Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

R K Misra Celebrities can raise stakes to sell suits but a feather-light fabric often betrays a deadly design. Prime Minister Modi’s pacesetter pinstripe suit may have fetched palpitation-inducing Rs 4.31crore – and it might help cleanse the sinfully polluted River Ganges, as is projected. But, those who watched the exercise undertaken to the drumbeats and cymbal sounds over three days in Surat- the commercial capital of Gujarat-know for sure it was a fixed match. The suit that cost the BJP the Delhi gaddi, and Modi his sheen was put under the hammer in a desperate bid to reclaim the remnants of  a tattered ego. Put up along with 400 other gifts received by Modi after taking over as PM, the suit remained the focal point of attraction for the rich and the famous as well as the poor and the bunched. In the fray were textile magnates and diamond merchants and even a school teacher. Was it a mere coincidence that many of these who went around with cheque in hand had figured

R K Misra If you want to be loved, you must have the guts to be hated.This is a salacious irony of present-day politics.As India luxuriates in the resurrection of the common man- aam aadmi - at the cost of the saffronised elite, there is need to look at the debris of the deathblow debacle that the Delhi poll results meted out  to the Congress. Just one blow to the BJP and a worried RSS has it’s leader Mohan Bhagwat hauling his own team over the coals for their inability to sniff the disaster that was looming .The defeat of the BJP and the deflating of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ego and image may be cause for strategic concern. But, more than that, what has both shaken and stirred Bhagwat is the inability of his dependable army of selfless RSS workers, in gauging the alienation on the ground. They were over 50,000 strong, deployed on ground zero  and failed. Why? This is what bothers Bhagwat. He needs to, if he must protect a legacy and project a perception built over d

GANDHINAGAR: A beautiful hypothesis  is often slayed by an ugly fact.The hypothesis:All great triumph of propaganda are accomplished by repeated articulation of untruths.The ugly fact:It is actually achieved by refraining from doing so. All most all the exit polls had predicted an Aam Admi Party(AAP) lead,ahead of it’s lumberjack rival,the BJP. The results are out,putting things  in proper perspective.Reality has entered the ‘exit’ way,The people have spoken decisively.It is a complete BJP whitewash and a total Congress meltdown. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and  his party chief  and loyal shadow,Amit Shah  have  a battery of  questions  to answer,ranging from the sordid to the morbid.These would oscillate from the countrywide,military- like mobilization of  castes,cadres and even their kin to the  failure of their trademark strategy of  communal polarization .In the preceding months,what  Modi had won on the ‘curves’,he has lost on the ‘straights’.This happens in pol

GANDHINAGAR :  Heavy tippling, like lingering love affairs causes hallucinating heartaches and horrible hangovers. Managed by  it’s first woman Chief Minister,Gujarat  is now manfully battling  similar after-effects of a  development model that is currently marked out for India-wide implementation. Narendra Modi may have single handedly secured   an overwhelming mandate to rule India on the basis of his record in Gujarat but the fact remains that 97 of the  159 municipalities in the state are in such a despicable financial state that they are unable to pay their basic electricity and water supply bills.It is only after a change of guard in the state that skeletons securely locked for long are falling out of the cupboard exposing the deep-set rot within.This is just one of them. Local self-government body elections are due in Gujarat this year.It is a’ make or break’ elections for Chief Minister Anandiben Patel who replaced Modi last year.In fact, this is the  first major statew