For Freedom

Here's hoping the Congress Government will stop bending over backwards to the Chinese. The Left owes its allegiance to the "Peoples" Party, but its sad to see the Con'gress do so too, just to stay in power. The Commies banned Tibetan protests in West Bengal, and I hope the rest of the country noticed. What most of the country didn't notice is that the Congress Government in Arunachal Pradesh also banned Tibetan protests. These obedient dogs have been patted by their masters in Beijing.

Come elections, and I hope the Commies are wiped out from the Parliament. I don't know if I should wish the same for the Con'gress, but my faith in regional parties is even lesser. God forbid that national policies be made by people like Mayawati and Karunanidhi!

Instant cricket

In this day and age of instant cricket, the BCCI has cut absolutely no corners in making the IPL as big a marketing event as this country as ever seen. There are cheerleaders imported from the NFL teams in the United States, and now there is talk of making betting legal for the IPL. All the concepts have been picked up from the western leagues, like fantasy cricket, ownership by corporations and individuals, and huge salaries for superstars.

Initially when the IPL was first mooted by the BCCI, I hated its formation, mainly because I hate the BCCI. When it comes to corruption and incompetence in sports, the BCCI tops the list. Now one might say that how can that be, when the Indian cricket team is one of the best cricket teams in the world. Sure, but imagine the BCCI as a pimp who has a goose that lays the golden eggs. I call them pimps because they feed off the money they generate when India plays, and the domestic structure gets no attention even though it has been rotting away for decades.

Now with this purely commercial venture, the BCCI hopes to make even more money, and some say they will use it to strengthen domestic cricket. I just don’t understand the entire system. Why strengthen the Ranji and other tournaments when nobody goes to watch them? What good does that do. Where are their marketing plans to get more people to watch Ranji games, and other domestic one-day tournaments? What happens to the hundreds of players who play their hearts out for a pittance?

Before anything, the IPL is definitely a knee jerk reaction to the ICL. The ICL was a new venture, and the BCCI, just like a rich, crass person with a gargantuan ego, reacts by trying to show everyone that they can do it on a much grander scale. So bring out the pom-poms and the film stars and strut your national players where ever they will be eagerly lapped up by the doe-eyed media.

I watched the ICL, and this year, I thought it was organized very well. Most of the games were good quality, and the finals, between Lahore and Hyderabad, were just outstanding. Very well done, and the stadium in Hyderabad was packed as if the Indian national team was playing. What made me feel happiest was all these young Indian cricketers playing such good cricket, and getting so much recognition and attention and above all, good money.

The IPL, like the rich, crass person, went out to the market and auctioned all the Indian national team and international players to the teams, got all the corporates to pay for them, and are sitting smug in their chairs, counting their money. But it remains to be seen how quickly they can come up with the money to pay for everything.

I suppose I am an idealist, and I always like the underdog, but I am in no way the hypocritical fan who says cricket is his religion, but forgets to mention that its only when the Indian national team plays. In this day of media packaging, BCCI has left domestic cricket to die, and with the IPL, one can probably forget about any attention to our premier tournaments, like the Ranji Trophy, which has been around since before independence!

Yesterday was Sachin Tendulkar’s birthday, and while his birthday should be a cause for celebration for the entire country, apparently it’s only the duty of his IPL team, the Mumbai Indians, to celebrate his birthday. No, his birthday should have been celebrated by the Indian cricket team, not the team which BCCI made for him.

Ah, and finally, they are called the Mumbai Indians, and ironically, one asswipe posing as a Maratha leader is trying to portray exactly the opposite, that Mumbai is not for other Indians. I am surprised the Thackrey family didn’t create a ruckus and hurt people to demand that Mumbai team only consist of sons of the Maratha soil.

OBC quota comes through - job well done, traitors UPA

today, the Supreme Court of India passed the resolution that will bring about 27% quota for the "Other Backward Castes" in the higher education institutions of the country such as the IIM's, the IIT's, and AIIMS. The court has given these institutions 3 years to implement the quota in its entirety. Also, for now, the private institutes, which do not get any funding from the state, will be kept out of the loop.

Deep in the cells of 10 Janpath, I can imagine wily Congress political loonies calculating the number of castes and communities they can target for votes with this judgment. Arjun Singh must be at Akbar Road paying his daily obeisance to his master, Sonia Gandhi. And Mrs. Gandhi herself must be telling the late Rajiv that I tried really hard to do good for India, but staying in power and feeding the swines around me is more important, plus, your son has to be the PM one day, and he can't do so riding on a chariot of truth and conviction.

Anyways, the Supreme Court says that the creamy layer will be kept out of this quota stuff, but I think anybody who wants to take a deep look into this whole quota system will find that most of the quotas for the scheduled castes and tribes have indeed been exploited by the richer and more well connected members. In fact, most of them are sitting in the Parliament, the state assemblies, the Councils, and all the various committees and corporations created by the laws of the land.

From what I hear, the general seats will be kept intact, and the institutes have to find a way to accommodate the new seats to fill the new quota. All these big institutes have such a huge goodwill that they should not have any problem raising the money or the infrastructure to accommodate the new students, but the fact is that with the extremely unaccountable and biased way the quota system is implemented in the country, the students who benefit from such goodies are below par in performance and abilities. And this is not because they belong to any caste or community, but because they have been allowed to circumvent the due process of fair and equal competition.

I know people who were shortchanged because this bad, bad system, and I hope I won't be one, and I do hear of people who benefited from the system, but because they got in easy, they didn't have the ambition or the ability.

Its a bad situation because nobody is winning, well, other than the politician who thinks he can get these communities to vote for his/her party, but in the long run, these bastards have ensured that ambitious, talented, but 'general' youth will be driven out of this country, and they have every right to leave.

If 50 percent quota wasn't enough, the great exploiter of castes, Behen Kumari Mayawati, the angel on earth, the shining light of the minorities, the heiress to Dr. Ambedkar, has said that now we should have quotas for the economically backward upper castes!

I really don't know where this nation will be years down the line, but with these bastards twisting it in every way, it probably won't be in a good position.

freedom, torches, democracy and all that

When the Chinese were awarded the Olympic Games many years ago, I am sure they must have thought that this is great, finally the west will stop crying about their human rights, democracy and all that stuff. Beijing getting the Olympic games meant the world (meaning the white world that the earth revolves around) was finally accepting China for what it is - a brutal, communist, unfree and fiendish nation.

Also, when China got the games, I hope many people in the developing countries realized that Europe and USA do not care about democracy, freedom and all these heavy words they keep invading small nations with.

Now the Tibetan brothers and sisters are picking up steam again in their struggle for freedom, and China, like any oppressive, dictatorial and opaque country, is feeling insecure by these relatively peaceful protests and demonstrations.

I am glad the torch got extinguished in Paris. The flame of the Olympic games should not stand for oppression and murder of individual freedom. Guess what, the Chinese censored all the news of the protests in Europe and the attack on the torch. I am not surprised, its in their nature. And its in the nature of the western world to talk of freedom and do everything against it. In fact, the Chinese have been calling foreign diplomats and journalists and showing them videos of Tibetan extremism and how they have been killing innocent Chinese! Of course, foreign journalists still aren't permitted to visit all parts of China freely and without permission. This is going to a great, orchestrated Olympics with wonderful buildings built on the blood of victims.

And then there are the spineless, gutless Congress politicians, who, most unfortunately, got a chance to compromise India's security and integrity for 5 whole years. The Chinese puppets in India have most wonderfully kept a stick up the UPA's ass and the latter has been doing whatever the master wants. So now China is scared that there will be huge protests in India, so they call Indian ambassador at 2 in the morning and tell her of what they expect the Government of India to do. Of course, the Government of India will do exactly what they expect them to do, when you have no spine and no agenda for your country, you will slither to whichever corner you are pulled in.

So now the security arrangements for the flame relay in New Delhi will be similar to the ones for Republic Day. For me, this relay is nothing more than a grand show staged by dictators and oppressors as a massive propaganda tool while the truth is conveniently hidden. Before I finish off the tirade, my respect and admiration for Bhaichung Bhutia has grown even more. Much respect to the great son of India.