The Importance Of Being Brajesh
The Opposition and the Sangh Parivar launch an attack on the Prime Minister's Office by targeting the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Brajesh Mishra. The Vajpayee camp finds itself fighting a grim political battle to retain credibility even as the Establishment tries to discredit the Tehelka allegations. An analysis.

Supercrat In His Labyrinth
There are 240 secretaries to the Government, but N. K. Singh is always a cut above-in style, networking, and power. The economic policy wizard gets defensive.

The Ways And Means Of Ranjan
Ranjan Bhattacharya's role as nursemaid to Atal Bihari Vajpayee gives the fun-loving foster son-in-law
the image of one who dabbles in government decisions.

Congress' Coalition Flight Grounded
With sceptic constituents, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's
plan to form an alliance just before the assembly elections in five states, may backfire.

Desperately Seeking loopholes
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Samata Party find discrepancies
in the charges levelled against them by Tehelka. But it's just details.

Nursery Of Hate
The week-long violence in Kanpur has cooled down, but the spectre of the Students Islamic Movement of India still looms large. A look at the reach of India's in-house Taliban.

Vroom Service
The four-stroke motorcycle overtakes middle-class India's greatest icon since the valve radio set, as sales of the doughty old scooter stagnate in spite of a spirited fightback.

George Cross
The FIR against Sonia Gandhi's private secretary is a plain corruption issue says the CBI. But, an embarrassed Congress complains of vendetta.

Nothing Official About It
The payment crisis is temporarily stemmed, but clandestine financing ticks like a time bomb.

THE NATION: SIMI

Nursery Of Hate

The dust settles on Kanpur's week of violence. But the spectre of SIMI's fanatical youth remains. A report on India's in-house Taliban.

An unnerving calm spreads before you as you gaze at the Old City from atop the Raj-era Cawnpore Kotwali. Thousands of houses have their doors and windows firmly shut. The silence is broken occasionally by the stomp of police boots and the wailing sirens of cars. Some 1,700 policemen, including troops from the Rapid Action Force, are on duty. It is three days since the violent clashes began on Friday, March 16, between a section of the citizenry and the law enforcers. The mayhem has already left 13 people dead, including additional district magistrate, C.P. Pathak.

FANATIC FIRE: SIMI-led mobs used countrymade weapons to attack policemen

It all began in Beconganj's narrow, congested alleys when a group of 500 people came out of the Jama Masjid that Friday afternoon, protesting against the alleged burning of the Quran in Delhi. They had allegedly been instigated by the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The incident was apparently in reaction to the destruction of Buddha statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan. A Reuters despatch, along with a photo of "Hindu activists", had been used for a poster. Thousands of copies were distributed across the older parts of Kanpur, home to an estimated 10 lakh Muslims, a fourth of the city's population.

Perhaps it was the passion of prayer. Right after the namaz, the 500-strong crowd began shouting anti-BJP slogans. It burnt effigies of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Smaller groups began collecting in nearby areas-Chamanganj, Anwarganj, Mulganj, Bajeria, Colonelganj. Similar slogans were heard. At this point the police decided to step in, only to be greeted by a volley of soda bottles and then bullets. By March 19, 120 people had been arrested, causing IG (Kanpur) Karamvir Singh to remark, "Kanpur wasn't a communal city not so long ago. Now there is a sizeable section of disgruntled youth that is driving such activities."

The "disgruntled youth" of Kanpur are not unorganised members of a typically lumpen underclass. Intelligence agencies and policemen across Uttar Pradesh, and in other parts of the country, are increasingly feeling the heat from one radical group-SIMI. If youth and fanaticism make a potent cocktail, SIMI mixes them lethally.

In Kanpur certainly, the police believes SIMI, was instrumental in the attacks. For the past year and longer, SIMI's 10,000 members in the city have been stoking emotions in select areas. This past month, the volcano erupted. Now the state Government is reportedly on the verge of seeking a ban on SIMI. Says A.K. Mitra, additional DG, Uttar Pradesh Police and an old Kanpur hand: "SIMI cannot outrightly be termed anti-national. But definitely its level of hostility is immense."

MetroScape
The Itch For Kitsch
When Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai opened to an overflowing house at Delhi's India Habitat Centre last week, people didn't quite know what to expect.
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Looking Glass


Delhi Exhibition: Unbuilt India-Vision 2001

Delhi Music:
Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival, 2001

Delhi: Showroom
Interiors Espania

The 457-acre estate of the Roerichs near Bangalore is in a pathetic condition. But does anyone care, asks INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Stephen David in Despatches.