[The unveiling of Tamil Jaina saint-poet, Thiruvalluvar’s, statue in Bangalore yesterday by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, is a virtual coup by Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyrappa, who retains the capacity to spring the quiet surprise. That this will be followed next week by Yeddyruppa unveiling the statue of … Read More
White America, represented by Vice President Joe Biden, was forced to put its weight behind first African-American President Barack Obama, to tide over an ugly spat over racial profiling in a nation where everyone admits skin colour and associated socio-historical issues still resonate deeply. It is to be hoped this … Read More
The acronym ‘SC’ could well stand for ‘Supremely Confident.’ How else does one describe the calibrated anger with which the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister created opportunity from the intemperate rhetoric of the state Congress chief, to awe the entire political spectrum? Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s odious oratory was followed by the … Read More
The Obama administration lost international credibility when obdurate Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti aborted the 10 July proposed mediation by Costa Rica President Oscar Arias. In an unsurprising anti-climax, Micheletti left San Jose without meeting ousted President Manuel Zelaya who insisted on reinstatement even as the usurper was adamant to … Read More
By a curious coincidence, the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission probing the Kandhamal riots of 2008 submitted its interim report almost simultaneously with the final report of the Justice Liberhan Commission on the post-1992 violence following demolition of the Babri structure in Ayodhya. The reasons for which the respective commissions were … Read More
Earlier this month, Kanchi Sankaracharya Swami Jayendra Saraswati engaged in a dialogue with Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. The most significant outcome of the talks was Sankaracharya’s revelation that exactly one month before the Mumbai meeting, Pope Benedict XVI met the Chief Rabbinate … Read More
Not unexpectedly, the BJP national executive turned out to be much ado about nothing. The embattled president Rajnath Singh alone took responsibility for the electoral defeat; the master strategist Arun Jaitley enjoyed the European summer; and the sulking wannabe PM clung gracelessly, but tenaciously, to power. The rot in the … Read More
The pansy juice wore off a long time ago; the beloved hero turned out to be, well, an anti-climax. Yet so great is the hangover of electoral defeat that the BJP cannot even begin to get its act together. One thing is clear – the dead weight of L K … Read More
Commenting on the total disarray in the BJP following its second successive electoral defeat under the uninspiring leadership of L K Advani, a party leader said one calamity did not mean defeat in war. Recalling the near-death of Laxman in the Ramayana war, he said Hanuman found the sanjivini herb … Read More
In the name of a strange religious diplomacy called inter-faith dialogue, Swami Jayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Matham, will today meet Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and other religious leaders, in Mumbai. The catholic delegation will include native Catholics like Cardinal … Read More
