Wednesday, April 21, 1999
The Spirit of April 21
On a visit to Pakistan in December 1989, the week after V.P. Singh was sworn in prime minister, the question I was asked all the time by politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and even that most important of a travelling hack's interlocutor, the taxi driver, was a surprise to me, as an Indian. How come, they asked, a prime minister lost an election and welcomed his rival into the chair with folded hands? How can that happen?
Letter and form
Even three days after the `one-minute' time-frame, courageously set by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, to form a new government has expired, an alternative is still in the realm of the imagination of a motley group of opposition leaders.
Respect the soldier
The Army has closed ranks against the public humiliation of a senior officer by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. That is only to be expected from a service whose very structure is built on the `buddy' system of camaraderie and combat.
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