Okay, of all the TV networks which one was the best debate on match fixing? Well, for me it was the one on Times Now where our dear old Bishen Singh Bedi appeared half drunk. At first it seemed like I was mistaken but when he started talking I was more than convinced that he was indeed three or four drinks down, at least. A couple of drinks more and I’m sure Bedi would’ve told Arnab Goswami,” Oye, Chadd Yaar. Tainu Kee? Aye koi nai gall thodi hai. Salon se ho raya hega. CHEERS!!” or words to that effect. But you can’t really blame Bedi for this. What do you expect people to be doing at nine in the evening? Good people work through the day and party in the evenings. Don’t they? For that matter, Farouq Engineer who was speaking from Manchester, UK where it was around four thirty in the evening, was seen having a huge cup of coffee (or at least that’s my guess) because you are supposed to have coffee at that time.

Posted on September 3rd, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Amir, Asif, Cricket, fixing, ICC, match, Pakistan, PCB, Terror, war. Comments: 4

While there is no doubt that the subsidy which the govt will now save be to the tune of Rs 30,000 crores which can be used for other useful purposes but there is much more to it than just that. For starters, didn’t the govt make more than Rs 30,000 crores extra than it had anticipated in 3G spectrum sale just recently? If they did they surely had more than enough for their current planned expenditures for this fiscal. Then why the hurry to decontrol petrol prices? Secondly, when the inflation starts to zoom up again won’t it become incumbent upon the Reserve Bank of India to hike interest rates which they have been postponing for some time now? And that implies that all kinds of loans including home loans will be costlier, again having a direct bearing on you and me. Thirdly, to believe that the oil corporate lobby did not have anything to do with this decision is also rather pedestrian. There can be little doubt about that.

Posted on June 27th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: conflict of interest, Congress, hike, inflation, iran, oil, price, war. Comments: 10

Oh yes. Naxals are far better trained and prepared to do what they do than our security forces which have been tasked to deal with them. The killing of 75 CRPF soldiers proves it beyond doubt. P Chidambaram may say that they walked into a trap or something but quite frankly, it’s bull crap. 75 soldiers cannot die in a trap unless the establishment has been absolutely inefficient in it’s job. No, I’m not exactly a naxal sympathizer but I only wish to bring out this glaring fact so that people who matter can see for themselves what’s so horribly wrong with us that naxals keep killing our soldiers with impunity and we keep repeating the same language which has no effect on the way things actually are on the ground.
Here are the questions which the govt and the concerned officials must answer for.

Posted on April 7th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: attack, CRPF, forces, killing, maoists, Naxals, PC, security, war. Comments: 40

As I mentioned in my previous post Are we missing the point in Afghanistan?, the dangers of letting Afghanistan slip into chaos once again are too great to be neglected by us. If you seriously think about it the situation in that country is directly related to not just the internal security situation in India but the very existence of our nation. If any of you guys think that this is an over statement or a pessimistic view of things please read my previous post again and I’m sure that you’ll see what I mean.

So what can we do to keep things under our control? Is sending a force to Afghanistan the only way out or is there something else that we can do? Well, there is a lot that we can and should be doing to change things. Here’s what I would recommend.

Posted on March 16th, 2010 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: Afghanistan, attack, base, force, Karzai, Taliban, talk, Terror, war. Comments: 5

The basic difference between India and Pakistan is not religion alone. The basic difference is the perception of identities of it’s citizens of these two countires by these very people. When Indians talk of Pakistanis they are actually referring to Pakistanis only and not Muslims whereas when Pakis talk of Indians they imply Hindus. That’s the basic difference between the people of the two countries. More often than not during debates on TV channels we see the Paki speakers invariably switch from talking about Indo-Pak relations to Hindu-Muslim relationship or lack thereof. By extension since Islam is so deeply ingrained in their psyche they see the problem as being a Hindus versus Pakistan issue whereas this is not the case. As a result there is no meeting ground for the two of us.

Posted on January 17th, 2010 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: Bollywood, India, Movies, nuclear, Pakistan, Terror, terrorist, war. Comments: 12

When John McCain questioned Robert Gates and Mike Mullen about the date of troop withdrawal given out by Obama as being Jul 11 he was told that the administration would review the situation in Dec 10 and then take a final call. That’s rather understandable but in that case why give out this date of withdrawal at all? And that’s the first flaw with his strategy. Once you have given these dates Taliban may play a waiting game thereby giving a false picture to the decision making authorities, NATO. As things stand today, they are nowhere close to winning that war. And then to expect them to turn things around to an extent to enable them to start pulling out in just eighteen months is rather naive. Actually, they don’t even have eighteen months to achieve that. It’s more like seven or eight months because the entire lot of 30,000 troops which Obama announced will only reach Afghanistan by May 10 and the decision will be taken in Dec 10. To expect things to go from what they are right now wherein they need more troops to thinking of pulling out in this short a period is crazy, even for laypersons like you and me. Even if you go by what Gen McChrystal had said wherein he demanded 40,000 more troops and that too without any time line of eighteen months to begin withdrawal goes to show that either Obama’s generals are not exactly in sync with him or worse, Obama himself is not in sync with his generals in Afghanistan.

Posted on December 4th, 2009 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: Af-Pak, Pashtun, surge, Taliban, terrorists, troops, war. Comments: 8

When 9/11 happened America converted this crisis into an opportunity. They ensured that another 9/11 does not happen again on their territory and they have succeeded. They did not let 9/11 just become history before they dealt with their present. Can we, as Indians let 26/11 just become history without dealing with our present? The question is for all Indians to answer for. And I’m not talking about candle light vigils or some such stuff here.

Posted on November 26th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: 26/11, 9/11, attack, holocaust, Mumbai, nuke, response, Terror, war. Comments: 14

If you go by a poll conducted in Pakistan, despite the kind of ‘investment’ Obama has done in Pakistan, America is still perceived as the number one enemy in that country. Let me tell you for a fact that this will not change for at least the next few generations. If that be the case is there any assurance that the govt in Pakistan will keep overlooking the general public opinion? Remember, how the strong public opinion forced even a president like Musharraf to quit? Actually Obama can thank the fundamentalist parties in Pakistan who have not yet whipped up this very strong emotion prevalent amongst the populace of that country. But things can change very fast in case they actually do.

Posted on November 23rd, 2009 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: India, obama, Pakistan, PM, Terror, US, visit, war. Comments: 8

Well! Well! Well!!! After all the talk of BREAKING INDIA INTO PIECES, hundreds of border ‘transgressions’, consternation on Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, separate visas to Kashmiris and a host of other provocations, Wen Jiabao now says that they want to have good relations with India. He said this when he met Manmohan Singh in Thailand on the sidelines of ASEAN summit. Damn good. Just what the doctor ordered. But why does my heart tell me not to believe him? Possibly my heart has gone crazy. After all it’s the premier of a sovereign nation saying so. Hey, wait a minute. Didn’t Hu Jintao (their President) say something similar in June when he met Manmohan Singh in Russia? And most of the provocations which I mentioned have taken place after that? Well, my heart is damn right. We cannot believe Wen Jiabao, Hu Jintao, Mao Mao, Lao Lao or even Ming Ping Chin for that matter.

Posted on October 25th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: ASEAN, balance, China, military, navy, pirates, somalia, trade, war. Comments: 4