Opinion

DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT Edited by Surendra Munshi, Oxford, Rs 595

RUNNING AWAY FROM ELEPHANTS:THE ADVENTURES OF A WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST By Rauf Ali, Speaking Tiger, Rs 499

In December, 1957 Saul Bellow wrote to the young Philip Roth about the manuscript of the long short story, "Expect the Vandals", that Roth had sent him. Bellow's "reaction" "was on the positive side", but "mixed, too". While he liked the story's "straightness" and the "plainness about biology", he was less enthusiastic about what, in one episode, he felt was an " Idea". "I have a thing about Ideas in stories," he wrote, gently pointing to what he felt was the younger writer's problem. And he ended by giving Roth his own agent's address.

Perilous journey

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Empty vessel

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Out of reach

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Choked up

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE (Roli, Rs 495) by Aruna Roy with the MKKS Collective chronicles the birth of the legislation that, in several ways, changed the functioning of the Indian democracy. The prose of the book is evocative and its language lucid. Nowhere is there an iota of pride about the considerable achievements of this group. The pride lies elsewhere; there is a sense of deep admiration for the struggles of ordinary people and how this has shaped the country into what it is today.

France is back: vigorous, lucid, ambitious. Hurray. But who else is there to help Emmanuel Macron get Europe going again? Italy is having a nervous breakdown, Spain weighed down by trouble at home, Poland throwing a massive wobbly, Britain hovering near the exit and Germany slumped on the sofa. Talk about a dysfunctional family.

The storm in a teacup involving a political leader and his flight in a private jet appears to have blown over with the directorate general of civil aviation announcing an investigation. What was reported later as a mere autopilot malfunction was thus described by a passenger: “The whole flight experience left the passengers... fearing for the lives. The crew was also apparently petrified and admitted that the flight was particularly frightening and uncommon.”   

When the gaze of the country seems to be turning backwards rather than forwards, the courts sometimes sound a note of hope. The Kerala High Court has ruled in the case of a 19-year-old girl living with her 18-year-old male partner that as adults they are free to live together. The girl's father had instituted a habeas corpus case, claiming that the girl was being held captive. 

Violence can be a great leveller. This seems particularly true of West Bengal. The panchayat elections, which took place last month, witnessed several incidents of barbarity. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is emerging as the principal challenger to the ruling Trinamul Congress, claimed that over 50 supporters had lost their lives during the time that preceded the polls. Similar losses were reported by the Left, the Congress and even the TMC. The simmering political rivalries were manifest not only in the form of killings: brutal intimidation of supporters, usually from Opposition parties, was common.     

Precious lives

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Unfair remarks

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Right step

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Uphill task

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