An elephantine mess

February 9, 2014, the day before the Mudgal Committee submits its report on the IPL mess to the Supreme Court. An elephant is donated to the Padmanabha Swamy temple in Kerala, one of India's holiest shrines. The donor's name was kept secret by the temple authorities - until a court-appointed amicus curiae sniffed around and found that the elephant violated temple laws. Only elephants brought into Kerala before 2007 can be considered as gifts; Thunuki, the elephant in question, was brought in earlier this year and its sale to the donor, who in turn offered it to the temple, was illegal. It was then that the donor's name was revealed: N Srinivasan, whose son-in-law and cricket team were both central figures in the Mudgal report. Incidentally, the amicus curiae, Gopal Subramaniam, is also the Mudgal committee's counsel in the IPL case.