It does not stop at 49.5 percent

Poverty could mitigate crime, even murder: SC

In an order that is sure to spark a debate, the court said poor background of the accused should -- along with old age and years spent behind bars while awaiting death sentence -- be considered as mitigating factors when courts ponder whether life sentence should be used in an otherwise fit case for death penalty. The order was passed by a Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and H L Dattu while hearing an appeal against death penalty awarded by the trial court as well as Allahabad high court to two members of a gang of bandits convicted for killing four people in December 1995.

The Bench noted that apart from being old, the convicts had been in custody since 1996 and death penalty had hung over their heads since 2005, when the trial court gave its verdict.

The Bench further said, "The convicts (Mulla and Guddu) belong to an extremely poor background. One thing which is clear to us is that they have committed these crimes for want of money. Though we are shocked by their deeds, we find no reason why they cannot be reformed over a period of time." [source: The Times of India]

Were these men particularly destitute? How about the victims? They were farm laborers who had been kidnapped for ransom by the two men. Just because the ransom amount was small (Rs. 10,000) does not make the perps poor, it just reflects the fact that the victims' capacity to pay might not have been very high. To brutally hack to death five farm laborers upon non-payment of ransom does not reflect desperation, it reflects cold blooded sadism of seasoned criminals.

What if the names of the two condemned men had been Munna and Guddu instead of Mulla and Guddu? Your guess is as good as ours, but something tells us no minority is ever going to be hanged in this country, no matter how gruesome the crime. This isn't a stretch, if you take the Sachar generalization across the whole spectrum and apply the observation of the Hon'ble Justices Dattu and Sathasivam, this is but a natural conclusion. Indeed, the secular zeal of UPA is going in this direction for quite sometime now. Recent examples include clemency to J&K youth who had attended terror school in Pakistan and continued attempts by secular politicians to get the UP terrorists off the hook.

A quick search on Justices HL Dattu and P Sathasivam reveals interesting facts. Justice Dattu has Karnataka / Kerala HC background while Justice Sathasivam is a former CJ of the TN High Court. In other words, both hail from citadels of a certain model of social justice. Both are interesting 2008 appointees to the supreme court with a long tenure ahead of them.

It also appears that Justice Dattu had earlier recused himself from the well publicized and infamous Nun Avaya murder case.

Justice Sathasivam appears to be one of those who do not believe in practicing what they preach:

The Supreme Court’s pivotal role in making up for the lethargy of the Legislature and the inefficiency of the executive is commendable. But the law can be dehumanized and the final forensic floor–the Supreme Court–may turn into a dictator. He concluded by saying that the weapon of judicial activism should be used carefully. [source]

That rhetoric would nominally mean a judge who makes the strictest interpretation of the constitution and the laws, and these currently most decidedly do not have any provision for factoring in the "poverty" of perpetrators of heinous crimes in doling out sentences.

These two judges seem to be getting a disproportionate number of Police encounter cases and have presided over the bail plea of Gujarat encounter cops.

This is why we need think tanks to analyze and collate the judgments of supreme court benches, just to make sure nothing funny is going on. Watching this page would be a start.

Trial lawyers all over the country will make a keen note of this case, suddenly we will start seeing a lot of perps on trial suddenly turn poor and destitute, especially if they happen to belong to the minority community.

This GOI advertisement came out on the National Girl Child day, released by the Ministry of Child and Women Development under Krishna Tirath of Congress. The first thing that strikes you is how amateurish the composition is. A high school student could compose a better ad and write better copy too. Most of the real estate is taken up by post-modernist blocks of color, an advertisement against female foeticide features mostly successful male icons (including the Pakistan Air Force general, of course). The ad is clearly off message. It is also way off target, people who can read that ad usually do not kill their girl children.

It is admirable that the Government takes up such a strident stand against this social malaise but haven't we done just about enough on this particular issue? We have legislated the heck out of it, there is no dearth of jhollawalla funds or enforcement. Yet, clearly Government action is unable to make a reasonable dent on the problem. On the other hand, is the problem as big as it is made out to be? Reports indicate female foeticide is fairly common in the Southern parts. Reports also indicate in male-female ratio, China does far worse than India.

Obviously, this is a secondary problem that can not be easily fixed by running bogus color ads on English language newspapers. On the other hand, it does provide two essential services - provide employment to extended members of the family (ad design, publishing, copy writing, printing etc.) and a moral cudgel to a group of people whose sole purpose in life appears to be to pick faults within other religions.

We recommend the Ministry of Child and Women Development to expend at least some resources to other areas. We do not see Hindu priests or religious leaders advocate female foeticide, in fact many of them are vocally against it. What we do see are advertisements for Arab Pardha adorning billboards in major cities in Kerala.

This is just one example, albeit the most heartbreaking one. Any reasonable person would see this as a pattern that repeats with deadly predictability when certain conditions are met.

There is no escaping this menace, where would you go to? Europe? Africa?

In this world and in this fight we stand alone.

Yasin Malik with his brand new Pakistani wife (backstory)

That Aman ki Asha thing between The Times Group and the Jang (literally "war") group of Pakistan? Not going well. Had we not known about The Times of India's seemingly endless appetite for self-parody, we would have called the exercise totally redundant. As far as we can tell, the peace process between India and Pakistan isn't stalled for lack of candle light vigils or goofy editorials.

Within days of announcing the citizen-to-citizen over social media and web peace gesture, we had:

... or, if you prefer, business as usual with that country. Anyway, we digress.

The peace initiative had a two day conference in New Delhi, with delegates from Pakistan flown in. Guess who was one of the keynote speakers? Yasin Malik.

Now, rolling out the red carpet for the enemies of the country is not a terribly new thing for our secular people, but we were stunned at the serious allegation leveled at Malik.

Sure enough, a google search throws up several hits which make the allegation, including detailed analysis and even the name of the victim. There is no way to corroborate the story, it is not like Indian media will report anything like that.

So, did he or didn't he? Knowing what we know about the man, we certainly won't put it beyond him.

[Applies to: NDA Regime]

Remember poor folks? The kind that used to show up on front pages of newspapers every now and then during the NDA regime? Well, they disappeared again. No more editorials lamenting poverty etc. from the career socialists either. Anyway, we digress.

One of the flagship schemes of the UPA 1.0 Govt much loved by socialists is the mid-day meal scheme. So, we did a quick google news search to see how the scheme is doing:

Oh, by the way, did you know there is actually a Mid-Day Meal Scheme Workers Union?

Meanwhile, MDM Scheme Workers Union led by its district president Babaji Parida organized a dharna in front of the collectorate demanding the government to supply pulses, cooking gas and vegetables along with rice to the implementing agencies and pay salaries regularly.

Obviously, none of the water carriers of social justice will show any interest whatsoever in these stories. This is how the whole thing is supposed to work. It is simply amazing how quickly any socialist scheme assumes a mammoth bureaucratic structure, grows unionized work force and then suddenly starts running out of money.

As discussed before, the only places where the mid-day meal scheme is reasonably working is where a public-private partnership exists. Even in that example, since the organization running the scheme is ostensibly a Hindu charitable trust, it ran into other types of trouble - apparently serving children a full nutritious meal of Daal, Rice and Sabzi is Hindutva indoctrination!

Eyeballing this sad state of affairs, it looks like completely broken doesn't even begin to describe the problem, it is so bad that we are seriously jeopardizing the health of millions of children to not only just malnutrition but also to serious type of food poisoning. The kids are obviously better off bringing whatever food their parents can afford. We just don't believe that parents who can spare their children for school can not spend 44 paise on their meals.

Dantewada tribals attack Medha Patkar

BHOPAL: Tribals angry with activists fighting for human rights of Naxals while ignoring poor ‘adivasis’ threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Magsaysay award winner Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey as they reached Dantewada town in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.

While Medha, being a woman, did not face much humiliation, her companion Pandey was pulled down from the motorcycle and given a hiding. He was pushed around and asked why the activists had done nothing for the tribals but found cause to support Naxals.

Medha, who leads Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Pandey who founded Asha for Education, were on their way to participate in a 'jan sunwai' (people's court) in Naxal-hit areas on Thursday. Patkar and Pandey were on a motorbike when tribals carrying banners of ‘Maa Danteswadi Adivasi Swabhimaan Manch’ surrounded them, asking them to go back.

Shouting slogans like "Wapas jao, wapas jao (go back)", the tribals alleged that NGOs "support Naxals under the pretext of human rights." [source: The Times of India]

It is just incredible that these human rights activists were actually on their way to participate in a "people's court". The Naxals have basically four uses for villages. They hit them for recruiting soldiers (often using coercion and threat), food, shelter and women. The people's courts are used to settle issues like who were the "informers" and so on and so forth.

It is no secret that most of the so called Human Rights Activism is media propaganda aided by astro turfed crowd financed by NGOs (paid by YOU).

The only regret we have out of this incident is that Genocide Suzie was not on the scene. Readers will recall that in recent interviews she can't seem to stop boasting about her visits to Dantewada. Go ahead Suzie, visit Dantewada again, the tribals are waiting for ya.

The Elephant in the Room
The biggest pain in Asia isn't the country you'd think.
BY BARBARA CROSSETTE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

Think for a moment about which countries cause the most global consternation. Afghanistan. Iran. Venezuela. North Korea. Pakistan. Perhaps rising China. But India? Surely not. In the popular imagination, the world's largest democracy evokes Gandhi, Bollywood, and chicken tikka. In reality, however, it's India that often gives global governance the biggest headache.

Of course, India gets marvelous press. Feature stories from there typically bring to life Internet entrepreneurs, hospitality industry pioneers, and gurus keeping spiritual traditions alive while lovingly bridging Eastern and Western cultures

[source: Foreign Policy Magazine via: Varnam]

In the context of the Global Warming scam, we briefly touched upon the subject of "World Government". For those unfamiliar with the concept, basically the initial draft text of Copenhagen had this apparently innocuous reference to "World Government".

A big problem with the Indian media and indeed media in many developing countries is that, they filter out anything other than the Left-Liberal opinion from the developed nations, which means anything right of The Guardian magazine never reaches a large proportion of the global public. The public thus comes to accept an incomplete and highly distorted image as the consensus opinion of the West.

People in India do not know that the Australian senate recently rejected a carbon trading scheme. They are not aware that just a few days ago, the French declared a newly enacted carbon tax law unconstitutional. A cap and trade style legislation has practically no chance of passing in the US senate, of course that may change.

The sinister idea of World Government must be summarily rejected by the people of India, because it will mean becoming colonized all over again. However, a section of people in India will make out like bandits, for a glimpse of this sinister crowd, please peruse this link at leisure.

The people who can come up with this audacious plan are the sort that keep coming back for seconds, as they will when they reconvene for another round of tamasha at Mexico City. The UPA Government wants to jump on to this bandwagon because through it they can rule India indefinitely.

We feel so strongly about this threat to our freedom that we added this to the banner of our blog:

Resist "Global Governance"

Images - from left to right:

(a) Haj Pilgrims at Mumbai hijack airliner for 15 hours [link]

(b) Violent stone pelting protest in Gujarat to get a BRTS stop named after a Pir [link]

Haj pilgrims confine crew in AI plane for 15 hours
Mumbai, Jan 3, PTI:

Haj pilgrims on board an Air India flight from Jeddah refused to leave the plane on arriving here and confined its cabin crew for 15 hours resenting the diversion of the aircraft from fog-hit Delhi.

Due to fog, the flight AI-891A was diverted to Mumbai at 5.30pm on Saturday and the plane could not leave until 9 pm. When the passengers were asked to deplane and make their way to the transit lounge and hotel for overnight stay, a few of them refused and created a ruckus on board the aircraft.

"The unruly passengers blocked the exits and prevented the security and traffic from coming on board and/or deplaning the other passengers into the parked buses," a statement issued by All India Cabin Crew Association said. [source: Deccan Herald]

This piece of news was not meant for public consumption, but it made it to you anyway. What you don't know, couldn't possibly hurt you, at least not in the immediate future, subject to abrupt changes of course.

By the time news reaches you, several filters get applied. Some of it does not reach you at all, or, sometimes when they do reach you, they get sanitized by the "style guides". For instance, once the news factory churns out the above piece of news, it becomes something like this:

20 unruly fliers 'hijack' AI flight for 15 hrs
Manju V, TNN 4 January 2010, 03:31am IST

MUMBAI: It was a 15-hour nightmare on the ground for over 200 air passengers and flight crew at Mumbai airport thanks to the hijack-like

The unprecedented case of unruly passenger behaviour in the country came about when around 20 Air India passengers—who like hundreds of others found their flight diverted to Mumbai because of fog and technical glitches at Delhi airport—stopped their co-passengers and 12 flight attendants from leaving the aircraft that was parked on the Mumbai tarmac from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. [source: The Times of India]

See, how easy it is? "Haj Pilgrims" become "unruly fliers", like they say, news is like sausage, you don't wanna know how it's made. At least you know the broad outline of how this one panned out, including how the security personnel made no attempt whatsoever trying to rescue the crew. What you don't know is just how much never makes it beyond the editorial desks. You didn't hear about Miraj riots, perhaps you didn't hear about violent stone and bottle pelting at oncoming cars at Mahim during Muharram either.

If this is the state of news reporting, when secular blowhards like Harsh Mander and Ram Puniyani etc. add their spin, you really start to feel guilty.

The truth of course is stranger and harsher than their fiction. The docile "minority" cowering under the glare of majorities is mostly a myth. Actually, it is quite the reverse. Most people are constantly afraid when the short fuse is gonna ignite. It can happen anywhere, anytime, for any reason and sometimes no reason at all. Mobile phones have made it better, earlier used to be many anxious moments spent by family members.

It is not just a case of a few rotten apples. The whole basket is so far gone that by the time crooked opportunistic secular politicos realize it, it is going to be too late.

Happy New Year. Stay alert, stay safe.

December 10th, 2009 on 8:21 pm

If climate change is not TOP priority WE ARE FINISHED !!!!!!!

Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz save US all, it’s us ,the WORST ANIMALS who will pay a very very heavy price

What development are people taking about which will come in the way ….when we wont have mankind for who this development needs to be done !!!!!!!!

How exactly do you get an impossible demographic like teenage fans of Shah Rukh Khan to actually get serious enough to truly believe in a cause, however fake and farcical it is? This is really a question for behavioral scientists, psychologists and philosophers. We suspect billions of dollars worth of advertisements and news items (paid by YOU) has something to do with it. Perhaps there is something about climate change fears that appeals to the post-modern lifestyle, to people who like to be in a flash crowd or be a "friend" of a celebrity on social networking sites.

Anyway, we digress.

Many of the "climate" concerns shared by Indians are actually for real. Our cities are overloaded, a walk outside causes a deposit of soot on our clothes. Toxic fumes permeate the air, grime, dirt and squalor everywhere. Factories billow dark plumes of poisonous gases in obvious and flagrant violation of environmental laws, right at the heart of our cities. The water table continues to get depleted, the summers seem severe and dry. Coastal areas and mountain sides undergo land erosion.

Unfortunately, none of these problems have anything to do with what the folks at IPCC have been talking about. As a matter of fact, even if the full recommendation of IPCC is adopted into a binding international treaty, none of these concerns will be addressed.

In fact, most of these problems will be aggravated and some very nasty new problems will likely get introduced.

Although cleverly named InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the central focus of IPCC and the "scientific" research they publish is global warming. Between "global warming" and "climate change" a lot can happen, the gullible public can be duped into believing anything.

The actual IPCC report is not all that scary, none at all. Politicians add another layer of polish on top of the IPCC report which gets further amplified in the media.

Let's take a recent example of media fear mongering:

Warm trend to rob Mumbai of winter in 10 years?

MUMBAI: White Christmas may soon be relegated to a poet's analogy for Mumbaikars. Deputy director-general of meteorology, regional meteorology centre, Colaba, R V Sharma confirms our worst fears.

"We have conducted a survey, studying the variation of maximum temperature in Santa Cruz spanning more than a hundred years. There is a significant rise (1.62 degrees Celsius) in the average maximum temperature in Mumbai. It means that the city is getting warmer and, if this warming trend continues, Mumbai may cease to have any winter in a decade or so. If you see December's temperature over the past 100 years, the average rise is about 2.98 degrees Celsius. The rare cold that we have experienced this month is because of the air flowing in from the north but, on the whole, it has been a warmer month," he said. [source: The Times of India]

Winter in Mumbai? White Christmas in Maharashtra? Funny, the report itself contains evidence to the contrary. We have been set up for the worst type of confirmation bias, we feel scared no matter whether it is hot, cold or temperate; whether it rains or remains dry. This winter, like the previous one has been much colder than averages in large parts of Northern India. Europe and North America reeled under severe snow storms and blizzards over the past week.

As a matter of fact, there is no discernible long term change in climatic pattern observed in India.

What if we believe Anthropogenic Global Warming is a certainty and indeed adopt in full measure all of IPCC's recommendations?

Our emissions account for just 2 ppmv a year, or 20 ppmv over the next decade, of which 7.5% is just 1.5 ppmv. So, how much “global warming” will the Copenhagen Accord forestall? The answer lies in the following sum, still based on the UN’s high-end estimate of the warming effect of CO2:

That cooling – or, rather, warming forestalled – would be so small that our instruments would not be able to detect it. Yet the cost of achieving it would run into the trillions. [source: SPPI Blog]

If India eventually signs up for a binding global climate treaty, its impact will be felt by the poorest segment. There will be an enormous increase in energy costs, which will of course be subsidized by the Government leading to severe economic imbalances. Subsidies do not work perfectly even when they do work at all - so there will be a steep increase in poverty.

The monies that could potentially go towards cleaning up the real pollutants such as SO2, NOx, soot, asbestos etc. would chase the mirage of CO2, which is a harmless trace gas. The monies that could go to provide good quality electric coverage will be wasted on solar lanterns. The monies that could go to prevent deforestation, sand mining would actually be chasing large wind farms and solar cities, actually causing more deforestation and land erosion.

If we let ourselves be coaxed into a binding global treaty premised on demonstrably false science, we will be basically ruining our future and little Nikky will be none the wiser for it.

The first article focuses on the GONGOs and the obvious problems they pose in the democratic setup:

Democracy's Dangerous Impostors

The Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation is a gongo. So is Nashi, a Russian youth group, and the Sudanese Human Rights Organization. Kyrgyzstan's Association of Non-commercial and Nongovernmental Organizations is also a gongo, as is Chongryon, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. Gongos are sprouting everywhere; they're in China, Cuba, France, Tunisia and even the United States.

Gongos are government-organized nongovernmental organizations. Behind this contradictory and almost laughable tongue twister lies an important and growing global trend that deserves more scrutiny: Governments are funding and controlling nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), often stealthily. [source: Washington Post]

The second link is an excerpt from a book by Dr. Sam Vaknin:

NGOs - The Self-Appointed Altruists

Their arrival portends rising local prices and a culture shock. Many of them live in plush apartments, or five star hotels, drive SUV's, sport $3000 laptops and PDA's. They earn a two figure multiple of the local average wage. They are busybodies, preachers, critics, do-gooders, and professional altruists.

Always self-appointed, they answer to no constituency. Though unelected and ignorant of local realities, they confront the democratically chosen and those who voted them into office. A few of them are enmeshed in crime and corruption. They are the non-governmental organizations, or NGO's.

Some NGO's - like Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Amnesty - genuinely contribute to enhancing welfare, to the mitigation of hunger, the furtherance of human and civil rights, or the curbing of disease. Others - usually in the guise of think tanks and lobby groups - are sometimes ideologically biased, or religiously-committed and, often, at the service of special interests.

The encroachment on state sovereignty of international law - enshrined in numerous treaties and conventions - allows NGO's to get involved in hitherto strictly domestic affairs like corruption, civil rights, the composition of the media, the penal and civil codes, environmental policies, or the allocation of economic resources and of natural endowments, such as land and water. No field of government activity is now exempt from the glare of NGO's. They serve as self-appointed witnesses, judges, jury and executioner rolled into one.

The third article is a treatise from The International Journal of Not-for-profit Law:

The Power Shift and the NGO Credibility Crisis
By James McGann and Mary Johnstone1

World politics has undergone a radical and often-overlooked transformation in the last fifteen years, resulting neither from the collapse of the Soviet Union nor the rising tide of fundamentalism, but from the unprecedented growth of non-governmental organizations around the globe. NGOs or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have moved from backstage to center stage in world politics, and are exerting their power and influence in every aspect of international relations and policymaking. NGOs have been a positive force in domestic and international affairs, working to alleviate poverty, protect human rights, preserve the environment, and provide relief worldwide. Few, therefore, have felt the need to take a critical look at the effectiveness and accountability of these organizations. [source: ICNL]

* * *

In the Indian context, NGOs are already starting to create massive damage, as we discussed in a recent post: NGO: Government is their middle name.

It should be blindingly obvious to anyone by now that these organizations are involved in wholesale graft and corruption involving amounts that probably exceed the services they provide. If we add on the salaries and perks received by the NGO personnel, we will probably not even get a social surplus. A recent case is the usurping of money received in donation for Tsunami aid from abroad.

One such donor agency, US-based Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), which gave Rs 7.5 crore to the Church of South India (CSI), demanded the audited accounts for the funds and that led to the church filing a case against a few people with the police. Apart from that, two other cases were filed with the police relating to swindling of tsunami relief funds. [source: ExpressBuzz]

The fact that The Church of South India (CSI) is one of the most powerful and prominent religious organization in the Southern region is a testament to the extent of the rot.

In India, we also have what can be called GANGOs, i.e. Government Aided Non-Governmental Organizations. These GANGOs receive a ton of funds from the Government, i.e. YOU. There is no systematic audit requirements or disclosures in place. These are completely destroying the natural feedback mechanism of our democracy. Newspapers quote NGOs, Government use their statistics. They end up influencing policy in harmful ways.

NGOs have managed to insert themselves even in our foreign policy areas. During the PM's US visit, he made an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Among others, NDTV's Prannoy Roy is on CFR's International Advisory Board. The Clinton Foundation is also involved heavily in India. There were reports that Amar Singh of Samajwadi Party gave millions to the Clinton Foundation.

But people are smart, they know which side of the bread the butter is on. There is a mad rush to open NGOs, if you have connections, or join one.

Harsh Mander is a perfect case that illustrates many of the problems with our Administrative Services. For a former bureaucrat, Mr. Mander's complete lack of statistical sense of proportion is remarkable. Does he even read the census reports? So, we have another one of those reruns of virtually the same column, which claims minorities live in fear in India. Sure, in a demographic segment of more than 150 millions, at least some of them are liable to have a little bit of everything. If stats not his style, he could simply ask the Hindu teen girl who must go past a Muslim ghetto to her tuition classes or a stewardess on a Haj flight.

What is it with India? The Agriculture Minister wants to do Cricket, IAS officers want to be Human Rights Activists and writers. Maybe our problem is that we got too many people stuck in the wrong career.

In any case, this issue of our report is dedicated to Harsh Mander.

Source: Livemint

A Goa Congress politician rapes a Russian woman and then tries to weasel out using political clout. Comment by other Congress politicians? The woman should not have been out and about! Yeah, who are the Taliban here?
A Karanataka Congress politician caught with a woman and subsequently into immoral trafficking dragnet.
Telengana or not to be? A fine example of leadership. Crown Prince not available for comment even as his Youth Congress erupt in riots in Kerala.
A church pastor in Karnatana vandalizes his own Church and media spins the story. Nothing new here.
In Mumbai, evangelicals use deceit to convert children without the permission of their parents.
PDP Politician Madani's wife caught by police on terrorism charges inevitably leading to secular indignation, signature campaign by concerned citizens etc.
The usual minority related troubles including busting of a gang in Bangalore that used to kidnap bar girls and sexually assault them to force their employers to pony up.

As you can see, it tested the very limits of our self-control to pass up stories like this, yet we did. Why? Because the issue at hand is that important.

In India, we have a tendency to miss the forest for the trees. We obsess over silly little political games they play and that have no real consequence. We debate over the Swiss minaret ban which has practically no consequence in India, thankfully, aside from the comic relief provided by presumably Hindu secular journalists feigning more indignation than Muslims themselves. Yet, scams worth tens of thousands of crores get virtually no attention.

Funny thing is, we can at least recognize those scams. Take for instance the Madhu Koda scam or the Ambulance scam. These were low tech 19th century scams. Then the spectrum scam - tricky, but nothing you couldn't explain to the Mufassil types over a cup of tea.

Just how exactly do you even begin to explain the AGW scam? While you remain fixated over Copenhagen, your aam aadmi friendly Government has already bartered away your interest and you don't even know it.

In our next post, we will expose how our Government has already committed to a certain energy regime at a potential cost of literally hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, please take a few moments to ponder over the chart at the top of the post as well as the following:

After initially ignoring the climategate leakage for nearly two weeks, MSM in the developed countries finally caved in, partly because the leaks went viral and attracted massive amounts of attention. Steve McIntyre, a leading skeptic and a maverick climate scientist was even interviewed on US prime time TV. Several newspapers in the UK have already gone over to the other side or at least moved towards a more of an agnostic position. Andy Revkin, the leading climate journalist of the New York Times is reportedly leaving. George Monbiot, The Guardian's leading climate journalist, seems to have regained composure after his initial shock and disbelief, he remains a believer.

Unfortunately, Indian media and intellectuals have given the climategate scandal a complete miss. Indian media did not cover the issue with much enthusiasm earlier, since few people really care about it one way or the other. Copenhagen was covered with much enthusiasm in articles full of baseless speculation and gross factual errors.

Links and Resources:

Two highly recommended websites are Watts Up With That? maintained by Anthony Watts and ClimateAudit.org by Steve McIntyre, the latter being the more science oriented.

Another very good website is The Science and Policy Institute with which the most vocal opponent of IPCC, Lord Christopher Monckton is associated. Lord Monckton, a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher, famously challenged the UK Department of Education when they made the Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth compulsory viewing in UK schools. Lord Monckton won that court case after pointing out some 35 errors in the movie.

A very good and recent video of a presentation given by Lord Monckton on October 14, 2009 is available on [YouTube]. The slides for the presentation are available here [pdf].

Another must read is an open letter by Lord Monckton to IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pacharuri. This letter, apart from being a scathing critique of some of the scientific and statistical techniques used by the IPCC throws light on massive conflicts of interest that helps us understand the money game behind it.

For a better understanding of the problems of the solutions being proposed, in particular the economic viability of the various "green" energy sources, US based think tanks The Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation are particularly helpful. A quick fun post by Professor Mark Perry shows how Ethanol, the 90s magic bullet of the greenies has already turned out to be a "dangerous and delusional bullshit".

We urge the readers to research the web on their own before drawing any conclusion based purely on MSM propaganda.

The status of the AGW debate post climategate:

The climategate leak was by no means the first time the whole IPCC thing was seriously challenged. However, it helped shatter the mythology to a great extent. Already public support for AGW is tottering below the 50% mark.

A common talking point of the believers is that, the whole thing could not possibly have been all a scam. It is difficult to imagine thousands of scientists, the MSM all over the world, all green and environment groups and major politicians from virtually every country working lockstep in a grand conspiracy.

Actually, this is the nature of all major socially engineered movements - they gain their own momentum. Think of socialism itself - an ideology that has miraculously survived despite its proven track record of creating misery.

For something like this to stick, it needs several conditions: First, it must be perceived to help the left-liberal political parties. This in itself will ensure that the MSM in every country will deliver the right message to the intended target. Second: it must have an underlying moral or social concern so that the feel good crowd can, well, feel good about supporting it. What can beat saving the planet? Third: it must be aligned with the money game. This essentially means big corporations must be able to make money out of it, the financial world must love the scheme and it should generate loads of jholawalla type opportunities.

The AGW concept met all these conditions and more. There is a reason it has come to be called "climate change" and not just "global warming" - a convenient ploy to get all sorts of anxiety to sharply focus at achieving a singular goal, in this case a politically binding UN led treaty for all nations to sign up for eternity.

The money trail:

Contrary to the popular belief, there is huge money to be made from a green world. The finance world loves it because the trading desks stand to gain massive amounts of commission from carbon trading. Many big corporations will make windfall profits by selling their carbon credits. As an example, Lakshmi Mittal can make up to £1bn on profits under the European scheme. The same story holds true for the Tatas for their Corus acquisition. A WSJ article details some of the money trail involving policy research institutes and academia. A potential conflict of interest scenario involving IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri and the Tatas can be found here and also in the open letter by Lord Moncton linked earlier.

Green energy being heavily government subsidized, an army of NGOs around the world will make out like bandits, mostly for doing unproductive work. Of course, the companies involved in green energy production themselves stand to make Government guaranteed profits, with much of the downside protected by Government. In turn, the financial world will make commissions out the green IPOs, bonds etc.

A global energy regime will create a massive global scale bureaucracy with an estimated 700 organizations under the UN umbrella.

Many conventional energy and utility companies actually welcome "green" energy. These companies are always the primary target of socialist wrath on account of their windfall profits. Most have diversified into green energy and for a good reason - green energy earns an overall better operating margin. By contrast, coal based energy for instance, runs at very low margins.

Global Governance:

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent think tank, during his US visit. Clueless Indian media reported this as though this is some sort of official US Government body. Among others, NDTV's Prannoy Roy is on CFR's International Advisory Board.

CFR is an example of an organization that believes in the concept of a "World Government". A full discussion of this concept is beyond the scope of this blog.

Needless to say, these things increase the chances of international wheeling-dealing. The global governance concept looks particularly attractive to the Left-Liberal parties of Western Democracies. Many of them can not get their own legislative bodies to accept the recommendations of IPCC, for instance a carbon trading scheme was rejected in the Australian Senate just a while ago.

The problem is, under the Geneva convention, an international treaty such as the one being proposed for climate change is binding on a nation and supersedes the nation's legislature.

For India, the implications are less severe since for all practical purposes we do not have a constitution. The ruling party has a blank check for a trillion dollars and they can do as they please. Unfortunately, if an arbitrary global governance regime gets accepted and signed into international law, its consequences can be very problematic. Financial and economic consequences aside, it can open up a whole new front for diplomatic assault under the pretext of saving the world.

These newspapers are pretending that climategate never happened. Well, climategate already gets more google hits than Global Warming.

As it stands now, the global warming story stands thoroughly debunked. Up until now, most people accepted the general idea of global warming, although few believed in the doomsday scenarios and even fewer accepted the so called solutions.

Climategate shows the whole thing was a scam on a scale beyond our wildest imagination. It corrupted institutions, sacred principles of science and above all, it pushed a set of people generally considered above suspicion on the brink of and possibly well into criminal behavior. Perhaps the latter is the most tragic chapter in the book of climategate.

Consider the following:

- the scandal involves the very core of the global warming industry, the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, UK. The entire edifice of global warming and the IPCC reports are based on this organization's data and research.

- over the last two decades, the research grants for CRU and other pro scientists have increased dramatically, to the tune of many tens of millions, if not hundreds.

- the global warming scientists have always claimed a massive scientific consensus. It turns out there was no such consensus. The 2,500 scientists named in the IPCC report? Well, perhaps a few of them are actually scientists, the rest are bureaucrats. Rajedra Pachauri, IPCC head honcho, is a former railway engineer.

- the scientists vigorously denied any grain of truth in the so called "skeptics" claim, yet they actually entertained Stephen McIntyre's rebuttal and corrected the part involving Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.

- the scientists persistently refused to share data with the "skeptics". If they at all released data, it was the heavily massaged and processed data.

- CRU now claims that the raw data was deleted for "space reasons".

- The Chief of CRU has stepped down following an externally constituted investigation.

- The famous hockey stick graph was found to have been based on a single tree! This tree was actually a huge outlier.

- NASA is yet to share raw data

- New Zealand NIWA produced a graph showing global warming that can not rationally be reproduced from the underlying data

The list goes on and go on. If what they are willing to admit and what their massaged data and research reveals is shocking enough, what they did to achieve the so called consensus is absolutely repulsive. They ganged up on anyone in the academia who challenged their thesis, they influenced journals to pull out contrarian articles and universities to drop competing research. Some of the emails exposed in the scandal indicate they might have completely compromised the scientific peer review process. They took care of the academia while their overground supporters - politicians, governments and government agencies made sure that if you did not support global warming, your funds ran dry.

In due course, everyone wised up and played ball. To understand the implication of this, consider this: reliable temperature records exist only for a century or so. In order to get a handle on temperature variability, one needs data for at least a couple of thousands of years. This is achieved in a rather esoteric field of paleoclimatology. This science produces what is known as proxy data - for instance, by studying width of tree rings of ancient trees, one can get a handle of temperatures far into the past. In this manner the "global warming" science touches upon a very broad range of sciences.

It is entirely possible that in order to keep contradictory evidence out of sunlight, many of these science areas have been either been heavily compromised or parched in terms of funding.

As is very evident, the entire process of Government funding research creates such sinister scenarios of moral hazard. Economics as we all know is a heavily compromised area, with the climategate expose, it appears that any political meddling in supposedly cut and dry areas of sciences can get corrupted in no time.

The only way to restore sanity is to let the market work its magic on the scientific process. Once the dignity of the science is restored, there is little by way of climatic danger that humanity can't handle.

Left: The minaret that triggered the ban overwhelms the local landscape

Right: Terrified bleeding passenger after attack on bus at Agra after Saddam execution

Neither the picture on the left nor on the right are big surprises really. For those of us unfortunate enough to live in a country that capitulates to every irrational whims of the minorities to the point of masochism, it is a matter of how you accept it and move on. Our landscapes are dotted with structures, our cities are named after personalities who have inflicted terrible carnage on our ancestors, calls to prayer to the faithful shatters our eardrums, our history rewritten, religious customs and places of worship defiled, denuded by the Government, constitution perverted - in short order our life is held hostage. So we end up with the occasional nosebleed like the man shown above. To take a more recent example, peruse the YouTube videos of Miraj riots (video 1, video 2).

What is absolutely stunning is the sheer magnitude of the asymmetry. The fantastic denial of dozens and dozens of theocratic states of that religion with horrendous record of human rights and treatment of minorities.

Let's try to put this in context, as Suzanna Genocide Roy always exhorts us to do. Now Switzerland is a neutral country, always was. It stayed neutral in WW I, WW II and characteristically it remained neutral in the Iraq war. In other words, if there is one country the "occupation" theory does not apply to, it is the region of Europe we proudly claim Kashmir is similar to. The Swiss minority population doubled in the recent decade to about 450,000, at 5% of the total population. Most of them are refugees, i.e. they went there to be safe. Many of them are on welfare. They enjoyed full religious, economic and political freedom sans prayer calls which were afoul of sound pollution laws from much before anyway.

So, we should expect a "they lived happily ever after" Bollywood ending, right? Wrong!

Swiss minorities started radicalizing and started creating the same sort of issues that we see everywhere. The recent imports from more radical countries started becoming more assertive. The minaret that triggered the ban (pictured above) was in fact constructed atop a Turkish cultural center, amid protests by local residents. It was clearly more political than anything religious. It was clearly a "mine is bigger than yours" type of statement. In 2006, terror plots got exposed in Switzerland, leading to the arrest of a dozen people.

Clearly the Gandhian angle wasn't working as it has not worked anywhere else or has the remotest chance of working anywhere else ever. Now, the left-liberal howlers would like to divide the world into two tranches of "liberals" and "illeberal" (with the people of that faith presumably filed under a special category) . Under this fake reconstruction, the Swiss people would have to bend over and see their way of life, constitution, freedom and happiness trampled all over by a set of primitive people.

By banning construction of future minarets legally and under the provision of referendum in the Swiss constitution, the Swiss people have restored the true meaning of "liberal", which is also giving it back to the evil.

Our heartiest congratulations to the great Swiss people, more power to them!

NOTE: Do not forget to read about the Acorn treatment of a bleeding heart secular journo here and analysis by RealityCheck here. The Swiss minaret ban is none of our business and does not concern us. But we were forced to comment on it because people like Vishnu Som make it our business. We are also concerned of potential for violence by India's minorities who tend to make every issue real or imaginary anywhere in the world their business.

Scientists working on the phenomenon known as anthropogenic global warming had known all along that there was no global warming. And they cooked up data and facts, suppressed evidence to the contrary, engineered fake experiments, destroyed data to keep the bogey of an impending global warming led catastrophe alive. It all changed when a few days ago a hacker broke into a climate laboratory and stole emails and data files. Those emails and data files revealed a sordid tale of how politics compromised scientific integrity.

For a quick intro to what really transpired, please peruse this or use the friendly google search.

Coming in days before the Copenhagen meet where world leaders will negotiate a binding treaty to control greenhouse gas emissions, this assumes enormous importance, especially since India is trying its best to avoid signing any such treaty. Yet Indian newspapers have blacked out this explosive news.

A binding climate treaty will be catastrophic for India, especially when we are stuck with the Nuclear Deal. It is now clear that the Nuclear Deal did not come with all the bells and whistles that were promised, it comes in with a laundry list of new compliance requirements instead. Even then, signing the deal with the US is politically important for the secular party. The secular party has willfully put us into this unenviable situation, we are stuck with a lemon and they know it.

The attitude of Indian media and opinion makers on the climategate is worrying because it raises uncomfortable questions about their loyalty to the country. Globalization of politics has ensured that they will throw a crumb to anyone who supports the big ticket global "liberal" agendas and there are signs people in the Indian Government and bureaucracy are working to get some of those crumbs.

The biggest tragedy of the global warming scandal is that no field of human knowledge or endeavor is sacrosanct anymore. It also shows any dogmatic ideology, be it religious or secular, is ultimately detrimental for scientific advances.

Bullets at the station

mayhem on the streets

Mushroom clouds in the sky

Ballots at the poll booth

the sad look in her eyes

Mushroom clouds in the westward sky

In most theaters, audience members stood up and burst into spontaneous applause, some singing Vande Mataram, during the scene of the major's supreme sacrifice. The Government declared the movie tax free.

Just kidding.

There was no such movie coming out of Bollywood, as a matter of fact, there was not a single movie that presented a heroic picture. There were dozens of low budget "we bounced back", "we wallow in self-pity" type of movies. The biggest movies so far in fact glorified not the hero cops and commandos but the type of people who perpetrate these crimes. The biggest movies so far romanticized not a legitimate state's struggle against nefarious elements but the fictitious victimhood of those nefarious elements themselves.

These movies showed the attackers as matinee idols, replete with all the regalia that are coveted by youth - money, power, popularity in college campuses and oh yes - a pretty Hindu wife (Maya in New York, and Avantika in Kurbaan). Let's not even go into the specific plot points that tended to validate some of the loonier conspiracy theories, e.g. post 9/11 (yeah, Genocide Suzie, the original one of which 26/11 is just a fake made up copy) the Americans randomly detained and tortured America born and brought up Muslims for no apparent reasons.

This is no accident, this tells us volumes about what we have become. As a matter of fact, this puts a serious question mark in front of the notion of who "we" are.

As far as Vande Mataram goes, instead of encouraging us to sing the song, the good secular people of India have already decided to practically banish it. They made several TV shows on it too.

(.... to be continued)

Considering all the faux indignation, cries for justice, goofy editorials, human interest stories we had to endure for almost a year, the biggest story ever to break is getting a noticeably lukewarm response.

Since the previous post on the topic, the David Coleman Headley case has gotten bigger. The man now seems to be a veritable harbinger of doom - wherever he went, disaster struck. Let us quickly recap what the Bhatts had to say then and how things have changed.

In his initial interview with CNN-IBN, Mahesh Bhatt claimed that his son Rahul Bhatt took the initiative to go to the Police "the moment he got a whiff from the media". He had run into Headley "a few years ago" and when the media started "flashing", he presumably went to his parents seeking advise who then directed him to supercop Rakesh Maria. The senior Bhatt said that he did not know Headley personally and that he does not keep track of "every acquaintance" of his son. He also claimed that there was no reason to suspect a "white skinned American" who was "very decent in behavior".

In another version of the story it was Mahesh Bhatt's ex-wife (Rahul's mom) who recognized Headley on TV and asked his son to go to the cops.

Then the father daughter duo Mahesh and Pooja Bhatt (pictured above) appeared on the CNN-IBN Fake the Nation show and launched a massive tirade against - well, everyone. According to Pooja Bhatt, everyone is a lying, conniving, conspiring member of a totally broken system that is out to get their precious little snowflake.

Since then, more details have emerged and it does not look pretty for the Bhatts or the Bollywood community at large. Instead of being a chance acquaintance he met at a gym "a few years ago" (or variously at another place through a friend), Headley hung out with Rahul Bhatt as recently as March 2008. They must have known each other for a period of at least several months. Rahul took Headley out to meet his Bollywood pals, including his cousin. An assorted variety of Bolly stars and starlets then socialized with Headley at various levels of intimacy.

The police claim Rahul and Headley's other friends from the film world knew he was Asian. "He spoke in an American accent, but looked Asian," an officer said. "We've come to know some of the film stars knew Headley was Muslim and was regularly travelling to Pakistan. If that didn't arouse suspicion, what could?"

These facts are distinctly at variance with what Mahesh Bhatt had been selling to the media. No one forced him to come to the TV station - why then would he gloss over certain details?

Even the claim that Rahul took the initiative to go to the cops seems to be a bit untenable:

"The Bhatts claim we are hounding Rahul and that he came to us voluntarily. This is far from reality. It was only after we reached Headley's rented Breach Candy house that he came to us. We would have come to know of his friendship with Headley. The Bhatts possibly saw the trouble that lay ahead." [link]

There is still no reason to believe Rahul Bhatt had any inkling of Headley's devious plans. However, Mahesh Bhatt's claim that he was a hero who is being run aground by the media is ludicrous.

While the middle is intriguing enough, we know how the story ends and that's a bummer:

NEXT: We will discuss shocking lapses in UPA's handling of the security apparatus and minority pandering that led to Pakistanis having a virtually free run in the country.

Father and daughter on discovery of Coca Cola trip, Disneyland, USA

September 12, 2009: A 95 years old man from Texas, USA passed away. His name was Norman Borlaug.

On October 31, India observed the 25th anniversary of Indira Gandhi's death. It triggered major coverage in the media.

On Novermber 14, India celebrated Children's day - this time it was the 120th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. Little children were ritually paraded to the Prime Minister's residence. A prominent female journalist from a major news channel accompanied the children to cover the event "exclusively". She cutely posed with the children.

Norman Borlaug's death should have triggered massive mourning in India and indeed we should have known much more about this man. His name barely finds a mention in the textbooks, that too only recently. Ramachandra Guha does not mention his name in his India after Gandhi, although there were a few pages on Green Revolution.

It took India until 2006 to finally confer the Padma Vibhushan on him, he was awarded the title abroad.

So, who was this Norman Borlaug and why didn't we hear much about him before?

One of the defining characteristics of socialism is that information is disseminated on a strictly need to know basis. The leader of the nation is to be respected like a father figure. Many of us feel the Green Revolution as Indira Gandhi's gift to the nation.

To put it simply, Norman Borlaug's infinite genius caused so much increase in crop yield that Nehru's socialism simply could not kill us fast enough. We are alive today because of Norman Borlaug. But for him, the famines during the Nehru era would be far more persistent and far more wide even today. India could not produce enough food for the population levels at Nehru's time. Readers of this blog can certainly find out more about this amazing man, but we are tempted to offer this quote from the Wiki page:

The Indian and Pakistani bureaucracies and the region's cultural opposition to new agricultural techniques initially prevented Borlaug from fulfilling his desire to immediately plant the new wheat strains there. By the summer of 1965, the famine became so acute that the governments stepped in and allowed his projects to go forward.

Unfortunately, we have not learned anything. Norman Borlaug continues to be maligned posthumously and Nehru's hagiographers continue to pine for the Nehruvian golden era. In the second article, the author pretends that we are some sort of a "free market economy" as opposed to the "mixed economy" of Nehru's time. With these type of people calling the shots, is it any wonder that millions of people live in abject misery?

"We're eating what even pigs won't"

Tur dal? We haven't eaten it for several months," says Ganesh Jahangir Pawar, 50, a two-acre farmer in Wardha's Amgaon-Khadi village. The only time in the last one year that he bought tur was during Diwali. "Only a quarter kg."

But of late, he has not been able to buy food grain at all. He will need a thousand rupees a month, he says, to feed his family of six, including four children, to meet their minimum nutritional requirements.

Already heavily in debt, Pawar is broke and has no work to fall back upon. His family, he says, is eating much less. "Rice and dal are out of question," says his wife Alka. "So are sugar and milk." His helpful neighbour, Sudam Pawar, 35, lends him sorghum flour to keep the family afloat. Other villagers give them various vegetables. (DNA India)

Passport image of David Coleman Headley (source: Tribune India)

India Government has shown extraordinary reluctance in investigating local links to the 26/11 attacks. In fact, even when the attack was going on with prime real estate in Bombay under siege, many in the media and Government said there were only foreign hands behind the attacks. While the motivated bunch were burning up, brutalizing, sexually torturing inmates at two hotels and a Jewish center, secular blowhards were naturally more worried about retaliation against minorities which never happened.

Various freelance and amateur commentators have pointed out many fallacies in the convenient theories of the Government. There was no particular interest in fact finding. That such an attack is inconceivable without detailed recon, never seemed to have occurred to them.

But then again we know the compulsions of a secular political system. General elections were due in a few months and if they stirred up too much dust in Bombay, it might have cost them Delhi.

The capture of David Coleman Headley aka Daood Gilani, an American of Pakistani ancestry has clearly put the Government into an uncomfortable situation. Given that this is the FBI, it is not easy to dismiss the charges or create a bogey of Hindu/Jewish conspiracy. Moreover, the man seems to be intimately connected to the big boys in that business and seems to have left a huge trail across two continents. In other words, this is a major catch.

The news would have lingered on secondary headlines and off hours TV spots for a few days before disappearing - had it not been for the media's need to create titillation around a certain mysterious "Rahul" the aforementioned man frequently referred to in his email transcripts. The mysterious Rahul eventually turned out to be filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son. Mahesh Bhatt as we all know is a die hard secular with an almost physical need to assert the point on a regular basis.

Since then Bhatt senior has been playing the indignant father on prime time TV. The media for its part has already issued a clean chit to junior.

Now, strictly to maintain a semblance of parity in both religious and social justice terms (Rahul is only a quarter Muslim) - it would really be prudent to throw him into the cooler for a few days. Under the same circumstances a man from a Muslim ghetto would probably be given a slightly rougher treatment.

All these things again raise serious questions such as the nature of Bollywood as an industry and its nefarious linkages to jihad-mafia networks. They seem to run into terror related issues very frequently. Even when Bhatt junior was socializing with Headley, he was supposed to appear in a film tentatively titled "Suicide Bomber". This is perhaps a coincidence, but surely he would have researched the role a little? Being a resident of Bombay and coming from a background where people wear their politics on their T-Shirts, he should have chosen his company a tad more carefully.

Arunachal Students hand over a memo to Uttarakhand CM

Recently Rahul Gandhi said Arunachal Pradesh is "like any other Indian state". Well, it does appear that Arunachal Pradesh is just like any other Indian state in a way Kashmir isn't.

As a matter of fact, the two states present a startling contrast. One receives state patronage, massive funding (to be pocketed by vested interests and separatists, of course). The other remains neglected. A large section of the population of one state wants to get away and openly call for destruction of India - "Bharat Ragda" is their slogan. Ask your Kashmiri friend what that means and he will rub it in for you.

Perhaps more surprising is the coverage in the media. The newspapers and TV channels can not get enough of the Kashmir separatists state their point of view - usually a barrage of grievances. Human Rights Activists can not condemn the Indian state enough for holding the Kashmiris back without their consent.

Recently, a group of students from Arunachal Pradesh handed over a memo to the Uttarakhand CM, affirming their loyalty and pledging to shed the last drop of their blood for defending the nation against Chinese aggression. In a nation where patriotism is a bad word, it still manages to pull at a few heartstrings. This was not an isolated incident - over 100 students from the state courted arrests by demonstrating in front of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi. The recent Dalai Lama visit had the state enthralled, they went out on the street in massive numbers. It was as much out of reverence for the spiritual leader as it was in defiance against our belligerent neighbor.

Why then, does the state receive such step-motherly treatment in the media? If Kashmir separatism is such a hot topic, logically speaking the converse should get at least equal attention. We are not even asking the media to run PR stories to help the country in international forums, we know that would be too much.

This in a way is really the sign of the times. Bad behavior is encouraged at all times. Those who cause mayhem, explosions and gunfire at public places are the heroes while those who protect and defend are annoying distractions. It is as though the whole world is running on a film noir script, actually make that a Bollywood gangster flick. At least in the classic film noir, the anti-hero dies at the end.

Given that this is the faithful Indian media, expect them to turn a story thus far favorable to India completely on its face. There is a story in the Outlook magazine provocatively titled On the wrong side of Geography? with a tagline With India having given them nothing but neglect, the Arunachalis wonder if they'd have been better off with China. As described earlier, there really is no sign of Arunachalis "wondering" or "looking" across the border.

If they really do look across the border, China does not present the unambiguous picture of milk and honey the media would have you believe. Just a couple of recent examples: China recently executed 9 Uighurs. India has been struggling to hang just one. China is also trying a Tibetan filmmaker for subversion.

If lack of development in Arunachal Pradesh is a cause for concern, the media does not leave much wiggle room for that either. In the Outlook story linked above, the "flashpoint 5" says influx of migrants for projects will wreck havoc, presumably hassle the locals etc. In other words, India can't win.

Recently, N. Ram, Editor-in-chief of The Hindu was in China on a propaganda trip hosted by the Chinese Communist Government.

We wonder if N. Ram will have the same point of view for Palestine or Kashmir. Funny thing is, India recently beat China on such a composite indicator. Don't expect the editorials to highlight that though.

Afghan students queue up at the Indian Embassy for visas

It is funny that Muslims the world over hold a far more favorable opinion about India than do the domestics. Is it Bollywood? Is it the grass on the other side effect? Maybe the wrinkles get smoothed in the view from a distance. Perhaps it is just a case of familiarity breeds contempt.

In any case, M's flock to India from all parts of the world. From Arab sex tourists to Afghan students to Pakistanis in need of medical treatment to wheeler dealers from the middle east to drug traffickers and email scam artists from Nigeria. Of course we have B'desh folks too. They are practically a state in the Indian nation.

The latest are the Uighurs:

Uighurs seek a passage to India

With Han Chinese flooding Xinjiang - a region struggling with ethnic strife - the demoralized natives seek refuge across the border to escape the
oppression...

[...]

"We want dignity, what is normalcy?" he asks as his friends lapse into Uighur, talking excitedly about reports of Tibetans living in India, free from the fear of persecution, free to speak against the oppression of their people "back home."

"We can do more from India. We thought of Pakistan, but they have returned Uighur refugees to China. India has welcomed Tibetans and we are similar," he reasons before turning back to the heap of coffeestained notes and maps with highlighted routes into India strewn over his keyboard and table. [link]

We say, let's throw the doors wide open, let's embrace one and all. Everyone will be accommodated and provided a suitable position in our caste system according to their aptitude and abilities. So, here is a Barbarian's guide to national integration, a quick and easy overview of some of the most popular castes and what they have to offer:

Politician: Indisputably the Brahmins of modern India, this class presents formidable entry barriers.
Human Rights Activist: This caste offers easy admissions but the field has become cluttered lately. Blame it on the laws of economics - any area that offers abnormal returns will attract investors.
Goon: No experience required, perhaps the only easy entry point (aside from having been born from a pedigreed vagina) to the politician class but runs the risk of encounter killing. If you so prefer, you can also pick from several subcastes like NSUI, YC, SFI, ABVP etc.
Minority: An increasingly popular caste, good Government benefits. Side effect: you may become perpetually constipated with all those grievances bottled up inside you. Plus occasional riots.
Naxal: If you like wildlife, Naxal may be the way to go. You will be required to worship a reportedly horny Chinese dude who mistreated his parents.
Jholawalla: Once upon a time everyone wanted to be lawyers. Then the preference shifted to engineers, doctors etc. The current rage seems to be "computers". We predict that in a few decades, every kid will have nightly wet dreams of donning that Khadi kurta over those dirty pair of jeans and slinging that trademark bag across his shoulders.

Coming from our smartypants Home Minister, this should hardly be a surprise. Earlier, he had made an even stranger statement:

Lay down arms vs. halt the violence - what's the difference? This is virtually conceding a parallel Government to the Naxals.

There is simply no reason for the Naxals to come to talks with the Government unless they find their movement under serious threat of attrition. The ringleaders are all underground, having propped up "tribal" faces to create a convenient image for the hard left to run with. Meanwhile Kobad Gandhy and overt and covert support from mainstream people clearly proves the movement is anything but "tribal".

There are ways to create pressures on the Naxals by sanitizing zone by zone but it is beyond the capabilities of our current political and economic framework. The secular party honchos are too busy looting the spoils of a virtually guaranteed single party rule for the foreseeable future.

PRIEST'S VOICE: Michael Francis Rizzi, do you renounce Satan?

MICHAEL CORLEONE: I do renounce him.

Given a choice and with no trade offs involved, all of us will readily vote for a peaceful society - like in the Government newsreels that accompanied 70s Bollywood pictures. Yet such a society has remained elusive so far, and how so!

Naturally we turn to our intellectuals for an answer, an honest answer. What we get instead is names. We are told that society is made up of Satan and Saints, or if you prefer, Devas and Asuras. It takes just a casual review of the the political discourse of the last decade to find out how the public sorts itself out into the two categories. We are also told that the necessary conditions for peaceful society comes from the heart. Apparently renouncing violence and giving up conspicuous consumption will lead us down the path to socialist Nirvana in no time at all.

Some intellectuals do not answer at all, instead they hit us back with a barrage of what they call "uncomfortable" questions and inundate us with anecdotes they find "disturbing".

Jarnail Singh, the journalist who achieved instant fame (or notoriety, depending on which side of the aisle you are) by throwing a shoe at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has just published a book called: I Accuse: The anti-Sikh violence of 1984.

The journalist made some shocking revelations in an interview with Rediff. For instance, we find this rather shocking statement from the journalist's Rediff interview transcript:

I had always been following the issue and developments. When my publishers contacted me after the incident, I started conducting interviews with the victims and after researching the various committee reports, I have put together this book, which will clearly expose that what happened in 1984 was a state-sponsored massacre of the Sikhs, and not 'riots', when the issue got highlighted on April 7, I realized that there was nothing in media about this. I went back to the reports of that year, and again found that barring the Indian Express, there was no reporting of the incident. DD was interested only in Indira Gandhi's funeral when the capital was burning.

This distinction between the Gujarat riots and the 1984 carnage may seem like splitting hairs, but then again this hair splitting has been going on in our political discourse for the last decade or so.

Much has also been made of various statements issued by politicians. Yet, we found the following quite disturbing:

Mind you, this is our current, superstar Home Minister, uber intellectual Harvard graduate.

Jarnail Singh also expresses his sadness about the lack of concrete steps being taken to curb communal violence. This is a rarity, most writers and journalists are usually happy just to have made their point:

There is something wrong with the political system. The anti-communal law is still not in place. This in a place where the Pandits have been subjected to severe communal violence. Sikhs in Delhi, Muslims in Gujarat, Christians in Kandhamal. How long will this continue?

It took years and much prodding for our intellectuals to finally start adding a couple of obligatory statements about 1984 to their Gujarat riot stories (which is about all some of them write about).

Jarnail Singh's book may finally help our intellectuals find some answers to their questions so that in turn they can educate us better. Assuming of course they are sincere and really trying to solve the problem.

Now the coverage of the Madhu Koda scam completely eclipses the Spectrum scam. A headline analysis of The Times of India shows the spectrum scam received just about a few hours headline space in the last few months, that too in the context of "BJP raising questions" etc. The Madhu Koda scam features prominently on the site.

So, the Spectrum scam, easily India's biggest scam and most definitely planned and executed at the highest level that stole money from poor Indians is getting a casual go by. Meanwhile a tribal leader is being made a scapegoat even as various social justice water carriers are overcome with indignation about injustice done to tribal people.

The Wholesale Price Index, the figure that the Indian Government uses (and consequently the most quoted in the media) does not truly capture the stress on consumers. For some reason, the Government stopped publishing CPI numbers from last April. They still publish a monthly CPI figure for urban consumers. These figures were used to make the chart above (click the image for a larger version).

During the election season, the secular politicians went blue pointing out the grave injustice meted to them by the almighty in terms of energy and commodity prices. Well, that is no longer true, and consequently the WPI figures are running pretty tame.

The CPI numbers, which represent the true effect of prices on end consumers tell us another story. As we see from the chart above, the CPI is running very hot - almost 13 percent for all items and 15% for food. This is a direct consequence of NREGA and other inflationary policies.

The NREGA policy will hurt the economy grievously. If you take out 20% of labor force from the economy, you will get 20% less output. Short term gains for politicians, a true long term disaster in the making. Low end industries and labor intensive jobs get priced out causing a death spiral.

Right now it is hurting the poorest because food prices are going high. As an example, mid-day meal schemes in Hyderabad serve "plain rice and watery dal" because that's all they can afford. Of course, the public mid-day meal schemes suffer from other more serious problems.

Arundhati Roy's famous spat with historian Ram Guha is well known. Now even anti-Hindutva champion Harsh Mander has spoken out against Roy's openly batting for Naxals. One could easily see the discomfiture of TV personalities when they recently interviewed Roy. In an interview segment, CNN-IBN's Suhasini Haider called Roy out on her bald faced lie that Naxals never kill civilians - however it appeared Rajdeep Sardesai restrained Haider before it got too heated.

Socialism is immoral