RESEARCH

How Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Co took the unassuming people of this country for a ride [ Click on the headline to hear Shambhu Dutt Sharma speak ] T he 5-8 April spectacle at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, was nothing but a corporate conspiracy of expending the energies of the Great Indian Huddle-and-Muddle Class, as mass mobilisation by Baba Ramdev and satyagraha by veteran Gandhian Shambhu Dutt Sharma was making them increasingly jittery. The unfolding of the events also suggests, at least in hindsight and going by the confessions of a drunk journalist, that the UPA Government was complicit in the act of trickery. When the pressure was building up : Baba Ramdev addressing a rally at Ramlila Maidan on 27 February 2011; the group went on to submit a memorandum containing 10 demands to the President To grab maximum eyeballs, the show was timed conveniently to fall between the end of the ICC World Cup tournament and the beginning of DLF-sponsored Indian Premier Leag...

Response to Purnima S Tripathi's article [ click on the headline for the Frontline feature ] F rom an editor's perspective, I see some loopholes in the writer's argument. First, it's a leftist viewpoint, which dictates that profit-making PSUs should not be divested. As per the point of view of an advocate of liberal market, however, government has no business being in the telecom trade; it must confine itself to social sectors. It further dictates that governments cannot sustain the vibrancy of a company in the long run, no matter how sound the fundamentals of the company are at the time of disinvestment. Second, when the writer says, "Industry experts... pointed out that the company was doing well... ," one wonders who these "experts" are, as none is quoted to that effect in the article. Prabir Purkayastha, whose views are explained in the next paragraph, appears to be the only person on whose views the article is based. And he cannot b...

... India and the Games' apologists blame the victim — Indians — for not being nationalistic enough A n international games event is often hosted in a place with the aim to uplift the local economy. The Commonwealth Games has so far served this purpose well in several cities in various countries that hosted them (this event is strictly associated with the hosting city and not the hosting country). Prime among these examples is the 2002 chapter that was held in Manchester that was passing through its worst phase of unemployment, a fallout of the closure of hundreds of textile mills the city has historically been known for. The city received a considerable facelift as a result, and at least 20,000 jobs were created as a direct result of the infrastructure upgrade. The most prominent of the economic changes observed by the city because of the 2002 Commonwealth Games was Microsoft, the company that took charge of the cyber support for the event, making the city its European headquarter...

_______________ Surajit Dasgupta _______________ Can Challenge 2009 find the missing notes? N a jAnE koI kaisI hai yeh zindagAnI ,’ sang Debojit Dutta from Kolkata so marvellously — albeit he was out of breath once, a point conveniently ignored by the judges — last night that the audience, going a step ahead of whistling hysterically, gave him a standing ovation to mark the end of the first episode of “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Challenge 2009”. The rendition of the rock song from the film, Gangster , was so enthralling that, much as I conceived this article last night when the programme was being aired, I can’t recall the names of other singers now. That does not mean, however, that the other contestants did not sing well. They did. And the judges — Himesh Reshammiya, Aadesh Srivastava, Shankar Mahadevan and Preetam — boasted ad nauseam , though not unjustifiably, how the contest was many notches above the competing, me-too programmes on other channels. That was the happy part. The causes ...

Unless Mamata does a volte face M ore than a quarter-century of political praxis looks like changing. The Left Front’s sweep in West Bengal is giving way! To the politics of a maverick, a firebrand woman politician who, in the eyes of her constituency and friendly Bengali media, pursues a dedicated political career to the exclusion of other calls on a woman’s life (such as marriage), who lives a Spartan life, happily munching on muri while on tour, which can take her hawai chappal-clad feet to Nandigram or the platform of fast unto death over land acquisition in Singur for her spadework drama. Mamata Banerjee’s theatrics are sincere, or so believe the people of South Kolkata constituency, not some gullible lot from the backwoods that vote for her. Perhaps they consider her histrionics an evil lesser than that of the regime they are now disgruntled at. So what if the anti-Left commentators in New Delhi are not elated by the drubbing the Left Front Government has got in the form of the r...

Operation Lalgarh may bear fruit for the Central Government. Rather, from the Union's point of view, it's an imperative. However, it bodes ill for the political party that heads that government. The Congress has compromised with its electoral prospects in West Bengal, in all likelihood, to cut Mamata Banerjee down to size U nlike the other states where the Maoists are active, West Bengal had had no Maoism until the recent past when the events of Singur and Nandigram shook the conscience of the nation. There too, it was the local population that was up in arms against an arrogant state. Maoists saw the total lack of development in these areas and found in it an excellent alibi to extend their sphere of influence. On the other hand, the local population that was protesting atrocities by the CPI(M)-backed police needed means for the sustenance of their struggle. After all, you cannot expect the poor to go without food and basic amenities for days on end to humour a political party...

... even if politics decides to do without him _______________ Surajit Dasgupta _______________ M uch caricatured as he is for turning the Samajwadi Party from a club of socialists into that of socialites (former party member Raj Babbar’s accusation), Amar Singh’s separation from the party is unthinkable... well, almost! For long, the man has been the public face of the SP, perhaps to a greater degree than its all-in-all Mulayam Singh Yadav is, thanks to this being the age of television and the fact that Singh has an incorrigible penchant for antics. Purporting reasons of health and family for his resignation from all party posts held by him, the high-profile Thakur has locked horns with the dynastic and nepotic Yadav that has been ruling the party roost with his loaded sarcasms. While the Yadavs cannot skirt the issue of a series of disastrous shows at the recent elections, owing much to the voter’s disillusionment with a single family rule — the latest instance of which was the drubb...