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Socialism is immoralProtest the quota systemEnd entitlement benefits for freeloaders Support the death penalty for terrorists and anti-nationals |
| FAKE STINGS AND SECULAR GAMES: | |
| The deep rooted conspiracy to subvert the political process [link] |
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Saturday, March 31, 2007 |
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A Brief History of the Nation | |
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Once upon a time, there existed a great Nation, called Bharat.  The nation came under many invasions throughout the history. But somehow the idea of a single great nation persisted.  Most of the people in this great nation lived on Agriculture or Livestock. They seemed to care little about who ruled them. As long as the rains kept coming, they were happy.  Most recently, the nation was part of the British Empire. The British started to change the natural ecology of the nation. Who knows whether it was for good or bad? For the first time, the lives of the farmers got impacted by things other than rain, drought etc.  There is no evidence that life in general was any worse under the British than what it would otherwise have been. Most of the folks who could read or write became servants of the British. Most of the folks who could fight and curse became soldiers for the British. The rest mostly carried on. Life as usual.  But some folks didn't like it. Not one bit. Some intellectuals allege that this new sense of nationalism was ironically imported by the British themselves, for the peoples of India never had any sense of history, nor romantic nationalism. The Great Indian Freedom Struggle took its roots.  The Freedom Struggle so called didn't really see any violent uprising, contrary to popular belief. After 1857, it was mostly a garden variety movement, restricted to urban areas (except for a few stray incidents of terrorism). As a matter of fact it waxed and waned, much like seasonal fever. But there was a twist to the tale. A new God had arrived.  As soon as it became evident that under the new God there was no significant risk to life or limb, people started joining the struggle in hordes.  Meanwhile, a great war was looming over the European skies.  The British were becoming weakened. America emerged as the new world power. India got its vaunted freedom, finally. It was claimed that our freedom fighters won our nation back from imperialists. Most people were confused at this point. Needless to say when finally Nehru signed the constitution, few people had anything to say about it. Most people joined the new nation with little idea of what they were getting into. They merely got swept by the historical tides.  For a new Nation which claimed to be non-aligned and peace-loving, India showed an incredible amount of aggression in quickly acquiring the remaining nation states. Great hardships happened, the partition happened too. But these were quickly forgotten. India also waged wars with all its neighbors.  No sooner than the constitution had been written and committed, some people realized that they were shortchanged. Some people found an opportunity for a shakedown. The author of the constitution himself pushed for a scheme which was incorporated into the consitution via the first amendment. Over the ages this would come to be known as the reservations or the quotas.  Life was good. Well, for some people anyway.  We had 13 channels of, well, Krishi Darshan and Prime Minister's message to choose from.  Life for the farmers hadn't changed much. Only, they had a few new hobbies added to their daily lives, such as getting loaded up onto trucks to be driven to city centers to participate in rallies and bandhs. To protest against something which they are not quite sure of.  They say all these have a real meaning despite the appearence of a savage dance of uncivilized people. But then again I am not an intellectual. I just bring the message to the masses. A tiny blip on the radar of history, soon to be forgotten. Who knows, maybe it will all work someday. 
posted by barbarindian at 2:35 PM Permalink
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Friday, March 30, 2007 |
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Bad vibes | |
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  I am getting bad vibes about the current political situation. It doesn't take long for a celebration to turn into a hellish nightmare. For those of you somewhat uninitiated in Indian politics, I bring you this absolutely amazing comment by blogger RealityCheck: In reality, there is no such thing as a OBC. There are individual castes that gain membership into the group called “OBC”. These politicians are nothing but representatives of narrow electoral interests that have congealed around the OBC benefits. Almost every politician can be tracked down to a particular caste affilitation.In other words if you believe that Karunanidhi, Laloo, Ramadoss etc. will sulk for a few days and then go away, you are grossly mistaken. This is the aspect of Indian politics most people naively miss. This is the problem that in my opinion will cause a breakup of India in at most 50 years of time. People do not vote because they believe the benefits will directly accrue to them. After all, this round of free seats would benefit at most 10,000 OBC students. But this makes 500 mils cheer because of two reasons. First, they feel happy that someone from their group is benefiting. Second, they feel happy that there is a Robin Hood that fights exclusively for them. If you take away the ability to enact bogus laws, these politicians have no utility for the masses. They simply have no appeal. This brings us to the obvious question, is there anything really that can appeal to all and sundry? The answer is a resounding no. BJP attempted this with religion, with some degree of success. Congress never had anything really. The euphoria of a new nation faded quickly and ever since Congress is straddling these special interest groups. Every year they have to try harder and harder, as the photos of Gandhi and Nehru accumulate more dust. After all, ideology doesn't really fill the stomach.
posted by barbarindian at 8:17 PM Permalink
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Thursday, March 29, 2007 |
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How to do a proper referendum | |
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 Privileged, beware. Hide or at least cover your noses, lots of rear emissions from socialists will follow. Blast from the past:  Expect violence. Stay alert, avoid crowds and Dalit/OBC infested areas.
posted by barbarindian at 8:13 AM Permalink
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Wednesday, March 28, 2007 |
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Rohit Vyasman beware, Mr. Singhvi is straining his sphincter | |
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 In a previous post we discussed the incredible Rahul Gandhi rape story, which was propagated by HinduUnity.org.We didn't believe it then and we have trouble believing it even now. What surprised us was the zeal with which the Cong legal machine (headed by Mr. Singhvi) went after the owner of the site, one Mr. Rohit Vyasman. No Indian media carried the original story. But many did cover the supposed legal threats. It was a PR disaster of the first order. Think about it, the story never got to anything beyond a malicious blog post, carried and linked by a few little known websites. The internet is full of such stuff. But Mr. Singhvi's comments appeared on major newspapers. In any case, Congress was able to get the site's messageboard down. This they achieved by contacting the service provider, EZBoard Inc. I do not think there is any solid legal ground under which the Indian Government can force a US based messageboard to disown a client (HinduUnity in this case). EZBoard was merely trying to be nice. A few days later, HinduUnity published and linked some videos on YouTube, purported to be witness reports of the rape. The videos were of poor quality and they featured interviews of persons who had their features obscured (apparently for fear of being hunted down by Cong goondas). I viewed the videos, just out of curiosity. Today, I visited the site again and clicked on one of the videos. This is what I got:  Wait a minute! A viral video, containing eye witness report of a bogus rape involving a prominent politician is being claimed by Times Global Broadcasting Co. Ltd.? Something stinks here. Meanwhile, Mr. Singhvi hasn't let the issue go: He identified Vyasman as the main person behind the report. "It is strange that while so many others associated with the website have apologised, he has refused," Singhvi said. He said the party had the option of approaching Interpol with a request to track the man down and initiate steps for his prosecution.Well, we are not so sure about that Mr. Singhvi. Heard about free speech? Safe Harbor provision etc.? Unless Congress gets back at these folks through their Indian links and they are legal US residents, there are not too many options. Also, the interpol is not really personal servants of Congress (like some Government officers are). They have bigger fish to fry. Strange we never got back any dreaded criminal (including Dawood) with the help of the interpol but Congress seems to be so enthusiastic about pursuing Vyasman.
posted by barbarindian at 10:59 PM Permalink
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Monday, March 26, 2007 |
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World's only terrorist group with an air force and a navy | |
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 LTTE carried out a daring air strike yesterday, just 32 Kms North of Colombo. See pictures of the man and the dudes and the plane here.This attack raises a few questions. Sri Lanka itself is a piddly little nation. The dissident Tamils reside on a narrow strip towards the North of the Island. They face a practical embargo. Amazing how they were able to assemble aircrafts from parts smuggled in on ships. They also modified these to attach bombs. Not only that, they made functional runways. Must be pretty tough to keep all this hidden from scrutiny. Even more surprising is the fact that their aircrafts managed to get back home safely. Come to think of it, they didn't do much damage. A few Sri Lankan airmen got zapped. One hangar and a couple of planes got minor damages. Apparently the capability of the rebels is not much. All they have is a couple of planes and a few helicopters. The planes themselves are something like this. It is not that the air defense capability of Sri Lanka is something to write home about. They have perhaps a dozen or so MiG class aircrafts. Until recently they didn't even have decent radar, before India gave them some. For some reasons the dudes didn't have these turned on. What were they thinking? Saving electricity perhaps? The funny thing is, some folks got really scared by this incident. Apparently the rebels could attack India as well. This is as absurd as it gets. With their tiny aircraft, at the most they can drop off a bomb or two on Madurai and Rameswaram, if they get really lucky to penetrate India's air defense system. Also, India has airplanes that can give chase. It does not make much political sense either. They will end up hurting folks they allegedly receive lots of support from, financial or otherwise. So, does this mean Madras folks will not see an action replay of 1942? I won't bet on it.
posted by barbarindian at 10:03 PM Permalink
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Sunday, March 25, 2007 |
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Picnic | |
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 Picnic is a unique movie by Japanese director Shunji Iwai who also brought us Swallowtail Butterfly, April Story, Hana and Alice, Love Story and All About Lily Chou Chou. Very entertaining films, all these. But somewhat tragic. Very few Japanese films (if any) are as unambiguously happy as the typical Bollywood crowd pleaser. Take for instance, Fall Guy. Would you believe that a comedy can feature a gratuitous rape?Anyway. Suppose I give you this deal. You will give me Rs. 50,000 upfront. Thereafter you will spend 10 years in a limited activity arrangement, your food and clothing will be modest, you will have to wake up early and exercise everyday. You will have a small community room to watch TV in the evenings - no porn though. You will have access to books and newspapers. At the end of it, you will get Rs. 30,000 crore. Yes, you got that right. That's the deal. Picnic, right? Well, that's the kind of deal Abdul Karim Telgi, the mastermind of the infamous stamp paper scam got. Here's another: The Income Tax department claims to have traced unaccounted wealth valued at Rs 35,000 crore to accounts operated by a Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali.Stud farm owner Hasan Ali, stamp paper scammer Telgi, notorious criminal at large Dawood Ibrahim. Now, the socialists and seculars claim that there are as many criminals among Hindus. Sure there is, but last time I checked, no one had drawn up a Sachar report on them. Everyday we read about how terrorists have penetrated the Indian financial system deep and wide. Every once in a while a train blows up somewhere. Then the riots happen. Then you and I get blamed. Apparently we look at Muslims funny, so they get mighty upset. Then Madame Suzanna Roy writes flamboyant articles, her fans lap them up. People win prizes at essay competitions. Research to study Muslim discrimination at the hands of murderous Hindus (that's you and I) are funded across the country in educations institutes. Awards are give, speeches made. The walls feature a dusty photograph of Mahatma Gandhi. The problem is not about Muslims. The issue is not of Dalits or OBCs. The question is, where the fuck are my fundamental rights? I don't want to subsidize these problems just because Nehru and Gandhi wanted to play house and ended up creating an absurd nation.
posted by barbarindian at 10:51 PM Permalink
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Thursday, March 22, 2007 |
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Relax, the King has arrived | |
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 The savior has sent a strong message. All evils would stop if the throne went to the royal family. Everybody rejoice.
posted by barbarindian at 11:25 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007 |
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AIIMS Student Roadmap | |
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 Read more here.
posted by barbarindian at 11:22 PM Permalink
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RIP 2 | |
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 Adios The Other Idiots.
posted by barbarindian at 11:20 PM Permalink
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Thursday, March 15, 2007 |
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Heavy words and Punjabi chole farts | |
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 Ta da! We have a new editorial in the people's paper. It is called "The Smart Quota".The way forward on quotas is consensus. Cajole, shame, inspire the corporates, don’t threaten.Ah, consensus. A beautiful word. So, let's see here how consensus has historically been achieved. Stalin achieved it rather quickly, so did Mao and Pol Pot. It is hard to present your argument when your head is not attached to your frame. So, you have consensus. The successful nations of today (the jury is still out on that by the way, Madam Roy thinks Amrikka is the most primitive nation), seem to have arrived at consensus in a manner we South Asians do not understand. But like it or not, there is something predictable in those nations. For one thing the farmers over there will shoot you with his shotgun if you so much as suggest suicide to them. Elsewhere consensus has been arrived at under different conditions. Take China for instance. Mao used students to launch his "cultural revolution" exterminating millions. Decades later, tanks crushed few of those students alive. Goodbye dissidence, hello consensus. Now, China doesn't seem to be as unstable as it should have been. Joe Chinaman knows that Jack Chinaman is screwing him over, but it is better than elsewhere in the world. Better bending over for your own kind. From that experience it would seem that the first condition of consensus is a fairly homogeneous population. Like in India. Except that it really isn't. We all know how consensus is done here. Just a few days ago a union minister made an open threat to a retailer to get out of his territory - or else. Apparently the retailer would not be so good for the business interests of his immediate community. Under these conditions, where everyone is pissed at everyone else, how the heck do you achieve consensus? It makes for good copy and perhaps you can get laid with any of the libby ladies in the posh circles in New Delhi but it means zilch for the 400 million hungry. The truth is, you would not need quotas if you had consensus. Quotas are imposed because there is no consensus.
posted by barbarindian at 10:26 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007 |
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Hunger | |
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 Up to 40% of fruits and vegetables go waste in India for lack of infrastructure.
posted by barbarindian at 7:34 PM Permalink
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007 |
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Is inflation spinning out of control? | |
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 That is a question only time can decide. The indications are all there - tight supply, strong demand, hot money. The Government is trying its best to make it worse though. Take a look at this interview. Unlike this blogger I do not think the interviewer did a good job. Much as I dislike Kamal Nath, I think Indian reporters think they are too smart. There is a reason the reporter perhaps pulls in a few lakhs while how many factories Kamal Nath has no one really is quite sure of (ignoring the fact that many of them were blacklisted for creating pollution).I think everyone understands basic economics by now. Demand goes up, price rises and vice versa. No point wasting airtime on these issues, they merely gave an exit route to the minister in question which he fully capitalized to sound like the Robin Hood he pretends to be. He won't even go down in posterity as a person particularly untruthful. Prices are rising, people are feeling pain, the minister is trying his best to give the common folks a break. Right? Wrong. There were only a few questions to ask Kamal Nath, not that it would matter. But if he attempted to answer them, he would in the very least create a public record, one that would have him down either as a liar or an imbecile, possibly both. Q1. What gives a public office holder the right to accuse the cement industry (unilaterally) of profiteering? Prices of cement haven't risen significantly (compared to other goods like veggies) and these guys have ample excuses (like gasoline etc.). The price rise being talked about will happen in future, i.e. if the companies do not budge and decide to pass on the extra levies on to the consumer. This is slander. Did Kamal Nath speak with his legal counsel before mouthing off? Oh, I forget. India is not truly a democracy and verbal diarrhea like its rear-end version is quite common in our tropical country. Perhaps taken equally lightly too. Q2. Kamal Nath believes that the cement industry is taking advantage of high demand and behaving like a monopolistic cartel. Well, by imposing levies in times like this, isn't the Government taking the full advantage of the monopoly it has over such things? What's sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander, ain't it? Q3. How exacly will levies plus price control reduce cement prices? The demand isnt going to go away. It will only ensure the cement producers build less capacity. With the retail boom coming on and the Government itself creating ponzy schemes to fund infastructure, who is gonna make all the cement? Or will we see Manmohanji doing a Gandhi and asking everyone to make their own cement? In the backyard perhaps? Well, that was that. A minor side point, perhaps the reader has that annoying friend who lets out a fart on the sly every once in a while stinking up the room, right? Well, it is just like that with the ministers. The Government today said its efforts to rein in surging prices have brought down inflation rate for essential commodities to 3.67 per cent as on February 24 against 6.77 per cent two months back. A simple verification of WPI from the Office of the Economic Advisor indicates inflation continues unabated. I verified the figure myself as illustrated in the above image. Now, your guess is as good as mine what these essential commodities are, fact remains our Government believes that people are naive enough to suck up such lies.
posted by barbarindian at 8:45 PM Permalink
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Thursday, March 08, 2007 |
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Chickens and Onions | |
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 Ok, so the Union Budget is here. Many people believe, rightly so, that the budget is of little consequence. As a matter of fact, the budget drew little attention from the media this year, comparatively speaking. We have more important things to discuss such as the Arun Nayar/Liz Hurley wedding etc.The budget is of little consequence because there is nothing sacrosanct about it. Think about this, India has one of the lowest central bank independence, even among countries in the Asia-Pacific region. What this essentially means is that our treasury is the FM's personal spoil and he can basically do what he pleases with it. Stupid academic types feel gloated having discovered major economic arguments from advanced economies which have neither relevance nor validity in the Indian context. Our central bank is straddling several factors at a time, including reserve ratio, interest rate, temporary liquidity adjustment. These moves can be best charactereized as voodoonomics. So, let's look at the main features of this budget. Most of the largesse have been allocated for disbursement among party cadets at the Mandal level. There are some token measures for powerful SC/ST special interest groups. The budget is full of soundbites such as rural employment guarantee, more inclusive growth etc. etc. In other words exactly what has been happening since independent, more of the same in fact. The key disconnect between the chest thumpings and reality can be seen in the dismal allocation for Muslims. Of course we have a huge cess of 1%, to subsidize the education of rich OBC kids. Ostensibly the goal of the budget is to fight inflation. Some folks believe that reducing the budget deficit might contain inflation. Indeed the budget deficit has decreased over the years. Revenues have gone up and politicians couldn't raid the treasure chest fast enough. With our slow bureaucracy, even spending money takes a little while. But it will catch up. Meanwhile, there are some really really dangerous ideas being floated, such as using the FOREX reserves to fund infrastructure expansion. Some of the reactions to this budget were telling. The PM asked, What more do you want? He would be surprised at the answer though. People mostly want him to get the fuck away from the manger. The Hindujas liked the budget. Given the Bofors related noise, it is perhaps safe to declare allegiances at the outset. Good strategy. The FM conducted an opinion poll. He might as well have held a gun to the heads of the people. This budget was the worst ever combination of playing to the gallery and playing it safe, like building a panic room in Switzerland. To say that the FM chickened out would be insulting to the chickens.
posted by barbarindian at 10:11 PM Permalink
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007 |
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The mysterious born again Congress MP | |
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 Moni Kumar Subba, a Congress MP, is being accused of being a Nepali citizen. But the suspicion over his nationality has not stopped him from becoming a Congress Member of Parliament from Tezpur, Assam. In Lok Sabha records, Subba is perhaps the only MP to have two different places of birth.I guess you could say it is taking the concept of inclusive growth a bit too far. In any case, accepting foreign members is not new for Congress.
posted by barbarindian at 9:57 PM Permalink
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Saturday, March 03, 2007 |
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"Q"uestions | |
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 A for Apple. B for ?Well, as you know, the Q case has surfaced again and the B-word is haunting Congress like it had never before. As usual the story at the center is that of confusion and bungling. Do we have an extradition treaty with Argentina? Did the CBI really want to get Quatrocchi? I mean really really want it? Besides the basic question, has the case expired already and hit the statutes of limitations? In that case of course the truth will never get out and the Roys of the world will continue to get off on their various conspiracy theories. Anyway. I thought I would turn to the People's paper for some information. No dice. Currently they are running some funny headline involving Bengal Partition. So I searched for "Bofors" on the site. The very first link landed me in - get this, the famous sting! Unfazed I investigated. I opened the source of this HTML. Lo and behold, buried amid all the keywords you expect, is a little innocuous word. Check out the graphics, as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words. Keywords, in this case. Where is journalistic integrity? What's next? Google bombing? This is really not funny. We do this all the time. But People's paper? It says on the People's paper website that it is free to read. Does it cost to use it as toilet paper?
posted by barbarindian at 7:15 PM Permalink
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