RIP Cronkite: The original TV anchor

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Television news anchors, despite rather large egos, are clearly not rock stars. Which is why the passing away of the legendary American news anchor Walter Cronkite a few days ago did not attract the fuss that accompanied the death of Michael Jackson. If Jackson redefined pop music in the 1980s, Cronkite was the original television news icon, who anchored the evening news bulletin on CBS for 19 years between 1962 and 1981. Jackson's incredible musical genius co-existed with notoriety to make him a larger-than-life global personality. Cronkite's professional excellence was based on a rather more prosaic, but far more invaluable quality: honesty. He was seen as, 'the face America trusted' through presidential elections, moon missions, wars and race riots, a voice of certainty in an increasingly uncertain world. Its that 'trust' factor which is now under strain in journalism, print and television, across the world.....

Statu(e)tory Warning for Mayawati

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India is still par excellence the land of idolatry. There is idolatry in religion, there is idolatry in politics. Heroes and hero-worship is a hard if unfortunate, fact in India's political life - Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Nearly six decades after the father of the modern Indian constitution warned against the dangers of political deification, his legatees have ensured that the Ambedkarite vision is reduced to a statue. Last month, UP chief minister and 'Dalit ki Beti', Mayawati unveiled 15 statues of herself and her mentor Kanshi Ram. This led to a petition being filed in the Supreme Court where the petitioner has alleged that more than Rs 2000 crores from the state exchequer of 2008-09 and 2009-2010 is being spent on statues and memorials across the state. The court has issued notices to the UP government seeking a reply to the charge. Typically, even before the matter....