Breaking Down News: So Long, Thanks for the Laughs

Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal is all smiles again, having randomly turned adversity to advantage. He has turned the battle for Delhi, which was a turf war between two offices, into a personal and political face-off — cut the crap, it’s Kejriwal versus Narendra Modi. The last round in this ongoing tournament was the electoral struggle in Varanasi, where Kejriwal’s much-photographed holy dip in the Ganga could not prevent him from being swept away by the Modi wave.

This time, Kejriwal has reopened hostilities by suggesting that because his government had finished off the “transfer-posting industry” in Delhi, the brokers and players in that huge matka game had skulked off to Rajnath Singh and the prime minister’s office.

At their bidding, the Centre is now trying to get a foot in the door of Delhi, through which its own people will skulk back in, and restore the fun and games. He has dismissed the Delhi Lieutenant Governor as irrelevant, since his office takes orders “from above”, and asked the prime minister who he is trying to protect with this notification.

While these sporting activities, in which postings are bought and sold, has been the stuff of kerbside legend for decades, this is the first time that a chief minister has spoken at length about it, smiling all the while. It could have been the quote of the day, were Kejriwal not overshadowed by defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who spoke publicly of what sounds like black ops against terrorism. Only Digvijaya Singh could have trumped these two worthies in the tournament of bizarre articulations. But then, he is neither a Union minister nor a chief minister. He can say what he wants without fear of censure.

In the US, a great TV innovator has bowed out of the lists this week. David Letterman stepped out from behind the desk after 33 years and the lights dimmed out on The Late Show.

The goody-goody goodbye stories are all over the place but having recounted Letterman’s talents and graces — and they are arguably many — Salon chose to remind readers of the darker side. In 2009, Letterman had admitted to some concentrated philandering with women staffers on his show and, with his characteristic honesty, had opined that CBS should have fired him. Pity none of our TV personalities have either fatal flaws or disarming candour.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com