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Journalism of Courage
8226; Pratap Bhanu Mehta has not been fair in seeing political symbolism in West Bengal Governor Gopal Gandhi8217;s decision to put out lights at Raj Bhavan. Certainly Governor Gandhi was not going to fight an election and it was not a gimmick to impress voters. We have heard about the rulers of yore who set examples of what they wanted the people to do. When the state is reeling under power shortage, the governor8217;s action to voluntarily switch off Raj Bhavan power for two hours was neither a small thing nor a matter of criticism on whatever count. The CPM8217;s response was supercilious even if the West Bengal government found it embarrassing. The media too has joined in the captious chorus instead of taking the gesture in its right spirit. Didn8217;t the governor send a message to politicians and bureaucrats of VIP breed whose ACs whirr 24 hours? What is more, nobody has bothered to ask the governor himself about the idea behind his action.
8212; M.C. Joshi
Flight to Kandahar
8226; Jaswant Singh, the foreign minister in the NDA government, who has the dubious distinction of travelling with the three released terrorists to Kandahar at the time of IC-814 crisis, has broken his silence. He says, the decision of his going to Kandahar was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
He further said that L.K. Advani might have forgotten or he may have been absent from the committee. Great politician-loyalist that he is, Singh won8217;t even say that Advani is economical with the truth. How can he forget such a vital decision and how can the former stand-in PM and home minister skip such important meetings?
Advani is now the BJP8217;s prime ministerial candidate and he is hiding his face. Can the nation trust him in the highest executive post?
8212; K.G. Dave
Fissile facts
8226; C. Raja Mohan is not quite correct in referring to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam8217;s recent remarks as an 8220;endorsement8221; of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Actually, by stating that India can 8220;walk out of the deal any time in the interest of national security8221;, Kalam has quite plainly acknowledged that the deal in its present form contains potentially restrictive clauses that, if enforced by the US, can harm India8217;s interests.
Kalam8217;s approach is pragmatic: we should forget moral postures, sign the deal to get US uranium, and walk out when it suits us.
Also, the US-Russia agreement doesn8217;t seem to have much to do with any grand cooperation in nuclear technology between the two countries.
With this deal, an impoverished Russia has agreed to store thousands of tonnes of lethal radioactive wastes from US reactors in its own territory, in exchange for billions of US dollars!
8212; R.P. Subramanian
