Articles by GPD

The bizarre arguments taking place over the presidential election have all the trappings of a morality play. Amidst the din and the noise, political discourse in India is distinctive in its moralistic overtones.

The royal family syndrome that characterises the Congress Party makes it incapable of dealing with the problems and challenges of contemporary India.

Three Indian playwrights found themselves travelling to the 'Nizam-e-Mustafa' in January. The 10 days they spent in Pakistan convinced them that the divides between the two countries are minor, though they are difficult to locate and attend to.

It is time the dalit leadership stopped allying with one party or the other and thought through the issues confronting the dalits. There are many interested groups who want the dalits to react in a predictable and counterproductive pattern.

Festivals celebrating ethnicity no longer attach themselves to a "native" destination. That non-resident Kannadigas are now organising their own jamboree in faraway Seattle, where Basaveshvara's 'vachanas' will be sung before a largely ignorant audience, including US president George Bush and his deputy, is a multiple irony of sorts.