Simply outrageous!

1. The Karnataka Tamasha.

The spectacle in Karnataka by a tainted Chief Minister is indeed a sad one. His own party seems to be stumped by his defiance which is what surprises me to no end. If political parties practised what they preached and did not follow double standards, they'd never come to such a sorry mess like the BJP has in this case. And what further surprises me is that the man believes that his shenanigans are nothing compared to what some others have done or are doing and hence, why's he being targeted? He goes on to claim that he's many supporters and hearing some of them on TV, I wonder as to how they're unable to read the writing on the wall.

What they sadly seem to forget is that corruption by a rupee has the same connotation as corruption in crores! Corruption is a misdemeanour that can never be tolerated!!

2. Denying Anna Hazare the premises of Jantar Mantar.

It's my firm belief that here's yet another decision taken without adequate study of the pros and the cons by the people concerned. Perceptions need to be clarified, dialogue initiated and a swift remedy is the call of the hour and it's my fond hope that all well meaning people will work towards that goal. And egos have no place in the process!

3. The Communist party's archaic diktats.

Out here in Kerala, the press has given coverage to VS Achuthanandan's short visit to the house of 'Berlin Kunhanandan Nair'- CPM veteran and a journalist, who's expelled by the party sometime last year for his forthright views about the way his party was going - despite the party's diktat forbading him from doing so.

The question that comes uppermost to any layman is as to whether the party is oblivious of the primacy of human relationships and decency.

In this context, I'm reminded of an incident that impinged upon my grandfather and thereby, the entire family in the late '70s. PN Panicker was the General Secretary of the Kerala Grandhasala Sangham, an organisation that he'd founded and nurtured and the gifted Thayattu Sankaran, its President. Perhaps fazed by the former's overwheming popularity within the organisation, the latter wrote a stinging article - hitting below the belt on a very personal level - in the popular fortnightly 'Kalakaumudi'.

I remember one point that he'd raised against my grandfather which was his so called 'affinity' for anything foreign and to substantiate it, he quoted his possession of a bottle of Old Spice after shave lotion! The fact was that it was gifted by yours truly when I'd visited my grandparents while on leave and my grandfather used to savour it as a 'prized' possession and had innocently bragged about it to the author in one of their official tours, together!

My grandfather, shattered by the whole episode met his friend, EMS Namboodiripad and asked him to rein in the author as he happened to be his partyman. EMS' reply was that while he was fully aware of the purity and simplicity of PN Panicker, he was in a helpless situation as it happened to be a 'party' matter! My grandfather had to return empty handed. My beloved EMS uncle who'd bought plenty of chocolates for me, during my childhood days, became my enemy overnight as he'd hurt my grandfather!

And as Perry mason says, 'Prosecution rests!'