RESEARCH

______________ Surajit Dasgupta ______________ People, especially apolitical Hindus, have got so used to hearing scandals involving the so-called saints that news of the type does not shock them anymore. To theologians, these scandals are but expected as they can tell a true spiritualist from a fake religious leader. As people drift away from faith, disillusioned with the present crop of evangelists, much as they may need faith in these stressful times, the solution is for commoners to graduate to being theologians NRI's murder: Five Swadhyay members arrested The Indian Express | AHMEDABAD, 4 JULY 2006: Five members of the Swadhyay Pariwar, a socio-religious organisation founded by Pandurang Shastri Athavale, were today arrested for allegedly clubbing to death killing non-resident Indian Pankaj Trivedi outside a club here on June 15. Two years before his death, Trivedi had written to Chief Minister Narendra Modi that he feared for his life at the hands of Parivar members.

The metaphors he used in Parliament during the debate for the confidence motion were far-fetched, on the verge of being laughable _________ M Ratan _________ W hen the handsome crown prince of the ruling party, the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi stood up in the Lok Sabha on July 22 to expound on energy security while defending the India-US civil nuclear cooperation deal, in the debate on the trust motion, I said to myself that the young leader had the best chance to prove his mettle. He was on the live television with a captive audience and friendly news channels to glorify him. He took us to the poor homes of Sasikala and Kalawati in Vidarbha, which he toured recently in his "discover India" journey. He talked of Sasikala and her husband's meagre daily wages and their three children's big dreams. He also narrated details of Kalawati's large family and her farmer husband's suicide. He tried to trace their misery to their lack of access to energy. What