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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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Friday, November 30, 2007 |
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Aaja Nachle! Wait! | |
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 Aaja Nachle, which is supposed to be Madhuri Dixit's comeback vehicle etc. etc., has been banned in UP by the Mayawati Government. A nationwide ban is in the works, although there is a possibility of a compromise, a la Taslima Nasreen. All this because of a single allegedly casteist line in the movie's title song.As far as we could tell, the offensive line was this: Mohale mein kaise mara mar hai Bole mochi bhi khud ko sonar hai The lyrics are as atrocious as the transcript from where we got the above. A loose translation: There is hullabaloo in the neighborhood The cobbler is claiming to be a goldsmith This is somewhat surprising, it would be a stretch to call the line casteist. Traditionally a lot of leather workers could be Dalits (since caste Hindus would not have anything to do with leather), but a large percentage are also Muslims and sometimes MBCs. In any case, the reference here is to the vocation and not to the caste - one of the sad facts of the complexities in the caste system. Needless to say, the media is calling it Mayawati's ban, but there is more to it. As we have mentioned several times before, the establishment is trying their level best to destroy Mayawati's stronghold on Dalits. The common line of attack is to hold her to a fictitious standard of Ambedkarism, i.e. pure dogma. For instance, while covering the Gujarat riots, a CNN-IBN program showed a Dalit MLA praising Modi. The reporter concluded that by supporting Modi the MLA was letting Ambedkar down! The second line of attack is to create numerous law and order problems. SP has staged N-number of protests in UP, reducing the state to a permanent state of anarchy. Even the recent blasts are suspect, the only blasts in which a domestic group claimed responsibility. Mayawati responded to this by chastising the IPS officers very strongly. Rumor has it that the Samajwadi Party with the sponsorship of Congress is causing all these troubles. A certain vote bank is acting as facilitators. The movie ban is a third line of attack. Mayawati's strength is also her biggest vulnerability, she must of necessity show the largest bleeding heart for reasons of political expediency. As you can see above, to pick out that line from a noisy Bollywood caper requires some doing. The issue was first brought to light by the Indian Justice party - a known collaborator of Congress. Mayawati was appraised of the situation and she stayed neutral, asking her advisers to watch the movie and pass a verdict. When the verdict came out as guilty, her hand was forced. The ban shows Mayawati in somewhat poor light while staving off some pressure from the Taslima Nasreen controversy. A grand strategic maneuver, if there was any. One of Samajwadi Party's innumerable protests
posted by barbarindian at 11:27 PM Permalink
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Thursday, November 29, 2007 |
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This gotta be a first | |
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Angry Congress workers on Wednesday smashed window panes and broke furniture at the party office for the second consecutive day after a former city mayor was denied a ticket to contest the Assembly elections. Supporters of Himmat Singh Patel also tore posters of Congress leaders at the Gujarat house, city office of the state Pradesh Congress Committee here, party sources claimed.They wrecked their own party office! Reminds you of street dogs fighting over a bone.
posted by barbarindian at 8:28 AM Permalink
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 |
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Mr. Karunanidhi! How ironical! | |
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 It took a lot of courage for the Indian diaspora in Malaysia take to the streets in such large numbers. Perhaps their true condition led them to this desperation.Malay police used tear gas and water cannons on a 10,000 strong rally on Sunday. Over 200 ethnic Indians were detained for their protest, demanding equal rights. Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi warned that he may invoke a security law, allowing indefinite detention without trial to halt street demonstrations.It does not look likely that this incident will have any significant impact on Malaysian politics. Interestingly, the protesters were not demanding special rights or even quotas. As a matter of fact, they were just calling for an end to discrimination and scaling down of some of the privileges enjoyed by the ethnic Malay-Muslim majority. Karunanidhi made a feeble protest and an appeal to the PM. He didn't write a poem though. We recommend a very fine book for Mr. Karunanidhi, written by Amitabh Ghosh. To paraphrase an immortal line from the book: Minority love is not transitive. One may love his minorities, without his love being reciprocated elsewhere. Just a few months ago Mr. Karunanidhi had announced a 3.5% hard quota for the relatively affluent ethnic Muslim community in Tamil Nadu.
posted by barbarindian at 1:06 AM Permalink
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 |
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The most bizarre part | |
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November 25th is the designated international day for the elimination of violence against women. For some reason, not much was heard from our intellectuals, who usually celebrate such auspicious moments such as international puppy day, international save whale day etc. You may also have come across this piece of news, which incidentally didn't find a lot of space in Indian newspapers. Well, with due sympathies to the victim, this is what struck us most about the incident: Last year a 19-year-old woman in the eastern town of Qatif appealed against a sentence of 90 lashes for the crime of khulwa (seclusion) with a man who was not related to her. Her lawyer argued that meeting a former friend in a shopping-centre car park, to retrieve a photo of herself that she feared would upset her fiancé, was scarcely so grave an offence. Moreover, this “crime” was far outweighed by the fact that the two friends had been interrupted by seven youths, who abducted them at knife-point and allegedly gang-raped both of them, repeatedly. [from The Economist]The newspaper does not say whether all the seven perps took a fancy on the man too or only some of them. Please note that certain types of sexual orientation is punishable by death in those countries. The seven men have been sentenced to prison terms. The conclusion is extremely disturbing. This is nothing new, unusual and cruel punishment of rape victims keep getting reported from that part of the globe quite frequently. Our Government is in fact seriously contemplating enacting a law, barring uneducated women below 30 from emigrating to those countries. A sad fact for our collective conscience that we can not provide meaningful employment to so many aspiring people. Maybe socialism will work someday, who knows. We remain hopeful.
posted by barbarindian at 10:07 PM Permalink
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Didn't see it coming, did you? | |
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 Quota politics does it again and again and again .....
posted by barbarindian at 8:02 AM Permalink
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Saturday, November 24, 2007 |
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Opinion Poll: Should Sagarika Ghose be asked to leave India? | |
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 No, this is not a poser, this is a serious and sincere question. A lot of people hate Sagarika Ghose (for the record, we don't). There is a bonafide Sagarika Ghose hate group on Orkut. So, whether you are allowed to stay in the country becomes a matter of public opinion?Yeah, yeah, we know. She is a citizen and Taslima is not. But since when did citizenship become an issue anyway? We have MPs whose citizenship is suspect. We also have ..... well, never mind. You could argue that the opinion poll is merely an open minded discussion. Sorry, no dice. Would you have an opinion poll on the validity of female infanticide? How about Sati? Being a mainstream channel, CNN-IBN can not conduct an opinion poll which borders on contempt of the constitution, leave aside basic humanity and decorum. Taslima Nasreen (unlike millions of her fellow countrymen), is a legally permitted resident of India. You simply can not question her stay, till the time the Government voids her visa.
posted by barbarindian at 2:15 AM Permalink
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Welfare of the family | |
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 Security Risk?An apartment in Bombay sells for Rs. 34 crores. A socialist sheds tears. Articles and editorials follow. The usual stuff, in a country where hundreds of millions go hungry, this is outrageous. Must enact more laws. The long hand of social justice must reach out. The Government knows best. The Government, the only one, most merciful. Recently, a 2,000-odd-square-foot flat in Mumbai sold for a reportedly record-breaking Rs 34 crore to a private individual. Almost at the same time, the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi were shifted from Akbar Road to a plot, on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, the market value of which is some Rs 100 crore but which was handed over to the Congress for Rs 2 crore.As we noted before, the mammaries of the welfare state never failed to squirt milk in the right direction. For every law, there are five hundred exceptions (just like our constitution is basically a series of amendments, no rules - just exceptions). These exceptions direct the process of social justice with better precision than NASA's spacecrafts. Generals might rule the roost across the border but here they are steadily getting downgraded. Robert Vadra may figure on the list of VIPs exempt from security checks at airports but the army, navy and IAF chiefs are simply not considered important enough to be granted this privilege. "(But) ministry of civil aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security have stated that according exemption to service chiefs will lead to similar demands from some other authorities," added Antony. The minister's answer, of course, left the armed forces disappointed. "It's ridiculous. This means the people entrusted with the security of the nation, the service chiefs, cannot be trusted," said a senior officer. [link]  The Secular Party's election symbol then  The Secular Party's election symbol, now
posted by barbarindian at 1:42 AM Permalink
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Monday, November 19, 2007 |
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Industrialization in West Bengal: Nandigram and beyond | |
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 Have you heard of Mahabharat Motors? How about the Xenitis Group of companies? Amar brand of PCs and peripherals? Arjun brand motorcycles, Xpression range of bikes? Well, these are the new age industrial entities coming up in West Bengal, based on the SEZ model. Among these, only the Amar PCs and peripherals are in production, with a revenue of several hundred crores. The rest are in planning phase.Mahabharat motors has a Chinese partner, Zongshen, while Xenitis will tie up with Guangzhou Motors to produce the Xpression range of motorbikes. An interesting diversification for a PC manufacturer in the latter case. But the common thread in all these cases (apart from the Communist Government of West Bengal, of course), is the Indonesian conglomerate - Salim Group. Salim group seems to have an insatiable appetite for land. Surely there is nothing wrong with this, maybe we are just too paranoid. But just the above scenario gives us very uneasy feelings. This feeling is compounded by the astonishing claims by secular intellectuals in the aftermath of the Nandigram fiasco. So, let's put this into perspective, as comrade Brinda Karat would say. A shady Muslim company from an Islamic theocratic nation + Mostly Muslim victims of land grab + Communist cadres of unknown religion = Soft Hindutva. Meanwhile, comrade Mrs. Karat spun a very interesting theory in her Devil's advocate interview. According to her, before the cadres recaptured Nandigram, about 3,500 people (mostly Muslims and Dalits) had been driven out by the Maoists. Apparently these are still living in camps. Where did these people come from? Before January this year, Nandigram was a nice quaint little village, no reports of any faction planning to evict any other group. As soon as the SEZ was announced, there were huge protests. Then the first round of violence happened in March. Buddha backtracked and said there would not be an SEZ any more. November saw the second flare up. Something does not add up here. It is quite likely that the commies have propped up illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in order to add a moral spin to their tale.
posted by barbarindian at 11:51 PM Permalink
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The King and the Commie | |
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Watch the Spanish King put the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to his place in what must be one the most ironical moments in world politics. Hugo kept on interrupting the Spanish Prime Minister, rather rudely, and insisted on calling the previous Spanish leader a fascist. The Spanish PM retorted by saying that Azner had been elected by a democratic process. But the boorish Hugo just wouldn't let go, until the Spanish king asked him to shut up. Watch Chavez sulk like a grounded school kid. Meanwhile Hugo is showing all signs of turning out to be a fascist-communist leader. He is hell bent on turning Venezuela into a banana republic. A massive constitutional amendment is on the cards. This issue has already led to violent protests in Venezuela and brutal Police action against students. When he is not hyperventilating against the capitalistic evil forces, Hugo Chavez is seen in the company of such illustrious world leaders such as Ahmedinejad of Iran and Fidel Castro of Cuba. Hugo is a serious threat to world stability. 
posted by barbarindian at 11:18 PM Permalink
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Saturday, November 17, 2007 |
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Rain rain go away, little Ahmed wants to play | |
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 Massive cyclone claims thousands in Bnagladesh. Vulnerable parts of India were mercifully spared. Once again, like the great Bihar/Bangladesh floods, completely ignored by media. Other important events such as the coronation of India's crown prince is going on.
posted by barbarindian at 10:56 PM Permalink
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Okasa? WTF? | |
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A mysterious man called Okasa, clean incidentless apprehension of alleged perps and their immediate confession about "foreign" hand. Add three identical green towel wrapped heads in the video. A real kidnapping or hoax?
posted by barbarindian at 10:49 PM Permalink
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Monday, November 12, 2007 |
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Buddha 1, Buddha 2 | |
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 When the Taliban destroyed two Buddhist statues in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001, there was an international outcry. But similar incidents are now occurring in northwest Pakistan, where radical Islamists recently blew up a sculpture of Buddha in broad daylight. [link]  The cracks were more prominent in the state's socio-intellectual conscience. Bengal's intelligentsia, which has always been a Left bastion, hit the streets and compared Bhattacharjee to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
posted by barbarindian at 12:46 AM Permalink
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Saturday, November 10, 2007 |
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When a nation of freeloaders meets credit culture.... | |
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... the result sometimes is not pretty. Meet the media's latest flogging horse: ICICI bank! So, the story goes as follows. An honest to God hardworking individual took out a personal car loan. He paid 26 installments, all on time. Then it happened. His financial situation took a turn for the worse. He defaulted on two payments. Just two! Imagine that! All hell broke loose. His car got repossessed and sold. If you asked the man on the street, nine out of ten times you would hear choice expletives about the bank. Turn the question on its head and ask the same man, how would he like to get defaulted on a loan from him? Chances are he will give you a funny look. How dare you! Granted that these financial institutions are sometimes using questionable tactics to recover loans. It is also true that even the Police are sometimes hand in glove with the banks, thus grossly abusing their power. However, it is alarming how no one is raising a basic question. Can a bank morally expect its loans to be paid on time? The answer should be a resounding yes. Yet the media is exploiting popular sentiments by projecting images of money lenders who operate in the unorganized sector. The "victims" of ICICI bank are nothing like the hapless rural debtors who have no choice. Usually these are urban area folks who could not manage their finances well. Quite frequently these people are scam artists or live way beyond their means. There are three reasons why this is happening. First and foremost, India is hardly an isolated example of financial institutions using goondas to recover loans. Consumers in emerging economies simply do not have enough credit history. There have been credit card crisis in almost all emerging countries - South Korea, Taiwan - you name it. All these countries have resorted to strong arm tactics and perhaps still do. Secondly, silly Government regulations and lack of infrastructure prevents financial institutes from recovering money using legal means. If a bank were to fight out every case of loan default in an Indian court of law, it might as well pack up and leave. Third and perhaps most significant for India, banks are obligated to make politically mandated non-performing loans to certain vote banks. This puts pressure on banks to increase their recovery rates in areas where they can. After all, personal finance remains a cut-throat business. As a side point, lack of infrastructure and institutional support actually prevents these banks to reach out to rural customers, the type who easily fall prey to loan sharks. In a nation weaned on entitlement for generations, banks like ICICI seem like an ocean, free for the dipping by one and all. People tend to consider bank loan defaults like a victimless crime. If you enjoy a good or service, you got to pay for it. If your future finances are not reasonably secure, you could always take out a loan default insurance. Better still, take the public transport, while you work out a way to make more mullah. Of course there is a far more sinister side to all this hoopla about ICICI bank while various money lenders in the country continue to use inhuman methods to recoup their loans, such as slavery, bondage etc. A brief look at the history of ICICI bank reveals that this is a professionally run institution, meaning it is not managed by a family. This bank has emerged as the top commercial bank in the country. As a matter of fact, ICICI bank has quite a few women in their top leadership. However, the success of the bank may prove to be its downfall. The political establishment is beginning to discover ways to seek rent from this new windfall. The media is just acting as cheerleaders to a process by which the fortunes of this institution will finally fall into the hands of the only kind of business that survives in socialist India, namely a family run conglomerate.
posted by barbarindian at 5:20 PM Permalink
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Friday, November 09, 2007 |
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Meet Achmed | |
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posted by barbarindian at 7:24 PM Permalink
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Thursday, November 08, 2007 |
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Besieged | |
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Mass exodus as CPM men lay villages to wasteAccording to the Tehelka types, this is not truth. This doesn't merit frothy editorials or collective sighs at the demise of democracy.
posted by barbarindian at 11:40 PM Permalink
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Tuesday, November 06, 2007 |
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' As it were I'd never had anything to do with the Congress' | |
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      Sure. All of a sudden senior Congress leaders, business bosses and controversial artists can't seem to get enough of Tehelka. [All images linked directly from various Tehelka offshoots: Tehelka Foundation, Tehelka Art for Freedom Auction, Tehelka Critical Futures, Tehelka Edu Summit, Summit of the Powerless and various other mumbo jumbo. There is more, check out these websites.]
posted by barbarindian at 12:34 AM Permalink
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Sunday, November 04, 2007 |
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Incredible Bihar | |
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posted by barbarindian at 10:46 PM Permalink
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Friday, November 02, 2007 |
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Red Alert: India's Big Communist Threat | |
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 The communists are not content with making a mockery of an elected Government. The hypocrites won't even take it to the polls. Unelected members of the party have gatecrashed into the constitutional process. Recently Mr. Karat came out with their global agenda. Read coverage by Offstumped and Sandeepweb. This is about time the issue gets its due attention. Quite clearly the communists have no intention to respect the constitution. Communism rejects the idea of democratically elected Governments. We amended our constitution once and added socialism to our already long moniker. Perhaps another amendment is in order, just in case the commies manage to usurp power. Even if they do come to power, what exactly do we get back in bargain? Do they even have a road map (aside from sending India back to medieval ages)? West Bengal has one of the worst PDS systems. Kerala ranks high in certain social indicators but the reasons could be very different. Recently there was a spate of farmer migration from Kerala to Karnataka. Some people believe that the communists are above corruption. Well, think again. AHMEDABAD: Ending days of politicking and speculation, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad finally got its new director on Friday. Samir Barua, who is a professor at the institute, will succeed Bakul Dholakia.
posted by barbarindian at 10:36 PM Permalink
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