Disaster146;s politics

And in India and Pakistan, so far? 8216;8216;8230; it is an additional tragedy for Kashmir that the earthquake has not, so far at least, called forth similar generosity of spirit from the rulers of Pakistan and India8217;8217;, rebuked the Economist. Others also expressed disappointment at the earthquake failing to become a turning point in the peace process. 8216;8216;The conflict is too deep-seated, and involves two proud nations that find it hard to give ground8217;8217;, wrote a gloomy Newsweek.

Meanwhile, in the US, a section of the liberal press is expressing its own dismay at the vanishing political footprint of another natural cataclysm, Katrina. In the immediate aftermath of the ravaging of New Orleans, particularly the poor and the Black who lived in it, there was much talk, in all media quarters, of a need to shift the centre of American politics 8212; a little leftwards perhaps. The media, largely quiescent under the war presidency, certainly seemed to have recovered its critical voice. For the first time in years, the issue of poverty and the responsibility of the state to address it climbed centrestage in the mainstream media, and the Bush administration bore the brunt.

No more, it appears. 8216;8216;Our bold, urgent, far-reaching, post-Katrina war on poverty lasted maybe a month8217;8217;, wrote columnist E.J. Dionne Jr, among others, in the Washington Post. They say the initiative has been wrested again by the no-changers.

A Tony of its own

A feature of modern democracies in which governments are elected on the majority principle is that they provide an incentive to move to the political centre. Ever since the demise of communism, politics has ceased to be about systemic alternatives anyway. As it searches for its next leader, to be anointed by December, Britain8217;s Conservative party may be finally making its own move from the right towards the centrist political consensus.

Indications are that the party which allowed itself in the last 15 years to be elbowed into taking the nasty positions at Britain8217;s fringe by Tony Blair8217;s New Labour, is looking for a Blair of its own. Many commentators have remarked on the uncanny resemblance between Tory frontrunner David Cameron and Tony Blair.

So what8217;s the difference between David Cameron and Tony Blair? Just 13 years, wrote columnist Timothy Garton Ash in the Guardian. 8216;8216;It8217;s a Blair8217;8217; he exclaimed, after looking at David Cameron8217;s party conference speech that gave him his crucial lead over the other contenders. For the columnist, stylistically, this sameness is made up of mostly feel-good sentiments, liberally peppered with the 8216;I8217;, in sentences without verbs. It is not just about style, though.

David Cameron8217;s candidature for the Tory leadership does not speak of the party staking out just any path to the centre. They are following Blair8217;s way. Just as Margaret Thatcher transformed Labour, Tony Blair is the leader who is guiding the Tories towards a changed version of themselves.

There are pithy descriptions of the new hybrid or 8216;8216;cross-breed8217;8217; at the polity8217;s centre. In the New Statesman, Nick Cohen called it 8216;8216;The birth of Blameron8217;8217;. It8217;s the age, says Garton Ash, of 8216;8216;Mr Camerair8217;8217;.

Buddha8217;s way

With China issuing its first white paper on democracy, there has been a spate of critical stories in the western press in the past few days on Democracy With Chinese Characteristics. In Britain8217;s Financial Times, though, a wholly approving look at the city that wants to be 8216;8216;8230; a little piece of China in India8217;8217;.

The FT travelled to Buddha8217;s Calcutta and came away with impressive statistics of the state8217;s economic turnaround under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and this quotable quote: 8216;8216;I am a proud Communist,8217;8217; the chief minister told FT, 8216;8216;8230;I know Americans will not write the last chapter of human civilisation but I am also a realist8230; The lesson from the collapse of the Soviet Union and from China is that we reform, perform or perish.8217;8217;