have a tentative test. The test has to be tested. Exceptions prove the rule, they say. That is, exceptions test the test. So I am looking not just for instances that confirm the hypothesis but also those exceptions that test the soundness of the hypothesis. But first the hypothesis or what can be termed as a wild paranoid conjecture.

If you like trains, you would like these pictures. I got them from an email making the rounds. Have fun!

These days it is rational to be mindful of security and be aware of possible threats from bombs and IEDs. We have to be reasonable about the whole thing. Panic never helps and could indeed be counter-productive. I thought the point I was trying to make was transparent enough in the previous post on this matter but going by some of the comments to that post, my failure to communicate is evident.

It is time to come clean and reveal what this blog is all about. The most apt subtitle for this blog titled “On India’s Development” would be “It’s the Little Things, Stupid.” Here’s why.

I posted a comment to Mr Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar’s article “What Pranab will not say in his budget speech” in today’s Economic Times. The comment was “Mr Aiyar, kudos. You have hit the nail on the head. I could not have said it better. Clearly Pranab-da will not say that because of one reason alone: votes and vote banks.” The comment was held for moderation.

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, I am pleased to note, has a great column in the Economic Times, What Pranab Will Not Say in his Budget. His points are right on.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

[Click on the picture to see the original at Rajan Parrikar's site.]