Friday, July 3, 1998
High-flying dinosaurs
Many months ago, C.M. Ibrahim's shenanigans vis-a-vis the then Tata-SIA airline proposal had appeared to be the last straw in a saga of government arbitrariness and cussedness which was quite remarkable even by Indian standards. It appears now that the utterly capricious civil-aviation establishment in the country is perfectly capable of persisting in its brazenness and of prolonging the agony for no good reason at all.
Sorry, off duty
The Kerala Police have put the staff of five police stations on an eight-hour working day and intend to introduce the scheme in seventeen more. A humane and progressive measure, on the face of it, but one that is unlikely to work in India. Rajiv Gandhi put the central government on a five-day working week, and that historic blunder is yet to be corrected. The measure, intended to increase efficiency, achieved nothing in particular.
Devil quoting scripture
The very first Article of the Constitution states categorically that India is "a union of states". This statutory reality has often been ignored by analysts and politicians. This is at the root of the current name-calling by the rulers and their megaphones at the Centre and chief ministers and others in various states.
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