Within hours of India's defeat in the 20-20 world championships, the headlines on some television channels were screaming : should Dhoni be sacked. Just 24 hours earlier, Dhoni was the captain who could do no wrong. But round the clock news television needs a target, an enemy figure who can be the hate object of the day. On the day of the Indian defeat, it was Dhoni's turn to cop it. Perhaps, its my cricketing genes, but more likely the journalistic conscience that felt troubled yet again at the high pitched reporting. So, in this season of introspection and mea culpa via media columns and letters, I am tempted to do my bit. Let me say that as a practitioner of 24 hour television news journalism, it is a task I attempt with some trepidation. One simply doesn't want to be identified with the growing tribe of television-bashers, those who watch the box with near-manic intent night and day and then proceed to...

If a week is a long time in politics, then a decade is truly an eternity. That ancient political truism has been driven home this week yet again as the Nationalist Congress party 'celebrated' its tenth anniversary. Only days before the 'celebration' one of its senior leaders and party MP, Padamsinh Patil was arrested for murder, a grim reminder of the creeping criminalisation of Maharashtra's political elite. And just a fortnight ago, one of its founders, P A Sangma, had apologized to Sonia Gandhi for raising the foreign origins issue. If ever there was ever a prize for a political somersault then this was a gold medal winning effort. Ah, Mr Sangma! A decade ago, the ever-smiling former Lok Sabha speaker from Meghalaya had been the driving force behind the anti-Sonia campaign, using every forum to target the Congress chief. Yet, at the ministerial swearing in of the UPA government, the animosities seemed to be a forgotten chapter. As Mrs Gandhi applauded...

As a news anchor who lives in a television studio, and whose reporting days are rapidly becoming a fading memory, my one connection with the 'real' world is a morning walkers' group in the neighbourhood park. Located in an upper middle class colony of the national capital, the gathering includes senior citizens, service sector professionals and independent businessmen. Their viewpoints on most issues - be it POTA, uniform civil code, black money in Swiss banks, or even Ram Mandir - are similar to a BJP manifesto. Yet, a majority of them voted for Sheila Dikshit in last year's Delhi assembly elections and Dr Manmohan Singh as prime minister this year. In their voting preferences lies the key to explaining perhaps the only nationwide trend of election 2009: the dominance of the Congress/UPA over the BJP/NDA across urban India. As the comprehensive National Election Study done by Prof Yogendra Yadav and his team has shown, the UPA has gained in votes and...

One of the professional hazards of being a political journalist is that you are expected to predict exact election outcomes . It's meant to be your USP, the basis for your dinner invite. Yet, over the last few weeks, as one has been repeatedly asked to predict election 2009, the response has been to simply and honestly say, "I don't know." Never before has an Indian election left so many people so confused about the final verdict. Perhaps, the ghosts of 2004 still haunt all of us and have made us a little cautious. More accurately, it is a reflection of the reality than an Indian general election is no longer one election, but possibly 543 elections being played out at the same time, with almost every constituency having its own unique set of issues and individuals to deal with. Take Mumbai for instance. If in North Mumbai, the absentee MP Govinda has been an issue in itself for voters, in...