Love it or hate it, but no other political party, regional or national, can match its imprint and impact, good, bad and ugly, on the nation’s polity, society and economy. The political history of India of the last hundred and twenty five years or so runs parallel to that of the Indian National Congress.
Author: T R Jawahar
The itch for intoxication is as old as mankind, older probably than even monkeykind, though I am yet to encounter a tipsy ape. In the Indian context, while drink has been a fact of life and subject of debate since time immemorial, the liquor regime that we witness today, both in State policy as well as in social mores, is largely a colonial import.
The three innocents who lost their lives during the ‘democratic’ attack on ‘press freedom’ by co-borns of the DMK were not the only casualties of last week’s Madurai Madness. Several other things like public propriety, justice, constitutional protocol, a PM’s prerogatives and pressmen’s honour also died ignominous deaths as the rational CM and his family parivar, that includes the DMK party
Those familiar with godfa-thers and their mafias need no introduction to ‘Family’ and ‘Omerta’. But for the uninitiated, here is some enlightenment: In the ganglands of Italy and more particularly, the island of Sicily, mafias are controlled by families and the two words are, therefore, virtually synonymous.
An insensitive comment, particularly by a person holding a public position, can inflame a riot and even cause a revolution. ‘Let them eat cake’: This cliched quote attributed to the French Queen Marie Antoinette is one such. She was supposed to have uttered these immortal words when confronted with poverty-stricken people who could not afford bread during the shortage in the winter of 1788-89.
The road to heaven, as a rule, is one-way: No one returns to tell the tale. But I have. And that’s because I travelled with a confirmed round ticket besides a limited period visa. The heaven under reference, very much an earthy location, is New Zealand. Now, let me get off the heavely hype and get down to earth.
We have heard of surgeries in which the stomach gets stitched up with the scissors inside. India’s Reservation regime is one such classic case of the remedy turning out to be more fatal than the disease. If the caste system is deemed pernicious, the quota raj is a higher perversion of human dignity, and worth: Mandal seems a bigger monster than the much-maligned Manu.
Inflation is where politics meets economics most often. While fiscal deficit and GDP are essentially budget-time terminologies confined to a motley crowd of prime time pundits and finance ministry officials, rising prices are a round-the-calendar debate that strikes a chord with the entire population as well as the whole political class.
Dharmapuri is the land of King Adhiyaman Anji, the popular patron of poetess Avvaiyyar and, therefore, figures prominently in Tamil literature and history. But its glory seems to begin and end there. The region’s drought is as old as Tamil, predating even sand and stone. This arid area is, however, a horticultural paradise and is also a minefield of granite, marble and quartz.