The Importance of Being Sudheendra Kulkarni

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On last Thursday evening , pre-dinner hours, I thought I saw renowned classical singer Pandit Jasraj emerge and head inside Delhi's new swanky domestic airport. But as I trooped into closer proximity to the grand musical maestro, I discovered it was Sudheendra Kulkarni, the current political gad-fly of the BJP , key party spokesperson, LK Advani's electoral strategist and regular Indian Express columnist. Fully aware that Kulkarni's introspective piece in Tehelka has created bedlam in the lotus garden , I still congratulated him for being absolutely forthright. Understandably Kulkarni remained poker-faced and noncommittal, but he is a receptive listener and a fine gentleman. As Yashwant Sinha quits party posts, Jaswant Singh raises his baritone into an inflammatory crescendo, and Sushma Swaraj describes the situation " volcanic" even without her characteristic hyperbole, it is discernible that the BJP is perhaps going through it's most turbulent, tumultuous times. In a great....

Angels and Demons

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"When God created two sexes, He may have been overdoing it". -- Charles Smith Sharad Yadav, the portly, chubby-cheeked, black-bearded veteran politician has threatened to hang himself from the tallest tree with the thinnest thread or consume tick-20 poison ( actually meant for cocky rodents on a nocturnal prowl). Now I do not have any reservations if that is breaking news or news flash or lightning thunder on our TV channels. After all, it is not every day that a professional practitioner of kurta-pyjama politics in the Hindi heartland , and that too a seasoned, hard-core cow-belt politician, threatens suicide. Yadav reminded me of a lachrymose Rekha in the 1970s Gemini melodrama, Maang Bhari Sindoor, ready to break bangles every time Jeetendra's white-shoes turned caramel brown, and consume an unbranded tonic (resembling cough-syrup Glycodin) in one deadly gulp, head held high at 85 degrees. In the absence of Bollywood....