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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, January 31, 2009 |
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Fixing institutions one by one: Election Commission | |
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PART XV: ELECTIONS There is a reason it is almost impossible for the Government or political parties to actually remove an Election Commissioner. There is a good reason this part of the constitution was designed in this way. If the chief election commissioner wants one of his deputies to go, no one has the authority to stop him. The president is bound to honor his judgment. The persident is not supposed to generally overrule this decision, just like the president is not supposed to return any law. Recall the hue and cry after President Kalam returned a bill. Intellectual A. G. Noorani theorized it was a conspiracy by President Kalam to appropriate powers of the Government. No matter how much they howl, it would be extraordinary for President Patil to return this recommendation, just like it is extra ordinary for the president to return a bill without signing. This is how the scheme works, you simply can not conjure up arbitrary rules. If Congress wants Chawla, they must litigate in the supreme court and request a removal of the chief election commissioner. Reactions: Quite obviously this has got the secular media's goat. Some reactions and our comments: There is a split within the Election Commission after Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami asked for his colleague, Naveen Chawla to be removed in a report to President Pratibha Patil. (CNN-IBN) - There is no split. A boss wants to fire a subordinate. Wordplay. Congress General Secretary, Digvijay Singh said, "It is not in the interest of anyone or any political party to cast aspersions on members of the Election Commission." - so it is in the interest of anyone to cast aspersions on the Chief Election Commissioner? Home Minister P Chidambaram said, "I thought all Election Commissioners hold Constitutional posts for which the Constitution prescribes the term. Neither you or I can disturb that." - but the Chief Election Commissioner can! Yes he can! Yes he can! According to the law, the Chief Election Commissioner's recommendation , for removing his colleague, is not binding on the government. Sources have told NDTV that the government will not act on Gopalaswami's letter and the Congress is openly supporting Chawla. [NDTV] - nope, only according to the NDTV "Why should he resign? The allegations are baseless," said senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh. - How does this bugger know? The document is classified and eyes only. Former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee and eminent senior advocates Fali S Nariman and K K Venugopal had no doubt whatsoever that the timing of the recommendation was "regrettable" that could blot the "spotless" reputation Gopalaswami enjoyed as a bureaucrat, as an EC and then as the CEC. - can't attack the substance? attack the motive. It is quite clear that The CEC wanted to remove Chawla since he is retiring in April and he does not want his legacy to be transferred to a person he does not consider worthy of the office. There is no reason to suspect the timing. If the Congress Government overrules this desicion, it will be a massive betrayal of trust, not to mention a violation of the Constitution. Flashback A former chief election commissioner is being offered a cabinet post. [link]
posted by barbarindian at 8:23 PM Permalink
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India must leave the Commonwealth | |
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 Exactly why are we still a member of this organization? Aside from generating foreign trips for diplomats and dignitaries, the commonwealth is of little value to many of its members, except for UK. One must understand India's initial enthusiasm for the organization. It had gained independence, the big powers quickly wrote it off. Even the hopefuls would revise their bets after visiting India, if not for the pitiful condition of people, abysmal administration but after meeting with members of the Indian Government and polity. At the time, the Indian Government was of one man, by one man, and for one man. As a sample, consider this: "I still remember Nehru stepping into our living room and inviting Sir Alladi, my father-in-law, to join the drafting committee," says Lalitha Krishnaswami. "We were caught by surprise when someone informed us that Nehru who had come to attend a function at the nearby Andhra Mahila Sabha had decided to drop by. But to Sir Alladi's horror, no picture of the prime minister framed our walls. My husband was immediately asked to get one. He rushed to Luz Corner, got the first picture of Nehru he saw, framed it and rushed back home just minutes before Nehru himself walked in. Over the discussions that followed, Sir Alladi accepted his invitation to join the Constitution drafting committee," she says. [link] Nehru for his part, took up the role of class monitor for newly independent nations with great zeal. Since he could sense that the big wealthy nations were not nearly giving him the importance he thought he deserved, he made the commonwealth his playing field. Later he would be seen vigorously lecturing the commonwealth crowd every chance he got. He was there at the height of tensions with China during 1962. The man sure knew his priorities right. It is quite well known that Nehru did have a fair heart and mind, though he lacked moral courage and was wantonly deficient in many of the qualities needed for a national leader. Perhaps he suffered from guilt of having been parachuted into the Indian political scene by daddy and elevated to dizzying heights by the magnanimous Gandhiji. Perhaps he wanted to make up for it by achieving on his own in the international arena what he got handed to him on a platter in the national one. In any case, right about now the commonwealth thing looks like an albatross around our neck, a bad habit from the past. We have chummed up with the Americans and want to play it diplomatically. The British are behaving in a completely bizarre and berserk manner. Even if our diagnosis is wrong, you can surely trust acorn on the matter. He panned the Brits in no uncertain terms. We must leave the commonwealth, been a while since anyone took us seriously. The Man Booker prize is not good enough reason to remain a member of this organization, given that it is jeopardizing our national security to the leverage enjoyed by the Pakistani military-industrial complex power brokers in London.
posted by barbarindian at 7:01 PM Permalink
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Five more babies .... | |
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PATIALA: Five new born babies were burnt alive and two others were seriously injured at a government hospital in the wee hours on Saturday when the incubators they were kept in caught fire due to a suspected short circuit.Previous post on this dated March 3, 2008: reproduced in the entirety: Two Babies: This isn't normal.
posted by barbarindian at 2:34 AM Permalink
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Friday, January 30, 2009 |
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The award season - addendum | |
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Updates to the previous post. In an act of characteristic magnanimity, Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor, dedicated her Padma Vibhushan to all those who work for the poor. Her first reaction upon hearing the news was: What did I get it for? Olympic Bronze medalists expressed disappointment in not getting any national award in a season that would see Aishwarya Rai bag a Padma Shree. Once again, if Government is supposed to correct market failures, where do we have a bigger problem? Producing Bollywood stars or Olympic medalists? Now, it is just speculation but it looks like these guys got shafted because of the strict Varna system observed by the secular party. Abhinav Bindra got the 'Bhushan for an Olympics gold, so you would have to make silver to get the 'Shree. Simple! Finally, proof that secularism is that rare gift that keeps on giving: no one is quite sure why a man from Kashmir got the Padma Shree award:
Naturally the Government has clammed up. We understand the need for awards for the socially disadvantaged groups, especially those who threaten to get away on a daily basis. But couldn't they find a better candidate out of 150 million? How about Taslima Nasreen? Doubly disadvantaged, so to speak. Also missing from the award list was Aravinda Adiga - we were really rooting for him. But unfortunately there is a long queue in front of him and the store is forever closed. He can't get the award because Kiran Desai didn't, who in turn will never get it because Arundhati Roy didn't. Of course Roy will never accept the award, having turned down even the Sahitya Akademi and considering it is coming from the bad Deep State. Even if Roy weren't so upset with the state, chances of her getting a national award would be pretty slim because Rushdie can never be felicitated by the state and the line starts with him. Maybe that's why Rushdie went out and got himself a consolation prize - his short relationship with Padma Lakshmi. The fact that M.F. Hussain got his Padma awards (all three), and Rushdie never will is proof that secularism works and communalism doesn't.
posted by barbarindian at 12:28 AM Permalink
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Thursday, January 29, 2009 |
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Taliban media | |
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So, NDTV (Barkha Dutt & Co.) used strong arm tactics to silence a hapless blogger. If being called unethical got their goat, here is some news: a major part of ethics is about levelling the playing field, a subject that shouldn't really be that alien to the self-styled protagonists for social justice. How about picking someone your size? While we are on point, why for that matter do they not deserve being called stupid? A part of the problem is the deep rooted belief in socialism and the pervasive sense of entitlement within established media. If they had any idea about how markets work, they would not indulge in this exercise in folly. Pretty soon they will pretend to be the victims, like they always do. Expect another whiny editorial from Madam Victim of Bully Bloggers. LOL!
posted by barbarindian at 7:44 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009 |
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Secular Dogs are usually Millionaires | |
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Since secular people set the rules and we follow them diligently, it appears to be okay to dish out sanctimony before even watching the movie. Once upon a time, people used to be squeamish about how children are depicted in movies. Fast forward to the age of liberal activism, people are taking all sorts of liberties; with Europe taking the lead, almost nothing is off limits. Danny Boyle is most famous for his movie Trainspotting. This is one of the movies you must love if you want to sound cool. Essentially this movie is about a bunch of drug addicted losers. This movie celebrates loserdom. Also, the lead character is in a relationship with a 14-year old girl, though mature for her age and arguably much more mature than the lead loser who she takes a fancy to. Arguably the movie wouldn't be quite as popular if that pedo-bait was removed. Some people have taken umbrage at the unabashedly anti-Hindu tone of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, but we will ignore that - we accept it as a fact of life. But don't tell us that exploitative portrayal of children is the only way to depict real poverty. That would be a serious insult to people with imagination. Also, did anybody find the "dog" part unacceptable? People from the real slums did. Seculars did not find all these things objectionable. This movie is just one more vehicle to keep the cash registers ringing. Poke any secular hard enough and you are liable to find a stash hidden somewhere underneath. But it takes some gall to claim that people hate this movie because it exposes India's dirty underbelly. For one thing, they ran the country all this while and still running it. For some reason, pushing hundreds of millions of people into abject poverty and keeping them there is a cause for celebration. But poverty wasn't always so sexy. There was a time when we were not allowed to wonder why our country remains so poor. They wanted India to live in villages and slums and stay there. If only they had Danny Boyle then! Things started changing rapidly after a certain set of communals started winning elections. Gee, we wouldn't know there was poverty in India if Danny Boyle hadn't made this movie! We wouldn't even know there were slums! So we had 60 years of bad monsoon and various other misfortunes. India will not become a superpower so we should not even try. We must celebrate poverty and not doing so is a sign of denial and fundamentalist streak. But all the schemes are working fine, just like they did during the Nehruvian golden age. As long as the communals remain at bay and the secular dogs get a few bones thrown in, everything is fine.
posted by barbarindian at 12:41 AM Permalink
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Monday, January 26, 2009 |
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Selective Amnesia | |
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 Screaming headlines excoriate the Sri Rama Sena attack on Mangalore pub It takes only a certain type of incident to dislodge such important events as PM hospitalization, Slumdog Millionaire, Aishwarya Rai's Padma Shree etc. That incident happened in Mangalore. We have nothing to say about the incident, except that let it be the template for media coverage for all such incidents in the future, headlines and all. NDTV believes the attacks shamed India and that the attackers are monsters. Various media outlets called the attackers "right wing", "Hindu hardliners", "far right Hindu groups", "fundamentalist Hindu groups", "Hindu Taliban", "barbarians" (ouch) etc. Congress Minister Renuka Chowdhry called it an attempt to "Talibanise" the country. We laud the stand taken by the media and the hon'ble minister. We also note that the pub where the attack took place is called Amnesia. 
posted by barbarindian at 11:04 PM Permalink
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Happy Republic Day | |
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posted by barbarindian at 12:17 AM Permalink
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Sunday, January 25, 2009 |
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The award season | |
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 How does your state/vocation stack up? (click for a larger version) For an Indian citizen, the high point of his life is getting a national award on Republic day, straight from the hands of our Hon'ble President, the supreme commander of our nation. Although, arguably the Oscars and BAFTAs and Miss Universes etc. generate a tad more excitement among the masses. This year too, the awards have gone to 133 fortunate individuals (134 if you count the Dhananjayan duo as two). The graphics above lists awards by state and category (source: NDTV, TOI), just to get a handle on the overall picture. As you can see, three states dominate the awards, bagging more than the 50% of the awards. Likewise, the categories Art, Literature and Medicine hog almost three fourths of all awards. If you add "Social Work", together they account for more than 80% of all awards. Unfortunately we are not in a position to provide other demographic info. except to say that the answer to your first question is 11, again this is an empirical observation. There is no easy way to answer the follow up questions. In any case, here are some random observations: No Bharat Ratna: Last year there was a huge media chorus which wanted to award the Bharat Ratna to Sachin Tendulkar. This year, the media is deafeningly silent over the issue. So, you might want to ask why were they so worked up last year? (i) They wanted to preempt certain people from getting the award (ii) They really wanted Sachin Tendulkar to get the award Of course we never raise questions about the honest and honorable intentions of our media. Perhaps they were busy this year. The "Arts" and the Ashes The Arts happen to be the biggest catch all category which can mean anything from Aishwarya Rai to obscure earthen pot makers and everything in between. The media does not speculate whether Amar Singh of Samajwadi party (who also lives in a House named after the actress) had anything to do with it at all, so we have to. Much as we hate to impose our views on who should get the awards, shouldn't the national awards try to compensate for lack of commercial success? Given that even a low estimate of the number of actresses more talented than Mrs. Rai Bachchan would run into hundreds, it is rather amusing that a regime that flagellates itself about the lack of opportunities etc. on a daily basis decided to give a 'Shree to the zillionaire actress. Ramachandra Guha: We are not surprised, he debuts with a 'Bhushan. Journalists: This year there were two, Shekhar Gupta of Indian Express with a 'Bhushan representing secular English media, counterbalanced by Abhay Chhajlani or Nai Dunia (vernacular press). Last year's pattern was repeated. Sister Nirmala: Sister Nirmala, who runs Mother Teresa's institute now, gets a 'Vibhushan. Quite obviously, new heads of that institute will always get a national award. Another reverend made it to the 'Shree list. Both awards are categorized under "Social Work". We believe it is time to create a new category for "Missionary Work", if not for anything else, just so that people doing social work under different arrangements should not get their hopes high. Subrahmanyam Krishnaswamy Time capsule. Indira Gandhi. Look it up on google. Mysterious new category: Research on Himalayan Glaciers Given that the other categories carry generic names such as Arts etc., this goes a little too much into details, doesn't it? There are categories for science, or if you prefer, even for Environment. So what prompted the Government to create a brand new category for what must be a highly specialized field of research? The award went to one Prof. Syed Iqbal Hasnain, formerly Vice Chancellor of Calicut University who appears to be a geologist. He was also head of Geology department of JNU. Dr. Hasnain has some curious views on Madrasa education. But that is really is the tip of the iceberg. Recently there has been a surge of research about the dangers faced by Himalayan glaciers. For instance this report from Reuters. It is perhaps a coincidence that a certain community which otherwise shuns modern education shows great interest in this research. To summarize, this years award season is a triumph of secularism.
posted by barbarindian at 7:26 PM Permalink
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Saturday, January 24, 2009 |
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They got screwed because: (a) Governance problem (b) ......... | |
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posted by barbarindian at 10:24 PM Permalink
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Street legal | |
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posted by barbarindian at 1:51 AM Permalink
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Thursday, January 22, 2009 |
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The color yellow | |
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 (please click on image to see a larger version)
This above Tehelka article was accompanied by the picture (T) above. Most of us have real life experiences of growing up in a police state, men in khaki can be ruthless. The picture had the tagline: Shocking treatment The police arrested Seetaram as they would a hardened criminal. We got curious, mostly about whether the man in the picture is okay. This is what we could piece together, use the picture key in the above composite: The Editors Guild of India today expressed shock at the action of the police in Udupi in handcuffing and parading B V Seetaram, the Editor in Chief of the Karavali Ale group, when he was produced before a court in connection with a defamation case. The president of the guild Rajdeep Sardesai and General Secretary K S Sachidananda Murthy in a statement have said that ''the Guild is surprised at the way the police chased Seetaram's car in Karkala at night in several vehicles and surrounded him, especially when Seetaram had been available in Mangalore in his office.'' 8th January: (B) The journalist falls sick in jail, taken to another jail, then to a hospital (it is confusing, but essentially the "manhandling" was really the cops taking a sick man out in a wheelchair. Notice that in picture (T) and picture (B) the man is wearing the same shirt. (source: Daijiworld) 9th January: (C) This is what interested us the most. Now the man is back in pink of health. He even raises his hand to show the handcuffs. Being taken to court, changed his shirt. (source: Daijiworld) As you can see, this is really straight out of a Sundance festival low budget pretentious indie film. From start to finish, notice the presence of a large contingent of media. The arrest on 5th January seemed nothing like the terrible action described in the Tehelka report. The dude was all smiles, posed for various photo-ops etc., even gave an interview while the police patiently waited. The incident brought so much pressure on the administration that the two constables who arrested him originally (A) were suspended. The editors guild is demanding to know why should a journalist be arrested like a common criminal. They are really special, as you know. The connection of Sri Rajdeep Sardesai goes deeper than his being the president of the guild. His trusted leutenant wrote a blogpost about the incident. It is funny that the incident which can allegedly precipitate a new spate of Hindu fascism had nothing to do with Hindus. The journalist, who from what we could gather from the web, publishes a tabloid of sorts. The recent trouble which eventually led to his arrest involves Jains. But to find that in Tehelka behind all the terrifying imagery of Bajrang dal men running amock, you would need a powerful looking glass.
posted by barbarindian at 10:45 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 |
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Optical illusions | |
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Here we go again. We challenge you to write a meaningful post rationalizing this without using the words "moderate" or "secular". But we will try. We tend to agree with Sagarika Ghose. Barring a few minor points about sentencing guidelines, India implements the Sharia in spirit, if not the letter. Our politicians must partake in festivals such as the Iftar. No one is an exception, even L K Advani offered a chador at the Ajmer Sharif. India also has far more liberal rules compared to even Turkey and Malaysia. The former country prohibits women wearing the hijab in office and government buildings. The latter is unable to fully legalize polygamy. Needless to say our National flag fully represents the faith. The incongruous saffron bit will gradually wear off. Naturally, our Prime Minister (undergoing angioplasty at AIIMS) knows fully well who have the first claim to resources. We must be thankful to our politicians such as Arjun Singh and courageous media outlets such as Tehelka for helping us achieve better compliance. Just as a quick example: Shri Arjun Singhji, Hon'ble Minister for Something, we forget what, has decided to make madrasa certificates on par with CBSE certificates. Anther quick example of factual and objective reporting by Tehelka which unearths a conspiracy to kill the Urdu language. So, as far as we can tell, the institutions are working properly and taking us towards the right direction. So, what does Ms. Ghose mean when she says: And almost next door to the fortified villas and Pajeros: another world. A world where the desperately poor blow themselves up either as suicide bombers or as footsoldiers of ideology, insane with aspiration, without any stake in the ruling system, hopeful only of the Five Star lifestyle available in jannat. This is not just a description of Pakistan. It's a description of what India could become if we don't keep our democratic institutions safe. Earlier Ram Guha had also talked about fixing institutions one by one. The institutions are just fine. Don't fix what ain't broke, or shall we say no change for change's sake in keeping with the times?
posted by barbarindian at 11:40 PM Permalink
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Monday, January 19, 2009 |
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GO! Andhra Pradesh | |
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The current lead story on The Times of India reveals how rules were bent (also known as doing social justice) to give away 50 acres of prime land at throw away prices to scam laden Satyam. This happened just before the lid came off the scandal, as per a GO dated 4th December. Furious backpedaling by YSR Reddy notwithstanding, it is quite clear that the Government was hand in glove with the company while it amassed massive amounts of land through shell companies. Note to the clueless: Andhra Pradesh is ruled by the SECULAR CONGRESS party. CNN-IBN and NDTV will not be bothered by petty stuff like that since they have far more important events to cover this week (Hint: oh, never mind. ) In any case, we got curious. Since this is info tech. savvy Andhra Pradesh (totally built by current CM YSR Reddy, including Satyam's good parts, scams belong to his predecessor Chandra Babu Naidu), the GOs (Government Orders) are available online. Unfortunately records are available only upto Februry, 2008. Even then, we decided to do a few quick searches under Minorities Welfare. The data is very unstructured and hard to analyze. Roughly Rs. 15 crores was spent during the past year on items such as: GO No: 745About Rs. 3 crores was spent during the past year on items such as: GO No. 576Needless to say, this is neither comprehensive nor very accurate. Collating and analyzing such information is the job of independent think tanks. We will end the post with a quote from an article: Andhra Pradesh is rife with thuggery. There is one business group which claims a Rs 1,800-crore turnover in steel. It has only one small problem. It has no steel plant. A second company has got contracts for irrigation projects from the Andhra Government worth Rs 15,000 crore, but has a working capital of only Rs 55 crore. Do the math, and you know that there are ghost projects hovering all over the State. Another company in the same racket (co-owned by a ruling politician’s son) has Rs 12,000 crore worth of projects on its order books and a working capital limit of only Rs 50 crore from a nationalised bank.
posted by barbarindian at 6:00 PM Permalink
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Adventures of the royalty | |
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 Moo: The British foreign secretary fights war on terror in a UP cowshedThis wasn't the first time Rahul Gandhi wanted to visit the "real India". His previous visits generated confusion and controversy. But this time for reasons best known to himself, David Miliband, the visiting British foreign secretary decided to go with Rahul. Given the wily nature of the Brits, this was actually very alarming. Rahul Gandhi is a high probable for India's next PM. He simply should not be left alone with a foreign visitor, until he is thoroughly coached by our foreign policy experts. It should be clear to everyone by now that these bizarre trips simply can not be Rahul Baba's idea. Congress strategists have been trying to rebrand for a while now. It is funny they settled on a medieval world symbolism - when kings would disguise themselves and visit the commoners incognito. Even then, it is surprising that the high command cleared the trip with David Miliband. Miliband is the foreign secretary, not the secretary of social welfare or secretary for social justice or something relevant like that. Perhaps they wanted to make the point that Rahul Gandhi is young. Miliband is young too, see how they bonded? They even have a common hobby! Now it looks like there was little danger in leaving our bovine prince in the hands of a foxy Brit in a UP podunk for a whole night. David Miliband is not exactly a darling of the British media. Far from being a fox, he seems like a Dhimmi of the first order. David Miliband was beginning to look as accident-prone as Mr Bean last night after yet another adventure backfired. Mr Miliband sounded like a dunce in his school-boy essay on the war on terror, says Vicki Woods.David Miliband is an internet generation MP, with a blog, youtube channel and default liberal positions on all social issues. He is also Jewish and his name featured on an anti-semitic hitlist recently - proof that his ideas on war on terror really work! While we must remain in a certain amount of indebtedness to the British for liberating us from the most oppressive regime of all time, they are using up the brownie points pretty fast. The Brits were alright when they had monarchy/aristocracy. The democracy thing is not really working out for them. They are losing out the war of the babies at a fast rate while committing quite a few self-goals along the way. If David Miliband represents the type of people who will make British policy in the future, we should be scared. Our PM in waiting must demonstrate better judgment than playing house with such people.
posted by barbarindian at 1:25 AM Permalink
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Friday, January 16, 2009 |
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"Dismissed with prejudice" | |
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A third US court has dismissed a $20 million defamation suit filed by the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC), which claimed that an advertisement in the New York Times maligned its parent party, its president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul.Perhaps they really want to go back to the heady days of Indian National Congress - be in control of all the loot, a foreign power runs administration, no hassles of polls etc.
posted by barbarindian at 12:59 AM Permalink
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Sunday, January 11, 2009 |
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When Yadav Eleven played a different cricket match | |
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So, eleven Yadav boys from the rural outskirts came to play a cricket match in Noida. On their way back home they picked up a young woman and her male friend, beat the crap out of them, took them to a secluded place and assaulted the woman. The woman happens to be an MBA student. Indians have grown pretty fond of metaphors, so you could say just like 10 Pakistani boys raped Mum-Bai on 26/11. If you are of the socialist type, you ought to say it is the rape of "This India" by "Other India". In the popular caste prism view, this is a rape of a "upper-caste" woman by OBCs. Arundhati Roy would call it an assault by the land dispossessed. The point is, every now and then one of these incidents get reported and then people get into a tizzy for a few days. New Delhi is the capital of sexual assault - a fashionable thing to say. Apparently Delhi clocked up more than 500 such cases in 2007. In our slow society, figures for 2008 will take time to tabulate. But we do know that young women generally feel unsafe in the capital region. Within the 24 hour period of this incident, another young woman was abducted from a market area and released shortly. Yet another woman wasn't released so quickly - she had to suffer a six hour ordeal in a car in the hands of three masked men. Usually social scientists take the three step process - women's position in society -> patriarchy -> a certain religion, and let it go at that. Yet this case changes something. This is also the first case in which a politician has come out in defenses of the accused, while "protesting" the assault. The sociological import of aggravated assaults in the cities is staring right at our face. The specific modus operandi of groups of men looking for an opportunity and grabbing a female seems to be fairly common. Who could be these men? In any case, we will just mention a few articles and let it go at that. We leave the intellectuals to figure out how to deal with it. Time warp. It’s the first thing to come to mind on visiting Garhi Chowkhandi. Let us add to that - a CNN-IBN video showed this "village". Men wear ill fitting shirts (untucked) and trousers. Do not shave every day. Women wear a foot long pallu. Today, there is massive migration of Dalit youth to cities where they are taking up caste-neutral occupations. The OBCs on the other hand, remain obsessed with agrarianism and don't leave the village unless they get Government jobs. Most Dalits prefer settling down in cities as they have no assets and no attraction to go back to their villages. If the buffalo-dominated west Uttar Pradesh was to be a nation, it would have been called "The Buffalo Nation," and buffalo dung cake would have been the national emblem. [...] Clearly, India is a huge social experiment gone horribly wrong. What could fix these people? Perhaps another round of reservations. We did that, no takers though. So we are going to have to live with this thing. We are going to have to witness India assaulted by Bharat on a daily basis and get blamed for it.
posted by barbarindian at 2:12 PM Permalink
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Friday, January 09, 2009 |
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Our Prime Minister's new ride | |
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 Three brand spanking new Boeing Business Jets, just in time for the election season trips for maximum comfort.
posted by barbarindian at 1:13 AM Permalink
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Wednesday, January 07, 2009 |
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Lawyers do not like the amendments either | |
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In a previous post, we expressed grave concerns about a few laws the UPA Government passed recently, specifically about a very significant change in the CrPC. Looks like the lawyers do not like it either, to the extent that they went on strike, paralyzing the Delhi courts. Work in five district courts here was paralayzed on Wednesday as lawyers struck work demanding repeal of an amendment made to the CrPC, giving police the freedom to use their discretion on whether to arrest or not arrest an accused in offences punishable upto 7-year jail term. Lawyers in Delhi will observe strike on Wednesday to protest against amendments in CrPC that allow the police not to arrest the accused in offences punishable up to seven years in jail. Like we always said, they pull the wool over your eyes any chance they get.
posted by barbarindian at 6:03 AM Permalink
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Tuesday, January 06, 2009 |
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Apex court observations on two cases | |
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Case #1:In an unusual outburst, after passing several orders which were being obeyed by the Naveen Patnaik government and the Centre, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Markandey Katju and P Sathasivam gave a general ultimatum governments -- sectarian violence and persecution of minorities would not be tolerated.Case #2: This could be an alarm for controversial Congress MP Mani Kumar Subba from Assam. The Supreme Court on Monday said the President alone could take a decision whether or not to disqualify him from the Lok Sabha on the basis of a CBI probe report accusing him of forging his date of birth and expressing grave doubts about his Indian citizenship. The apex court's ire at the Orissa situation is understandable. This is a politically volatile issue, successfully internationalized by Cheenath & Co. The alarming part is the highly technical handling of the second case. The supreme court can not throw out a state government just like it can not throw out legislators. Yet the supreme court made its views clear in one case and in another case pointed out technicalities. Keep in mind that this legislator participated in the recent confidence vote in the parliament. CNN-IBN reports further: Appearing for Subba, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the Nepalese government had written letters to the CBI saying "Limboo" and "Subba" were two different persons and wanted the court's direction to produce the Nepalese government's letters in the court. At this, Sinha contended that the CBI itself had found Subba's nationality suspect and India did not need a certificate from the neighbouring government on whether he was an Indian national. [link]Good fences make good neighbors but bad fences make the secular party's ranks swell.
posted by barbarindian at 12:32 AM Permalink
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Sunday, January 04, 2009 |
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India's Military Hardware - Part 1 : All about the Su-30 MKI | |
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I've got big balls / I've got big balls / And they're such big balls /Dirty big balls And he's got big balls / And she's got big balls / But we've got the biggest balls of them all - Big Balls, AC/DC, from the album Dirty deeds done dirt cheap.  Rear view of IAF Su-30 MKI (source: Air Power Australia)It is funny how a single piece of marquee hardware comes to symbolize the military power of a country in the minds of its civilians. In the earlier decades, it used to be the MiG-29 or Mirage-2000 for us. For the Americans and the Pakistanis, it would be the F-16. In the recent years, the Sukhoi-30 MKI has become the mascot of our military. Does this make sense? Actually it does, in an evolutionary sense. Air dominance has become the singularly most important factor in modern warfare. Obviously countries will vie with one another in gaining supremacy in aerial warfare. They will spend their technological might (if they have any) in leapfrogging other countries. Alternately they will spend the most money in the best military aircraft they can possibly get. So quite possibly, a country's military power will correlate well with the best fighter aircraft it has. Yet, it is clear that a single piece of military hardware possibly can't win a conventional war. Our objective is not really getting into an endless debate between Su-30 vs. F-16 or why an AIM-9M Sidewinder might be less capable than an R-73. Our main objective is to explore the political side of India's defenses and military. Having spent hundreds of billions of dollars just in the past decade, what have we really got? Are we spending money wisely? Is there evidence of hera-pheri? Do we have a long term strategy? What are our true technological capabilities? Are we making the right alliances? The time has come for more civilian awareness of India's military affairs. As a starter, please read this article (For a new civil-military order, Sushant k. Singh and Rohit Pradhan). In this post, we will merely share with readers some of the interesting things we gleaned from the web in order to get a bit up to date with our military hardware and overall strategic defense scenario. For a reality check, please read this article (The IAF in the 21st century, by Air Commodore Jasjit Singh). This is really all you need. Seldom does one comes across an article so packed with information, one that covers so much ground. One wishes our mainstream media editorials were this good. How do we stack up? The obvious question in light of recent heightened tensions with our neighbor. If one were to search the web, we have a giant leap over the Pakistanis. We have AWACS systems, satellites, squadrons of Su-30 MKIs, superior command and control and network warfare infrastructure. We also have the HAL Tejas, our own high tech fighter which we can produce by the hundreds. Alas, all this is very futuristic. None of this is really happening before 2015, possibly not even by 2017. This is symptomatic of not only the amateur discussions on India's military but also the posturing by our Department of Defense. Similar claims exist for the other wings of the armed forces - more on that later. A good overall comparison is provided by wikipedia: IAF - PAF - PLAAF - USAF. As with all wiki links, the IAF page has incorrect information. For instance, we do not have the HAL Tejas, yet. Also, we have between 60 - 70 Su-30 MKI. A more interesting comparison is provided by globalsecurity.org: IAF - PAF - PLAAF. This provides more realistic numbers along a timeline. As you can see, we were extremely vulnerable during the 90s. Even now, we barely match up with the Pakistan air force. The surprising part is that, the famed Chinese might does not appear to be all that daunting. India, Pakistan and China are all using refurbished/upgraded versions of MiG-21 (or older) in large numbers. Many of these aircraft are 30 - 40 years old. China has been particularly hit by sanctions. India's main problem is old equipment. We have had more than 120 crashes in the last decade or so (remember Rang De Basanti)?. This hurts us in more ways than one. This has prompted the former Air commodore to actually suggest that we reopen assembly lines of MiG-21! All three have small fleets of really modern 4.5 generation aircraft. None has a strong network warfare capability or AWACS driven ELINT aided capacity. None will likely acquire this capability in a significant manner in the next decade. Equipment acquisition cycle itself can span several years, then comes training, operational readiness, strategy formulation, tactical deployment and development of doctrines. Understanding Jet warfare: Before we get to the Su-30 MKI, it is useful to do a review of jet warfare. The big mistake amateurs like us do in trying to visualize jet combat is to forget the effects of gravity and aerodynamics. We create a mental model of a sci-fi simulation in a 3D space where two airplanes are continuously tossing and turning in circus like acrobatic feats. In reality, the outcome of one-on-one battle between two comparable airplanes may simply be determined by their relative position in the 3D space at the beginning of the battle. The airplane on top will have a speed advantage on dive. The one with the speed advantage will also have an aerodynamic advantage since higher air speed improves drag on wings and fins etc. - so more agility. This aspect of aerial warfare has not changed much in the last several decades. That is why at lower speeds the MiG-29 can do quite well against the technologically superior F-16. For a quick review, we recommend the following video clips: Dogfights - Desert Aces (part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5) We selected this video because in this the Israelis are using the Mirage III/V. Pakistan Air Force has a large number of Mirage III/IV/V in service. It also features the Sukhoi-7 and MiG-21s. Besides, some of the topographical and personnel motivation related features are highly relevant. This program shows the transition from early days of jet fighting with just guns to later years as missiles and other features get introduced. The Israelis experience supply constraints and sanctions just as we did earlier and still do in certain areas. To understand where India is trying to get to in terms of capability, the following video is useful: Dogfights - Desert Storm (part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5) This depicts the first Iraq war (Bush Sr.) in 1991. This is a battle between F-15E vs. MiG-21/29. It introduces the Beyond Visual Range (BVR) combat concept. A few things are worth noticing: pilot skill and the limits of aerodynamics are still pretty much important. Note how many Iraqi pilots simply run their aircraft aground. Second, guns are no longer useful - even within visual range, kills are done by missiles. Also note how low the kill ratio of missiles is and how effectively chaffe/flares are used as counter measures. According to the air commodore, Indian planes lacked counter measures even during Kargil, i.e. they would be a sure kill for an incoming missile. The Su-30MKI: So, jet warfare of this decade is really about BVR fighting. The side with the best avionics, radar, missiles, counter measures, ELINT, jamming etc. will win. We are assuming comparable advances in aerodynamics and engines. The American and Western side mostly concentrated on these areas during the 90s. Meanwhile Russia was undergoing severe resource shortages. India was facing sanctions. A mutual relationship was established - India's import saved a lot of Russian factories. India first talked about the Sukhoi series of aircraft in 1996. Eventually the aircraft really materialized in 2002 or later. It is important to understand that aerodynamics, controls, jet engines, electronics, missiles etc. all have different development/obsolescence cycles. Therefore we get into this wild confusion of aircraft model numbers. For instance the F-16A/B is not quite the same as F-16E. The original Su-27 was modified to make the Su-30. This was made into a Su-30K (K for commercial, i.e. export). Then came the Su-30MK (modified commercial). Meanwhile, China was also starting to demand the Su-30. India likely got upset - since we wanted Russia to reciprocate by giving us something exclusive. The result was the Su-30MKI (Modernized Commercial Indian). It is being shown as a joint development between Russia and India. At the moment India is adding only some avionics components, either developed at home or imported from Israel. In terms of features this exclusive model is a hybrid between Su-30MK and Su-35. The HAL is now assembling this plane from PKD. They will gradually move to CKD. Eventually there will be a full technology transfer and we will build this airplane from scratch. No one really knows when it is going to happen. The Su-30 series of aircraft adds an important feature - thrust vectoring. Is this really a game changer? We don't know. This feature has not been battle tested. Besides, going through the modern air combat videos and especially BVR concepts, it appears that at high MACH engagement, this feature will be useful in only a small fraction of battle scenarios. So, how good is the Su-30MKI is? Can it beat the F-16? The answer seems to be yes. It is not just a cute plane that can do circus tricks, it is actually a great improvement both in BVR as well as conventional within visual range combat. This aircraft has evoked admiration from the Euro zone as well as consternation from the Americans in recent air shows. Myth vs. Reality So India has been able to leapfrog its immediate neighbors in the sense that it has a true 4.5 generation airplane. Unfortunately the Sukhoi-27/30 series has not been battle tested like their MiG cousins. Given the poor record of reliability of Russian equipment, it is difficult to assess advantage, especially when we do not have AWACS/ELINT yet. Even so, it gives us a distinct edge in the subcontinent - where air warfare is a mix of technology spanning 4 -5 decades. The danger comes from unexpected quarters. First of all, we do not have enough numbers, perhaps about 70 of these planes. Secondly, we are not going to be able to scale up very well. The Sukhoi company has received orders from all over the world - from Malaysia, Indonesia to Venezuela and remains fully booked till 2014. We can get only about a dozen per year for a long time to come. This third danger comes from the quality vs. quantity debate. A recent study done by Americans explored this angle. It is theoretically possible for a neighboring country to stock up huge amounts of MiG-21 parts and then assemble say 1000 aircraft quickly. These cost less then half million dollars each, compared to the $35 million price tag of the Su-30MKI. In the recent red flag exercise, Indian MiG-21s fitted with modern radars and radar jammers actually impressed the Americans and crossed their defenses. Our bottlenecks in bureaucratic delays, lack of cohesive strategic thinking, political bickering, corruption, wheeling dealings in the international arms bazaar has reduced the Su-30MKI into a mythical bird. Fortunately, just the presence of this plane has given us a psychological boost. At least now, when we project power, we have some top class hardware to show for it. One can not even begin to imagine what it does to the moral of our pilots when they acquire a lock on very advanced jets from other countries in the joint air drill exercises. That alone we believe makes this bird worth it.
posted by barbarindian at 3:27 PM Permalink
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Friday, January 02, 2009 |
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The sorrow and the pity | |
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 Another new year dawns. In line with socialist ideology, one must question why should new year's eve matter any more than any other day of the year? Why for instance was 31st December any different from 26th November? Or for that matter from May 13, July 25, July 26, September 13, September 27, September 29, September 29, October 1, October 21, October 30?After all time is a continuum. What was valid on Dec 31, 2008 is likely to be valid on Jan 1, 2009. Sure enough, it was! A a few unfortunate people in Assam found out. Perhaps six of them didn't quite find out, at least we hope they didn't. By now we know the answer. We now know that 26/11 was not our tragedy but seculars' non-9/11. That is why it was wholly inconsequential, but for the pithy columns and editorials. Year 2008 was the year of conspiracy theories. Alternately it was the year of the non-state actor. It was also the year our neighbors frustrated us with their constant prevarications and denials. Funny thing is, the whole episode had a ring of familiarity to it. At first we could not put a finger on it . Then it dawned on us. It is all part of humanity, a mere continuum in time and space. We are but a tiny speck of dust. Even the part of the world we reside in, South Asia as they call it now or the Indian subcontinent as they used to call it. As one flies away the cities and the villages merge. The cattle and humans become indistinguishable soon after. The rivers, the mountains, the plains and the deserts. At first patches of distinct color. Then it starts to merge. In the brief interlude before the clouds envelope the dusty horizon below, there is not Pakistan, no India, no Sri lanka no Bangladesh. There are no state nor sovereign nations. No civil society, no human rights activists. No ISI, no militants. Everything merges into one. Shock turns to disbelief before the clouds obscure everything. In the stupor induced by a momentary lack of oxygen, we remain comfortably dumb. Then the cabin comes alive with the hum of humdrum passengers as we wait for another new year. Then another ...
posted by barbarindian at 10:57 PM Permalink
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