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CHURUMURI POLL: Could Jayalalitha be PM?
Counting the chickens before they are hatched, is a familiar human frailty. And, as elections draw near with intimations of the mortality of the Congress-led UPA, there are many who …
POLL: Is Advani more ‘acceptable’ than Modi?
In politics, like in cricket, nothing is in the realm of the impossible. And it is not over till the last ball is bowled (and sometimes not even that, if …
CHURUMURI POLL: Has India lost moral compass?
In its 62nd year as a Republic, India presents a picture that can only mildy be termed unedifying. Scams are raining down on a parched landscape with frightening ferocity. From …
CHURUMURI POLL: Will Yedi exit harm BJP?
After threatening to leave the Bharatiya Janata Party virtually every fortnight since he resigned from office in disgrace under a haze of sleaze and corruption in July 2011—and after making …
CHURUMURI POLL: Who will be next President?
After weeks and months of speculation, there is finally some official activity in the race for the next President of India. The Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee says the UPA …
CHURUMURI POLL: Abdul Kalam for President?
It is a reflection of the current state of Indian politics that even as boring an exercise as the presidential election has all the markings of a heart-stopping show, which, …
For Congress and BJP, writing is on the UP wall
MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: Uttar Pradesh has proved once again the trend observed in the assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu last year that political changes …
Why youth, women hold key to UP poll verdict
MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: Greater participation of voters in the poll process keeps democracy alvie and vibrant. This has been proved in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal …
‘Appe Midi’, Julia Roberts and S. Bangarappa
D.P. SATISH writes from New Delhi: Even though Sarekoppa Bangarappa spent almost 15 years in the national capital New Delhi as a four-time MP—he entered the Lok Sabha on a …
CHURUMURI POLL: Is BJP blackmailing Congress?
Plenty of pixels have been expended on Manmohan Singh‘s inquisition on television against the backdrop of the scams enveloping his government, and the jury is agreed that the prime minister …
CHURUMURI POLL: Caste in the census, or not?
The Union cabinet meets this evening to decide on including a column on “caste” in the 2011 censu, a move seen as a tacit quid pro quo for the support …
Ramayana, Mahabharatha and the Women’s Bill
Union law minister Veerappa Moily while receiving an award for his five-volume Shri Ramayan Mahanveshanam, yesterday: “It is instances like Sita‘s fire ordeal which firmed our resolve for the women’s …
Maybe we are safer if our leaders sleep more?
In The Telegraph, Calcutta, Sankarshan Thakur reports on the antics of the nation’s leaders on whom our democracy rests on budget day: “But beyond these and few more, Pranab Mukherjee’s …
This BJP man has every right to slap his thighs
At Chrismtas-eve celebrations at the CP stadium in Gulbarga on Sunday, Karnataka minister for animal husbandry Revu Naik Belamgi (right) gets into a bout with a competitor, proving that Mulayam …
MEA culpa: Krishna’s lingo leela is lost in anuvad
D.P. SATISH writes from New Delhi: For the first time perhaps in post-Independence history, three very vital ministries on Raisina Hill—home, defence and external affairs—are in the hands of South …
And Abdullah and Gowda and Patnaik and Pawar
Ramachandra Guha in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “Jawaharlal Nehru did not hope or desire that his daughter should succeed him as prime minister — a fact that is not as widely …
The password is AFDPP6580Q, yes AFDPP6580Q
If the Congress and BJP and Mayawati can use the wired world to get the message across to the voter, surely so can Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav and …
There is only so much Google ads can achieve
Every single opinion poll so far has refrained from even venturing to suggest that either of the two “national” parties may touch the “magical” 150-mark on their own. But The …
A crash course in catching, fielding for our heroes
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: The IPL boss and future BCCI chief, Lalit Modi, was a worried man. Irfan Pathan had muffed a sitter of Tilakaratne Dilshan in the T20 match against …
CHURUMURI POLL: Is Nepal row Indian business?
The controversy over the decision of the Maoist government of Nepal to force priests from Karnataka at the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu to resign and appoint Nepalese priests in their …
More things change, more they remain the same
History, it is said, first repeats itself as a tragedy, then as a farce. But usually no one is laughing, no one is even noticing. *** From Deccan Herald, 25 …
How Indians would have saved Lehman Brothers
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: I happened to run in to Nanubhai on Dalal Street. He was eating Khaman Dhokla in a farsan shop. “Khem cho, Nanubhai?” “Saru che.” He was looking …
What Suhail Hindustani told cash-for-votes panel
The following is the English translation of the affidavit filed in Hindi by Suhail Ahmed, alias Suhail Hindustani, alias Raja Hindustani, the alleged go-between in the cash-for-votes scandal that rocked …
1991 liberalised economy, 2008 liberalised polity
Towards draw of stumps on day one, Team Manmohan looks like it might score 271 in 20 hours. Or it might not. But sometime in the year 2025, seventeen years …
What’s in your name? What’s in your namam?
R. Ramaswamy Iyengar in a letter to the editor of Praja Vani: “Some 58 years ago, N. Keshava Iyengar was the mayor of the Bangalore City Corporation. A staunch Congressman …