Vedanta's benevolent enterprise!

Vedanta's Vedanta might appear as a benevolent enterprise to Verghese, but life has taught the adivasis what it stands for. Even as Verghese comes forth as an apologist for the worst perpetrators of crimes against humanity, we find organisations like the Church of England, and several shareholders in Vedanta exhibiting better rationale by withdrawing their shares from Vedanta. Even the colonialists seem more humane and rational than the slavish intellectuals in their former colonies! Moreover, even the Supreme Court of India and the environment ministry have raised objections to the proposed Vedanta University and mining venture. Only a Chidambaram, who served as a member of its board of directors until 2004, and Verghese, with his “compassionate” colonial mindset of “civilising” the backward people, can stand up in support of vultures like Vedanta, Tata, POSCO, Jindal....
--In A last note to a neo-colonialsit by slain Maoist leader Chemkuri Azad Rajkumar

Chidambaram Vs. Intellectuals

The person leading the campaign against the ‘sympathisers’ is Union home minister P. Chidambaram. I’m a great admirer of the HM, who is a man of formidable competence, vision and energy. Sadly, he thinks any attack on the way the state is handling the Maoist problem is a personal attack on him. Perhaps Mr Chidambaram’s insistence that intellectuals condemn Maoists has a psychological reason: he considers himself an intellectual and, consequently, craves for the support of his fraternity to justify his actions. But stories of state brutality—as spelt out in Outlook last week—pit the intellectuals against Chidambaram.

Election India 2009: Congress sacrifices two tainted heavyweights

Jagadish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar are two Congress heavyweights who, the people believe, were hugely involved in Sikh massacres. But the Central Bureau of investigation, the country's top investigating agency, directly under Prime Minister's control, recently gave them a clean chit as if to facilitate their nomination in the election fray. They were duly nominated, and were set to have a go, but a size 9 Reebok shoe tossed at P.Chidambaram, home Minister, by Jarnail Singh, a reporter, in a press meet subverted it all. The duo were literally dumped. Tytler who was seen boasting that the Sikhs loved him, and he was of course going to contest the election, is now singing a defeatist tune: he does not want to cause embarrassment to the party.

Now, P. Chidambaram, the ever-smiling minister of Manmohan singh cabinet, said it with glee that he was indeed happy that Tytler had got a clean chit. He never expected that his words would trigger such a visceral reaction. Could he ever figure it out that in the end Tytler would finally be thrown out of the ring altogether.

So, the public wrath aptly symbolized by Jarnail's Reebok shoe does a good thing for the Congress: it sanitises the party in a way. Sure Mrs Sonia Gandhi has not totally lost her sense of perspective. But will the party fare well in the election, given its track record like its using the CBI to give Tyler a clean chit?