India used to be the land of fakirs, snake charmers and the like for Western media. Now they have discovered monkeys. Yes, suddenly, the Monkey Menace of New Delhi is all the rage in the newspapers of the West, and BBC World (television) flogged the monkey story in the third week of March as if its ratings depended on it. The report (seriously) presented the "only monkey catcher of New Delhi" who tells the lady reporter that there is one particular male monkey who smokes cigarettes and harasses women in Connaught Place. "Even when I take him and drop him 200 kilometres away, he catches a bus and comes back to Connaught Place to continue his activities." And only the BBC, newly having to compete with all kinds of commercial satellite media, would believe that.
Even good old populous India, with its newly ideologically recharged Maha Kumbh, cannot beat this sight of a Bangladesh train overflowing with devotees headed for the Biswa Ijtema festival.
I have heard all the arguments on the ethics of investigations with regard to the Tehelka.com expose, mostly supportive of the Tarun Tejpal team, but only on BBC Radio was there a cautionary note from a London prof. which coincides with Chhetria Patrakar's own view on the matter. If Tehelka had decided to go for the likes of Bangaru Laxman or Jaya Jaitly on the basis of prior information regarding their venality and bribe taking, then there would be a strong basis for their sting operation. However, if this was a scattershot investigation ready to nab whoever falls in the net prepared for them, then I believe there is a strong basis to call this entrapment. Other than the fact that these particular politicians were definitely caught with their pants and shirts down, what about the two other questions: that of party finance reform and of the bigger fry that go for billions in graft rather than for a lakh or two.
This is a poll by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI): Would you eat rice that has been genetically modified? (Yes, No, Don't Know). You can caste your vote by going to www.cgiar.org/irri/pa/index.htm. The latest poll results show 37 percent saying yes they would certainly eat genetically modified rice, which indicates a rather low level of sensitivity to the issue among rice-eaters of Asia. However, since this was an Internet-based poll, let me say "rich rice eaters".