Calcutta Diary

The parallel with the likes of Silvio Berlusconi is breathtaking: non-Christians, according to the Berlusconis, do not belong to civilisation; the non-Hindus, according to the 'parivar' and its cohorts, are no part of civilisation. In both instances, the uncivilised ones qualify for liquidation. The domestic cognoscenti, however, are one-eyed Jacks. To all appearances they have their hearts in the right place; they have protested against the atrocities perpetrated and being perpetrated in Gujarat. But Gujarat has blotted out Palestine; it has blotted out Venezuela as well.