It does not stop at 49.5 percent

These people are castaways of the global democratic system, i.e. they were unable to latch onto the political power center of one of the large democracies of the world, like the US or India. They are similar to so many in the world, like the Kurds, Armenians, Balochis, Kashmiri Hindus, Sikhs, Bodo Tribals - the list continues. No human rights activist will light candles for them, no intellectual will write for them, no danseuse will dance for them.

Funny it never occurred to anyone that these issues have anything to do with elections. As we all know elections are about social justice and upholding secularism.

In any case, the Princess has pretty much exhausted the free rounds as a civilian. The secular party should just accept the inevitable and make the announcement. If you wanna play the game, get in the ring and prepare for full bore attack. Using the Princess shield is not honorable.

Let's call it scope creep and leave at that for now.

The ghost of Bofors:

This type of things could explain the allergic reaction about the black money issue.

The second one involves a fairly large banking scandal, culminating in a 14 year sentence for the former CMD of Indian Bank:

Former chairman and managing director of Indian Bank M Gopalakrishnan was sentenced on Monday to 14 years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 70 lakh for causing a loss of more than Rs 8.7 crore to the public sector bank between 1987 and 1992. Gopalakrishnan sanctioned loans to a private company which was not eligible for such large funds.

This is a classic example of why nationalized banks in a socialist economy are such a big moral hazard. Curiously, the executives of the company involved were all let off "as the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them beyond reasonable doubt. " Note the interesting keyword "reasonable".

A casual google search on the dud company P J Pipes and Vessels Ltd. throws up some interesting reports:

2002: defaults to a couple of banks, report further says company antecedents not known!

2005: certification cancelled by American Petroleum Institute.

Meanwhile the whisper in the banking circle:

that's all we wanna know

elections are a farce

democracy is a curse

but we have to read the news

to select the best views

but when news is all propaganda

there is no choice but surrender

One day in secularistan

I saw a rather nasty pagan

the pagan wouldn't budge

so I gave him the works

he ran away with his tikki flying

his shaven head glistening in the sun

One day in secularistan

I came across a secular man

he wouldn't tell me his religion

or he came from which region

in the end he lost his game

his thick accent gave him away

I even found out his given name!

One day in secularistan

I happened to come upon a polling booth

suddenly as though lightning struck

I could tell them all apart!

For many people, the eve of an election, especially an important one like this is the only time they get to eat a standard meal - such as Biriyani. They also get to imbibe what is known as "English" liquor.

There was particularly severe clampdown on cash distribution this year but it does not appear to have made any dent. People used all sorts of innovative techniques - including hiding bundles of currency notes inside spare tires, transporting goodies in ambulances etc. Cash was distributed through religious institutions as well as NGOs.

Funny thing is, there is really no substantive difference between the pre-election cash distribution and promises such as free color TV etc.

Yet, the cash distribution during elections is surprisingly efficient and trumps social programs. There are quite a few things we can learn from this:

People favor a voucher system compared to high falutin [dead Gandhi] Yojana.
Schemes work much better when there is an immediate feedback
The agency problem is mitigated by making agents more accountable
Decentralized schemes work better than a gazzillion large bureaucratic scheme across the country.
There is less loot/loss, when the above are true.

Unfortunately, the messiahs of social justice routinely prescribe and favor solutions that go completely counter to the observations made.

Bird flu. Swine flu. Can pigs fly?

The US has declared a public health emergency for swine flu. The advisory says - stay away from pigs. Going to be a bit difficult in India.

MUMBAI: Besides the ongoing elections, another issue is being discussed with equal fervour in Maharashtra political circles -- a minister allegedly being beaten up by his wife after she found him in company of another woman.

The incident occurred at the Manora MLA hostel in South Mumbai, according to a source in the hostel. The minister and his woman guest were in one of the rooms on the first floor of the hostel when his wife barged in. [link]

So, a minister of an unknown political party was relaxing in his hostel room. Nothing new here. Also, this is an issue being discussed, The Times of India has no means of corroborating the episode, see?

A couple of paragraphs below we learn that the "the minister, hailing from Vidarbha, is a new entrant to the Cong-NCP ministry in the state".

Mid-day has more on the issue, including names and picture.

As you can see, the price of secularism is eternal editorial vigilance.

Of course, there is a key benefit in using these terms - they are an easy way to signal intent. For instance, a "secular" party is one that will look the other way while crime and underworld activities proliferate, will ensure smooth flow of funds to certain people and allow males almost complete control over females etc. In this case, it is almost like branding.

However, the apparent blurring of left vs. right is something to look out for. It is true that political parties have long ceased to exist as an adherent of one side or the other. However, the dangers from the communists still remain. There is a lot of talk about redefining capitalism etc. Even Amartya Sen recently talked about a "humane" interpretation of Adam Smith. Simultaneously, Wen Jinbao professed his love for The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Are these guys on twitter or something?

Watch out for opportunistic stealth communists creeping up when you are not watching. If you have a confusion or feel your faith is being shaken by the current financial crisis, feel free to write to us, we will have the situation righted.

For the most part, however, Mr Obama's foreign policies run with the grain of public opinion. For example, he proposes a slight thawing of relations with Cuba (see article). Most Americans have long favoured full normalisation. An embargo persists only because its advocates are more passionate than its opponents, but that too is changing. Cuban-Americans who fled Fidel Castro’s dictatorship for the barrios of Miami still favour sanctions, but their children have long been less sure about them. And since the diehards seldom vote Democratic anyway, Mr Obama may see little risk in upsetting them. [link]

We can not even begin to tell you, how beautiful this passage is, we are sure blogger RealityCheck will agree.

People are seldom single issue voters. When a certain set of people have a single most urgent issue that trumps everything else, you will lose them all if your policy choice goes against that. The recent shoe throwing fiasco resulting in Congress withdrawing two candidates is a prime example. It is very hard to find such a polarizing issue. Also, these issues are seldom symmetric, i.e. a politician may lose all votes from group on a certain issue but may not get back all even if he panders to the group on that issue. A third aspect is that the relevance of an issue to different groups is often widely different.

So, why would a politician care about a small group anyway? Simple, voter turnout times probability of yay/nay. Also, they usually don't, unless the group is at least 15% in size.

This also explains the emergence of the so called "vote bank" politics. The likelihood of finding a single most polarizing issue decreases as the size of the group increases. Then the task of the politician playing vote bank politics becomes easy, he makes a series of isoquant lines for the various issues of the larger group. Thereafter, it is rather mechanical.

The above are of course fictionalized accounts, but the descriptions would fit any number of intellectuals today. If you don't believe us, start with the columnists of The Outlook magazine.

What exactly does "globalization" mean? Barring a few countries such as North Korea or Cuba, today the world is so strongly inter-connected that any debate on Globalization as a specific policy choice for a nation seems to be potently absurd. Even supposedly insular nations such as Iran have all sorts of ties with other countries. Would you call China a "globalized" economy? China remains an avowed communist nation.

Let's take this a little further. Who do you think are the most likely supporters of "globalization"? Dalits? Religious minorities? Industrialists? College graduates? Politicians? Religious leaders?

Leftist politicians and intellectuals will perhaps tell you: Dalits and Religious minorities are not likely to benefit from "globalization" and hence will not support globalization. They will also tell you that Indistrialists and College graduates are huge supporters of globalization.

As a matter of fact, many Dalits are huge supporters of "globalization". For instance Chandra Bhan Prasad.

It is true that most religious minorities (at least the intellectuals among them) will vehemently protest "globalization". But think about it, an insular country can do the job on their minorities with impunity. Globalization provides a measure of protection and occasionally active help for minorities everywhere. Yet if globalization means taking away the punch bowl from religious leaders, it would stir up a hornet's nest.

As far as college graduates are concerned, it totally depends on which college and in which context. Believe it or not, many industrialists and businessmen are not too keen on globalization. If globalization means SEZ money and free land, all of them will raise their hands. If globalization means removing trade protectionism, enforcing accounting rules etc., their enthusiasm is likely to be much more tempered.

In other words, globalization today is really a pseudo-concept. No one really knows what it means. Like any other concept, as long as you can have your cake and eat it too, it is great.

In every country, the supposed victims of oppression or minorities appear to support the left leaning parties. Who courts who? Who needs who? Funny thing is, you never hear about any minority related problems from the communist countries.

Finally, in a mixed economy country like India, where books simply do not sell, who benefit most form Gobalization? Perhaps the set of people mentioned at the beginning of this post. Yet those are the people most likely be most vocal against Globalization.

The burden of secularism is too much to bear at times.

The same thing happened with the OBC reservation thing. The total volume of debate surrounding the black money thing can not even hold a candle to the amount of bandwidth wasted on the reservation issue. Look what happened - no caste census. So we are back to exactly where we started.

With articles like that or more accurately attitude like that, we aren't going to get very far in that debate. Sure we are skeptics, but our skepticism is not about the substance of what Ashok Desai is trying to say. The amount of stash might be a lot closer to $20 billion than the rather outlandish trillions being claimed.

We remain skeptic about the faux indignation, because such a gambit is very risque, especially when putting your reputation on the line.

Ashok Desai does nothing in the article to alleviate our paranoia. Everyone knows about capital flow related stuff, not exactly rocket science. Ashok Desai does not talk about the most exciting part in the whole deal - direct deposit for services rendered.

This is going too far. There is no evidence it is helping anyone, it is clear they are getting outside help.

These are mostly bogus arguments that skirt the central issue.

Can anyone explain how to debate an issue more seriously than bring it up during election time? Also, why suddenly so demure about opening the Kimono? We all know what's inside, why debate about size?

Social justice lions are suddenly chickening out on the issue of exposing corruption. Let's not wrap it in that technical sounding benign term: "capital flight". These are fancy terms, just like Nuclear Power.

Child actor Rubina Ali

The Bangladeshi freedom struggle was bourne out of the Language movement. The people of the entity then known as East Pakistan wanted Bengali recognized as a national language and sanctioned for official use.

Today a significant number of Bangladeshi children receive their education from religious schools. The only language they learn is: Arabic.

* * *

ISLAMABAD: Hardline cleric Sufi Muhammad, who played a key role in enforcing Islamic law in Pakistan's restive northwestern Swat valley, on Sunday said there is no room for democracy in Islam and it contravenes the Quran.

Asserting that there is no room for democracy in an Islamic system, he accused Pakistan's rulers of appeasing the West by thrusting the system of 'kafirs' or infidels on the people of the country. [link]

* * *

Want to buy an adorable child actor? This one comes real cheap:

Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali's father plans to get rid of poverty and become a millionaire by selling his nine-year-old daughter, a British news website reported after conducting a sting operation.

Perhaps the secular party will buy her as a permanent mascot.

Shameful. It is not clear whether this derogatory reference to slum children of Mysore is motivated by the fact that the state of Karnataka is ruled by a party generally disliked by the newspaper.

This Government's crusade against data and statistics is well known and they have won all the fronts. They have already won major battles against codified standards. The war continues.

As we discussed before (Justice gets a Social Justice angle, Lawyers do not like the amendments either), the Government wants to create a legal framework tailored to their lofty goals of secularism. However, this seems to have hit roadblocks:

NEW DELHI: In a rollback of a major pro-people initiative, the government has decided to leave out of the just-amended Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the provision that restricts the usual powers of the police to arrest offenders in crimes punishable with up to seven years.

As usual the TOI adds a pithy "Times View":

When jerk offs run the Government and their jerk off cheerleaders have a monopoly on the media business, it is the common people who end up paying a high price.

The New York Times reports how Taliban is exploiting Class divide in the Swat valley and plan to extend this elsewhere:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here.

Some blog coverage: cheap talk, just one minute.

In a sense this should not have been so surprising to the western intellectuals of various hues but for the constant propaganda by communists and leftists. In a sense, the whole of west including their top strategic thinkers and needless to say intellegentia elsewhere who parrot them including our own have fallen prey to this myth making.

In a CNN-IBN TV report a couple of years ago, a set of people violently agitating against Taslima Nasreen was called - religious right-wing protesters.

As a matter of fact, the "religious right-wing" concept is a smart invention but has little to do with historical reality. Fascist regimes of all kinds are virulently leftist and nationalist. Which set of loonies drive which other set depends on who is the driver.

Religion, especially the organized type have almost always backed socialism. However, they have always backed the existing feudal regime or monarchy if they feared persecution in regimes falling into communism.

This will make fighting the Taliban led insurgencies that much harder, if not downright impossible.

The fact that the hoi polloi may sometimes get the royal treatment, depending of course on the political potential, proves that democracy works.

A few minor points - it is not clear whether the CEC meant he saw more footage or more virulent content. Does the CEC speak Hindustani or was the footage helpfully subtitled for him? It is funny how media gets hold of all sorts of sensitive material, in this case they had to go ask the CEC about the footage. We are guessing we will never see the complete uncut version. Meanwhile the law minister hasn't said anything about the CEC trying to act like a forensic expert and honorary adviser to political parties. Earlier, during the Navin Chawla controversy, he had said the role of the EC is limited to preparing electoral rolls. At the time the media couldn't agree more.

Generally speaking, people shouldn't really complain if this single issue determines who forms the Government, they can always watch Jai Ho (PCD version) in high definition.

Prince at a rally in Punjab: Turban good, poor choice of color,

- it says 'Kamal' (lotus) on the mikestand

Meanwhile, the prince does not quite seem to be prime time ready either, wherever he goes unchaperoned, he keeps committing blunders. His Youth Congress thing turned out to be a disaster, his poverty tourism was totally panned by everyone other than the loyalists. Even the media got bored.

So the party has a problem. If they position the youth as the next PM, the pretend intellectuals will get jeered in the country club by opposition supporters. If they don't, the coalition's long term future will be in jeopardy - just see how many contenders for PM the UPA has.

Meanwhile the Princess is doing a lot better. She seems to be quite the vote catcher. She speaks the most banal catch phrases with total confidence. The media goes ecstatic. Having once ruled out a political career for herself, she seems a lot more open to the idea these days. Perhaps it is just a matter of time - the older she gets, the more she resembles Indira Gandhi from certain angles.

Sonia Gandhi claps as Teesta Setalvad receives the Rajiv Gandhi Sadhbhavna Award in 2002

Isn't it funny that the woman who is supposed to be a tireless fighter for justice for a certain set of minorities receives an award in the name of the man famous for his "big tree" remark?

Actually, there is nothing funny or surprising about it. This can be explained purely by economics principles. If a certain type of behavior is rewarded, there will be more of it. On the other hand, if a certain type of behavior is punished, there will be less of it.

Now suppose a certain type of action has a low probability of reward and no chance of punishment for cheating at all, many punters will jump into the fray. There will be all sorts of hi- jinks and adventurism.

This is really the benign part of it.

Left unchecked, such a situation can create massive ripples of social unrest. Think of it this way: suppose a man is falsely implicated in a riot case and jailed. In the jail he is anally raped. Meanwhile his wife leaves him. His teenage daughter is regularly abused in school by her male classmates ("why are you shouting bitch, tera baap ne bhi to aisa kya tha?"). Etc. etc.

Now, given that every act of riot must have an equal and opposite bomb blast (morally justified too, according to secular people), what is this man to do after he is released?

Let's assume our man is too broken and too old to do anything worthwhile really. So, he goes to an Ashram and becomes an inmate, cleaning after pilgrims and cooking meals twice a day.

One day, there is an OB van outside the ashram. There is a man with the camera and his helper. Then there is this posh looking young female journo. She starts her intro: This is so and so speaking for Channel XYZ. See, this is how Hindu Fundamentalism takes root. See, trident here! OMG! Scary Gods! See how these devotees look?

At this point our man is confused. He is getting mixed up. The party gets closer and closer, the journo is furiously reading her script into the microphone. The pathway is paved with stones, uneven like. There is a large rock just sitting there, so tempting, it is shaped as though it is meant to be gripped ....

So, our man picks the rock up and throws it aside, so that it doesn't trip the journo. Why? Because she looks kinda like his daughter.

Happy ending, see? Hindu tragedies usually end that way.

Happy happy mushy mush

no more bread lines

no more hunger, no more pain

the government will feed your children

the government will make it rain

no more clumpy soil

no dust, nor hours of toil

if you ever fall seriously ill

the Government will pay your bill

so pick yourself up

prepare to vote

no more sadness, no more whining

India is finally shining

Pop Singer Maya Arulpragasal : Daughter of an LTTE "revolutionary"

This will remain an unresolved question. Reportedly the LTTE situation is nearing the end game. With the elections looming, the issue is not getting much attention.

COLOMBO: LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran's son Charles Anthony has been injured in fierce clashes with the Sri Lankan security forces in the island's embattled north, officials said on Wednesday. Charles, 24, the eldest of two sons and a daughter of the elusive LTTE chief, was injured in the fighting in the Tiger bastion of Pudhukkudiyiruppu, defence ministry officials said.

Charles, who was believed to have been commanding a contingent of rebel forces, was wounded on March 8, official sources said, as the Sri Lankan army pushed deeper into the rebel-held territory to capture their remaining pockets. [link]

In any case, we hope the situation improves and a solution reached soon.

As a side note, picture above is a very popular artist known as M.I.A. She is a daughter of an LTTE rebel. She also collaborated with A. R. Rahman on a song for the Slumdog movie.

M.I.A. songs must require something of an acquired taste, the most accessible among which we found on YouTube was a remix of an old Bollywood number - Jimmy. Among the most radical would perhaps be Sunshowers:

I Bongo with my lingo and beat like a wing yo

to Congo to Columbo can't stereotype my thing yo

I salt and pepper my mango

shoot spit out the window

bingo I got em in the thing yo

now what? I'm doing my thing yo

quit bendin All my fingo quit beating me like you're ringo

you wanna go? you wanna win a war?

like P.L.O. I don't surrendo

the sunshowers that fall on my troubles

are you over my baby

and some showers I'll be aiming at you

'cos i'm watching you my baby ..

With the national elections only a few days away, we now enter what we call the drool bucket phase of the elections. Buckets of drool now flows in the newsrooms. There are no issues to discuss. The atmosphere is indistinguishable from a medieval king's public court appearance. People stand at awe at the monarch's magnificent cavalcade and throw flowers and incense at it. Court jesters bristle for a vantage position so that they might attract the king's attention. The funnier you are, the bigger will be the rewards afterwards.

First, we start with a flashback. Sagarika Ghose of 2004 vintage:

No journalist can break through without something like that on their resume. Of course, Ms. Ghose has since then broken through.

Five years later, only the men holding the microphone change. The message remains the same.

With a friendly media acting as a referee, does the opposition stand any chance? The media has already decided who won the verbal battle.

A commenter points out "..a new news channel, Live India, spent around 15 minutes of Prime Time gloating about how, with this comment, Priyanka had hit a sixer to the googly bowled by Modi and how Modi had finally met his match!" We beg to differ, but never mind.

Meanwhile the gracious abdicator of the throne is taking on tougher territories:

It is all about the here and now. A close scrutiny of the past is not really essential.

It's been like this for a few days now, as it will continue through the long and arduous, absurdly long election cycle. Everywhere it is only roses that adorn the monarchs. Only roses, pink roses, red roses. Never marigold, jasmine or even tube roses. Because, as everyone knows, roses are secular and marigolds are saffron.

- He got a clean chit in August, 1999.

- He got a clean chit in August, 2005.

- He got another clean chit in September, 2007.

Now he has got a clean chit one more time. Jagdish Tytler probably doesn't buy writing pads anymore.

The record of the CBI as an independent and impartial investiating agency has not exactly been glorious in the recent past, to say the least. They also seem to pop a clean chit for Tytler at the most crucial plot points.

Believe it or not, it does not quite seem like the most expensive election ever anywhere in the world. We got the movie, we got the "hate speech". But where is the sting?

As we discussed before, the case is quite suspicious.

We are entering a very dangerous territory here. There is potentially no limit to social justice. The title of this blog also refers to this fact. Blogger RealityCheck elaborates:

Once benefits are secured to a narrow interest group, the population becomes complacent. Thereby undermining the political setup.

There are two tendencies that can work against the political forces :

(a) To defect : If the benefits reach a dead end - then members might defect. In this case vote for a larger interest. (Two examples : Hindutva is a larger interest than Yadavtva or Brahmantva, Voting your displeasure on the SEZ policy is a larger interest than voting to thank for your central government employee hike in DA )

(b) To not participate : If the benefits are secure with nothing new on the horizon. The population might not participate in voting, secure in the belief that their benefits are entrenched and placed beyond scrutiny.

The Congress Party has made it clear in its manifesto where it wants to take the country.

Arguably, arbitrary fiscal benefits are almost benign compared to matters pertaining to national security. Now the matter has started impacting law enforcement for ordinary crimes. They have already taken steps in this direction.

On the other hand, the fusion of secularism and Marxism can be quite comical at times:

At the institutional level, popular Hinduism is riding on the coattails of the so-called "public-private partnerships" that are filling in the space vacated by the public sector as India comes under the sway of market reforms. The book will provide concrete evidence for the growing Hinduization of a whole variety of institutions run by the four-sided public-private collaboration we call the state-temple-corporate complex (or STCC for short). The four collaborators include: first and foremost, the elected representatives of the people along with the machinery of the government; two, the corporate sector, both Indian and foreign; three, the country's dominant religious sector, made up of a loose network of Hindu temples (some of them stupendously wealthy), their management committees with powerful government and business representatives on their boards and the many well-connected gurus, yogis and swamis; and last but not the least, the representatives of political Hinduism, or Hindutva, who maintain fraternal relations with the Hindu establishment on the one hand and with the corporate players on the other.

At one point in her blog post, Meera Nanda writes: "On the surface, our thesis strains plausibility." You don't say!

Fumbling on Varun Gandhi?
8 Apr 2009, 0531 hrs IST, Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN

LUCKNOW: Political adversaries call it sheer nervousness. Bureaucrats justify it as the "right action at the right moment". But the state government surely seems to be suffering from a Varun Gandhi induced foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. And apparently that makes the UP government frequently change its stance on issues related to Varun and without any logical explanation.

Ok, these guys are in the news making business. These are the people that made the controversy as big as it became out of whole cloth. Now it is the state Government's fault?

To begin with was the slapping of National Security Act (NSA) on Varun Gandhi after his arrest on March 28 last. After some reliable tip-offs, the TOI contacted almost all the top officials of the state bureaucracy to confirm if there were possibilities of Varun Gandhi being slapped with NSA. Right from the principal secretary, home, Fateh Bahadur Singh to the director general of police (DGP), Vikram Singh and district magistrate (DM), Pilibhit denied all such reports as baseless till late night on March 28.

Whose retraction is it anyway? Can anyone unscramble this? So, did we have an NSA or not?

However, relying on the source, the TOI went ahead with the NSA story and published it in the edition dated March 29, 2009. But the authorities remained adamant on their stance for the better part of March 29, denying the TOI report. Even DM, Pilibhit, who has to issue orders of the NSA being slapped on anyone, refuted the TOI story till around 6 pm on March 29. At around 9 pm, Fateh Bahadur Singh and Vikram Singh held a joint press conference to announce that Varun has been booked under the NSA.

Okay, so we did have an NSA after all. Why waste bandwidth in two rambling paragaphs?

Then came the reports of Varun being shifted to another jail from Pilibhit on security reasons. The TOI contacted the home department and the state police chief headquarters to confirm if Varun was to be shifted from the jail. They denied all such reports till late on March 31. Around midnight the same day, Varun was shifted to Etah district jail.

Next was the hue and cry raised over a TOI report published on April 01, 2009 that Varun was facing threat to his life from the D-company sharpshooter Malbari who was arrested by the police in Mangalore on March 29. On April 01, the state government again convened a press conference specially to deny the threat reports and that Varun was shifted to Etah jail because of this threat.

Now we are getting someplace!

Only 24 hours later, (April 02, 2009) the local media carried reports and scanned copies of the letters between the Central intelligence agencies and the UP police that were related to a specific input that Varun was facing a threat from the underworld. The reports also carried a copy of the reply from the DGP office assuring the Central agencies that adequate measures have been taken to ensure Varun's safety.

When confronted with the letters, the state police were quickly explained that they had denied a threat to him from terror outfits and not the underworld. "The DGP categorically said that there was no threat to Varun from terror outfits," pointed out a senior IPS talking to TOI. He also explained how the state police chief safely wriggled out of the situation once he was specifically asked if Varun had any threat from the D-company. The DGP had claimed that "individual security was a sensitive issue and hence it could not be shared with the media," said the officer, defending the state police chief.

Now we are truly confused, where do we fit the transcript in the mix?

TOI has got transcripts of the calls recorded between March 15 and March 21 after Varun Gandhi's hate speeches delivered on March 7 and 8 made news. The duration of the calls made from Karachi to Rashid’s mobile were 1 minute 25 seconds, 23 seconds and 36 seconds.

Now, we get some more details on the arrest and detention of Rashid Malbari:

MANGALORE: Rashid Malbari, the hit man of D-company, once again finds himself in police custody. Malbari, who was in police custody for the last 72 hours from 11 am on March 3 was produced before the jurisdictional court here on Monday.

The Panambur police here sought Malbari's custody to interrogate him on his alleged involvement in Panambur double murder case in which he, with Mastan Chand Sheikh, eliminated his rivals in 1998. The judicial magistrate first class second court handed Malbari over to Panambur police for three days up to April 9. [Note: The March 3 has to be a typo, it must be April 3]

So, we are back to exactly where we started except the transcript doesn't fit anywhere in the picture. But TOI is in possession of the said transcript. Also, a man supposedly on the run from the Police who are looking for him for old murder cases is getting calls from his boss to bump off a junior political leader. Oh wait! The supari was switched to Muthalik!

There could be an easy explanation for all this. If there were no dead rats, the "fumbling" story would be utterly pointless since it makes The Times of India reporters look like bumbling idiots.

Actually it is not really a dead rat. It is the carcass of the secular state rotting.

Even if Varun Gandhi had spoken those words, he should not be put in jail. Not unless we want to apply the same standard to every case.

Curiously, shortly after Varun Gandhi was put into a jail in Pilibhit under NSA (a provision only applied to peaceful Hindus), intelligence sources tapped a phone conversation, allegedly between Chhota Shakeel (D-Man's henchman) and one of his associates. This conversation was duly leaked to the media, in a transcript form.

Keep in mind that while we have read innumerable leaked news items about various terrorism cases, this gotta be the first phone transcript in quite a while. Seems rather improbable to us.

Following this "threat" perception, Varun Gandhi was moved to the Etah jail. Now, we are guessing the Etah jail is safer, has stronger bars etc. Maybe so, but someone needs to explain exactly how was Shakeel planning on eliminating Varun Gandhi? By ambushing the motorcade Taliban style? Also, didn't we hear in the aftermath of 26/11 the D-Company had nothing to do with it and therefore no local link?

That phone conversation could have been penned by a Bollywood scriptwriter like Javed Akhtar. The lines are for Kay Kay Menon:

Rashid Malbari: Salam valekum bhai (Greetings bhai)

Chhota Shakeel: Valekum...us ladke ko dekho... 28 ko court jayega...( Valekum...handle that boy... he will go to court on 28th)

Shakeel: haan...ye kaam hona hai...samajh ke...apne log sab dare hue hein...kaam hona hai...sala beemaar hai davaa maang raha hai...theek se de usko (Yes...this work has to be done...carefully...our people (obvious reference to Muslims) are scared...work has to be done...he is ill wants medicine...give it to him right and proper).

Just now The Times of India is reporting:

Varun refuses to give voice sample

LUCKNOW: In a fresh twist to the hate speech controversy, Varun Gandhi refused to give a sample of his voice to a team from Pilibhit police on Sunday.

Headed by investigating officer Maniram Rao, the team reached the Etah district jail, where Varun is lodged after being booked under National Security Act (NSA). But they had to return empty-handed as Varun refused to co-operate. [link]

If you read only upto that point, it makes a very strong case against Varun Gandhi. But never stop until you have read the fine print:

Rao and five of his subordinates arrived at the Etah district jail around 9:30 am. The team produced the letter of permission from the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Pilibhit, to record Varun's voice samples before the jail superintendent Viresh Rai Sharma.

After some arguments with the jail authorities over carrying a video and audio recorder with them inside the jail without any specific permission, the team was informed that Varun has refused to give with his voice samples. Varun is believed to have told the team that he would not allow them to record any sample in the absence of his lawyer or without his permission.

Perhaps they would ask him to read from a transcript, just so they could compare. Nice try.

-- Inspired by The People's Cube.

These are some of the designs submitted to the Finance Ministry for a new Rupee symbol. The Economic Times has an online poll here. The prospect of using these complex characters is more alarming than the enormous expense that will be incurred, should the Government really go ahead with this thing. Perhaps the money could have been better spent on a national ID scheme.

The designs that use lines of different thickness are less likely to be accepted as are those that resemble the Hindi alphabet for R.

Doesn't it look a bit like a cow?

A summary of assets declared:

A google cached Telegraph article provides some baseline info about prices of farm houses around Mehrauli area.

[Update] The size of the IG farm house (4,692 acres) has gotta be a typo in the Times of India, as commenter rc also points out. The Intelliriefs site puts it at 4.692 acres.

Yesterday, there was yet another incident of mass shooting in the US:

A gunman blocked the rear door of an upstate New York immigration center, then walked through the front door and opened fire Friday, killing 14 people, likely including himself, police said at a news conference in the massacre's aftermath.

The gunman reportedly was a 41-year-old man of Asian descent and lived in the Binghamton suburb of Johnson City. The man was carrying identification with the name Jiverly Voong, a local law enforcement official told The Associated Press — though there were conflicting reports of his age, and officials would not identify the shooter during the news conference. The ID name Jiverly Voong was believed to be an alias, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Henry D. Voong said she was Jiverly Voong's sister but would not give her name. Asked if she was aware that he might have been involved in the shooting, she said: "How? He didn't have a gun. I think somebody involved, not him. I think he got shot by somebody else. I think there's a misunderstanding over here because I want to know, too," she said. [link]

Now, Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has claimed responsibility for the attack:

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud claimed on Saturday responsibility for an attack on a US immigration centre in New York state in which 13 people were killed. "I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks," Mehsud said by telephone from an undisclosed location. [link]

There are several reasons we are suspicious. This isn't the first shooting incident in the US this year. In the recent incidents, the identity of the attacker was officially disclosed within hours of the attack. In this case, police officers were unusually reticent. There is still not much official info. There are conflicting reports about the weapons use - some are reporting a high powered rifle, the others - two handguns. There were also conflicting reports of a couple of arrests made. The report from US leftist website Huffington Post only compounds the confusion. Also, certain type of activities have long been reported from upstate New York, the area where the attack took place.

While false claims for terror attacks are not unprecedented, it is rather inexplicable for Mehsud to choose this particular incident where facts are bound to come out sooner or later. By the same token one could question the possible motive for a cover up.

It is possible the administration wants to disclose details at a more opportune moment when the President returns from his high voltage G-20 tour.

Inaugural flight of the Air Force One new jets

As we reported earlier, India purchased three brand new Boeing Business Jets fitted with lots of bling for our beloved leaders. Well, we have good news for you - the jets have been formally inducted with our President taking one of them for a joyride to Arunachal Pradesh via Assam.

The only problem we have is with the names. Rajdoot, Rajhans and Rajkamal? These unsexy names are so yesterday. We recommend Pratibha, Mohini and Sonia. Come to think of it, these names will have great utility value for the staffers - no confusion about which jet is going where carrying who etc.

There is also a concern about the EUMA (end-user monitoring agreement). This is a fallout of the Nuke deal, more on this later.

Number of Boeing BBJ: 3

Total cost to taxpayer: ~ Rs. 1000 crores

Total Number of new slumdogs made during UPA rule: 55 million

The above screenshot was taken just around 11:00 PM EST. Every time you refresh the opinion poll page, it appears to increment the "up" counter for Dr. Manmohan Singh by a few dozens, while most other counters remain unchanged.

Today, at around 5:00 PM EST, the up count for the Doctor was around 170,000. In 6 hours the count increased by 140,000. According to statbrain, the moneycontrol site gets about 3 million hits per day. These are not unique visits. The vote count suggests a daily rate of about half a million. In other words at least a sixth of visitors are voting the Doctor "up".

It is possible people have deployed bots to game this poll. It will require some statistical analysis to find anomalous behavior that might prove internal gaming. We will keep you posted.

Socialism is immoral