India’s war on terror was always a rumour. There never was one, the war, I mean. But since our PM and HM claim it’s on and we will ultimately win it, let’s indulge their fancy. So how’s that ‘war’ to be won?
Simple. By enduring what we cannot cure. By putting up with what we cannot put out. By getting immune to what cannot be fought.
Long before Rajiv’s assassination, the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils and growing Tamil militancy, not always of the same character, have been the focal point of much politicking in TN. No other issue has polarised the parties here and dictated the political agenda as these, whether the arena is the polls, Assembly or just about any platform.
Lokpal, corruption and protests continue to top the charts, leaving bored columnists little options. And as Anna remains the centrepiece of national attention, MSingh still reigns as the villain of my piece, at the risk of yielding bored readers too.
MSingh’s I-Day speech was quite revealing. And his statement in Parli, most enlightening. So, if after 64 years of freedom, corruption is at an all time high today, it is only because he did not have a magic wand to check it, or so says Singh. Of course, the nation knows that he would have done precious little even if he possessed one. Some Rasputin appears to have put this idea of a Magic W in the UPA psyche because I remember Sonia too wanting one recently.
It was Paris a little before last year. Today, it is London. Now what the dickens is common between the two cities of that fabled Tale? Riots and arson on the streets. So what’s the big deal?
For the proud former imperial powers such riots are indeed a mighty blot on their egos. It is quite alright and even natural for the third world and Arab nations to erupt in roadside rage at the drop of a hat but civilised nations that taught mankind ‘table manners, art & fashion’,
Brevity is the soul of wit, but what is the soul of journalism, which is all about grist? Bravado? Bragging? Breast-beating? Well, I realised I had erred on the side of excess last week, both in terms of words and worthless wisdom, but when an enlightened reader pointed that out in a stinging left-handed compliment, some air did exit this bloated self.
Sorry if I sound a bit jumbled and jaded. I am. Three weeks into a delirious detour, owing to a diabolic conspiracy of disease, doctors and drugs, does that to you, even if you are not a self-obsessed slouch. Imagine the plight of all-important writers out to change the world but slung up like a raincoat in summer while so much is happening all around! A safe distance from the readers for a few weeks was what the doctor ordered (safe for readers too, according to some sly comments).
When Raja Marthanda Varma, ruler of Travancore state in 1750, donated his entire wealth to the Lord Pamanabha temple, he did not bother to calculate the monetary value of his priceless grant. The king’s logic was straight and simple: All that is supposedly his is actually His! He then ruled as a savant and servant of God and his people, shunning pomp and shorn of royal trappings.
India’s education system made its first fateful step into muck when in the eighties the Central and State governments abdicated in favour of private parties. Ideally, donors and charities should have stepped in. But instead politicos, bootleggers and sundry other inhabitants of the netherworld, flush with ill-gotten wealth, took over. In fact, a politico without a college is not worth his loot. Some even quit politics to pitch into the more lucrative education business.
