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CHURUMURI POLL: Loan waiver, right or wrong?
The centrepiece of the Union budget for 2008-09 presented by finance minister P. Chidambaram is unquestionably the waiver of agricultural loans to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore. All loans …
‘How Karnataka is becoming Gujarat of South’
GAURI LANKESH writes from Bangalore: Recently, three young men were arrested in Hubli and Honnali on charges of vehicle theft. Since all of them happened to belong to the Muslim …
When the kettle calls the pot black and blue
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: Although the verbiage is getting shriller and shriller, and should largely be ignored, the kind of words Mathew Hayden & Co are using, and getting away with, …
Love thy neighbour’s strife? You shall not.
Ramachandra Guha has an excellent piece in The Telegraph today, urging Indians to resist the temptation to triumphantly gloat over their own happy state, and scoff at Pakistan’s miserable plight. …
For a late-bloomer, music is the song of life
She is 21 years old, but her mental age is four. Seven days after her birth, doctors operating on an intestinal problem declared her dead. Twice. She learnt to walk …
In Ayodhya, Dasaratha’s wives gorged on idli-dosa
D.P. SATISH writes from New Delhi: The late A.K. Ramanujan is arguably one of the best-known Indian writers worldwide. Ramanujan, who taught at the University of Chicago for decades, introduced …
God moves in mysterious ways for a 3-year-old
While media mavens feverishly debate whether journalists should abandon their professional duties and lend a hand in moments of crisis, a three-year-old Afghan girl born with a deadly skin disorder …
The feather vendor, the P & G honcho, and URA
Former Procter & Gamble India head Gurcharan Das in The Sunday Times of India: “At great sacrifice India’s poor send their children to private, English-medium schools of varying degrees of …
MIDWEEK MASALA: Dubya visiting Bush Betta?
As the United States gets ready for a “regime-change”, this time on its own soil, E.R RAMACHANDRAN forwards an example of what the world will start missing 11 months from …
The strange, sad and scandalous silence of Big B
SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: Everything that’s happened over the past fortnight in this great metropolis built by those who have made it their home, from near and far, has …
If Pawar’s BCCI could, why not Pawar’s ministry?
Ramesh Ramanathan in The Mint: “If liberalisation in the 1990s unlocked the entrepreneurial energy of India, and allowed the trickle of wealth creation to begin, the Indian Premier League (IPL) …
One question I’m dying to ask… Lalu Prasad
They said the Railways would go bankrupt in 2015; he is now announcing a profit of Rs 25,000 crore by leaving passenger fares untouched year after year. They said he …
‘Elections delayed can be democracy denied’
In an editorial today, The Hindu calls for the invocation of Rule 24 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, to prevent the delimitation notification (which redraws the constituencies) from …
Should hate-mongrels be given space in media?
The media has been a key player in Raj Thackeray‘s hate campaign against “outsiders” in Bombay. In giving him the oxygen of publicity, in editorialising news, in fanning the flames …
‘Everything’s fine till something happens to you’
SWAROOP C.H. writes from Bangalore: I’ve been provoked and I can’t stop thinking about it. Incident 1. It all started on Day 2 of my Singapore trip (Sunday, December 23) …
Poachers : Forest guards :: Terrorists : Police
Jaithirth Rao in The Indian Express: “If you have visited any of our forests recently, you might, if you are lucky, bump into a forest guard… wearing torn chappals as …
How Suma didn’t let her eyes block her vision
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: As she ran along the pathway in the Glass House of Lalbagh, Suma was joy personified. Her eyes glistened as she chased the butterflies swirling in the …
‘Do political movements need to obey the law?’
Raj Thackeray, the Posterboy of Parochialism (West), has responded to an open letter in The Indian Express from Sudheendra Kulkarni, the Belgaum-born media advisor to Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. …
After the votes, count the notes. Then add 7%.
PRAKASH SHETTY‘s take on the Pakistan election verdict which plonks Benazir Bhutto‘s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, notorious as “Mr Seven Per Cent”, in a position of strength.
Not by P. Sainath: Everybody loves a good IT sop
ASHWINI A. writes from Bangalore: With the Union Budget less than a week away, all kinds of lobbies and special interest groups are trying to swing a better deal for …
CHURUMURI POLL: Twenty20 to promote 60-30?
The Indian Premier League has hogged the headlines over the dazzling rates commanded by some players, India’s growing commercial hold over global cricket, the entry of big money and glamour …
Why Manjamma won’t go back to Bombay again
She is 82. She is Manjamma. She is from Karnataka, the cradle of coffee in the country. Her ambition, according to The Telegraph, Calcutta, was to sip a cup of …
‘Who asked you to win the match in four days?!’
It is the zeitgeist—the sign of the age we live in—that the only big concern that the big bucks of the Indian Premier League seems to have sparked is, “What …
Coming to a sky above you, sooner or later
The white blob tries to light up the Thursday evening sky after the early-morning total lunar eclipse. If you missed it, too bad, the next total eclipse is two years …
MIDWEEK MASALA: Bill hain ki maanta nahin
Always very environmentally conscious, SWAROOP DEV recycles an old one for a new context: *** Hillary Clinton goes to her doctor for a check-up, only to find out that she’s …