Shamed And Crippled
With Tehelka.com's spy-camera taking a heavy political toll after the damning revelations of corruption in defence deals, the beleaguered Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government will have an uphill task restoring its credibility and undoing the damage to its image.

BJP: Old Hype

Interview:
Bangaru Laxman

Jaya Jaitly:
Jhola To Purse

Opposition: On A Roll

INDIA TODAY-ORG-MARG Poll: Outraged !

Defence Establishment
: Surgery For Graft

Interview: G. Fernandes

Barak Missiles:
Off The Mark

Tehelka:
Sting Theory

Highlights Of The Findings

Rakesh Kumar Jain: Gasbag Man

Wheeling A Good Deal
The battle for BALCO degenerates into a political chess match between Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, and Union Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie. Jogi holds most of the aces at the moment--but will he play them all when it could mean loss of investments to the state?

The New Targets
The 60,000 policemen in Kashmir are caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, they are the target of militant attacks, and, on the other, the Army sees them with suspicion. It is not just themselves, but their families that the policemen worry about as they struggle to battle militancy and falling morale.

Crisis Of Confidence While stock prices haven't recovered since the collapse of March 2, the panic has spread from Mumbai to Kolkata. Underlying the fear is a deepening fear of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's will or capacity to regulate the stockmarkets.

Escape to Victory
Down and virtually out, India create a miracle at the Eden Gardens to stun the Australians and break their winning streak.

Mixing Metaphors Music, dance, and tourism synthesise in the famed textile centre of Maheshwar to provide sustainable synergies for its growth.

COVER STORY: DEFENCE ESTABLISHMENT

BARAK MISSILES
Off The Mark?

As a missile, the Barak, which means lightning in Hebrew, is not just fast but accurate. However, the middlemen who mentioned the deal as dubious in the Tehelka revelations may have been misguided. Contrary to what they alleged, the missile made by Israel was not rammed down the navy's throat. In 1996, Naval Headquarters asked for it after Pakistan acquired from the US the deadly Harpoon missiles that posed a threat to India's sole aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat.

A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, the then scientific adviser to the defence minister, did object to the Barak deal on the grounds that the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) was building the Trishul missile as a counter to the Harpoon. But with the indigenous missile beset with problems that had seriously delayed its development, Kalam agreed to the Barak's import. Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, the then chief of naval staff, had wanted to import only one such system-for the Viraat-as he felt it was too expensive. But after he was dismissed from service in December 1999, the Cabinet in March 2000 cleared the acquisition of seven systems to be fitted on other Indian warships. A senior naval officer says, "Buying just one weapon system of a kind only increases lifecycle costs, complicates training and holding of spares." A DRDO official says the Rs 580-crore contract for the Barak systems is twice as expensive as the Trishul programme. But the navy argues that with the Trishul still undergoing trials it had no other option.

-Sandeep Unnithan

MetroScape
Pop Corn
"You are the best audience in the whole world," the Vengaboys tell raving crowds
in Delhi.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi Exhibition:
Pop To Classic

Delhi Restaurant:
San Gimignano

Mumbai Accessories Store: Watches Of Switzerland

Bangalore Concert: Deep Purple

A bloody crackdown on Naxalites in the south-eastern fringes of Uttar Pradesh proves that only developmental programmes, not guns, can help fight the menace. INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Subhash Mishra explains why in
Despatches.