The Indian Express Expressions Page

The Indian Express

The Financial Express

Latest News

World News

EIW

Market Indicators

Screen

Express Computers

Graffiti

Crossword

Advertisers Forum

Travel & Tourism

Information Technology

Drumbeat: Ad Buzzaar

Astrosurf

Eco-India

Dr Know

Career India

Business Forum

Match Maker

Express Properties

Expressions

Friday, May 8, 1998

	Don't rock the boat The message coming across from Congress party headquarters is: plug the holes, don't rock the boat. That is a useful exercise even though it is a far cry from the drastic measures expected after a special session of the AICC(I) authorised the party president to overhaul the organisation at all levels. The need of the hour, as Sonia Gandhi appears to have recognised in her handling of the CWC revamp and the Digvijay Singh affair, is to unite the Congress around a broad-based, collective leadership.		The best way out Ever since the BJP-led coalition government came to power in early March, a face-off between S.S. Gill, the CEO of Prasar Bharati, and the Union ministry of information and broadcasting seemed inevitable. Thankfully, with Union I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj announcing the government's intention to introduce a Bill restoring the Prasar Bharati Act of 1990, the tension that had been building up all these months has been dissipated to a large extent.
	The price of being right One of the unwritten dictums of bureaucracy is that the boss is always right. Which implies that his minions are always wrong. The maxim leads to ludicrous situations, where subordinates are known to crawl when they are asked to bend. It is no secret that some go out of their way at the workplace to please the boss to earn themselves a raise or a promotion.		No letting down the guard Of the three civilisational countries, India, Greece and China, the Chinese more than any one else see themselves as world leaders on the principle of historical continuity. In this timeless view of its role China will go to great lengths to pull down rivals whom the world may see in similar historical terms.

A spy on the front page
The ISRO spy scandal is over, leaving behind a few tortured bodies, shattered families and reams of malicious reports. For a case that came out of the imagination of a policeman who wanted to play the lead in a crime thriller when there was none, it should have fizzled out much earlier.

Death flows from the bottle
Hooch tragedies have been occurring in Uttar Pradesh at frighteningly frequent intervals. Each incident is followed by a lot of noises by the opposition, a few arrests and suspensions but before the news recedes from memory, there's another. The gruesome Sewrahi tragedy last week in which the toll is likely to mount to 100 will soon become yet another incident in the records of the state excise department.