Monday, June 22, 1998
Jaya's yellow card
The ``friendly warning'' that AIADMK J.Jayalalitha issued last Friday had a distinctly unfriendly ring to it which the Vajpayee government can ignore only at its peril. For far too long has it been trying to do the tightrope walk between Chennai and Delhi. Thus far it has sacked ministers, send fact-finding teams on wild goose chases, set up coordination committees, despatched special emissaries to soothe ruffled feathers, all in order to manage the various contradictions that keep creeping into its relations with its southern partners.
Sanctions & solutions
Various voices in government have pronounced that American sanctions will not hurt and that India can withstand them. These are incompatible statements. The one is a blase declaration that sanctions will have no adverse impact, the other an acknowledgment that they will hurt but not so much as to seriously hobble the economy. The second is much the more honest assessment, but the assertions are hardly well thought out.
Breaking the cipher
One of the essential requirements of good governance is the absence of corruption, which has become endemic in some of the Third World countries. The corrupt brazenly flaunt their ill-gotten wealth. Shame or sense of guilt have totally disappeared. They are emboldened by the impotency of the law. The criminal justice system has not proved equal to the task. No one of any consequence in public office is ever prosecuted.
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