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NEWSNOTES
DESPATCH
Seeking Refuge In The Buddha
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REBORN: Raj
(right ) at the rally in Delhi
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Delhi: Like Kanshi Ram, he chose to manipulate
the support of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe government employees to
enter politics. He, however, used religion as a short-cut. He tried to
re-enact B.R. Ambedkar's final act of leading Dalits into Buddhism. Ram
Raj, president of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations and
joint-commissioner at the Income-Tax Department, drove his "Chariot
of Buddhism" across the country for six months this year, urging
Dalits to leave Hinduism at a conversion rally planned for Delhi's Ram
Lila grounds.
Seven-and-half months later, the plan went awry.
A pro-Christian website claimed the rallyists would convert to Christianity,
fuelling protests from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The police withdrew
permission for the meeting. At a new venue, the 40-year-old Raj got tonsured,
changed his faith and adopted a new name, Udit Raj. So did a few thousand
others. As speakers accused the BSP of sabotaging the rally, Raj betrayed
his interest in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. The BSP-bashing
ensured that no Dalit from the Hindi heartland was present. Markedly absent
were the Jatavs, the sub-caste which supports Kanshi and is antipathetic
to Khatiks, Raj's sub-caste.
"I am not joining politics, I changed my
faith only to liberate myself from mental slavery," Raj asserts.
Counters Dalit writer Chandrabhan Prasad: "Raj has only played a
trick with sentiments." The buzz is that the Congress is looking
to his support in Uttar Pradesh.
—Lakshmi Iyer
The Golden Pumpkin
Indian cricket's
unfailing penchant for failure was played out yet again in the four-day
defeat in the Bloemfontein Test against the South Africans. The comedy
before the tragedy came when star bowler Harbhajan Singh dropped out of
the team for the most spectacular cricket affliction ever. The young Sikh
had borrowed a team-mate's box and earned himself a groin infection. Rather
than dance a scratchy bhangra on the field, he decided to restrict himself
to the dressing room.
Lawrence Rowe missed the West Indies' 1976 tour
of England due to a peculiar allergy to English grass. Dilip Vengsarkar
sat out the 1987 World Cup semi-final because a mackerel meal the previous
evening had given him the loosies. Somehow, they have both been undone
by young Harbhajan's dhobi's itch of a googly. Seldom has failure been
so breathtaking.
SIGNPOSTS
 NOMINATED:
Lagaan, by the Film Federation of India, as the country's official entry
for the US Academy Awards, in the best foreign films category.
WON: By the Barefoot College of Tilonia,
the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The architects of the college, set
up by Bunker Roy, have no formal education.
 REJECTED:
By the Supreme Court, blanket bail to former Bihar chief minister Laloo
Prasad Yadav, in connection with the fodder scam cases.
WON: By 18-year-old Indian Anup Sridhar,
the men's singles title at the second French Junior International Badminton
Under-19 Championship at Echirolles, Grenoble.
 CHARGED:
Actor Sanjay Dutt and 122 others, with taking part in the conspiracy leading
to the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai.
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