You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that such large outpourings of support for Anna Hazare is basically a demand for a phone number, viz 101, which they can call up to register their complaint against neighborhood pandu havaldaar or the municipality clerk who ask for money to do their legitimate jobs. They want a number which is accessible to each and every one so that action is taken against offenders based on their complaint. Though everyone has heard of 2G scam, CWG scam, Adarsh scam etc etc (list is too long for this write up), yet they do not really associate much with it because most of these scams talk about astronomical amounts of money which they cannot relate with. They may have heard of 1.76 lakh crores which was lost in 2G scam but they relate more to that thousand bucks which goes out of their own pockets to corrupt babus and policemen. And if Congress cannot see this basic simple all pervasive demand all I can say is that they’re downright stupid and naive.

Posted on August 22nd, 2011 under India calling. Tags: Anna, Congress, corruption, Hazare, lokpal, support, team. Comments: 7

First the basics. When a person is called for a conference anywhere in the world who is supposed to pay for his travel and lodging? Well, the organizers of the conference. Who else? Therefore, to that extent there is nothing wrong with people like Dileep Padgaonkar, Justice Sachar and many others attending such all expenses paid conferences. But that is only on the face of it. Things take an entirely different turn when it comes to light that those expenses were paid by the notorious Pak spy agency, ISI. Most of these journos including Padgaonkar have very clearly said that they were not aware of ISI’s involvement with Fai’s Kashmiri American Council(KAC) which organized these conferences. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Posted on July 24th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: Congress, Fai, FBI, KAC, Muslim, Padgaonkar, Sachar, Terror. Comments: 4

My name is ABC and I’m a terrorist, according to your language. What you people do not understand is that my organisation XYZ Freedom Movement is fighting for a cause, freedom from Indian occupation, and this is a war going on. As in any war there will be some casualities. Many of my brothers and sisters have lost their lives too. So what the hell are you Indians complaining about? You’d better learn to live with this because you cannot stop us. Your elitist Prime Minister in waiting has himself said so. He knows that your security apparatus is weak and we too know that. There are ‘opportunities’ in India which are just waiting to be exploited.

Posted on July 19th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: attack, HUJI, IM, LeT, Mumbai, Pak, talks, Terror. Comments: 8

“They took pictures. They showed me on TV. But do you think they will help my son find a job?” said Budhrai Debbrama, a tribal from Tripura who was the first man out of 1.2 billion people to be surveyed in the just begun first caste census in independent India. Off course the officials did not have any answer to his question. But I do. And the answer is both a yes and a no. Yes, because this census has the potential to be a game changer for the poor and No because in it’s current manifestation it can only prove to be a game changer for our politicians.

Posted on July 4th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: caste, census, jobs, quota, reservations, SC, seats, ST. Comments: 11

“I’m sandwiched between economists and populists” said Jaipal Reddy, our union minister for oil and natural gas, about the recent price hike of diesel, kerosene and LPG. Wrong statement, if you ask me. Actually, he’s sandwiched between bad economists and bad populists(read politicians). And that’s because the recent price hikes in fuel are a result of both, bad economics and bad politics. If you ask me to define the primary job of our govt it can be done in one single statement- To bring down the cost of living and to raise the standard of living of it’s citizens. But this decision by our govt seems to be doing the exact opposite- To raise the cost of living and lower the standard of living of it’s citizens.

Posted on June 28th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: Congress, crude, fuel, hike, kerosene, LPG, oil, petrol, price. Comments: 2

If we were to leave the PM outside the Lokpal’s ambit what stops the ministers from each and every ministry from getting the approval of PM before awarding every major contract to anyone? Believe you me this will happen. Every ministry will get their files endorsed by PM and thereafter Lokpal can do nothing. And this will be one perfect way of circumventing the Lokpal. As you can see, it’ll defeat the very purpose of having a Lokpal.

Posted on June 13th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: 2G, ambit, contract, corruption, jurisdiction, lokpal, PM, scam. Comments: 12

Before Baba Ramdev started his fast, Congress started on a very positive note by trying to reach out to him and engage him in a proper dialogue. Baba Ramdev too did the correct thing by meeting with all the emissaries of the govt and talked to them even before he began his fast and later on as well. The negotiations carried on with many assurances being given and letters/drafts being exchanged. But in the end, it all went horribly wrong. The govt and Baba Ramdev failed to reach a meeting ground, but this was something which was not acceptable to the govt at all. It was like an arrogant king who had tried to come down from his high pedestal to pursuade a commoner to stop protesting but when the commoner did not agree, the king took it as a personal affront and ordered his soldiers to throw out the commoner, the commoner and his demands be damned.

Posted on June 7th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: baba, BJP, blackmoney, Congress, craqckdown.Sunil Ku3mar, fast, Ramdev, shoe attack. Comments: 12

Though the issue of giving reservations to minorities in education and jobs may still be justified to some extent I really cannot see why they need to be given special treatment in criminal cases, be it by them or against them. A crime is a crime. Why should the victim’s or for that matter, the criminal’s religion have any bearing on the process of law or the amount of punishment to be meted out? If religion is the rallying point for the state to dish out punishment to perpetrators then how different is it from the motive behind the crimes committed by these very perpetrators. By extension therefore, in such a scenario how different will the state itself be from those criminals who kill in the name of religion? Wouldn’t we as a secular nation flout the basic criteria of any secular civil society or is it that we’re now becoming nonsecular though in the opposite sense?

Posted on May 31st, 2011 under India calling. Tags: communal, community, Congress, Godhra, Gujarat, law, minority, riots. Comments: 19

I think we need to call up Geoffrey Boycott’s mum from heavens for our tour of West Indies. We all know she can bat and who knows she could well be a good captain too. And that’s because after Gautam Gambhir’s shoulder injury we don’t really have an opener to open innings with Murali Vijay. Mind you, Geoff Boycott too was an opener so his mum may just be able to do some justice to this slot.

Posted on May 27th, 2011 under India calling. Tags: Andrew Leipus, BCCI, Gambhi, Gautam, Gauti, injury, IPL, KKR, SRK. Comments: 6