On 31 Dec, 2005, TN elections seemed like a distant affair. But just a week into 2006 and the political air is suddenly thick with poll talk.
A trip down the memory lanes and by-lanes of TN politics would confound the sanest of individuals.
Author: T R Jawahar
2005 began with the receding waters of the tsunami and is set to end to the accompaniment of flood waters left behind by copious rainfall. To be sure, the lingering memories and images of 2005 shall be that of water everywhere, all around and from up and below.
Relief! What a tragic irony, the word has turned out to be for the 42 unfortunates who perished in the course of being ‘rehabilitated’. Indeed, after losing their livelihood and possessions to the elements, life was all that was left in many of them. And that too has been snatched away by a conspiracy of human desperation and official negligence.
The ‘cash-for-questions’ scam has proved that corruption is a great leveller. It is totally secular, casteless, classless and absolutely egalitarian in its spread. It could be nationalist and cross-border too, if questions are paid for in, say, oil vouchers.
The dictionary does not define a ‘blue-collar crime’, though by implication it can be taken to mean crime, petty or otherwise, committed by lumpen elements. But there is copious reference to white-collar crimes which means ‘crimes committed by people who work in offices, and involves stealing money secretly from companies or the government, or getting money in an illegal way’.
Time. Newsweek. National Geographic. The Economist. You name any international magazine. The reigning theme in all of them over the last few weeks has been the massive humanitarian aid effort needed to give relief and to rehabilitate people affected by a spate of natural disasters during the past year, particularly the last few months.
Bihar under Lalu & co had come to symbolise all that was reprehensible about Indian polity: Uninhibited caste politics, unabashed cronyism and family rule, unbridled lawlessness and violence and unchecked corruption at all levels.
Mettur recently was the scene of both joy and shame: Joy when its dams almost overflowed and shame when it rained chappals and rotten foodstuff. Indeed, the self-styled champions of Tamil women and culture, by their brazen behavior and uncouth rhetoric
Several cities with superior infrastructure all over the world have been overwhelmed by nature’s fury this year. And governments of those nations have found themselves unequal to the task of facing up to the relentless assault of nature. Clearly there are limits to human effort and no limits to nature’s sweep.