Hey...

No, I completely agree that the 'right' of the political spectrum in India needs a serious image makeover, not just to appeal to the foreign media and genteel society but also to improve their appeal to voters at large. Names have been changed before, thirty years ago, and names and identities can be changed again. I wrote in a comment that the terms 'Sabyataa' and 'Swabhimaan' are gloriously misused by people.
Yet at the same time, parts of the organisation have played a critical role in disaster relief and have a more balanced outlook towards economic policies and possibly remains India's sole 'democratic' political institution. In fact, it is surprising that in our 'vibrant' democracy how horribly un-democratic our political parties are. True, what good are roads if you don't know if some goons who think jeans are bad and against India's 'Sabyataa' will beat you up or kill you.
Anyway, why has Rahul Gandhi's image been removed from a majority of Congress vinyls in Delhi (other than the ones where we see a ten foot high face)? I only see Sonia (whose long cherished dream of seeing the man who had her husband killed dead is about to come true) and Manmohan (whose long cherished desire to retire is about to come true). Also, why is my choice of candidate Ajay Maken and Vijay Goel? Is this like the Ugly and Uglier constituency? I mean its New Delhi for God's sake, don't demean it with ugliness! I want to get to post on politics again soon, but I will intersperse that with the latest 'must debate' topic, Ragging. But that is later when I have the time to rant on the rampant homo-eroticism on Indian campuses. For now, I'm linking to two rather interesting stories that appeared on the slightly redesigned 'The Hoot'.
Mumbai Mirror going down the India TV path.
And HT making an ass of itself. Again!
And did anyone watch Andrei Arshavin's brilliant four-goal haul for Arsenal yesterday? I was sure the Gunners would lose, but what a game! And I'm looking forward to F1 this weekend, hopefully it might just rain in Bahrain!

Intolerance

One of the rather horrible side-effects of the media explosion is that it has somehow made India far more intolerant by giving rise to a media-obsessed bunch of loonies. But I never expected this in Kolkata. A great article by Deeptanil Ray over at The Hoot. And the article that 'sparked outrage'. Sometimes I wonder if our lurch towards the 21st century hasn't made us more tribal.

And why is it wrong to criticise Islam?

Think about it, virtually all our lives, across the world have been determined by terror committed by Islamic terror. I know it is not fair to tar an entire religion because of the actions of some loonies, even though elements of the Indian media like nothing better to lump the entire right as the 'Sangh' and generally poke fun at them. Sure, they do things that deserve to poked fun at - Cow Urine - after the fiasco of the $10 laptop did we really need the gora's making fun of us again.
Anyway back to the pointm why is it wrong to criticise Islam? If one even dare question the religion in India they are dubbed 'anti secular' or 'communal'. What? Democracy allows me the right to question something? Sure outlaw imflammatory comments -flamebait in internet speak (sorry for the net analogies) - that is the more resposible blogs have 'comment moderation', but that said this utter intolerance will spark more Muthalik's and Togadia's people who support them. If your inner liberal shudders at that thought, you might be facilitating it because you're the intolerant one.
By arresting the Editor and the Publisher of The Statesman, the commies of India have again exposed themselves as Grade-A hipocrites. But what else did you expect in Commie-dom! While Chinese Commies sup on the opium of money, Bong Commies grow fat on Religion. Didn't all Commie philosophy question both of those things?

Private Treaties et al.

I was sent this link to a story in The Hoot. I still believe that Private Treaties will come back to haunt BCCL.
In other news from BCCL, it appears that the new business paper will not be a tabloid but a broadsheet. This is not justa defensive move to suck up journalists, but a classic anti-competitive Times move to kill advertising support for its rivals. See, the logic will work like this; Times goes to big advertiser with proposition - Rs 100 for ET/TOI but for just Rs 25 extra get space in unnamed trashy business paper. Now, when space sellers from Papermint or FT-TV18 go to them even with rates of Rs 50 for the same amount of space, the advertiser, who wants bang for the buck will tell them to buzz off. This will hurt Financial Chronicle the most.
Now, people can argue about the lack of a price-based newspaper or magazine model in ndia and I also think it is unfortunate, but telling people to pay ten bucks for a papetr when they're paying two bucks now will not happen overnight. Sure, people can afford paying 10 bucks per paper per day, but then people might not take a second paper. And suddenly might start holding the papers accountable for the news they print. Which of course, the papers would not like - particularly since they have love-in's with shady real-estate developers at times!
Plus, according to sources Forbes is looking at a September launch. Get ready to get bored!