India Today

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India Today, January 4, 1999
January 4, 1999



Politics
Business
People
Entertainment and the Arts

Heroes, Villains and Zeroes '98

SPORTS
Politics at Play

Corruption and interference plagued selection procedures.

IllustrationSport, one felt, was always about clean, soul-moving victories. Not in India. Here it comes hammerlocked by officials who stain the sport with corruption, parochialism and gross interference. This year was no different. There was the bungling "bunch of jokers", the selectors, who again played havoc with the cricket team. They divided it, decided who should bat where and shattered confidence by discarding players like a lousy hand. Then, the sports federations chose all the wrong people for the Asian Games and almost left out the right ones like Dingko Singh. Victories, if they ever happen, will come not because of the officials, but in spite of them.

 

HEROES
Amartya Sen: The Nobel Indian
Nuclear Tests: What a Blast
Digvijay Singh: Winner Takes it All
Gallantry: Knight Service
Neemuch eye donors: A People with Vision
N Chandrababu Naidu: Hard Drive
Tata Indica: Swadeshi on Wheels
Development: Independent Action
NRI Bonds: Unlikely Harvest
Avelin Mary: Mission Possible
Asian Games: Runaway Winners

Daler Mehndi: Just Dalerious
Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai: Picture Perfect
Sachin Tendulkar: Stroke of Genius
VILLAINS
Bal Thackeray: No.1 Yet Again
Jayalalitha: Tantrum Amma
Romesh Sharma: Fixer's Fixer
Yashwant Sinha: Rolling Back
Romesh Bhandari: Teed Off
Onion: Pungent Reminder
UTI: Unfaithfully Yours
Dropsy: Death by Default
Salman Khan: Misplaced Machismo
ZEROES
Jain Commission: Who Done It?
L K Advani: Me Two
Kushabhau Thakre: Who?

Sitaram Kesri: Creature the World Forgot
Talbott-Jaswant Talks: It's the Weather, Stupid
P V Narasimha Rao's The Insider: Pen-ful Debut
Indo-Pak Dialogue: Dumb Charade

Amitabh Bachchan's Major Saab: Sunshine Boulevard
Sushma Swaraj: Calamity Behen
Laloo-Mulayam Entente: Thud Front
Sharad Pawar: Zero Power
I K Gujral: Bus to Pakistan
SIGNPOSTS
Ajit (1922-1998)
Protima Bedi (1948-1998)
Om Prakash (1919-1998)   
Pradeep (1915-1998)
P N Haksar (1913-1998)
E M S Namboodiripad (1909-1998)
Lalita Pawar (1916-1998)
Vinod Mishra (1947-1998)
Raman Lamba (1960-1998)
Gulzarilal Nanda (1898-1998)
Persis Khambatta (1948-1998)
Laxmikant Kudalkar (1937-1998)

 

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