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‘Don’t blame us. We’re just the beedi lighters’
The resident poets of the BJP in Karnataka are slipping into their creative best as the party mounts a shrill campaign to alert voters of the “worst betrayal ever” by …
Why we don’t know who Jagennath Lachmon is
Every media house magically finds the resources to send correspondents to the Cannes, IFA or Frankfurt festivals. Indra Nooyi‘s climb up the global power ladder has our media charting her …
The amazing portability of our unportable netas
Indian cell phone operators grudgingly took a small step towards “number portability“—which allows subscribers to keep their old cell phone number even if they change their service provider—recently. CHANDRAMOHAN BRAMHASANDRA …
Rule 60: Don’t drink and drive your father nuts
Ananthakrishna, a widower who stabbed his son, Avinash, to death, unable to withstand his vices, and then hanged himself in Bangalore on Wednesday, has left a suicide note: “God is …
CHURUMURI POLL: Who will win next election?
The abrupt end to Karnataka’s latest coalition experiment, the reimposition of President’s Rule, the ratification of it by Parliament, and the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly pave the way for …
Fortunately, every third stat is said to be a lie
The Human Development Report for 2007-08 has been released by the UNDP and there are few surprises. # India’s human development index (HDI) of 0.619 puts it just below Equatorial …
How Hassan’s farmers took their first plane ride
The mystery of very rich businessmen getting elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka—think Vijay Mallya, think M.A.M. Ramaswamy, think Rajeev Chandrashekhar—has been plainly obvious to anybody who can add …
By bureaucrats. Of bureaucrats. For bureaucrats.
MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: With the imposition of President’s Rule in the States becoming more of a rule rather than an exception, the time has come to ponder …
Mosaic from the Middles Ages in Manhattan
A photograph is said to convey a thousand words. This picture, by J. Adam Huggins, in the New York Times conveys a million. Shot at a Bengal factory which makes …
How the Vidhana Soudha should be remodelled
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: Through my unusually reliable sources, I heard that Governor Rameshwar Thakur was planning to get the Vidhana and Vikasa Soudha remodelled before the formation of the next …
In the name of Bhagwan, Allah, Christ…
Ritu Menon in The Indian Express: “These days, one could be forgiven for thinking that the only people whose freedom of expression the State is willing to protect are those …
One or the other, but not all at the same time
ASHWINI A. writes from Bangalore: Development is fast becoming a strange dichotomous disease in India. The three most reform-minded States in the country—Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka—also top the list of …
Are Kannadigas getting insecure of Tamilians?
The upsurge in the demand for classical language status for Kannada—immediately after Tamil was “granted” the honour by a UPA government dependent on the DMK for support—has been one of …
Why Son Parivar can’t let go of some portfolios
Former speaker S. Ramesh Kumar, a former JDS man now in the Congress, on TV9: “H.D. Deve Gowda always wants H.D. Revanna to be in charge of the public works …
CHURUMURI POLL: India’s most corrupt CM?
In a surcharged atmosphere, nothing exceeds like excess. As if to underline the aphorism, the former State Congress chief Janardhan Poojary has dubbed H.D. Kumaraswamy as “the most corrupt chief …
Absolute power corrupts the mind absolutely
Politics in Karnataka has gone to the mutts with such vengeance that even mutt heads, with their hands deep in the political till, are beginning to talk and make sense. …
As Schumi said, see you in my rear-view mirror
On D. Devaraj Urs Road in Mysore, on a leisurely Sunday, a feathered one clambers up a scooter and ponders all those lines under her his eyes. Photograph: Karnataka Photo …
Gandhiji was right about Congress, BJP and JDS
Sudheendra Kulkarni in The Indian Express: “The lesson to be learnt from the political skulduggery in Karnataka is this: It is easy to eulogise the Mahatma, as Sonia Gandhi and …
Justice may be blind, but what about the judges?
ALOK PRASANNA writes from Bangalore: Courtroom No.15 of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi is no bigger than the ones that are shown in most T.N. Seetharam serials. …
All the Page 3 types of history on one page
V. RAMAPRASAD, in Trichy, forwards an artwork (source unknown) that has all the famous people of the world in one single photo-illustration. How may can you spot and identify? (Sorry …
These are a few people we would like to thank
This is Thanksgiving weekend. A time to thank those whom we know or don’t (or shouldn’t) for favours rendered in the year gone by. *** Thank you, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: for …
Deja Moo: Feeling you’ve heard this bull before
The cow may be our national animal with “two legs forward, two legs afterward”. But that hasn’t stopped us from using it to explain the marketing philosophies of various companies. …
Because: “Government Work is Dog’s Work”
With seven-night stands becoming the order of the day, with politicians squabbling amongst each other and marking their turf with canine zeal, strays in front of the Vidhana Soudha in …
INSIDE STORY OF THE BJP-JDS NEGOTIATIONS
If there has been anything more intellectually inadequate than the recent politics in Karnataka, then it has been the media coverage of it. Especially in the mainstream English media. Rarely …
BJP’s political intelligence lies horribly exposed
MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: There have been some strange sights on the political landscape of Karnataka over the last couple of months, but nothing is stranger than the …
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