RAMYA KRISHNAMURTHY writes from Bangalore: In a surprising but not entirely unexpected turn of events, former Deccan Herald and Praja Vani editor K.N. Shanth Kumar has withdrawn his writ petition before the Karnataka High Court challenging the manner in which his removal and replacement had been authenticated. When the matter came up before Justice Abdul…

Over red wine, Kingfisher and paneer tikka, a bunch of (English) newspapermen were last night discussing the competitive chauvinism of the Kannada newspapers, thanks to the Cauvery crisis. Apparently, on day three of the “agitation”, one Kannada newspaper carried a news item of a man being run over by a train with these revealing words:…