Vandals Of History Afghanistan's Taliban regime remains undeterred from its hard-line agenda of destroying historically valuable Buddhist idols. A look at the present regime and its slide to orthodox fundamentalism at a time when a drought has ravaged its economy and people.

Taking On the Family
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Yadav is once again facing a tough fight for survival--this time prompted by a near revolt in the RJD fuelled by rumours of a dynastic takeover. Ranjan Yadav has emerged as a potential rival to Rabri Devi, enjoying the support of both the party rebels and the NDA allies.

Chennai Confusion
The upshot of the great Tamil circus: Jayalalitha needs Moopanar, but not the Congress.

Creepy Acquisition
With Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha determined to bring corporate payslips comprehensively into the taxman's dragnet, the salaried class is having a few palpitations. For them, it means that a long era of tax-free emoluments is coming to an end.

"Indians lack unity"
Two of cricket's finest brains met for a rare conversation:Bishen Singh Bedi takes on the role of interviewer for Aaj Tak, seeking to get into the mind of Australian captain Stephen Waugh.

Revenge Of the Bears The sudden fall in share-prices points to yet another rigging controversy, and raises questions about the efficacy and credibility of SEBI as a regulator.

FLIPSIDE

Labour's Love Lost?

By Dilip Bobb

Is it time to say Ciao to the Congress? Is the party's Big Mama Mia starting to show her true colours now that Holi has, appropriately, just passed? Not so, say the optimists who, eternally optimistic, point to a new dawn and a new moon, and son, and stars, or anything else that makes optimists optimistic. There's a new organisation in place (sort of), a new crop of young leaders (off sorts) and a delegation (odd sorts) just returned from London with tips from New Labour on how to decant old wine into new bottles. Here's how their meeting went.

Sonia Gandhi: Things are looking up. My reorganisation of the organisation has got rid of the deadwood and we are now ready to launch the New Congress.

Pranab Mukherjee: Well, we may not have much of a Congress left to run. Most of our partymen are running all right, but in the opposite direction. At this rate, we will be decimated in West Bengal. What do we do?

Ghulam Nabi Azad: We have a counter strategy. Just give us a few days to figure out how it works.

Sonia Gandhi: That's right, we have no need to panic. The Congress, as Arun Shourie keeps reminding everybody, is all in favour of disinvestment. Get rid of all our loss-making units, isn't that what New Labour suggested in London?

Natwar Singh: Yes, madam. In my talks with the high commissioner at the dinner he hosted for us, and with the deputy high commissioner at the lunch he hosted for us, and the tea party in Southall, everybody agreed that we have nothing to lose. In fact, I was reading this biography of ...

Salman Khurshid: Let's not read too much into recent developments. I agree that the defections in West Bengal to Mamata Banerjee has derailed us somewhat, and the setback in Tamil Nadu is a serious blow and leaves us in the sambar, but we still have a solid presence in the rest of the country.

Pranab Mukherjee: We do?

Anand Sharma: What we learnt from Peter Mandelson, the architect of New Labour, was that there's no such thing as a free meal. This is betrayal by Jayalalitha, considering the number of free meals she has had at our expense.

Sonia Gandhi: Talking about expenses, we ran up a huge bill sending you three to London. What advice did they give to energise the party?

Natwar Singh: Well, they did mention something about leadership qualities and charisma, and decisiveness and ability to make the Opposition look outdated and slow, (adding hastily), but we need have no worries on that score.

Sonia Gandhi (suspiciously): What else did they say?

Salman Khurshid: They suggested we throw everything into constituencies where we have a fighting chance and less effort on those where we don't.

Sonia Gandhi: Excellent idea. Which parts of the country do our electoral analysis point to?

Vincent George: Er ... it's an area you have happy memories of.

Sonia Gandhi: Where?

Vincent George: The Andaman and Nicobar islands.

MetroScape
Triple Act
What I would love to do more than anything else in the world is to write another play," says Gurcharan Das. "But I don't know if I have the courage." He should have dollops of it, going by the audience reaction to his 9 Jakhoo Hill--performed to mark the release of Three English Plays by Das --at Delhi's India Habitat Centre
last week.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi and Mumbai: Adventure One Sport

Mumbai: Smooth Bar

Delhi: Good Earth Showroom

Polo, like many other events, is bringing about the resurgence of the almost forgotten royals. A chance, writes INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Anshul Avijit, to say Maharaja again with an unctuous post-modernist gusto in Despatches.

"The only obvious competition is in bhangra," say the Pakistani duo of the music group, Strings, in conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro in
Interviews.