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Saturday,
June 28, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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It’s
bilateral, General HP’s
Budget blues What
others say |
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No end
to politics of reservation
The
gilded horns What
makes panchayat poll so fierce Women
let down
VHP has
a role in Ayodhya
From
Pakistan to China
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It’s bilateral, General INDIA has rightly turned down Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s suggestion for a West Asia-type road map to resolve the Kashmir issue. He made this suggestion in an interview to an American television channel during his recent visit to the US. He wanted US President George W. Bush to be the intermediary for the talks between India and Pakistan. His idea has not surprised anyone as it is the umpteenth time he has expressed it. To be fair to him, he has also mentioned that India would not agree to any such third-party intervention. What is amazing is that despite knowing the Indian mind, he makes such entreaties to the US President as if the latter wields some sort of a magic wand with which he can help resolve the half-a-century old problem. In contrast, India has consistently taken the stand that the Kashmir issue can be settled only through bilateral effort. Pakistan also recognises the impossibility of settling the issue through any other means, particularly after waging three wars on the issue. The Simla agreement and the Lahore declaration leave the two countries with no other option but to hold talks between themselves. Neither of these documents provides for any third-party mediation. Yet, Pakistan has never missed an opportunity to raise the Kashmir issue in international forums with a view to internationalising what is essentially a bilateral issue. Instead of wasting its energy on internationalising Kashmir, Pakistan would do well to grab the hand of friendship extended by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, its reluctance to restore bilateral civil aviation relations to the pre-December 2001 level despite India’s keenness on this score does not show Pakistan in a good light. What is more worrisome for India is General Musharraf’s doublespeak on cross-border terrorism. A day after he promised the US President “100 per cent efforts” to stop cross-border “incidents”, he spoke about his inability to contain infiltrations across the border. In other words, he has washed his hands of his commitment to prevent jehadis from infiltrating into India. It is not the first time that he has promised the Americans one thing and done something else. It is this duplicity which stands in the way of normalising relations between the two countries. Once he abandons his proxy war, there will be an atmosphere conducive for a bilateral dialogue. In any case, there is no need to look around for intermediaries to solve Indo-Pak problems. Most Indo-Pakistan issues will get out of the way if the General stops cross-border terrorism. |
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HP’s Budget blues The financial difficulties of Himachal Pradesh are fully reflected in its huge budgetary deficit. The year will open with a shortfall of Rs 605 crore and the additional uncovered deficit of Rs 715 crore will take the cumulative deficit to a staggering Rs 1,320 crore. It is so huge that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who also holds the Finance portfolio, has had no option except to re-start the stalled reform process. It has been noticed that the last two years of almost every government are devoted to wooing the voters through populist measures. This is the time when any harsh step is considered taboo, whatever financial urgency there might be. The Dhumal government stuck to this homespun wisdom as it came to the end of its term. Having the government of its party at the Centre helped. But for the Virbhadra Singh government, this is the first year in office and it has made bold to take some tough steps in the new Budget. It has not only imposed fresh taxes amounting to Rs 50 crore - an amount that makes little dent into the yawning deficit — but has also agreed to sign an MOU with the Centre to pave the way for economic reforms and fiscal restructuring. Sweeping reforms are to be carried out in the power sector as well. So pressing is the need to mop up additional resources that it has not hesitated to target even the farmers. Prices of diesel and chemical fertilisers are set to go up due to an increase in taxes. Even the agriculture market fee has been increased from 1 to 2 per cent. Such moves are bound to be unpopular but those aware of the precarious financial health of the state concede that these could not be postponed any longer. One positive sign is that high priority has been given to the social services sector. Despite considerable pressure, the government has imposed a complete ban on polythene bags. While this step is laudable, the reintroduction of lotteries is not socially conscientious. Entertainment tax and the MLAs’ local area development fund are also to be restored. The Himachal Pradesh administration is grossly overstaffed with salaries accounting for as much as Rs 2194 crore (29.5 per cent of the Rs 7452-crore Budget), with interest payments eating away another Rs 1875.74 crore (25.17 per cent) . It is this expenditure which has to be ruthlessly brought down. The Budget proposals can lead to a cascading increase in prices. Only if the government is able to send out a clear signal that it is cutting unproductive expenditure across the board will the unpalatable tax medicine become palatable. |
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What others say It is ironic that British officials, just like their US counterparts, never respect public opinion in their own country, yet voice support for what they call the demands of the people of other countries. This is another example of British and US leaders’ relentless efforts to manipulate public opinion. The British government turned a blind eye to its domestic public opinion when it declared that it would join the US coalition against Iraq. Why is it now voicing support for the demands of a small fraction of the Iranian nation? Experience shows that whenever London is influenced by Washington and the Zionist lobby in its dealings with Iran, it seriously damages its relations with Tehran. — Tehran Times
Iran must be tackled Iran today is rather like Brezhnev’s Soviet Union: a powerful state that can challenge the free world abroad but which is ultimately hollow. The Islamic Republic is thus ripe for the toppling. But “regime change” does not necessarily mean military action of the kind that led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Indeed, the happiest model of “regime change” in Europe —Solidarity’s successful campaign in Poland — was achieved peacefully with assistance from both Europeans and Americans. There is nothing very “progressive” or “European” about keeping one of the world’s most primitive and reactionary tyrannies in place. — The Daily Telegraph
A rumour of peace Reports that the militant factions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah have agreed to a three-month ceasefire in their violent activities should be greeted with caution. In the past, Palestinian terrorist groups have used ceasefires to regroup rather than give up their goal of ultimately destroying Israel. Yet one can’t help but hope, and consider the steps Israeli and Palestinian sides could take to build quickly on a break in the violence that has ravaged both sides during the past 31 months. An end to violence has to be reached if there is to be any prospect for movement on the road map proposed by the US, the European Union, Russia and the
UN. — Chicago Tribune |
No end to politics of reservation Attorney-General Soli J. Sorabjee’s suggestion to the Union Government that the Constitution will have to be amended to provide reservation to the economically backward classes (EBCs) was not entirely unexpected. The government had on June 5, 2003, sought his opinion on whether an amendment was needed to provide reservation for the EBCs and whether it should be within the 50 per cent ceiling for the quotas as laid down by the Supreme Court in the Mandal (Indira Sawhney) case. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is in a piquant situation following the sudden decision of the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan to provide reservation for the EBCs among the upper castes. With elections to five states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram — due in November, the Centre would like to do something to counter the challenge posed by the Congress and improve the electoral prospects of the BJP. The Centre’s anxiety is understandable. Amendment or no amendment, it cannot simply close its eyes to the Supreme Court ruling that extending reservation beyond the 50 per cent ceiling would be subject to judicial scrutiny. Mr Sorabjee did propose yet another amendment to deal with the ceiling problem, but things are not going to be too easy for the Centre to wriggle itself out of the situation. Moreover, as pointed out by Mr Sorabjee, the Supreme Court judgement in the Mandal case and the two petitions challenging the Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to reserve 50 per cent plus jobs would be of central relevance in deciding whether and how the scope of reservations should increase. The Vajpayee government might not try the legislation route now and face the risk of an adverse judicial verdict especially when elections to five states are round the corner. The government’s reference to the Attorney-General, in this context, may be viewed as a calculated attempt to impress upon the people that while it is sincere and earnest enough to provide reservations for the EBCs, it simply does not have the numbers in Parliament to ensure the same. If both the National Democratic Alliance and the Congress join together, it may add up to the required numbers. But then, it will not be politically prudent for them to take recourse to such a step now. Unfortunately, what was originally intended to be only a 10-year affair has now become a forever-renewed facility. Political parties may wax eloquent on social justice and reservations, now in their 52nd year, but the key question remains: whether reservations have served the intended purpose and whether the country needs more of them. Surprisingly, even those who were hailed as Messiahs of the backward classes were not in favour of perpetuating the caste system and extending the reservation facility. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, for instance, felt that the caste system was “anti-national” for two reasons. First, it brings about separation in social life. And secondly, it generates jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. Jagjivan Ram, on the other hand, spoke of the crippling psychological effect when he said that permanent privileges would make people think that “the Scheduled Castes are a community of incompetent and inferior people”. Others have noted that reservations in jobs will not lead to societal emancipation. Finally, of course, the malpractices that flow from the “Brahmanisation” of a select few defeat the ostensible purpose of reform. Two examples will suffice. First, the Harchand Singh Committee, in its report submitted to the Punjab Governor on May 16, 1973, found that influential Scheduled Caste bureaucrats and public men in the state had acquired holdings incredibly cheaper and then disposed of their land at exorbitant prices to non-Scheduled Caste persons. The Governor had ordered a probe into the setting up of sizeable agricultural farms on evacuee land by officers, their relations and other influential public men. And secondly, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences reported that 11.75 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s backward class people had cornered 37.3 per cent of non-gazetted posts and 48.2 per cent of gazetted posts to the detriment of the majority of their caste brethren. It should also be recalled that when the Chinnappa Reddy Commission applied economic tests in Karnataka, 32 groups were excluded from the backward list. Among them were the state’s powerful Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities who have always zealously clung to the Backward Class label. Definition of the term backward classes has, of course, been a problem ever since the Constituent Assembly debates were held. Pandit Hridayanath Kunzru had pointed out that the word “backward” is not defined anywhere in the Constitution. The Mandal Commission seized on this silence to insist that since Articles 15 (4) and 340 (1) of the Constitution do not mention “economic backwardness”, the pointed reference to “socially and educationally backward classes” can be interpreted only in terms of caste. Anticipating what might be attempted, the report held that “the substitution of caste by economic tests will amount to ignoring the genesis of social backwardness in Indian society”. Those who expected the economic criteria that Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao had introduced to be struck down by the Supreme Court may be disappointed after going through the then Chief Justice Y.V. Chandrachud’s judgement in the Vasanth Kumar case that even the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes should be subjected to a means test. But the suggestion for a periodic review of the impact of reservations so that the policy can be adjusted accordingly has apparently not appealed to successive governments at the Centre and in the states. For, their only interest is in promising the largest group of people a slice of the cake even if the cake doesn’t exist. Whether or not the socially and educationally backward classes actually advanced through quotas is immaterial since lucrative jobs that are set aside keep most of them who matter happy. The peril of this kind of shoddy gimmickry is that it has discouraged substantial reform in such vital areas as education, land distribution, improved agriculture, or suppression of caste offences. But the Mandal Commission preferred window-dressing to substance. Having admitted that the major benefits of reservation and other welfare measures will be cornered by the most advanced sections of the backward communities, it propounded a fanciful thesis. It said that when a backward class candidate becomes a Collector or a Superintendent of Police, though the material benefits accruing from his position are limited to the members of that particular family only, the psychological spin-off of that phenomenon will be tremendous — the entire community of that backward caste candidate will feel socially elevated! The issue in question, however, is whether emotional satisfaction can be regarded an adequate substitute for real uplift. Clearly, the government is doing a great disservice to the country by ignoring merit and packing a sizeable chunk of the positions through reservations. This has certainly affected the quality of administration. Strain in the government, distortion of the polity and further social fragmentation with so much hatred and bitterness are all too high a price for this illusion of progress. |
The gilded horns Normally I get up only after the break of dawn. But this time around it was an exception. When I opened my eyes it was still dark and chilly outside and the entire Kullu town was still asleep. I turned on my side, snuggled into the quilt and casually looked out through the window. There was nothing to see except a thin scatter of dim lights afar on what I guessed were the upper slopes of the mountain of Bijli Mahadev. In the daylight this very bedside window would have framed the entire face of this over 3000-ft tall mountain rising from the opposite banks of the Beas river — the clusters of slate-roofed houses, terraced fields and pine forests all along the crest. But at that point of time this giant of a mountain was entirely wrapped in darkness. It had still to wake up like the town below at its base. And when it did a short while later, it showed higher up just a faint warp silhouetted against the slowly emerging glow of the twilight. It was around that time that my eyes got stuck on a pair of lights right atop the mountain profile. I supposed these were not noticed by me a minute earlier when I first looked out of the window. They were closely spaced and fairly bright. Could these be some stars on the rise anyway? No, for the very next moment the twin lights grew a bit taller and looked like the pointed ends of two spears side by side. But not for long. In no time they further grew up to a shape of a pair of horns — the luminescent, gilded horns, characteristically tapering at the ends and concave inward. Just a moment and the scene changed further, the luminous horns, as they just lifted up from the mountain profile, got connected at the base in a loop. And then it was there, the all too familiar sight, the moon in its perfect crescent glory, rising slowly at the break of dawn. The whole celestial drama was enacted within a minute or so. I might have seen the moon rise in the east umpteen times (and who has not?) in my entire life span of 62 years, but never in such dramatic fashion. I bet an overwhelming majority of populace has yet to see such a sight. For it is a rare coincidence. In this very case, for instance, it was first the coincidence of my chance waking up in the pre-dawn hour when the entire town was still asleep, of my looking out from the window facing a mountain, that too essentially to the east, and further, the coincidence of its being a specific lunar day (the last of the dark half of November) and, to top it all, the coincidence of clicking it with those fleeting moments that only could have shown such an eerie moonrise. It is said that coincidences happen once in a blue moon. In this particular case, though, for me, it happened in a crescent moon.
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What makes panchayat poll so fierce Maruti vehicles are the preferred vehicle of travel for aspiring sarpanches and panches filing their nomination in the coming panchayat elections slated for June 29. Gone are the days of people coming in tractor-trailers to conduct this formality. Panchayats have become the new centres of power in rural Punjab. Elections to panchayats have become highly personalised fights, creating extreme groupism in the village and draining resources of the aspirants. The system has still to develop as envisaged. Reservation of seats for women of both the general and Dalit category has failed to serve its purpose even as the functioning of the system still revolves around the “hissa-patti” system under which the sarpanch is given a percentage by the Block Development Officer or the Panchayat Secretary concerned. “Choudhar” continues to be the most important reason for so many eying the post of sarpanch or panch. Jasbir Singh of Devinagar says the race for the post of sarpanchi has become so fierce in the recent past that intelligent people have distanced themselves from it. In villages being a sarpanch means being the chief arbitrator in all disputes, He is on the forefront in case of any incident to be taken up with the local police authorities. “With fights over land and other issues common in villages, every well-to-do family wants to have its own sarpanchi. Sharing the spoils is also a factor in the elections. Power may have been devolved to the grassroots level, it is still the Panchayat Secretary as well as the Block Development Officer who control the flow of funds and demand their share in the spoils. Many sarpanches fall for the easy lucre, killing the spirit behind the entire initiative. Besides making money out of development schemes, many panchayats have control of “shamlat” (common village) land which they use for their own benefit. In Patiala itself there are villages like Karhali where the annual income from the ‘’shamlat’’ land is Rs 10 lakh and Kheri Varna where it is Rs 6 lakh. Jarnail Singh of Asa Majra says the battle for the ballot started in their village even before the filing of nominations. “Aspiring candidates hosted all-night drinking sessions to put up their case. If there is no unanimity, a lot of more money will have to be spent on liquor before voting” he adds. Ensuring adequate flow of liquor during the entire campaign period has become the main expense of almost all candidates. Each candidate spends at least Rs 50,000 on the election with the sum being double or even triple this amount in some villages. There is apparently no clear-cut policy on how seats are to be reserved for women and Dalit women with bureaucrats just going in for reserving seats held by the Akalis in a bid to unsettle them. This means a village like Devinagar, where the Dalits constitute at least 75 per cent of the population, is a general seat while many villages where the Dalits constitute only around 25 per cent of the population have been reserved. Dr Suchha Singh Gill, a scholar, says except for the Doaba belt where the Dalits are assertive due to their numerical strength, the Dalits in the panchayati system have ended up as front men of the landed gentry. Though the amended Panchayati Raj Act was passed by the Punjab Government in 1994, it is still to be followed. Dr Gill said under the Act, 29 departments concerning rural development, including rural health, education and public health, were to be transferred to the panchayats. This could not be done in 1994 due to resistance from legislators and was not done subsequently by the Akali-BJP government. The present Congress government has also failed to empower the panchayats, he adds. Dr Gill says if panchayats are to be made effective, they must be given financial support. Despite two commissions being formed to devise modalities to transfer part of the state budgetary allocations to the panchayats, nothing has been done in this regard. Similarly, a Central scheme under which training was to be given to the elected representatives with the Centre giving 95 per cent of the funds was also not being implemented because the state government did not put in its 5 per cent share in the scheme. |
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Women let down Despite several rounds of panchayat elections, women seem to have been let down by both the system and the political parties, which have made no effort to bring in real emancipation of women. In the current system people who have remained sarpanches or panches work to get womenfolk of their households elected to the posts in case their village is declared reserved for women. Even when their wives are elected to the posts, the male members continue to behave as if they are the elected members and also largely function as such. In case of seats reserved for the Dalits, the situation is worse. This is because in some cases there is no educated Dalit woman in the village who can be a suitable candidate. Due to the inherent shyness of the Dalit women in stepping out of the house, the work of the Sarpanch is done by their menfolk or in some cases even by some educated panch. Take the case of Raj Kaur, an illiterate Scheduled Castes candidate for the post of Sarpanch of Akaut village, near Patiala. While talking to TNS, she admitted that she was being fielded for the post by former village sarpanch Jaswant Singh. When asked how she would function as a sarpanch if elected she said it would be according to the wishes of the people as well as her own. “I will get development work done as per the advice of the “sarpanch” (the former sarpanch still apparently remains the village head for Raj Kaur). The situation is no better in Gagroli village where Saroj Bala, a 50-year-old woman is a candidate for the post of village head. Saroj’s husband openly says that he is running for the post and only takes this reporter to Saroj, who is transplanting paddy in a nearby field when told that the reporter would like to talk to the candidate only. Like Raj Kaur, Saroj says she is being fielded by a Jat Sikh land owner Rai Singh, who is the brother of a former village sarpanch Saroj is speechless when asked how she will work as a sarpanchi. She also has no answer as to how she would get development work done as she is illiterate. This seems to be the bane in many villages visited to survey seats which were reserved exclusively for Scheduled Castes women candidates. Harbhajan Singh, a Jat Sikh of Bhanker village, when contacted on the issue, said: “It is the landlords who will manage the ‘sarpanchi’,” adding that the Dalit women village heads tended to become mere figureheads in the system.
J.S |
VHP has a role in Ayodhya The Vishwa Hindu Parishad will not be amused with the latest comparison it is drawing — with Kashmiri separatists. The VHP, which was left out in the recent parleys on finding a solution to the Ayodhya dispute, has sent warning signals to the BJP-led government against attempts to isolate it on the issue. Congress Secretary Imran Kidwai says that the VHP’s position was similar to that of separatists in the Valley who insist that no solution to the Kashmir problem can be found without their involvement. Officially, the Congress has stated that it was not hopeful of finding a solution to the Ayodhya tangle through talks.
‘Hai koi jawaab, Mr Jaitley?’ When it comes to a rollcall of shrewd politicians, many would agree that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister takes the cake. Digvijay Singh, who has been holding fort in Bhopal for over one decade, knows exactly how to counter his rivals. As the BJP eyes the CM’s chair in the imminent Assembly elections, “Diggy Raja” is on the hit list of the saffron party. Union Minister Arun Jaitley has been trying to corner Singh on “poor development” in Madhya Pradesh. But Singh turned the tables on Jaitley arguing that the man (Jaitley) who was criticising development in Madhya Pradesh had taken an officer from the state to the USA to make a presentation at the Indo-US business council early this month on the special economic zone at Indore. “Hai koi jawaab, Mr Jaitley?”
Unable to sustain their sales and profits in this age of cut-throat competition, cellular companies keep on devising and revising strategies. A top-notch cellular operator, having the second largest share in Delhi’s mobile phone market, has started threatening individual and corporate clients through little-known advocates. A number of such cases have come to light over the last few months where such individual and corporate clients having disputes with cellular operators over incorrect billing have been threatened over the telephone by advocates.
Cat is going to pilgrimage... Proverbs enrich a language but can be a translator’s nightmare. The reason: proverbs often convey a subtle message by giving an analogy. This is precisely what happened with the writer of a lead article in the latest issue of “New Age”, the central organ of the CPI, who used a famous Hindi proverb — “Nau sau chuhe khake, billi Haj ko chali” — to criticise Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s stand on the Ayodhya issue. So far, so good. The writer gave the literal English translation of the proverb in brackets: “The cat is going to pilgrimage for repentance after having eaten nine hundred rats”.
Judges’ jatha
for Pakistan Ever since Mr Vajpayee proposed to Pakistan his third and final peace offer, various organisations have been vying with one another to send goodwill missions across the Wagah border for building up people-to-people contacts. A delegation of Indian MPs, led by senior journalist Kuldip Nayar, was the lucky first to get a clearance from Islamabad, while a 16-member delegation of sitting and retired judges is still cooling its heels. The judges’ delegation was scheduled to depart for Islamabad on June 19, but the Pakistani Foreign Office rescheduled the visit citing security reasons though no new dates have been given yet. Adish C Aggarwala, convener of the Indian Council of Jurists, which is sponsoring the tour, says he is making efforts for an “early”
visit. (Contributed by Prashant Sood, Satish Misra, R Suryamurthy, Girja Shankar Kaura and Rajeev Sharma)
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From Pakistan to China As some of us go later to the press than others, I am afraid I was unable to discuss Prannoy Roy’s interview with President Musharraf last week. But does it really matter? I think it will be discussed for many weeks and months to come. Because the always soft-spoken and courteous Prannoy Roy really took the General apart, not least of all by quoting his past statements against him. The always smiling General kept on asking: “Did I say that?” as indeed he did about portions of this particular interview. Later not a very clever thing to do, since nowadays everything is on tape, something which politicians are apt to forget in their hurry to say they have been misquoted or
statements taken out of context. Roy had certainly done his homework. He had a virtual dossier on Musharraf and remained unshakable throughout, which is more than one can say of the ever smiling General. The many damaging statements into which Prannoy enticed the General have been quoted and discussed extensively. But in a wicked sort of way I enjoyed most a comparatively lesser statement which the general trapped himself into when he made that rather overworked Pakistani statement that India did not favour cricket matches with Pakistan because they were afraid of losing.” But India beat Pakistan in the World Cup” said Prannoy. Needless to say, there were no comments from Musharraf, but it was typical of the man and in a class with his assertion that the elections in Jammu and Kashmir were not free and fair. There is an old saying: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” General, are you listening? And that was not the only interview with the President. There was Lyse Doucet on the BBC and there too the General was very dodgy, it was mostly touches. But hand it to him, he is articulate, generally amiable and very effective on the media, much more so than some earlier military presidents we have seen. And certainly on par with Benazir Bhutto, who had better training as president of the Oxford Union. More heartening were the two editions of Question Time Pakistan on the BBC. The woman with the too-too KOI HAI accent has become a little less biased in giving a hearing to individual members of the panel and brushing aside inconvenient questions. In fact, both
panelists, who represent the establishment as well as the opposition parties are amazingly outspoken, outshining them all is the one and only Asma Jehangir, the social activist with her fearless arguments punctuated with ready with. The audience, especially the younger participants, including women, speak out their minds and often criticise the establishment. This is probably the face of freedom of expression for international consumption and as my cable operator has blacked out Pakistan TV one cannot compare if such freedom is permitted on domestic channels, where India-baiting is the name of the game. Which is why we must not emulate Pakistan, which has banned Indian channels and allow Pakistan TV to be aired in India as it is a valuable guide to what is happening on the media across the border. And as we went to press, there was the Bush-Musharraf Press conference on the lush lawns of Camp David, with the two wives present, Begum Musharraf’s light green dupatta flowing in the breeze, while Bush showered compliments on Mush. This was at almost the exact moment that the Indian media, with some grudging admissions from the BBC and CNN, was enthusing about the Tibet-Sikkim trade-off with China in Beijing. In fact, our media, apart from routine reporting of communiques, did some interesting walkabouts on the streets of Beijing, Rajdeep Sardesai in particular getting some interesting comments from young students. Meanwhile, our editors of top newspapers seem to be doing more TV than editing these days and some of them have crossed over to all-Hindi programmes, which not only cuts down their reach but is a bit hard on non-Hindi people from the South, for instance. There is Vir Sanghvi’s Vir ka Teer on Star News, there is Akbar Ka Darbar by M J Akbar, while Shekar Gupta has stuck to English on NDTV English which gives him a much more cosmopolitan audience. His Walk The Talk has suddenly taken an upward leap for two solid reasons: First interesting and more secluded locales — Chief Minister Krishna of Karnataka in a sleepy village well off the beaten track. I liked the touch about his paying for the coconut water bought from a village vendor — nice to see a CM carry his own change. And then there was Dravid in an empty stadium, I think. No spectators milling around in these two locales shooting of Bombay films and with the Revd. Ravi Shankar nervously dodging noisy motor cycles on a crowded narrow bridge. So, both Krishna and Dravid were their natural, relaxed selves, unlike some of the more contrived locales which made the participants act
accordingly. TAIL-PIECE: Much as I admire our very own Nirupama for making it as a commentator for international tennis, she is spoiling Wimbledon, as she did other tournaments earlier, by her constant distracting jabber-jabber-jabber and her trite “expert” comments in the middle of important rallies, on Star Sports. Her fellow commentator hardly gets a word in, except”, Yes, I agree with you”. While Niru might like the sound of her own voice, viewers are a bit tired and irritated. Pipe down, Niru. Listen to Vijay Amrithraj to see how it’s done. |
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Maruti
vehicles are the preferred vehicle of travel for aspiring sarpanches
and panches filing their nomination in the coming panchayat elections
slated for June 29. Gone are the days of people coming in
tractor-trailers to conduct this formality.
