A few months ago, The Queen of India resigned from office because her office of profit gameplan to catch opposition politicians backfired. This supreme sacrifice was hailed by all and sundry, and the revered Lady's saintliness was furthered strengthened in the minds of the Congress worker ants.
However, behind the scenes, as we all who can see, followed the entire ridiculousness, the Con'gress government was working overtime to bring about a bill in the Parliament that would exclude many of the existing positions that are counted as office of profit. This bill was supported by all the netas of the land, and rightly so, because the Parliament is a place where politicians go to make laws for themselves, by themselves, and of themselves.
So once this Office of Profit bill was passed by the lower House, it was sent to the President for approval, but horror of horrors, the President has sent the bill back! From my vague memory of civics lessons, if the Lower House sends it back to him, even without making any changes, the President will have to pass it into a law. Such is the power of the Constitution. And that is exactly what has happened. The government does not care about the President, or what he thinks of their laws. Heres a time tested theorem, an Indian politician will act only when his/her own ass is on the line. So you can understand that it is imperative for the netas to bring about this law so they can augment their steller resumes with jobs in various organizations where they will do jack shit.
'Un'profitable bomb explodes in govt face
In a dampner on efforts to exempt a number of posts from the purview of Office of Profit, President A P J Abdul Kalam today returned the Bill on the issue for reconsideration by both houses of Parliament.
The criteria should be fair and reasonable and can be applied across all states and union territories in a clear and transparent manner, he said in his communication while returning the Bill that was passed in the just-concluded budget session of Parliament.
The other point on which the President is said to have reservation was about the propriety of applying the law with retrospective effect. He wants this also to be considered afresh, the sources said.
In the bill that was passed, 56 posts, including that of National Advisory Council Chairpersonhip, a post earlier held by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, were exempted from the definition of office of profit.
Unfazed by the President's action in returning the Bill, the government on Wednesday said it will re-present the legislation that seeks to exempt several posts from being considered office of profit in Parliament in the coming monsoon session and the Cabinet will decide on Thursday whether it should be in the ‘present form or amended form’.
Dismissing suggestions that the action of the President was a ‘setback’ to the government, he said this was part of the democratic process, which has various checks and balances.
Besides, he said, if Parliament approved the measure in its present form, then the President would have to give his assent.
----------------------------------------------------------------
These shameless, shameless monkeys. When God was handing out integrity, these clowns were busy playing with each others balls. Most of the positions to be exempted are occupied by current cronies in Con'gress and the Chinese Puppet party. A large dollop of brazen democracy anyone?
UPA loses face over Bill to save skin
Not only does this bring back the shadow of disqualification over several key MPs from the Congress and the Left, it also deeply embarrasses the government and its allies.
The Bill exempted a slew of posts from the “office-of-profit” clause, listing 45 posts, most of them occupied by Congress and Left MPs. Sources said the President asked Parliament to re-examine “the legal propriety” of retrospectively relaxing the norms for posts that violated the old clause (in 1959 Bill).
The President is also said to have expressed the view that “there should be comprehensive criteria (in the Bill) which should be applicable through the country in all states in a clear and transparent manner.”
Thirdly, Kalam wanted lawmakers to specify the implications of the Bill in terms of the several office-of-profit petitions pending before “competent authorities”—in other words, the Election Commission.
There are petitions against 43 MPs, including Speaker Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Ministers Meira Kumar, T Subbirami Reddy, and against 216 MLAs.
The Damage, The Control
Why The President Disposed
• How can you apply it with effect from 1959?
• Need to define transparent criteria
• Why not have a comprehensive Bill that applies to all states
Pass it again, says Left
• Congress: Already facing quota heat, this is more egg on its face
• UPA: Manmohan likely to meet Kalam today to clarify questions raised so that Bill doesn’t need to be re-voted
• Left: Advance monsoon session, pass the Bill and send it back to President, said Basudeb Acharia, Lok Sabha leader
• BJP: Said Arun Jaitley: EC should “step in and disqualify people who held offices of profit...Unconstitutionality was writ large on this legislation. Only some faces were being protected. The law itself was not in the interest of Parliament, nor any public interest was served by it.’’
What Next
• Special session of House to pass Bill again; NDA will strongly object
• Brand new Bill incorporating Kalam’s suggestions
• EC has to start looking at complaints
• Question mark over status of cases in court now that Bill is stuck
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Mumbai, mat ro!
Just like theres the financial capital of New York City, India has its financial capital in Mumbai. Mumbai has been a true epitomy of the chaos and diversity that India is today. Millions of immigrants from all parts of the country have made it their home, much to the chagrin of those hypocrites led by the Thackreys. Thousands of starry-eyed youth have traversed its path in search of a lucky break into filmdom, and thousands have been mauled by its underworld.
Thats the life it represents, but I am here to talk about Mumbai's infrastructure, which again represents in a way, what India is today. There are luxurious skyscrapers rising in the midst of squalor. Lack of planning has taken its toll on everything, the water supply, electricity, and the city's natural resources. Indian townplanners never really did their job right, and every city is like a deformed person, with tumours in every part of the body, malnourished, and beaten up.
I think i've said it before, India will continue to suffer as long as our public housing remains a joke. I think the main reason slums exist in cities today is because the state has failed to provide cheap, quality housing to the millions of immigrants who have made their way from rural India looking for a better life. Till now, they have only been used as gullible vote banks by unscrupulous netas who feed them nothing but empty promises.
The same can be said for urban transportation. When one mentions urban transportation to me, a picture comes into my mind of green, dirty, rickety Tata, Leyland buses with puke on the sides, spewing black flames. Till the last decade, the only significant achievement in all of India on the transportation front was that the Delhi bus fleet converted to CNG. The decision to finally get the New Delhi Metro rolling during the NDA government was a great decision, and today I hear Delhi citizens couldn't be prouder of their efficient, clean and ever-expanding Metro. Thank you Mr. Sreedharan.
Now coming to Mumbai. Mumbai has always tried to work with the limited resources that its netas have provided. BEST, the bus service, still does a decent job, and its suburban train network is a lifeline to the millions to come in every day from the suburbs. Mumbai had one thing going for it, the Mumbai Urban Transportation Project, and the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project, so thats two things, which was supposed to change the way Mumbai lived. Big words, and while work is still going on the big projects such as the Bandra-Worly Sealink and Nhava-Sheva bridge, Mumbai was still left wanting for better transportation. So when the state government stopped talking politics for a second and talked infrastructure for a change, it was a pleasant surprise. At long last, the Mumbai Metro was finally going to be a reality. The state government awarded the contract for the first line of the first phase to Anil Ambani's Reliance Energy Limited, and work is expected to start in 2 months, and completed by 2009.
Heres the breakdown:
Phase I (12 km underground)
Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar - 15.0 kms
Backbay(Colaba)-Prabhadevi-Mahim-Andheri-Charkop - 36km
Mahim-Bandra-Kurla-Mankhurd - 12.8kms
Phase II
Charkop - Dahisar - 7.5kms
Ghatkopar-Mulund - 12.4kms
Phase III (20.5 km underground)
BKC - Airport - Powai - Kanjur Marg - 19.5kms
Andheri (East) -Dahisar (East) - 18kms
Fountain (Hutatma Chowk) - Sewri - Ghatkopar - 21.8kms
Prabhadevi - Sewri - 3.5kms
---------------------------------------------------
Indian cities have been plagued by ineffective city governments, state bureaucracies, and the ever-uncaring politicians, so I do not know how much the National Urban Renewal Mission with accomplish, but heres to optimism.
Thats the life it represents, but I am here to talk about Mumbai's infrastructure, which again represents in a way, what India is today. There are luxurious skyscrapers rising in the midst of squalor. Lack of planning has taken its toll on everything, the water supply, electricity, and the city's natural resources. Indian townplanners never really did their job right, and every city is like a deformed person, with tumours in every part of the body, malnourished, and beaten up.
I think i've said it before, India will continue to suffer as long as our public housing remains a joke. I think the main reason slums exist in cities today is because the state has failed to provide cheap, quality housing to the millions of immigrants who have made their way from rural India looking for a better life. Till now, they have only been used as gullible vote banks by unscrupulous netas who feed them nothing but empty promises.
The same can be said for urban transportation. When one mentions urban transportation to me, a picture comes into my mind of green, dirty, rickety Tata, Leyland buses with puke on the sides, spewing black flames. Till the last decade, the only significant achievement in all of India on the transportation front was that the Delhi bus fleet converted to CNG. The decision to finally get the New Delhi Metro rolling during the NDA government was a great decision, and today I hear Delhi citizens couldn't be prouder of their efficient, clean and ever-expanding Metro. Thank you Mr. Sreedharan.
Now coming to Mumbai. Mumbai has always tried to work with the limited resources that its netas have provided. BEST, the bus service, still does a decent job, and its suburban train network is a lifeline to the millions to come in every day from the suburbs. Mumbai had one thing going for it, the Mumbai Urban Transportation Project, and the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project, so thats two things, which was supposed to change the way Mumbai lived. Big words, and while work is still going on the big projects such as the Bandra-Worly Sealink and Nhava-Sheva bridge, Mumbai was still left wanting for better transportation. So when the state government stopped talking politics for a second and talked infrastructure for a change, it was a pleasant surprise. At long last, the Mumbai Metro was finally going to be a reality. The state government awarded the contract for the first line of the first phase to Anil Ambani's Reliance Energy Limited, and work is expected to start in 2 months, and completed by 2009.
Heres the breakdown:
Phase I (12 km underground)
Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar - 15.0 kms
Backbay(Colaba)-Prabhadevi-Mahim-Andheri-Charkop - 36km
Mahim-Bandra-Kurla-Mankhurd - 12.8kms
Phase II
Charkop - Dahisar - 7.5kms
Ghatkopar-Mulund - 12.4kms
Phase III (20.5 km underground)
BKC - Airport - Powai - Kanjur Marg - 19.5kms
Andheri (East) -Dahisar (East) - 18kms
Fountain (Hutatma Chowk) - Sewri - Ghatkopar - 21.8kms
Prabhadevi - Sewri - 3.5kms
---------------------------------------------------
Indian cities have been plagued by ineffective city governments, state bureaucracies, and the ever-uncaring politicians, so I do not know how much the National Urban Renewal Mission with accomplish, but heres to optimism.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Welcome to today's BS
Every day I read the news, and everyday I get the feeling that India is probably the happiest place on Earth. From where do i get this feeling? Because we seem to have the largest number of jokers in the world. One only needs to look around and there will be jokers all around us. The incompetent Member of Parliament who has no idea of how to run a country, theres a joker for you. The thousands of Members of Legislative Assemblies who have absolutely no regard for integrity and morality are another niche group of jokers. All in all, I have come to realize this, India rarely produces ring masters, what we get most are clowns of the top degree.
I've written a lot about the whole quota issue, and frankly, I am getting more and more disenchanted by it every passing day. Apparently, the protesting people don't mean a thing to the government, because for them, this whole quota issue is a 'closed' chapter. So all the youth of this country who feel let down can go home and prepare to be pawns in this great game of vote bank appeasement. The Prime Minister came out with a statement that he has not been silent on the whole issue, and that the issue is final. I wonder why the Prime Minister needed to make a statement in the first place defending his position on the issue. I think its because of that same old charge that has been brought up again and again, its the Madame that runs the show, and Arjun Singh is definitely a more thoroughbred buttkisser than dear PM can ever dream to be.
I've written a lot about the whole quota issue, and frankly, I am getting more and more disenchanted by it every passing day. Apparently, the protesting people don't mean a thing to the government, because for them, this whole quota issue is a 'closed' chapter. So all the youth of this country who feel let down can go home and prepare to be pawns in this great game of vote bank appeasement. The Prime Minister came out with a statement that he has not been silent on the whole issue, and that the issue is final. I wonder why the Prime Minister needed to make a statement in the first place defending his position on the issue. I think its because of that same old charge that has been brought up again and again, its the Madame that runs the show, and Arjun Singh is definitely a more thoroughbred buttkisser than dear PM can ever dream to be.
I'm not silent, quota is final: PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally broke his silence on the reservation issue and made clear that the decision to implement 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes in institutes of higher learning was final. Asked as to why he had remained conspicuously silent on the issue so far, Prime Minister said it was not correct to say he had been "silent or not visible" on the issue.
"I have earlier appealed twice. I once again appeal to call-off their agitation and we will find a viable and credible way to protect the interest of all," he said.
Outlining the future course of action, Singh assured that the Government would set up committees of vice-chancellors of Central universities and directors of Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology. This will be done to facilitate the increase in infrastructure in all these institutions in a manner that the interest of all groups of students is protected.
----------------------------------------------------
So there you go, how dare we say the PM was silent! He asked the protesting youth to calm down, twice! But I must commend the excellent job Mrs. Gandhi is doing behind the scenes. Not once during the whole charade has her name cropped up, as if she is not a part of this entire episode. Very well played Ma'am, but unlike what your yesman, Arjun Singh, might say, this issue is far from over.
I came across this nice article by a retired IAS officer, Mr. V Sundaram. Undoubtedly he is one of those anti-minorities who is opposed to this whole quota BS, and his sarcasm is biting. We all know of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy of 1919, that heinous act that sparked this nation's quest for freedom. The way Reginald Dyer killed the innocent Indians in that public park in Amritsar, the same way Arjun Singh is plotting to kill the millions of youth in this entire country. From now on, we should not identify ourselves as Indians, but of the caste we belong to, because for the Government, that is a more important identification.
On Baisakhi day on 13 April, 1919 about 25,000 men, women and children, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians had gathered for a peaceful protest meeting against a set of draconian laws known as the Rowlatt Acts which gave the British rulers sweeping powers such as press censorship, detention without trial, and arrest without warrant. A British officer called Brig-Gen Reginald Dyer, blocked the only exit from the enclosure and, without any warning, ordered his troops to fire into the crowd. This sparked off the freedom movement under the magnificent leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Jallianwala Bhag record of British Raj will be put to shame from June, 2007 when our Human Resource Destruction (HRD) Minister wants to install the Congress monarchy sponsored anarchy of Quota Raj. Brig-Gen Reginald Dyer killed only 379 people or a little more than that on 13 April, 1919 at Jallianwala Bhag. By launching Quota Raj from next year, Arjun Singh wants to deal a death blow to the flower of India's youth who want to compete and survive in a competitive world of intelligence and knowledge.
A political war in India is one in which everyone shoots from the lip. The UPA Government's political machine is a united minority against a divided majority. For petty politicians like Arjun Singh, politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
I am not therefore surprised that National Knowledge Commission Convenor Pratap Bhanu Mehta and another member, world famous Sociologist Andre Beteille have resigned from the panel over the on-going Quota Raj Reservation Controversy, declaring that quotas in elite institutions violate the cardinal principles of a knowledge-based society.
In his resignation letter Prof Andre Beteille has clearly indicated that the quota proposal is a cynical misrepresentation of recently-enacted provisions of the Constitution. In his view, any such policy would be unwise and has clearly stated that caste-based quotas are not mandatory under the Constitution. Pratap Bhanu Mehta has said that the government's measures are not based on an assessment of effectiveness and the whole proposal of Arjun Singh is incompatible with the freedom and diversity of national institutions of excellence. According to him, such a move would thoroughly politicise the educational process, injecting an 'insidious poison' that would harm the nation's long-term interests apart from the fact that such measures would never lead us to social justice.
Arun Shourie in his brilliantly written piece ?The State as Charade? V P Singh, Chandrasekar and the rest? quoted from the Mandal Commission Report based on which the fraudulent superstructure of Quota Raj is being raised by the Human Resource Destruction Ministry today. Mandal wrote: 'In the end it may be emphasised that this survey has 'NO PRETENSIONS TO BEING A PIECE OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH'.
On the basis of such an 'unscientific' and inaccurate report, the fate of 'yet-to-be-born' are being decided in an authoritative manner by a minority Government in 'SECULAR INDIA' today. In an incisive article in the print media recently, on this subject, Dr P V Indiresan, former Director, IIT (Chennai), wrote: 'Reservation in Tamilnadu can also be declared as a failure on two counts: Even after three-quarters of a century, the backward castes are unwilling to compete openly. There are third, even fourth generation beneficiaries of reservation who are unable to get over their dependence on the handicaps reservation provides for them. It appears reservation is a crutch, not a remedy.'
Arjun Singh wants to provide a crutch, not to the genuinely physically handicapped or the genuinely economically handicapped persons in India but to the politically-sponsored, politically promoted and politically sustained so called backward classes of India which is just a sordid creation of our political parties for being used as powerful instruments of caste-based vote-bank politics.
As a natural corollary of the Reservation Principle, teaching posts have been reserved on caste basis in India. That is a cardinal error. What our students need most are the best teachers available, not the least qualified ones.
I am imagining what will India be like after sixty years in 2066 when Arjun Singh's dream of total Human Resource Destruction based on Quota Raj would have been realised in full measure: At an Alumni meeting to be held on 1 January, 2066, I expect to participate not as one belonging to OBCs (Other Backward Castes) but as one belonging to MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) along with my friends belonging to the NSTs ('Non-Scheduled Tribes') then expected to be in a political league with the OBCs.
Further, I cannot help visualising a non-secular, non-communal proposal in the Human Resources Destruction Ministry for coming out with a nationally declared National Anthem of Quota Raj. It is called Arjun Singh's Anthem 'Disunited Heart'. It runs as follows:
May we be secularly disunited in heart
May we be secularly disunited in speech
May we be secularly disunited in mind and mindlessness
May we be secularly disunited in our prayer
May we be secularly disunited in our goal
May we be secularly disunited in our resolve and irresolution
May we be secularly disunited in our misunderstanding
May we be secularly disunited in our offering
May we be secularly disunited in our feelings
May we be secularly disunited in our hearts
May we be secularly disunited in our thoughts
May there be perfect unity of heart, mind and soul and body if alive
Only in our solemn commitment to Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka
To the complete and total exclusion of Bharat Mata!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
2 years in office! Phew!!
Did you know that the United Progressive Alliance Government recently completeled two years in office? I didn't either, till I read it in a couple of online newspapers. So this brings me to the point where I try to take stock of the situation two years after Her Highness Mrs. Gandhi and her foot-soldiers came to power, riding on that thing called the Common Minimum Program, or is it Programme? I could find out but I dont really care.
I've seen, or read about crappy central governments before, but I haven't really followed any this closely before. And the irony is that I am about 10,000 miles away from them! Did you ever find yourself inself a position where some individual, through circumstances or just bad fortune, had your balls in such a strong grip that you had to do whatever they wanted you to do? I am sure we all have faced situations such as those, and apparently national governments face those situations too.
I don't know why the Chinese puppets didn't actively join the government, and if i remember correctly, at the time the government was formed, they didn't want to join because.......wait, I dont know. But what I do know is that Sonia Gandhi didn't become the Prime Minister of India, and while the Con'gress minions cried and cried themselves to sleep, The Queen took the high road, or like they say, made the supreme sacrifice, just like she did a few months ago when her conspiracy backfired. Wow, look at the Gandhi's man, her mother-in-law was the Prime Minister, her husband was the Prime Minister, and how the Prince is in training to be the next Prime Minister. As for her, well, she could order Congress netas to do backflips and they would gladly do it all day long.
Economy, economy, thats the name of the game in today's world, and today's India. So India gets an economist Prime Minister, a good Finance Minister and a good Chairman of the Planning Commission. Crack team for the economy, but a cracked team everywhere else. On second thoughts, the government wants to destroy that too by bringing in quota in the private sector. We get a gutless Home Minister in Shivraj Patil, and look where the Naxal situation is headed because of their hidden agendas. Ajrun Singh is, of course, following madams orders to the O. Create a safe, communally divided situation in UP for the Prince to step into. Well thats what some people say, others say Arjun Singh wants to be Prime Minister, thats why he is doing this. Whichever it is, these monkeys are bent on hurting the foundations of this nation for their own greed.
Coming to the internal situation, last year alone, there were terrorist attacks in Delhi, Bangalore, Ayodhya, Varanasi, and to me this suggests our internal defenses are getting weaker every day. The naxals are a bigger problem than they ever were before. But what to the Home Minister? Apparently they are just misguided youth looking for a decent living. No, Mr. Shivraj "I am here because I am Mrs. Gandhi's Chamcha" Patil, they are mercenaries fighting for their own country.
The surprise story is Lalu. The railways have turned around, and people say it is for real, and maybe Lalu has a big hand in this, and one can only wonder, why? I think its because after he and his extended family was drubbed in the Bihar elections, he realized that you can only keep your people backward for this long, and after a while they will start asking why they don't have roads to walk on or food to feed their families with, or why that goon on the streets keeps harrassing them everyday. So maybe Lalu thought, oh man, I better do something to salvage my reputation, and apparently he is doing a good job at it!
With greater economic strength comes greater respect, and I believe India has been learning that the last couple of years. The nuclear energy deal with the US is considered by some to be the most significant achievement of the USA, I mean the UPA. But other things are looking down, and like I said, how India handles the naxals and if Mrs. Gandhi is able to get away with her preposterous education quota scheme. Has one realized that not one Con'gress minister has come forward with even an iota of reasonable justification on the issue?
So heres the funny thing, the Chinese puppets didn't really like the way the Government performed the last two years. Oh my goodness, I could never have guessed! Burn in hell, traitors, burn in hell, and I mean both the Chinese pups and the Con'gress. India is the last thing on their minds.
Left not happy with UPA show
In a not-so-flattering assessment of the government on a day when the UPA patted itself on the back, the Left charged the UPA with going against the spirit of the CMP and alleged that the US was directly exercising influence on domestic policy-making.
It said the Planning Commission has become the “hub for initiation and pushing for such policies.” The Left also took note of the crash in the stock market saying volatility of the market underlined the danger of going for full capital account convertibility about which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made an announcement.
“The two year record has shown the UPA government’s eagerness to push through policies which are in the interests of foreign finance capital and big business while it has been tardy in taking up those pro-people measures in the CMG which would benefit the working people,” the four Left parties said in a joint statement.
Earlier, at a press conference CPU MPs Based Atari and Rupchand Pal said the Left was skipping the function as “We are not able to swallow their agenda.” However, the comrades are attending the dinner to be hosted at the Prime Minister’s residence.
The CPM leaders said two years was not a small time and the UPA could have done many things particularly for the poorer sections and middle class. “This has not been done..... the government is bent upon going astray,” they said.
While appreciating the government’s efforts on just a handful of issues including abolition of POTA, right to information act, rural employment guarantee scheme and Kashmir talks, the Left’s catalogue of discontent is much longer.
Repeating its familiar anti-government rhetoric, the Left attacked the government on opening up FDI in single brand retail, fuel prices, plans to bring a legislation to amend the banking regulation act, privatising Mumbai and Delhi airports and the delay in legislation for agricultural workers.
----------------------------------------------------------
Ha ha, two semengobblers accusing each other of having agendas. I am sorry I even posted this crap, its everything we knew already.
meanwhile....
UPA in for more tightrope walks in third year
As his government enters its third year in office on Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be bracing himself for more tightrope walking with a rejuvenated Left clamouring for a brake on reform policies and the reservation issue stalking the coalition.
A redeeming feature, though, for the UPA coalition, headed by Sonia Gandhi, is that the main opposition BJP remained embroiled in internal problems, while the Congress managed to be on the winning team in three states—Assam, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry—in the recent Assembly elections.
But the Left parties more than made up for the opposition and has threatened to play a more aggressive role in Parliament and outside on any violation by the government of the Common Minimum Programme.
Singh has been lucky to build bridges with leaders like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who led the Left win in West Bengal and is also talking the language of ushering in industry and investment in the eastern state, which is lagging behind in development.
The Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement was the feather in the cap of the economist-turned-politician as US President George W Bush, in search of friends, visited India and went the extra mile for providing energy security. That the US Congress has not yet approved the agreement is another story.
The year saw the Central coalition bringing in the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, which is being implemented in 200 most backward districts. Questions are, however, being raised on how much it would benefit the ruling party politically.
But that the government failed to tackle the agrarian crisis was evident from the fact that suicides of farmers continued in some states, including Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The Right to Information Act has also been hailed by the ruling coalition as a major achievement, but the openness and transparency is yet to sink in the bureaucracy, much to the detriment of the common man.
The year saw resignation of External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh in the wake of the Volcker controversy and the Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Jagdish Tytler in the wake of the Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Natwar Singh’s exit resulted in the Prime Minister himself taking on the responsibility of external affairs.
Despite suggestions that Rahul Gandhi is being groomed for the prime ministership sooner or later, this section believes that Manmohan Singh will continue to be in a "very unique position" as "no one can touch him". They however feel that the Prime Minister needs to be "more assertive" and show that he is not only the first among the equals in the Cabinet.
I've seen, or read about crappy central governments before, but I haven't really followed any this closely before. And the irony is that I am about 10,000 miles away from them! Did you ever find yourself inself a position where some individual, through circumstances or just bad fortune, had your balls in such a strong grip that you had to do whatever they wanted you to do? I am sure we all have faced situations such as those, and apparently national governments face those situations too.
I don't know why the Chinese puppets didn't actively join the government, and if i remember correctly, at the time the government was formed, they didn't want to join because.......wait, I dont know. But what I do know is that Sonia Gandhi didn't become the Prime Minister of India, and while the Con'gress minions cried and cried themselves to sleep, The Queen took the high road, or like they say, made the supreme sacrifice, just like she did a few months ago when her conspiracy backfired. Wow, look at the Gandhi's man, her mother-in-law was the Prime Minister, her husband was the Prime Minister, and how the Prince is in training to be the next Prime Minister. As for her, well, she could order Congress netas to do backflips and they would gladly do it all day long.
Economy, economy, thats the name of the game in today's world, and today's India. So India gets an economist Prime Minister, a good Finance Minister and a good Chairman of the Planning Commission. Crack team for the economy, but a cracked team everywhere else. On second thoughts, the government wants to destroy that too by bringing in quota in the private sector. We get a gutless Home Minister in Shivraj Patil, and look where the Naxal situation is headed because of their hidden agendas. Ajrun Singh is, of course, following madams orders to the O. Create a safe, communally divided situation in UP for the Prince to step into. Well thats what some people say, others say Arjun Singh wants to be Prime Minister, thats why he is doing this. Whichever it is, these monkeys are bent on hurting the foundations of this nation for their own greed.
Coming to the internal situation, last year alone, there were terrorist attacks in Delhi, Bangalore, Ayodhya, Varanasi, and to me this suggests our internal defenses are getting weaker every day. The naxals are a bigger problem than they ever were before. But what to the Home Minister? Apparently they are just misguided youth looking for a decent living. No, Mr. Shivraj "I am here because I am Mrs. Gandhi's Chamcha" Patil, they are mercenaries fighting for their own country.
The surprise story is Lalu. The railways have turned around, and people say it is for real, and maybe Lalu has a big hand in this, and one can only wonder, why? I think its because after he and his extended family was drubbed in the Bihar elections, he realized that you can only keep your people backward for this long, and after a while they will start asking why they don't have roads to walk on or food to feed their families with, or why that goon on the streets keeps harrassing them everyday. So maybe Lalu thought, oh man, I better do something to salvage my reputation, and apparently he is doing a good job at it!
With greater economic strength comes greater respect, and I believe India has been learning that the last couple of years. The nuclear energy deal with the US is considered by some to be the most significant achievement of the USA, I mean the UPA. But other things are looking down, and like I said, how India handles the naxals and if Mrs. Gandhi is able to get away with her preposterous education quota scheme. Has one realized that not one Con'gress minister has come forward with even an iota of reasonable justification on the issue?
So heres the funny thing, the Chinese puppets didn't really like the way the Government performed the last two years. Oh my goodness, I could never have guessed! Burn in hell, traitors, burn in hell, and I mean both the Chinese pups and the Con'gress. India is the last thing on their minds.
Left not happy with UPA show
In a not-so-flattering assessment of the government on a day when the UPA patted itself on the back, the Left charged the UPA with going against the spirit of the CMP and alleged that the US was directly exercising influence on domestic policy-making.
It said the Planning Commission has become the “hub for initiation and pushing for such policies.” The Left also took note of the crash in the stock market saying volatility of the market underlined the danger of going for full capital account convertibility about which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made an announcement.
“The two year record has shown the UPA government’s eagerness to push through policies which are in the interests of foreign finance capital and big business while it has been tardy in taking up those pro-people measures in the CMG which would benefit the working people,” the four Left parties said in a joint statement.
Earlier, at a press conference CPU MPs Based Atari and Rupchand Pal said the Left was skipping the function as “We are not able to swallow their agenda.” However, the comrades are attending the dinner to be hosted at the Prime Minister’s residence.
The CPM leaders said two years was not a small time and the UPA could have done many things particularly for the poorer sections and middle class. “This has not been done..... the government is bent upon going astray,” they said.
While appreciating the government’s efforts on just a handful of issues including abolition of POTA, right to information act, rural employment guarantee scheme and Kashmir talks, the Left’s catalogue of discontent is much longer.
Repeating its familiar anti-government rhetoric, the Left attacked the government on opening up FDI in single brand retail, fuel prices, plans to bring a legislation to amend the banking regulation act, privatising Mumbai and Delhi airports and the delay in legislation for agricultural workers.
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Ha ha, two semengobblers accusing each other of having agendas. I am sorry I even posted this crap, its everything we knew already.
meanwhile....
UPA in for more tightrope walks in third year
As his government enters its third year in office on Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be bracing himself for more tightrope walking with a rejuvenated Left clamouring for a brake on reform policies and the reservation issue stalking the coalition.
A redeeming feature, though, for the UPA coalition, headed by Sonia Gandhi, is that the main opposition BJP remained embroiled in internal problems, while the Congress managed to be on the winning team in three states—Assam, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry—in the recent Assembly elections.
But the Left parties more than made up for the opposition and has threatened to play a more aggressive role in Parliament and outside on any violation by the government of the Common Minimum Programme.
Singh has been lucky to build bridges with leaders like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who led the Left win in West Bengal and is also talking the language of ushering in industry and investment in the eastern state, which is lagging behind in development.
The Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement was the feather in the cap of the economist-turned-politician as US President George W Bush, in search of friends, visited India and went the extra mile for providing energy security. That the US Congress has not yet approved the agreement is another story.
The year saw the Central coalition bringing in the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, which is being implemented in 200 most backward districts. Questions are, however, being raised on how much it would benefit the ruling party politically.
But that the government failed to tackle the agrarian crisis was evident from the fact that suicides of farmers continued in some states, including Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The Right to Information Act has also been hailed by the ruling coalition as a major achievement, but the openness and transparency is yet to sink in the bureaucracy, much to the detriment of the common man.
The year saw resignation of External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh in the wake of the Volcker controversy and the Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Jagdish Tytler in the wake of the Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Natwar Singh’s exit resulted in the Prime Minister himself taking on the responsibility of external affairs.
Despite suggestions that Rahul Gandhi is being groomed for the prime ministership sooner or later, this section believes that Manmohan Singh will continue to be in a "very unique position" as "no one can touch him". They however feel that the Prime Minister needs to be "more assertive" and show that he is not only the first among the equals in the Cabinet.
Friday, May 19, 2006
ISRO agrees: English media kisses US butt
I am not a big fan of the Indian English press, and I am not sure if i have a post on that topic here, but I am pretty certain I made a long post on it somewhere. The Indian English press has no identity, other than to try to look like they are from the west. I think i did make a post on that topic here, when I said that The Hindustan Times and The Times of India are but a shadow of what they used to be. Dumb, sensationalist tabloids, thats what they are reduced to.
I have heard of a lot of yuppie people who love their daily dose of Times of India, but for someone looking for real news and real opinion, Times of India doesn't cut the ice anymore. The same with The Hindustan Times. You want softcore Indian porn? Then you must visit the illustrious websites of these exalted publications, because you will get to see plenty of Indian girls in bikinis, in addition to half-naked women from all over the world. Come to think of it, thats why their websites are popular, because admit it, with all the social chains on us, we Indians love our online porn. Of course you will only get to the good stuff after you have combated the dozens of pop-ups that uh...pop up as soon as you log on to their site.
These are two publications that want to turn themselves into tabloids to cater to the yuppie crowd. For example, if you log onto The Economic Times, a sister publication of the ToI, you will have plenty of stories on how to get to the US. You will be uptodate as to how the visa scene is, and how you can get one, and you will have first hand knowledge of some insignificant act that some Indian did somewhere in the United States. Yes, when it comes to the US fixation, the Bennett & Coleman publication called the Times of India definitely puts the 't' in the buttkiss. In addition, the Times of India also does not agree with how big, bad India is taking away the jobs of the innocent American citizens who are being laid off in the thousands because we Indians are willing to work for cheap. Bad, bad Indians.
Then there are the publications that owe their allegience to other foreign forces, like the Hindu and its communist brotherhood. I dont know if people have noticed it, but I think the Hindu is very communist. Good, so the Government of India's 'Look East' policy is at least working on somebody. A lot of people love the newspaper and it still does a good job in bringing quality news without the kitch, but in my opinion, they are very Chinese friendly, which I think is not a good thing.
Theres bias in all media, and maybe our newspapers don't stand a chance when it comes to media bias from the likes of BBC and Fox News, CNN etc, but they are still biased enough to leave a bad taste in ones mouth, and potentially hurt the society.
Over the moon on US
The lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, is entirely an ISRO show. For 3-4 years it has sweated to conceive, script, plan, get the Rs 350-crore project off the ground. So, imagine the Organisation's chagrin when it had to share the credit for its baby with its US counterpart, NASA.
"Chandrayaan is a fully Indian mission. So how come the media are making so much of an MoU and calling it a joint venture and hailing the US and NASA for it?" asked one usually reticent ISRO official. "You in the media have gone truly overboard. All that the US has done is put two instruments on our spacecraft. It's like putting extra passengers."
And where were the same media when the European Space Agency quietly signed a similar MoU for three instruments a few months back, another official asked. "You surely have a US fixation."
I have heard of a lot of yuppie people who love their daily dose of Times of India, but for someone looking for real news and real opinion, Times of India doesn't cut the ice anymore. The same with The Hindustan Times. You want softcore Indian porn? Then you must visit the illustrious websites of these exalted publications, because you will get to see plenty of Indian girls in bikinis, in addition to half-naked women from all over the world. Come to think of it, thats why their websites are popular, because admit it, with all the social chains on us, we Indians love our online porn. Of course you will only get to the good stuff after you have combated the dozens of pop-ups that uh...pop up as soon as you log on to their site.
These are two publications that want to turn themselves into tabloids to cater to the yuppie crowd. For example, if you log onto The Economic Times, a sister publication of the ToI, you will have plenty of stories on how to get to the US. You will be uptodate as to how the visa scene is, and how you can get one, and you will have first hand knowledge of some insignificant act that some Indian did somewhere in the United States. Yes, when it comes to the US fixation, the Bennett & Coleman publication called the Times of India definitely puts the 't' in the buttkiss. In addition, the Times of India also does not agree with how big, bad India is taking away the jobs of the innocent American citizens who are being laid off in the thousands because we Indians are willing to work for cheap. Bad, bad Indians.
Then there are the publications that owe their allegience to other foreign forces, like the Hindu and its communist brotherhood. I dont know if people have noticed it, but I think the Hindu is very communist. Good, so the Government of India's 'Look East' policy is at least working on somebody. A lot of people love the newspaper and it still does a good job in bringing quality news without the kitch, but in my opinion, they are very Chinese friendly, which I think is not a good thing.
Theres bias in all media, and maybe our newspapers don't stand a chance when it comes to media bias from the likes of BBC and Fox News, CNN etc, but they are still biased enough to leave a bad taste in ones mouth, and potentially hurt the society.
Over the moon on US
The lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, is entirely an ISRO show. For 3-4 years it has sweated to conceive, script, plan, get the Rs 350-crore project off the ground. So, imagine the Organisation's chagrin when it had to share the credit for its baby with its US counterpart, NASA.
"Chandrayaan is a fully Indian mission. So how come the media are making so much of an MoU and calling it a joint venture and hailing the US and NASA for it?" asked one usually reticent ISRO official. "You in the media have gone truly overboard. All that the US has done is put two instruments on our spacecraft. It's like putting extra passengers."
And where were the same media when the European Space Agency quietly signed a similar MoU for three instruments a few months back, another official asked. "You surely have a US fixation."
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