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.

Disgust was probably the overwhelming emotion of the past week for the whole country. The cause for this was the sickening spectacle of repeatedly seeing on our TV screens, courtesy the 24-hour news channels, the chief of the ruling party accepting bribes. The givers were a website's journalists, posing as defence equipment manufacturers. Next came transcripts of government officials, even serving generals, literally selling themselves for trifling sums of money, amounts so small that they somehow represented the deplorably low moral standards of the Indian establishment. What the episode did was bring to light the corruption of a section of the Indian elite, a phenomenon most people knew about but hadn't quite seen.

This is, however, a proud moment for Indian journalism; and that too good old-fashioned, painstakingly investigative journalism. The basic purpose of journalism has always been the same: to hold a mirror to society, however ugly the sight. This is precisely what Tehelka's intrepid team has done. The repercussions have been dramatic. After the familiar stonewalling, the defence minister and the presidents of two political parties have resigned. As Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta writes, the NDA Government is faced with a full-blown political crisis. He and his team examine whether the country is now saddled with a lame duck government, which will find it difficult to push ahead with ambitious programmes like economic reforms, privatisation and so on. The rot in the now headless Defence Ministry and the suspect procedure of arms procurement have been looked into by Deputy Editor Raj Chengappa and Associate Editor Harinder Baweja. There is also a story on Tehelka and its unorthodox but highly effective methods.

Undoubtedly, this week's drama will be a boost to incisive, serious journalism, a rolling back of the dumbing down and trivialisation of the media of late. For that to happen we journalists have to work harder. On their part, politicians will definitely be more careful-and hopefully more clean.

(Aroon Purie)

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.