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From The Editor In Chief
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| Raval
(right) with one of the alleged assailants in Bangkok |
Sometimes
life imitates cinema. Chhota Rajan's name could easily be the title of
a Bollywood potboiler, the kind where a gruesome murder is mandatory in
every reel. Ironically, so it is today with the Mumbai underworld. Last
week's supari shoot-out in Bangkok that seriously injured mafia don Chhota
Rajan proved just that. But things have changed. As our cover story explains,
gang rivalry today has a more malevolent edge to it. For one, our home-grown
mafia's reach has gone beyond the back alleys of Mumbai to South-east
Asia, the Middle East and even Australia. And more critically, after 1993-the
year of the Mumbai blasts-the underworld now comes tinged with communal
tones. On one side there is Dawood Ibrahim, who allegedly lives in Karachi
and is backed by the ISI. On the other we have Chhota Rajan, whose hatred
for Ibrahim is often taken advantage of by the Mumbai Police to counter
his former mentor's influence. Today, gang rivalry has even become part
of the proxy war between India and Pakistan. To get an on-the-spot report
we flew down Special Correspondent Sheela Raval to Bangkok. Apart from
piecing together the bloody events she also managed to visit the intensive
care unit in Bangkok's Samitivej Hospital where Rajan was being treated.
Says Raval: "With Rajan surviving, the war will escalate and, sooner
rather than later, spill into the streets of Mumbai."
From Sydney comes good news. Weightlifter Karnam Malleshwari became the
first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal and the achievement speaks
highly of her competitive fire. But her outburst against an earlier article
in INDIA TODAY was inaccurate. The intention of the story was to highlight
the fact that due to a combination of official ineptitude, neglect and
infighting, India had lost out on a rare chance to win multiple medals
in Sydney. Had there been greater method and lesser madness in the Indian
weightlifting administration, there was every chance Malleshwari and India
could have been celebrating gold.
(Aroon
Purie)
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If
there was one word to summarise Putin+s style, it is Realnosti---Russian
for get real---says INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Chengappa in
