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04 April 1998

	All-in-one ID card One of the first major announcements to come from the Union Home Minister is about equipping all citizens with identity cards. It is evidently a matter of prime concern for LK Advani. He has already discussed ways of implementing it with Home Ministry officials and believes it is feasible to issue cards to people in border areas in the first instance and then gradually to everyone else in the country.		Bill the beloved rogue It's too much: president as prime-time pornography. It's bad for governance: the White House swaying precariously in bimbo eruptions. And it's aesthetically repulsive as well as humanely pathetic: the presidential wail of `no, prosecutor, no, sir, I didn't do it, I didn't do it to that woman or that other woman'. The Great American Nightmare? No. The Great American Boredom. The Americans have reached the stage of eros fatigue. But the comeback kid is a lucky rogue. From every accidental hell, he bounces back to the vital centre of public approval.
	Another day in the life Tomorrow is another day. This Scarlett O'Hara brand of optimism is not reflected in many faces. At least not in those of women. Yet another International Woman's Day has come and gone with politically correct `observations' and `remembrances' galore, underpinned with much commercialism, while the Indian woman readies herself for another struggle-filled day. Just because she was born a woman.		Keep the voter's faith A well-known columnist published a book entitled The Last Brahman Prime Minister. The results of the 1998 Lok Sabha elections and the subsequent political developments have, of course, proved him wrong, and he would have discovered the hazards of making such predictions in the highly volatile world of Indian politics.

`South Asia can replace China in time'
In 10 or 15 years, China is going to be prosperous and that will create its own problems. It will have to make the transition to the next phase. So who will take its place? Who will cater to the growing middle-class of the world? The natural positioning is that of South Asia. It can take the chance or miss it.

Securing national interests, BJP style
"My party will make the bomb". He derived the authority to go nuclear from the BJP's election manifesto -- reevaluate the country's nuclear policy and exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons. This has since been reiterated in the National Agenda for Governance issued prior to the party taking office.