The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 25, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Reporter's Diary

Toll without bells

Necessity is the mother of invention. BJP leaders realised this in Hyderabad on Monday. Having announced that they would organise `Ghanta Ravam' (ringing of bells) to wake up the `sleeping' Central Government, the leaders were clearly at a loss. Reason: Finding the bells. Only some leaders managed to get bells for the protest. But solution was at hand. There were steel plates and spoons to make noise. The idea was to make noise and they did. What if it's not by ringing a bell?

Both bouquets and brickbats were in store for the State Haj Committee on Monday. In the `trainers training programme', C.P. Kunhi Mohd, member, Central Haj Committee, complimented the State Haj Committee for good infrastructure. "After Mumbai, Hyderabad has the best facilities," he remarked. After the inaugural, the training commenced. Ausaf Sayeed, Consulate General of India in Jeddah, wanted to give a presentation. However, there was a snag and the CD couldn't be played. Dr. Sayeed apologised to the trainers and said because of poor arrangements at Haj House he couldn't show the film. Thus Haj House managed to attract compliments and criticism, all in a span of one hour!

Causing inconvenience to public for the cause of public! That is what the Telugu Desam Party's demonstration against the rising prices has resulted in. Scores of TD activists, led by former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, staged a sit-in on the road in front of the Chief Rationing Officer's office in Secunderabad the other day bringing traffic to a halt. The time chosen for highlighting the people's problems in fact caused maximum inconvenience to them. Police, who generally do not take kindly to any demonstrations, surprisingly showed extreme restraint.

This is something that has been repeatedly pointed out to the city traffic police. However, violation of standards stipulated for registration number plates of vehicles in the city continues. Some go for fonts and font-sizes of their whims, some brazenly stick foreign number plates while the Indian one is relegated to a corner. Time for a closer look?

Maoists suffered a body blow with the killing of its top leader Madhav and some other comrades. The incident comes barely a week after the naxalites massacred some 30 tribals in Chhattisgarh. The two strikes captured the news headlines. Television channels never had it so good. Close-ups of the slain bodies were repeatedly aired. If that was not enough, slanging matches were staged between `human rights activists' and police officers. A prominent `human rights activist' openly issued a threat to a DSP that `he would be taken care of soon!' Talking of these activists, they were glaringly absent from the small screen after the Chhattisgarh killings.

K. Srinivas Reddy, J.S. Ifthekhar, Marri Ramu, Dennis Marcus Mathew and V. Geetanath

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