December 1, 2006

India - a news update

Wow...a lots happening in India this week ... like this blogger wrote:

Nowhere in this world can so many things happen in two days. A cricketer returns. A murder case gets closer to being solved. A minister is convicted of murder. A popular film actor is arrested. A bomb hoax in the country's ministerial den. And a certain class of people riot around the nation.
Indeed.. first Sanjubaba gets indicted (yet again, I wondered!) for his role in the 1993 Bombay bomb blast case (the verdic this time being that he is 'guilty but not a terrorist!)

And today, comes news that BJP MP and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu is found guilty of causing a Patiala resident's death during a fight over parking in December 1988.
A lower court had acquitted Sidhu in 1999, but on Friday that order was overruled. Sidhu, who played 51 Tests and 136 ODIs, faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years in the case.
Maybe this is a case of justice finally done... for there is little doubt about Sidhu's involvement in the fracas that led to the death of the poor guy as we had all dismissed this 18 years ago as being yet another case of a famous man getting away with murder (figuratively and literally.) Afterall, Sidhu was a popular opener for the Indian cricket side in 1988 and his popularity has only increased since then through his stint as a commentator (with his one-liners, popularly known as Sidhuisms) leading more recently to him even winning the Amritsar seat in Parliament in 2004, based on this popularity he gained via cricket. But, to the cynic in me, this verdict seems politically motivated - why would the case suddenly be opened after all these years.



Meanwhile, the people are rioting in the streets yet again.. but instead of worrying about the recurring rioting at the slightest pretext, people are getting their panties/lungis/langots in a bunch over inanities like this...!!
Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje Scindia has come in for scathing criticism from several quarters for posing with Biocon's Kiran Majumdar Shaw in a "lip lock" position at the India Economic Submit in New Delhi.
And guess what...its not the holier-than-thou moralistic right-wing forces (BJP, Shiv Sena, VHP) that are causing this rucus - its the Congress. The reason being the Rajastan CM is from the BJP party...going to show that there is no consistent logic or philosophy that a party in India holds on to and a so-called secular liberal party can also suddenly become intolerant and narrow-minded in its outlook when an opportunity provides itself to criticize the opposing party.

Meanwhile, ignoring the more pressing issues, the tabloids keep people entertained with such
'purplocity and verniness' (credit for these terms goes to Amit Varma, who has a great hilarious series on such articles in the Indian media) as:

Men eyeing Kangana's back!
Aishwarya refused me: Angry fan!
Good smell leads to good sex! and
Yana's navel ring hooks Aftab!

RIDICULOUS...

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