The wussification of "liberal" writers

Bharat Mata by M. F. Husain

Amardeep Singh speaks out against the communalization of censorship in the recent issue of Himal Magazine. Ostensibly this is against the backdrop of the recent blog censorship by the Government. In the same issue, there is also a revealing commentary by a certain IAS officer who thinks that the main distinguishing feature of Bombay is its 6 million strong slum dwellers.

Anyway, back to Mr. Singh. In his zeal to appear secular, Mr. Singh presents a colorful canvas of communal censorship and practically covers all religions barring perhaps the Parsis and Buddhists.

Here is a brief list of items grouped by religion that he refers to and which drew communal ire and censorship in most cases:

Christian

The Da Vinci Code

Hindu

Bharat Mata by Husain (Painting)
Deepa Mehta's 1996 Fire
Girlfriend
(Fanaa)
James Laine's book Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India

Sikh

Rahul Rawail's 2005 Jo Bole So Nihaal

Muslim

Salman Rushdie's allegedly anti-Islamic The Satanic Verses
Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed

Political/Government

Michael Edwards' Nehru: A Political Biography was banned in 1975.
Anand Patwardhan's film War and Peace
Rakesh Sharma's The Final Solution
(Fanaa)


The most dangerous idea in Mr. Singh's article is not that all these instances of fanatic behavior should be seen in the same light but the fact that he tries to create an arbitrary standard for what may or may not be deemed offensive:

Certainly the question should be asked: What about images that are specifically created to offend, such as the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed? Or, along the same lines, what should be done with a film that fans the flame of communal hatred?

Er, Singhji, therein lies the problem. You may think that these were created specifically to offend. Would you agree then that Bal Thackerey was well within his rights to issue a fatwa on Husain? Also, you steer clear from discussing the difference between mere disapproval shown by a community and bloody riots, beheadings and movie theatre bombings.

Do you have the balls to use a Mohammed cartoon instead of Husain's painting in your article?

Miss Photogenic '06

No, not from the Miss Universe '06. See here.

Behind The Blog Ban

We may never get to see the 22 pages long actual list of sites intended to be banned, given that the RTI is being amended. Heck, I believe that the priveleged in India may soon have to start worrying about their Right to Exist. The web archive wayback machine is down at the moment and may take up to a week to come back. Meanwhile here is a collection of excerpts and screenshots from the various banned websites. Enjoy.

HinduUnity.org
[1. http://www.hinduunity.org]

While the site contains a lot of inflammatory statements and in some cases just plain bad language, there is no specific call to eliminate a particular community, nor is there a hit list on the site. They do have a black list but it does not ask anyone to kill somebody. Many links are defunct, some point to discussion boards. A commenter on their board asks if banning inflammatory websites was really the intention, why were these sites not banned? Note that there are hundreds if not thousands of Islamic web sites in operation in India. Many of them call out to Muslims to go on Jihad, eliminate infidels and establish the Sharia law.


The Jawa Report
[2. http://mypetjava.mu.nu Actual URL: http://mypetjawa.mu.nu]

The URL on the list was misspelled. It is easy to see the actual target of the ban was The Jawa Report. This is a conservative blog. No inflammatory speech here and the language is quite civil. The only crime of this blog is that it is highly critical of Islamic militancy and their appeasers. According to the site, the name Jawa has its origins here. The site flaunts the following on their logo:

Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil - Thomas Mann.

The Jawa Reports points out that India still hosts websites and TV stations for the terrorist outfit Hezbollah. This is Jawa report's own explanation of the ban:

Why did India ban this website? And what is the larger meaning of this action?

The short answer to the first question is that we offended Islamists and India is afraid of its own Muslim citizens. The short answer to the second question is that, sadly, it is increasingly becoming evident that liberty may not be able to exist wherever there is a large population of Muslims.

What, specifically, did we do to offend Islamists and their supporters in the Muslim world?

Editors in Pajamas
[3. http://pajamaeditors.blogspot.com]


Once again, another right-wing type blog. There are thousands of conservative blogs. We suspect that these were specifically chosen because at one point of time they carried the controversial cartoons or had posts deemed offensive to Islam.


OpiniPundit
[4. http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com]

In their own words:

Excuses from the government for the move were all over the board. First we were a vehicle by which the terrorists were transmitting communication between each other, then we were inciting violence with our "doctrine of hate", Now we are categorized as just "highly offensive" to the Indian Muslim community and hence must be silenced in the name of cultural harmony.

This action by the Indian government is as inefficacious as it is transparent, to pander to a group in their society that has them scared sh!tless in the misguided belief that little gestures like this will mollify these people. In their minds it also has the added benefit of portraying them as "doing something" about the Mumbai bombings. Just how stupid do they think you all are?

Pirate's Cove
[5. http://thepiratescove.us]


In their own words:

Anyhow, it is rather strange to be blocked, considering that I have never posted anything anti-India or Hindu. Lots of anti-Muslim stuff, though, like this and this, and lots of other things that would upset a Muslim. They're so touchy, you would think they were Progressives

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the population of India is only 13.4% Muslim. Well, as Kosbat says, screw 'em (the Indian gov't and the Muslim population, not the other people of India.)

Common Folk Using Common Sense
[6. http://commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com Site moved to: http://www.commonfolkusingcommonsense.com. The provided URL links to a Japanese language blog about Korean films and TV dramas. Well, don't ask.]


According to these folks:

India is still censoring this website. Apparently, India considers making fun of terrorists and their Islamist supporters more dangerous than the terrorists themselves. I'm #6 (but I'll try harder) on India's list of 17 websites that are being censored.

Following the ban the site published a series of wonderful articles on India's historic past.

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
[7. http://bamapachyderm.com]


This blogger has a message for you:

UPDATE 3: I don't usually send out a "welcome" to new readers, but for the Indian readers here for the first time who are coming through a proxy, WELCOME! Just so you know, you won't find any anti-Indian or anti-Hindu stuff here. I'm cool with y'all - I even watch some Indian movies and love books from Indian writers (in English, of course) - really. In fact, if I got some moron leaving comments attacking India here, I'd run them off. That's why it's so weird that I'm banned in India. I can definitely see being banned in Pakistan, but India??? OK, whatever; some dhimmi or Muslim fanatic got his panties in a wad (again!). So again, welcome!

Princess Kimberley
[8. http://prinesskimberly.blogspot.com Now defunct and being used by an American teenager. Content retrieved using web archives]



Merri Musings
[9. http://merrimusings.typepad.com Site moved to: http://www.merrimusings.mu.nu]


A personal blog of a woman who writes mostly about cooking and personal stuff:

Apparently the Indian government feels that Merri Musings (albeit my old url that's no longer in service at http://www.merrimusings.typepad.com) is worthy of being censored so the people in India are not subjected to the content of my blog.

She welcomes you to her blog:

But those of you in India who want to read about Rachael Ray, get a few recipes, read about pedophiles and child molesters (oh, and the occasional political rant) - stop over here - it seems you are still welcome to be here courtesy of your government.

Her offense: at one point of time linking or publishing images considered offensive to Islam.

Macker's World
[10. http://mackers-world.com]


This blogger wrote a message to the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India:

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

As an American citizen, I am truly disappointed at your government's denial of access for my weblog to reach your citizens. I have never said anything detrimental about India's efforts to fight terrorism, which leads me to sadly conclude that your government has taken this action because I dare to criticize and ridicule the REAL enemy in the War on Terror...and you know as well as I do who I am referring to. It is my hope that you can direct your Cabinet Minister for Communications and Information Technology to rescind the restriction not only against my blog, but also the sixteen others listed in the fax dated July 13, 2006.
Thank you for your attention.

He also has an audio message for you, the people of India. A rough transcript:

The following message is to the Government and people of India. Greetings. My name is Macker. If you are hearing this, you have managed to bypass your Governmen't directive which bans this site from your right to examine it. Here is my message to you. To the Government of India, you are wrong in blocking your citizenry's access to my site or any other individual sites which you have seen fit to block. You are letting a minority of your country control what can or can not be seen by the majority. I don't have to say which minority I am talking about. You know as well as I do, who that is. And to the good people of India, the majority of whom will not be offended by what I have to say: Don't let the minority to push you around. Hold your Government accountable for the actions they have taken in the name of appeasement for that is exactly what they are doing. Stand tall and stand proud, good people of India. We the people of the United States, Canada, Israel and every free country in the world will stand with you. Thank you. That is all.

Dalitstan
[11. http://dalitstan.com Now defunct and leads to a site about paintings. ]

Hindu Human Rights
[12. http://hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html Content taken from http://hinduhumanrights.org]

Quite expectedly the site carries gory images and stories about the carnage at Kashmir and places affected by Islamic terrorism. The specific html does not seem to exist anymore. This site seems to be run by British Hindus and primarily focused on protesting images offensive to the Hindu religion. See their petition here.

nndh
[ 13. http://nndh.com defunct]

bloodroyaltriped
[14. http://bloodroyaltriped.com defunct]

Yahoo Image Search
[15. http://imagesearch.yahoo.com Actual site: http://images.search.yahoo.com/]

Probably blocked because it could be used to search for Mohammed cartoons. Just a thought.

imamali8
[16. http://imamali8.com defunct]

Rahul Yadav's personal website
[17. http://rahulyadav.com]

His only offense seems to be linking the VHP and RSS websites. The site being password protected, we could not see much of it.


It is quite clear that the list was prepared many months back and originated from the fatwa issued by some cleric. Most of these bloggers themselves feel that they were blocked because of their anti-Islamic content.

Don't believe their lies

In his latest article, Shivam Vij, the most recent messiah for freedom of speech (after Arundhati Roy, Dilip D'Souza and most imams), carefully omits the fact that the original CET directive contained a list of sites 22 pages long. Indeed, we were eventually handed over a trimmed list, hastily typed on a piece of paper:


While many from the Congress PR machine initially tried to pass it off as an attempt by the Government to prevent terrorists from communicating, Dilip D'Souza has the most interesting theory:

Another postscript: MadHat has left a response to this post suggesting that this may all have been a typo, and perhaps the government meant to ban princesskimberly.logspot.com (i.e. leaving the "b" off "blogspot) -- which, it turns out, is some elaborate Bible site. ("AmazingBibleStudies", complete with chortling smileys shouting "Oh my Gaad" on top).

How 'bout some journalistic integrity, D'Souza? (We will cover it in our post analyzing the ban).

Here is the funny thing, Dilip somehow manages to pass himself off as a libertarian!

Dilip, it seems to me you're a libertarian (in the traditional American sense) -- is that right? (no pun intended)

Indeed, Dilip's cunning can be devastating for the uninitiated. Casual readers, please exercise caution.

Getting back to Shivam, we think the dude needs some basic lessons in journalism. One word: research. Granted that you were able to create a nice diversion by shifting the blame towards "babus" and incompetence of the ISPs (while conveniently omitting the important detail about the 22 pages), did you have to make those amateurish comments about some of the banned websites? For instance, hinduunity.org does not contain a hit list. Yes, the HTML file is called hitlist. html, but what it contains is a black list.

Hit list <> Black List

Likewise, www.rahulyadav.com is not run by a person who calls himself a member of the VHP.

'Commonfolk Commonsense' is a not a Chinese language blog, it is in Japanese.

Perhaps these minor details are not important to him. We can not expect any better from a welfare parasite weaned on propaganda all his life.

Congrats, Shivam Vij dude

Shivam Vij of The Other Idiots fame has emerged as a national hero for the fight against censorship campaign. He also got his first break as a journalist and wrote this piece, titled:

Are Internet Service Providers blocking blogs?

Much confusion abounds about the blog ban. Shivam theorizes that the idiotic ISPs are the ones responsible. Bureaucrats, colloquially referred to as "babus" also faced some of his music. On a google group meant to discuss strategies to counter the ban, Shivam playfully recounts some of his funny encounters with officials.

Some readers speculated whether Shivam will be up for an Outlook-Picador award or something while others noted the irony of the incident. A reader noted that it is almost like a reporter from The Organiser getting a booker prize for covering the Tehelka Sting.

Incidentally, for an aspiring journalist, Shivam is woefully out of touch with other important current events including the proposed laws banning sting operations and the new broadcasting bill.

Meanwhile another eminent blogger claimed that a mysterious entity called "the Government" (whose connection with a particular political party is purely accidental) has caused this blocking to happen. "This ban illustrates what Governments do", he adds. He suggests we take this opportunity to practice fighting bigger evils, sort of like a fire drill. "Bring it on", he says in the end, invoking images of cheerleaders.

When I visited the google group, I found a carnival like atmosphere. Plenty of chatting going on, cool dudes trying pick up lines etc. I heaved a sigh of relief. This incident then is hardly as serious as the previous ban on freedom of speech by Hindu fascists.

More coverage on the ban was provided by RealityCheck and ImaginaryShadows.

Censorship: A failing Government's best friend

Those who are worried that the current Government might be in danger because of runaway inflation, farmer suicides, governance issues, reservation fiasco, numerous defence scandals, security leaks, disinvestment drama, ghastly terror attacks etc. (oops! that was a long list baby), you may have reason to heave a sigh of relief.

The Government has embarked on a comprehensive program to ensure that in the coming days we only see a media friendly Government and a Government friendly media.

Sting Operations:

Well, no more of those annoying stings. Before you sting, you will be expected to knock doors, properly introduce yourself and explicitly state your purpose of visit. Read more here about the new sting regime and its ten commandments. It is not clear whether the sting victims are expected to cooperate and be a good sport.

Media Control Management:

Hon'ble Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Das Munshi categorically said that the proposed Broadcasting Services Bill will not be diluted. Shri Das Munshi, who has a stellar record as opposition leader in WB, insisted that the new bill will be media friendly. Read more here and here and here. Among other things, the bill will seek virtually unlimited powers to authorities to seize equipment without being unswerable to any court of law. Another important aspect: each TV channel must ensure (reserve) 10% of time for social service/public messages. It is not clear whether this will be increased to 49.5% in the near future.

Sensitivity to Minorities:

The Government will ensure that important rights of minorites such as threatening riots and physically assaulting reporters will be upheld. Here is one example where a minority leader exercised his right. After the incident, he said that he felt strangely liberated and free for the first time in a land of oppression. Well, we added the last part but it is a likely sentiment.

Blog Blocking:

We like that, blog-block block-blog! Quite a tongue twister, isn't it? Well, apparently the Ministry of Telecommunications has sent a letter to ISPs to block the blogspot.com domain. Traffic from India has noticeably thinned to our blog. For details read here and here.

Be forwarned, you might be reading content that is deemed inappropriate by the Government of India.

No POTA but must have QUOTA

Even as the gory images are being flashed on the television channels 24/7, there seems to be little headway in the investigation. It is not even clear what sort of explosives were used. There are theories about explosions occuring in the 4th compartment of each train. So, those who believe in mean reversion and want to get a seat, the 4th compartment could be your best bet from now on.

Meanwhile the PM issued a statement that POTA is not required.

Let's take a quick trip down the memory lane. POTA was no accident. In fact it was not even the first such law designed to fight terrorism in an effective manner.

In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi created TADA to deal with the Punjab situation.

In 1995, TADA was allowed to lapse by the P V Narasimha Rao government.

TADA was by all accounts a violent cousin of POTA. Over 75,000 people were detained under TADA over the years. Compare this to a mere 4,000 people detained (800 formally arrested) under POTA. Ironically, TADA would be most useful in prosecuting Rajiv Gandhi's assassins.

In 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, the Government comtemplated enacting special legislature. The POTO was enacted.

In June, 2002 following the ghastly parliament attacks, POTO was replaced by version 2, i.e. POTA.

Well, there is more.

In June, 2004, the very first thing the current Government did after coming to power was to repeal POTA.

In September 2004, the toothless Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was reenacted. This was an archaic law from 1967 to which some clauses were hastily added.

The truth remains that despite the huge communal spin given to special legislature in dealing with terrorism, various Governments always felt the need for such laws. The main reason for letting TADA lapse was the hue and cry raised by various human rights watch organizations. Meanwhile, our human rights records continue to be stellar. We have over 30 million cases pending in various courts across the country. Many people languish in jail for decades. See this recent report on women prisoners. Under the backdrop of such a dismal state of our law and order infrastructure, the utterly misplaced concerns about high-handedness in dealing with possible terrorists is cruel joke played on the victims of the blasts.

The current law is totally inadequate in dealing with terrorists. It does not have the provision to detain suspected terrorists for a long period of time, not does it have a component to deal with the financial aspects. The main purpose of such laws is to cut through bureaucratic crap. Imagine how effective it will be to use a combination of UAPA and FERA in chasing the money trail. There will be a myriad of agencies to deal with, lots of red tapes to cut.

Under the current political backdrop there is no hope of justice for the victims. Politicians are openly protecting suspect terrorist groups. Even before the echoes from the blast had died down, human rights watchers started raising hell. Who has the political will to proceed with the investigation?

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

Even before the blood had dried on the tracks following the attacks, Mulayam Singh Yadav worked hard to keep his beloved SIMI off the hook. Take a look at some of the stellar achievements of this student organization here and here. As you can see, even on the day of the attacks some SIMI members were being rounded up at another place in connection with a different event.

SIMI was founded on April 25, 1977. This organization spreads its tentacles from UP (perhaps even J&K) to Kerala. SIMI was first banned in 2001 under TADA, following communal riots in Kanpur. The ban was continued under POTA. Efforts were on to repeal the ban both from Mulayam camp and the center. However, a special tribunal upheld the ban in March '06. SIMI had sought reprive just 5 days before the blasts.

I guess whether SIMI is a terrorist organization is a moot point. As far as we can tell if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.

Well, when various parties turned the heat on Mulayam, he immediately backtracked. So, what else is Mulayam up to these days?

1. He is busy pampering his henchmen for hundreds of crores, new bungalows etc.
2. He handed out dole to unemployed youth while simultaneously blasting the PM for playing favorites with Vidarbha farmers.
3. He requested the SC that his son and family members be allowed to file income and wealth tax in a sealed cover.
4. He is also developing a tourist spot.

Meanwhile, what a terrific performance his Government has exhibited in UP. Please peruse this article by none other than a Congress Rajya Sabha MP at your leisure.

Some highlights:

If 18-hour power cuts, collapse of law and order, stagnant industrial activity, rampant corruption, casteism and nepotism to the core can make a state Uttam Pradesh (best state), then Uttar Pradesh has definitely earned the distinction. The state government is spending crores on publicising it, but the average UPwallah is so infuriated of the ground realities that no number of full-page advertisements and giant-sized hoardings can turn red into rosy. As things stand today, there is a serious danger of UP turning into a rogue state.

A Public Service Announcement

We know that a lot of bloggers (for instance here, here and here), journalists and politicians were concerned about the safety of the heroes who aveneged the death of their kin in the Gujarat riots of 2002. Well, no more worries.

The Lashker-e-Qahar said 16 people were involved in the terrorist operation in which they triggered seven blasts in local trains.

The organisation said it was making their involvement public since all the 16 people involved in the operation were now safe in their places.

As a matter of fact the Maharashtra and central Governments worked very hard to ensure the safety of the freedom fighters. Reports say that police took quite a while to reach the blast scenes and rescue efforts were already on the way by locals. To those who try to compare this to the late arrival of police in Gujarat riots and attribute it to general administrative sluggishness, we say bull! See, in Gujarat it was important to ensure the safety of the Hindu fundamentalists. In Bombay too, it was important that the heroes reach home safely.

Hall of Shame

Here is a brief roundup of activites of various people after the Bombay blasts. The last of the explosions occured at 6:35 PM. At 7:18 PM, Abi blogs about happiness. Of course we can not blame this professor for not catching up sooner, given that he lives far from the spot. He wisened up only at about 8:41 PM, when he wrote a brief post on the terror attacks. Needless to say what Abi says on his blog is entirely his own business and certainly not everyone is obligated to write about every tragedy.

Let's see what a famed journalist was doing during the aftermath. It is fair to assume that the news of the blasts took at least a half-hour to propagate. Given the unrelenting rains and the unforgiving traffic, it would take at least 45 minutes for even journos to reach any of the blast spots. This brings us to about 7:50 PM. Dilip D'Souza wrote his first blog entry at 10:42 PM. He wrote several other posts the same evening and following morning, at 11:02 PM, 12:12 AM, 12:33 AM and 9:33 AM. Again, we assume that Dilip started writing his first blog post at around 10:30 PM. It would have taken him at least 45 minutes to reach home. Therefore he left for home from wherever he was at 9:45 PM at the latest.

Dilip D'Souza spent less than 2 hours outside the cozy comforts of his apartment, following the blasts. He was home by 10:30 PM, in time for a nice dinner perhaps. He also got at least 8 hours of sleep while his heart bled for the victims.

The posts he writes are not just hastily written snippets. They are long deliberate essays, full of links and information. Moreover, in each of the posts covering the blasts, he meticulously linked the previous ones. He also informs that he didn't get to donate blood. At least he tried. Dilip has also started a new blog, in case you haven't noticed. Apparently this blog will list the names of victims of various tragedies. Makes us wonder, does Dilip really want this blog to grow? For a journalist his research seems to be woefully inadequate, given that he didn't take the pain to write the full list of victims. Even amateurs like us did a better job in the previous post.

Quite surprisingly, not one of the 10 bloggers of The Other Idiots had any time to update the blog about the blast. Perhaps first class passengers are not deemed part of the other India.Their latest blog post as of now is about Shiv Sena, which is ironic to say the least.

If Arjun Singh has his way, students in India can expect to have many exciting classmates, including some trained in modern guerilla warfare techniques, firearms and explosives. Should be a lot of fun. By the way, he announced this the very next day of the blasts.

Dilip D'Souza categorically denied Al Qaida involvement in the attacks, the very next morning. Mulayam Singh denied that he had ever tried to protect SIMI. Looks like the investigation was doomed even before it had begun.

The award however goes to a journalist who wrote this interesting piece. Granted that many bloggers were dying to see riots following the blast, none can match this one. You can almost sense that he had already written down a piece about the supposed riots. We expect him to gain widespread fame in the days to come in international journalism.

Victims of Statistics

On July 11th freedom-fighters bombed the heck out of commuter trains in Bombay. Those who were lucky didn't even hear the blasts.

Given the Government and general public's total lack of objectivity, we decided to do a little analysis. There were two theories floating around:

a) These blasts were to avenge the 2002 Gujarat riots
b) The planners tried to avoid Muslim casualty

We set out to do some basic analysis. We pulled the list of the names of the dead from the Bombay Police Helpline. Then we took a list of common Gujarati last names from here. For some reason we ended up with 214 dead. We decided that this wouldn't hurt our analysis much. A quick and dirty analysis revealed:

a) There were 47 Gujaratis among the dead
b) Total number of Muslims killed: 7

Now, the percentage of Gujaratis in Bombay is reported between 14 and 18%, while the percentage of Muslims is about 17%. Assuming a reservation type logic, we should have seen about 30 - 38 Gujaratis and 34 Muslims among the dead.

Conclusion: huge success on both counts. Of course you would think that to kill Gujaratis you would go to Gujarat but that's another story.

Note: I will post the names of the dead as a comment on the blog with Gujarati and Muslim names highlighted. As I write this, there are reports that the Government is totally clueless about the bombings. Not that there is a huge political will to find any clues.

Live and LeT die

You'll take my life but I'll take yours too
You'll fire your musket but I'll run you through
So when you're waiting for the next attack
You'd better stand there's no turning back.

The Bugle sounds and the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath
As I plunge on into certain death.

- from The Trooper by Iron Maiden.

Saare Jahan Se Achcha

Apparently Shivam Vij of the Other Idiots has changed his major to economics. He states that India's per capita GDP of about $728 is only better than sub-Saharan Africa. There is a thing called PPP but let's not talk about that yet. Indeed, it is extremely shameful. So let us see how we got here.

Here is an interesting graphic, depicting the percentage of time a particular political party was in power at the center:

So, what is the outlook for tomorrow? A quick look at some of the people who are supposed to steer us away from our misery:

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon'ble Prime Minister:

All we can say is that any rumors to the effect that he may quit are not, we repeat, are NOT true. Recently he visited Vidarbha and made the teary eyed pledge of about a billion dollars. The farmers welcomed the move, by committing more suicides! The good doctor has completely shattered the stereotype of the valiant and couragous Sikh. From a liberal standpoint stereotypes are bad so I guess it is a good thing.

Shri Palaniyappan Chidambaram, Hon'ble Minister of Finance:

PC as he is affectionately called, is busy telling the nation that in fact his life experiences may be the best research that we have. Illiteracy? No problem. Just take a small leaf out of PC's illustrious life, a part of which was spent in defending big bad corporations like Enron for instance. Recently a stray comment by PC about taxes on FII portfolios sent the stock market tumbling. PC is busy fighting inflation at the moment so we will leave him for now. In any case he certainly deserves a whole post of his own.

Shri Laloo Prasad, Hon'ble Minister of Railways:

When he is not busy attending the marriages of his numerous kids (we lost count how many) and saving himself some taxes in the process, he visits Europe with his beloved wife.

Dr. Anubumani Ramadoss, Hon'ble Minister of Health and Family Welfare:

When he is not busy terrorizing the medical community or prescribing iodine to us, he likes to pose for photo-ops with film stars. Meanwhile we have fixed all our health problems including dismal malnutrition, diseases and lack of even basic medical facilities in the rural areas.

Shri Kamal Nath, Hon'ble Minister of Commerce and Industry:

His talk shows on social justice and threats to implement SC/ST quota in the private sector sent shivers down the spines of industry leaders. Meanwhile I guess he didn't have much energy left to do anything useful in the WTO talks.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[...to be continued.]

Separated at mountains?

The left picture is that of blogger Krish of Krishworld.

Dead Farmers

Dilip D'Souza wonders about the range of responses received on the topic of farmer suicides on the Other Idiots site. For some reason, his own response is supposed to carry more economic weight just because he has been to Vidarbha a few times. It is very clear that in those visits he didn't do much other than pose for a few photo-ops and collect a few sob stories. That is why when Abi asks him a direct question about a very pertinent topic in a comment, he says he does not know. An example of the fear-mongering he indulges in:

At close to 100 million people - larger than the UK - I'd say that's a pretty huge hot spot.

Well, 100 millions is the population of the entire state of Maharashtra. Vidarbha is just a part of the entire state which also includes Nagpur by the way. Vidarbha is a problem but there is no need to blow it out of proportions.

One more example of Dilip's journalistic integrity:

Dilip excoriates Monsanto for selling a cotton seed variety supposedly resistant to pests yet on the packages there is an instruction:

Twice a week, after counting pests in the bollguard-planted field, you must spray

A commenter points out that he got the translation wrong:

The reporter got translation wrong. The translation is:

(Twice a week, after counting pests in the bollguard-planted field, you should decide whether to spray).

AND NOT

(Twice a week, after counting pests in the bollguard-planted field, you must spray).

It is a mute point whether the mis-translation was intentional.

Each time a farmer dies the intellectuals belonging to the socialist cartel publish books, write Ph.D. theses and articles in newspapers.

In the days following the PM's most magnanimous package announcement, more farmers committed suicides.

Eighteen cotton farmers in India's Maharashtra state have committed suicide despite a recent relief package announced by the Indian prime minister.

Earlier this month Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced aid worth nearly $815m for the farmers.

Why are we not surprised?

We need data and dispassionate statistics. Once again, kudos to blogger RealityCheck for his continuing quest for data. Farmers commit suicide all over India. Vidarbha is a hotspot because it is close to the comfortable abode of the socialists.

[Note] Post updated following tips from blogger confused.

It stings

Who else finds this funny?

Against the backdrop of some sensational sting operations by the media, an official committee has drafted a comprehensive set of guidelines contemplating a series of dos and don'ts for the broadcast media.

Under the guidelines the media persons should identify themselves to potential targets when undertaking such an operation.

Has this thing got something to do with this or this?

Sania

Sania, please lay off the biriyani. Also, please stay away from commie parties. Imams, please lay off Sania.

PS. Can anyone tell us why an IAS officer would suddenly go ape-shit against jews?

Emergency Room

Ramadoss asks Govt. to immediately implement 27% OBC quota.

Planning Commission member B L Mungekar strongly advocate the need to implement in one go 27% reservation for OBCs in educational institutions of all denominations - centre, states and private unaided.

Hurry up! Hurry up! Give away free seats already. Ah! All those votes. Ballet lessons for my daughter, tennis lessons for my son. Perhaps a Kashmiri beauty contest runner-up for me. Quota quota, must have quota. Immediately! At one go! 9000 crores? No problem!

The question is, who's dying?

Chinese chips

Communist bloggers in India never tire of raving about China. How China kicks Indian ass, how China will beat the living daylights out of the privileged software folks etc. As a matter of fact China is growing pretty goddamn fast but its advantages are eroding faster than those of India. A competitive advantage borne out of pure labor cost arbitrage will not last forever. Anyway, this post is not about India vs. China (*).

The prestigious Shanghai Jiaotong University in China said Friday it has fired its Microelectronics School dean for faking research that led to a fraudulent chip.

Chen Jin, who also is a manager of Hanxin Sci-Tech, developed four chips called Hanxin that failed to perform functions Mr. Chen had claimed, such as running an MP3 player and authenticating fingerprints, the university said in a posting on its web site.

Autocratic regimes that do not allow free flow of information directly causes this sort of behavior. Indian politicians have much to fear about the internet. They will continue to be haunted by bloggers such as RealityCheck. They had better start coming up with irrefutable data to support their welfare ponzi schemes. Anecdotal sob stories from their life experiences are not good enough reason for a billion Indians. Well at least 120 million Indians.


(*) Remember Hindi-Chini bhai bhai? The recent love affair between Dalit/OBCs reminds us of that disaster. Dalits had better watch out.

Please, Taslima

An imam issues and retracts a fatwa against Taslima Nasreen.

But the lady in question appears nonchalant and unafraid. "Creativity cannot and should not be shackled. These things have happened earlier too. But I feel such controversies are good for society, as they help in growth of new ideas," she says.

An IAS Officer agrees.

Debates are indeed good for the society. The question is, what debates do we allow? Do we allow debates such as this? Or this?

We already allowed such debates in the past which have led to some uneasy outcomes. As a matter of fact, we lost that debate. Not just us, many so called developed nations have failed to win the debate.

No, Ms. Nasreen, this is not a debate. It is a clash between two opposites. Unfortunately there are many among us including people in high positions who do not see this. Their political agenda continues to cost us.