Confirmed job
The Atal Behari Vajpayee Government is here to stay, for now. The voting in the Lok Sabha on Saturday has merely formalised it. The two-day debate on the confidence motion lost much of its sheen as the BJP-led coalition had already proved its majority in the election of the Speaker. It was also certain that the Telugu Desam Party would not take any step that would endanger the government.
Congress flunks test
The Congress has flunked one of the first tests of its organising abilities since Sonia Gandhi became party president. It is of course only a few weeks since she took on the job and it would take a miracle in any case for this tired party to perform at the peak of efficiency. But the Congress must hope she will be able to ensure there is no repetition of what occurred during the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha in Assam and elsewhere.
Sex sells, yet again
Call it rampant capitalism. Call it an indictment of human perversity. Or call it a comment on the human condition. Whatever your ethical stance, the fact remains that much of the growth in content on the Internet is being fuelled by the human sex drive.
The taxing part of spending
The irony is strong. The right-wing BJP seems set to embark on traditional tax-and-spend policies which might have sat easier on the shoulders of the United Front. This stands on its head not one but two sets of logic. The one is the BJP's cohabitation with Keynesianism.
Balayogi's bio-data is not the issue
A telephone call jangled a thousand raw nerves in Parliament last week over the Lok Sabha Speaker's election. But for Madanlal Khurana's Monday-morning call to P.A.Sangma informing him that he had the BJP's approval as a consensus candidate, so much acrimony need not have been generated. For the BJP to say later that Khurana was not negotiating officially with the Opposition carries no conviction.
Harvest of tears
It was a fine morning that saw Shivaraj, a 35-year-old farmer of Siddeshwara village of Bhalika taluka in Bidar district, go out into his crop-devastated fields. Late that afternoon, his body was found amidst wilted crops. Ask people in his village about him and they will tell you that he was a noble man.
