Hindu Terrorists found! Can we please hang Afzal now?

Had it not been for the American elections, the media would be abuzz with minute by minute details on the Hindu terrorism case in which almost half a dozen people (including a Hindu Sadhvi and senior army personnel) have been arrested so far. A google search reveals the frantic reporting and painstakingly written reports that are crying out for space on the headlines. A google news search on Hindu Terrorist reveals the great deal of attention this is getting on the media from Islamic countries.

There is nothing objectionable with the term Hindu Terrorist. There is a reason terrorism is treated differently from ordinary crimes. There is a strong reason to attach the ideology that causes it. The case of the Sadhvi finds its roots in the same sort of ideology that causes minorities to blow up innocent people. As the recent case of the Software Engineer (19 Lakhs per annum salary) proves, poverty etc. leading to terrorism is largely a mythical construct.

There are several things that stand out in this case.

First, there is the deafening silence from the so called Human Rights activists. We have to give them time to digest the other important news and get back to regular programming but don't hold your breath for Arundhati Roy to appear on Devil's Advocate and punch holes on the case based on conflicting media reports. No demands for a judicial inquiry either.

Second, the police have acted in pretty much the same manner in which the prior cases were dealt with - at least the recent ones. The measures included confinement, interrogation , narco analysis and forensic tests, wiretapping, cross referencing witnesses etc. There might have been some third degree involved - no loss of limb or life (except the Delhi encounter case, but a cop died too).

Given that the current course of action is yielding some success, it should be continued. Alas, if only the world was so simple.

For one thing we are dealing with a community that has a very unique way of looking at things. At least two thirds of the community globally if not more believe that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy. There is already demands for opening up past blast cases, even solved ones. The Shahi Imam has made statements to the effect that no Government is taking care of the community. The community leaders in Assam are all set to form a new party, riding on the sizable and growing population.

In a sense this was inevitable. Once propaganda takes root, it is hard to temper it or throttle its momentum. Clearly over the decades there has been a conscious attempt to channel real or imaginary minority discontent towards a certain political goal. Ideally the activists and secularists would want it to stop right after defeating BJP. Right about now there is no going back. The secular propaganda way overshot its original target and there is widespread discontent that does not necessarily distinguish a secular Hindu and a communal Hindu. The anger is now targeted at India Inc. as a whole. As an example, the recent IM emails excoriated the Maharashtra CM and even lashed out at Tehelka.

You can not wave the red flag of freedom and then take it away at the last moment. This beast will break through everything. The case of the Hindu Terrorist, even if dealt with a strong hand will produce the exact opposite of the intended effect.

Did you listen?

Schoolgirls in Assam don't want to talk - nobody listens to them

"Assam is facing external aggression and internal disturbance." This comment from the Supreme Court came not after the serial blasts that killed scores but more than three years ago on July 12, 2005. [...]

Both the governments paid scant attention to the ominous signals that the Supreme Court read from the November 8, 1998 report of then governor Lt Gen S K Sinha, who had prepared it after a thorough inspection of border areas and districts, discussions with the Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh and talks with political leaders. What Lt Gen Sinha’s report brought out before the apex court in 2005 was the grim ground reality of Assam. His report stated: "The illegal migrants coming into India after 1971 have been almost exclusively Muslims... Muslim population in Assam has shown a rise of 77.42% from what it was in 1971. Hindu population has risen by nearly 41.89%." [link]

Meanwhile a a funny thing came to our notice. A CNN-IBN article (one of the current headlines) reports that "according to latest official figures" an estimated 2.2 lakh illegal Indian immigrants are residing in the US. A google search reveals that similar stories came out on TOI, the Economic Times and The Hindu. Now, the actual report [pdf] appears to be dated September, 2008. The news release also came out in September.

Why then would so many Indian newspapers report it in the month of November?

What's the connection you ask? Well, if you were able to figure that out, we confer an honorary bachelors degree in Indian politics on you.

Marathi Manoos vs. the LDR and the Train connection

Seeing itself is an act of violence. For example, if you listen to the words of a homeless person
with your eyes closed, they may have different meanings. When you see people you unconsciously judge them, and discriminate against them.

- dialog from the movie Tokyo Marigold.

Shobhaa De has penned several articles on her regular TOI column excoriating Raj Thackeray's regionalism. So, her astounding volte face on her Devil's Advocate interview came as a huge shock.

Not only does she lend full moral support to Raj Thackeray's ideals (sans the violence, of course), she seems to be irked by the influx of outsiders:

Karan Thapar: You’re saying two very interesting things – it’s been hijacked in their minds and that today Mumbai is every one else’s first and Maharashtrians’ last. Are Maharashtrians being discriminated against?

Shobhaa De: I would, to some extent, agree that they are being discriminated against in terms of job applications like the Railways – we saw last week what happened there – because Maharashtrian himself/herself has not perhaps fought for their rightful position within the state or the city. I say that with a great amount of compassion, not just for Maharashtrians but a system that seems to not recognise the dreams and ideals of the locals.

Karan Thapar: Before I come to why they haven’t fought for their rights, you are really seriously saying that today in Mumbai – the capital of Maharashtra – Maharashtrains are getting a raw deal?

Shobhaa De: I am definitely saying Maharashtrians get a raw deal which does not mean that I, in any way, support violence or endorse what Raj Thackeray stands for. What I am saying is that the raw deal has a lot to do with the Maharashtrian way of asserting or not asserting themselves.

As we have argued several times on this blog, this vividly illustrates that we set out to play a game without agreeing upon the rules. Now we have fouls all around and we can't decide on a neutral referee. Shobhaa De certainly does not speak for all Maharashtrians and neither does Raj. However, it is amply evident that there is an undercurrent of strong discontent. Political parties are only too willing to exploit the situation. According to De, even the intellectuals are bound by a "conspiracy of silence".

It is an easy ruse for the garden variety secular-socialists to pin the entire blame on Shiv Sena or MNS. Meanwhile Congress and NCP has been playing soft Marathitva to MNS' hard Marathi regionalism. They commissioned the giant Shivaji statue. When a newspaper criticized the expensive move, their offices were vandalized by Cong/NCP hoodlums. Even the official order for mandatory Marathi signboard came out of the Maharashtra legislature. Of course, Raj did more than his part to enforce it. It has been alleged that Congress reacted too late before arresting Raj, thus extracting political mileage out of the situation.

Elsewhere in the interview, Karan Thapar points out that statistics does not bear out the claim of the regionalists - that Maharashtrians are well represented in jobs. Shobhaa De doesn't seem to agree - she claims to see only outsiders at construction sites.

The whole situation is one of massive denial by all parties concerned. Are Marathis really agitating for construction jobs? Having been screwed over by a system that allowed certain communities to corner the wealth, they have only one option left. Or at least the option that should be obvious to anyone with a short-term perspective. Raj Thackeray can not be singled out for blame for indulging in identity based politics when virtually every intellectual in India does the same thing. At the time of writing, the lead story on Times of India, the largest circulation paper in India laments the few percentage points Minorities are lagging behind in jobs. Recently India's best known intellectual Arundhati Roy supported freedom for Kashmiris. In the end it turned out Kashmiris didn't want freedom.

Aside from the wealth accumulation issue (that can not be helped without overhauling the entire system and not anytime soon), much of the perception of job stealing by outsiders is mixing up cause and effect. The reason there are jobs in Maharashtra is why people go there in the first place. Certainly Marathis wouldn't want to swap for Orissa where no one goes (except missionaries)?

In India we want to eat the cake and have it too. When it comes to our own state, we want domicile quotas every which way we can. As soon as the matter relates to another state, suddenly we are gloriously Indians, cheerleaders for the LDR and great fans of cosmopolitan cities. Same thing when it comes to politics. When Congress applies Sachar, it is for social justice. But Raj Thackeray is not allowed to bat for poor Marathis.

The Train Connection

In the latest incident of anti-Hindustani violence by MNS, candidates from Bihar who were about to take the Maharashtra Railway Board entrance exam were severely beaten up. Reportedly one man was killed which triggered widespread violence in Bihar - public property was vandalized and one Maharashtrian was beaten up.

Well, it turns out that the man supposed to have been killed by MNS party workers had actually died in a train accident and they have CCTV footage to prove it. Now they tell us!

The incident happened at 7:30 AM. The man was brought to a hospital by railway staff. Which part of train accident was in doubt? Surely a man looks slightly different when run over by train as opposed to being beaten up by a mob? Yet somehow the rumor that an MNS mob had killed the boy reached Bihar and triggered violence.

From Babri Masjid (Advani was arrested by Laloo and confined in Bihar when the mosque was destroyed) to Godhra to this latest incident - every murky, sordid and controversial issue has Laloo's paw prints all over it. The man camps out in Gujarat, in Maharashtra. He is certainly entitled to as Railway minister. He also can't keep his hands out of the cookie jar of public money. Even the exam in question was for the railway services - who know if rules were being violated?

Shobhaa De mentions slogans written all over the walls in Mumbai saying, 'UP hamari hai, ab Maharashtra ki baari hai' (UP is ours, now for Maharahtra). Think poor migrant laborers thought it up by themselves? Special trains bringing in thousands for political rallies have added to the claustrophobia. Sometimes the trains bring in elements that would be undesirable anywhere, not just in Maharashtra. Why would Marathis put up with it?

Yet our intellectuals find Laloo's tomfoolery charming. They can't get enough of his rustic jokes.

Laloo is a living indictment to the dishonesty of the intellectuals in our country. We are letting men like him destroy the LDR bit by bit. Raj Thackeray and his company can not hold a candle to Laloo's disruptive presence in Indian politics and our intellectuals pretend not to see any of it.

Are we there yet?

So, the lunar probe got launched successfully. For the next few days we will not hear the end of it from various news channels. So, Singh is now King of the Universe! After becoming king of the world following the nuke deal.

Perhaps this was necessary. Who knows? But we know for sure the kind of articles that would be written had this happened during the NDA tenure.

Then again there is this minor matter, which the party of the aam aadmi was supposed to fix better than anyone else:

The war-ravaged countries of Serbia and Lithuania are better off. So are people in cold deserts of Mongolia. Tiny nations such as Surinam and Honduras have got a better handle on it and so have large diverse countries like China and Brazil. India, in comparison, is failing miserably to tackle hunger.

India ranks 66 out of 88 countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI), far behind comparable developing countries as well as smaller, less diverse and resource deprived nations.

The index, released by the International Food Policy Research Institute on Tuesday, is bound to take the hype out of UPA's talk of inclusive growth, with a review of Indian states showing that economic progress witnessed in some states has not helped improve hunger and malnutrition levels. [link]

Joke

Rahul Gandhi wants to end dynasty politics.

Lipstick on a little girl ........

Eleven-year-old Nazmeen can barely speak. She suffered 99 per cent burn injuries after her neighbour set her on fire - all because she dared to wear lipstick.

Nazmeen was attacked by the man she called nana (grandfather). On Friday, Saleem told the little girl not to wear lipstick. When she defied him, in a fit of rage he allegedly molested her before pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire. [link]

.. can be irksome to fundamentalist pigs.

The TOI story has a shocking twist.

Previous:

Uncles and Nephews
The never ending Imrana sequels

Heads I win .....

Funny

Reva Seth, whose recent book 'First Comes Marriage' is catching the West's fancy, argues that the developed world needs a different method of finding a spouse in an age of uncertainty. There are signs that some are listening.

Elaine McCabe, 33, a physiotherapist in Michigan, USA, has just permitted her father to invite men he thinks eligible to meet his daughter with a view to their marrying. McCabe, who took her cue from an Indian friend, says, "Any of us with Asian friends know if someone could save us from all those terrible nights next-to-zero hits and nearly-all misses, it would be wonderful." But she adds, "This does not mean I am supporting the kind of marriage in which the parties are left with no choice. The word is arranged, not forced."

The funny part:

But is the arranged marriage quite as Indian as it is portrayed? History records that the West once encouraged a system of arranged marriages in order to safeguard property and inheritance. There is evidence of arranged marriages in Western societies as far back as the 1500s and in the prim Victorian era, which encouraged a union for cultural and economic reasons rather than mere love. Ask any married person and they will tell you that marriage is a unique bond, whose strength lies in commitment, responsibility and the law and it has little to do with being madly in love with one's intended. [link]

When it was bad, we invented it. Now it is no longer so bad - so we didn't invent it in the first place. Catch-22.

Cowboys and Cowgirls

Watch this video, it is great fun. The idea of a fair debate according to seculars is 2 communal vs. 5 secular panelists. Watch who screams the most, watch who blames others for using lung power. The debate is indistinguishable from a fish market. These are our intellectuals.

The video is about 40 minutes, but you can use the slider.

At around 12:50, Swapan Dasgupta calls Teesta Setalvad an overground wing of the terrorists.

Towards the very end of the video, Tehelka's Harinder Baweja reveals a startling side of her character we never knew existed. Watch the video to find out.

Civil war

Bodo women and children at a relief camp

Anther civil war is on in Assam, between Bodo tribals and Bangladeshi immigrants. The body count is about the same as Orissa, but no one seems to be interested. The story disappeared from the headlines faster than you could say "Kandhamal'.

Looks like the Bodos were at the receiving end, by a wide margin. Our sympathies, unless you people can connect it up with the secular party's electoral fortunes, you are out of luck. See if you can somehow link up Bajrang Dal or VHP into the mix - something like, because of the Hindutva parties' hate campaign the Bangladeshi people in Dhaka got paranoid and decided to invade Assam and attack Bodos. It is a stretch, but worth a try.

The burden of proof [Updated]

(click on images for a larger version)

(A) Original TOI article published Oct 3, retrieved from Google cache

(B) TOI article modified on Oct 4: Headline changed, URL remains the same

In a few months time, four poor tribal people could be sent to jail on potentially false charges. India's motley crew of Human Rights Activists, tribal welfare wallahs, seculars, socialists etc. will keep mum. In fact, they will cheer the occasion and celebrate it.

The violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa has been bad enough but the political football surrounding it has scaled new heights. Already the Center has started talking about President's rule. The center of attention is now the alleged rape of a Nun that took place over a month ago.

Given the poor record of the Indian state in matters related to safety of women, the logical course of action should be to let the state do its work. However, suspicions abound in this particular case, especially in light of politically motivated false accusations in the past. Media rhetoric about the violence in Orissa is getting shriller by the day and by now it has reached a crescendo.

First, let's analyze the TOI report in question. On Oct 3, this report was first published, headlined: Medical report suggests nun raped; probe ordered, and can be still accessed from google cache. The screenshot (A) is the cached report, which has this to say:

"The woman was medically examined and the report received by us suggests possibility of rape," Kandhamal Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar told. According to the report of the nun's medical examination, there was no external or internal vaginal injury, but semen was found inside. The nun's clothes have been sent for tests to the state forensic laboratory.

Note the "suggests" part. Note the mention of no injuries that could definitively establish sexual assault.

On October 4, the same article was mysteriously modified. The headline now reads:
38 days later, Orissa govt admits nun's rape. It is incomprehensible that a third party can actually "admit" to something that happened between a perp and a victim, but nevertheless this "admission" has evoked euphoric reaction in the Commie circles. The screeshot (B) of the report now carries the following:

Orissa police claimed on Friday they "received" the medical report - which found injuries to the victim's private parts and pointed to sexual assault - only on October 1. But doctors have a different story. Dr Sangeeta Mishra, who along with Dr Smita Marandi, performed the examination at Baliguda government hospital on the night of the incident, have a different story.

The modified report now claims there were injuries consistent with sexual assault.

The nun did not allege rape initially, but later mentioned that she had been raped by one person, in an FIR. Various news reports now claim that she was gangraped. Initial reports suggested the possibility of rape or rather "the report did not rule out rape" and "no injuries but semen was present". By now, the Nun was brutally gangraped by a mob and medical reports incontrovertibly establishing rape have surfaced.

Predictably the victim is untraceable and taken to an undisclosed location, but the media has full access to her.

The chances of abusing the situation is mind boggling. If one adds to it presumptive behavioral patterns expected of Nuns and by implication the alternate more acceptable theory, the situation becomes too complicated.

We are not suggesting that we have the last word on this incident - the incident must be thoroughly investigated and the guilty, if any, must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but TOI updating its story rather than issuing a new one (they have published hundreds of stories on the incident) is highly suspicious. This type of complications put further strain on our already fragile secular nation.

[Update]

The CNN-IBN video that carries the actual voice of the victim narrating the assault on her is here.

I was hiding in a house, that is a Hindu house, in [inaudible]. They came inside, about 40 to 50 people with all the weapons in their hands and they saw me there ... recognized that I am a sister. One of them gave me one slap on my face and pulled me out from there by holding my hair.. took me out back door two of them holding my neck and wanted to cut my neck.. Anyway they left there and they started pulling my saree and dragged me to the road along with father ... ah ... they found also father Chellan ...

They took us both to the road they took.. took me into the [inaudible] there over they removed my blouse, they tore out my ..my bra and they cast me to the ground and two of them were stepping my hands on both sides and one ... one raped me . one person ..and they were shouting I heard - where is that sister? Come we will rape her at least hundred people will rape and leave - like that they were saying.

Earlier I didn't know I have not seen them but now if I see I ... I will recognize them ... At that moment no police were there .. no police were there ... then ah they... told .. told me that they will hand.. hand me over to the police so I .. I .. still .. I got courage then they took me out again from there to the road by then they poured kerosene on father Chellan and they wanted to burn and they were beating him with sticks and iron bars um.. then they made us to walk to the market.

There .. in the market police were there ... dozen of police were there. I thought they will they will .. protect.. protect us but they were just sitting as ... like stones .. they were not .. they didn't even talk or move or anything.. I.. I sat in between them but then they didn't.. means no movement at all.

We have given FIR and we have not yet received also the photocopy of it. It is a safe place [probably referring to her new location] I feel now I mean pretty safe place yes. I want to get justice, yes. Also not for my sake ... for the people for whom I was working I want to say the leaders of the country and the state specially [inaudible] safety and protect our people there in Kandhamal or wherever they.. they are insecure . [transcript ours]

This incident must not be taken lightly. However, the fate of the Orissa Government hinges on this. Swapan Dasgupta of The Pioneer elaborates on this. Congress will most likely go for a kill this time.

Several things stand out from the transcript above. The victim clearly says that she was raped by one person. Meanwhile the media is playing up the "gang rape of Nun" by a "fanatic Hindu mob" way too much. Also, Police were not present at the actual location of the incident. This is quite clear from the testimony. The Police were at the marketplace where presumably the victim was taken to. While this does not exonerate the Police, it is pretty far from "the Police stood mute spectators while a fanatic Hindu mob gang raped a Nun". Of course this is really rather technical, the nature of the incident, if it happened the way it was described, is basically gang rape.

Another curious aspect is that a fragment of the crowd, three or more in number, took the victim inside a building. This means that the larger crowd can not corroborate the statement of the victim. Also, it is not clear what the victim means by earlier she didn't know, she hadn't seen them, but now she can recognize them.

Sheilaji's Delhi

A young woman, after a late shift in her job as a TV production executive, leaves for home in her car. The time is after 3:00 am. New Delhi is not known to be particularly safe for women, so she calls up her father. She would be home in 15 minutes. So the man would just have a short period of time to worry. Half an hour later, her car is found crashed against the median, with the engine still running. The woman is found slumped in the driver's seat, with a bullet lodged in her head.

Reacting to the murder of journalist Soumya Viswanathan, Sheila Dikshit had on Wednesday said: "All by herself till 3 am at night in a city where people believe...you know...you should not be so adventurous.''

Sheila Dikshit married her way into the extended family. As discussed in a previous post, unless you are cricketer or film star or a member of a social justice class, it is very difficult to gain access. Marriage is another route.

That remark of Sheilaji, aside from being juvenile and ignorant, puts her into the league of various clerics who say that women who wear immodest clothing deserve what happens to them. The victim in this case wasn't even out for late night fun, she was out earning her bread (non-members of the extended family have to work to make a living). What if she had been to a nightclub? We can only imagine what this cretin would say. Gotcha adventuress!

Granted, political compulsions have forced the CM of New Delhi to tune out the recent tragic incidents in the city. But as a leader, doesn't she even feel the need to make a strong statement condemning the assailants? Couldn't she say, we will catch you and send you to the slammers for a long long time? We know that her enfeebled administration can hardly do anything worthwhile, but a strong statement could go a long way in restoring the confidence of thousands of women in New Delhi, who must take their chances all by themselves in the late hours of night.

Such statements embolden the nasties who bring in fire arms into the city. Part of the problem is that many of these elements are what keeps the dynasty intact. They are watching and they are having a good laugh. They know that no one will go after them and the person who could really send a posse after them is a soulless puppet. So they will continue to prey on vulnerable young women. The dynasty will live on, propping up many more puppets here and there in its wake.

Indian media: in a league of their own

Manmohan Singh calls himself an accidental Prime Minister. Be that as it may, with the Indo-US nuclear deal and consequent liberation of India from the 34-year-old technology denial regime, he has secured his place in history as one of the notable prime ministers of this country.

He joins the ranks of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in shaping and advancing India’s progress in international politics. [link]

Well, that leaves out only one PM who served for more than one year. Come to think of it, they didn't have to add Vajpayeeji to the list. Perhaps they felt a bit shy.

Gloves off

"Hindo", eh Ms. Naqvi? Perhaps Mughalistan was better, no?

Uncles and Nephews

Most men have fond memories of a particularly favorite uncle. They often provide a buffer zone between us and the cold and distant world of relatives. They have stories to tell and more often than not are the primary source of pocket money. Well, what do you know:

Apart from three police officers accused in the case, Rizwanur Rahman in his suicide note has held Trinamool Congress MLA Jawed Khan, his uncle Sadiqur Rahman and Priyanka's uncle Anil Sarogi responsible for his death.

"....The people actually and morally responsible for my death are Ajoy Kumar, Gyanwant Singh, Sukanti Chakraborty, Jawed Khan, uncle Saduiqur Rahman and Anil Sarogi" Rizwanur's suicide note said, CBI counsel Partho Tapaswi told the city sessions court yesterday where three police officers chargesheeted by the CBI in the case had moved bail application before being remanded to judicial custody. [link]

The keepers of our moral are always on the ready to point fingers at our various transgressions, but dig enough - you always find the same pattern. Minorities are getting it done to them by their uncles and fathers-in-law. We are often reminded how the minority youth are getting radicalized because of lack of resources and opportunities. Yet it seems they are a victim of a system that eats into itself. Nothing is sacrosanct, even the Haj subsidies are squandered and looted. We have thrown enough money at Kashmir but it hasn't helped. The powerful few suck it all up.

Anyone willing to listen will hear the giant sucking sound, but no one seems to care. Perhaps we all know, but it doesn't really help the cause, does it?

Hindu life cheap

Sure, but extending the logic tsunamis and floods kill way more than riots too.

Surely the situation could be helped if the security forces devoted more time in providing security for the public instead of getting tied up in Mataji and Babaji's numerous rallies. We also hear the intelligence agencies are used to gather poll intelligence for Congress. According to a report, our National Security Adviser made a trip to Kashmir to help poll alliances for Congress.

The situation could also be helped if there was some sort of normalization based on attendance figures. But some people must be protected more than the others.

In any case, these casualty numbers really pale in comparison to the hundreds of millions socialism has killed.

Two big stampedes, both in Hindu temples, couple of train fires. Suspicious?

Dumb and dumber

It is funny that by the time our intellectuals have finished arguing over an issue, it has already lost its relevance. Now the RBI no longer has to keep worrying about keeping the exchange rate down. This is happening despite the Dollar losing value against other major currencies. Good luck with the inflation, Mr. Chidambaram.

Malthus' revenge

Thomas Malthus must be one of the most cited economists of all times. His theories were once summarily panned across the political spectrum. The Marxists had their own reasons behind their dislike of Malthus. First, if one were a believer of an impending doom because of resource crunch, there would be all the more reason to hold on to the feudal and bourgeois order. Second - Malthus' theories ran counter to the Marxist promise of plentiful supply of goods and services.

Later on, the Marxists changed their tack. They realized that Malthus' ideas can actually help their propaganda. Since resources are scarce, a few individuals must not be allowed to hog them.

Thus while on one hand the socialists had hijacked it for their nefarious purposes, a new breed of Environmentalists and "Good Earth" people were using these ideas to further their own agenda. At least the core Marxists were consistent in their approach. The crypto-commies (essentially a rabid bunch of identity mongers who call themselves liberals these days) on one hand want to preserve the good earth while violently opposing any cut on subsidies and doles based on identity politics, even when the latter result in greater strain on the good earth.

The capitalist opposition to Malthusian doomsday scenario is based on a few important assumptions, the most important being the perfect liquidity and tradability of all goods and services. The second assumption is that people will be indifferent to everything else other than direct economic consequences. The experience of recent history reinforced the core capitalistic belief - industrial revolution and post WWII reconstruction proved that the world has virtually unlimited potential.

It is easy to see how both these assumptions miserably fail under certain circumstance.

Malthus believed that after a certain threshold of population growth, the world will run out of food. This has proved to be largely false, due to technological advances, globalization and maturity of financial markets, there is no shortage of food supply. The supply shocks that do occur are sporadic and only affect victims of large Governments. The world can easily feed four times the current world population.

However, not all resources are like food that can be produced almost everywhere in some form or the other and can be packaged and sold at any retail store thousands of miles away from the place of production.

One of the primary resources that is running out fast is land. Land resources are neither particularly liquid, nor are they perfectly tradable in the sense that one acre of land in Bombay is not equivalent to another acre in say Kandhamal district in Orissa. More worrying still, the mega cities themselves are fast becoming scarce resources. Simply living in one city versus another can create a huge economic difference. Entire books have been written on this topic.

A lot of this scarcity is created by ludicrous Government policies. The Indian Government has done virtually everything to exacerbate the apparent scarcity of land resources.

The biggest worry however is demographics. Malthus' idea is as much about actual scarcity as it is about perception. As far as perception goes, India Inc. is looking straight down the edge of precipice. The number of young men and women below the age of 25 is growing at a very fast pace. In the next few decades, our megacities can degenerate into virtual war zones where armed young men and women will go on rampage. The demographic hotspots like Kandhamal will turn into infernos. The forces that are waging a virtual war against India are not likely to let go anytime soon.

The optimists point out the demographic trends which show that population growth slows down with the growth in prosperity . Under these projections the world population will stabilize around 2050. These do not take into account the asymmetrical population growth in different societies not do they factor in the competition for resources based on identity politics.

Unless things are drastically changed and a level of sanity restored, India Inc. may not even survive till 2050.

Indian Congress' Nuke Deal: US Congress approves

The Nuke deal, or technically the 1-2-3 Agreement on Nuclear Cooperation between India and US was passed by the US House of Representatives.

The deal is crony-capitalistic in nature and likely to line up pockets of slimy well connected people while providing little electricity. It will also create massive land grab for Nuclear plants and line up our horizon with ugly looking poison spewing plants. The nuke deal will seriously compromise India's security and make it a hostage to the larger agenda of a certain power bloc. It will in effect make India a client state to the United States and its Euro zone cronies.

US House of rep voting record on the Nuke Deal:

Democrats: 120 for, 107 against.
Republicans: 178 for, 10 against.

It's a deal!

It's raining "militants"

Delhi bombed - "militants" captured - Sushma Swaraj vindicated - Sonia Gandhi attended slain cop's funeral - conspiracy theories hatched - more conspiracy theories hatched - Justice Sachar becomes a journalist.

Meanwhile the stinger has written a column: Meditate, And act.

Why not just masturbate?

Six OBCs sentenced to death in the Khairlanji case

BHANDARA: A fast track court in Bhandara pronounced death for six of the eight people convicted of killing four members of a family two years ago in Khairlanji, counted among the worst atrocities against Dalits. The remaining two were given life imprisonment.

[...]

While reading the death sentence from the operative part of the judgment, his eyes grew moist and tears flowed. However, Das soon regained composure and pronounced the entire sentence before leaving for his chamber. [link]

THE ACCUSED

All residents of Khairlanji village were arrested on October 1, 2006, except Shishupal Dhande who was arrested on October 12, 2006. They were tried under Sections 120 B read with 147, 148, 302, 354, 449, 201 Indian Penal Code read with 149 IPC, and Section 3(1) (xi) and 3(2) (V) of Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities ) Act 1989 . Gopal Sakru Binjewar, age 25 years, caste OBC Kalar. Sakru Mahagu Binjewar, 49 years, OBC Kalar. Shatrughna Isharam Dhande, 32 years, OBC Kunbi. Mahipal Antu Dhande, 40 years, OBC Kunbi. Dharmapal Vishwanath Dhande, 27 years, OBC Kunbi. Vishwanath Hagaru Dhande, 57 years, OBC Kunbi. Ramu Mangru Dhande, 34 years, OBC Kunbi. Jagdish Ratan Mandlekar, 42 years, OBC Kalar. Prabhakar Jaswant Mandlekar, 25 years, OBC Kalar. Purushottam Bisan Titirmare, 43 years, OBC Kunbi. Shishupal Vishwanath Dhande, 22 years, OBC Kunbi. Dharmapal and Shishupal Dhande are sons of Vishwanath Dhande. [link]

It may be noted that the powers that be are contemplating a constitutional amendment aimed at creating reserved constituencies for OBCs. Such constituencies exist today for SC/ST.

Previous:

Eight OBCs hed guilty, awaiting sentencing

Thirteen places

According to this year's Transperency [sic] International Report, out of 180 countries, India is the 85th most corrupt nation in the world. It's the same down-hill journey. This time India has tumbled from rank 72 last year to rank 85 this year - mostly thanks to inspired moments like the cash-for-vote scam. Country President Transperency [sic] International India, Admiral R H Tahiliani says, "When the world sees that at the highest level people can be bought what are they going to think of us." [link]

Previous:

Two places.

Remember them?

[in progress...]

Strategic Matters

What would be your strategy if you were leading in a two yacht race?

History is like a Radiohead song, long boring stretches followed by short spasms that really rock. The past few months in India (and possibly a few more to come) will etch a stronger mark on the pages of history book than most periods in recent times.

For one thing, we saw our decades old strategic paradigm changed in a mere fortnight. That the non-alignment thing was a sham and a practical impossibility was never in doubt, but at least India had a few firm principles that no one would dare violate.

It was interesting to watch the Devil's Advocate interview of Arun Shourie.

Karan Thapar: Yes. The whole of interpretation of the Hyde Act is irrelevant to the NSG

Arun Shourie: You are making assertions about the Hyde Act which are absolute bunk.

Karan Thapar: The NSG has given India fuel assurances. There is no bar on the size of strategic reserve. It gives India unlimited access under NSG concerns to non proliferation and enrichment technologies. It also allows India the right to reprocess. All of those were deemed to be deficiencies by some analysts — deficiencies in the 123 that have been taken care of by the NSG.

Arun Shourie: You are just completely fabricating things which are not there in the guidelines at all. Where is this bit about unlimited supplies in the NSG guidelines?

Karan Thapar: There is no bar. The NSG waiver permits India access to fuel supplies without restriction, it permits India to develop strategic reserves without limitation, it permits India access to proliferation technologies that are so defined to do with enrichment and reprocessing.

Arun Shourie: You are completely lying through your teeth to your viewers.

Karan Thapar: The point is — there is no bar on them. This is a waiver which is an exemption.

Basically Arun Shourie's contention was that the waiver didn't have explicit provisions for building strategic fuel reserves. Karan Thapar's view was that, the waiver didn't explicitly prohibit building of strategic reserves either!

It would be absurd to pretend that the NSG countries will act as though the US did not exist. So, it is futile to argue which item (Hyde Act, 1-2-3, NSG Waiver) supersedes what. As we see it, the point of these supposedly legally binding treaties is to ensure that if in future these countries try to impose any sanctions or take even more severe measures - they have something to fall back upon to make a pretense of being "moral" in front of the whole world. This pretense of morality is highly necessary for the North America/Western Europe bloc. We are not suggesting that they are being unfair, despite their overwhelming military and economic might - but even the mighty needs a layer of propaganda.

According to some experts, ultimately the NSG countries, whose list looks like a who's who of US client states, will act according to prevailing geo-political conditions of the world. Hence one should not get too worked up about strict interpretations of those documents.

This is an acceptable view, except that it drastically changes our strategic doctrine. From the dire and urgent need to maintain our nuclear sovereignty in view of hostile neighbors, we clandestinely moved to where we feel no need to test, i.e. hope and prayers.

We strongly recommend reading B. Raman's article in The Outlook and Shobori Ganguly's article in The Pioneer. We are willing to bet many of the facts in either article will come as a complete shock to many cheerleaders of the Nuke Deal.

Karan Thapar has a point, Arun Shourie is being pessimistic. But optimism is a poor substitute for strategic thinking.

Coming back to the yacht race, the best strategy is to exactly emulate everything the trailing yacht is doing. You can't go wrong - even if both makes the same mistakes, the lead will be maintained.

The Congress strategy is essentially the same. In a Tehelka interview, P. Chidambaram said that the BJP does not have any original economic policy. This was a remarkable statement which gave away the anxiety of the FM. Actually it is the Congress which does not have any strategy. They did, in the earlier decades of Nehruvian Socialism. We had tonnes of doctrines, principles etc. etc. both on economic matters as well as strategic. After the collapse of that regime, essentially Congress is just trying to beat others to the shore - by even making the mistakes the others are about to make. The OBC quota scheme is a case in point. It was not something they planned to do but it was an idea whose time had come. They had to beat the regional parties in the race.

The same thing is happening in economic areas also. After being a very belligerent opponent of any reforms of the BJP led NDA Government (this war was fought both inside and outside the parliament, by launching psyops and deploying a cavalry of evangelical socialists), suddenly Congress had a bad case of reform-envy. Hence the hurried Nuke deal which changed our strategic doctrine in a fell sweep.

So, our foreign policy is now held hostage to electoral politics. This in itself is a mind blowing change, whose repercussions will be felt for decades to come.

A taste of "Azadi"

Militants in Jammu and Kashmir are using torture to intimidate the people of the region. Brutal accounts are emerging of how militants are doing whatever it takes to instill fear in the community. One man told TIMES NOW how his ear was cut off after he refused to part with his mobile phone and SIM card. Another women had her ear cut off because she refused to cook a meal for the militants. Militants did not stop at that, they kept beating her and she later died of her wounds in hospital. [link]

Eight OBCs held guilty for the Khairlanji massacre

On September 29, 2006, a large mob of OBCs attacked and brutally killed four members of a Dalit family at Khairlanji in Nagpur, among them Priyanka Bhotmange, 17, pictured above. The nation was shocked at the gruesome killing.

Well, justice has finally prevailed, or should we say some semblance of justice, because out of the mob of about 50, only eight have been convicted.

We sincerely hope that the court considers this a "rarest of rare" case. The irony is, this sort of incidents are not really rare.

It may be noted that the same year, the nation was engulfed by a tumultuous debate over the issue of awarding reservation in centrally funded institutes to OBCs (in addition to the up to 69% reservation benefits they enjoy in all Government jobs and all but a few central institutes and minority colleges). Sadly, Priyanka (named after Priyanka Gandhi, a scion of India's ruling dynasty, which had tabled and since then passed the controversial bill) never got to go to college.

Heart Breaking News

Perhaps this is the beginning of the undoing of what was once a great civilization. Funny thing is, even that innocuous statement will invite storms of protestations from the intellectual class. Maybe this is by design, we don't know.

as far as eyes can see
there is a world for you
and a world for me ......

India's Bridge to nowhere, not built

NEW DELHI: In a bid to undo a Himalayan blunder, the government has scrapped the four-year-old project of building the world's highest bridge on Chenab (359 metres), a crucial part of the first railway line to Kashmir. The delay in cancelling the bridge, which was supposed to be built for Rs 512 crore, may cost it dearly as the government is already facing claims of Rs 300 crore from an international consortium involved in the project.

The abandonment of the bridge follows a belated discovery that it is unfeasible as the gorge in a high-relief mountainous region is not stable enough to bear the load of the mega steel arch. [link]

Is this important? Not really. But had it happened during the NDA regime, it would make it into a "Face the nation" show. That's all we are saying. Some other news items one came across in recent days that went sulking for want of a TV show:

- Dinner for Rajdhani express being prepared in an unhygienic facility
- More than 50% of India is poor according to latest poverty stats
- More than two thirds of India defecate in the open

We are not saying that these things are happening all of a sudden, just that these are not getting as much attention since "their Government" is at the center. That's all we are saying. perhaps they are all busy covering the American election and the Nuke deal.

There was another curious piece of news - a lot of kids died during clinical trial of drugs at AIIMS. This got a lot of coverage and eventually it was found that the kids who had died were terminal cases anyway. Funny thing is, the Health Minister (Sri Ramadoss) ordered an inquiry into the incident and generally made statements as if he has no responsibility in the matter.

This is the great advantage "their Government" enjoys in terms of public image. AIIMS good? All due to Ramadoss. AIIMS bad? No fault of Ramadoss, oh those stubborn casteist Doctors! Railways good? Laloo of course. Railways bad? Hey look look, Deepika Padukone!

A screenshot is worth a thousand words in a history book

Hope. Prayers.

CNN-IBN signs the CTBT

CNN-IBN editor Surya Gangadharan hosted a chat show in which he answered various questions from readers on behalf of the Government. A sample from the transcript:

Vijay: Any reverse affects if Obama comes to power?
Surya Gangadharan: He will be tough on non proliferation, may insist on India signing the CTBT (which we probably will next year).

Can anyone point out any other democracy at any time in history where citizens were so empowered? We can give Azadi to parts of India (too bad they didn't want it in the end). We can also unilaterally sign important international treaties on behalf of the Government.

Come to think of it, the recent events are pretty consistent with if Arundhati Roy were India's Home Minister and External Affairs Ministers rolled into one.

Desi "liberals" are in for a big shock

LOL.

The mis-argumentative Indian

In India, debates are settled by repetitively shouting straw man arguments. The side that shouts the loudest, wins. So, what was the Nuclear Deal about? India's energy needs you say? Well, can't find that in any newspaper reports. Let's look at some of the ideas put forward in support of the deal:

We need Nuclear Power:

No, we don't. We need electrical power, not specifically from Nuclear reactors. Unless we get it real cheap and without hassles. What we have here is not cheap, and not likely to become a significant source of energy in the next decade or so, despite the "deal". Let's not even talk about the hassles yet.

We need Electrical Power:

No we don't. We need to develop resources we can trade in exchange for power. If we are good at producing Rutabagas, let's make lots of Rutabagas and sell it to Bangladesh. Then we use the money to buy thermal power from grids off Pakistan or Hydro power from Nepal. Flippancy aside, even during the rare moments India Inc. actually thinks "reforms", we have a way to completely distort it still it stops making economic sense.

This is a pertinent point rendered a straw man argument by the after-deal fiasco. As we see it, reforming the conventional power sector, meaning which keeping Sibu Soren type of politicians away from the coal ministry and allowing more privatization will have a much bigger impact than Nuclear power. In fact given that only about 10% of projected installed capacity of 300,000 MW (Kalam estimate: 400,000) in year 2020 will come from Nuclear reactors, we must reform the energy sector in general and not get entangled into the kind of wild goose chase which kept the Government from functioning normally for almost 2 years of its tenure.

Oil is becoming expensive:

Oil is not used to make electricity in India. Next?

Actually, coal and gas are becoming more expensive too but so will nuclear fuel. Plus oil has become a victim of gravity lately anyway.

This is our last chance:

Just because Congress has a few months to go, doesn't mean we need rush into something this important. To paraphrase H.D. Kumaraswamy, in international politics there is no end. Countries are observed for macro level behavior. No one would remember we backed out of this deal. But if we test a small device in Pokhran desert, the liberal crowd in West Europe will sulk for decades now. Actually, there is a case for holding off this deal because in a decade or so we may get a front door entry into the Nuclear club and not a back door entry which we are attempting now.

President Kalam likes the deal:

This has little value other than say celebrity endorsement for soaps and detergents. Kalam is a technological man. Men like toys. Besides, Kalam's take on the deal is something very different. Here is CNN-IBN transcript and here is the TOI transcript for the recent Kalam interview. Watch the interview, the man has a completely odd perspective on the testing issue.

Kalawati wants Nuclear Power:

Well, Kalawati wants food, shelter and education for her children first. This would be the classic socialist argument, so it can be turned on its head. Assuming Kalawati does get prosperous and able to afford electricity, in year 2020 only about 10% of her electric will come from Nuclear reactors.

Nuclear Power is high-tech:

That is the basic problem, Nuclear Power has a sex appeal that titillates the middle class crowd. Admittedly, Nuclear science is at the most cutting age of science. But we are already doing some good Nuke stuff. We can still do those things and more.

India's Nuclear isolation (apartheid) will end:

Surely this is a subliminal appeal to the automatic revulsion Indians feel towards the caste system but has nothing to do with the original objective (Electricity, remember?). It is being implied that unless we do this deal, our development in all fronts, not just Nuclear Power, will be impacted. The Nuclear "isolation" only limited to a narrow range of technologies.

Our technological development is actually constrained by our own domestic laws more than any international restriction. Even the Nuke power thing will require repealing domestic restrictions on private investment. Funny thing is, the Pundits who are vociferously batting for ending "isolation" supported our dreadful anti-development Nehruvian regime for decades. Just read some of the editorials when the NDA Government was attempting to reduce our "trade isolation".

The Nuclear deal is complex and hence ordinary people won't understand it

Actually much of India's problems are a result of intellectual overload. Perhaps we need a cultural revolution. Right about now the Nuclear Deal is being hailed in exactly those terms the giant public sector follies were hailed during the Nehruvian days of socialism.

BJP also wanted this deal:

And that makes it a good deal? A pure conjecture and hence a straw man argument. In any case, the fact that BJP had something to do with this is being purged from history as we speak, after the King Singh's great "victory". The TOI timeline here, CNN-IBN timeline here. Do you see a mention of BJP?

BJP would have signed it under much less favorable terms:

See above.

It turns out that Congress also signed it under much less favorable terms! Pranab Mukherjee made a grand speech and they simply appended it to the waiver text. We should really keep politicians out of diplomatic matters - they simply do not know the difference between when they are speaking to Kalawati in an election rally and when they are speaking to the top hawks in the world.

US internal memos will not impact international agreements:

This is confusing cause and effect or rather precedence and antecedence. We could explain it but too tired right now.

Hey, does anyone still remember the original objective?

We do not need to test in the near future:

Singhvi said in a CNN-IBN show that we tested only twice, we may not test again in 20 years. Kapil Sibal also said the same thing. This is quite a departure from what they were saying before they went to IAEA. From their bravura stance of "we shall not make any compromise" they are now down to hope and prayers. Well, good luck, fellas.

Reactors are dying:

Well, after the deal, there will be a lot more reactors at the risk of death.

Muslims have no objection to the deal:

Seriously, our national policy must be endorsed by them. That is the most important thing.

Bloggers support the deal:

Well, yeah, sure.

How big a deal is Nuclear Power?

This is the latest report on what industry stalwarts estimate will be the business opportunities opened up by the Nuclear Deal:

An overwhelming 85 percent of the 300 chief executives polled held the view that modifications to India's Atomic Energy Act of 1962 could help the country to generate some 20,000 MWe (unit of nuclear power) by 2020.

[...]

The act [India's Atomic Energy Act of 1962: India's domestic act restricting Nuclear power generation to the Government] and the decades of India's nuclear isolation had resulted in capping the country's nuclear power generation capacities to an extent of just 3,900 MWe in over 60 years of independence.

As a result, out of a total installed generation capacity of about 145,000 MW of electricity, 70 [percent] is accounted for through thermal [coal and gas] fuel and 20 percent by hydro, with nuclear energy contributing to just two percent.

The remaining capacities come by tapping the various sources of non-conventional energy such as solar, wind, biomass and tidal waves. [emphasis added]

Let's walk through this.

In year 2008, the total installed capacity of Nuclear Power is 3,900 MW out of a total of 145,000 MW, i.e. 2.7%

Assume that our total installed capacity doubles to about 300,000 MW by year 2020. This is about 7% annual growth. It could be more.

Industry experts estimate our Nuclear capacity could go up to 20,000 MW in year 2020. This is about 5 huge plants generating up to 4,000 MW each, costing $15 Billion or more each. This will be just about 7% of our total installed capacity for electricity generation. Let's round it up to 10%, assuming even more aggressive capacity building than the industry pundits are estimating.

So, in essence the Nuclear deal will allow us to achieve just 10% of total installed generation capacity through Nuclear technologies by year 2020. This will be at a higher cost compared to conventional energy sources which will be inevitably heavily subsidized and the cost ultimately passed on to the taxpayer.

Admittedly there are fringe benefits - environmental, Indian companies may become suppliers of components etc. but there are things we will lose out on. There is the element of long tailed risk (Chernobyl etc.), land acquisition issues and the minor matter of sacrificing potential Thorium based solutions (provided we do not blow up our Thorium reserves along with the Ram Setu by then), pushing our domestic producers away from developing other technologies (Wind, Solar and Sea waves and indeed more efficient and cleaner thermal solutions).

This helps us to put into perspective the debate about sacrificing national security. A lot more on that later.

[Update]

The Business Standard confirms the projections. Also, this is how Dawn, Pakistan's leading English paper reports it:

For global nuclear energy companies, the decision opens the door to an atomic reactor market worth billions of dollars with India aiming to double its share of nuclear power to five to seven percent by 2030.

The Confederation of Indian Industry forecast business opportunities worth around 30 billion dollars over the next 15 years with India needing about 18 to 20 more nuclear reactors. It now has 22 reactors. [emphasis added]

Indian newspapers are maintaining a radio silence on this statistic. We are reading frothy editorials, poetic flourishes, self-congratulatory pats all around.

An unknown unknown

So, India got the NSG waiver! Singh is now the King of the World! Let's air drop leaflets of the NSG Draft text in the flood affected areas.

We would have gone through the NSG phase without much fuss, except for the explosive leak of a "secret letter". Until that happened, questioning the N-Deal would make you a pariah. But a funny thing happened, a secret letter was "leaked" and the ensuing confusion proved beyond doubt that no "intellectual" in India had really done a thorough job of thinking through the whole thing. Needless to say there will be lots of new interpretations and angles to cover this up, but let's not kid ourselves.

The TOI screencap, taken just after the expose, amply demonstrates this as does this NDTV show. We especially like the screencap, it completely summarizes the serious problems we can potentially run into - yeah, China, land acquisition, environmental protests. It shows utter chaos and confusion amid the TOI editorial staff. Extremely alarmed that this can cause serious trouble to their beloved party, they immediately put up that headline blaming Bush. That explains all the troubles in the world these days, doesn't it? Curiously though, this was the guy who pushed for the N-Deal in the first place. Are we missing something here? Some people have claimed that the leak itself was a ploy to allay the fears of NSG members. This is too cynical and conspiratorial a view of the world.

The economic implications of the deal has been conspicuous by its absence in all the debates on the issue. Nuclear power is simply not economical, unless you assign an arbitrary high value to environmental impacts. Refer to this MIT study and this WSJ article. Even the breaking news on yahoo says this:

Rood said it would help meet India's growing energy needs while helping the developing country — a major polluter — cut back on harmful emissions that experts warn are contributing to global warming.

It is not clear if the US or Western nations will subsidize the high costs of Nuclear Power plants by extending the carbon credit logic.

People like the deal for different reasons. We have essentially adopted a head in the sand approach for getting something of arbitrary value proposition in exchange for unknown handicaps on our strategic programs.

[Update]

Every American expert we heard so far on CNN-IBN or NDTV are saying "clean energy". No one has said anything about "economical energy". For instance this CNN-IBN segment.

(to be continued ......)

Assam floods, Maggi 2-minute noodles and a humble proposal

Sad news from the North East, Assam is looking at a very grim flood situation. Though not nearly as bad as Bihar, the situation is bad enough. It does not help that resources are stretched thin across several troubled zones: Orissa, Bihar and now Assam.

We appeal to media and bloggers to not politicize the floods. Much damage has been done already and we are as guilty as any other. But then again, it is a moot point. The flood in Assam means they will dramatically reduce flood coverage.

Amid all this hopelessness, a curious piece of news came to our notice. The Health Ministry has decided to distribute Maggi 2-Minute Noodle packages. True to his style, Dr. Ramadoss has done something no one would normally think of. This is a brilliant move. Thank you, Doctor.

Here is why. Perhaps the key to fixing all our PDS mess lies in this. Think about the fundamental issue of PDS - that of pilferage of food grains. Just like any other socialistic scheme, the goods do not reach the intended recipients (Rajiv Gandhi estimate: 15%, Rahul Gandhi estimate: 5%). Some people have suggested reforming the PDS by introducing vouchers. But this will not be adequate to fix the leakage issue. As long as the food distributed by PDS has an open market value, it will be looted.

If the PDS really has a social function, it is to ensure that food reaches the most needy, starving people. The Government should replace normal food distribution and introduce a substitute packaged food that is not very appealing, at a nominal price. Call it Denatured Nutrition Program. The direct impact of this will be that no one will pilfer food that has no open market value. Only people facing hunger will buy this food.

Perhaps this is as silly an idea as any other, but no sillier than the idea of PDS in the first place.

Coming up ....

RAW DEAL:

How the 'secular' establishment made a chootia out of Indians


Previous Posts:

July 28, 2007: The Nuke Deal: An open RTI petition: Questions an ordinary citizen must ask
August 04, 2007: Roaches: What about the 'liberal' nations?
March 08, 2008: A bad melodrama: Sign of things to come
July 22, 2008: Not convinced about nuclear power: It's the economics, stupid

Note: In case you find a certain word in this post offensive (we are pretty certain some seculars will pretend to be extremely hurt, 'oh! these abusive bloggers!'), we point you to this short story by Khushwant Singh.

Election

NEW DELHI: St Stephen's College on Wednesday elected a Kashmiri boy to the post of president for its Students' Union Society. Adnan Nayeem Asmi, a third year student of the BA (Pass) course, defeated his only rival Maryam Fatima of third year BA English (Honours) by a margin of 122 votes to become president. [...]

The new president hails from Srinagar district in Kashmir. He completed his schooling from Tyndale Biscoe School where he scored 85% in his class X and XII boards. His father, Fiaz A Asmi, is a manager with State Bank of India in Srinagar. After his boards, Asmi came to Delhi and joined St Stephen's to pursue his under graduation in humanities. Since then he has been an active member of the Students Union of the college. [link]

Looks like St. Stephen's is a fine secular establishment. Although it's a shame that it was a Hillary vs. Barack type of situation. Guess you can't have everything.

The point is, the Government should have jumped at this great opportunity for propaganda. In fact our media should have assumed a proactive role and at least made it into a nice little TV show for the consumption of the undecideds in Kashmir. It would also help neutralize Pakistani propaganda.

Oh, wait, this is our secular media we are talking about. Never mind.

A "rare" but heartening sight

The Kosi may have changed its course killing and displacing many in Bihar, but the river has also 'sank' religious differences as evident in relief camps where RSS men were seen serving food to Muslims. Clad in khaki shorts and caps, RSS men are serving gram and flattened rice to Muslim flood victims in a relief camp at Saharsa. The camp being run by 'Seva Bharti', a Sangh Parivar outfit, at the zila school campus at Saharsa presents a rare but heartening sight where the devastating deluge of Kosi has sunk bitterness and differences.

"Over a 100 people of my community are taking shelter here for more than a week now and we have absolutely no complaint. Life cannot be better than this in a relief shelter," says Mohammed Salauddin, who fled Parba village in Madhepura district along with his family to escape the flood fury. [link] [emphasis added]

Power of spin - a single word changes everything.

People are strange, when you are .....

Hate in C Minor

Caption not too far off the mark: John Dayal makes a
menacing gesture towards BJP leader B. P. Singhal

On an NDTV discussion, MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi asked a very pertinent question. He asked what if Haywood was Hamid? Would the Indian Police let him get away so easily? Thank you Mr. Owaisi. These are good questions to ask. After Haywood left, it was discovered that he was in India on a fraudulent visa (he had definitely lied about his purpose of visit).

Interesting things happened on the CNN-IBN show (from which the above screen cap was taken). This was a show on religious issues and true to form, myths flowed freely. They also got mercilessly shattered.

Apparently Minister of State Prakash Jaiswal had claimed that he was not allowed to go to the troubled site. Many newspapers including the Outlook are spreading this canard. Well, it turned out that he did not go to Kandhamal because of bad weather.

John Dayal claimed that "It is very difficult to become a Christian. If you're a Dalit, you lose your job and scholarship." This is less than half the truth. None of the conversions in Kandhamal were done legally, meaning which the collector was not notified. In many instances they still continue to claim these benefits. Also, this applies only for SCs. Secondly, although they may have to forsake benefits under SC quotas, they become eligible for minority institution quotas (St. Stephens)! There are other fringe benefits, check out the AP roster of recent GO orders and legislations. One mustn't forget that there is also the OBC quota to consider. So, Mr. Dayal's attempt at this inane spin miserably falls through.

The show did not go very well for Rajdeep Sardesai. Two persons who shone were BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy and Renuka Narayanan, editor of HT. Readers may recall that Satpathy was the only MP who spoke against the OBC reservation bill. Not only does the man speak well, he cuts through BS like hot knife through butter. No friend of Hindus or BJP, Renuka Narayanan refused to toe the party line. She told off John Dayal in no uncertain terms.

Now let's get back to the two more pertinent issues:

The first is the issue of Christian terrorism and violence. This is a serious issue that must be addressed immediately. Part of the problem is that the community has managed to stay out of radar and as a result has become infested with hardcore communal fundamentalists. Minority status does not automatically grant secular credentials. It is clear that rent seeking behavior has crept into the community. Nefarious activities like the Haywood case are taking place. Now they are openly threatening to form private militia. Wherever there is numerical superiority, such as Kerala etc., they cause distress to others. It is not that they are making much social progress either: in fact it seems like they have boarded a train back to the middle ages. The hushed up sex scandals in Kerala, religious indignation over movies etc. stands testimony to this observation. Most alarmingly, the self-styled seculars of this community have maintained a wall of silence about the problems within the community, while constantly highlighting problems of other religions. In any case, it is like, their problem, so we are not much concerned.

The second issue is of course that of religious conversion and its place in the LDR (Liberal Democratic Republic). If you are confused about the issue, it will only take a few seconds to realize that conversions are immoral by definition from a secular standpoint. You can not claim to respect all religions and then turn around and support conversions, especially the Industrial scale expedient variety that is happening in India. A post by Offstumped though somewhat frivolous in tone, explains this. We would argue that religious solicitation is even worse than sexual harassment.

There is no such thing as voluntary conversion. The exceptions are so few that they are statistical errors or special cases (formation of a new religion or cult, mass scale political conversion etc.). Most conversions are done under duress or inducement. The Swami was killed because he was shattering this myth on a day to day basis for all to see.

As far as its place in the LDR is concerned, we believe any attempt at changing the demographics, especially at this aggressive scale using foreign funds, is downright illegal. Simply because it breaks down the original socio-political contract people agreed to when they joined the LDR. It is downright silly to expect people to not react to it. Who will guarantee that the whole thing will not turn very violent? Certainly historical precedence and current behavior of the community does not inspire any amount of confidence. What is happening now is akin to ethnic cleansing. It is merely a slow form of invasion by foreign forces.

The United Nations does not have anything specific to say about religious conversions. It simply can not when the practice is illegal in most of its client states. So next time John Dayal runs to the UN screaming bloody discrimination, he may want to ponder this a little. In fact India should approach the UN for setting ground rules for conversions. Nations with homogeneous populations are advised to stay off this debate. It is not your goddamn problem.

A final word about the peace protests and rallies:

There is a buzz on the internet that reluctant students were made to march in peace protests and rallies. The reluctant part is unverifiable but quite plausible. Very few parents regardless of religion will let their precious little snowflakes go anywhere near political rallies. This is outrageous and utterly despicable. Using children for propaganda or warfare is nothing new, The Palestinians do it all the time. At least they use their own children.