Interpreting the political pulse

The Bangladeshi intelligence corps don’t seem to have too much of an ear to the ground. Until the very end, Sheikh Hasina lived under the benign assurance that she is coming back for another five year term. That is exactly what her high commissioner to Delhi Mustafa Farooq Mohd believed too, and he emphasised as much to everyone he met here until earlier this week.

The intelligence input made her so complacent that Ms Hasina wondered to some leaders here, why people had been pushing her into signing a deal for gas with India, and urging her to take the fundamentalists opposing a “sell out” to India head on within the first term. “She’ll be back sir,” Mr Mohd told a senior Indian leader, citing intelligence reports.

This prompted the leader to wonder aloud if intelligence bureaucrats in South Asia ever “give” the correct interpretation on the political pulse, even if, per chance, they “have” the right information!

Poverty makes ’em richer
Poverty has given rise to riches for some in Kerala. Consider this. Various international and governmental agencies have so far spent around Rs 3,000 crore for the upliftment of a few thousand tribals in the state.

Notwithstanding this staggering sum, 99 per cent of the tribals still live in abject poverty. If only this money had been distributed among them –– say, by putting some of it in a savings bank account in their name –– they would have been pretty well off by now.

So, who’s to be blamed for this? Indeed, not the hapless tribals as they haven’t seen a paise from this pile of cash.Well-informed cynics point to the change in the lifestyle of a handful of babus who were dedicated to tribal welfare. A case of the fence eating the crop?