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Wednesday, May 13, 1998

	The morning after Less than half a decade ago, a powerful, multi-partisan parliamentary committee headed by none other than Jaswant Singh had, after a detailed study of India's defence policy and doctrine, come up with a simple, if stunning conclusion: there was no policy, no doctrine.		Law and the presidential option There are at least three powers of the President of India under the present Constitution that act as a stumbling block to any political party wanting to shape the rule of law in a parliamentary democracy. It is in this legal context that one must understand the Home Minister's push for a presidential system to replace the prime ministerial system.
	Seize the day Now that the self-congratulatory euphoria occasioned by the nuclear tests has begun to fade, the government must immediately get down to the job of dealing with the fallout. While it has the attention of the world, it must forcefully put across its point of view on non-proliferation. The arms control debate has always been of a moral rather than legalistic nature.		Blundering on and on Rumbles of discontent with the ruling coalition in Maharashtra grow louder by the day. Some of this is the inevitable fallout of the Lok Sabha results which knocked holes in the credibility of the Shiv Sena and the BJP. But if Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray hope to repair the damage, they have evidently been going about it in unproductive ways.

English for villages
The Punjab Government, which has been trying to check the mushrooming of high-priced English-medium schools at the cost of government schools, has decided to introduce English as a compulsory subject from First Standard this year. The government's decision, however, has upset some Punjabi writers as they they fear Punjabi will suffer a further setback.