Conflict of nationalisms
The election campaign and the mass participation in it have belied the cynics. The campaign has mattered as far as our further evolution is concerned and the masses have by their response shown that they know that it mattered. The specific character of our democracy is that it is a mass democracy.
Bhandari again
This time, Romesh Bhandari has crossed all bounds of decency in his meddling with the affairs of government. He has dismissed a government without allowing it to prove its majority, and he has apparently done it against the wishes of the President. He has also set an unhealthy precedent by swearing in a new state government less than 12 hours before the second round of polling began.
Iraq evokes a paralytic response
"We are the greatest country in the world." Wave upon wave of rapturous applause greeted Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, as she unsmilingly declared her country's intention to act unilaterally in Iraq, or elsewhere. Small-town America, in this case a town called Columbus in a Midwestern state called Ohio, seemed electrified by this diminutive woman's performance.
Tough talking helps
The relative peace that marked the second phase of polls proves that it always pays to be prepared. The Election Commission seems to have learnt some important lessons from the violence and tension that marked the first phase of polling which had taken place on February 16 and left nothing to chance in its management of Sunday's polling.
Secrets of the sea
There are four security classifications in the Indian Navy. Restricted is what only the Admiral and the Captain know. Confidential is something that everyone in the ship is whispering about. Secret is what every sailor in the fleet is discussing with his girlfriend and the press is about to print. And Top Secret is what we don't know, but the enemy does.
"Communism cannot fail, we are living in it"
It's Year Zero in Kayyoor, where time lies stagnant in the granite memory of martyrdom. And another day fades out in the river of deep secrets, of antique revenge. In the stillness of night, revolution once again becomes the spasmodic ballad of Pokkai.
