Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

BY R.K.MISRA Until October, few would have imagined that Russia would peacefully acquire in India what it could not get through a bloody war via Afghanistan in the 1980s: An all-weather, warm water, deep-draft port, Vadinar, giving it access through the Arabian Sea to the Indian Ocean. In the 1980s, a perceived control of Kabul was a prerequisite for Moscow to reach Gwadar Port in Balochistan, a project that failed. Now, however, with the virtual  gift  of Vadinar in Deobhoomi Dwarka district of Gujarat, India has, ironically, fulfilled a three-century-old imperial dream and colonial ambition of Moscow,writes senior journalist Virendra Pandit in his blog published in The Quint . I reproduce this insightful piece by Pandit who heads the Ahmedabad edition of a national financial daily for it’s sheer strategic depth and understanding of regional geo-politics.Also appended at the end is a link to the original piece in The Quint . BY VIRENDRA PANDIT In the merciless w

BY R.K.MISRA Everything that goes up must come down.   Even the rising crescendo of one of the most bitterly fought, no-holds barred poll battle of early 2017 covering the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. If the loads printed, aired and ‘netted’ by the media were  laid end to end one could easily walk on words from Agartala to Agra and back without setting foot on soil and still not be any the wiser but more about that some other time. There are also lots to be said about the caustic, even corrosively communal conduct of men who mattered. An account of the disgraceful depths they plumbed for power could wait for when the   passion-spent  sit down to count their breath after the verdict. For now one would like to assess the probables, possibles and ponderables that will unfold on the country’s political canvass thereafter. Most importantly, the results here will have a direct bearing on Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Modi, w

  By R.K.MISRA The games that politicians play!. This is the story of Gujarat’s long pending All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) so ‘graciously’  announced in this year’s union budget of the Narendra Modi led BJP government. The fact is that if BJP patriarch and the first NDA prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had his way, Gujarat would have got the first AIIMS outside Delhi, in Kutch, at least a decade and a half ago. Ironically, it was the present prime minister ,Narendra Modi who was the state’s chief minister at the time. And thereby hangs a tale. On January 26, 2001  a high intensity earthquake had devastated Kutch region of Gujarat bordering Pakistan reducing it to rubble with thousands perishing in one of the most ghastly human tragedies. Among the buildings destroyed was the government hospital in the district headquarter town of Bhuj wherein over 200 doctors, para medical staff and others were buried alive by falling debris. The then Prime M