DARK SHADES

The post below talks about some of the biggest and most talked about Corruption scams in India. While there are corruption scams being unearthed very regularly, we have selectively come up with list that have been most damaging. Unfortunately in most of the cases, the perpetrator of scams are still at large because cases are pending in Indian Courts. An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is the people in charge of the system  (The Babu’s ) or with whom the power lays, that act as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress and what not. But, somewhere down the line, we ourselves are responsible for allowing and being taken for a ride by these people, aren’t we? However, it is during a multi-thousand crore scam, that a tax-payer actually realizes the heartburn of being cheated from his valued contribution of funds towards the development and well-being of the nation. But, that’s what a scam, be it big or small, means – the act of swindling by som...

With religious chastity under scrutiny, a new book throws light on Gandhi's practice of sleeping next to naked girls. In fact, he was sex-mad, writes biographer Jad Adams It was no secret that Mohandas Gandhi had an unusual sex life. He spoke constantly of sex and gave detailed, often provocative, instructions to his followers as to how to they might best observe chastity. And his views were not always popular; "abnormal and unnatural" was how the first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, described Gandhi's advice to newlyweds to stay celibate for the sake of their souls. But was there something more complex than a pious plea for chastity at play in Gandhi's beliefs, preachings and even his unusual personal practices (which included, alongside his famed chastity, sleeping naked next to nubile, naked women to test his restraint)? In the course of researching my new book on Gandhi, going through a hundred volumes of his complete wor...

The man who became Gandhi remains an enigma in this study of his early life, says Jad Adams. Mohandas Gandhi   had an extraordinary power to make people believe in him as much as he believed in himself: to enrol others in his cult of narcissism. Ramachandra Guha’s book purports to address the question of how Gandhi’s first 45 years shaped his remarkable personality, before he hit upon the image of the loin-clothed fakir challenging the Empire, a guise he assumed in 1921, seven years after this book ends. Most of Gandhi Before India deals with his 20 years in South Africa (1893-1914), where he developed techniques of mass civil disobedience and set up his first two ideal communities, Phoenix and Tolstoy Farm. Here he promoted mud packs and celibacy and worked on ways to render food as tasteless as possible. The smarter of his followers did not live in these places: they took Gandhi’s heroic leadership and discarded the food faddist, the sexual obsessive and the tyrannic...

The bond between Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach has been a subject of speculation and gossip for years owing to their closeness, with previously published correspondence suggesting they may have had a physical relationship. One of the handwritten letters from Gandhi to Kallenbach that went on show on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination, is addressed to "My dear Lower House" and signed "Sinly yours, Upper House". Gandhi lived with Kallenbach, a German-born Jewish architect, in Johannesburg for about two years from 1907 before returning to India in 1914 where he helped unify the gathering political movement against British colonial rule. The archive of letters and photos belonging to Kallenbach was purchased by the Indian government last year, just before they were due to be auctioned by Sotheby's in London. Hasan denied that the collection had been screened and controversial letters left out keeping in mind the exalted status that ...

the National Archives here in New Delhi released a set of letters between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and a close friend from his South African days, Hermann Kallenbach, a German Jewish architect. Cue a set of ludicrous “Gay Gandhi” headlines across the world, wondering whether the fact the Mahatma signed some letters “Sinly yours” might be a clue (seemingly unaware that “sinly” was once a common contraction of “sincerely”). The origin of this rumour was a mischievous book review two years ago written by the historian Andrew Roberts, which speculated about the relationship between the men. On the basis of the written evidence, it seems unlikely that their friendship in the years leading up to the First World War was physical. Gandhi is one of the best-documented figures of the pre-electronic age. He has innumerable biographies. If he managed to be gay without anyone noticing until now, it was a remarkable feat. The official record of his sayings and writings runs to more than 90 v...

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday asked as to why the land deals involving Robert Vadra were not investigated, which was an example of corruption. He was responding to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's statements where she termed the BJP as rats after the BJP released a video alleging Vadra-Gandhi family scams. "I don't want to comment on these statements. Robert Vadra got acres of land in Haryana and Rajasthan. Why wasn't the matter investigated? It is a known example of corruption. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi must answer it," Prasad said. Priyanka Gandhi had hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying that the latter was scared and hence acted like rats spreading lies before the elections. "They are scared and acting like panicky rats. I know that just few days before elections they will say all sorts of lies. There is nothing new in it. They can do any...