Wednesday, October 7, 1998
Dangerous liaison
There is no guarantee that the political line enunciated by CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu will prevail in the 16th party Congress that began in Calcutta on Monday. But what they have expounded does not cause surprise. They have been speaking in terms of supporting the Congress to form an alternative government for quite some time. In the case of Surjeet, he did not even want the BJP to be given a chance.
Turbulent passage
The middle of a storm is not the best time to reconstruct a house. If it requires urgent repairs nevertheless, put up props, patch the roof, plug the holes and wait out the turbulence. That is probably the soundest advice P. S. Subramanyam, chairman of the Unit Trust of India, can hope to hear just now. The second bit of advice, belated though it is, is to choose his words with care.
Selling the reel India
The other day Tim (Hard Talk) Sebastian asked Shekhar Kapur on BBC whether he'd been under house arrest in India after making Bandit Queen. That was perhaps the only moment I empathised with Arundhati Roy, who before she wowed Booker judges with her limpid eyes and dulcet prose (or was it the other way round?) gained fame by tearing into Kapur for his exploitative cinema.
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