Vis-a-Vis

RAVI SHASTRI cricket team manager versus KAPIL DEV former India captain

"Senior players have been there for 15-16 years. Give them time and see how they perform. They aren’t finished yet."

"There are some players whose performance is matchless but they are not bigger than the game. They have to perform."

EPILOGUE: Rather than playing a game of darts, let’s try and play good cricket.


VOICES

“Nandigram is a small problem. We are not isolated. The entire party is with me, from Jyoti Basu to ordinary party workers at the village level.”

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, West Bengal chief minister

“There will be political instability if we withdraw our support to the UPA, which will benefit the BJP. The Left parties will not allow the BJP to succeed in its designs.”

Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) Politburo member

“Whoever doesn’t believe in Hindu nationalism shouldn’t have the right to live in India. We aren’t saying every Muslim is a terrorist, but the community is sheltering terrorists.”

Mahant Adityanath, Hindu Mahasabha MP

“India should stop lecturing others on terrorism because by making nuclear weapons, India committed the original sin.”

Mushahid Hussain, Pakistan Muslim League leader

“In the last six months, the Indian team has been playing like it’s a 9-to-5 desk job. This is sport, and you are here to enjoy. I didn’t like the way the team has been playing.”

Ravi Shastri, Indian cricket team manager

THE BUZZ OF THE WEEK

The Left does not seem to be in favour of a second term for President Kalam, nor is it keen on Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the post. Instead, they may put up a woman candidate for the most powerful chair.

CHOSEN: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for this year’s World Economic Prize, popularly known as the Kiel prize, for his contribution to research on fundamental problems in welfare and economics.

FELICITATED: Odissi danseuse Sanchita Bhattacharya as cultural ambassador of India to the US, by the Republican Party, in Detroit.

DIED: Amol Chauhan, 25, director of Parle Products, in a Kenya Airways plane crash in Cameroon. He had won two team silver medals in pistol shooting at the National Games in Guwahati this year.

PICTURE SPEAK

GOING PUBLIC: Malik at a rally

In the past month alone, nearly five dozen public meetings were organised by political groups, and most of them were addressed by pro-India politicians.

At the same time, however, separatist politicians are miffed with the state Government and allege that their public gatherings are not being allowed. Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik told reporters in Srinagar on May 7 that police did not allow him to conduct his mass contact programme ‘Safar-e-Azadi’ (Journey of Freedom) last weekend. “The Government not only allows but also facilitates rallies (of mainstream politicians) in Kashmir. But our gatherings are being targeted,” said Malik.

The new wave of public meetings by political groups like the National Conference, ruling People’s Democratic Party and the Congress seems to be election-oriented as well, aimed at the Assembly elections due next year in the state. These meetings, analysts believe, simultaneously create more and more space for political manoeuvring at a time when there is a strong feeling in the establishment that the gains in the security situation during the last few years need to be consolidated in the form of demilitarisation.

With increasing public interaction, local parties may find it easier to reconcile with the peace process.

-By Aijaz Hussain

PICTURE SPEAK

CONVICTED: Shahabuddin

Shahabuddin, the former confidante of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, was considered a law unto himself, invoking such terror that no party could dare open its office or hoist flags atop their shops and houses. His bravado and terror-tactics helped him join Yadav’s campaign for social justice. In 1996, Shahabuddin entered the Lok Sabha and never lost an election while criminal cases ranging from gun-peddling to murder and abduction kept piling up against him. At the last count he was facing 40 such cases including murder of rising CPI(ML) star and student leader of JNU, Chandrashekhar. But in May 2003, he fell out with Yadav, following which the then Bihar Director General of Police D.P. Ojha started cracking down on him.

Shahabuddin’s lawyers insist that the life imprisonment verdict is not final yet and that it will be challenged in the higher court. But his imprisonment paves the way for the BJP and the CPI(ML) to demand his resignation from the lower House on the grounds of his conviction. The two parties are now also demanding that Yadav make his stand clear—whether he is going to retain the convicted MP in the party or oust him.

-By Farzand Ahmad

PICTURE SPEAK

CUTTING ACT: Kumar

-By S.S. Jeevan

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