Telangana is on a short fuse. A restive Andhra Pradesh is reminding the central government that time is running out.

Sadly, no bomb disposal expert was in sight on a day the state shut down, unless you call the goofy Ghulam Nabi Azad one (He is now being mocked everywhere for saying homosexuality is a disease). In the absence of a sage voice in Delhi or Hyderabad, you can expect politicians of all colours to confuse and confound you in the coming days. Telangana is an emotive issue, and not just for those demanding statehood.

After agreeing to concede statehood for Telangana in 2009, Delhi is now dithering. Home Minister P Chidambaram, who announced he would initiate the process to form a new state that year, is talking about a consultative process again. That's not going to go down well with Telangana proponents. Andhra Pradesh is now ruled by the Congress, a party beseiged by dissent from within and without. It cannot pretend that all is well and carry on.

In 2009, Delhi announced a

If you go by the TV channels, Maria Susairaj is an evil woman who got away lightly after committing a ghoulish murder.

Not that the Kannada actress has really had a chance to tell her side of the story. At the press conference after her release on Saturday, she tried to invoke God to say she was innocent, but was shouted down by protesters who wanted her hanged.

The frenzy is scaring less excited observers. What if, as in the Strauss-Kahn case, the police, the media and the citizenry end up crucifying someone who may later turn out innocent? The IMF chief lost his job after a hotel maid accused him of rape. It now turns out she was a hooker trying to blackmail him.  Strauss-Kahn's chances of becoming president of France now lie in ruins. His IMF position has been filled by someone else.

Parents of Neeraj Grover, who her fiance Emile Jerome has been convicted of killing, think Maria has had a picnic in prison for three years, and should now be sent for some serious correction. They lost

In seven years of being prime minister, Manmohan Singh has interacted formally with the media on just three occasions. You may think being so scarce is bad, but look at it this way: it actually makes him the world's No 1 phantom prime minister. Everyone knows he's there, even if few actually get to see him.

Phantoms like Manmohan (and the comic-book hero referred to as The Ghost Who Walks, who famously wears his underwear over his trousers) inspire many jungle sayings. Let's try to understand some.

* You never find the Phantom, he finds you: The Congress is full of eloquent people who comb their hair (if any) and are ready for their daily soap box performance: Manish Tiwari, Abhishek Singhvi, Jayanti Natarajan, Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee. But Manmohan Singh has a job to do,  and doesn't waste time giving journalists sound bytes. Yet, when he needs to find you, he will find you. Some months ago, he found some star TV editors to talk to. And this time, First Post

The Andhra Pradesh government has suddenly woken up to problems in Puttaparthi, and is asking the Sai Baba trust to show its account books.

Holy men and their ashrams are considered out of bounds for tax officials and governments. What prompted Hyderabad's sudden interest in Puttaparthi affairs?

Last week, police stopped a car and found it was loaded with Rs 35 lakh in cash. It was on its way from Puttaparthi to Bangalore. After denying any connection with the money, trustees are now saying it was donated by a devotee, and was meant for building a memorial for Sai Baba.

There's a lot of suspicion in the air. Devotees are protesting what they see as mismanagement of the trust's affairs, and shopkeepers, whose business depends on a constant flow of domestic and international visitors, have already observed a bandh.

The police action, including the arrests of three men and the questioning of Sai Baba's nephew Ratnakar, might not have taken place if the spiritual leader were around. When