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  Vivek Sinha   February 12, 2015 Yes, this is a historic win. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its supremo Arvind Kejriwal have stunned everyone by their dazzling performance in the Delhi Assembly Elections, such that both BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) and Congress—two national parties, are now decimated in the country’s capital. It’s not a common occurrence that a political party manages to win 67 seats in a 70 seat legislature. In the coming weeks and probably several months from now, this election victory will remain the talk of the town. Already political pundits and psephologists have taken upon themselves to explain about how BJP lost the plot for Delhi Assembly and why Modi’s charisma is on the wane or that the much touted ‘Modi wave’ has now hit the Kejri “wall”. Whichever way one looks at this election, nobody can deny the fact that these elections have indeed made a mockery of two national parties of India—the BJP and Congress. While Congress scored a perfect zero, BJP m...

Vivek Sinha   Mister Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister (CM) aspirant of AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) is displeased at not being “invited” to watch the Republic Day Parade of India. He publicly expressed his annoyance saying he did not understand his exclusion from the list of VIP invitees and claimed that as ex-CM of Delhi he ought to have been invited to watch the Parade. Mr Kejriwal’s displeasure is more of a political stunt that has become quite routine over the last one year. It would be prudent to remember that last year when Mr Kejriwal was Delhi’s Chief Minster he made all possible efforts to disrupt the Republic Day Parade by sitting on a   dharna (demonstration) on the route of the Parade. He even went on to mock this same Parade when he stated that a bunch of VIPs (Very Important Persons) in designer clothes watch the military march and that the Parade is a slap on the face of a common man. In the interest and benefit of common man this Parade should be boycotte...

"Praznath (the identity)" - a short film, by Vivek Sinha, is the story of a young and successful Kashmiri Pandit boy who wants to return to his ancestral home in Srinagar. Ishan Bhat (a Kashmiri Pandit) has completed his engineering in Computer Science from IIT Delhi. During his last days at college he bags a lucrative job offer in the US. However, Ishan decides to settle at his ancestral home in Srinagar instead. He hires a taxi on his way from Jammu Railway Station till Srinagar. The taxi driver is Basheer, a Kashmiri Muslim. So why did Ishan turn down a job offer in the US and opt to settle at Srinagar? How do Basheer and other Kashmiri Muslims react to Ishan's decision to settle in Kashmir? What will he do at Srinagar? Does he succeed in his objective? What happens after Ishan reaches Srinagar? "Praznath (the identity)" seeks to answer these questions.

A few months ago I was on a quiet saunter with Stuti, my daughter, when I crossed the neighbourhood shopping complex. Holding my hand she pointed towards the sweets shop asking for a chocolate. "Which one?" I asked. "Ummmm.....okkkayy.....this....i will settle for this one," she said finding it difficult to zero in on one particular type. Chocolates are her weakness and if permitted then she could have them for lunch!!! But, Stuti knows that I allow this indulgence of her s only to an extent. She always gets upset with my objection to her over-indulgence in chocolates. "Chocolates are so tasty....why don't you give me a whole bag of chocolates to eat everyday?," is her response every time I object. "You will spoil your health if you eat too much chocolates," I try to reason out with her, every time. Well, that day I was happy that she asked for only one chocolate. I happily bought one for her, playfully tore away it's wrapper and gave the...

Journalism lessons from an "Aam Aadmi" in Uniform  Vivek Sinha It was a cold and foggy winter night of January and he stood guard at the barricades near India’s Parliament in Delhi. His mandate was clear and simple: Provide security to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who was sitting on a dharna demanding dismissal of a few personnel in the Delhi Police.  Yes, he was one of the men in uniform and yet was unmindful of all kinds of slogan mongering by the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) men that bordered verbal abuse on the police personnel. A constable in the SSB (Sashastra Sema Bal), he stood his ground, bereft of the happenings in his immediate vicinity and braving the biting cold of Delhi along with the vitriolic barbs by AAP men. Just a few days back he had returned from Jammu Kashmir and was scheduled to be on his way back to his home town in West Bengal when this sudden dharna by the incumbent Delhi Chief Minister made him report for duty. “How come you are interested in knowi...

(First written and published in January 2014 during the infamous protests of Shri Arvind Kejriwal--the then Chief Minister of Delhi)  An Open Letter to the Chief Minister of Delhi Dear Mr. Arvind “anarchist” Kejriwal, I am forced to write this letter to you just because you have been misusing my name and continue to do so for your own parochial designs and to further the devious Maoist agenda of destabilizing my beloved India. Yes, I am an Aam Aadmi (common man) who enjoys no VIP privileges who likes to spend time with his family and takes pride in the democratic institutions of this country. I may criticize the government and its functioning time and again, yet I am fully aware that the Indian Constitution offers me enough safeguards to correct the procedural lapses or wrongs (if any) without undermining country’s democracy and without creating anarchy in the society. One such safeguard is the process of electing a government through which anonymous Aam Aadmi(s) cast their vote an...

Vivek Sinha I vividly remember that day in school when a simple exercise about map explanation turned out to be a big shocking experience for me. The assignment was to draw the external boundaries of various Indian states and mark important cities therein. Each student chosen to draw the boundaries of one Indian state would also mark its major cities and explain the state’s historical, geographical and political importance to the whole class. I was to explain about Jammu Kashmir. “This is Jammu Kashmir and this is the state’s capital city Srinagar,” I said pointing my little fingers towards Srinagar on the map. “…the famous 'silk route' passed through this state which served as the world’s major trade route since ancient times. Jammu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Gulmarg, Mirpur are other important cities of this state. The state has famous pilgrimage centres such as the Sharada Peeth, Amarnath Shrine and Mata Vaishno Devi….” I went on with my erudite explanation about the ...