Child and teen crimes, though a regular national occurence, suddenly topped the charts this past week in TN. A classroom murder, a gang rape by trusted friends and a spate of suicides has left parents and teachers petrified and terrified. Every ward in every household or school must have received a second, suspicious look from a paranoid elder scouting either for a lingering offender or an innocent victim.
Author: T R Jawahar
The 2G affair is getting curioser. Just when the nation was wondering if Sibal’s zero loss theory was right after all and the scam was only an illusion, came the SC’s cancellation of all licences. So let’s pinch ourselves and confirm that there was indeed a scam. Now, who perpetrated it and who were party to it?
A common query I face from readers is whether a neighbourhood newsmedia needs a column on national, political and sundry other macro issues. Of course, the obvious reason is my own personal itch aggravated by a sense of self-importance and assumed authority on all matters, all of which are symptomatic of a disease called ‘Writers’ Syndrome’.
Gone are the days when my freedom ended where your nose began. The classical debate between a person’s right to privacy and another’s freedom of expression was originally in the context of celebrities and hawkish media. But over the years issues of intrusion into privacy vs. freedom of speech have evolved with the rising reach and changing character of media and has also taken many social, political and legal hues.
The Elephant, pardon, Election Commission seems serious about its stupidity. Its diktat to cover all the elephant and Mayawati statues is not to deceive constipated crows but to prevent UP voters from being deceived by political eagles, it appears. This no doubt is an operation that makes even Maya’s maniacal mega schemes seem mere maya in comparison.
So, is the fight against corruption history? The calendar may have moved forward, but the clock certainly looks to have been put back on that count. In fact, things look way behind where it all actually began.
And are the politicians the only villains? A natural conclusion indeed if one were to go by the cooked up midnight masala.
The idea of Time has always befuddled scientists and spiritualists alike. While for the former it is a linear process running towards an unknown, but a certain, end in some distant future, for the latter, particularly in Bharath from yore, time has been cyclical, a ceaseless alternation of creation and dissolution or rather, projection and withdrawal.
At the dawn of every January our rulers are invariably confronted with a difficult problem: Spot the Rathna. The R-Day is not just about displaying our military might or showcasing our varied cultural heritage but also about recognising and parading heroes from different walks of life.
Once elected, our reps are indeed a law unto themselves, totally insulated from those who elected them. But this familiar disconnect appears to have vanished at least temporarily. Never has Parli truly represented the nation as it has done from the start of the winter session. An anarchic, chaotic country finds ample articulation in an unruly, dysfunctional Parli today. A nation divided finds resonance in a House divided.