Laloo's paper profits

It turns out that most of the profits shown by the Indian Railways under Lalooji's amazing management skills accrued mostly due to accounting tricks. Many independent analysts had secretly opined about this - although their opinions got silenced by Laloo's adulating admirers.

Laloo has been claiming that the railways made a profit of Rs 21,578 crore in 2006-07. But the actual figure was Rs 11,000 crore. Here's the secret of Laloo's added profits:

• Rs 9,000 crore pension funds shown as cash surplus
  
• Miscellaneous funds-Rs 2,500 crore-included in earnings
  
• Rs 1,700 crore due to the Indian Railway Finance Commission as dividend for lease of wagons put in the profit account
  
• Profits shored up by showing advance earnings for 2007-2008 in last year's balance-sheet
  
• Monies in the suspense account-funds promised but not yet transferred-reflected in the earnings/profits
  
• Tonnage carried by freight trains raised despite repeated objections and safety concerns. This brought in Rs 5,000 crore.
  
• Hidden costs to passenger tickets earned the railways Rs 325 crore [link]

As one official put it, "The turnaround is probably one-third true, one-third well-orchestrated publicity, one-third jugglery of figures."

The one-third true part would have come from the booming economy and a naturally increased demand for freight trains.

The worrying part is that a lot of this was achieved by putting the lives of the aam aadmi at risk. Under Laloo, railways overloaded their wagons and allowed local passengers to flood reserved trains. We will not speculate if the recent increased spate of railway robberies or molestations is a result of this.

This story also vindicates Nitish Kumar who had claimed earlier that he deserved credit for the turnaround. Well, had Nitish Kumar not undertaken a Rs. 17,000 crore infrastructure hardeining, we would perhaps see many Hyderabad flyover type collapses of bridges.

So, what about the various felicitations of leading management schools etc. heaped on Laloo?

The IIM study did make Laloo the man of the moment. So much so, visiting students from the Harvard Business School, Wharton and MIT were queuing up to study the miracle he had wrought. Or so it was projected. Now it seems that the visit by the students of the Harvard Business School in December 2006 was not to study any railway turnaround; they had merely called on the rail minister as part of their Camp India programme. Outlook contacted Seth Cohen, one of those students who had attended Camp India. He had this to say: "The visit was informal," he said, "arranged by our Indian hosts. It was not connected to any academic project." Ditto the MIT students toasted and hosted by Laloo.They came to India during their spring break in April 2007; the railways was another diversion during their eight-day break.

Do read the whole article.

Whispering games

Just came across this post at retributions. The same old tired theme, but this one comes with a twist. Apparently Azim Premji has to hide his Muslim identity in order to hold on to his wealth in a country full of fundamentalist and discriminatory Hindus. Awwwww, my poor little rich Muslim, so much trouble to hold on to his piggy bank of just $17B.

This got us curious. We searched for the author of the article, one Shri Yaroslav Trofimov. Guess what, even today WSJ ran another story by this author on its front page.

In India, 'Untouchables' Convert To Christianity -- and Face Extra Bias
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
September 19, 2007; Page A1

MEDIPALLY, India -- Every Sunday, women and children gather to pray in a tiny, whitewashed church on the edge of this southern Indian village, sitting cross-legged on blue plastic sheets as they sing Christian hymns.

The men don't dare to come. "If they are seen in the church, the officials will be informed," says Vatipally Aharon, Medipally's Baptist pastor. [link]

Basically, the thesis of the latter article is that Dailt Christians and Dalit Muslims are denied their right to education, which according to the author, can often mean "the difference between grinding poverty and a glimmer of hope for better life".

There is no denying the fact that the conditions of Dalits still remain very dismal. But these propagandists attempt to demonize a section of people who have very little, if anything to do with it. Social Activist Chandrabhan Prasad openly admits that Dalits do not face any discrimination in urban areas. There are no buses that say privileged only.

A number of homegrown propagandists lend credibility to these stories. Little research is done and the fancy tales are further embellished.

Shri Yaroslav Trofimov has published articles in WSJ before, they range from financial topics to India's endangered lions. Only recently he appears to have turned his attention to India's human rights violations. Perhaps this is because he has just published a book.

Wheat Statistics

Click for a larger image. Make your own conspiracy theory.

Gods old and new

Both Muslims and Hindu coolies and traders celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai. This year with Ramadan running parallel with the 11-days festival, celebrations have doubled with Hindus getting equally involved in organising Iftars. (TOI Photo)

Palestinian women seen through Ramadan decoration lights at the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City. During Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, Muslims across the world fast from from sunrise to sunset. (AFP Photo)

Bollywood actor Salman Khan offers prayers during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival at Lalbaug in south-central Mumbai. (PTI Photo)

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi being welcomed by the people in Shukul bazar area of his constituency, after his arrival in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. (PTI Photo)

Why the Rupee is rising

Simple, mid-term polls. The bad effects of a rising Rupee on the topline growth has a much higher latency than its benevolent effects on inflation. Of course the Government is practically pouring money into food grains to bring prices down.

This is a clear indication that mid-term polls will happen in early 2008.

This is also the reason the Government will push the 123 through. The Ram Setu will not be destroyed, sorry Kalainger.

I see rational people

Expected toll revenue from the Sethusamudram project: Rs.87.42 crores per annum (2008)
Haj subsidy: Rs. 180 crores (2006)
Vidarbha farmer package: Rs 3,750 crore (PM Relief fund) + Rs 1,200 crore (State package)

Ah the unbounded joys of secularism and socialism.

Meanwhile:

• we are importing wheat in large quantities
• at a much higher price compared to domestic farmers
• massive loot going on within the PDS system
• fake currency has flooded the country
• industrial growth is slowing down
• no clear policy direction for growth in the face of rising rupee
• no significant progress in infrastructure projects
• our cities are bursting at the seams
• our children go hungry
• we have many intellectuals and rational people

Public Deception System

Some more milk leakage from the mammaries of our welfare state.

NEW DELHI: In the last three years, Rs 31,585.98 crore worth of wheat and rice meant for the poorest of the poor was siphoned off from the public distribution system.

Last year alone, Rs 11,336.98 crore worth of foodgrain that the government is supposed to distribute to the needy at subsidised prices found its way into the market illegally.

Every year, India's poor are cheated out of 53.3% of wheat and 39% of rice meant for them. With the exception of 11 states and Union Territories, there is largescale diversion of PDS grain across India. And, these 11 states and UTs seem to be faring better only because the others are so far ahead in the dirty business. [link]

The government claims and the intellectuals would have you believe that socialism works. In reality the country is running on its own momentum. It is a miracle that the poor can survive at all. Meanwhile what we have at the top end can at best be described as crony capitalism.

If you don't find the above troubling, read about the fake currency racket. This thing runs to perfection.

Spotting the difference, especially in the Rs 1000 notes, is a tough ask. The only visible difference between a real and a fake note seems to be the image of Mahatma Gandhi on the watermark that doesn’t seem clear in a fake one. "The quality of these notes is very good. They are made in a bank note press and even experts can't tell them apart,” says Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Brijesh Singh.

The Mumbai police have nabbed four Bangladeshis travelling on genuine tourist visas for carrying Rs 1.28 lakh in fake, right into the heart of India’s financial capital. These notes are so perfect that they even pass the ultraviolet test and a discerning banker in a hurry wouldn't spot the difference. [link]

Unfortunately good governance and ground realities are not considered important enough issues for election. The party that generates the most catch-phrases wins. Right now the American liberal playbook seems to be in vogue. We are debating minutiae of religion while making heady trips to a largely vainglorious past at various opportune moments (1857, 1944 etc.).

We told you so

We were right on the mark, again.

NEW DELHI: Amidst speculation about mid-term polls, the Congress appears to be examining the possibility of expanding the UPA experiment by taking even arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and BSP on board. Uttar Pradesh PCC president Salman Khurshid insists that the approach to face future challenges is to take forward the spirit that brought the party to the centrestage via the coalition route.

In an interview to PTI, Khurshid sought to extend the olive branch to the Samajwadi Party, saying the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party "became allergic to us and we were never allergic to them". Seeking to go the extra mile to woo the Mayawati-led BSP, he said that party can be a "very valued passenger" in the "big train that is going to travel fast with a powerful engine". [link]

The BSP alliance idea is bogus, not gonna happen. At the most Congress will seek outside support at a later stage. It is too dangerous to pursue a possible split in the Dalit vote.

Congress will marry SP for sure, the Bachchans will do the kanyadaan.

Raghupati Raghav

CNN-IBN says what it wants to hear

In the latest turn of events, the doyens of CNN-IBN have perhaps decided that the Ram Setu issue is getting too hot to handle. Therefore, it is trying to steer the issue towards what always works, i.e. the Aam Aadmi. As you know, Aam Aadmi always trumps Ram.

According to this report:

Local fishermen say the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has hijacked the real issue - the livelihood of the thousands of fishermen settled there – to meet political ends.

They say the dredging of sand from the seabed and the limestone blasting – required for the construction to get underway – will affect fish populations and wreck the fragile marine ecology.

“The break the rocks here using big ships. When all this (debris) is thrown in the fishing area, it affects our livelihood. Our fishing nets are torn due to these broken rocks,” says a fisherman. [link]

The video can be found here. Since we do not understand Tamil, we could not ascertain if the fisherman on camera indeed said this:

Vishwa Hindu Parishad has hijacked the real issue.

The voice over did not contain the above statement. There is a world of difference between the above and:

1. Local fishermen say there is another, more real issue.
2. CNN-IBN thinks local fishermen think that VHP hijacked the issue, but did not say it. It was assumed anyway.
3. CNN-IBN thought it would be cool to have local fishermen say there is another, more important real issue and CNN-IBN thinks VHP hijacked it.
4. CNN-IBN thinks that it would be cool if local fishermen actually said "VHP hijacked the real issue".

This is bizarre.

Ram exists, secularism doesn't

July 2007:

American space agency NASA has said that the structure of sand bars and rocks situated in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, known as Ram Setu or Adam's Bridge in maps, is a natural phenomenon and not a man-made structure.

This was announced Saturday by N.K. Raghupathy, CEO, Sethusamudram Corp Ltd, at a press conference here when he revealed the contents of an email received in this regard from NASA's Johnson Space Centre. A few days back, the company sent an email to NASA to know whether Ram Setu was a made-made structure.

"This evidence contradicts claims that said it (Ram Setu) was created out of human activity," Raghupathy told reporters. [link]

September 2007:

US space agency NASA says pictures taken by its astronauts do not prove the existence or otherwise of a manmade Ram Setu bridge as mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

'Some people have taken pictures taken by our astronauts to make their claim. No position can be taken on the basis of these photographs in any way,' Braukus said when asked to comment on the controversy surrounding the site of the proposed Rs.24 billion Sethusamudram canal project off India's southern tip.

'The age, substratum, geological structure or anthropological status of the ocean bed in Palk strait cannot be determined by the astronauts' photographs. So there is no basis for these claims,' Braukus said. [link]

It is also true that a number of Hindu organizations and individuals had claimed that the Setu was man made on the basis of the very same photographs. But a Government official lying on record, do you see a problem with that?

Why the hurry? Why this desperation?

Ashok Malik writes:

That aside, projections have been made about the economic non-viability of Sethusamudram. It is possible that all of these are wrong, but the Government has not bothered to politically sell the issue. Instead, the overriding reasons for pushing ahead seem to be granting lucrative dredging contracts to flunkies of the DMK and its Ministers. [link via Sandeep]

Note the sheer hypocrisy of the Government's handling of this project (with dubious economic benefits) versus the 123-Agreement (which at least in theory has strong economic benefits). They want to destroy the Ram Setu ASAP. The 123 has been put on hold.

These antics certainly do not inspire any confidence in this dysfunctional Government. A bunch of anti-Hindus are masquerading as seculars. They can barely hide their glee at our predicament. This controversy is also a breather for the Congress and allows it to shift the focus from very damaging issues such as surging farmer suicides, the unsolved terror attacks in Hyderabad etc. It is no coincidence that this controversy comes close at the heels of the communal quotas in Tamil Nadu.

Ram Setu is a question of faith and respect. It is also a question of staving off future, far more damaging consequences.

CNN-IBN - Pakistani Newspaper

The accepted convention is to report a sports story from the home team's perspective. For instance: Sania won 6-3, 6-4 against Justine Henin etc.

CNN-IBN reported the thrilling ICC Twenty20 win by India over Pakistan from the Pakistani perspective. When the story first appeared on the website, it carried this pic, that of jubilant Pakistani players at an Indian wicket loss. At least they changed the pic within a few hours (we will post the screenshot when the story first broke later).

The headline, "Pak jinx continues against India, lose match", is something you would expect when India loses a match. Contrast this with:

TOI: India beats Pakistan 3-0, enter super 8s
HT: India pull off a stunner, beat Pakistan through a bowl-out
Sify: India beats Pakistan in twenty20 bowl-out



These people mentally live in Pakistan.

Mayawati's headaches

As we noted a few times earlier, Mayawati is the biggest problem for Congress for the upcoming mid-term polls (which will happen sometime in 2008). However, for Mayawati, the biggest problem right now is keeping the law and order situation under control.

Mayawati has already been betrayed by Congress. She supported Pratibha Patil in exchange for a massive aid package for UP. The package isn't forthcoming, they are giving her the runaround. Our reading is that Congress simply can not afford to make an alliance with Mayawati. If they do, it will be an implicit acknowledgement that Mayawati can be a viable alternative to Congress for Dalit upliftment. This is a huge problem. It is well known that Maya wants to be the PM, eventually. There are more immediate issues, Haryana may turn out to be an action replay of UP.

Quite naturally, Congress friendly media has been running a smear campaign against her. Bogus stories such as 100 days of Mayawati, Mayawati kicks out Reliance, Mayawati paid off her brother etc. are making rounds.

Let's come back to Mayawati's number one issue right now. It is clear that nefarious elements are trying their level best to start trouble in UP. This is the primary reason Mayawati had to give Reliance the boot. Since then, Mayawati has banned college elections and started an initiative to completely overhaul the police force.

It directly follows that Congress is going to make an alliance with SP. They have two common vote banks. Without Congress, SP does not have a leg to stand on. SP can do Congress' bidding to create trouble for Mayawati. UP has a lot of seats in the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, the UNPA alliance is unraveling.

Add all this together and you will hear the wedding bells ringing.

Ramachandra Guha's violent assault on history

Ramachandra Guha sure has a knack for stereotyping. In a recent column, he called Punjabis cheats. Now he claims that "we" have a violent streak (thanks to Sandeep for bringing this to our attention).The question is, who is "us"? The final para of the column offers some clues, it is Hindu men.

So we are violent, claims Guha. Can we have some benchmark here please? Are we more violent than Genghis Khan? How about the Japanese during the height of their imperial triumph? The caliphate? Crusaders? Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao? Vikings? American settlers in the early days? Darfur marauders? Also, will this benchmark be applied in real terms with some statistical backing (say per capita casualties, violations etc.) or will it be administered through mind reading?

Some of our sec-soc friends are actually right. We do need real universities. Since almost every kid is doing computers these days, we are seeing some serious scarcity in the liberal arts arena. People like Guha are jumping in to fill the void.

Guha claims that Subhas Chandra Bose was violent because he gave the following speech:

"Friends! My comrades in the War of Liberation! Today I demand of you one thing, above all. I demand of you blood. It is blood alone that can avenge the blood that the enemy has spilt. It is blood alone that can pay the price of freedom. Give me blood and I promise you freedom." (Burma, 1944, speech as Indian National Army commander)

Blood? Ooooh! So scary! Bring me the smelling salt.

Now let's see here. Here is an example of a typical speech by an army commander when he is about to send his troops in harms way:

"Boys, I want you to piss your pants, throw your rifles and run back to your mommas."
(England, 1944, General Patton)

Just kidding. He said something to the effect that he didn't want those sons of bitches (meaning the troops) to die for their country. He wanted them to make the other sons of bitches (meaning the Germans) to die for their country. (full speech).

Violent? A commander delivering a rallying speech before sending his troops into war. Violent? Huh?

Guha mixes excerpts from the Congress election manifesto, the Guardian newspaper, heresy evidence and his own interpretation of religion and culture to prove that we are - well, violent. Apparently every other historical text is wrong but his. The world war never happened. The Brits left solely because of the steely determination of Gandhi and Nehru. Guha finds roots of Subhas Bose's violence in the cult of Kali. Has he even taken the trouble of researching Subhas Bose? Bose's father had gurus from both Shakto and Vaishnava traditions. Bose was most influenced by Rishi Aurovindo's philosophy. In real life Bose was the most amiable person possible, not the bloodthirsty animal Guha wants to paint him like.

This is seriously funny. Richard Nixon was a Quaker, Jimmy Carter a Southern Baptist. Look what happened! By the way, Guha is a pure Tamil (as far as we know), in case you are wondering.

Most of the article is basically gibberish, bearing no resemblance to actual history and offering no real insight by way of analysis. As usual, he plays the victim:

As it happens, those who lost the political argument continue to have millions of followers and admirers. The chief architect of Indian freedom was Gandhi; the chief architect of Indian democracy, Jawaharlal Nehru. However, were a poll taken among middle-class men, Savarkar, Bhagat Singh and Bose would all garner more votes than Nehru and - in some states and among certain communities and classes - even more votes than Gandhi.

Now you begin to see Guha in true light. If certain communities do not accept his version of history, they are the bad ones. How true is his claim that Savarkar, Bose or Bhagat Singh would garner more votes than Gandhi? Why, then, do we have a party of perpetual Gandhi flashers in power?

Many ordinary Indians also admire him, as witness his presence on posters and calendars in middle-class homes across the land. Bose’s appeal is enhanced by the fact that for the bulk of his career he operated within the mainstream of, indeed at the very top of, the national movement. He was twice elected President of the Indian National Congress. That he then broke away from Gandhi and company and forged an alternative path of his own places him in a different category from Savarkar and Bhagat Singh.

Well, we have Osama's picture in ordinary homes too. Our political leaders name their kids Stalin. Bose broke away from Gandhi? Come on Guha Sahib, you can do better than that. The Gandhi-Bose feud is well documented.

In nothing else have Western writers gone more wrong about Gandhi than in overlooking his insatiable love of power and implacability in its pursuit. In this he was no different than Stalin. Only, he did not have to kill because he could eliminate his opponents equally well by means of his non-violent Vaishnava method. (I need not repeat here that he was a devout Vaishnava.) A well-known Bengali tale illustrates non-violence as practiced by Vaishnavas. One day a renowned Vaishnava, who was passing near some men who were about to kill another man, their enemy, stopped in horror and cried out: 'Hold, hold! Don't kill a creature of of Krishna!. ' ' What then should we do?' asked the men. The Vaishnava replied: 'Tie him up in a sack and throw him into the river.' This according to the Vaishnavas was not killing, but the non-violent way of getting rid of enemies. This was done. In like manner, Gandhi had Bose put into a sack and thrown into a river. Bose succeeded in breaking out of the sack, but his swimming strength was insufficient for him to attain either bank of India's river of politics. He was carried downstream, out to sea, eventually to reach foreign shores - only to die. Trotsy was murdered in Mexico. Bose was killed in an air crash on Formosa. Their modes of death was different, but the end was the same; a necessity in both cases for the man in power. (reproduced from Thy Hand, Great Anarch!, Nirad C. Chaudhuri).

It is quite clear that Guha is trying his very best for a national award. Any more of Nehru and Gandhi invocation (right now he averages about a dozen per passage) and he is a sure bet for next year's Padma Vibhushan. He is also showing signs of desperation. Mid-terms polls may come up. He has just released a book, the timing is just right. God forbid, if a communal party were to come to power next year.....

No Civics - just life stories

We first learned about the new NCERT Civics text for the seventh grade from an article in The Hindu. The article was ecstatic in praising this book. Apparently this book, titled Social and Political Sciences II, replaces Civics. According to the article, the book tends to avoid definitions to sum up a concept. It uses case studies and narratives instead.

During our time, Civics used to be a pretty dry subject. You had to memorize the names and functions of the pillars of democracy, i.e. the democratic institutions. You learned about your rights and duties. You also learned about the constitution.

Instead, this new book has a comicey feel to it, among other things it features images from the hit movie Deewar to illustrate the concept of dignity of labor.

This got us curious. We decided to analyze the book and find out what it is all about.

The very first thing you note about the book are the ugly black and white drawings. Through these drawings, the students are introduced to the socialist narratives. The book is chock-full of various social programs undertaken by the Congress led Government, for instance the mid-day meals (which prominent social activist Chandrabhan Prasad considers a total failure besides being a misguided populist measure).

While it is expected that a people friendly Government will try its very best to indoctrinate children in socialism, your eye doesn't really pop out until you come across this:

This friends, is the Article 15, according to this book. Note the missing three most important clauses. Now, given that this book is meant for 12-year olds, you could argue that they are not mature enough to understand the implications of the clauses (3) , (4) and (5). Unfortunately this is not the case. The students are expected to not only understand but react to this:


The second chapter introduces the concept of universal healthcare. The usual ideas follow, for some reason Kerala and Costa Rica are presented as two model places which implement ideal healthcare policies.

The third chapter introduces the idea of state versus central Government, their roles and responsibilities and also the concept of MLAs and "opposition". There is a comic strip in which two girls are going to school when they come across a Bandh. There is a loudmouth person with an antiquated PA system who the girls identify as the "opposition" leader. The girls sneer.

The very next page elaborates on a state assembly and explains who are the rulers and who are the opposition. It is no coincidence that they pick Himachal Pradesh, pointing out that BJP is the opposition.

This is not an isolated example, the book picks several socialist success stories from Congress or Left states.




In Chapter 4, the concept of housewife is demonstrated using a Sikh family. Chapter 5 features an exercise in which students are asked to draw pictures of people employed in various professions. Then they are supposed to tabulate the number of students who drew a picture of a male or female for any given profession. Most surprisingly, the chapter also provides model answers, which is supposed to be something like - farmers all males, nurses all females etc., i.e. the students are supposed to stereotype and then be told that gender stereotypes are wrong. This is seriously funny.

Chapter 6 through 9 brings up establishment related issues. These parts deliver a strong doze of socialist economics, the communist manifesto would have been a better substitute. The book regretfully informs the students that the big media houses influence public opinion and how that is a bad thing. We recommend that as a practical exercise students take a tour of CNN-IBN.com. The book informs that advertisement spending is evil because it tilts the game in favor of the big manufacturers who spend crores on meaningless ad campaigns that add no value to society. Markets create inequality, only favoring certain parts of the value chain. Finally, in chapter 10, as a glowing example of a socialist success story, the Tawa Matsa Sangh cooperative story is narrated. This one happened during the previous Congress regime in MP.

There is a reason Civics was taught the way it used to be taught. It tells you in concrete terms where you stand in the democratic ecology of a country and indeed what those institutions are. This appalling book does a travesty of education by adding conclusions, value judgments and sometimes twisted facts and statistics.

How about these for life stories:

• The average wealth of Congress MPs is over 3 crores and this is merely what they publicly state. Meanwhile the PM criticizes CEOs for making too much dough
• Dangerous games are played with the constitution on a daily basis. Right now, several unelected members of the Left parties have gatecrashed into the parliamentary process.
• This should be a case study titled "How you can bypass the constitution". Ninth schedule anyone?
• Now that farmer suicides are causing widespread embarrassment, they are being elevated to the status of a "national crisis". Gee, where did I see that before?
• You don't have to be a citizen of this country to be a member of the parliament, as Congress MP Subba has demonstrated
• In Maharashtra, every politician has a cooperative, a sugar mill and a college.
• You don't really need a majority to grab powers, for instance Goa.
  

This is not the only assault on textbooks. Congress plans an ever deeper revision of the texts until they become indistinguishable from the party's election manifesto.

Only in India!

We had quotas, then came reservations. Slowly "Affirmative Action" crept in too. Now we will also have "Positive Discrimination"!

Everybody happy!

Easy come, easy go

Congress is known to have a cavalier attitude towards issues such as national security and citizenship. Now they are embracing escaped convicts from other countries as their members.

Moni Kumar Subba, Congress MP from Tezpur in Assam, flashes his birth certificate when he is accused of being a foreigner who has faked his identity.A CNN-IBN investigation in March 2006 exposed Subba for lying about his place of birth and hiding his Nepalese identity. The birth certificate is the only document Subba has to prove his Indian citizenship, but a CNN-IBN investigation has again established that the certificate is a fake and that he is a foreign national. [link]

Subba is also suspected of being a convicted felon in Nepal. But then again, that may not be such an exclusive honor for a member of the Congress party.

This is not the only case where a person without proper citizenship holds a prominent political position.

An LJP legislator from Bihar has been asked by the Election Commission to explain her position in response to the allegation that she was not a citizen of the country. Nagina Devi, MLA from Bathnaha, received a letter from the EC asking her to be present in person on September 17 to explain her position on the allegation that she was a Nepali citizen, official sources said on Tuesday. In the event of her not turning up, it would be deemed that she had nothing to say in her defence, the letter said. [link]

While we are at it, there is no harm in checking out some of the MPs and MLAs from West Bengal.

Char Bigha Zamin

Priyanka Vadera's four-bigha plus agriculture plot in downtown Shimla fills the void that makes the surroundings a VIP Enclave in the real sense of the term. [..]

"It was the best available land that we have got for the daughter of our leader Sonia Gandhi," KS Khacchi, a local Congress worker, said. "The best possible efforts would be made to ensure that the structure that comes up is unique and scenic in more ways than one," he added.

Khacchi played a key role in buying the land for around Rs 46 lakh at the Government rate. Otherwise the land would have cost much more, given the proximity of the plot to Kalyani Helipad, Kufri village [..] [link]

Given that we have a surplus of social justice wallahs, farmers and locals are regularly getting the short end of the stick as far as land deals are concerned. Farmers have received abysmally low prices for their lands starting from Singur to Gurgaon. This farce continues, as Reality Check reports here.

Meanwhile, influential people continue to get land wherever they want at throwaway prices. This is a double whammy for the economy. First, the real land owners get zilch. Second, land is grabbed by people with political power who may not be the best users of the land. This land grab scam is the classic problem in socialistic economies. It is a combination of hold-up and rent seeking behavior.

The solution of course is to modify the laws to allow farmers to sell land at a price they want. The excuse that those laws protect farmers' interests is clearly no longer valid. Land is getting grabbed anyway, at least let the farmers enjoy some solid dough.

Recently, the Punjab Government took an admirable stand on land acquisition issues:

Badal said, "A company that wants to come to Punjab must buy land at market rates. The Congress government has given village and commercial land, like in Mohali. This is worth Rs 100 crore but it's been promised at Rs 2 crore. [..] We won't acquire land for anyone. Whoever needs to purchase land should do so at market prices."

"The SEZ policy is the decision of the Indian government and we are going to support it. We welcome SEZ in Punjab," Sukhbir Singh Badal said. Badal says his government has no problem with Reliance retail outlets. But he insists that the party buying the land must pay market prices. [link]

This Government claims to be the protector of poor farmers. In reality, they are running a brokerage service for land grabbers and scammers.

Unclear Agreement

No two persons appears to have the same understanding of the Nuclear Agreement.

Hydeous

Monday, 27th August 2007. Two days after the incident, Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA Nayini Narsimha Reddy, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President Dr. K. Keshava Rao share an ROTFL moment. [via acorn]

So, how are we doing since the blast?

Most politicians interviewed after the blast said that we do not need a tough terror law. They reminded us that even when POTA was in effect, we suffered terror attacks while simultaneously emphasizing the need for quick implementation of the Sachar committee recommendations.

Apparently there were lots of warnings about a possible attack on the city. The following report may offer some clues as to why no action was taken:

Police sources told TOI that in the last six months or so, the intelligence agencies were instructed to step up vigilance on the opposition political parties, especially the Telugu Desam, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Left parties. [..] According to the sources, with both general and assembly elections due in 2009, the political bosses have instructed the intelligence department to assess the political strength and poll preparedness of the TDP, TRS and the two Left parties. [link]

Using Government resources for political campaign is not new in India. But this takes it to a new low (or should we say high?).

Sadly, a POTA-less regime is proving to be no less potent in its potential for human rights violations.

Levelling allegations that about 50 Muslim youth were picked up by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the past five days, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (CLMC), India, on Tuesday put out names of 22 youth who were allegedly taken into custody by police.

"They are being tortured by police in torture cells in areas like Shamshabad, Uppal and Ramanthapur. Our sources said these interrogations are being carried out in resorts and hotels,'' Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee general secretary Lateef Mohd Khan said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Khan said riots had broken out in the Old City in 1990 due to internal differences in Congress party. "Now, the blasts could have happened because of the same reason," he alleged. [link]

This clearly runs counter to the popular opinions about POTA. You see, human rights violations in a semi-fascist country like India is generally a function of political will and the need of the hour. Add a little economics and human nature. With POTA, the cops could hold the most suspicious dudes for extended periods of time. Without POTA, they must cast their nets extremely wide in the hope of finding that odd little bit of evidence. Also, under tremendous pressure, the police will be forced to not report many detainees simply because they are in violation.

POTA is one instance of BJP's shortsightedness. They should have reenacted TADA by calling it TADA-II. Think about the implications.

If all this does not make sense, don't worry about it. Just order Hyderabadi Biriyani next time you go out for dinner.