The Baba becomes a ‘Shri’

The Hindu has decided that Baba is not a suitable prefix for the man at the centre of the news for the last few days – Ramdev. In an edit (June 6) on the developments around his fast, The Hindu first puts ‘Baba’ within inverted commas before his name and then proceeds to write ‘Shri Ramdev’ in subsequent sentences. The Hindu’s house style is to use the honorofic ‘Mr’ before male names. Clearly Mr. Ramdev would have sounded decidedly odd. And despite the vision of the ‘Baba’ in women’s clothing, the use of ‘Ms’  would not have been justified! Hence the only option was ‘Shri’.