Interview between Sushil Modi and Omar Sharif could have had bearing on Bihar elections

The hastily corrected gaffe on a news website analysing the outcome of a meeting between Narendra Modi and Omar Sharif — coincidentally, on the very day that latter passed away — highlights two banes of our times. The first is the tyranny of the auto-correction software. It persists in changing names and words relentlessly and seemingly at will, defying even the surest fingers and keenest eye. The second is the annoying multiplicity of similar (sur)names among newsmakers, which, doubtless, exacerbates the authoritarian tendencies of auto-correctors. Bushes and Clintons — presidents past and prospective — currently crowding the US political arena epitomise this phenomenon and its potential to confuse.

India, however, seems to have a bumper crop. Whereas once there was a profusion of unrelated Gandhis in the limelight, there is now a surfeit of Modis. It is a wonder, therefore, that the meeting in Ufa was not purported to have been between Lalit Modi and Omar Sharif. Indeed, had the meeting taken place been between Lalit Modi and Nawaz Sharif, the world may well have heard about it on Twitter, adding even more spice to the IPL imbroglio. And perhaps a tête-à-tête between Sushil Modi and either Nawaz Sharif or Omar Sharif could even have had a bearing on the forthcoming Bihar elections.