Lots of little men and women have got somewhere

Siddharth Varadarajan: "Welcome to the Matrix of the Indian state: ...The Radia tapes reveal the networks and routers, the source codes and malware that bind the corporate and political establishments in India.


As squeamish schoolchildren know only too well, dissection is a messy business. Some instinctively turn away, others become nauseous or scared. Not everyone can stomach first hand the inner workings of an organic system. Ten days ago, a scalpel — in the form of a set of 104 intercepted telephone conversations — cut through the tiniest cross-section of a rotting cadaver known as the Indian Establishment. What got exposed is so unpleasant that several major newspapers and television channels that normally scramble to bring “breaking” and “exclusive” stories have chosen to look the other way. Their silence, though understandable, is unfortunate. Even unforgivable..."

The Supreme Court of India: "We have often talked about pollution of rivers, even the Ganga pollution. But this pollution (corruption) is mind-boggling."

A picture like the one below tells us why JT was one of the greatest.


Artist: James Thurber, The New Yorker, March 26 1938