With the evolution of the web, if you have a presence and a website on the internet for any reason, you are going to be compared with someone else. Even a mere search for something on Google in fact shows up a comparative statement, based on some criteria for relevance set by Google!

Even if you don't own a web site, comparison sites have become an indispensable part of 21st century life whether you are aware or not. From booking an air ticket to finding your life partner on matrimonial sites, the web just don't offer unprecedented choice for everything you need in life but leave you little option to do without some form of comparison. That is unless you live by your emotions and go after your needs for a spouse to your pet merely by your impulse.

However all comparison sites are not equal on the web. While many are free and unregulated in what they offer as comparison, of products or services, often from different countries, sites offering comparison of financial products like loans and credit cards strictly regulated by local governing authorities.

They are also limited by the size of the country or population covered by the service providers under comparison and can't resort to high technology like monitoring internet chatter. They are indeed limited in using innovative technologies, with data collection, filtering, analysis, curation and interaction capabilities, to learn what people are thinking right now about a product to refine the comparison process.

In fact, remaining under the regulatory scrutiny they are subjected to, there is very little a price comparison site can do to differentiate itself and increase its presence and popularity except one thing, increasing customer trust. There are many savy sites which are effectively using simplest of technologies, blogging, to achieve this.

All of a sudden, the story of David and Goliath has once again been enacted in Delhi, which 1.3 billion Indians proudly call the seat of their democracy.
It is believed that the original purpose of the story was to show the identity of David, the champion of the God of Israel, as the true king of Israel, who could kill Goliath, the representative of paganism with the help of God.
Rahul Gandhi, often ridiculed by his political opposition and the Indian press as "Amul (a brand of milk in India) Baby" for his un assuming and low key leadership, seems to have done nothing less by his openness and courageous stand against a piece of legislation which would have continued to protect criminals who get elected as representatives.
Rahul Gandhi has surprised India and the world with a few spontaneous but thunderous words dispelling all notions of lack of leadership and trouncing a the painstakingly created image of Narendra Modi of the BJP as a political Goliath and the only person worthy to be the prime minister of India.
"This day Jehovah will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand."
Though David had to remind his opponent Goliath of the importance of being on the right side of goodness and justice, Rahul Gandhi didn't have to address his opponent to radically change the Indian political equation and trounce his Goliath in the bargain.
All Rahul impatiently blurted out in a sudden and unplanned appearance in a press conference were a few ordinary words of a young Indian, which will surely go down in the history of democracy, for the profound changes they are bound to make in the politics of the future In India and countries looking up to it.
"My opinion of the ordinance is that it is complete nonsense and should be torn up and thrown away."
However, for political observers and millions of Indians who were eagerly looking up to Rahul to somehow get in to the perceived leadership vacuum despite his assuming the role of the vice president of the congress party months before, those few words a stamp of authority and real power he has wielded for some time.
The reason is, no one would have dared to pronounce such a blatant disapproval of what his party's own government, headed by Dr Man Mohan Singh tried to do which was widely thought to have the backing of top Congress leaders and his own mother Sonia, the President of the congress party.
The legislation, in the form of an ordinance issued in a hurry would have saved a key political ally from prison and a number of legislatures of all parties facing similar predicament, ensuring wide support for the ruling alliance to win the next round of elections.
Besides, the ordinance also symbolised the supremacy of the elected body over the branch of justice by overthrowing an order of the supreme court, which politicians across the board would have enjoyed doing.
However , unknown to the leadership, a real swell of public resentment, magnified in the backdrop of allegations of various scams and opportunistic clamour by the opposition had built up which would seriously dented the credibility and electability of the UPA.
The real political genius and un ambiguous proof of leadership of Rahul Gandhi has blossomed in his ability to correctly judge the mood of the nation and act in time with enough force, which was always at his disposal, to remedy the situation.
In many ways Rahul Gandhi's instinct to judge the public mood and boldness to act are reminiscent of another great leader, his grant mother and past Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi.
What Rahul has done and achieved is no less than the legendary act of Nationalisation of the banks declared by a young Madam Gandhi braving the establishment and Congress leadership of the time. The courage Rahul has shown in denouncing the ordinance despite the ire and apparent damage it could cause to his own party and government is akin to what Indira Gandhi showed in repealing the emergency, which she recognised as a huge mistake.
Some are born great, some attain greatness by their own merit, but it is doubtful if greatness can be imposed on anyone one merely by lobbying and political propaganda.
It is also doubtful if anyone can call Rahul Gandhi an Amul Baby anymore.

"I am not saying whether I know it will work or not, but I think it sort of shows the RBI's hand in the sense that they really want to focus more on the inflation side of things than on growth at this point."

However, the Governor's actions seem to be only the beginning of a well thought out strategy which goes beyond economic policy.

No, this isn't about the contradictions Rudyard Kipling found in pre colonial India which made his stories so vivid and won him a Nobel prize. Neither is this about the gargantuan gap between the Ambanis and the poor Dalit family Rahul Gandhi spent a night with.

It isn't even about the dismaying array of differences curious foreigners visiting India find difficult to comprehend and the nasty feeling of unease in their guts they go home with.

I am talking about the double standard a billion Indians practice day in and day out, which makes nothing an Indian says can be taken seriously by the rest of the world. Not even what its defence minister reads out in the parliament about the death of five Indian soldiers and then change to please millions of war mongers.

Were they terrorist in soldier's uniform or soldiers in terrorist garb who killed the Indians? Who cares?

In the rest of the world when people say yes, or yes I do, they mean exactly the same. In India you are never sure what they mean.

When the Government says they need foreign investment they don't really mean it, because for some reason, Mauritius becomes not a foreign country for India.

When the government says we won't tax foreign investment, it doesn't mean they can't go back several years and claim taxes on ambiguous corporate deals like the one Vodafoneengaged in.

When Government says Indian companies are free enterprise and they can trade their shares and capital in world market like other countries allow, they don't mean its CAG can deem such transactions as corruption like in the 2G saga.

No doubt, the Indian administration has acquired this art of contradiction and flip flop from its neighbour who can only lie whether it is about the presence of Osama Bin Laden or Davood Ibrahim or about anything else for that matter, a nation which the word has acknowledged with a motto 'We Will, We Will Only Lie'.

For India, a nation which declares 'Truth Will Prevail' on its currency, such a trait smacking of national dishonesty is indeed matter of shame.

In fact somehow there is always a disturbing disconnect between what any Indian says and what he or she means, which can be anything according to the circumstances.

This is not same as accusing all Indians of blatant lying but not owning up to a genetic makeup of a race which they should ward off with conviction and commitment to honour one's word. The least they can do is to think before they open their mouths before they put their feet in them.

Not a day, not a headline pass without a contradiction, retraction or denial. So much so that news is reported more like the first serve in tennis which is bound to be a 'let' than a 'fault' and the server gets a second chance to take a position depending on the reaction.

Day in and day out so called, leaders, celebrities, spokespersons and anyone the media will insanely pursue and compete to get a word out of for filling the above fold of their publications and news channels will blurt out something or other which is an affront to common man's intelligence.

So you can ignore headline news and wait for the denial like the media who are now a days even providing empty space or time slots to accommodate such lat minute pearls of wisdom from those who control the destiny of the nation.

If for any reason, the statement is not exciting enough, there is always the 'misquotes' which are also so conveniently denied by a later statement.

Another word which should be banished from the Indian English dictionary is the much bandied 'slam' which lets everyone blow up and complicate non issues and stuff one should ignore in to massive waste of time and resources.

The truth is that, lack of intelligence, ability to grasp the subject and do a contextual analysis and necessary historical checks, all fundamental requirement of journalistic profession, on the part of the reporters and editorial staff are conveniently ignored, even condoned for the sake of circulation and eye balls.

The result is creation of dangerous mass hysteria like the recent one which forced a change in well thought out government stance, taken in national interest, making India look ridiculous before the world.
Spoken words can't be taken back. When blurting out irresponsibly and irresponsible relaying and amplification of statements without context, like in the recent speeches of Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi can play with the emotions of a billion innocent Indians, the media is indeed toying with dangerous stuff more powerful than, at least a part of India's arsenal.

The question is who in India will own up to this shameful trend and do something to change it? Is it going to be the so called educated young or the media which tend to lay claim to parity with world media in quality and standards?

India was 'one' nation for two hundred years when it remained under the British Raj.

Today the cry for the bifurcation of yet another state of India, Andhra Pradesh, the capital of which was once the richest Kingdom in the world, is threatening its very integrity. Many more bigger and smaller states are waiting to pounce on the opportunity to demand creation of their own little kingdoms.

Futile squabbling and vacillation have ended up in wasting of so much of national resources and administrative time, hampering development and creating unsolvable political dilemmas, dividing people. Parochial interests and selfishness is driving India back to the middle ages making it easy for its vile neighbours to exercise their ambitions of hegemony in the near future without efforts.

Isn't it time educated and responsible Indians who profess love for India and its integrity investigate why and how the British Raj kept India united and prospering?

Unfortunately the very mention of the Raj will make many Indians virtually explode in indignation and bloated national pride even in the 21st century, despite passage of a couple of generations since independence along the time line.

Even the fact that India is projected to become the number one economy in a couple of decades also can't alleviate the pain of the Raj for its so called techie generation. Such is the strength of the inferiority complex on the Indian psyche imposed by the strangle hold of the Raj. In many ways, Indians need to feel liberated, despite nearly a century of independence.

However In myriad of ways, it was indeed the Raj which made the fight for Independence and its successful culmination a reality.

On the one hand, Whigs and Liberals expounded sentiments most iconically expressed by TB Macaulay in 1833: 'that... by good government we may educate our subjects into a capacity for better government, that, having become instructed in European knowledge, they may, in some future age, demand European institutions. Whether such a day will ever come I know not. ... Whenever it comes, it will be the proudest day in English history.' 

From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858-1947 Dr Chandrika Kaul

In reality India under the Raj was not a fully united nation. Two-fifths of the sub-continent continued to be independently governed by over 560 large and small principalities, with whom the Raj entered into treaties of mutual cooperation. Read Maya, Mulayam, Mamta, Jaya, Nmo et al in the 21st century.

The real success of the Raj was the administrative wisdom of dividing the rest of India in to governable blocks without any regard to language and cultural identities of Indians like for example, the Presidency of Madras which encompassed parts of four southern states.

In such administrative divisions, very similar to the modern Union Territories of India, no one complained or agitated about water, land, forest, language or education. Like the Union territories, these provinces have only prospered and progressed in time, though the benefits were mostly repatriated by the ruling British.

No doubt this experiment of governance of a large landmass like India with a diverse population and culture, though co-operation with local chieftains and non linguistic and impassionate administration of rest of the land did work smoothly, bringing all around prosperity, which remain quite relevant even in the context of modern India.

Among the benefits bequeathed by the British connection were the large scale capital investments in infrastructure, in railways, canals and irrigation works, shipping and mining; the commercialisation of agriculture with the development of a cash nexus; the establishment of an education system in English and of law and order creating suitable conditions for the growth of industry and enterprise; and the integration of India into the world economy.

In reality, the Raj even succeeded in uniting Indians, albeit in common hatred for the aggressor, at least for some decades before the independence.

That, that hard won unity did not transform in to a permanent unity of a billion Indians in a sense of fraternity is the tragedy of modern India. Today India is virtually as divided as when the British found it centuries ago thanks to the religious division left behind by the British and linguistic division enforced by their successors.

Imagine if Karamchand Gandhi were to try to incite and unite the disparate and hopelessly fractured India, which 1.3 billion Indians now call their country in 2013, even against a Martian invasion ? Even the Martian's would have given up at the rueful prospect of ruling modern India!

Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejeriwal are walking examples of the fallacy of expecting the impossible; to unite India again by raising the bogey of corruption. Corrupt and jailed Jagan Mohan Reddy has won more assembly seats! Corrupt accused leaders have been elected back to power elsewhere.

Narendra Modi and his coterie with the Gujrath model development is another example of someone with their heads in cloud nine, with the idea of a united India lapping up the rhetoric. They simply don't get how divided are the states of India in comparison to the United States of Barack Obama.

By contrast, Kiren Reddy, the CM of congress ruling Andhra Pradesh is a realist who see the danger to his own political future and party, if not for the integrity of the nation, in the destructive trend.

In reality, Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Congress party has proved to be much more of a pragmatic leader who has recognised the inevitable divisiveness of India.

Not surprisingly, though inadvertently, her pragmatism in agreeing to the local aspirations of the people of Andhra Pradesh while declaring and keeping Hyderabad as a Union territory smacks of the pragmatism of the Raj.

Why just Hyderabad, every project area like the contentious Kudamkulam Nuclear Thermal Power station or Integrated Steel Projects and every Metro in the country country, where massive central government investment has been pumped in must be declared a Union territory, to clean them from the evils of parochialism and foist, unhindered growth and prosperity.

Courtsy:Inferno by Dan Brown

If Dante would be alive today and visited India, he would have added a tenth circle of inferno (hell) in his famous poem, Divine Comedy, and assigned it to Sycophancy on the Social Web. He wouldn't have to resort to allegory, it is all over Facebook, Twitter and comment boxes on blogs, for everyone to see. It is even orchestrated, promoted and practised using black hat SEO methods by a dedicated brigade.

If Dante would have been in any doubt, it would only be about its relative place among others he has seen in the Inferno.