By Rima Saini

In light of Prince William's marriage to the commoner of the hour, Catherine Middleton, a 'comment is free' article from the Guardian last weekend discussed the issue of social mobility in reference to scholar, freedom fighter and father of the Indian constitution, B. R. Ambedkar. Born into a poor, untouchable family, his appeal to equality as the cornerstone of political democracy is indeed as relevant to our time and place as much as it was to his. Relevant, most certainly, to the current debate pitting our first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system against the Alternative Vote (AV).

The dramatic events of May 2, enacted in Pakistan’s small, sleepy town of Abbottabad have surely shaken the world. The global icon of al Qaeda — Osama bin Laden — has been ‘eliminated’ through a well-executed, covert operation.