Advantage Outsiders
With the balance tilted against it, the Taliban regime will soon find itself vanquished.

Lull Before The Storm
Amid calls for a quick and decisive end to the conflict, Afghanistan has been abuzz with talk of an imminent Northern Alliance ground war against the Taliban.

History's Pointers
The Soviet Union's 10 years campaign in Afghanistan — a conflict that led to a humiliating withdrawal and, some say, its eventual breakup
— can be a learning experience for
the US.

EDITORIAL

Communication Gaffe

Atal Bihari Vajpayee is not your average Hindu nationalist. He is its "human face" and, being the most popular politician in India, he is larger than the party. He has a voice of his own, though it is not very audible nowadays, and this voice does not always echo that of the party. So when he said there was a communication gap between the government (that's him) and the party, he was not saying anything original. Rather, at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (the previous avatar of the BJP), Vajpayee was only playing out his exceptionalism within the parivar to the family heads themselves. The message: I am not just one of you and I alone have the freedom of expression and I enjoy the status because you people have made me indispensable. Bravissimo!

Now, take a pause, Mr Prime Minister. Going by the tenor of Vajpayee's plainspeak, he was not holding a mirror to himself. He was pointing his tired finger to the party. And here lies the first problem with his performance. Vajpayee has long ago lost the art of communication,which, unlike talking to oneself, involves a listener, an audience. Of late, the human face has become just a face, ceremoniously useful but hardly eloquent. Forget talking to the party, what about talking to the nation? There were many occasions-from Agra to the Afghan war-in the past few months that demanded the decisive voice of the leader. But India didn't have the comfort of listening to the leader's vision. In this respect, even the Pakistanis are better off.

Now come to the void between the party and the premier. Looks like the party considers its biggest electoral asset untrustworthy. In an ideal situation, the leader in power should be an advertisement for what the party stands for. True, here it is a coalition government, but the multi-party structure of the government does not mean that Vajpayee should treat his political identity as a burden. That seems to be the reality. Occasionally he turns that burden into a benefit. Remember his let-me-resign threat two months ago at a meeting of the BJP MPs? The reason cited then was his inability to manage the National Democratic Alliance. The martyrdom show had the desired effect: Vajpayee's indispensability was proved again. These small media-friendly victories of the prime minister only widen the gap between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Mumbai Restaurant:
India Jones

Mumbai Puppetry Festival: Toccata

Bangalore Restaurant: Chung Wah

Kolkata Exhibition : Life Is Beautiful