I-M-Moral

The day whole India was earnestly waiting for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the republic day, which is known for auspicious institutionalization of our own constitution, somewhere in Mangalore a group of self proclaimed saviors of the religion, society and morality attacked on a pub and barked their sexist mentality out. They teased the same constitution we were waiting to celebrate for and rewrote their own disgraceful law book that legitimizes and emboldens such heinous crimes. Taliban are not confined to Swat valley or Northern part of the Pakistan. They are very much present in India too, albeit with the different name, color of worship and slogans. Their savagery in the name of lord Ram would have made Ram himself ashamed of his followers--not for the first time--who being blind folded due to their incompetency and impotency to do anything worthwhile, become stooges of their god fathers.

Why a culture needs goons to protect it? Why do we need retrogressive modality to save us from their called perdition? If the so called saviours of the Hinduism, who are completely oblivious to the true Indian culture known for its tolerance, define and impose morality on the gender basis, are they any different from terrorists who want to impose their whim on common helpless men? Despite public commotions, political protests--ostensible though--and so called non-bailable warrants perpetrators have been willfully committing despicable crimes in different forms such as attacks based on religious grounds on Christians , attacks based on language and territorial grounds on North Indians and attacks on women for someone's whimsical and quirked interpretation of morality.

Situation becomes complicated and alarming when people mould the conception of morality, religion and unsatiated ego according to their conveniences and mix it with vested interests of their accessories--Sangh Parivar. Sangh Parivar, working through its hydra headed branches has learnt its lesson from the Nazi experiment: gradually, spew communalism in the society, come in the power and continue their agenda of communal divide in the name of a community. Such apparent saviours of morality or society most often employ hooligans and rowdies and channelize them to create public unrest. Their idea is to have as much visibility as they can possibly get and then get job of their interest from those who want their services. This is exactly what hidden gunda organizations did previously. Now the organization part has been embellished with religious sentiments and power has been arranged through political impunity.

Wish along with millions of Gods and Goddesses we have had that Greek Goddess who could transform enemies to harmless animals. In my surreal fantasy I would have suggested that they be converted to pigs.

Since the rot of hooliganism has percolated from top to bottom, snuffing the rubbish out from the bottom is neither possible nor it will help ameliorate the condition. How I wondered that ours is a matured democracy that can peacefully vote their opinion through ballot rather than bullet and change the fate of the nation--as it did in 2004 when we voted out BJP. It appears hypocrisy now. Indian democracy has come to a phase where such squabbling anarchist groups are challenging law and order and are still untouched. Such self proclaimed heirs of the Hinduism are continuously leeching the still left humanity, tolerance and rationality and infusing the venom of division.

The only solution to such issues is public awakening! Time has again come to show the power of clenched fist instead of five different fingers. It was the clenched fist of civilians that pushed the English out from this country! It was the clenched fist of angry crowd and unarmed policeman that eventually captured one terrorist alive! Let's add gritting teeth to clenched fists before the pernicious trend of senas grapples with the law and order, which is now a mere impotent spectator, and marches with heaved pride towards talibanaziation of India.

Slumdog Indianism!

By appreciating 'Slumdog Millionaire' we have proved once again that India is a country fraught only with poverty and goons. We did it earlier too! We appreciated 'The white tiger', which too focused on the poverty, corruption and people with small bellies. Champions of 'Slumdog Millionaire' claimed to clap upon the wonderful acting and a new gripping storyline, however, an unbiased scrutiny is imperative to see if the artistic merits of the movie absolve it of its reprehensible cum organized cinematic terror on Indian dignity.

They uttered, "Ah! This is what we call a non formula movie." Is it really a non formula movie? Or the formula is to show India a country swamped with malaria, corruption, child abuse and contaminated water; a country where filth is quietly accepted as general part of the life; a country where prostitution is a vocation; and you have an award winning movie. Another commonality was the cliche, which apparently was sanctioned for so called different movie, that hero wins the heroine in the end not matter what may come. The movie, as the English believe, portrays realistic image of India and withers the claims of India Shining. However, the scene where a boy swathed in filth manages to have Mr Amitabh's autograph is a far fetched reality. Although the triumphant countenance of the boy after getting the autograph of the personality he deified, deserves a standing ovation. The movie boasts of the surrealistic plot, albeit good and riveting, in which a slum dweller eventually becomes a millionaire--thanks to his slum upbringing -- but in actuality it is rife with trivialities such as female's sacrifice to save her beloved, melodramatic change of heart of the brother of the protagonist, and love standing victorious notwithstanding many hardships. The movie is also punctuated by many flaws such as a by standing blind beggar knowing of Benjamin Franklin or Jamal's learning of Samual Colt just because Salim owns a gun or the fluent English a slum dweller spoke. Further, I perhaps will never be able to understand Boyel's fascination for faeces. Was Train Spotting not enough?

On the dialogues front, the movie hits India where it hurts. The movie starts with an idiot police man coercing Jamal to confess to the crimes he never did. When the police beats Salim for his hoodwinking the American tourists, Salim delivers, "Do you want to see real India? Here it is". Then American tourists were shown to save the boy just to mollycoddle the shitheads sitting on the other corner of the world. Neither of the perspective is absolutely correct as the movie manages to prove. But by showing that a slum dweller is conveniently ignorant about his own country--he doesn't know what is written over lions; he doesn't know who is there in Rs 1000 note--but he coincidentally knows everything pertinent to the American world. If Boyel wanted to show our allegiance towards America or the movie was made for American appeasement, well I am not party to such conception.

The motives of English movie makers behind ostentatious portrayal of only what doesn't glitter in India is quite clear. It is to serve what sells in the outer world, which gloats when India is again and again called a third world country. There was a time the world wanted to seek snake charmers, rope walkers, and roadside magicians, but now the taste has changed. They want to see real India replete with gansters, eye gouging goons and people living in abject conditions. And the movie serves them exactly that on hot platter. All said about others, the motives of Indian writers were quite inexplicable. The disposition of King Khan also was not understandable when he thanked his heart out to Danny Boyel for shooting slums in Mumbai. I am sure it would have been impossible to watch 'Slumdog Millionaire' for an Indian sitting in the 'glittering' part of the world. The only thing such movies do is disfigure India's dignity. I wonder how many blows to our bruised dignity are needed to make us finally understand what to clap upon!

A-Satyam Saga : A Satire

Not so long ago, there lived an Ohio State University MBA who founded a company named Satyam Computer Services in 1987. The name was initially coined as A-Satyam for the values his founder wanted to inculcate in the staff and hence in all the world over. But the way Kusum was named KKusum, A-Satyam was renamed to Satyam, thanks to the religious beliefs of its founder Mr. Ramlinga Raju. In spite of the name change, Mr. Raju, a man of unborrowed vision and rooted conviction, stood undeterred to the original traitorous plan.

It is also alleged that Mr Ramlinga Raju was inspired by the ostentatious display of inflated assets in sleazy clothes by Zeenat Aman in the movie Satyam Shivam Sundaram, and particularly by the exhibitionism in the title song. "I planned my business plan of doctoring the balance sheets while watching the heaved assets in the movie. I was then sure that such acts do work", told Mr Raju to a news correspondent who did not wish to be named.

That Mr Raju has been arrested has put a question mark on such a valued institution, which continued helping India's financial establishments by generating funds effectively from no-where and in turn infusing liquidity to a halting economy. The outcry over his abortive acquisition plan of Maytas--Satyam spelled backwards or ASatyam-- too is altogether unjustifiable. Didn't he just follow the well admired concept of family first? All in all, Mr Raju should have been thought of for the post of Finance Minister. Who knows we might outdo 1970's USA!

On the other side of the border, Pakistan--even before Mr Singh & Mr Mukherjee start a world poll to prove Pakistan's complicity in the matter--has denied of its involvement and has called Mr Raju's resignation an act of cowardice. Mr Asif Ali Jardari also alluded to the examples where Pakistani politicians did not succumb to their conscience and continued working on their harebrained ideas. On the contrary, Pakistan's finance minister Shaukat Tarin has admitted that Mr Raju is a Pakistani national and no solid proof is required to corroborate the same. It is reported that he aspires to work with Mr Raju in tandem so as to inflate Pakistan's bankrupt economy.

Grow up please! Will you?

What is it about politics that makes anyone corrupt and idiot as soon as he or she enters into it? Perhaps it fiercely attacks on the jugular vein connecting common sense and integrity; otherwise there is no particular reason for which politicians after politicians are writing their political obituary by opening up in public. The recent comment by Mr. Digvijay Singh that terrorists bargained for releasing some terrorists but the UPA government didn't listen to them while NDA government released three dreaded terrorists in their reign demands second thoughts about him. (I am sure we did not have even first thoughts). Do we really need a leader who can speak rubbish any time he wants just for the sake of defaming the other party and sweeping a few extra votes of blinkered public. Has vote-politics completely replaced common sense and social responsibilities? Has the conscience totally been sold to buy a few MLAs? Or has the stupid common man adopted sheep like behaviour on the cost of growing up? Grow up please! will you?

It does not take and Einstein to figure out the vested interests behind his statements. But the sad part of the story is that Mr Digvijay Singh, devoid of any power to think --and solely busy in electioneering since it holds pedestal over the good work-- spewed venom in a new form. He tried to kill two birds at one shot by alluding at the failure of NDA government in dealing the hostage condition and at the same time throwing panegyric remarks for his UPA government. In the process he forgot two rudimentary mandates of leadership, humanity and need of secrecy. Firstly his unfounded comments would have badly hurt families who lost their priceless dear ones. Second his remarks in such a situation where India is trying to garner world support will certainly belittle the support US and Isreal might provide otherwise. And of course they be forced to think that in India their citizen died in spite of available option. Even if such his invented story was true, it must have been kept secret in the national interest. Oops, did I not expect more from our narrow minded harebrained politicos?

It is unfortunate that we, the common men, have to suffer our politician's lack of vision from time to time.

The opposite effect

The government's decision to reduce the rate of interest on home loans may backfire and add to the current financial crisis. Interest rate reduction has been engineered to propel the housing demand, which in turn will boost the cement, steel and other related markets.

I see two caveats, which eventually may exacerbate the crisis instead of ameliorating the condition as desired.

Firstly the anticipatory reaction of the public that markets will crash further and government might further reduce the interest rates might refrain people from purchasing for a while. Opposite to what was planned, government's action might actually trigger the deflationary cycle.

Secondly banks, as all private institutions are, will never like their profits go down. Interest rate reduction will be compensated by interest rates increase in some other areas such as corporate loans. Here government's act may dispel the funds from corporate; Or increased rate of interest may not leave them any other option but to default.

Government's any intervention in natural cycle may germinate undesired consequences for which we are certainly not prepared.

What gleamed and what went unnoticed!

That India is looking forward to become a world power someday demands proper attention to the events that went unnoticed. Consequences otherwise will be perilous.

In the wake of Mumbai terrorist attacks, there rose many arm chair warriors and coffee table strategists, who blather on their panacea for terrorism. It is quite akin to what happened when financial crisis took precedence over other important everyday affairs. Bed room economists tried to explain what happened and babies were born with a oven ready finance model to save to world. The contagion didn't stay with gullible people; columnists and professors of high esteem too were caught writing reams of rubbish. In the meanwhile, the world witnessed a rare moment of unity among enemical politicians and mass - uninfluenced by communal disparity. Everybody stood in cohesion and chanted India! No hidden desire, no vested interests and no communalism; ostensibly! But animal instincts of territorial fascination usually circumvent rational thinking. Media went bonkers both the the sides and presented altogether different explanations of one reality.

As the unity continued, initially by daily protest all over India then by weekly protests and in the end by SMS / e-mail campaigns, few venomous RSS creatures came out from their sty and bawled over nuking Pakistan. Had they studied even in primary schools, they would have known the disaster Stone age nuclear bombs caused in Japan. But for the sake of speech, which is generally punctuated by bursts of laughter and invectives, they spoke. As the time passed, cracks on the surface of unity came visible. Antulay came from his lair and disseminated baseless doubts about martyrs' death. He immediately ate his words back but the leftover was masticated and then reflected on by Urdu press and Pakistan. Incumbent government stuck to their mandate and lay supine for the sake of minority votes. Had we had a prime minister with spine (read Indira Gandhi) instead of a reporter to her majesty, such people of hybrid breed would have been wrapped in a letter saying that you haven't seen the worst yet and deported to Somalia. Alas! We cannot expect everything. Our external affairs minister continued his ritual of 'between the meals' threats to Pakistan. Pakistan too parroted their ‘between the Namaz’ demand for valid 'proofs'. All in all, I really empathize with Mr Raj. His dream that people will write softwares in Marathi wiggled away from his eyes. However, he vented his anger on CDs of Ghulam Ali.

On the international front, British Prime Minister Mr George Brown gave lip support to India and few million pounds to Pakistan. Paradoxically, british traced all terror activities to Pakistan. The clear reason for such a support was not told but I would hazard a guess. LeT must be in dearth of grenades and guns after Mumbai mission! Russia, I don't know from where, too threw her two cents analysis that terrorists hailed from Pakistan. They did not speak after that. They are busy empowering Iran with their new missiles, and in turn irritating the US. China, who rejected Pakistan's begging bowl previously, extended her chord of military friendship and support, as expected. Innocent people straddled over both the sides of the border remained wonderstruck over the deals happening.

All the good thing happening, few events went unnoticed. Firstly, due to their subtleness they were not understood and secondly for being less competent. The worst always outsells the bad.

First event that was left unnoticed was the US's unconditional support to India. (The US and China both supported Pakistan in 1971. China is man enough to stay same). The US is ditching old girl friend 'Pakistan' in favor of the new 'India'. No wonder Man Mohan Singh told to Bush that India loves you. During 80's the US fed Pakistan dollars and arms to support religious army against Soviet Union. Once the mission was over, the US weaned off the Jihadi army, which eventually back fired. In the process of dismantling Soviet Union, the US created two recalcitrant monsters; first in the name of religious army and second a collusion of CIA, ISI and Don Dawood. It is alleged that Dawood helped US a lot by drug trafficking and money laundering during 80's. Pakistan used a part of funding for her Kashmir issue and germinated groups such as LeT, JeM etc. India asked for a few terrorists, including Dawood. US interrupted! India will never get Dawood; for he, if caught, may reveal what could be a nightmare for the US and Indian industrialists as well as politicians. Their secret money safe in secret swiss cache will be exposed. The US's support for India could be an Indication that US wants India to be her proxy against Afghanistan and perhaps against China, if she kept rising high.

The second event that received step child treatment was tight slaps on the face of Indian democracy. The first slap was reservation card played in the South by none other than our Bahen Ji. The logic elucidated was inclusion; wish someone could explain her that reservation unfortunately works the opposite way and eventually helps compartmentalize the society. Amartya Sen, a noble laureate that he is, sang his own song of reservations in IIT. I wish he understood the real need of IIT instead of parroting the rhetoric. On same lines IIMs were targeted for state control, similarity and various other suggestions of no value. Thankfully IIMs used their right to refuse the rubbish. While politicians used and abused the democracy by slapping on the 'left' cheek of India, private giants such as TATAs slapped the right one. Though the red fingers are not apparent, the impending danger cannot be ignored. Private elite class unfortunately talked about beefing up their private security and intelligence and everyone spoke in chorus; however, no one could guess the hidden cost. Ideologies are not developed in a day or two and once developed, they are the most difficult to be changed. Once such ideology in inception is lack of faith in government institutions, hence lack of faith in democracy. Efforts to raise private army, private security and private world will polarize the country. One side will be the middle class voting and bearing the brunt of the attacks and other-side will be upper class, secured and cocooned in their private villas, surrounded by private armies. This different sort of privatization will laugh its lungs out on Indian democracy.

Another event which could not compete against Antulay's remarks was an interview of Mr Jaswant Singh. Mr Jaswant Singh said that the act of releasing three dreaded terrorist was justfied and he would again do so if such accident occurs. Although it could have been a 'right' decision considering the plight of sobbing families, giving open invitation to terrorist that Mr. Jaswant Singh was ready to repeat Kandhar demands deliberation. Doesn't he belong to a party that celebrates its engineered 'POTA'? Would not those terrorist, then escorted by Mr. Singh, have designed many terror attacks in the country. Was the decision of saving 166 passenger on the cost of whole country not wrong? What ever the answers may be, Mr. Jaswant Singh's cordial statements for terrorist were definitive wrong.

That India is looking forward to become a world power someday demand proper attention to the events that went unnoticed. Consequences otherwise will be perilous.

Let's learn with the face red

Continuous Gandhian treatment to our enemy number one is a perfect example of unrequited love. The probability of coin landing on edge is infinitesimally low and so is the probability of Indo-Pak accord.

It has always been the two! The righteous they and blasphemous us! The right worshiper they and the idolater us! The west they and the east us! The deranged they and the fool us, who kept offering the other cheek unless the face went red, both with embarrassment and with warm blood silently surfacing up. Continuous Gandhian treatment to our enemy number one is a perfect example of unrequited love. The probability of a coin landing on edge upon being tossed is infinitesimally low and so is the probability of Indo-Pak accord.

While Pakistan has been exorbitantly busy in spreading hatred and economic in truth to his fledgling populace, we have been busy living in denial. Altering the facts, disseminating biased and doctored history and maligning the idea of India and 'making India bleed through thousand cuts' have been in their political manifesto. Denying truth and going back from words has been the modus-oprendi. In October 1948 Pakistan attacked Kashmir (Kashmir was an Independent state those days) with his Kabaili military. Kashmir acquiesced to merge in India and asked for support. Later, upon being kicked out from Kashmir, Pakistan took a U turn, saying they were stateless militants. (Since then Pakistan has been busy sending his people in Kashmir to settle down here. The idea is to have his people in our country, surprisingly with proper identity cards, so that they can start agitation any day for a separate state. The strategy has worked quite well; those who are demanding a separate Kashmir are not original Kashmiris). In 1965, when Indian army was low in moral for their defeat against China and Indian economy was in shambles, Pakistan, with his begging bowl filled with arms and ammunition, intruded in India. That act of extreme cowardice resulted in a full scale war, which ended shortly due to UN interruption. Then too, when the whole world knew who did what, Pakistan sang her song of stateless militants. Pakistan was badly exhausted in this war but partly due to UN interruption and partly due to our miscalculations (It was calculated that ammunition of Indian army was about to finish. Later it was revealed that only 14% of Indian ammunition was used; at the same time Pakitans exhausted more than 80 %.) India accepted cease fire (Tashkent Declaration). Apart from these political and technical reasons, a hidden desire for accord too was responsible for the cease fire. They played the same card of stateless militants in 1999 Kargil, Delhi 2001 and now Mumbai 2008. It appears that whole Pakistan army will be declared stateless by their politicos one day.

Let's just accept the fact that we two are poles apart, in terms of ideologies, in terms of achievements and , thankfully, in terms of prestige. Let's just forget patching the every minute widening rift between us. Let's just wall our borders and live in isolation (read peace) and indifference. Let's ban each and every Pakistani web sites, especially those which add fuel to fire or those which are governed by Jihadi making factory (China does it, Germany does it, why cannot we?). Let's export rice cheaper than they do. Let's look at other unnoticed countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for harmony. Let the Frankenstein monster of terrorism eat them till bone marrow. Let's just learn, with our face red, that idiots don't deserve humanely treatment.

Any silver lining?

Pakistan, ruled by the trio 'Army Government', 'Terrorist Government' and the effeminate 'Civilian Government' led by castrated politicians, banned organizations such as LeT and JeM in 2006 when kicked by the US but let their (LeT's, JeM's) political outfit untouched, arrested many terrorists and again released them to flourish in PoK and who knows where else, provided them patronage through ISI and fed them Saudi petro-dollars, said that Pakistan government was not involved in the Mumbai massacre and upon being whipped by the US suddenly arrested many terrorists whereabouts of whom were not known to Pakistan intelligence (while the rest of the world knew) , and the world believed them!!! The only thing that is reflected through such incidents is the relationship between the US and Pakistan. Pakistan appears to be US's keep; the US cuddles and slaps her(Pakistan) at her (US's) will.

Pakistan, a failed state infested by fundamentalism, has been screwed by its military rule. Her atrocities, treason (Bangladesh, Kargil...) and habit of backstabbing are well indexed in the history. On the same lines Pakistan's true nature, driven by her constant desire to dismantle India and support Jihadi terrorism, doesn't need an introduction. But now their very existence is at stake; the Frankenstein monster of terrorism has shown its true nature and has already started up eating its originator.

In the wake of Mumbai carnage, Pakistan has been exposed badly. In the cosmetic step of cooperation Pakistan is crying over her demand of solid proofs irrespective of so many tangible proofs provided from all the world over. Pakistan, dead in her conscience, will never understand or believe any proof for she does not want to. Here is one more proof recorded, published and circulated ages ago.

In an interview to "The Nation" (April 9, 1999) from Muzaffarabad, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who was described as the Amir of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, said: "We are extending our network in India and carried out attacks on Indian installations successfully in Himachal Pradesh last year. To set up Mujahideen networks across India is our target. We are preparing the Muslims of India against India and when they are ready, it will be the start of the disintegration of India." Addressing a press conference at Muzaffarabad on March 2, 1999, Zafar Iqbal, the co-founder of the LET, said that the LET had invited Osama bin Laden to join the "freedom struggle" in Kashmir. He said that his organisation would welcome bin Laden if he joined its struggle against the Indian army in Kashmir. He added: "Osama is our erstwhile colleague and we had fought jointly against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan."
Excerpted from http://southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers30%5Cpaper2977.html

The above written text has been printed as it is in the works of many editors and authors. I fail to understand that with such a tangible proof, on what grounds Pakistan demands another and why India should even think of providing them any. The very archive of 'The Nation' will be a proof of the heinous crimes of the sordid rulers of a failed state. The token step taken to arrest certain terrorists to make up for the failure in the rapprochement process -- so that they can continue exporting terrorists in India -- will not help much and should not be entertained at all for four reasons. First, they will not interrogate their 'own' people and at the same time they are not ready to hand them to India. Second, their arrest will actually protect them from any military action India takes in PoK. Third, the metastatic growth of terrorism in Pakistan, India and in rest of the world cannot be arrested by token arrests. The only solution in such cases is 'amputation'. Fourth, everyone knows Pakistan will release them as soon as we are busy in other problems. It is evident from the fact that Pakistan, true to its habits, turned from its words to send ISI chief to India.

Pakistan (and her government too) has been divided in two basic factions. One part has understood that such a continuous struggle has gifted Pakistan poverty, infamy and a status of terrorist country. The other part, thoroughly corrupted in their religious fundamentalism, wants to establish Islamic rule in South East through global Jihad. Both the divisions are driven by a relentless jealousy, while one wants to match it through the peace process and the other wants to bring India down to its level by dismantling her (India), thus matching the level. The second part has infested the whole world with its Jihadis to achieve its goals. In his book "Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism ", Stewart Bell has elaborated that Jihadi army is being funded and flourished in UK, US, Australia and Canada too. In a worth reading work of fiction "The Religion war", author Scott Adams talks about what may transpire in 2050. Every single word in that work of fiction appears a prophecy, given today's conditions. The only way to make the prophecy wrong is to eliminate the fundamentalists and their fund raisers.

Given the present situation, the horrid Islamic support to terrorists, amputation as the only solution (though impossible) and our country infested with Jaichands who time to time keep helping Mahmuds of Ghoris against Prithvirajs, I see no silver lining in the dark future of India.

Problem of ill-literates

We have had enough on illiteracy. Enough media reporting, enough political manifestos and enough citizen complaints. Although the problem still persists - for it was never tried to be solved; it was only talked about - the bigger threat to the society is "Ill-literacy".

First and the foremost, the Indian businessmen (to be fair, business men of any country), who lobby together, force the government and have the rules changed. The only thing faulty capitalist thought process can guarantee is profit making on the cost of equitable treatment to all. (Capitalism is actually about innovation and production) If one has to continue flourishing, one has to make sure that those who are around are addressed equitably. Unfortunately the concept of social entrepreneurship and inclusion is completely missing.

Second place goes to media. They, supposedly one of the most educated and learned clan of any country, continuously sensitize and package the news. 27X7 news channels, show a movie filled by their useless commentary in between. Otherwise, how can news such as 'Sonu falls in a bore-well' or 'a film actor caught cold in summers' can be displayed as 'Breaking News'. Irresponsible journalism has become the staple for such news channels, hardly anywhere close to quality. The other point on which media digresses from the responsible journalism is spreading a nationalistic message. In the pretext of nationalism, media fells prey to such traps and defaults to omitting the news, distorting the news and then eventually obscuring the news. They start supporting jingoism, whose consequences are not unknown to any. Always busy in spreading the message that people want to listen or watch, media has entrapped their audiences ad nauseam.

The third place goes to our teachers, especially in government college. Teachers have continuously been faking imparting eduction in schools, at the same time they dedicate their lives to after noon, away from school, classes. The other crisis generally takes place when a particular sect of students is ostracized and discriminated by teachers for their religion. Such acts at the formative years of a person leave indelible impressions on their minds. When a child's mind, free of any prejudices, is corrupted at such a basic level, the state walks on crutches.

Fourth place is attributed to newly formed believers of some distorted views of a particular religion, who unfortunately believe that killing innocents is an act well admired on the judgement day. Once known truism that those who are deprived of social welfare and basic amenities finally resort to committing henious crimes against society, partly for revenge and partly to do something as they really have nothing to do, is no more than a myth. It is no more about living condition or better lives; the contagion in the form of religious fundamentalism has spread to gullible clan, consisting well educated (ill-literates) engineers capable enough to hack into secured networks, to such an extent that curing this cancer no more possible.

For our toothless politicians (surely you were willing to see them on the top. Delhi's 40% MLAs are not even graduates {times of india-10 Dec-2008}) I could not find any place because most of them are not literate enough even to get a lowest paying job in normal conditions.

Someone said, "half knowledge is dangerous"; I would just add, "Even full knowledge without a sense of responsibility is deleterious".

Hopeless politicos

When the toothless politicians inexorably act to make the nation soft (and porous) to swallow it easily, the nation bleeds. In the current spate of terror attacks on the sovereignty of India, politicos have played blame the opposition game profusely. While the NSG operation was in progress, Mr L.K. Adwani couldn’t stop himself from bashing on opposition and called it a system failure. At the same time Mr Modi spoke utter non-sense and announced some packages for martyrs, which fortunately was thrown back at his face by the proud families. BJP leaders firstly failed to understand the gravity of the situation and could not help themselves from showing their animal upbringing by speaking rubbish. Secondly, they forgot, thanks to their volatile memory, that there were much severe attacks on India during BJP rule, namely - Parliament attack, Kargil war, Attack on Akshardham temple and some here and there bomb blasts. They also forgot that BJP is the sole responsible party who sought vote in the name of 'Ram Mandir' and spread the contagion of riots in the entire world. Further what Mr L. K. Adwani, and surprisingly our news hungry media, has also forgotten that he was in the first few to have been booked under Hawala. On what merits did he qualify for the prime ministerial candidature is beyond my ken. MNS, the great Marathi savior party, too was not away from playing politics. They spread the SMS, apart from the ritual posters all politicos pasted all over Mumbai, that Marathi officers gave their lives fighting terrorists. What they must understand that not all the naval commandos and not all the NSG commandos were Marathi. In such a serious state, Shiv Sena cheif says that he will not allow Pakistan team to play in Maharashtra; when will he (they) learn that it is about country, not about a particular state. Those who support either Shiv Sena or MNS must reevaluate first on the basis of their silence and then on their funny remarks. Does Mumbai really need a leader who didn't dare to address the state? Does Mumbai really need a leader who deserted them when they needed him the most? Does Mumbai need a leader who did not come forward to console and encourage his citizen? At least in such a situation, when the whole country stood united, MNS, Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress should have stayed in their lairs.

In a country, where blood comes cheap, where neighbors uncork champagne when we perish, where media is continuously showing the story of horror and using martyrs as their advertisement bait (being really insensitive to their families), where common men have realized a new pastime of bashing on politicians, where the politicos don't do anything but condemn the attacks, where so called public servants started cashing on the opportunity even before the trauma was over, where a chief minister of a state says, "the terrorists planned 5000 killings but we made them succumbed to kill only 200" and "we had some information but not the specific ones" (the most absurd statement I have ever heard, as if terrorists are obligated to inform everything before arriving), where a home minister of a state writes his own political obituary by saying, "such small accidents do happen", and where the other CM says, "not even a dog will visit Sandeep Unnikrishanan's house", and where they still roam with tight security (I really mourn on parliament attack failure), while common man is fighting for survival, I feel not to waste my precious moments thinking and writing about politic mistakes of our citizen anymore.

Media Monsters

First Kashmir, then terror attacks and now unbridled media of both the countries are helping fuel the fire between India and Pakistan. The siege of Mumbai is over. What remains is finger pointing, happening bilaterally, by the media. Media monsters have been ruling the world since the time immemorial. Indian history witnessed the rift between the two communities after the munity of 1857, in which both the communities unitedly fought against their common enemy. Then British ruler took media their hostage and re-wrote the history, publishing only the atrocities on Hindus by the Muslim rulers. While it is true that Muslim rulers invaded Indian states, it is also true that they gradually accepted Indian traditions and mingled into India. What had happened in the past, what had held no importance, was elaborated so effectively that India suffered partition and many Hindu-Muslim riots since then. We Indians (and Pakistanis), good at carrying on the legacy, are still fighting due to the media created monsters.

Indian media, without much evidence, started making stories about Pakistan's role in current terror attacks (Somehow it has been proved true now), while Pakistani media criticized Indian media's endeavors and provided calculations to oppose such manifestations. Obviously it is surprising that just after such a huge intelligence failure we started making conclusions within hours of the attacks. While it is true that our media is mostly busy in making a potpourri of happenings, without understanding much of responsible journalism, Pakistan's involvement in maiming India cannot be denied. On the Indian side, media showed such a grim situation of the country to whole world continuously like a horror or action movie. Barkha Dutt, an eminet journalist that she is, was found asking her camera men to point on snipers. Such a despicable act of journalism was not expected from a 'Padm Shree' winner.

It is quite funny that people on both the sides of the borders are told altogether different stories about same event. India says, they used voice recognition software to dictate an e-mail in Hindi, while Pakistan says no one knows Hindi in Pakistan. India says, they said they hail from Hyderabad Deccan, while India says it is Pakistan that knows Indian Hyderabad as Hyderabad Deccan; In India we don't use this word 'Deccan'. India says, they spoke in accented Punjabi spoken in Punjab in Pakistan, while Pakistan says that they clearly spoke in north India Punjabi language. Pakistan somehow doesn't talk about boats, satellite phones, e-mail being traced to Lahore and mutilated fishermen found; perhaps they have nothing to lie about there (Jai Hind). In the end, they are making fun that it took only 10 young men (‘the dawn news, 1st Dec 2008'. They don't even call them militants or terrorists) to control Mumbai, again defaming India for their malicious satisfaction. I am surprised that in the same newspaper, on the same day, they have reported Karachi violence where gunmen (yes I too will not call them terrorists) opened fired indiscriminately on public and Pakistan police couldn't even trace the miscreants.

Media, serving the purpose of selling masala news (badly irresponsible), have poisoned the relations between the two countries, and have brought us on the verge of war. Instead, media from the both sides should have taken the responsibility of dousing the fire between us and would have turned this tragedy into an advantage, internally and internationally.

India needs reforms

Price of subverted politics, corruption from bottom to top and compromised state of law and order cannot be paid in currencies (not even in $). It has to be paid by terrorism, unemployment and hatred among each other who once lived in comity. Any cosmetic step such as the peace talk with neighbours or charity allowance to those who suffered will not undo the hatred, and any change in the governance will not change the compromised situation of the state.

In the politics shitland we have experimented with many governments, incompetent to the core, with the sterile creativity and stagnant thought process. They have only infused venom to the already created fissures between the various communities in India Inc. The decision makers sitting on the top must understand that interests of the state come first, then comes the interests of citizens and in the last it is themselves they should think of. But in India Inc. the order is, unfortunately, reversed. The need of hour is reform in the political system, and introduction of capitalist touch in politics. And must be well imbibed that reform is not something that accrues in small changes. It demands a complete redesign.

Firstly we need a change from parliamentary system (a gift from them who ruled us) to president rule for 5 years. Strict law and order is needed to bring the morale of those down who are flourishing under the impunity of minority appeasing policies and champions of human rights. That they care about human rights is understandable, but what is not understandtable is the plea for human rights for whom, who at the first place cannot be categorised as humans. Since anything that stays permanent is prone to be corrupted, president rule cannot be used for more than 5 years. Further all the politicians who have even a single case filed on them must be thrown out of the system. This will give enough chances for young and new leaders to come in front, and think competition, should they want to take the power.

Secondly, police and their recruitment process must be made independent of government. Proper corporate culture, like there is in each private institution that supports competition, must be the only way to go ahead with. This way we will be able to purge the officers who have been playing stooges of politicians. Strict laws such as POTA must be enacted and it should be told to police that they too are subjected to the same laws. This will alleviate the fear of the misuse of such laws.

Thirdly, any terrorist should not be negotiated or talked with. They should be exterminated. For them let there be the law suggested by their religion, eye for an eye. Such a law will surely make them think twice before taking any step forward. It has worked in Punjab, it is working in Sri Lanka and it will work for whole India too. Lessons of good conduct are not for the extremist. Brazen steps for brazen motives.

Fourthly, reservation harbours the gaps in the society, hence must be repealed. Media must be taken hostage and should be allowed to spread only what is in the benefit of the state. Sneaking truth out is not always correct. Learn from China. Instead of reservations, education till 12th could be made free /subsdized for those, who have enjoyed reservations till now. Reservations and any such policies of marginalisation should be rescinded.

Fifth, like Israel, India must make army service mandatory for every citizen for 3-4 years. Such a rule will work as a backup for our army, make our civilians well equipped against terror shit heads and will instil the patriotism in every one of us. Certainly we need to have more army for our porous borders. China, Pakistan and Bangladesh are inching days by day towards us.

In sum, the truth is that there is no ideal system to stick with forever. Initially we need a revolution and then a will to keep the rotation on to boost the confidence of the common men and keep the economy running.

Country ! My Country

We are living in an era where our ears are attuned to hearing the news about serial blasts and eyes accustomed to see vast devastation on television. Tele-programs (I no longer call them news channels) keep the issue sensational, as bad generally outsells good, and politicians keep blaming the other party without understanding the gravity of the situation. They must understand that such a luxury is indeed an instrument to be played only in better times. None of the Indian cities have been spared by fundamentalists, who eulogize their particular religion and ideology of particular community, and at the same time, due to their heinous acts, are totally against the very concept of community.

Right now, Mumbai, once called the safest city of India, whose (Mumbai's) police was once compared to Scotland Yard, is under siege. Such an unprecedented host of events in which terrorist open fired indiscriminately, but co-coordinately, and made various foreigners their hostages in various five start hotels, has left us with the question, 'Are we still waiting for a savior to incarnate?'. Our security, and hence future, has been compromised to such an extent that we are no more safe in our own house (as has happened tonight with those who thought to watch from the windows). Till now we have watched such acts, where terrorists take control of Hotels, and Hospitals or hijack police vehicles and run in the city firing almost everyone, only in movies. It is a reality currently manifesting itself in Mumbai. What I fail to understand is that a truck load of ammunition, AK 47s, automatic weapons, and grenades were pumped into the fortified city and police couldn't smell anything. That day is not far when terrorist will get hold of Nuclear weapons and may take whole country under hostage. This can easily be compared with the 93 serial blasts in Mumbai, and perhaps will eventually be claimed by the same perpetrators. On the television, on all news channels, I see the face of death, terror and a question that 'Will it ever end?' And again it is not just an attack; it is a tight slap on the face of lesson of secularism that India chose to teach to the world, when she suffered partition.

I really feel a pity on Indian common men, who vote and live under the false hope that any government can provide them safe life. I won't be surprised if tomorrow our politicians, who never leave an opportunity to entertain us with their funny acts and continuously prove their animal upbringing and instincts, start mudslinging at one another. UPA (Sonia) will lose sleep even if one from the minority (their vote bank) dies and Advani will call it an act of cowardice, and eventually no one would do anything. Our home minister might sound a bit upset, for he would have been woken up from his deep slumber by the news hungry media. I wish someday, some amount of destruction will wake their sleeping conscience up and make them apprise of the compromised state of our country. For now it is imperative for us not to participate in electoral process and demand president rule for next 5 years.

I, currently watching the Mumbai situation on-line on CNN news, with the eyes moistened for the martyr ATS chief Hemant Karkare, feel that someday it will be I who will add up the death toll, felling a prey to one of such attacks.

Colors of terrorism

Contrary to our belief, terrorism has become multicolored now. Previously different parts of India had different colored terrorisms. Muslim rulers colored it green; Communists colored it red; Capitalism added stars in almost every color. All those colors have been since quite long and are well ingrained in our head. However, presently we see a new color in making, the saffron.

Throughout the history terrorism has emerged , and has been nourished by them who sit far behind and enjoy the spurting red color, in different circumstances with different objectives. The earliest form of terrorism known to us is collective's angst against individuals when political and religious groups defaulted to violence against people who chose to think and hence became a threat to those 'individual's' existence. The English still call Indian freedom movement an act of terrorism. Monarchies and dictatorship have always been in trouble since the power was in an individual's hands, hence easy to be snatched away. Acts of terrorism, by them who felt exploited, were messages to the individuals that atrocious policies and exploitation will no longer be accepted.

Previously such groups were formed by the youth with deep nationalist sentiments. They then acted in support of a nationalist cause and killed those were in anyway against their nationalist cause. In Russia before the 1917 revolution, members of such group tried to kill Tsar and other officials in a hope to bring about a change. During the British Raj, at the time of partition of Bengal in 1905 by then viceroy Lord Curzon, Bengali nationalists adopted terrorism since all peaceful and democratic march failed. They had the Bengal reunited in 1911. After the first world war, Bhagat Singh and his friends took the path to terrorize the English and told everyone not to fear them. They were hanged in 1931, but their acts kept echoing in the form of other freedom movements and the English had to leave. Hitler and his fascist government used the police force to control the people; in response his enemies resorted the path to terror to remove him.

With such a vast set of historical evidence, it can safely be assumed that whenever state blocks the avenues of expression and adopts unfair means to control its own people, result will be terrorism. The most excruciating part of the story is that poeple can be influenced in the name of almost every thing. The government (lets assume good government) executes policies to remove terrorism either by extermination or by initiating the talk process. Both of the routes have been instrumental in increasing the acts of terror. While exterminating them, others who were immune to what is going one, see their people dying and take the path of terrorism. When government initiates the peace talk, such a movement spreads wrong message all around. To a faction, it feels that they could be rewarded eventually should they take such a path, and to other faction, it feels that government is marginalizing them on the vote politics. Both the steps lead to more terror activitives. Hence, once trapped, no nation could be saved from the bloody hands of the terrorism.

The myth that saffron wasn't the color of terrorism has been broken. As they claim, it is just a reaction from the other colored terrorisms, chiefly green. Such acts are generally committed under political impunity, mostly to discredit the government in power.

The key question to be asked here is that do they really understand for whom and against whom, now a days terrorists are fighting? And the key lesson that should be learned by the terrorists is that it is an act of weakness, not that of power. People or political parties who adopt such methods have no intellectual creativity and instead of convincing their opponents by intellectual arguments they resort to violence and cause chaos. That’s why most of the terrorist organizations in the end give up this method and adopt peaceful and non-violent means for achieving their objects such as the IRA and the ANC of South Africa, which abandoned violence to struggle on moral grounds and ultimately overthrew the apartheid regime. I, therefore, can only hope that people in India, someday will take the other route to comity and forget all the colors.

A letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh

Dear Sir,

I admire your degrees, academic achievements and your vision for India. Unfortunately you have been quite unlucky of late. In spite of your much talked about N-deal (Which I believe was not your brain child), the spate of blasts in almost every part of India, financial crisis and the spreading contagion of separatism (be it Kashmiries, be it Asames or be it Marathi Manoos) has defiled your image to such an extent that chances of UPA coming again in center in the coming elections are zilch. However, you still have a few months left. I request you not to hurry up initiating policies which opposition will anyway repeal, instead invest your intelligence in filling up the ditch current crisis (both economic and food) has dug for the coming government.

First and the most important one, why do you think we should invest in infrastructure in such a bad time? I presume that you foresee more FDI and perhaps FII if we have broad roads and big bridges. In the current situation, more expenditure on infrastructure will be just like a burden of making more guns, which cannot reward but siphon money from you. You must understand that ours is the agriculture based economy (Please forgive me but I will never count services). Food crisis, rising food prices in such a country is a matter of shame. You must think about investments in agriculture sector in India. It the real time for inclusion, which you have been talking about.

Second, you with our esteemed finance minister can think of earning by pitching in some oxygen of dollars from your dollar reserve to those corporates, which are dying due to their dollar loans. I know you may say that we shouldn't privatize the profits and socialize the losses. But think this way. Those corporates have to pay up to 10% interest rate on their dollar loans, and you keep your dollar reserves parked in US bond at 5%. I guess maths it quite easy for you now. However, you must remember that crony capitalism too is not always helpful.

Third, time to time I hear your hush-hush about making the Indian Rupee fully convertible. As I have said earlier, I admire your vision for India but you are taking steps which have already fallen for many Asian countries. I humbly remind you of the East Asian crisis (1991). Making rupee fully convertible with straight away put our not so large economy in the hands currency speculators. It will also give liberty to the rich to sell off and run away in the time of crisis. We must learn the growth pattern followed by China. It is growing leaps and bounds, without risking Yuan.

Fourth, your soft views on the separatist movements are condemnable. I remember you admired Indian diaspora in 130 countries, on 15th of August, but the same India is unable to digest UPites and Bhiaries diaspora. Politicians who don't understand even the single word they speak are enjoying your impunity. They know, since you are aleady at the verge of losing coming election, you will not risk your vote bank by going against them. But wait, think, then act. Do you really think such acts will win you votes? Nay! Although we hail from the Darkness, we have seen some lights now. Act against those goons, your act may win you some extra votes.

Fifth, ....

I will keep reminding you about much needed efforts from you time to time.

Thanks,
Manish