2014

communication
If some disparaging remarks about me make Neville Maxwell happy, I do not want to grudge him that. What disappoints me is a streak of self-righteousness which runs through his article published in the Mainstream. [“On Writing India’s China War”, Mainstream (April 12, 2014)] Editors and others at The Times, London, never referred to me as a stringer. They would address me as their correspondent and publish my dispatches under my by-line. I worked for the paper for 25 years. (…)

The high probability, as things stand, is that there will be a runoff in the Afghan presidential election. The final results of the April 5 election will be known in another three weeks only. The current front-runner, Dr Abdullah, is apparently reaching out for support from his rival candidate, Zalmay Rassoul, in a runoff, which could be a winning coalition.
There are allegations of election irregularities, but there is unlikely to be any serious conte-station of the election results. (…)

IN LIEU OF BOOK REVIEW
Sanjay Baru’s controversial book (The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, Penguin India) portrays the Prime Minister as a helpless minion in the hands of Congress President and UPA chair-person Sonia Gandhi. Baru was the PM’s media adviser and chief spokesperson from May 2004 to August, 2008. Which means that he left that post before the 2009 general elections which brought the UPA to power for the second time.
The question that (…)

(On the occasion of William Shakespeare’s birth and death on April 23)
A new born babe you came to us
Under a Stratford roof;
Was there across your tender brow
A mark, a foretold proof
That your quill was already in your palm,
And an infinity in your head,
Eyes that saw histories before,
And the worlds to come ahead?
Your grammar came not from the school nearby
But from a well spring of givenness;
To which you added sentient empathy
Unscarred by prejudice.
You (…)

The following was sent by Kobad Ghandy from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail to the Mainstream editor on April 12, 2014: “Through a poem by Rumi in memory of his soul-mate and idol, Sham Tabriz, a fate similar to what I faced on this day six years ago.”
Your Face
You may be planning departure, as a human soul leaves the words taking almost all its sweetness
with it. You saddle your horse.
You must be going. Remember you have friends
here as faithful as grass and sky.
Have I failed you? (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
In the run-up to the 2014 general elections, India has witnessed an unprecedented demonstration of massive infusion of money in electoral campaigning. A sort of carpet-bombing of India’s voters with the Opposition BJP’s message everywhere to be seen, from advertisements in newspapers, on TV, on radio, on the Internet, on the street billboards in all metropolitan cities and small towns, including on transport vehicles (even inside the Delhi Metro trains). In effect it has (…)

communication
Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, has earned notoriety for his colossal ignorance of Indian history and important facts.
According to him, the ashes of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder of the Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, had been brought to India in 2003 although he had died in Kashmir while leading an agitation in 1953.
At a rally in Rajasthan he came out with the incorrect name of Mahatma Gandhi, whose correct name is Mohandas (…)

IMPRESSIONS
By all accounts this election campaign has been shriller, more aggressive and more hate-filled than previous campaigns. There were excesses on all sides. All players seemed driven by a newfound desperation. The BJP, emboldened by popular disgust with the Congress as well as by the impact of a dramatic public speaker, was on a now-or-never drive. The Congress, saddled with a singularly undramatic leader-ship, was fighting with its back to the wall.
Provincial leaders, (…)

by Siddhartha Guha Ray
The results of the opinion polls shown in several television channels give a clear indication that National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, shall be our rulers for the next five years, and Narendra Modi’s election as the next Prime Minister is just a matter of time. If the NDA under Modi succeeds to manage a massive mandate of the people in their favour in the Lok Sabha elections, 2014, then everybody is to accept it and this is the most essential lesson (…)

The election manifestos of India’s political parties usually do not attract—or merit—attention. But the Bharatiya Janata Party’s [BJP] manifesto, which was released on April 7, whetted curiosity for two good reasons.
One, the document was unduly delayed and curiosity arose that it likely contained such original thinking that the BJP, which is caught up in acute internal wrangles, needed to reconcile the content.
Two, of course, this manifesto carries the imprimatur of the BJP’s prime (…)