Goddess of all things

Since the mantra of our secular socialist friends seems to be "do as I say, not as I do", I think I will not even attempt to discuss this in the political context. It is a futile exercise. You simply can not reason with folks who invoke Machiavelli with righteous indignation and threaten to invite foreign invaders at the slightest excuse. You need a particular mindset to describe the grisly murder of several people, for the crime of merely translating or publishing the controversial author Rushdie's work and then turn around and claim "a hundred youth burning effigies of Rushdie do not the Muslim world make" just a few paras below.

Therefore I thought I would simply focus on the artistic aspects.

Most street artists in India make a very humble living. They are the unsung heroes of art for the masses. Take for instance the Orissa sand artist. He makes amazing sand sculptures. Likewise, hand drawn posters of films adorn many city walls. Sometimes you notice a rare gem, perhaps a bored artist adding his special touch. You stop, smile, and move on. The artist makes his daily wages.

In the said poster, the Congress President is seen wearing a crown that says dharm nirpekshta (secularism) and riding a lion named shasan (governance). She is shown slaying demons—atankvad and brashtachar (terrorism and corruption). On the eight arms of the Durga, the names of different cells of the Congress—minorities, Yuva Dal, women, farmers and human rights—have been labelled. [link]

I think this is original thinking. I don't remember having seen such an interpretation of the popular image of Goddess Durga before. The lion, yes. Easy to equate it to evil etc. But the secularism here takes the crown (as a bonus you also learn how to say secularism in Hindi). The eight arms are usually ignored by most artists, but here they were made to represent different symbols. Highly creative use of real estate.

But it is the depiction of the Congress leader as the legendary Queen Laxmibai of Jhansi that takes the cake.

Titled khoob ladi mardani woh to dus janpath dilli wali rani (she is the queen of 10 Janpath who fought bravely), the poster shows Sonia, armed for battle, riding a horse with her son, Rahul strapped on her back.

It also carries photographs of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. [link]

How do you get such an inspiration? Where did this artist get the idea of Rahul strapped on Sonia's back? Most artists would depict Rahul riding side by side with his mother, perhaps as a general. This is a fine example of lateral thinking. The historical context perhaps set off notions of the past in the artist's mind. Easy to imagine an infant Rahul cradled in the arms of a youthful Sonia Gandhi, but it would look awkward in a war setting. Add a little inspiration from the animal kingdom, a Kangaroo, and voila! I am amazed.

I demand that these artists be given reservation in M.S. University, Baroda. As far as I am concerned, they make the grade.

More questions than answers

CNN-IBN ran a special program on the upcoming presidential election. Note that Madam hasn't made any press appearence since her gaffe. Looks like Congress has paid heed to my advice. Good call.

There are videos available on their website. Please ignore the transcript, watch the videos instead. The transcripts are heavily edited and glossed over, making a mockery of all journalistic standards.

It was fun to listen to Abhishek Singhvi. He was quite upset that the opposition was trying to malign the ruling party by running a vicious smear campaign. I thought that was what opposition parties are supposed to do. I guess not. Perhaps they are supposed to sit in the parliament, sip Darjeeling chai and clap. Anyway.

Singhvi Sahab went on record by stating quite a few fundamental principles that he believes in. Most notably, as long as it is legal (or rather it is subjudice), it is moral. Also, criminal proceedings against close family members should not matter. Knowledge of gross irregularities in your own sugar mill does not necessarily implicate you, as long as you resign before charges are brought in.

One may wonder why Congress is taking such a phenomenal risk to its reputation for this ceremonial post. They could easily select any number of senior Congress leaders. For that matter they could simply select Kalam. It would be a grand gesture, go down very well with the masses.

As a matter of fact this presidential election is of vital importance to their game plan. Under extenuating circumstances, the president acquires immense power. Keeping in mind some of the recent events, it looks like they just can not afford to have a President they can't play like a remote controlled robot.

People in Rajasthan and Punjab, here comes president's rule. Here are two mugs (mug 1, mug 2) you will see a lot more of in the days to come.

World of pain

[Warning] Strong Language


The dialog in the relevant portion can be found here.

The Dude: Walter, ya know, it's Smokey, so his toe slipped over the line a little, big deal. It's just a game, man.
Walter Sobchak: Dude, this is a league game, this determines who enters the next round robin. Am I wrong? Am I wrong?
Smokey: Yeah, but I wasn't over. Gimme the marker Dude, I'm marking it 8.
Walter Sobchak: [pulls out a gun] Smokey, my friend, you are entering a world of pain.
The Dude: Walter...
Walter Sobchak: You mark that frame an 8, and you're entering a world of pain.
Smokey: I'm not...
Walter Sobchak: A world of pain.
Smokey: Dude, he's your partner...
Walter Sobchak: [shouting] Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero!
The Dude: They're calling the cops, put the piece away.
Walter Sobchak: Mark it zero!
[points gun in Smokey's face]
The Dude: Walter...
Walter Sobchak: [shouting] You think I'm fucking around here? Mark it zero!
Smokey: All right, it's fucking zero. Are you happy, you crazy fuck?
Walter Sobchak: ...It's a league game, Smokey.

Save Anaida

She's the ultimate runaway bride. When Anaida Kousar's parents in Kathar in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir announced her marriage to a relative last week, the 16-year-old decided that she had to get away.

And she did, moving out to where few Pakistani women have gone before — across the border. She crossed the Line of Control and landed up in India. "My parents were forcing me into a marriage, that's why I ran away from there," Anaida says.

A Class 10 student and the youngest of seven children, Kousar says she wants to marry a boy called Shahzad, who studies in her school. Her parents have told her they are opposed to the match. But the teenager, not surprisingly, is holding her ground.

"I would go back only if the Pakistan authorities assure me of my safety and my parents agree to my wishes," Anaida now says.

But despite her pleas, both India and Pakistan governments have decided that Anaida will be handed over to the Pakistan Army soon. [link]

We can pretty much guess what will happen if she is handed over to the Pakistani Army. Please save Anaida. Demand that the India Government initiates diplomatic dialog and gives the issue wide international coverage so that the media glare prevents immediate reprisal against the girl by Pak authorities.

Thampu's chest thumping

Who wants to go to a Christian college? Given a choice between a Christian College and an IIT, where would you rather go? For that matter, would you choose a Chemistry major at St. Stephens over a Computer Science major at Venaras Hindu University?

In India the "money" institutes are in tight supply. The socialists believe this is the right way to do things. This gives an opportunity to folks like Valson Thampu (Principal, St. Stephen's college) to relive his colonial fantasy where the Christian converts with the backing of the mighty Brits would show the Hindoos their place:

Thampu: But coming to the so called Christianization of St. Stephen's College, for God's sake let me ask you, what is wrong about Christianization? People want to study in Christian colleges but they do not want the Christian part of it. I think this is terribly hypocritical.

As usual, the transcript of the program was heavily edited. But the videos are available [video 1, video 2] and I have made suitable corrections as necessary.

So, this was a program in which the increase in Christian quota of St. Stephens was being discussed. For some reason, Modi was highly relevant to the discussion.

Sagarika: Regarding the quota debate in St Stephen’s, a senior historian was quoted as saying, "You are actually consigning St Stephen’s College to a graveyard because you are the kind of Christian who is the kind of Hindu that Narendra Modi is."

Thampu: It's a great pity that such a historian cannot recognise the distinction between christianisation and saffronisation. It's a great tragedy that many people in the country are better informed than the Supreme Court. They must read the TMA Pai Foundation vs State of Karnataka verdict, which obligates me to admit at least 50 per cent from the Christian community.

Here is the TMA Pai Foundation vs State of Karnataka verdict for easy reference. The fraud is not in the fact that minorities can not administer their institutes the way they please, the fraud is actually in the General category students they take in. There is no guideline as to how many students from their own communites they are obligated to take in. As a matter of fact, the judgment dates back to 1993, what was preventing the college from increasing the Christian student intake for so many years?

Sagarika practically wouldn't let Swapan Dasgupta speak. He barely managed to throw in a few sentences.

Swapan Dasgupta: It really depends on what you mean by a Christian institution. The College was always a Christian institution in the sense that it spread the wider ethos of Christianity. Now if it’s made a completely denominational institution, a ghettoized institution, it would hit at the very purpose at what the founders has in mind. Thampu is making the College a church institution.

Meanwhile someone must have SMSed Thampu that he was going a little overboard with his Christian tirade.

Thampu: The goal and the mark of good education so that one becomes socially aware and pro-active. The mark of an educated person is responsibility. Through education, my goal is to instill social justice. If you wait for a few months, something historic and glorious is in the making. All will be proud it.

So, let's see how proud St. Stephens will make us in its social justice endeaver. We will stipulate that the reason social justice didn't make it to the colleges priority list for so many decades was merely an oversight. To recap, these are the current quota breakup at St. Stephens [link]:

General: 40%
Christian: 30%
Dalit Christian: 10%
SC/ST/OBC/Wards of War victims/Disabled: 15%
Sports: 5%

Until now, even with a 15% cutoff marks relaxation, only 30 - 32% seats could be filled with Christians. But this will change now, the Christian seats must be filled. This will reduce the seats available for General students to 196 (total seats: 410). So far, only 6 Dalit students have applied for the current academic year. The status is being determined by the Church since this category is not constitutionally recognized. The fine print: All Christian seats must be filled now and there aren't enough Dalit takers.

Sagarika would not let Swapan Dasgupta off the hook:

Sagarika: But how is Thampu doing anything different from what Modi was doing who you approve of?

Swapan Dasgupta: Mr Narendra Modi has nothing to do with Christian institutions, Mr Narendra Modi does not control Hindu insitutions. Sagarika, don't put a Red Herring!

The last part was completely drowned by Sagarika's constant interruptions and needless to say didn't make it to the transcript.

If Mr. Thampu gets such a hard on from Christianization of educational institutes, he should make St. Stephens a 100% Christian institution, students faculty, padre included. Also, please stay off taxpayers' money for Christ's sake!

Just get it over with

Just who is she? That was my first reaction to the UPA presidential nominee Pratibha Patil. An extremely complex calculation involving appeasing the militant allies such as DMK and the leftists, possible reaction of various vote banks, the socialist cause, political correctness etc. led to this tamasha, the outcome of which will merely fill the most inconsequential political post in the nation.

Well, while the nation is still trying to close their wide open mouths, Madam has already pulled a Rahul Gandhi of sorts.

Patil said though Indian culture always respected women, the veil system began during the Mughal rule to “save women from Mughal invaders”.

“We had the concept of purdah to protect women from Mughal invaders. So, they stayed indoors and were veiled, ” Patil said. [link]

This was worse than porno for the secular ears. The usual reactions followed:

Patil's statement has evoked sharp reactions from Muslim groups and historians, who feel it was unnecessary for her to incorporate communal views in her speech.

They say it not only betrays Patil's poor knowledge of history but also underlines the perception that there are soft Hindutva elements in the Congress as well.

People friendly historians were heard claiming that women had separate loos for themselves since time immemorial.

Historians too are contesting Patil's remarks, saying segregation of men and women and veiling from the in-laws existed since the 11th century. [link]

UPA seems to have the numbers. Merit clearly does not matter. The only thing this woman can do is ruin her own chances by opening her mouth. Clearly she didn't get the recent secular memos. I suggest UPA just gags her till the elections are over.

Yesterday upon the stair

If the biography of former US Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker is to be believed, the CIA had performed a clandestine operation to topple the first elected Communist government in the world.

The book also says that the CIA funded political demonstrations by the Congress and other Opposition groups.

Bunker's biography quotes: "…the election results rang alarm bells in Washington. This apparently involved agency funding for political demonstrations organised by the Congress party and other opposition groups that were designed to create a law and order situation." [link]

As they say, it is Deja Vu all over again. You see, once patriotism is declared passe and nationalism becomes a much vilified concept, you have to concede to all demands of socialists. Else they will invite foreign invaders. Call it a modern day scorched earth policy. Except that the recipient of the tactic is usually the hapless people who had tried to play by the rules.

See, the communists were bad enough in those days that it was ok to invite foreign invaders. Now communists are good. If you didn't know, it is not their problem. Not fair, you say? Well, it wasn't supposed to be fair, dummy.

How NOT to write your resume

Until recently folks in India would start their resume with a mug shot and proudly state their date of birth, gender and father's name. I don't know if this still continues.

In any case, unless you are applying for the position of a bouncer in a dance bar in Bombay, you should avoid mentioning that you visit nudy joints.

One more thing, your resume should resonate with the general story of your life. For instance if you claim to be a bleeding heart socialist, you might want to downplay your celebrity autograph hunt runs. You might also want to play up the times you met a hungry Dalit kid for instance.

Adam and Eve

The latest high profile fatwa involves the above picture, published in the Octane magazine. I was not able to find the website for the magazine, but there is a digital copy [pdf] available for download from a blog called: Pakistan Uncut.

Publication of "half-naked" photographs of Hazrat Adam and Amma Hawwa, considered the first creations of the god, by a Pakistani magazine has attracted the ire of a section of the clergy who has demanded death to its owners and publishers.

A fatwa was issued against the publication by Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid in Islamabad who has in the recent past hit headlines for the capture of a girls' seminary run in his complex for several weeks and an edict against the country's Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar. [link]

I think this is a stretch. The Adam and Eve is almost a secular folklore now. Also, the magazine pics do not refer to them with their Koranic handles, so you could argue this is a reference to the biblical Adam and Eve and not the Koranic one. In any case, I suppose an authentic Mullah knows his Islam.

The high quality Octane magazine was a pleasant surprise. The issue begins with a full-page glossy pic of Aishwarya Rai and the rest of it is full of coverage on Bollywood, Cannes and various fashion shows. There is a lot of skin in it too; compared to some of the other pics, the Eve in the picture is almost in office attire.

I was appalled by the headline carried by CNN-IBN: Pak fury over half-naked prophet pics. Come on people, there are different levels of fatwas each of which elicits a different level of response. Let's not foment any more trouble than is necessary.

[Update] CNN-IBN has changed the headline to Pak fury over Adam, Eve Pictures. Note the URL still says pak-fury-over-halfnaked-prophet-pics-43100.html.

Two articles

(1) Dodging predators harmful:

Fish, amphibians and even tiny zooplankton do many things to escape hungry enemies, from finding new homes to changing their physical characteristics. Such tactics may save individual lives — but in the long run might leave the population at large worse off, Michigan State University scientists say.

(2) Paying taxes makes you happy:

Researchers have found that even when money is taken from some people involuntarily, they feel good about the transaction, as long as the funds go to a good cause. The findings may force economists to rethink just what guides our response to taxes and other financial decisions. (Ed: an example of a good cause is here, another one here)

UP Election: various fallouts

So, do our secular socialist friends love Mayawati or hate her? As we know, their Dalit love comes with a strong disclaimer: must support Congress, else warranty void.

Mayawati poses a few very unique problems for them. The first is obvious, she basically re-segmented the market. This is when the rival brand managers (in this case the likes of Yogendra Yadav and other Cong election strategists) run out on the street screaming. But the second one is somewhat subtle. She can do more of everything Congress promises. Dalit upliftment? Sure. Keeping the Brahmins in line? Of course. Social justice? Development? Anti-Hindutva? Yes, yes and a very emphatic yes!

This presents a huge problem for Cong mouthpieces such as Tehelka and the socialist bloggers. It is one thing to have to constantly juggle with various political volleys Maya is serving up (will she support UPA? will she harbor bigger ambitions? what about Presidential elections)? It is quite another when you have to commit in writing your position on the matter.

Note that they have no such hesitation about Karunanidhi or Modi, the former (along with his colorful scions) features prominently on newspapers and articles with showers of praise. The latter is the favorite punching bag, attracting an enormous resource commitment from the media.

So, the attacks on Mayawati are subtle, thinly disguised ideological value judgments. The language used smacks of latent casteism but leaves an exit route wide enough so that in case Mayawati becomes stronger, they can promptly do a turnaround and claim their unabashed love for her. Sampler:

• It's curious. For various reasons, I dislike Mayawati, the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. 1
• At Sushri Kumari Behen Mayawati’s house, the half a dozen security personnel let you go to the outhouse reluctantly when you tell them you’re a journalist. 2
• As for corruption, the most interesting is Mayawati’s response: if the upper caste politicians and bureaucrats make money through corruption, so must the dalit, for the dalit should be entitled to all sources of money/power/benefit as the upper caste. 3
• Questionnaire on the pluralism of caste discourses in India 4
  

I think it is high time people stopped referring to her as Behenji or Kumari.

But this article from Tehelka takes the cake. In this article, Meera Nanda imagines a post-electoral conversation between Mayawati and Dr. Ambedkar. What is this? Some sort of voodoo ritual? I am too dumbfounded to react properly. The implications are very sinister. Mayawati is bad not because of some fundamental moral reason but the ghost of Ambedkar said so.

How Jijia works

Hindus pay taxes. This tax finances various minority institutes under constitutional provisions (Article 30-1, for instance). The minorities administer their institutes purely on their whims and fancies, sometimes in gross violation of the laws of the land.

This is not some sort of RSS hate propaganda, it is actually happening, right in the capital.

RC has more coverage: here and here.


Recently St. Stephens college hiked its Christian quota from 30% to a full 40%. As usual true Dalits get the short end of the stick, just like they do in the case of OBC reservations. Educational institutes are tightly controlled entities, despite what the anti-private education wallahs will have you believe. To quote RC:

People like Atanu Dey talk about privatization of education. This is where the metal meets the road and all their ideas go belly up. Even if you harbor the best of intentions you cant open a college without political pull. If college seats (esp medical) are gifts to votebanks - permissions to open colleges are like treasures.

So, even within this severe shortage of educational institutes, our laws allow minorities to corner this precious resource, effectively depriving the true Dalits.

Perhaps India is the only secular country where the folks from the majority religion are not allowed to open mainstream educational institutes and administer them according to their needs.

[Update] Only 6 Dalits have applied this year through the Dalit-Christian quota. [link]. The Dalit Christian status is being decided by the Church of North India.

Sharia Quiz

Which of the following two cases is a rape according to Sharia law?

Case 1:

An old Muslim man returns home to find daughter-in-law alone. It was no contest, father-in-law: 1, daughter-in-law: 0.

Case 2:

• Muslim geriatric marries luscious young woman.
• Geriatric has a son who is about the same age as the woman, who is his stepmom.
• Geriatric divorces woman.
• Son elopes with the ex-stepmom.
• Son and the now ex-stepmom get married.

This dude requires cow urine purification

• I don't agree with this crap.
• If Indra Gandhi, Jayalalaitha and Mayawati weren’t so strong and aggressive, the male politicians in India would have gang raped them and killed them.
• I don’t know much about economics
• It is time for the ordinary god fearing citizens to realize the possible dangers associated with some of these organizations building the temples in USA.
• If I were Jayalalitha, I would do a Sonia Gandhi in the current situation.
• Only a stupid fool will believe that Karunanidhi and Stalin were sincere when they filed their nominations.
• Before you utter anything Hindutva like in the future, just take a moment and realize that there is some emotionally violent nature in your character and your Hindutva nonsense is a result of such a volatile emotional problem in you.
• Who are the people behind Hindutva? As I have told many times, they are just disgruntled, shallow men with inferiority complex.
• It appears some of the blog readers faced some trouble while accessing this blog from bloglines.
• I am a hardcore coffee drinker. When I was in India, I used to gulp down 20+ cups of coffee everyday.
• We have seen crap emanating from the mouth of free market fundamentalists many times.
• This kid Karthik is clueless on what academia is.
• PS: In the above post, I have used the term free market fundamentalists. I used this term to differentiate them from sensible free marketers, who understand how science is done. Eg: Sergey and Page.
• Did they leave out their brain before they jumped out into this world?
• The very fact that my life’s data is getting pushed around to many different countries without any "protection" freaks me out.
• Personally, I am against outsourcing for certain reasons. However, when I see how it has transformed India, I am happy about it. At the same time, I am also upset that the effects of outsourcing is felt only in the privileged sections of the society. My stand on outsourcing is one which we can call as "confused"”.
• It is high time such people realize the importance of diversity when it comes to breeding. Lemme try to explain it with another example. We see that many dog breeders breed close relatives to protect the desired traits of the dogs.
• In this blog, I usually discuss about three broad topics. They are religious fundamentalism, religious stupidity and free market fundamentalism.
• He wouldn’t allow a person from another caste to come into his kitchen but he will happily eat the food cooked by someone, who just used his hand to screw his ass to avoid tickling.
• Within the short period, I have got around 20-25 calls. I literally gave gaalis to all of them.
• Science will definitely finish off social right. It will also finish off economic right which emphasizes on the non existent concept called Free Will (just like the non existent concept of God). This will essentially get rid of Libertarians and many other Free Marketers who emphasize on the people’s ability to make rational decisions on their own, independently of any external events. In short, it will get rid of people who talk about an "independent mind" making rational decisions.
• The maximum breeding happens with the individuals who live near or below the poverty line. This fact even lead to the saying "poverty is a good breeding ground".
• I was totally clueless until today when two of my own comments went missing. I immediately went to spam folder and it was there on the top. I despammed it.

Meet Krish.

Vidharbha Farmer's son tops PMT

It's celebration time for 17-year-old Sagar Makhade’s family in Vidarbha. Sagar, the son of a cotton farmer has done his whole village proud by topping the Maharashtra Pre-Medical test in the general category.

The talented boy, who scored 199 out of 200 in the MHT-CET 2007 examinations, is elated with the result and thankful for his family’s support.

"My father is a farmer, and my mother a housewife. We own six acres of land," says Sagar. [link]

Socialism down your throat

An amendment to the Representation of the People Act made when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister stipulated that the constitution or the rules and regulations of political parties should contain a provision swearing loyalty to democracy, secularism and socialism. The Election Commission sent me a form for registration which I completed and returned, accepting democracy and secularism but rejecting socialism, as the Swatantra Party was opposed to it in principle. The registration was turned down.

A friend and I filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court in December 1996. The writ was admitted. It has still to come up for hearing. This is the hurdle. Under current law, no party that refuses to accept socialism can get registered as a political party. So much for our democracy!

- S.V. Raju

[link via ACORN]

Do reservations trickle?

There is a lot of concern among socialists about whether the top-end growth in the economy is trickling down to the aam aadmi. This is a valid concern. Some folks believe that structurally speaking it is impossible for this to happen. It is easy to see why. More than two thirds of our labor is engaged in Agriculture. Agricultural output has stayed constant. Whatever short-term benefits inflation might bring goes to the middlemen, thanks to our archaic food distribution model. Fortunately, trickle down happens in indirect ways. There is a net migration from the villages to the cities and from Agri labor to manufacturing and construction. While the picture may not be all that rosy, the numbers speak for themselves. Poverty is on the decline, the strivers are moving into the category of aspirers and so an and so forth.

Strangely though, when it comes to reservations, the socialists have an unshakeable faith in the trickle down effect. Editorial after editorial claims that reservations have helped the state of Tamil Nadu. I don't see this happening though. In most cases reservations are cornered by dominant castes and the creamy layer. The total number of jobs and money college seats obtained through reservations is way too insignifant to explain economic growth or the lack thereof in any state.

Samina vs. Sania

Meet Samina, one of the two sisters from Bombay who are being threatened by their neighbors for attending college.

Samina Shaikh (19) and Zarina Shaikh (18), who study at St Xavier’s College and the Maharashtra College, moved the court for police protection after they were "terrorised and threatened".

The sisters allege their neighbour Mohammad Ali Nisar Ansari assaulted their parents and brother on May 11. Ansari allegedly asked the sisters’ father Yasheen Sheikh not to send them to college.

Ansari and other men in their locality believe that "only girls with bad character go to college" and did not want sisters to study after school. The family was told that Islam does not “permit” girls to study.

"They threatened me and abused my family. They beat up my father and brother so badly that there was blood all over the floor," says Samina. [link]

They have been given police protection. It is atrocious that such things go on at the heart of Bombay. It may be noted that Sania Mirza also had to face a lot of ire from community leaders for indulging in sports activities and for wearing sports attire. However, her problems pale in comparison to what these girls are up against.

It is quite clear that all round economic development which can only be brought about by freeing the country from the clutches of socialists will enable girls like Samina to escape the wrath of folks who mentally live in the middle ages. Unfortunately the socialists will befriend the tormenters rather than the girls, because they will bring in the votes.

I wish these girls well.

CNN-IBN: Hindu Finishing School = Rape

Apparently CNN-IBN journalists believe that finishing schools for women in the Hindu tradition have the moral equivalence of sexual crimes. Please click on the image for a larger version.

Here is the story on Manju Sanskar Kendra, a women's finishing school in Bhopal, MP. Here is a random story on a sexual assault case by a cop and his friends in J&K. Both stories carry the same image, a negativized picture featuring a girl with dishevelled hair and downcast eyes, ostensibly depicting a rape victim in her traumatized state. The image is called rape221205.jpg.

Note that this is not the first time this story broke in the media. A google search reveals that the story was covered several times in the past. It may be noted that MP has a BJP Government.

Moral of the story: Hindoos are the most retrograde individuals who vote for BJP and support Hindutva and capitalism. Where does capitalism come from in this equation? Please don't ask. Also, Congress supporters give copies of Cosmo to their daughters when they turn 13.

Note: Recently Sagarika Ghosh had egg on her face when she wanted to cover Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi in the same vein. It turned out that similar serials are extremely popular in a certain state known to have a secular/rationalist population who are staunchly opposed to BJP.

66 Rooms

Sixty-six rooms, 14 presidential suites overlooking the picturesque Dal lake, built at a cost of Rs 11 crore - Hari Niwas isn't the conventional Chief Minister residence.

But then again, Ghulam Nabi Azad isn't a conventional Chief Minister. The white, sprawling mansion is the sixth official Chief Minister's residence in the last 20 years in Jammu and Kashmir, and Azad's second.

"We have got the most talented artisans and are using special wood for this house. It will be completed in one and half months,” says constructions in-charge at Hari Niwas Riyaz Ahmad. [link]

Suck it, you Hindoo fools.

Quiz: Minister of State

Why do we have Ministers of State? Why not Deputy Ministers?

Note: Wikipedia is not acceptable as a valid reference.

Conspiracy Theories

As you know, a lot of conspiracy theories are floating around. According to the queen of all conspiracy theories Madame Suzanna Roy, the problems of India are attributable to an unholy nexus between US corporations and the Right-wing Hindutva lobby in India. Never mind that the so called left-wing secular lobby has held power for more than 85% of the time since the creation of the republic. Never mind that the current Government is headed by a coalition of seculars and leftists. Never mind that most of the Indian states have a Congress or UPA ally at the helm.

Apparently our media is hugely biased, in favor of the right wing. The same BJP which had no leadership and was emasculated following the sad demise of its promising leader Pramod Mahajan seems to have some sort supernatural power. This power enables them to subjugate all of Indian media into launching a vicious campaign against reservations and Government spending for the aam aadmi.

Blame it on me, but I feel a little sceptical about these claims, especially coming from a lobby that claims to be rational and above superstitions.

I have some conspiracy theories of my own too. At the moment I am somewhat surprised at the high correlation between unwanted troubles in states where there is a BJP led Government. Is it possible that Congress is deliberately fomenting trouble in BJP states? For instance:

• They created the cult of Dera Sacha Sauda (their leader openly advocates voting for Congress).
• They started some trouble in Chattisgarh (some commies got arrested). Big coverage on commie blogs and Tehelka.
  
• They provoked Gujjars knowing very well that a state Government can not dole out quotas on their own. Think about it, the Gujjar riot is bound to hurt BJP no matter the outcome. Either Jats or Meenas or Gujjars will get pissed. The dude Col. Bainsala seems to be well connected in the capital.
• Gujarat: many incidents which defy logic. If Narendra Modi farts, it gets reported (excuse my French). Leading journos from newspapers are permanently camped out in Gujarat.
• Goa: An ex-Congress dude is selling land illegally to Russian land mafia. Apparently the media wanted to frame BJP for this but for some reason the blame could not be beamed at the right time. Media lost interest in no time at all. Then Congress won. Sagarika Ghosh blogged a highly convoluted piece about how Goans are secular etc. Looks like she needs a few lessons about Goa and the Goans.

While I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories, these incidents give me uneasy feelings.

How Dilip does his research

Recently Shiv Sena vandalized a cyber cafe in Bombay with the utterly unreasonable demand that the social networking site Orkut be shut down. Needless to say, our beloved typist Dilip blogged about it with glee, while ignoring another such incident.

This incident led Dilip to conduct some ad hoc research on the Orkut website. He concluded that the hate communities on Orkut are overwhelmlingly populated by Indians. A commenter on Dilip's blog speculated on the reason. I suspect the concept of network effects might be a little too heavy for someone who finds it difficult to understand Archimedes principle.

Anyway, I did a little research on my own. I searched Orkut communities on keyword "hate". Orkut sorts the communities by decreasing order of size. Listed below are the first six pages of results:

Page 1.

I Hate Exams 39,383 members
Himesh Reshamiya Hate Club 25,990 members
i Hate Luv Cuz iT Breaks Heart 11,510 members
I hate Mathematics 11,180 members
I Hate Arsenal 11,083 members
I hate Chelsea FC 9,876 members
I hate Greg Chappll 7,832 members
I hate when some1 wakes me up 7,307 members
WE HATE CASTE FEELING 6,586 members
I HATE HIMESH RESHAMMIYA 5,987 members
I hate people with bad grammar 5,661 members
I hate manchester united 4,720 members

Page 2.

WE HATE SMOKING / SMOKERS 4,581 members
I hate Musharaf 4,365 members
I Hate George.W.Bush 4,323 members
VTU "ROCKS"(aka I Hate VTU) 4,187 members
stop his surroor-i hate himesh 4,107 members
We hate Michael Schumacher 3,639 members
I hate people who hate India.. 3,299 members
I Hate Lizards (yuck!) 3,259 members
I HATE STUDIES & LUV CHILL 3,203 members
WE HATE VTU!!! 3,120 members
I hate liars 3,091 members
10 things I hate abt my School 3,016 members

Page 3.

10 things I hate abt my School 3,016 members
I HATE GREG CHAPPEL 2,970 members
I HATE AISHWARYA RAI 2,821 members
I Hate Missed Calls 2,754 members
I HATE SONIA GANDHI(MAINO) 2,603 members
I really hate Girl's AtTiTuDe! 2,549 members
every one hate sex 2,325 members
I Hate To Trust 2,238 members
I do NOT hate stray dogs 2,107 members
God ! I HATE MYSELF 2,082 members
We hate those who hate India 1,924 members
I Hate Trisha 1,763 members

Page 4.

I HATE U IF U HATE MAN UTD 1,701 members
I hate those who hate Pakistan 1,687 members
WE HATE EXAMZ 1,681 members
I hate Indian Movies 1,518 members
I Hate 2 Wake Up Early 1,522 members
I HATE SANIA MIRZA 1,402 members
I hate NASH (Kiran TV Horror) 1,401 members
I hate my urdu teacher! 1,367 members
I hate Ekta Kapoor !!! 1,390 members
V hate those who hate india 1,288 members
I Hate Hrithik Roshan 1,257 members
we hate ysr 1,246 members

Page 5.

I hATE teachers 1,216 members
I Hate Windows, and Love Linux 1,189 members
I HATE RAPING 1,192 members
I hate Anu Malik 1,185 members
I Hate Hrithik Roshan 1,195 members
i hate drinks,drugs,cigarette 1,161 members
I HATE POLITICS 1,140 members
I hate to sleep early! 1,139 members
I simply can't hate 1,094 members
v hate tat himesh..!!!!!! 1,117 members
I HATE EXAMS!!!! 1,053 members
I Hate Dowry System 1,036 members

Page 6.

I hAtE eMrAaN hAsHmI 1,033 members
I HATE David Beckham 992 members
I HATE INDIRA GANDHI 1,000 members (*This community is dedicated to all SIKHS across the world.)
WE HATE CRISTIANO RONALDO 983 members
I hate to Wake up Early.... 949 members
We hate Kashish & Ekta Kapoor 950 members
I hate hypocrites! 959 members
I hate u But i love u 943 members
I hate ED(Engineering Drawing) 912 members
I hate to do HOME WORK 912 members
i hate himmesh reshammiya 901 members
LOVE 4 ALL HATE 4 NONE 896 members

Compare this with the list Dilip provides.

Let me analyze these results. There is an alarming number of kids who appear to hate schools or exams. In fact the largest hate site is about hating exams and has 40,000 members! A guy called Himesh attracts a lot of hatred as well. Quite a few people hate to wake up early. Well, tell me about it. Some people hate to go to bed early which is quite understandable. There is also a community of people who hate themselves.

I have marked some "hate" sites above which do not appear to be so hateful, after all there is nothing wrong in hating the caste system or dowry or raping. Hope Dilip agrees.

My personal favorite? Can't seem to decide between I hate liars and I hate hypocrites.

Congratulations! You are now an official target

During Friday prayers about 30 CDs were thrown in a mosque in Srinagar and news agencies in the Jammu and Kashmir capital also received CDs and a statement allegedly from the al-Qaeda saying that it is declaring war on India.

The CD shows a man called Abu Abdul Rehman Ansari, who claims to be a top al-Qaeda leader.

In the CD, Ansari announces that the terrorist organisation is launching a jehad (holy war) against India. The statement is both in Arabic and Urdu.

Reacting to the CDs, the Union Home Ministry said that there is no need to panic and they are conducting necessary inquiries. [link]

Click ....

here. Read this. Think. More later.

What the world eats

Slideshow.

I-Desire

A poor waiter in Patna has become a celebrity of sorts after his son cracked the IIT entrance exam this year. The overjoyed man gives full credit to I-Desire - a small group of former IITians in Bihar who coach underprivileged kids and provide them study material.

Mani Bhusan Singh and his parents are getting privileged treatment in their neighbourhood after the 18-year-old cleared the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE).

"I am now one of the most sought after people in my workplace and also my neighbourhood," says a proud Lallan Singh, Mani Bhusan's father. [link]

I-Desire is a great initiative started by IITians to provide academic help to underprivileged children. Check out the videos on their website. Please support them. Also support Canara Bank who sponsors them (may I also request you to boycott Air India and Barclays since they sponsor communally insensitive and politically motivated organizations such as Tehelka Critical Futures).

In another initiative, IIT-D students have launched an innovative website to help DU applicants.


Thank you.

Answers to OBC or Not quiz

Most people correctly identified Sagarika Ghosh. Hers is a straight from Convent to Oxford story, which makes her a member of the uber privileged club. She is also the wife of CNN-IBN supremo Rajdeep Sardesai and a permanent fixture on the said channel.

Ghoshes in West Bengal appear to belong to the Kayastha caste, although some Ghoses might belong to Gop (Gwala or Yadava equivalent) caste. Perhaps this might explain why the Ghoshes appear on admission lists (scroll down or search for "Ghosh") of WB colleges simultaneously as OBCs and non-OBCs.

Interestingly Ghoshes in Assam make the central list of OBCs, while the last name per se does not appear on the West Bengal OBC list. It is not clear how the distinction is made.

Interestingly the percentage of OBCs in the state of West Bengal is about 6 - 7% while more than 70% people in the state of Tamil Nadu are OBCs. The caste system never ceases to amaze.

I found another interesting article on the status of various castes in West Bengal. Apparently the then CM Jyoti Basu remarked before the Mandal Commission that in the state there were only two castes - the rich and the poor! Evidently the commies have modified their stance since.

It saddens me that the folks at Nandigram are bickering over a few acres of mediocre land while there is so much loot to be had. I recommend that they go on an indefinite strike till the OBC percentages are normalized between states.

Verdict: NOT OBC.

7-yr-old girl clears Class X exam

Seven-year-old Sushma makes the long periodic table of elements sound like a nursery rhyme.

Little wonder that she has created a record by clearing the class X UP Board exam, and it wouldn't be a surprise if she makes her dream of being a doctor come true soon.

In a family of high achievers, Sushma is not the only child prodigy. Her brother Shailendra cleared class XII Board examination when he was just 11 years old.

He has also cleared the prestigious Scholastic Assessment Test and secured admission to a US university. “Youngsters are inspired by successful people and we try to follow them,” says Shailendra.

However, he is not sure if he can go. Their father Tej Bahadur Verma is a peon at the local school and obviously there are financial constraints. [video]

Source: CNN-IBN

She wants to be a doctor when she grows up. I hope her seat is not stolen by a fake OBC. I wish her well.

Quiz: OBC or Not?

Looks familiar? Who is she? Is she an OBC? Why or why not?

Answers tomorrow.

[Concept: RealityCheck]

World's fastest growing religion: Socialism

Shivam Vij gets it wrong again.

Papa kehte the farmer banega

Aamir - who reportedly purchased some agricultural land in Maval taluka of Pune district - says he has produced relevant documents to substantiate his claims.

"I am an actor and artiste by profession but by birth I am also an agriculturist in the true definition of the word. I come from an agricultural family. My father, along with his brothers and sisters, owns agricultural property in the form of mango orchards in Shahbaad, Uttar Pradesh. My grand father, great grandfather were also agricultiurists"

For some reason these environment and aam aadmi bleeding heart types don't seem to take laws very seriously. Does anyone know if Arundhati Roy returned the land she stole from tribals?

Previous:

Guess the Farmer Quiz

Chicken

My predictions came partly true. I had predicted some sort of compromise solution involving all three interested parties, namely Jats, Gujjars and Meenas. Well, that didn't happen.

I had also claimed that in the event of a full scale civil war between the Meenas and the Gujjars, the latter community simply did not have a chance. The reasons are simple, Meenas vastly outnumber Gujjars and they are also much more committed.

As of this writing, Col. Bainsala (Retd.) did what can only be termed an unconditional surrender. Not only did he balk from his hardline stance (either grant ST status ASAP or else ...), he accepted the silliest compromise of all. Apparently Vasundhara Raje just needs to forward the Gujjar ST ambition petition to the center and all will be well. Now the agitations have been called off. The Meenas are happy too, which clearly means that the ST status for Gujjars ain't comin' anytime soon.

So, what made the Gujjars chicken out so fast?

As for the Gujjars, what may have forced them to blink was the Meena rage. Meenas not only are a much larger community - they're 10% of the population as compared to barely 4% of Gujjars but showed that they're more than willing to take on the Gujjars. Armed with guns and lathis, Meena mobs ransacked Gujjar properties in and around Dausa over the weekend, killing six people.

On Sunday, more than 50,000 Meenas, many armed with weapons, had moved to encircle Gujjar villages around Peepalkheda, where Bhaisala had set up his command HQ.

Meanwhile the Raje bashing continues. A blogger termed Raje a modern day Nero, referring to her alleged absense during the first couple of days of the fiasco. A leading CNN-IBN journo sarcastically called out, Maharani Jago! I guess I can only say this to them, next time you Gujjars or Meenas or whoever is planning on rampaging through several major states, could you please be so kind as to send an IM to the concerned chief minister? Thank you.

Gujjars simply didn't have a choice. Getting ST status would mean pissing off the Meenas bigtime and that is simply too high a price to pay. So the colonel and his soldiers beat a hasty retreat and raised the white flag.

More than anything else this fiasco proves that quota politics may just have run into its numerical boundaries. The privileged have already been hit the most they could be. Now it is no longer possible to dole out benefits to any group without taking away some from another. I guess that leaves only one option open: breach the artificial speed barrier of 50% using constitutional amendments. Guess only time can tell.

Meanwhile I am off to have some spicy chicken curry.

Chandrabhan Prasad on the Gujjar Issue

Chandrabhan Prasad gets some face time on primetime. Must watch video in which he asks how on earth can Gujjars claim ST quotas? Hear him reveal some unpleasant truths about Mandal. Unfortunately people like Prasad who are aware of grassroot level realities seldom get to call the shots. The social justice platform has been hijacked.

Quiz: Guess what's missing?

Our favorite blogger Dilip D'Souza lists "some" events from the past several weeks.

• Nandigram violence
  
• Baroda attack on a student artist, various fallouts
  
• Punjab violence over Dera Sacha Sauda; Sikh jathedar calls for head of sect to be killed
  
• Karunanidhi sons attack a newspaper office, leaving two (?) dead
  
• Arrests of civil rights activists
  
• Riots in small towns over erratic power supply
  
• Farmer suicides continue in Vidarbha, now also reported in cotton-growing areas of Gujarat
  
• Cops arrested for fake encounters
  
• Rajasthan (and spreading) violence over Gujjar demands to be categorised ST; full-blown caste war erupts between Meenas and Gujjars, plenty dead

Guess what's missing?

Bonus question: what is interesting about the ordering?

[Note: Please ignore the phrase various fallouts following the second event. They mainly involved the socialist crowd throwing a hissy fit over artistic freedom and Tehelka launching another Government sponsored web portal supporting freedom of art.]

When will the blame game begin?

I suppose whatever the outcome of the Gujjar fiasco, Vasundhara Raje will be crucified. Where are the feminists when you need them? We need more female leaders and as far as I can tell, Raje had very little if anything to do with it. As you know, the situation is pretty bad out there. When the army has to stop a Meena raid on Gujjar village, you kinda figure out it ain't no picnic. Apparently the PM is more worried about onion prices. The state of Rajasthan has come to a standstill. The loss to tourism industry alone is Rs. 50 crores. I think the total cost of this will run into several hundreds of crores.





So, let's quickly recap how the various arguments put forward by anti-reservationists check out in the backdrop of this looming civil war:

• Quotas will lead to division of society: check
• Quotas are almost non-implementable due to statistical reasons and lack of data: check
• There is a severe creamy layer issue rendering the whole scheme useless: check
• Some communities corner over 90% of the privileges: check
• There are creamy layer issues within communities themselves: check
• Contrary to popular belief, there is no objective methodology of status determination: check
• Quotas are immoral: ?
  

Well the jury is still out on the last one. As you know, morality is a pretty fluid concept in our country.

Let's look at some stuff google throws up:

Indian Express (October 26, 1999):

Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala could find himself in a tight spot over the increasing demand from the Opposition for conferring of OBC (Other Backward Castes) status to the Jat community in congruity with Rajasthan and Delhi. [..] The Congress has asked Chautala to implement the recommendations of the Gurnam Singh Commission, which had categorised Jats, Bishnois, Tyagis etc as Backward Castes.

The Tribune (December 25, 2001):

The Jat community of Himachal Pradesh has demanded that their community be notified as an OBC community on the pattern of Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where Jats have been declared as OBCs.

Times of India (4th April, 2003):

The Gujjar community which enjoys the status of the "Other Backward Classes" has gone a step further and have demanded the status of Scheduled Tribe. They feel that because of the presence of one particular community in the OBC list, they would never be able to reap the benefits of reservation if they remain a part of OBC.

The Hindu (April 16, 2004):

Gujjars currently enjoy the reservation benefits as Other Backward Class (OBC). However, they have been agitating for shifting the community to the fold of Scheduled Tribe following the previous Congress regime's decision to accord the OBC status to Jats. Jats are believed to have carried away a major chunk of the quota benefits to the detriment of other sections in the category.

Shivam Vij (9th April, 2007):

An objective criteria of social, educational and economic backwardness determines OBC status.

Shivam Vij (10th April, 2007):

The Jats of Rajasthan were given OBC status by the BJP so as to win votes. Somebody needs to go to court on this. But the Jats of Rajasthan are not on the Central OBC list, and so won’t benefit from the proposed 27% quota in the IITs, IIMs and other educational institutions run by the central government.

BBC (May 31, 2007):

In 1999, the government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) included the Jat community on its OBC list. The Jats are a relatively prosperous community in Rajasthan who form nearly 15% of the state's population.

Manvendra Singh, BJP MP (1st June, 2007):

For starters it must be made clear that there was no commitment from the BJP to include Gurjjars a Scheduled Tribe (ST). A re-reading of the party manifesto for 2003 assembly elections makes that clear. Party policy, and commitments, must be read from that document, and that document alone. It was also mentioned in this newspaper that the Meenas are the only ST community in Rajasthan.

Times of India (June 4, 2007):

Rajasthan continued to sit on a powder keg as tens of thousands of armed Meenas attempted to storm Peepalkhera, the village in Dausa district that has become the epicentre of the Gujjar agitation for ST status. The standoff was continuing till late at night with the Army and CRPF keeping the agitated Meenas at bay.

As you can see, this whole thing is a quagmire. There is no way you can clean up this mess. Let me reiterate my stand: NO QUOTAS. Not even for Dailts.

Subsidies, quotas etc. give the illusion of privilege but they end up hurting everyone deeply - even the communities that receive them. Today most communities know that these incentives are a mirage but they still gingerly accept them. Because the alternative, all round development and economic prosperity is not forthcoming. Well I have news for you pal, this is how socialism works. So instead of demanding schools, colleges and tubewells - all people want is quotas. Politicians are only too happy to oblige, after a careful calculation of how the votebank works out. Meanwhile our PM is demanding that CEOs voluntarily give up fat paychecks. Does he realize that the average declared wealth of Congress MPs is in excess of Rs. 3 crores (Kanimozhi 8.45 crores)? Charity begins at home, no?

You can not claim that quotas are based on an objective set of criteria and they really work and then turn around and blame someone for doling out benefits. But socialists have been known to want to eat the cake and have it too.

Sadly for the Gujjars, even if they are able to coerce status out of the state, it will only benefit the most creamy of them. Their leader Col. Bainsla is an ex-army colonel. Hardly the sort that is usually paraded in front of city dewllers to shame them into accepting quotas. But it is the kids of the colonel that will go to IIT, not the foot soldier who ripped open a policeman's stomach only to be riddled by bullets by the cop's panic stricken partner the very next instant.

"BJP" MP Katara vs. just a former minister Monserrate

Profile of Atanasio Monserrate. Conspiracy to sell half of Goa to Russian land Mafia, snatched land from poor people. (Note: Goa has a Congress led Government).

Profile of Babubhai Katara. Helped a woman jump immigration. Possible perjury and aiding and abetting impersonation.


Search on CNN-IBN on Monserrate land.
Search on CNN-IBN on Babubhai Katara.

Schrodinger's cat

(Pic: Gujjar boy)
Admit it, you are curious to know what will be the possible outcome of the Gujjar vs. Meena fiasco. Well, the first question to ask would be what is the relative population.

I found conflicting reports from wikipedia entries on Gujjars and Meenas and this Christian website. Then I was able to locate a news article, which I presume is authentic.

Gujjars are about 5% of Rajasthan population while the Meenas are 10%. This clearly indicates a manpower disadvantage for Gujjars. The Meenas were described by the British as follows:

"The Meenas are an athletic and brave race, tall, handsome, and pleasing to address, obedient to their leaders and sensible in kindness, but at the same time blood-thirsty and revengeful. "

While the Gujjars are also a Kshatriya class, they are outnumbered 2-1 by the Meenas. I will bet on the Meenas. If you are curious to know why all this chaos is happening, you might want to ask Shivam Vij. [ed. incorrectly referred to him as a Jat, he is actually a Khatri] He might be able to throw some light on this matter.

It sure looks like Jats are encroaching into the OBC quotas enough that Gujjars have a reason to be pissed:

"There are 269 OBC castes across Rajasthan, yet the benefits go to the Jats simply because of these reservations," says Manch Vice-President Mishra. "In the most recent recruitment drive for the Rajasthan Administrative Service a couple of years ago, 85 seats were reserved for OBCs and 79 of these were bagged by the Jats. Six pradhan (district heads) seats were reserved for OBCs; all were taken by Jats. Of the 105 sub-inspector (of police) posts reserved for OBCs, Jats got 104 of them. What will happen to the other OBCs for whom reservations were actually created?"

Now for some history lessons:

The Centre included Jats as OBCs in 1999 after much lobbying by various Jat groups. But while the central government restricted the reservations for Jats to government jobs, Ashok Gehlot's government (ed. Congress) in Rajasthan extended the reservation to education institutions. The Manch sees the extension as a political sop to make amends for the fact that the Congress, after hinting it would appoint a Jat as chief minister, put Gehlot, a non-Jat OBC, in the chair.

Of course now the standard line is that Vasundhara Raje started all this trouble. As you know, the socialists have this extremely annoying habit of taking out bits and pieces from history and ignoring the rest.

Further investigation reveals that the creamy layer problem runs deep into the ST quotas as well:

Rajasthan is the single largest beneficiary of the quota for scheduled tribes despite there being many other states with much larger tribal populations. And in Rajasthan, it is the Meena community that corners the biggest chunk of the ST quota benefits, if their representation in the all-India civil services is any indication. Meenas dominate over the Bhils, Sahariyas, Patelias and Koknas among others. Though the tribals of Rajasthan constitute just 8% of the tribal population of the country, thanks to the Meenas, the state has a significant presence in the ST quota. The results of the civil services examination of 2006 also show that the Meena community continues to dominate the quota for scheduled tribes. Of 474 candidates selected in 2006, 36 were ST candidates. Of these, 13 were Meenas, constituting 36% of the tribal quota.

What is happening in Rajasthan is alarming. It proves that instead of being an instrument of social justice, quotas are encouraging communities to use caste as a bargaining chip to get selective privileges. When erstwhile Kshatriya clans can clamor for caste based quotas, the social oppression theory starts to sound really strange.

The real question is how will it ever get resolved. The center and home ministry has made no noise about it. With a civil war looming you would expect the PM to make a statement. At least show his face on the TV or something. None whatsoever. Just because Rajasthan is an opposition state, many innocent lives will be lost.

You see, you can only resolve this when all parties are pissed. If you simply accept Gujjar demands, you just piss off Meenas, leaving Jats indifferent. Perhaps a resolution is possible if the communities are further split along subcastes and given OBC and ST status depending on who shouts the loudest. Thus the Jats, Gujjars and Meenas will be simultaneously OBCs and STs. Everyone will be a little pissed, yet everyone will have something to look forward to. See, how easy it is?

Breaking News: Meenas and Gujjars clash

Looks like I have to revise my estimates for when this country will fall apart at the seams. In what could come to be known in later days as the "First Civil War" of Independent India (just like the mutiny was the First War of Independence), Gujjars and Meena's clashed over ST status.





Previous:

A New Revolution
North vs. South

Lying not so subtly

Several years ago an unfortunate riot happened in Gujarat. In response, noted author Arundhati Roy issued blatant lies after lies to the press, for instance a fictitious incident in which the daughters of a Muslim minister had been raped and murdered (*) (it later turned out that they were alive and kickin' someplace else).

Did she have the right to be so dishonest to achieve her political goals?

What about leading newspapers such as Tehelka, Hindu and CNN-IBN who are clearly so biased in their reportage? What about the Gujarat body count (or for that matter the mass Buddhist conversion count)? Why does it vary so widely from coverage to coverage, blog to blog? How about noted journalist Dilip D'Souza, who reports the Danish cartoons and other inconvenient incidents only after their sell by dates are long past? Do insinuations count as lies? How about half-truths?

Folks who support or harbor terrorists are liable to be punished to the maximum extent of the law. As you might have noticed, a lot of people are writing in support of the Naxalites these days. Does journalistic freedom cover their asses from the long arms of the law? If so, to what extent and does that support extend to when there is a not-so-friendly Government at the center?

The Indian Penal Code surely has sections for perjury, libel and slander but do they cover such slimeballs who are screwing up our country? What about the court of the almighty above? When these scums make it upstairs (i.e. the fun ends), will they be given the judgment they deserve?

(*) Funny that despite the many sexual assaults on the Aam Aurat, she thought it was necessary to mention the rape of a "Minister's daughters". I guess at some level her social inclusion principles can't quite equate the rape of a poor woman to that of the daughter of a rich and powerful man.