
Monday, June 1, 1998
The day of the Number Two
Pramod Mahajan becomes more assertive when he wants to drive home a point his listeners find hard to believe. On May 23, he had reason to feel agitated: a couple of newspapers had frontpaged a story that his wings were being clipped, that he had been asked to check his daily outpouring to the media.

No national fission
A second round of nuclear tests by Pakistan does not say much more than the first one. Apart from the possibility that more tests were required to improve the reliability of its weapons and to compensate for shortfalls in the first series, the message is essentially for the Pakistani people who are being deluded to think tests demonstrate strength and invincibility.

Capital punishment
This summer, Delhi was supposed to find redemption. In its last days, the United Front government had promised that power from Pakistan would flow to the city through the proper channels of the Gujral Doctrine. More recently, Minister for Power P.R. Kumaramangalam swore to toil unflaggingly to defend the honour of the Capital this summer. Neither promise has been fulfilled.

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