Rahul Gandhi: The Future Is Dim

Rahul Gandhi, the heir of India's Nehru-Gandhi family, has sparked a political storm with a series of controversial remarks that analysts said showed the immaturity of a likely future national leader. First, Rahul said that had his family been in power in 1992, it would have stopped Hindu mobs from razing a controversial mosque in Uttar Pradesh. Then last week, Rahul claimed family credit for India getting independence from Britain in 1947 and also for saying his family was responsible for the division of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. - Reuters, 17 April 2007

Babubhai Travels

BJP MP Babubhai Katara could be in a bigger soup as the police is now probing whether he was in possession of more passports allegedly used for trafficking people out of the country. Besides, the police have sent teams to Gujarat and some other states to nab the travel agents who had been allegedly hob-nobbing with Katara, who was arrested here while making an unsuccessful bid to smuggle a woman and a boy to Canada. - Indian Express, 20 April 2007

Lal Masjid Fiasco

A radical cleric set up a vigilante Islamic court in Pakistan's capital yesterday and threatened to unleash a wave of suicide bombs if the government tried to repress his Taliban-style movement. The challenge to the authority of President Pervez Musharraf, by a firebrand cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, came amid growing fears of what the local media has dubbed a "creeping Talibanisation" across Pakistan. "Our youths will shake their palaces with their suicide attacks," said Maulana (Father) Aziz in a sermon delivered to thousands of his followers at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in central Islamabad.- Telegraph, 07 April 2007

Agni III Test

In a significant leap for the country’s missile programme, India today successfully test-fired Agni-III, a nuclear-capable intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) designed to reach over 3,000 km. Today’s test comes after the aborted mission in July last year when a wire cable in the missile got burnt because of suction of warm air near the control system. It was rectified with the installation of a heat shield in the missile. - Indian Express, 13 April 2007

Shashi Tharoor & The Saree Saga

Feedback is, of course, the life blood of the columnist, but sometimes you get so much feedback it amounts to a transfusion. That's what happened to your beleaguered columnist (Shashi Tharoor) after the appearance of my appeal to 'Save the sari from a sorry fate' (March 25). Practically every woman in India with access to a keyboard rose up to deliver the equivalent of a smack across the face with the wet end of a pallu. - Shashi Tharoor, Times of India, 15 April 2007

Congress: Non Starter In U.P.

Rahul Gandhi, probably Congress’s last hope in UP, has almost conceded defeat. While his roadshows through Samajwadi Party strongholds of Bhartana and Lalitpur in southern UP have drawn good responses, Rahul is now cautioning everyone not to expect immediate results. Talking with reporters in Kanpur in central UP, the Gandhi family's scion said that this was just the beginning of a long journey for Congress. CNN-IBN, 04 April 2007

Surprise! Tigers Can Fly!!

India is seriously concerned by the audacious air attack mounted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka on Monday, official sources said even as the External Affairs Ministry remained silent. According to the sources, the attack showed that the Tigers had the ability to take their military prowess to a new level. It displayed a capability the LTTE so far did not possess, they added. - The Hindu, 27 March 2007

Iraq Exit

President Bush called it “political theater” and an “abdication of responsibilities” by Democrats. But for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, passage of legislation ordering troops home from Iraq next year was sweet victory. “Proudly, this new Congress voted to bring an end to the war in Iraq,” she said after the House vote Friday. - KansasCity.com, 24 March 2007