AK Vijay Kumar Many say, marriages are made in heaven. However, as a confirmed non-believer, I don’t seem to think that way. But if one were to believe that marriages are indeed made in heaven, would the guests who are invited in some of the high-profile weddings also decide the destiny of the newly weds? I don’t know. Yet, the fact is, the competition to invite guests at such weddings is something I noticed after I came to Ahmedabad in 1993 to join as assistant editor of the Times of India. The occasion was the marriage of the son my colleague, who was covering Gandhinagar then (and whom I replaced in 1997, and remained there till early 2013), Ashraf Syed, an amenable senior journalist who is known to have broken many a story. At the reception itself, I found my colleagues in the TOI reporters’ section, as also my editor, late Tushar Bhatt, counting out who all had attended the reception. All major political leaders, including those whom Syed had targeted during his stint as journalis...

Neeraj Nanda In continuation of my previous blog , my friend in Melbourne, Neeraj Nanda, on reading it, tried to see if a Gujarat government site of the General Administration Department (GAD), which I opened sitting in Ahmedabad, is opening in Australia, too. Ironically, this site introduces itself as “Towards Smart Governance: Department’s main objectives lay strong foundations for citizens and fulfill their expectations and gain trust by finding measures through effective and responsive administration”. The site, interestingly, has photographs of Gujarat chief secretary Anil Mukim, additional chief secretary (personnel) Kamal Dayani, and secretary (administrative reforms and training/non-resident Indians) Dhanjay Dwivedi, among others, in the right-hand panel. Despite the fact that the NRI secretary is one of the top three in the GAD list, my NRI friend failed to open the site! Nanda phoned me up – of course on WhatApp – to tell me I was right. The Gujarat government sites were not...

Roshan Shah Recently, I got a message from an NRI friend settled in Canada, Roshan Shah. Himself a software engineer, he told me that several Gujarat government sites do not appear to be “accessible outside India.” He particularly cited the main state government site , referring to an IT tool , wondering, “When PM has touted Vibrant Gujarat for years, how would any investors trust a government which can't even get its main site, policies etc., accessible to outsiders?” He continued, “What about medical tourism where patients would want to get in touch with state government or health officials? Narendra Modi keeps blaming Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress for historical issues despite knowing you can't change past, but for months and months, he and his government is unaware that Gujarat Model is not seen outside India. That too despite so many IAS working in the chief minister’s office.” Roshan asked, “What is the caliber of Gujarat's IAS cadre? Are they even fit to be promot...

Mamata Banerjee is “injured”. The two main political opponents of Mamata, the Congress-Left combine, on one hand, and the BJP, on the other, challenging what so far seemed to be her indisputable rule in the poll-bound West Bengal, are stating that it was an “accident” and Mamata was trying to use it as to gain sympathy. On the other hand, as already reported, the Trinamool Congress, which she heads, says, she was “pushed” by four to five persons and was the result of “security lapse.” Without going into the controversy surrounding the incident, as it would take some time to reach some conclusion on what might have happened, I want to jot down a few interesting facts which I learned from a senior journalist friend from Kolkata, whom I have met a couple of times in Ahmedabad when he came down to cover elections in Gujarat. I talked to him a couple of days before the Mamata incident actually took place. I wanted to know what was happening in West Bengal, whether the BJP would win, and wha...