Ahmedabad

Greetings from Jaiselmer,
Just a few words on today's bombs in the Gujarat state capital. Firstly - President Patil is reported to have urged people "to remain steadfast in this testing time and maintain communal harmony." Once again, it shows India is almost uniquely restrained in the face of the threat of terrorism, particularly if today's bombs are shown to be the responsibility of Pakistan (the Indian media has been speculating in recent weeks that Pakistani intelligence is looking to increase communal tensions in the near future).
Then there's the response of the notorious CM, BJP's Narendra Modi (currently banned from the US for his role in the pogrom against Muslims in 2002). He said that "the land of Mahatma Gandhi [Gandhi was from Gujarat] has been bloodied by terrorists whom we shall not spare." There's a nice little yiddish word for that - chutzpah. One can only hope that we don't see a repeat of six years ago.