Madhav Godbole

Rather than rushing through such reforms and simply duplicating the OER Act in other states, what is needed is a radical but cautious approach. The important step in this direction would be to install a sabotage-proof regulatory structure and to test to see whether it can achieve our aim of bringing in rational- decision-making in the functioning of the power sector by eliminating government interference and influence of vested interests. A blind rush to privatisation and unbundling, with a naive belief that this is the time to remove the government and we can sort out all other problems later will only further aggravate the current crisis. We would end up with a sell-off of public assets worth thousands of crores of rupees to private parties and with disastrous long-term, irreversible contracts with private utilities to honour. The cost of such eventualities will be far higher than the costs due to the delays involved in a cautious or 'test and improve' approach.

Credit Rating of States: Need for a Fresh Look Madhav Godbole Against the background of the financial position of the states, the methodology followed for arriving at credit rating of state governments and their public sector and statutory corporations needs to be examined carefully to ensure that investors and the public at large are not misled by the credit rating agencies' glowing certificates.

communist authoritarianism and rehabilitated the western bourgeoisie's democratic credentials. It is worth recalling that among those who did attempt to explore the roots of totalitarianism (Arendt, Sartre) there were none, it would seem, whose work could surpass his fame and appeal. The reasons for that outcome, I suggest, go beyond his false optimism about human freedom. More fundamentally, his anti-utopianism, his critique of determinism, prepared the ground for what we must face in the post-modern era when political ideologies are malleable. The general relevance, therefore, is the challenging nature of his insistence that liberty is not to be contested with other social goals; a message which is not going to go down sympathetically with those trying to eradicate injustices grounded in differences of race or sex and those engaged in building a better green world.

freedom fighters with such zeal that the BJP appeared more nationalistic than the secular' BSP, Post September 21, the BSP is girding up its loins to slay in the limelight as the official opposition. Picking on the pro- backward caste, anti-dalit stance of Kalyan Singh. Mayavati is leaving no opportunity to attack him, more so in cases of unabated Dalit atrocities and Kalyan Singh's transfers of officials in a sweeping anti-corruption drive. Mayavati is quick to react, Kalyan Singh stays quiet. Rhetoric notwithstanding, a deal between BSP and the BJP is in operation wherein Kalyan Singh will remain quiet on the 'transfer scam' of Mayavati's time in which crores of rupees were allegedly garnered. Not only were big officials taxed but fixed rates for the chairmanship of the electricity board were negotiated, reportedly from the chief minister's office.

blooming and Narasimha Rao presided over it. It was a democratisation of corruption. Everyone could bite into the cake and corruption, like Narasimha Rao, spoke several languages.