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From The Editor In Chief
This
was a week dominated by two very different concerns. One commemorated
history and the other fuelled a national disgrace. After many false alarms,
Jyoti Basu finally resigned. As India's longest-serving chief minister,
his departure was a landmark. As an individual, his place in history is
assured. Unfortunately, as our story documents, the legacy of his 23-year
rule is quite a disaster for West Bengal.
 Even
less comforting is our cover story on the CBI's report on the match-fixing
controversies that have dogged Indian cricket for the past year. After
months of rumours, innuendos and allegations, the investigating agency
has provided us with something tangible. It makes for depressing and strange
reading. The accuser has turned out to be the accused while the accused
has come out clean. The legendary Kapil Dev was wrongly maligned but Manoj
Prabhakar, who projected himself as the lily-white crusader, has been
shown up as a pawn of the bookies.
The revelations
have evoked a feeling of shame, revulsion and betrayal. Those whom the
country hero-worshipped weren't cricketers but actors. They weren't playing
for the country, they were playing for a bookie. They were plain cheats.
They haven't merely let the game down, they have disgraced the country.
Corruption was always known to be a problem in India. Now, that Indian
problem has become an international menace. We have successfully exported
our disrepute.
Since April,
India Today has done four cover stories on the match-fixing scandal. A
core team has been pursuing the story relentlessly and interacting with
the players, investigators and even the bookies. Says Principal Correspondent
Sayantan Chakravarty who monitored the CBI inquiries: "I don't think
we've heard the last word." Which means that as more muck hits the
fan, there will be more celebrities ducking for cover.
(Aroon
Purie)
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How
can Non-Performing Assets of companies be cleared? By recovering what
you can, writes INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in
