Iceman’s Realm

For those who visit Tirupati just for the two laddoos that come free with the darshan ticket, extremely sorry. No more. Be prepared to shell out Rs 10 per laddoo, after queuing for hours together and getting a darshan that hardly lasts for a second. And tell you what, there is a ration of two per devotee. The Thiumala Thirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) has made the change stating that the free laddoos were cutting into the temple’s annual budget of Rs 40 crore. Things became far worse when they noted that there was black marketing. Nearly tow lakh laddoos are prepared each day by the TTD. Over 60,000 devotees visit the shrine every day. The delightful sweet rolls of ghee, camphor and cardamom might rake in the moolah but this recent decision will definitely be difficult for the devotees to digest.

General Deepak Kapoor is a prolific speaker and is known for being politically correct always. But on December 18 at a press conference on human rights at the Institute for Defence and Strategic Analyses in New Delhi, he accused the media of highlighting human rights violations by his troops in the northeast and in Jammu and Kashmir, while ignoring atrocities of terrorists on civilians. The statement didn’t go down well with his boss, Defence Minister AK Antony. He told reporters that the top brass of the armed forces should ensure that no violation of human rights took place at any level. The media is doing their job, he said. He further added that though cases of human rights violations by security forces have been rare, even a single instance of human rights violation is totally unacceptable. Well, that was quite a pointed statement.

Initially, it was the freedom fighters. Then it was corrupt men with pending cases. But now in Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh, being a eunuch is the ideal qualification for a politician. Fed up with the nepotism of BJP MP Bhupendra Singh and Congress MLA Govind Singh, the people elected eunuch Kamala Bua as mayor with an incredible record of 70% votes. The opponents forfeited their deposits. To teach the incompetent politicos a lesson, the people plan to form a committee to look for eunuchs to replace the existing leaders. The state had already seen a eunuch Shabnam Mausi being elected MLA from Shahdol and another Kamla Jaan being elected mayor of Katni.

The formation of Hockey India, a unified body for men’s and women’s hockey by the Indian Olympic Association has been controversial. Many believe this is IOA president Suresh Kalmadi’s masterstroke to hijack Indian hockey. Kalmadi is no longer the President of any sport federation that comes under the umbrella of IOA other than tennis ball cricket association. HI was formed without elections and Kalmadi’s aides were appointed president and secretary. The IOA sent directive to all state Olympic associations to de-recognize and disaffiliate existing state hockey associations, which many believe is a way to get Kalmadi’s men in place to vote for him.

After almost 20 years, Sheikh Abdullah’s posters have resurfaced on Srinagar’s MA Road, hardly a few metres from the erstwhile Regal Cinema. Back then, Hollywood actor Anthony Quinn’s performance in Lion of the Desert as Libyan leader Omar Mukhtar fighting against the Italian colonizers had whipped frenzy among his fans, who tore down Sheikh’s hoardings and posters and shouted slogans against him. The incident was a prelude to the armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. Today the National Conference has reincarnated him to whip up nostalgia among Kashmiris and reinforce the vote bank. But what the media managers seemed to have missed is that the generation which madly followed their leader is no more. Today’s youngsters hardly remember the Sheikh nor the Regal Cinema which is now a restaurant after being shut during militancy.

Minister of State for Environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh and Rajendra K Pachauri the chief of IPCC may be at loggerheads on whether or not the glaciers are receding but never will they lock horns while discussing carbon emission. During a recent discussion both were of the view that emission of carbon can be comparatively reduced if people become strict vegetarians. While Jairam Ramesh has been telling that the single most important cause of emissions is eating beef, Pachauri has been advocating the benefits of eating less beef to reduce carbon emissions.

Twenty five years after Indira Gandhi’s death, Karnataka governor Hans Raj Bharadwaj claimed part of the credit for ending the emergency. During a function at the Raj Bhavan recently, Bharadwaj told the audience that as a public prosecutor in a Delhi court, he had argued in favor of 14 professors arrested on false charges. Justice Vyas Dev Misra released them on bail. Bharadwaj apparently took the professor’s side despite express orders from a police officer that the Governor of Delhi wanted the detention period to be extended. Knowing that the police would target him, Bharadwaj rushed to the Prime Minister’s residence in his lawyer’s robes and apparently told Gandhi that had he not argued for the professors, she would have earned a bad name. It seems hearing his words, she ended the emergency that very day.

Recently a slip of tongue cost Buddhadeb Bhattacharya dear. At a national scientific seminar in Kolkotta, Buddhadeb said Astronomy is not a science and that it’s fake. Needless to say the scientists were not amused and one of them  wondered what a series of election debacles have done to such an intelligent chief minister. Later, a cabinet minister came to the defence and said everyone knows about our chief minister’s opposition to astrology. He actually wanted to say astrology is not a science and not astronomy. Astrology, and not astronomy! Oh what a bummer!

Shasthri Bhavan is under siege. Not from miscreants but from a new security set up that has left each and every visitor irritated. Old gates have been changed and the new ones are installed with a brand new breed of touchy CISF personnel. The old office is now more or less impregnable but once you enter the precincts of Shasthri Bhavan almost all the security measures on the fringes seem quite useless. An experienced hand can easily avoid the second round of gates. Shasthri Bhavan has a network of corridors and maintenance cells. The passage can be used to sneak into the main building. Security of the most important bureaucratic address in the capital is not yet impregnable.

Suresh Prabhu may have lost two elections but now he’s all agog to impress voters. Hailed as the honest face of the Shiv Sena, the former Union Minister launched an NGO to work on three major areas - environment, water, and energy. He handled environment and forests and energy as a cabinet minister during the reign of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. And when Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray unceremoniously removed him, Vajpayee without any hesitation appointed him as the chairman of the task force to interlink rivers.