Green, red or saffron? A tricolour confusion

Kerala planted more trees this green day than had been planned. No harm. The more the merrier, the greener, and the shadier. No pun intended.

- R. PRASANNAN

Kerala's farm mandarins—not orange, but red, and both puns intended—had planned statewide tree-planting events on environment day, June 5. With due respect and more propriety, they had asked Governor Rajendra Arlekar to preside over the inaugural in the Raj Bhavan, where farm minister P. Prasad, a passionate green thumb from the CPI, would join.

A word about the gov. An old disciplined sway-amsevak from Goa, Arlekar had come to be liked by Kerala's ruling reds. They had found him a far cry from the neo-converts to saffron, such as his talkative predecessor or the restless soul governing over their Dravidian cousins in Tamilagom. So much so, they had come to ignore his minor saffron flirtations such as getting ultra-rightists to lecture in the Raj Bhavan, so long as those were the governor's events and not the government's.