Passion

The Karnataka assembly is in session to decide if the CM has the required support to continue in office. It is live on TV. I think one can safely say that such passion is rarely seen in our politicians. The quest for power brings out the best in our leaders. But of course they are doing it for the sake of people - as they never stop claiming.

It is entertaining TV though. Naked hunger for power, passion, intrigue, suspense, comedy - mostly comedy for the watcher, pathos - mostly of the speaker, and a star-studded cast. One can only find fault with one aspect - the lack of love-interest.

When will someone serialise these things and create the next hit reality show?

Update: Kumaraswamy has been made the JDLP president by the Speaker after much debate. Long live the new government.

Update 2: Deve Gowda steps down as the national president of the JD(S). He is 'aghast' and 'pained' by the developments and attributes it all to 'karma'.

In A Spot - 230106

The series goes on. The latest On the Spot by Ms Tavleen Singh is here, in which she shows evidence of sparing no effort to keep up with the times. I won't talk about the Bofors issue itself - who knows whether we will every know what happened alongwith proof of it. I will restrict myself to her column.

Knowing that the readers are immune to any scams involving any amount less than a few thousand crores, she turns up the magnitude of Bofors affair - by a cool thousand times. While others are content with sticking to the Rs 64 crore amount, she reaches greater heights of journalistic standards by rounding it off to a nice-looking Rs 64,000 crores.

And she also comes up with a nice theory about why the NDA government was unable to bring anyone to book for 5 long years:

There is a theory about this doing the rounds in Delhi as well and the theory is that there was an understanding between Sonia and Vajpayee that the skeletons in their respective family cupboards would remain untouched. If the law minister had not rattled the cupboard the Bofors skeleton would not have fallen out.

Well, I too believe that political parties are quite reluctant to hurt each other in scams like these. Who knows, they may be out of power and facing the music next time round - though that consideration has not kept Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha out of each other's hair. But to just restrict it to two individuals? It would be interesting to know where else this theory exists outside of Ms Singh's head.

Give And Take

BMP fires back at the people:

“We do all the work, the public spoils it, and then we get all the blame. Improving the city is a thankless job.”

The BMP is usually at the receiving end of rebuke and abuse from the people and nowadays the courts too. Good to see them at the other end of the line. Such friendly give and take is definitely welcome. Now, if we could only have periodical boxing matches.

I have seen the loads of sand which the first report talks about. It is a bit infuriating. Let me see, which is the best way to somehow wipe everyone off the face of the city and then start all over again.