O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Confessions on camera
SC order will make accused accountable
THE Supreme Court has rightly ruled in an order that the trial court can consider admissibility of statements given by an accused to the media. This is bound to be viewed as a significant order because this will make the accused more responsible to the demands of the criminal justice system. At a time when cases of the accused changing their statements frequently have increased, the apex court ruling can be regarded as a prescription for making the accused accountable for his statements. 

Helping Afghanistan
India needs strategy to consolidate its gains
War-ravaged Afghanistan can, of course, ask for more from India, but it is certainly doing no less to be treated as a friend indeed. Realising the massive fund requirement for rebuilding purposes, India will increase its financial aid to Afghanistan from the present $650 million to $750 million. 

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

End-game in Iraq
Americans are finding it a fruitless war
by S. Nihal Singh
IS the impressive anti-war protest in Washington the beginning of the end of America's Iraq war misadventure? There is an eerie feeling of the anti-Vietnam war protests being re-enacted against another US President's actions. To remind the country of that war, actress Jane Fonda, dubbed a traitor for then visiting Vietnam, joined the protest at the foot of Capitol Hill. Indeed, America lost that war in the country's sitting rooms, it is said, because the searing images of the fighting and returning body bags on television helped galvanise the public against the war.

MIDDLE

From Raj to Rajghat
by R. Vatsyayan
Quite a number of people are still alive who have seen Mahatma Gandhi in person. But to millions of others like me born many years after his death, Gandhi more or less seems to have become a mythological character. Of the numerous tributes paid to him on his death, the most quoted and also the most appropriate remains that of Albert Einstein, who said, “generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.

OPED

Gandhi’s enduring relevance
by Mohan Dharia
Gandhiji would have completed 138 years of his life had he been alive today. He was never considered a bright student or an outstanding person during his early years. After obtaining the degree of Bar at Law with great efforts at London, Gandhiji returned to India. He wanted to practice. However, he could not succeed in establishing a good practice.

Hampshire primaries: America’s unique “retail politics”
by Rupert Cornwell
LET me start with a confession. I love the American New Hampshire primary. For me it’s a wonderful interlude of retail politics, where candidates are forced to go up close and personal with small groups of voters.

Delhi Durbar
Waving your flag
Delhi’s hyperactive political grapevine is abuzz with news about the tension between BJP president Rajnath Singh and his predecessor L.K.Advani, who is apparently loathe to let go of his grip on the organisation. There have been innumerable occasions in the recent past when Mr. Advani has sought to upstage his successor. Further evidence of this tug-of-war was available on Republic Day.

• Pranab in demand

• Star power
  
  

 

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Confessions on camera
SC order will make accused accountable

THE Supreme Court has rightly ruled in an order that the trial court can consider admissibility of statements given by an accused to the media. This is bound to be viewed as a significant order because this will make the accused more responsible to the demands of the criminal justice system. At a time when cases of the accused changing their statements frequently have increased, the apex court ruling can be regarded as a prescription for making the accused accountable for his statements. If an accused is allowed to change his statements according to the environment, it would not only impair free and fair trial but also make a mockery of the administration of justice. A two-member Bench consisting of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S.H. Kapadia gave this ruling while dismissing a petition of Sajidbeg Asifbeg Mirza, who is an accused in a murder case.

According to reports, Mirza was allegedly beaten up in custody during interrogation. Subsequently, he was admitted to a hospital in Surat, Gujarat. When he was undergoing treatment in the hospital, a television channel of Surat interviewed Mirza. In this interview, he had reportedly confessed his involvement in the murder seven years ago. The prosecution maintained in the trial court that the videographer of the television channel should be summoned by the court as a witness to ascertain the authenticity of the interview. He argued that what Mirza said in the interview regarding his culpability in the crime was wholly relevant to prove his guilt in the case.

Despite objections by the accused to summon the videographer on the ground that “extra-judicial confessions” before the media cannot be cited as evidence during the trial in a criminal case, the trial court summoned the videographer to depose before it as a witness. Both the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court have rightly upheld the trial court decision and dismissed the petition of the accused as devoid of merit. The apex court ruling also emphasises another cardinal principle of the criminal justice system — the need for the trial court to act in a responsible and judicious manner so that the accused (and/or the witnesses) do not try to hoodwink the law by changing their statements off or on camera.

Helping Afghanistan
India needs strategy to consolidate its gains

War-ravaged Afghanistan can, of course, ask for more from India, but it is certainly doing no less to be treated as a friend indeed. Realising the massive fund requirement for rebuilding purposes, India will increase its financial aid to Afghanistan from the present $650 million to $750 million. Announcing this during his last week’s visit to Kabul, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that India also had a separate plan to spend $1 million on small-scale social projects. India is already involved in many projects relating to power generation, road construction, health care and education.

Despite the killing of two Indians — Maniappan Kutty and K. Suryanarayana — by Taliban thugs, India enjoys a unique position in Afghanistan today. It tops the list of the countries rendering different kinds of assistance to Afghanistan, though not being a part of the Bonn mechanism established by international donors in 2001. There is no neighbour other than India which does not scare Afghanistan. The politically aware Afghans know it well that Pakistan and Iran, which share land borders with their country, have only their own interests to promote by increasing their presence in Afghanistan.

India, however, should not be complacent in view of the evolving scenario in Afghanistan. The US-led International Security Assistance Force is likely to withdraw itself from there in a few years. In such a situation, the Hamid Karzai regime may find it difficult to sustain itself. But the Pashtu-speaking tribes will continue to be a major political force and it is they who provide the maximum recruits to the Taliban. India’s development-related assistance can be used to project the country among the Pushtuns as the most dependable friend of Afghanistan. There are elements in the Taliban who are power-hungry and who may not like their country to be used by Pakistan for its search for “strategic depth”. The sharpening Afghanistan-Pakistan divide over the Durand Line can also help India in consolidating its gains in Afghanistan. But India must devise a long-term strategy for the purpose if it does not have one.

Two icons
Kamleshwar, OP Nayyar will be missed

THE death of Kamleshwar and O. P. Nayyar, two legendary figures of Indian literature and film music, within hours of each other is a major loss. Both of them were doyens in their domains and have left a big void. Their biggest contribution was the promotion of fledgling careers of many others who rose to become icons in their own right later. Kamleshwar, along with Mohan Rakesh and Rajendra Yadav, brought a whiff of fresh air into Hindi literature with the “Nayee Kahani” movement in the fifties. He also strived to create the “samanantar” (parallel) movement in the seventies and introduced Marathi Dalit writers and Bohra Muslim litterateurs to the Hindi reader. Although his award-winning novel, Kitney Pakistan, alone is enough to perpetuate his memory, the winner of the Sahitya Akademi and Padma Bhushan awards also penned several TV serials and film scripts like Mausam and Chhoti Si Baat. Whether as Editor of Dainik Jagaran, Dainik Bhaskar and Sarika or as Additional Director-General of Doordarshan, Kamleshwar was always looking ahead and willing to experiment.

If he was ahead of others in sensitive writing, Nayyar was a master of rhythm. It is hard to believe that the man who gave the world such evergreen hits as “Chain se humko kabhi aapne jeene na diya” and “Ye chand sa roshan chehra” had no formal music training. The typical Punjabi “clip clop” folk beat that he adopted was to become his trademark Asha Bhosle’s rise has a lot to do with her association with Nayyar. He commanded the highest fees in the industry at one time and was very particular about working in only one film or so every year.

What a pity that no well-known film personality was there to attend his funeral procession! This was not because his outstanding ability was not acknowledged but because this stubborn individual was also known to pick fights easily. He never worked with Lata Mangeshkar and even parted company with Mohammad Rafi. Even Asha was to be dumped later. His opponents and rivals acknowledged his genius, nevertheless. His contribution to Indian cinema would have been even more formidable if personal angularities had not come in the way. But an artiste of his genre can have ego, which keeps peers at a distance.

Thought for the day

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. — Saki

ARTICLE

End-game in Iraq
Americans are finding it a fruitless war
by S. Nihal Singh

IS the impressive anti-war protest in Washington the beginning of the end of America's Iraq war misadventure? There is an eerie feeling of the anti-Vietnam war protests being re-enacted against another US President's actions. To remind the country of that war, actress Jane Fonda, dubbed a traitor for then visiting Vietnam, joined the protest at the foot of Capitol Hill. Indeed, America lost that war in the country's sitting rooms, it is said, because the searing images of the fighting and returning body bags on television helped galvanise the public against the war.

There seems to be inevitability about the turn of events. President George W. Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq met with strong congressional disapproval although the new Democrat-controlled Houses of Congress are afraid to strike by cutting off funds. Democrats are afraid of being painted as being unpatriotic. The State of the Union address brought the President no cheer as a weary nation found little comfort in a fruitless war. Despite President Bush's decision to ban photographs of returning body bags, the public has finally grasped the fact that remaining in Iraq means more body bags, to no legitimate purpose.

Indeed, all accounts suggest that the US administration is nearing the end-game whatever the rhetoric it chooses to employ. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent visit to the region was in the nature of framing a post-Iraq scenario. The short point Washington is now making is that it is up to the moderate Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to try to curb rising Iranian Shia power in the region. The fact that the US enabled the Shias of Iraq to claim the largest slice of power for the first time in the state's history is beside the point.
Second, the Bush administration is now adopting the policy that, contrary to six years of its inactivity by failing to prod the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to Israel's benefit, it is prepared to give others, principally the European Union, some room for manoeuvre keeping veto power in its hands. Iraq has shown that tackling the primeval conflict in the region by removing Saddam Hussein has been a spectacular failure. The Bush administration has neither the inclination nor the will to satisfy legitimate Palestinian demands, despite the lip-service President Bush has paid to a two-state solution.

Besides, there is a new American effort to pay more attention to Afghanistan, as indicated by President Bush's proposal for additional funding and Ms Rice has been active in urging the Europeans to provide more troops for Afghan operations. Afghanistan is now a largely NATO operation. Unlike Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan is salvageable and the US is putting more public pressure on Pakistan to curb cross-border operations of the Taliban, in sharp contrast to the mild reprimand Islamabad has had to endure on helping the jehadi traffic in Kashmir.

Although President Bush is persevering in his decision to send some 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, the precise nature of the end game remains to be determined. Taking the Vietnam analogy, the hurried last-minute helicopter evacuation of American officials and loyal Vietnamese personnel from the roof of an embassy building was unplanned. The Vietcong had reached Saigon's gates. With US Congress cutting off funds for the war and the Vietnamisation of the war having proved a failure, there was little prospect of success.

In Iraq's case, the new plan is initially predicated upon frightening Prime Minister Al-Maliki into taking action against the Mahdi militias of his own support base, the cleric Al-Sadr. What seems to have happened is that for the moment these militias are lying low, probably in a compact with the Prime Minister. The tactic of making the capital Baghdad safe by saturating it with American and Iraqi troops has been tried once before without success, and, judging by the continuing carnage through car bombs, the outlook looks bleak.

In what is a virtual civil war, attempts to curb militias of the Shias and Sunnis have failed to subdue them. The Sunnis as the weaker party attack areas of Shia dominance only to bring greater retribution on Sunni neighbourhoods by newly-enfranchised Shias. The Mahdi militias have particularly distinguished themselves in this dubious area of operations.

The mass Washington protest means that President Bush has less time than he thinks in trying out new plans to salvage limited gains from Iraq. At the same time, the new Democrat-controlled Congress is under pressure to do something more drastic than passing non-binding resolutions to bring the boys home. This presents dilemmas for such presidential contenders as Senator Hillary Clinton who has to balance her initial support for the Iraq war with the distinctly unpopular turn it has taken.

Mr Bush, of course, is a lame-duck president in the true sense of the word and many of his fellow Republicans with presidential ambitions are deserting the sinking ship to throw their hats into the ring. The White House seems to be more concerned with the Bush legacy, rather than with unrealistic expectations of miraculously rescuing a foolish ill-thought-out misadventure determined more by hubris and neocons' ideology than rational policy-making.

Success, they say, has many fathers and failure is an orphan. So it is in relation to America's Iraq policy. Events stemming from this failure have taken on a life of their own. There are three distinct areas. At one end is the growing popular movement in America against the war, symbolised by the Washington protest and American politicians' efforts to adjust to this fact. At the other end is the situation on the ground: the fierce street battles, the car bombs, the rising casualties and the further squeezing of the helpless civilians by all sides. The third area is the beginning of neighbouring Sunni regimes' efforts to bestir themselves in order to hem in Iranian influence to the extent they can.

Perhaps President Bush will not have to make a choice in picking a bad or worse option. The choice could well be forced upon him as Iraqi politicians, sensing the impending danger, run away with their own plans in order to secure their future political careers. It is tough being an Iraqi these days.

MIDDLE

From Raj to Rajghat
by R. Vatsyayan

Quite a number of people are still alive who have seen Mahatma Gandhi in person. But to millions of others like me born many years after his death, Gandhi more or less seems to have become a mythological character. Of the numerous tributes paid to him on his death, the most quoted and also the most appropriate remains that of Albert Einstein, who said, “generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.

Mahatma Gandhi led the struggle for India’s freedom and is remembered as an embodiment of the creed of non-violence. Anybody who has seen Gandhi or has read about him knows that the last two years of his extraordinary life were most heroic and also saddest. He along with millions of his followers had fought for the day when India would attain freedom and set an example of nonviolence to the world, but was dismayed by the fire of religious frenzy and barbaric violence spreading across the subcontinent.

It does not need a study to tell whether our country after six decades of his death has kept faith with his vision or not. We are turning to become the most intolerant and undisciplined society and his philosophy of nonviolence and forbearance has since long ceased to be of any interest to us. The political and public life has given in to the highest level of hypocrisy, and today in every sphere of life our role models are those who have nothing to do with the Gandhian way of thinking.

It has become a fashion to question the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi today. He was not known for conquests or great scientific achievements but for emphasising and living simple truths and morals. If he were to look at India from the heavens he would be greatly pained to find rampant corruption, and the unending conflicts in societies between caste and communal groups. He would have been shocked at the lack of respect by the agencies of the State for the common man.

He would have found that the poor of this country are as much away from the elite as we as a nation are removed from living in peace and brotherhood. Even the Dalits, whom Gandhi loved most and whose latrines he cleaned himself, have been swayed by the vote bank politics and are no longer enamoured of him. And finally the sight of political parties controlled by self-seekers would have traumatised him.

In fact, we started getting rid of Gandhi right from the time when he entered the final phase of his life and freedom of the country was in sight. The man who led India in the most crucial phase of its history and in the battle against the Raj, today with all his ideals of truth and nonviolence remains eternally confined to Rajghat.

OPED

Gandhi’s enduring relevance
by Mohan Dharia

Gandhiji would have completed 138 years of his life had he been alive today. He was never considered a bright student or an outstanding person during his early years. After obtaining the degree of Bar at Law with great efforts at London, Gandhiji returned to India. He wanted to practice. However, he could not succeed in establishing a good practice.

In those days a person who had obtained a degree of Bar at Law was entitled to practice as a lawyer in any part of the then British Empire. That gave the opportunity to Gandhiji to go to Durban in South Africa – a merchant wanted a lawyer to pursue his case with minimum honorarium.

In Durban, Gandhiji could see the inhuman discrimination against the black by the white rulers. He had to face several ordeals. One day Gandhiji was travelling by first class as per his reservation. That bogie was occupied by white Britishers. They could not reconcile to the idea that a black Indian should travel with them. They threw away the luggage of Gandhiji on the platform and he was physically thrown out of the bogie.

This was the event which proved to be a turning point in the life of Gandhiji. The occasion inspired him to start his movement against inhuman discrimination. Gradually he mobilised the people to fight. Gandhiji was clear that it would never be possible to fight with the mighty British Raj through weapons. His unlimited conviction conceived the idea of non-cooperation and non-violence.

He inspired several people to join hands. Through their struggle Gandhiji succeeded in securing justice.

After returning to India Gandhiji decided to join politics and he contacted great leaders in the country. He organised his meetings with great leaders like Lokamanya Tilak, Phiroj Shaha Mehta, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and many others. Gandhiji found the leadership of Mr Gokhale, an eminent liberal leader, to be most suitable and he accepted him as his Guru.

Mr Gokhale first advised Gandhiji to tour the country to get acquainted with the people and to know their living conditions, along with the social and political situation in the country.

Accordingly, Gandhiji began his tour from Bihar, one of the most backward states in the country. Here Gandhiji could see again the agonies of the poor people. As in South Africa he was inspired to fight against injustice in Champaran where he decided the future course of his life. Since then Gandhiji never looked back and launched several struggles in a non-violent way by mobilising hundreds of people in the country.

Lokmanya Tilak was leading the Indian National Congress. After the demise of Lokmanya Tilak in 1920 Gandhiji got the opportunity to lead the Congress. Through various movements right from Khilafat Movement in the 1920s and several other struggles, Gandhiji was recognised as the topmost leader championing the cause of freedom.

His movement of Salt Satyagraha was ridiculed by the Britishers. However, that was perhaps the occasion when the leadership of Gandhiji proved to be unparallelled in the whole of the country and the Indian National Congress. Gandhiji came from a middle class family. He had a common personality. However, his ability to mobilise masses, his determination and love for values gradually turned him into an uncommon personality of great significance.

While describing Gandhiji, the great philosopher, former President of India Dr Radhakrishnan says “Mahatma Gandhi was one of the outstanding personalities not only of one time but of all times. Since Buddha, Gandhiji was the greatest moral force in Indian history...He revealed to the masses a power not of rifles and machine guns, but the power innate in each individual, power which this war-haunted world can exploit fully in making wars impossible.”

Gandhiji, though a believer in Hinduism, had firm faith in humanity and he always believed that all human beings irrespective of caste, creed, religion, or sex are equal and they have to be treated on an equal basis. Equality of status and equality of opportunity was his slogan. Gandhiji’s innumerable writings reflect his views on all aspects of human life. No leader has that way touched and expressed in writing his/her views in categorical words about all aspects of life.

Gandhiji, along with his political movements, carried on constructive programmes to generate incomes through Charkha, Khadi, and many home made articles, with a view to provide better incomes to the poorer sections. Gandhiji had undaunted faith in Swadeshi.

He emphasised decentralization of political authority and decentralisation of economic power throughout his life. Gandhiji rightly felt that unless the common man and every village are made self-reliant, the country could never be self reliant.

His philosophy of trusteeship in industries has not been recognised till today. Because of the current prevalence of a Free Market Economy, perhaps the time has come when his philosophy of trusteeships, by forming cooperatives or cooperative companies, is likely to be recognised by many producers in the country, as their holdings are too small to be competitive in international markets.

He preached peace, non-violence and certain values in human life. Gandhiji stated nearly ninety years ago that nature could take care of man’s minimum needs but nature shall never be able to meet the ever growing greed. Gandhiji’s philosophy based on non-violence peace, love for nature and mankind along with his faith on high thinking and moderate living is the only way to save nature and the world.

Hampshire primaries: America’s unique “retail politics”
by Rupert Cornwell

LET me start with a confession. I love the American New Hampshire primary. For me it’s a wonderful interlude of retail politics, where candidates are forced to go up close and personal with small groups of voters.

With a bit of patience and deft positioning, even the foreign correspondent who has a potential readership of zero New Hampshire voters can get a brief one-on-one with the man who just might be the next leader of the free world. Alas, this precious institution is under threat.

The problem is that the first-in-the-nation primary in this small New England state – with less than 0.5 per cent of the US population, overwhelmingly un-black and largely non-urban it is pretty unrepresentative of the country as a whole – has had a quite disproportionate role in picking party nominees. The odd candidate ignores Iowa, but none dares pass on New Hampshire. The primary may be a year off, but contenders and potential contenders have been paying visits for months.

Oddly, the only person who hasn’t been there yet is Hillary Clinton, but that was simply to maintain the pretence that she hadn’t made up her mind to run. Hillary did the rounds in Iowa last week, and any time now she’ll be sampling the pancakes and muffins at the Merrimack Restaurant on Elm Street, Manchester, an undistinguished eatery, but a must-stop on the primary trail. Rudy Giuliani – who could be her opponent in the 2008 presidential election – was already in town, speaking at the annual meeting of the state Republican Party.

The ritual is informal and good fun, but it’s also in danger. Not unreasonably, other states are jealous of New Hampshire’s outsize role.

Why, they ask, should their voters have no other job than to place the crown on the head of a candidate already robed and anointed by a couple of hundred thousand fussy New Englanders? Precisely that happened in 2004, when John Kerry won Iowa and New Hampshire, wrapping up the nomination by early February, before the other 48 states had cast a vote.

That’s why four large states – California, Illinois, Florida and New Jersey – long squeezed out of the primary process could hold their primaries as early as 5 February next year, a couple of weeks after New Hampshire. In places like this, retail politics simply doesn’t reach enough voters. Making an impact means costly TV advertising. The charm of Iowa and New Hampshire is that they give the under-funded dark horse candidate a chance.

Under the emerging system, a dark horse wouldn’t have time to put together the money and organisation to have a chance in, say, California, with 16 times more convention delegates than New Hampshire. Making matters worse, Nevada plans to barge in between Iowa and New Hampshire, upsetting the whole cosy arrangement.

But don’t write off New Hampshire. Some of its myths may have crumbled – of late, candidates (Bill Clinton in 1992, George Bush in 2000) have won the White House even though they lost there. But its lore is irresistible: of Eugene McCarthy’s quixotic crusade in 1968 that brought about the end of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency; of Democratic frontrunner Ed Muskie, who wept (or was it just melting snow on his cheek?) after an unkind leader in the local Manchester paper, blowing his 1972 candidacy in the process.

New Hampshire helped to launch Jimmy Carter in 1976. It was also where Bill Clinton, by sheer and visible willpower, rescued his 1992 campaign from charges of philandering and Vietnam draft dodging – and also where I got to chat with Hillary for five minutes in a Nashua shopping mall.

There’s a lot of fight in the old place yet. For one thing, state officials say they’ll move the primary forward and hold it as early as it takes to preserve its status – even if that means voters have to pass on the Christmas shopping to take in Hillary, Obama and the rest.

More importantly, there’s an unspoken media conspiracy in favour of New Hampshire. For political reporters, it is a four-yearly reunion, in the same snowy towns, the same comfortable hotels, and same cosy restaurants.

It’s a short drive from Boston, and all the action takes place within an hour’s drive of Manchester, the state’s largest city. New Hampshire is gambling that the press won’t let go. And if the press won’t let go, you can be sure that the politicians won’t either.

By arrangement with The Independent

Delhi Durbar
Waving your flag

Delhi’s hyperactive political grapevine is abuzz with news about the tension between BJP president Rajnath Singh and his predecessor L.K.Advani, who is apparently loathe to let go of his grip on the organisation. There have been innumerable occasions in the recent past when Mr. Advani has sought to upstage his successor. Further evidence of this tug-of-war was available on Republic Day.

The BJP office first sent out messages to all beat correspondents that Mr. Rajnath Singh will hoist the national flag at the BJP headquarters in the morning. This was promptly followed with another message informing everybody that Mr. Advani will also unfurl the tricolour at a special ceremony at his residence in the afternoon. Needless to say, neither leader attended the other’s programme.

Pranab in demand

Ever since Mr. Pranab Mukherjee moved to the external affairs ministry, he has not had a moment’s rest. He has either being playing host to a stream of visitors or he has been busy travelling. Last week, when he paid a trademark quick visit to Kabul to invite Afghanistan for the upcoming SAARC summit, his departure was delayed by several hours because of heavy snowfall.

However, this short break proved to be a welcome respite for the overworked minister who used this time to do some sight seeing. He visited the site of Afghanistan’s new parliament building which is to be constructed with Indian help. While Mr. Mukherjee was taking in the sights in snow-bound Kabul, back in New Delhi Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was anxiously awaiting his arrival. In fact, he is said to have made several enquiries about the external affairs minister’s travel schedule. Apparently, the PM was keen to have everything in order before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit the next day.

Star power

There is a hot debate centred around the state of the country’s most “powerful family” vis-a-vis the nation’s most “glamorous” family. And the unanimous verdict is that the TRP ratings of the Bachchan clan, which were always high, have skyrocketed in recent days, particularly after superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s actor son’s engagement to beauty queen Aishwarya Rai.

Surprisingly, the would-be bridegroom Abhishek has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since his engagement. Instead, it is Amitbah Bachchan who has been holding forth on his son’s forthcoming marriage and has given a series of interviews in this connection. Sceptics, however, attribute the timing of the engagement and the senior Bachchan’s high visibility campaign to the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, given his close proximity to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. The Samajwadi Party, which is fighting with its back to the wall in UP, is apparently banking on the star’s charisma to pull in the crowds.

Contributed by S.Sathyanarayanan, R.Suryamurthy and Anita Katyal

REFLECTIONS

Life becomes loveable only to the extent that death is treated as a friend, never as an enemy. —Mahatma Gandhi