Calcutta Diary

AM If the Union of India is not currently going through the process of being destroyed, there is at least no question that it is being 'de-constructed'. The Constitution of India might have been there for four and a half decades, a dense thicket of formal procedures might still feature the daily schedule of administration, a prime minister might trot the globe, a president might end his tenure and be succeeded by a new one; the Union of India is nonetheless now all things to all men. Jacques Derrida and his arcane theory of 'de-construction' are thus having their vindication in an altogether strange context.