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Sanctimonious Samata
The noise being made by the Samata Party about its disagreement with the BJP on certain key issues like Ayodhya, Article 370 and a uniform civil code seems to have two main objectives. One, it will strengthen the party's bargaining capacity in seat sharing and, two, it will leave the field open for it to have post-election tie-ups. It is to hide this narrow agenda that the party has suddenly hit upon the idea of openly distancing itself from the BJP on these issues.
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National blood lines
It is panic time once again. The country is faced with a severe shortage of blood with the Supreme Court order banning blood banks from using professional blood donors to shore up their supplies coming into effect from New Year's Day. Availability of blood was, in any case, a serious problem.
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Restore the lost dynamic of Hinduism
Quite a few scholars consider Hinduism as a jumble of creeds and rituals. Such a view which gives a superficial picture of Hinduism, arises primarily from the failure to perceive the phenomenon in its historical perspective and the inability to separate the pure from the fake, the profound from the profane, and the lofty from the low. Any old religion, during the course of its long march, gathers a lot of dust. Hindusism is no exception.
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A case for wider bats
All said and done, is not cricket to the Indian masses what the Great Circus was to the peoples of ancient Rome? It keeps us from paying too much attention to the eddies and whirlpools of democratic misgovernance, to the forging of strange political alliances and stranger financial deals. True, the proceedings of Assemblies and Parliament provide an alternate source of entertainment; but these institutions are so rarely in session.
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Portrait of death as a celebrity
"The words of a dead man," wrote W H Auden, "are modified in the guts of the living". The voices are turbulent, the images still vibrant, but we have not yet covered enough distance in memory to modify the dead man's words. Doesn't matter, think of the party. A carnival of death, staged on the mass mind, modified by the camera, choreographed by the media. The celebrity of 1997 was death.
Kanshi Ram in a seller's market
"I am for sale!" says Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Kanshi Ram with disarming frankness. For someone who advertises his wares so openly in the marketplace of Indian politics, he is not short of buyers. In fact, they are queuing up. The impressive guest list at a tea party thrown by Kanshi Ram to celebrate the BSP's recognition as a national party by the Election Commissioner proved this.
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 Sanctimonious Samata
National blood lines
Restore the lost dynamic of Hinduism
A case for wider bats
Portrait of death as a celebrity
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