Sordid tales from UP

Didn't want to start the New Year with this post, but could not help it. The warning signs were already present and we even covered it in a post in the past.

"Sex, lies and videotape" - could be a perfect headline for the bizarre saga that unfolded when a university lecturer was found murdered. She was involved in a lurid racket involving UP ministers. Since the party in question, Kavita Rani, is no longer available to provide insight into the matter, we will never know the whole picture. Mulayam Singh refuses to involve the CBI in the probe.

Here is a question, is there any guideline or benchmark for when to use the CBI? In my book, a gruesome murder, possibility of extortion, blackmail and possible sexual abuse that involves public officials in high post, should automatically bring in the CBI. But it is not happening. Just like stings are not happenings anymore.

UP's sorry state of affairs was further exposed by the scandals of Lucknow University. Drugs, orgasms in the classroom, illegal encroachment - in short everything but academics.

Finally, to cap it all, a massive tale of unimaginable depravity was exposed in Noida. This is likely to be the most gruesome serial killing case, that too involving children from underprivileged families, ever in India. Although things are starting to move now and the perps apprehended, the whole thing was mired in bureaucratic bungling, apathy from the police and authorities. There is a organ smuggling angle to it and of course, no CBI investigation. Anyway. We demand the death penalty for the perpetrators of this case, not only those who were directly involved but for all accessories with substantial involvement in the case.

Mulayam Singh must go. Indeed, Congress has dropped him like a hot potato and absolved itself of all responsibilities. The sad demise of UP and its conversion into the cesspool of civilization is not surprising. This is what happens when politics focuses on all the wrong things. Sadly, these are the de facto standard in Indian politics today.

The Tatas at the gates of Singur

So, Mamata didn't croak after all. If memory serves me right, I haven't heard about any career politician in independent India dying from a hunger strike.

The Tatas had a mixed year in 2006. On one hand, they captured headlines all over the world for their ambitious gambit to acquire Corus, on the other they made a very surprising move to establish their "peoples" car factory in Singur, WB, of all places.

Looks like their first gambit may have failed, while the car factory might just take off after all.

Needless to say, the Singur fiasco has created a colossal dilemma for bloggers of all persuasion. The leftist/socialist bloggers can not wholly welcome the move because although launched by their political darlings, it is a direct anti-thesis to their basic script of oppression and anti-globalization. The right wing bloggers meanwhile got thrown into a state of confusion. The general direction seems right to them, but is it really? There were such right wing issues as right to property etc. to be examined. The holy grail of economic development could not be ignored.

Slowly and surely, most bloggers are starting to welcome the move. Ravikiran gave a thumbs up to the deal, although I must say the point of emphasis was something wholly different. Sandeep, in his terse post, seemed to laud the deal. GreatBong weighed in with a history of West Bengal's economic demise and at the end seemed to give his support for the deal. Some comrades got so excited by this deal that they wrote about how the New Left will chart India's modern history in ways we could not imagine!

Not only do we strongly condemn the deal, we think this project is a colossal blunder in the making.

No, we are not just saying this for adopting a fashionable contrarian point of view.

The basic idea that a particular state needs to be developed in order for its residents to enjoy the fruits is utterly perverse. One wonders why even folks who seem to understand economics tend to buy this. Why couldn't this project be launched in Vidarbha? Heck, some farmers there were in fact even attempting to sell their land to the Tatas. No one questions this idea because India remains, psychologically, the multitude of nation states that it always was. A Tamil won't feel comfortable if they built a factory in WB and vice versa. There are strong rallying cries of restricting employment to locals. We have heard it in Maharashtra. We will soon hear it elsewhere. Indeed, the implicit promise to the ex-farmers of Singur is that they will be provided employment in the new factory.

Basic economics suggests that the states should specialize in things they are best at. By this I am not alluding to the mythical fertile lands of Singur. Agriculture as a provider of mass employment is doomed. By trying to build factories, WB is going against the grain of its cultural strength and heritage. People from Bengal used to be and perhaps still are culturally superior to the rest of the nation. Heck, even the whole Hindu Nationalism thingy was scripted exclusively in West Bengal, by Bankim Chatterjee. Bengalis do not like working in factories and their climate does not help either. The extreme humidity makes one lethargic. It makes Bengalis even more lethargic. If you look at youth from Calcutta, they seem to be sapped from all energies, merely surviving and forever smoking cigarettes. Menial work is practically looked down upon in Bengal. A Bengali youth would rather live off his parents than take up a factory job. That is why you will see the most demanding physical tasks are being done from folks from neighboring states, especially Bihar.

Bengalis however make excellent office workers. They learn fast and in general exhibit an unusual curiosity for scientific stuff.

Buddha, instead of expending his own energy and that of his people, should have done the obvious. He should have asked Tatas to get the hell out of Bengal, others too. He should have welcomed with open arms the software and BPO giants. This was already happening, and the reason it has not happened more is because of the notorious reputation of poor infrastructure. Budhdha should have welcomed the Ambanis to build satellite townships that are livable and welcoming to the populace from outside. Indeed, WB itself could provide the skilled workers it needed. West Bengal could take the retail lead along with the small goods/electronics and ITeS sector. Softer sectors such as advertising, finance and perhaps even film production would follow. All it needed was a goddamn basic city with reasonable roads and habitable suburbs.

But Buddha had to go all out and try and trump other chief ministers. After all, how could he miss his 15 minutes of fame on the pages of history?

Finally, we must analyze the economic logic behind this factory.

The first trials of the new car took place last month at a test track in Pune, near Mumbai. It is not a cut-down version of an existing car, but is an entirely new design. With a rear-mounted 30bhp engine, four seats and a choice of four- and five-door models, it is a "good-looking car which is comfortable to drive," according to Ravi Kant, the boss of Tata Motors. Most ambitious of all is the price. The car is known as the "one lakh" car - one lakh is 100,000 rupees, equivalent to around $2,100 when the car was first conceived four years ago. Material costs have since increased, but Tata still hopes the price will be less than $3,000 before tax. (from The Economist).

It looks like the Tatas and everyone else too is taken up with a fantastic idea that there is a strong cutoff line between people who can afford cars and who can not. In other words, if a car is introduced at a certain magical price point, hundreds of millions of people will suddenly jump across that cutoff line and line up to buy a car from the Tatas. Even a kid could blow holes in this theory. Quiz: Name a people's car that was launched in India with the very same premise in the late 80s.

Looks like for about a lakh and a half rupees, the Tatas will sell you a box smaller than the Maruti 800 with donut tires. Why would you not buy a much bigger second hand car with lot more features? Indeed, all companies will launch competing basic model cars. They will price them a bit higher but offer a lot more features. It is not that the Tatas can't make decent cars, but this project is not going to bring an economic miracle that will turn WB into say Gujarat.

Mamata will not go away, not so easy. She will breath down the necks of Tata management. Worst still, if the project turns into red, we might see protectionism creeping back into the auto sector. Because the project has gone beyond sane economic argument and firmly entered a political match whose success will become a key issue in the next general elections.

A few questions for Suzy Mol

* * * Updated * * *

YUSUFALI: He said: "Nay, this was done by - this is their biggest one! ask them, if they can speak intelligently!" (Holy Qu'ran, Sura 21, Verse 63).

Suzanna Arundhati Roy, better known as Arundhati Roy, raises
some important questions in a recent column. She also has a new book to peddle, but that's besides the point.

There was not much noise in the blogosphere about the column. Shivam Vij covered it, Dilip D'Souza ignored it. Usually when that happens, we lose interest.

However, what piqued our interest was that the column came out both on Outlook and The Guardian. The column on Outlook was titled Breaking The News, while the one on The Guardian is called India's Shame.

Sure, some of the differences could be explained away by an effort at internationalization. However, closer scrutiny reveals a lot of differences.

For instance, take this passage from the Outlook version :

The main strategy seems to be to create confusion and polarise the debate on communal lines. The editor of The Pioneer newspaper writes in his columns that Mohammed Afzal was actually one of the men who attacked Parliament, that he was the first to open fire and kill at least three security guards. The columnist Swapan Dasgupta, in an article called 'You Can't Be Good to Evil', suggests that if Afzal is not hanged there would be no point in celebrating Dussehra or Durga Puja. It's hard to believe that falsehoods like this stem only from a poor grasp of facts.

Poor poor Swapan Dasgupta. The man perhaps earns a tiny fraction of what Arundhati has amassed over the years.

[WITHDRAWN]
Arundhati writes that Swapan Dasgupta claimed that Afzal was one of the men directly involved in the attack.

Note: Some readers didn't like the above statement. One could say she was talking about two different columns. I didn't find the other column by an unnamed editor of The Pioneer. If you find the mentioned column, please let us know, we will update the post.

Swapan Dasgupta wrote NO SUCH THING.

God only knows how many Swapan Dasguptas were trampled under Arundhati Roy's Booker fueled juggernaut. You see, she has received a life time membership of the Absolute Moral Authority club. Only she can claim that others propagate falsehood, while no one can challenge the fact that perhaps she didn't even read the Supreme Court verdict. If she did, many of her questions wouldn't even make sense. Only she has the right to make apocryphal references to columnists who can not even sue her back for libel.

After discovering this, we sort of lost interest in the whole thing.
[/WITHDRAWN]

There were many other interesting facts to note, including her method which can only be termed as argumentum ad hominem. Some of her reasoning belies her age and are fit for high school kids. Stating the opponent's argument preemptively does not make it weak. Making statements in the guise of questions is oh so yesterday. But of course, she is beyond reproach, for she has attained the highest honor that can be offered to a person living in the Anglo-world.

While the Outlook column is more communal in tone, the Guardian version spins a conspiracy theory. Apparently The Indian Government has skeletons to hide in its closet. Now, there is a huge difference between the Government then and now, and if indeed there were cover ups and a conspiracy of the scale she suggests, one would think they would be unearthed. No, this simply will not do. We have heard this before. The Government bans websites, unknown youths burn cars in Paris suburbs. You see, by elevating the point of reference you can implicate the whole of humanity for any crime, thereby blaming your enemy by default.

Through her words only one theme emerges and that of extreme indignity of being ruled by Hindus. You see, for an Anglo it is very difficult to live in a country dominated by heathens. They have no respect for us Hindu fascists. Indeed their churches do not teach any better. Hence the condescending tone, hence the utter disregard for any rules of debate. The bloody Hindus are at fault, no matter what. The Raj was better.

The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone
he obeys no orders unless they are his own
he keeps his side arms awful, he leaves them all about
and then comes the regiment and pokes the heathen out.

You see, absent the regiment, Arundhati and her ilk are trying their best to poke us heathens out.

The Barbarindian community wishes Arundhati Roy and the secular Christians of the world Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

NOTE: We apologize for our claim that Arundhati had lied about an editor of the Pioneer claiming that Afzal was directly involved in the attacks. Indeed there was a column which claimed that, read here.

Dalit died, Sonia cried

"She almost broke down when Bhaiyalal Bhotmange (whose family was murdered in September) said his slain daughter's name was Priyanka. Gandhi told him that her daughter's name was also Priyanka," a Congress leader said.

But when it came to taking action,

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are "extremely upset" over the Dalit killings in Maharashtra and the violence last week in Mumbai and elsewhere, party sources say. But there are no plans to tell Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to step down.

Although,

The party sources, however, said the Congress leadership was not keen on replacing the chief minister although both Gandhi and Manmohan Singh felt that the police machinery in Maharashtra had virtually collapsed.

You see, by shedding tears she obtained several credits (or Karmic points depending on your idiomatic preference) on her absolute moral authority card. She will use these points in the crucial UP elections.

India's first Dalit Chief Justice

Justice K G Balakrishnan, the senior most judge in the Supreme Court will be appointed the new Chief Justice of India - the first Dalit ever to occupy the post.

The appointment has been approved by President APJ Abdul Kalam. Justice Balakrishnan will replace Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal who is retiring on Januray 14, 2007.

Let us remind our readers that Justice Balakrishnan's children, grand children and so on will be eligible for Scheduled Caste quotas in all educational institutes, Government jobs and for a host of other benefits including soft loans etc.

For a list of current judges of the Supreme Court, click here.

Laloo gets a clean chit, Shibu Soren in deep shit

You couldn't find a more illustrative example of how OBCs can game the system way better than their Dalit/Adivasi counterparts. Of course, OBCs are way more cunning, so much so that they have fully internalized the Dalit oppression script and making a full use of it.

As expected, Laloo, who belongs to a powerful OBC clan, was acquitted of graft charges.

A special CBI court acquitted Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his former Bihar chief minister wife Rabri Devi in disproportionate assets case on Monday. The CBI will now appeal against the verdict in the High Court. The disproportionate assets case is an offshoot of the fodder scam (~ Rs. 950 crores) in which complaints were lodged against Bihar's most famous couple.

On the other hand, Shibu Soren, who is technically an ST, got the short end of the stick.

Former Union coal minister Shibu Soren was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court on Tuesday for his involvement in the 1994 abduction and murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha. On November 28, Soren became the first cabinet minister to be convicted of murder.

I am waiting to see a huge hue and cry from the socialist lobby. No word on whether we should use the same lens to judge these two incidents.

Meanwhile, if any progress has been made at all in decriminalizing Indian politics, it came from a totally non-partisan group not interested in self-promotion (unlike the Narmada bachao, meri Kitaab kharido gang of Arundhati Roy, Dilip D'Souza etc). That's why you may not have heard of them.

There are signs of improvement. Details of the charges against MPs were not public knowledge until a few years ago, when a campaign led by a group of academics resulted in their disclosure. At the time, all the parties resisted the move. Proof, says Jagdish Chokker, one of the campaigners, that "India's politicians can be unanimous and efficient on an issue that affects them all." But the idea stuck, and now the two big parties ask potential candidates to disclose any charges against them before they are selected.

If you are interested, check out this page on the Public Affairs Center website. Some stats:

• Of the 540-odd members of the lower house, around 100 have been charged with crimes. Of those 100, one-third face serious charges such as rape or kidnapping.
• Over fifty per cent of the MPs with the most serious criminal cases happen to be from four states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. Among the political parties in these states, the regional parties account for a majority of the MPs with serious criminal cases.
• Money is truly a barrier to entry in the political arena. The average assets of an MP is Rs. 1.64 crores ($366,000), and a majority of MPs are multimillionaires. There are variations among political parties, with the Indian National Congress leading the pack in terms of asset power. The two communist parties are at the other end of the spectrum.

Let me also quote a stat I found interesting:

Average Total Assets per member:
Congress - Rs. 310.76 lakhs.
BJP - Rs. 96.91 lakhs.

BJP tails by a wide margin most other parties. BJP MPs also lag far behind in "dues" (i.e. money taken out of public funds) to various Government institutes.

Yeah, yeah, I quoted selectively. So, socialists, the link is there. Go knock yourselves out.

A New Revolution

"To men in general the satisfaction of a pride is infinitely more alluring than the satisfaction of an interest."

- from the Continent of Circe, Nirad C. Chaudhuri.







We had hoped, really hoped, that the OBC reservation chaos would die down. People would go back to watching the India/South Africa cricket match or following the minute by minute progress of Aishwarya Rai/Abhishek Bachchan romance as being reported by the MSM.

No dice. The AIIMS docs haven't given up, neither have the IIT students. This is an ominous sign of things to come. There are really two scenarios for future India. The first scenario is that of hope and based on new ideas. We could really embrace our diversity, forget the petty bickering and become a truly strong capitalistic democratic republic. If, and only if (and a big IF at that), we could reset our psychological clock to 1947. Unfortunately, it is not going to happen. India will disintegrate into tiny little pieces before the turn of the century.

A nation can not be built unless everyone agrees on a common time line, common border and more importantly a common benchmark for rewarding achievers. We do not even agree on the first aspect. The Dalits and Shudras want to go as far back as 1500 BC. The Muslims want to selectively accept historical facts. The Brahmins, when they are not fighting with the rising OBCs, bicker among themselves over Aryan invasion theory.

Battleship Potemkin is perhaps the best propaganda movie ever. Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece from the silent era, the film depicts a ruthless mutiny of seamen, borne out of discontent and chronic ill treatment. The film (or rather the famous Odessa steps sequence) would later be knocked off by Hollywood blockbusters such as The Untouchables and even by the Bollywood film, Tezaab. I am not going to delve much deeper into this widely acclaimed film. I am sure someone from the arty-farty circle such as this blogger will assemble something from Guardian and Salon articles.

Revolutions are seldom spontaneous. What worked for Bolshevik propaganda does not reflect historical precedents. Starting from the Russian revolution itself to French revolution, Black civil rights movement, Indian freedom struggle - none of these happened spontaneously. The romantic idea of a group of men forced to a point of no return suddenly erupting into an orgasm of violence never happened in history.

Just as it didn't happen in the Dalit train burning incident.

Revolutions need three things. Strong leadership which stand to gain big, really big after it is all over. A unifying theme of oppression and healthy dose of indignation complete the picture. Revolutions are meticulously planned, over time. Advantages are negotiated and outcomes rigged. Revolutions are almost always spearheaded and managed at a tactical level by students.

Consider this, within 3 years (assuming a staggered implementation), the OBC population in premier institutes will approach half of total students. They will suffer serious indignation because of the recalcitrant attitude of the upper caste students, as is amply clear from the AIIMS and IIT student attitudes. Moreover, they will suffer academically as well. The institutes will now become political battlefields. At this juncture, a rioting student body of OBCs will actually garner a lot of sympathies, just like Afzal did. They will be the poster boys (or gals) of privilege oppression against OBCs. No political party will have the will to enforce disciplinary measures.

The leadership is in place. The theme of oppression has long been scripted. The indignation is just a few years away. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then Ill get on my knees and pray
We won't get fooled again.

Calling their bluff

I am working on Arundhati Roy's 13 questions. Meanwhile, I noticed some strange things being reported by socialist bloggers.

Abi triumphantly reports that Pinochet, the ex-dictator of Chile, is dead. Apparently it is proof that capitalism does not work. Or something like it. Well, I suppose collectively Kim Il Jong, Stalin, Pol Pot and Castro do prove that communism works. Also, socialism does work, see, it is working in India.

Perhaps more interesting is this strange post by Dilip D'Souza.

Last month, I sat in a dark Delhi auditorium and listened to Vijaypat Singhania, the industrialist and celebrated hot-air ballooner, raise the stakes. Bombay must cope, he said up there on the stage, with a "net migration" of 8000 -- eight thousand -- people a day. Later in his presentation, he repeated this.

Where did Mr Singhania come up with that number from?

More important, why didn't he do some simple arithmetic? 8000 people a day multiplied by 365 days in a year: that's about 3 million people a year coming into Bombay. Is it even conceivable that a city of something like 15 million is increasing its numbers by 20 per cent a year, and that without accounting for "natural" growth, meaning babies?

Natural growth does mean babies, we get it D'Souza. Unless of course it means the ugly appendages around your sphincter.

Here is what Singhania actually said, according to Tehelka (the favorite stinger magazine of socialists and beneficiary of Rs. 1 Lakh donation from Junior and Senior D'Souza each):

For Raymond chairman emeritus and Mumbai Sheriff Vijaypat Singhania, the answer is clear. "Mumbai cannot become Shanghai in the next 100 years. I was travelling in a train in Shanghai at 441 km per hour. In Mumbai, the average speed would be around 60 km per hour, that too with low grade facilities," he said. "Because of its perception as being a land of prosperity, 8,000 people enter the city everyday. Even slums cannot provide such accommodation. People don't get a decent life and get into anti-social activities. This will not make Mumbai Shanghai."

Well, net migration of 8000 does not equal 8000 people entering the city, not in our book. But then again, socialists usually follow a different Math.

I believe this has something to do with Shiv Sena's Bombay for Mumbaikars campaign. But this could potentially turn out to be a minefield for Congress, much of their strength is derived from dividing the country along communal lines and creating entitlement mentality for "Bhumiputras".

While we do not condone the Shiv Sena principles, the oldest trick to conquer a constituency is subsidizing certain folks to reside in the constituency. You see, Bombay has millions of slum dwellers. If municipal laws are enforced, they would have to leave Bombay. Forget laws, if economic subsidies are taken away, many of these slum dwellers will find their incentives gone. The Bombay slums feeds the underworld, creates law and order problems and in general makes any infrastructure development impossible.

Any citizen of India has a right to live in Bombay. No citizen of India should be forced to subsidize it.

Mystery surrounding Rashmi Bansal's disappearence

Karma police, arrest this man, he talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio
Karma police, arrest this girl, her Hitler hairdo, is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you get, this is what you get
This is what you get, when you mess with us ......
(Radiohead, Karma Police)

The Rashmi Bansal arrest warrant issue is getting confusing. Rashmi seems to have gone underground, she hasn't posted anything on her blog since then. Thanks to an anonymous tipster on this blog and comments left on RealityCheck's blog, it appears that Hindu groups, such as Hindu Janajagruti Samiti may have had a role to play in the fiasco.

The website of this group has an article protesting the publishing of the above caricature involving Lord Shiva. Now, what is interesting is that, they did publish the above image on their website, unlike, say, the protesters of the Mohammad cartoons. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of publishing it on this blog, sorry if it offends any sensibilities.

On the other hand, Saran Sharma brought two things to our notice.

A commenter, claiming to be an IIPM student, rejoices Rashmi's misfortunes on a comment left on her blog. Second, and perhaps more disturbing is the news of Arindam Chaudhuri, the IIPM supremo, hobnobbing with Dalit leaders. Arindam Chaudhuri is a founder of the IIPM, an institute Rashmi Bansal had exposed earlier, for gross irregularities in both process and conduct. Even at the time Rashmi received threat of lawsuits from IIPM. To understand how much water IIPM draws in the capital, consider this: they have received orders from the MCD but apparently no action will be taken against them.

This is a dangerous trend. Quotas in the private sector will ultimately morph into a Dalit/OBC hiring contest. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs will use their payroll count of the deemed underprivileged to get favors from the Government. They will also use those to their advantage and break laws elsewhere. Imagine the chest thumping: I employed over a thousand Dalits, what's a little tax evasion?

However, all this is minor compared to the real question RealityCheck brings up. Apparently the Government is in the process of procuring sophisticated routers capable of censoring content at a granular level. This is alarming to say the least.

Finally, articles such as 295 and 295a of the Indian Penal Code need a serious rethink. Enacted in 1860 and still carrying amendments such as the 145 to 295 dating back to 1927, our Penal Code requires an overhaul. But it will not happen. Our country is too fragmented for any sort of rational consensus.

295. Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class
Whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons with the intention of thereby insulting the religion of any class of persons or with the knowledge that any class of persons is likely to consider such destruction, damage or defilement as an insult to their religion, shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.

¹⁴⁶295A. Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs
Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of ¹⁴⁶[citizens of India], ¹⁴⁷[by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ¹⁴⁸[three years], or with fine, or with both.

Do you like sequels? Now, do you really?

Once again, don't blame me for getting the count wrong. This is Imrana IV or V.

MEERUT: Rehana Begum, a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh has filed a First Information Report with the local police, charging her father-in-law and two of his friends with rape.

Rehana, in her mid twenties and married for the past ten years, is the mother of three children. She has been the sole bread earner of her family since her husband has been staying in Saudi Arabia for the past six years.

"I had gone to the jungle with my father. He had gone in search of wood while I sat down to cut the wood. Three people, riding a motor cycle, came from behind and dragged me to a secluded area. There, they raped me. I recognised two of them, one of whom was my father-in-law. I pleaded with them to stop molesting me, but to no avail," said Rehana.

Rehana’s father-in-law, Aniz, has denied the rape charge, and says that his daughter-in-law is trying to trap him into giving away some of his property to her.

"I do not know anything. I had gone to the masjid for prayers. She is charging me with wrong allegations. I never did anything like this," said Aniz.
(Note: Free registration required).

Ah yes, he had gone to the Masjid, so would have lots of witnesses. Well, all they need is one. Imagine if we applied the OBC reservation type logic here!

Previous: Imrana II/III, Imrana III/IV

Rashmi Bansal's folly

Publisher of the Jam magazine and popular blogger Rashmi Bansal narrowly avoided getting arrested under section 295a. Things are not quite clear yet, she may still get arrested. At the very least she is looking at getting hassled by various Government agencies for the foreseeable future. Rashmi has offered an unconditional apology on her website.

It looks like the UPA Government is on its way to break every record (by that we mean its own record because since independence India has been ruled by various avatars of Congress for about 81% of the time) for censorship and intolerance. It's like this: you sneeze hard and somebody gets offended - voila, you are incarcerated.

Various bloggers including RealityCheck are covering this development and are requesting your support for Rashmi Bansal.

So, what is it that irked the Government so much?

In its November 30-December 15 issue, JAM, which is generally considered to be a campus magazine, had published a series of articles and photographs sent by readers on the occasion of the World AIDS Day. The punch lines below a couple of pictures of Dr BR Ambedkar and a Shivling - had allegedly used derogatory remarks about the religious figures, following which a complaint had been lodged against the magazine's printer/publisher.

Rashmi didn't know that Dr Ambedkar is now officially a God, just like Periyar is. Ambedkar's statues outnumber those of any other dead leader. There are more roads, buildings and institutes named after him than any other personality.

If you offend the followers of such a powerful God, well, may the lord above help you.

There could be another angle to this whole fiasco. Although RealityCheck disputes this, I believe the IIPM chaos and the following cover on a past issue of the Jam Magazine may have something to do with it:

Our advice to Rashmi, publish some articles by Shivam Vij or Dilip D'Souza. Heck, you may even get tax breaks or SEZ status!

Sexual violence by "minorities"

Arguably the largest number of rapes are committed by Muslims in India. This would be consistent with the general Muslim behavior in Sweden, Norway, Australia and many other countries. This is of course strictly based on eyeballing the headlines.

We are not supposed to question the Government which issued a statement recently that Muslims are screwed. Well, they could be figuratively screwed but quite literally screwing any lone woman they can lay their hands on.

A 22-year-old woman was allegedly raped by two persons in a scrap yard at Kurla (west) in the early hours of Saturday.

The incident occurred in a shop inside a scrap yard - Najibulla compound, near Baghdad Hotel on the Kalina Road in Kurla (west). Around 6 am, the woman, who is a rag picker, and her friend were collecting some metal scrap near the scrap yard. In the meantime, 40-year-old Shakeel Ahmad Qureshi, who owns a shop in the compound, spotted both the ladies. He then summoned both the women through the watchman, Shahdat Ali alias Chikna (24).

He allegedly took the duo inside his shop, Gala No 25, along with the watchman. He then charged the victim of having stolen 300 kilograms of scrap from the yard in the past and even beat her up with the watchman. Then in the presence her associate, the duo repeatedly raped her for over two hours.

Well, I do not know if any studies has been done in India to determine the rape demographics. Journalists usually gloss over the religion and caste of rapists. For instance, the recent Bangalore call center employee rape-murder was perhaps an OBC on privileged case. Under the current political circumstances, it is essential that this information be made available.

How to read the Nuclear Bill

The nuclear bill, which passed with overwhelming majority in the US house is so mired in controversy and rhetorics that it is impossible for us ordinary mortals to see the implications. Indeed such bills are written in a manner that will confuse even the most astute political observer.

As you know, the opposition BJP/RSS and Leftist allies of Congress are pretty upset with this bill. It doesn't mean a thing, nada, zilch. In the tradition of our fine democracy, the opposition is supposed to make a huge noise at anything substantial done at the center. The Left barks at every passing vehicle. This was the general pattern during the NDA rule as well, indeed UPA has implemented almost every policy undertaken by NDA that it denigrated at the time.

So, how to cut through the crap and decide whether we are a net winner? Pretty simple actually. You observe the reactions of folks.

(A) What is the reaction of the democrats in the US?
(i) Democrats are fainting en masse at Washington Square Park, New York, nude protests going on.
(ii) Democrats held a peacefully rally
(ii) Bill passed with overwhelming majority - token protest by a few democrat senators.

(B) What is the reaction of Pakistan?
(i) Musharraf frothing at the mouth and presently hospitalized
(ii) Pakistan diplomats and politicians issue strong statements directed at the bill
(iii) A few Pakistani newspapers make some noise

(C) What is the reaction of China?
(i) China invades Arunachal Pradesh
(ii) Chinese envoy chokes on chicken chow mein.
(iii) Chinese issue strongly worded press releases

(D) What is the reaction of the Indian scientific community involved in defense research and defense forces ?
(i) Huh?
(ii) Scientists issue angry statements to the press
(iii) Mass resignation by scientists and coup by the army chief

So on and so forth.

So far it looks like India managed to get exemption from inspection for some nuclear facilities. Oh, we got the Iran waiver, i.e. US can not force India to change its Iran policy. This is again one of those minority ego stoking thingy and has no real consequence. We do get civilian nuclear technology.

Note that Nuclear power is no panacea. Although in theory nuke-power should be cheaper than conventional energy sources, it presently costs up to 50% more than coal-power. Huge upfront capital expenditures are required and there are capacity utilization and maintenance issues. There are safety concerns as well. Here is what takes the cake: nuke-power is usually supported by huge Government subsidies. No prizes for guessing who will eventually foot the bill. So don't expect to keep your Christmas lights on all year long anytime soon.

Our verdict: 4/10
Winner: Indian politicians and administrators who will approve the projects
Runner-up: GE, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, L&T

Laloo's daughter: alive, Lover : dead

How many kids does Laloo have? Perhaps a dozen or so. I tend to forget. Anyway.

The death of BIT- Mesra student Abhishek Mishra at a waterfall near Ranchi got surrounded in a mystery after it was revealed that he had a love affair with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's daughter Ragini.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Abhishek's parents have now demanded a CBI probe into the incident, saying the death did not appear to be natural. "The death looked unnatural as there was blood on his face. The autopsy was done within 15 minutes and that declared him drowned," Abhishek's father Subhas Chandra Mishra, a doctor with Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, told a news agency on Sunday.

Looks like it is pretty dangerous to get cozy with Yadav girls. First it was Bharti Yadav's lover and then this dude.

Do you like sequels?

I am losing count here, so help me out. Is it Part III or Part IV?

A 21-year-old woman has alleged that her father-in-law, a local CPI (M) leader, has raped her, bringing to public memory once again the Imrana rape case.

Mortaza Ali, the father-in-law, was arrested on Saturday following her complaint on November 15 that she was raped by him on November 8, police said.

In her complaint, the woman said she had been raped by Ali when she was alone at home.

This is a special issue sequel, as you can see, the perp is likely a Bangladeshi import. West Bengal is up to 25% now. Be careful, some of the hungry imports are pretty desperate.

One nation under Allah

We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources.

I think a much better strategy for the PM to win Muslim votes will be to increase Haj subsidies, Madrasa grants and allow more Sharia control on the Muslim civic code. Why all this trouble? Making a statement and then going all blue in the face denying ever making it. All this gets a little tiring.

I guess the Sachar report is kind of hot right now. For a more detailed coverage, visit RealityCheck.

The most interesting thing about the report is the cover page.

As you can see, the dominant top portion is an image of Muslims performing the Namaaz. The lower left part is a view of the Tajmahal through an arch of sorts, I guess this depicts the Mughal rule. We also see a camel through the arch. The lower right corner is a picture of children, ostensibly Muslim children since one of them dons the skull cap. There is a narrow band of collage in the middle and this is the only part that is in full color. Inexplicably, all the rest of the image is blurred. The middle part has some curious images. On the left is a picture of a cricketer. It is followed by a picture of Infosys headquarters. Could not identify the rest of the images but there are some labs, a picture of a military aircraft, an operating theater and an image of the Bombay stock exchange.

The Sachar report is a curious mix of data, random projections and unverifiable statements straight out of Mr. Sachar and his committee members arses. More than anything else it proves that Congress doesn't feel really confident that the OBC reservations and the Common Minimum Program (which is essentially Garibi Hatao 2.0) will ensure a win in the 2009 elections.

I suppose they got the data part right. Not quite sure what they left out. There is a chapter dedicated to the theme of how terrorist image hurts Muslims. There is no data to support this though. There is a huge chapter trying to prove that Muslim population is under control and it really is a myth that Muslim population is increasing. The committee "feels" that the Muslim population growth may have peaked (the only reason offered is that fertility has decreased in Europe for many populations). Yet, the Sachar report shows a projected Muslim population of 19% by year 2050. That's a net increase of 6% points over the current level of 13% or so.

(...... to be continued).

Eminent Domain?

Just kidding.

Well, it is not so far fetched really. Places of worship belonging to religions other than Islam are by default deemed eminent domain in Islamic nations. Take for instance the destruction of a 100- year old Hindu temple in Malaysia, the destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan and the mass destruction of temples in Pakistan post Babri fiasco. I believe Hindus in Bangladesh were seriously hassled as well, some of it chronicled in the Taslima Nasreen book, Lajja.

Singur is a podunk off Calcutta, some 30-40 kms away. The Tatas want to build a plant, so they wanted a 2 km by 2 km plot in that area. Naturally the local landowners would have none of it.
So what we have there is a large scale land grab, commie style. Since commies are doing it, our socialist friends are nowhere to be seen. Dilip D'Souza didn't visit the place, too far from Bombay. Medha Patkar is there and so is Dr. Mamata Banerjee, the resident upholder of downtrodden rights.

Well, at least the landowners are being paid Rs. 8.6 lakhs per acre. In Maharashtra, land is being forcibly acquired for as little as Rs. 24,000. Now, the net profit per acre in India ranges from Rs. 3000 - Rs. 5000. Taken as a perpetuity, it doesn't amount to much. So, why would farmers be so opposed to the Rs. 8.6 lakhs buyout? Actually it could blow holes in the popular myth that the commies did a great land reform and transferred ownership to the share croppers. The truth is, the land merely changed hands to the cronies of the commies. Now, the shared croppers get jack in the above transaction and hence the ire. Of course there could be another reason for it. The landowners recognize that the price of the land will go up sooner or later and in real estate terms, it could reach dizzying heights.

I believe there could be a third reason. Holding on to Agricultural land in our country has its advantages. You get lots of sops and handouts and they do add up. The farmers may be willing to swap the net but not the socialistic largesses.

Eminent domain or not, in our country you can not really hold on to prime land unless you belong to a certain set of folks and you know what I mean. If you are really lucky, you may get a few paises on the Rupee. If you are unlucky, you may end up on the sidewalk, face down, a bullet through the back of your skull. These incidents are not reported unless you are underprivileged, in which case Mamata will hold a token fast for you.

In a socialistic regime, the state owns your ass, so stop whining.

Would like some cream in your coffee?

The Centre has rejected the recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee to exclude the Creamy Layer from the purview of the 27 per cent OBC quota in Government-aided institutions of higher learning.

No surprises here.

Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jain
from angry Dalits to the proud Brahmin
Quota or not, India you make it happen

One could wax lyrical about India's future, and sing along with the recent Beastie Boys hit. But the writing on the wall is only too clear.

Question

I had stopped reading some of the socialist blogs. To paraphrase Tolstoy, every good thing in life offers something new, all garbage is absolutely the same. But looks like I may have to change my policy, I may be missing out on much fun.

I came across this utterly astonishing post on KrishWorld (via Nilu).

Milton Friedman could be a great economist but his propaganda (like the one I have linked above) is plain bullshit. I may respect him for the work he has done in the field of economics (like how I respect any other academic) but his propaganda is nonsense.

Now, being the shallow individual that I am, I can only think of one agenda that an academic person can have and that is to prove and promote his academic research and idea.

Anyway.

The question that I have is simple: would it be easier to separate Friedman's research from his agenda or pull Krish's head out of his ass? Just curious.

The "Moderates"

A ten-dollar bill us in the center of the crossroads. To the north, there's Santa Claus. To the west, the Tooth Fairy. To the east, a radical Muslim. To the south, a moderate Muslim. Who reaches the ten-dollar bill first?

The answer of course is the radical Muslim. All the others are mythical creatures.

I am not sure if I have met any moderate Muslim. All the Muslims I have met in school or at work were devout Muslims, who would keep their austere fast regime during the month of Ramadan, pray five times a day etc.

Recently there was a long discussion on Retributions about the European veil ban. There was an Indian Muslim commenter on the thread called Adnan. There was a Muslima called Mariam too, possibly from Pakistan. Please visit the thread, you may be surprised.

Now a little thought experiment. Imagine the worst Tamil derogatory stereotype you can think of. Then imagine I call Abi by that name. Is he gonna like it? Probably not. The same thing happens when you (meaning the good natured and clueless socialist) picks on Muslims on the street and tries to label them moderate. You have to understand, one of the basic ideas of Islam is how severely you can observe your religion, a tenet all (okay, most, if you feel uncomfortable) Muslims live by. Now, he is just trying to live his life, praying as many times as he can, fasting during Ramadan, hoping to pay a visit to the shrine (subsidized of course) at least once in his lifetime. How dare you jump in and call him moderate? Calling a Muslim man moderate is a grave insult, it essentially suggests he is not Muslim enough.

Moderate Muslims exist in a fantasy land inhabited by the likes of Dlip D'Souza, in anecdotes and stories that win essay competitions. We are supposed to believe that they exist, for if we don't, we are Hindu fascists, right-wing hate monger etc.

[Updates and our views on the Sachar report follows.]

Barbarindian answers The Economist letters

A few funny letters to the editor of The Economist came to our attention. The link probably requires subscription, but I will quote the entire letters, no worries.

SIR - It is disappointing to witness an increased blurring of the line between faith and nationality. You referred to a study that showed British Muslims identify more with their religion than their nationality by comparison with French Muslims. As well as wondering if one would ask Italians if they felt more Catholic than Italian, or Indians if they felt more Sikh than Indian, since when did faith become indicative of someone's nationality? Too many people today presume the two are intertwined, yet not all Arabs are Muslim, or Jews Israeli, or Americans Christian. Confusing religious identity with nationality can only lead to more misunderstanding. For instance, my origins are Egyptian and German, I was born in the United States and now live in The Netherlands. What, if any, is my faith?

Tarek El Heneidi
Amsterdam

Dear Mr. Heneidi,

Your faith is Islam. If I were in Amsterdam, I would spend my time in the pot cafes and cavort with scores of blonde Dutch chicks. You choose to read a fuckin' boring mag like The Economist and not only that, get your knickers all in knots over some weird article that remotely touches upon your faith.

Sincerely,
Barbarindian.

SIR - Your reading of the constitutional conventions that led to Bangladesh's president, Iajuddin Ahmed, becoming the head of the country's interim government and the circumstances that led to his assumption of the office of chief adviser was wrong-headed. The reason he is now "commander-in-chief of the armed forces and his own adviser" is that under the constitution the president is the military's supreme commander and is allowed to assume the chief adviser's office, provided certain conditions exist. Since all the constitutional steps were rigorously followed and the necessary conditions were fulfilled, your innuendo about an "unconstitutional concentration of power" is absolutely preposterous.

Fazal Kamal
Bangladesh High Commission
London

Dear Mr. Kamal,

Bangladesh has a constitution? I mean other than the Koran? Could you please send us a copy? By the way, how does it feel lickin' the lip smackin' goodness that comes out of your Prez's rear? Does your leader read The Economist? If not, could you not have saved a few swift strokes of your tongue for later reuse?

Sincerely,
Barbarindian.

Advisory for the Privileged

* * * * * Updates below * * * * *

Please stay away from Dalit infested areas, especially in Maharashtra. You are completely safe in TN (for the time being), the powerful OBCs rule there.

Three persons were killed and over 60 injured on Thursday during protests across Maharashtra following the alleged desecration of B R Ambedkar's statue in Kanpur, DGP P S Pasricha said.

Five coaches of the Deccan Queen train were burnt and over 90 buses damaged in various parts of this city during violent protests.

Update:

The case is getting weirder by the minute.

Arun Valmiki, the man arrested for defacing Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue in Kanpur on Tuesday, has alleged that the police forced him to make a false confession.

Residents of Ambedkar basti in Kakadeo where the statue was damaged, however, claimed Valmiki had not returned home and he may have "gone underground" fearing police action.

and ...

Senior Superintendent of Police P C Meena rejected Valmiki's allegations. "He admitted to having damaged the statue in a drunken state along with two friends on Wednesday," says Meena.

Valmiki's release came after angry Dalits took to the streets, blocked traffic and damaged vehicles claiming he was "falsely implicated".

Let's be cool and try to assimilate this, work with us here. We are as confused and puzzled as you are.

1. A Dalit dude, living in Ambedkar basti gets drunk and damages a statue.
2. Dalits go on rampage, damaging property worth more than Rs. 7 crores (how many IIT seats is that?)
3. Police catch the dude called Valmiki
4. Valmiki fesses up
5. Residents of Valmiki basti get mighty upset so back to step 2.

Let me pour myself a large tequila, be back in 15.

Do you like sequels?

Bet you do. Well, it seems like now there is Imrana II (actually III if you take into account a similar story that broke a couple of days earlier).

A Muslim woman was raped by her father-in-law in Jharkhand in a case reminiscent of the trauma suffered by Imrana Bibi of Uttar Pradesh.

The incident occurred three days ago in Barapansari village of Deoghar district. When the woman threatened to speak out, she was asked to keep quiet or face more torture.

In the earlier case, the Imams had ruled that the rape victim abandon her husband and start living with her father-in-law. We won't speculate whether that ruling influenced this in any way.

Now, why do we have to blog about this? Aren't there incidents of rape by family members in Hindu families? Those are the type of questions being raised in this interesting thread at the retributions blog.

More atrocities on Dalits

Abi asks (by proxy of course):

The roused conscience of the nation should ask itself why [nobody heeded the horror of the Bhotmanges of Kherlanji]. Because Kherlanji is a remote location? But it's only a mobile call away from everywhere on earth. Because the Bhotmanges were dalits?

The same question was asked by Dr. Bruno elsewhere.

Let me answer the question for you, Herr Doktor Professor. Actually, the reverse is true. The incident was reported because the Bhotmanges were Dalits. Such incidents happen with alarming regularity in our country. Dalits are not the only victims, as a matter of fact, as far as law and order is concerned, it is the badlands out there. Even the socialists acknowledge it:

Indian judiciary says that capital punishment should be given in the rarest of rare cases, and this is not one of them. Rapes and murders take place all the time.

and more,

But what Santosh did was very human, born out of human impulses, and has to be resolved within the parameters of human society, not outside it

Stalking a young woman for two years, violating restraining orders, entering her home when no one else was around then cruelly violating her and beating her to death with a helmet is merely normal human impulse. Much like a kid helping himself to the cookie jar. We don't need capital punishment for this, right? Right.

The truth is, the incident got wide publicity. A google news search reveals it was reported by TOI, NDTV, The Hindu and Tehelka (please, none of that Tehelka is an activist newspaper and doesn't count BS, it is pretty much mainstream, with heavy artillary support - only it no longer stings so much).

Now back to the professor. You didn't happen to notice this news, did you?

In yet another slap on the face of the so-called "Sushasan", claimed by the Nitish-led NDA government, two Dalit women of a family on Saturday night were raped by four persons in Lakhanpur Sondipi village under the Muffasil police station of the district. [...]

An FIR, however, was lodged in the Muffasil police station on Sunday in which three unknown persons, besides one, Kapildev Yadav, of the adjacent Pathlatol village were made accused in the crime.

Happened within just a few days of the other incident. The professor didn't take note, neither did the other poseur socialist. They found one poster girl for their political agenda, did the blogging bit and that was it.

I think if one really wants to help Dalits or at least give them a fighting chance, one has to acknowledge the root cause of the problems. First of all, they are outnumbered by the OBCs. If winning votes is the only objective, of course 22.5% is going to lose out against 52% (plus 12% minority religion folks) again and again. And that is exactly what is happening in the hamlets of India. Again and again.

He said a majority of cases against dalits are related to land grabbing by OBCs, and not by upper castes.

"Wherever the two communities are stronger, there is confrontation. The atmosphere in the state shows that there is a confrontation between dalits and OBCs."

Another family massacred

A group of militants barged into the house of one Ahad Bhat at Mangloobi-Dalwah in Gool sector of Udhampur district in the wee hours today and fired indiscriminately on the inmates.

Bhat, his wife Fatima, their daughter Mubeena and niece Shameema died on the spot.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Udhampur, Basant Kumar Rath said the family was targeted after Bhat refused to marry his daughters to two militants who had visited the house with the proposal last night. (more ....)

You won't see the socialists picking up this story. No pics either.

Do you like snuff pictures?

* * * please scroll down for updates * * *

If the answer is yes, please head over to the Satyam Shivam Sundaram blog, pronto.

You must have heard, how could you not, if you are one of the gazzillion perpetually ashamed of his religion/caste Indian, about the atrocious brutality committed on a Dalit (erstwhile Dalit, I suppose, for they had embraced Buddhism) family.

Needless to say, the socialist/gimme seats lobby is overjoyed at this incident and it shows. For some reason, this atrocity translates into the absurd solution of sending rich OBC/Dalit kids in the metros to IITs and IIMs. Yeah.

My heart particularly aches for the young woman Priyanka. She was a good student, but she would find it difficult to get into a good school. The creamy Dalits will continue to grab the prime land as always.

By the way, in case you missed it, here is a little factoid for you:

The Bhotmange's were one of the two Mahar families of the village that is dominated by the OBC's, the landlord clans here. Bhaiyyalal had movedto this village to farm his mother's 5-acre land about 18 years ago. But it was surekha, who tilled her farm and fought for regaining the hold over a portion grabbed by the upper castes, which is a decisive political force in this part.

So, hope you will feel better when we start sending rich OBC kids to IITs and IIMs from the next academic session.

Jai Hind.

[Note: we recommend the death penalty for the perpetrators, unlike the Afzal shouldn't hang/Santosh Kumar should, gang of socialist freeloaders.]

[Update: 1]
Shivam Vij confirms that the perpetrators, members of the Power and Kalar castes, are OBCs. Remember that this is the true face of rural India today - marginalized Dalits and MBCs living in perpetual fear in villages dominated by powerful and ever ambitious OBC landlords.

[Update: 2]
Dilip D'Souza compares this incident with past black lynchings in America. Well, I suppose he has got to try harder. A correct analogy would be a massacre of a say a Red Indian family by black youths in a Philadelphia suburb (for instance).

[Update: 3]
Shivam does NOT support the death penalty for the perpetrators. Well, nice try. Do that in a Dalit annual meeting or something.

[Update: 4]
Abi has a post up at the Other Idiots site, which claims percentage wise, Dalits actually experience less violence than the general population. Although he ends the post by suggesting under-reportage, I believe he is building up something stronger. Don't be surprised if you see him googling up documents all over the internet and proving that the most recipients of violence are OBCs and most givers are the privileged.

[Update: 5]
The good Doctor Bruno never fails to surprise us. He left a comment for me on the It's my way or the Highway blog:

@ Barbarindian : This incident says that OBC Castes need education. Being dominant in a village by virtue of being the majority caste / rich may be just a factor. Education is more important.

How to educated these guys, any ideas??

Er, is that a question Doc?

Did Afzal just run out of luck?

I think I mentioned it earlier, the Other Idiots blog and its various offshoots such as this and this are sort of like leading indicators for upcoming Congress political strategy. These guys are mostly card carrying party members, they know what's going on inside. For instance, the Other Idiots blog started just around the time Arjun Singh was planning his diabolical OBC game plan. The blog pretended to be a one stop shop for various socialistic weepy issues, starting from stray dogs to atrocities directed towards women. When the reservation issue was at its hottest, the blog was churning out about a dozen posts per day on the topic. Most recently, not only has the frequency of posts gone down, they have moved towards the same ole same ole, i.e. the very original Garibi Hatao. By the way, no post about 7/11 on the blog.

Sometimes I wish I were a socialist. Posh jobs with no responsibilities, guaranteed pseudo-journalistic assignments in various Cong-pet-poodle newspapers, fine whiskey, lavish lifestyle, lots of free time to blog.

Anyway.

After 7/11 happened, some folks (you know who they are) tried their level best to start a riot. It just didn't happen. As a matter of fact, folks reacted with a mixture of bewilderment and confusion, much to the chagrin of the riot-plotters. Then the blasts happened in Malegaon. For a while they tried to pass it off on Hindu fascists. That didn't hold water, since the explosive used was RDX. Another strange fact came out during this time. Apparently the Bombay blasts had been planned several years ago, around 2000-01. At the time the Gujarat riots still didn't happen. So, the revenge motif just wouldn't work. It was a blow to an election strategy like no other.

Then the issue of Afzal came up. It was a golden opportunity, not to be missed. Congress' most vocal spokesperson on the blogosphere went to town on the issue.

Here is a sampling of how the viewpoint changed over time:
1. Death penalty is primitive and immoral (by the way, try seaching for Dhananjay in those blogs).
2. Afzal hanging will be a blow to Indo-Pak relations (as if they are the best of buddies now).
3. Afzal hanging is illegal (read here).

Some of these articles were categorized under "human rights".

Most unfortunately for them, another issue, which had captured the country's attention came into prominence around this time. Well, I am talking about Priyadarshini Mattoo. The man on the street is now unequivocally "hang that bastard". Now this is too sensitive a time to run afoul of popular sentiments. In fact, this is high time to screw Afzal. Last time I checked, they are basically deciding between the lethal injection and the rope from Tihar jail. See?

Of course, this is all verifiable, because apparently now there is only a feeble justification not to hang Afzal.

This is not an argument against the death penalty. I do not claim that Afzal is innocent of the charges against him, or that he did not receive a fair trial. I am simply saying: Afzal alive is our only chance to find out the truth about the attack on Parliament.

Sorry if all this leaves you completely speechless.

India's next Prime Minister

Far fetched? Hardly.

Abu Salem is already starting to contemplate a deeper role in Indian politics. In a country where Osama bin Laden is revered as a hero, this is not at all surprising. As a matter of fact, the likes of Abu Salem is being increasingly seen as martyrs for a cause, for instance here. A man unambiguously convicted of hatching a conspiracy to bomb the Indian Parliament (in case you have forgotten, it is the very basis and symbol of India the sovereign state) is hailed as a hero.

We all know about Arjun's quota games. Laloo's Garib Rath can't be far behind.

Gandhi never won the Nobel peace prize, Yasser Arafat did. You see, all it takes is just a little imagination.

Blogger returns, yarns spun

Readers might recall that Dilip D'Souza bid goodbye to the blogosphere a while ago. I was quite certain he would come back and that it was a cheapshot attempt at attracting attention much in the manner of our politicians when they resign, protest and stage dharnas. If Dilip had expected that there would be scores of readers pleading him to come back, it didn't quite happen. The thread of the goodbye post ended up being a slugfest with Shivam Vij doing much of the cursing using different handles.

Anyway.

As expected Dilip did come back, with a bang so to speak because he has focused his attention on the so many bombings and explosions prepetrated by Islamic terrorists in India. He is spinning yarns with a zeal not seen in his pre-self-exiled avatar. For instance, in this post he links an alleged act of violence perpetrated by BJP affiliated student unions with the issue of singing Vande Mataram. In the same post he claims that this was the worst incident ever involving student union leaders. Needless to say, he does not support his premise with facts.

His latest posts mention his disillusionment at the Pope's recent remarks and the surrounding controvery. This is strange because for a man who so vociferously claims to be secular, it is quite perplexing that he could ever have been illusioned by religion in the first place.

Tragically for Dilip, the recent turn of events have summarily squashed his hopes that the Mosque attacks were the work of Vajrang Dal. The recent revelation about the long-term planning of the 7/11 bombings also shatters the myth that they were an aftermath of Gujarat riots.

The conspiracy behind the 7/11 blasts was hatched over five years ago in 2000-2001, when some of the accused in the blasts visited Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir to undergo training with the who's who of the world of terror.

The operational work was taken care of by the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba while funds and the crucial training given to the culprits came from the al-Qaeda, clearly underlining the spread of global terror.

So, while Dilip continues to spin his yarns, they appear to be a lot weaker than before.

Can you tell the difference?

The most worrying trends in the recent times may be the nexus between Islamic terrorists and communists. We already know of the nexus between LeT and Naxalites. Well, the similarities don't end there. Both indulge in large scale propaganda, often involving unsuspecting do-gooders or chronic anti-nationals with an agenda.

As far as the fake currency racket is concerned, it is by far dominated by ISI supported outfits. The reach and scale of this racket is astonishing and needless to say, several of our leaders are on the take. Needless to say, communists are well versed in this game.

It is no surprise that much of India's underworld is dominated by Muslims. It starts from the Bombay mafia, Bollywood film financing and reaches its zenith (or nadir, depending on your point of view) in the Abdul Karim Telgi stamp scam, Bangalore BPO fraud by LeT operatives etc. India remains for the Muslim world a land of heathens, to be conquered by hook or crook. Osama and Dawood are celebrated heroes in the various Muslim ghettos. The Shahi Imam issues statements to the effect that India will be once again taken by Muslims on a regular basis.

So next time you pop out a crisp 500 Rupee bill, reflect on it for a second.

Abi discovers Sweden

No one was as thrilled to discover a country since Columbus discovered Amerca. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, comminists have had trouble finding fairy tales of happy commie kids singing lores of equality and "freedom". For a while China sufficed, but soon detractors called the bluff. Not only about half of China live in dire straits, the rest are essentially progressing because of a test tube version of capitalism. Strikes are a big weapon in the commie arsenal, except when they run the country, in which case they are banned. Dissenters are thrown into cages of wild animals. Ok, I made that one up.

Quite expectedly the desi commie community are looking elsewhere. Their recent discoveries include Chile and Sweden.

Abi writes:

Of course, its ideology makes the Economist try very hard indeed to trash this model. However, if you read between the lines (and you don't really have to try that hard!), it's quite clear that the choices facing the Swedish people are between different versions of the Welfare State; the Swedish model is in no danger of being dismantled.

We have been urging Abi to stick to what he knows best, i.e. materials science, because venturing into the murky territory of economics has its dangers. We are unsure whether it is plain ignorance or a propensity to spin propaganda which made Abi ignore large portions of the said article from the economist magazine. Because the portions Abi chose to ignore contain some serious indictment to Sweden's welfare statism.

Some examples (requires subscription):

In truth, the Swedish economy's best years are long gone. Between 1870 and 1950, average growth in Swedish GDP and productivity was, by some measures, the fastest in the world. In 1970 Sweden was the fourth-richest member of the OECDclub of industrial countries. But for most of the past 50 years the story has been one of relative decline, including a deep recession in the early 1990s (see chart 1).

Also:

Where will all this leave the much-trumpeted Swedish model? Most Swedes are weary of listening to foreign claims about the perfection of their society. Mr Lindbeck suggests that, where it does have economic strengths, they are of an essentially Anglo-American, market variety. Johnny Munkhammar, who runs a pro-market think-tank, Timbro, argues similarly that history shows Sweden's economy to have flourished when it has been more liberal and low-tax—and to have gone off the rails when higher taxes and more regulation have been imposed.

The version of Sweden the great welfare state that Abi conjures up (complete with socialism and Swedish blondes on the arms of materials science professors) resides only in his mind. Welfare in that context merely means job security and health and retirement benefits. In India of course it means complete blockage of anyone's ability to carry out economic activities. Sweden is decades away in terms of economic freedom and openness to global trade (remember Bofors?) and with ministers like Kamal Nath and PC seems to be basically out of reach.

Anniversaries all year round

Within days after the Russian city of Beslan remembered the massacre of school children and as the US prepares to remember the 9/11 victims, Islamic terror struck once again.

This time though, the public has rejected the overtures of politicians. As they say - you can fool some people some of the time etc. etc.

Looks like pretty soon we will have a terror attack to remember each day of the year. We can even come up with a new terror calendar. Something like, the month of Beslan, day of Malegaon bombings etc. Meanwhile, Dilip D'Souza claims that the residue found at the blast site is not RDX but his groin dust.

The only resolution of the Bombay/Malegaon bombings we have so far is as follows:

Following each terror attack, if you don't run out and hug a muslim, you are likely to be a Hindu fascist.

The "socialists" are doing pretty well for themselves - Part II

Abdul Karim Telgi, the main accused in the multi-crore fake stamp paper scandal, has named Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar during investigation. Telgi also accused former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal and former Karnataka minister Roshan Baig of involvement in the scam.






Meanwhile, the daughter hasn't done badly for herself either.

The affidavit filed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule for Rajya Sabha elections shows her to be one of the richest politicians in the state. Sule, her husband Sadanand and their two children, have properties worth a whopping Rs 41.52 crore.

(......) Mataram

What would our man say?

Noted Shia scholar and All India Muslim Personal Law Board vice-president Maulana Kalbe Sadiq on Tuesday tried to explore a midpath between national pride and religion, when he tried to delve deeper into the actual meaning of the word 'Vande'. "Does it mean salutation or worship?" he asked, adding that Muslims should have no problem if the word means 'saluting or paying respect to the country'.

In a country where women belonging to a certain religion are forced to accept polygamy by law, the Vande Mataram controversy is a non-issue. The biggest champions of human rights such as this and this never pick up stories such as this.

If you are a privileged Hindu, you had better keep your head down and wait for the sword. You are already doomed.