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

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

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


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

Schrodinger's cat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now for some history lessons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Breaking News: Meenas and Gujjars clash

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





Previous:

A New Revolution
North vs. South

Lying not so subtly

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The contribution of a teachers in these cases is only 5 to 10 per cent"

Patna: Shyam Ratan is very happy. He's been able to turn his mother's dream into reality. He has just cracked the IIT entrance exams.

"Bas mummy ka hope ka hai. Ussi ko maintain karna hai. Aur age badhate chalna hai. Jiwan hai, dekhate hai kya hota hai, (It was my mother's dream, I am just trying to fulfill it. Let's see what happens from now on. It's life after all)," Shyam says.

Shyam Ratan is the son of a private nurse.

Bright young students of Bihar have shown that nothing is impossible. They have broken set rules and proven people wrong. It doesn't matter where they came from or who their parents were. They are the power performers determined to move ahead come what may.

Like Shyam, Mani has also cracked IIT-JEE in spite of his financial constraints. Mani's father is a housekeeping staff in a hotel.

"We can't make gold out of brass. It has to be gold in the first place. We can only convert gold into ornaments. The contribution of a teachers in these cases is only 5 to 10 per cent," Anil Parmar, Shyam's chemistry teacher, says.

Source:

CNN-IBN

Note: There goes the theory of extreme influence of coaching centers.

Answer to Guess the OBC Game II

Sorry for the delay folks. No one gave the correct answer, although movie fan got the bonus question right. They were all leading ladies opposite Amitabh Bachchan. Come to think of it, who wasn't, in the 70s?

Correct answer is Smita Patil, highly celebrated actress of the 70s and 80s. According to this wikipedia article, she belongs to the Gujjar community, which places her firmly into the OBC list. If Gujjars have their way, she will make the ST list, posthumously of course. She is one of the two among the four actresses in the quiz, who are sadly no longer with us.

Remember this: Shivam Vij is upper class

You middle class people won't understand his line of thinking anyway.

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, if you are done fawning over Rahul Gandhi

Apparently CNN-IBN is the best website aur kya kya. But their spinning remains pretty amateurish and their proof-reading dismal.

This morning they ran another sob story, a Dalit boy mercilessly beaten up by lawyers. Not only that, he was tied up to a tree and his head tonsured in full public view. Well, guess what? the perp turned out to be the boy's own relative, hence another Dalit. Not only that, the "boy" is apparently 22-year old. I guess someone must have pointed it out, because a few hours later the story was edited to take out Dalit from the headline and body of the story. The URL still says Dalit though. Caught with their pants down, they are now running a 360-story on the lawlessness of UP lawyers!

I have some tips for Mr. Sardesai for improving the quality of his newspaper. He is most welcome to read them up when he is done fawning over Rahul Gandhi:

1. Usually the caste groups collectively referred to as OBCs are responsible for the most cases of violent attacks against Dalits. This is merely incidental and related to the composition of most rural areas.
2. Everytime there is a story that involves Dalits, do a quick check to see if it fits the social justice framework.
3. We all mess up every once in a while, so be a man and say sorry. Assuming of course you are a man by now and not a 45-year old boy.

[Update] According to this video on CNN-IBN, the boy is now 28-year old (at around 2:25).

Miss Anti-Reservation

Our tribute to these beautiful and brave young women who fought for their rights.

Guess the OBC Game II

Who among the four actresses above is an OBC? Bonus question: what is common between them?

Answers tomorrow.

Funny

"You are my bitch. Now quickly wear this Sari and bend over."

How to shout fire in a crowded theatre and get away with it?

Which part of this notice don't you understand? Asks baffled Hindus. Do you want us to write it in Arabic or something?

Meanwhile, the priests didn't turn out to be such jerks after all. The head priest says if popular opinion wants the temple to be opened to everyone, he is ok with it. Except Dilip D'Souza. Ok, I made that one up.



So let's see how things are working out.

• Number of temples in India: Several hundreds of thousands
• Number of important temples in India: Several thousands
  
• Number of temples considered specially sacred: Perhaps a few hundred.
• Number of temples in India restricting entry to Non-Hindus: A few dozen?
• Number of recreation options available in India: No idea. A lot.

So, one fine morning, you (meaning Mr. Non-Hindu) want to have some recreation. For some reason you must enter a Hindu place of worship. Meanwhile religion in general and Hindu religion in particular is supposed to be evil. But you pick a temple anyway for your recreational needs. You skip millions and pick one that is particularly sacred. One that also has the above notice in front of it. You are now mighty upset. You are upset, the priests are upset, some Hindus are upset. Liberals are particularly upset. See, how your stupid idea made so many people upset?

Meanwhile, the most important duty of the state Government is to remedy the situation. They are mulling a law. A law so that a non-Hindu nut, who for some reason picks a specific Hindu temple for his entertainment needs and must enter it, gets to enter it.

Another Med student, from another world

Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, is to graduate from UCLA's medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infections disease. [..] Lim recently saw her childhood medical file, and learned that doctors had given her an 85 percent chance of dying of the meningitis. Just five months after the amputations, Lim returned to a normal school. Born right-handed, she learned to write and work with her left.



Lim carried out her medical training with a determination that awed her professors and fellow students and won her the school's top prize for excellence in pediatrics.

Opting not to use a prosthetic arm, she showed that she can perform most medical procedures with one hand, including taking blood and administering injections. She lives on her own in a Westwood apartment with no special features for the handicapped and drives a car with only one adaptation: a turning knob on the steering wheel. She is learning to swim, is trying horseback riding and even went tandem skydiving recently.

"I hate failing," she said. "It's one of those things that's so ingrained in me." That view was intensified by another disability in the family. Her mother, Sandy, went blind in her 20s [..]

Sources:

Yahoo
LA Times (with slideshow)

The sordid saga of Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh

Apparently all BJP supporters are casteists and Brahminical supremacists, they discriminate against Dalits whenever they can. They are the ones who are denying OBCs their due free seats in educational institutes. Meanwhile, Congress supporters are liberal athiests who believe in equality, freedom and fairness. This is the standard thesis being offered by the socialist lobby.

Crude empirical evidence including upper-caste distribution in the blogosphere, Congress party top brass and media and newspapers indicate that at least half of all upper-castes, if not much more, are Congress supporters. Extending this further, we would expect a fairly even split in academic institutes as well.

This is where the sob story of Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh, "category" MBBS student of AIIMS and the latest poster child of casteist discrimination in elite institutes runs into serious credibility problems. Now, let's forget the strange coincidence of these allegations surfacing exactly when there is a raging debate about OBC reservations. Let's also ignore Dr. Ramadoss, whose antics were covered by even the most liberal media.

Until last year, there were no serious known reports of casteist bias in examination evaluation. Thank God for our purely examination based entrance systems, allegations could not be leveled against them. No known allegations have surfaced from the IITs and IIMs either. It is very hard to prove biases when answer scripts are available for later scrutiny. In this regard, medical schools are particularly vulnerable. Most exams are orally conducted.

A quick sanity check reveals that the lone student, on whose sole allegations an entire social group is being branded casteists, is a serial flunker. It took him three attempts to pass MBBS. Being an academic dud he did what most rational people do, allege casteism.

Meanwhile, as expected, AIIMS is doing the most logical thing under the circumstances. You guessed it right, they are video-taping all viva exams.

Casteist allegations are very serious in nature. As always the socialist lynch mob went to town with this story (here, here, here and here). The ultimate victim of course is academic standards and the future of the nation.

Freedom of expression and Osama posters

May 25.

TOI:

Furore over sketches depicting Prophet Mohammed in the nude found in M S University campus on Wednesday night spilled over on the streets here on Friday afternoon. Mob belonging to the Muslim community pelted stones on the police and media persons to vent ire against the sketches. Later in the night, fresh violence broke out again at 9.30.

CNN-IBN:

Who wants to be President? Let's take a poll, yippie!

May 27:

CNN-IBN:

Fifteen people, including three police personnel, were injured when members of a community clashed with the police after midnight on the issue of displaying posters of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, on Friday near a place of worship here.

Police said at around 0200 hours IST, a mob attacked a policeman in Gajradi area with soda bottles and stones.

TOI:

"There were stray incidents where posters of former Iraq president Saddam Hussain were displayed in communally sensitive areas such as Dariapur and Kalupur in Ahmedabad. I do not remember any incident of Laden's posters being displayed in the state,"said state IB chief, additional DGP Sudhir Sinha.

Several Muslim leaders too are not happy with the flashing of the Bin Laden's posters. "We want to tell these insane people that they should learn lessons from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan where fundamentalists hold siege over the liberty of people and judiciary.

The kid becomes a man

Remember this dude? The misty eyed idealistic kid who wanted to become a journalist one day. Well, he has made it. The kid that fought valiantly against bureaucracy and media censorship has grown up now. Meet Mr. Shivam Vij, the big assed columnist. One who supports media freedom but won't publish your comments, unless they reflect his own views.

Who killed Nun Abhaya?

It's a quest for justice that has spanned 15 long years and five indifferent investigations. [..] The nun's body was found in a well at the St. Pius 10th Convent in Kerala’s Kottayam in 1992.
[..] A report prepared 15 years at the chemical lab at Thiruvananthapuram ago that could hold the key. The report clearly indicates over-writing in key areas. [..] A negative over positive and a 'No' added before 'semen' indicates tampering and this has now been proved by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

Young women from humble families are lured into institutions. But sometimes they don't get what they are promised. These institutions remain sealed to the arms of the law. Some of them are more zealously reported than the others.

Is this freedom of speech or freedom of religion? What about freedom of the individual? Does freedom of speech protect baseless insinuations? What about lies and conspiracy theories? What about partisan journalism?

Our typist is asking many questions on his blog lately. No, not the ones I mentioned above. See if you can help him.

Scorpion stings and snake bites

Chances are, you have come across CNN-IBN Cobrapost investigation reports. They started out innocuously enough, by running an investigation that showed how easy it is to smuggle arms into Bombay using small boats.

I read those reports with mild curiosity. Recently they ran a huge expose involving Hindu Godmen who are supposedly on the take for converting black money. There were even tape recorded conversations on their website. A few days later, they ran another investigation on NGOs. This report is now nowhere to be found from their main website. Not only that, there seemed to have been no follow up on the expose on the Godmen. A review of the NGO Report explains why the sudden lack of enthusiasm in following up the Godman expose. Surely the secularists would be more than happy to expose Hindu Godmen?

In any case, I investigated Cobrapost and guess what I found? Cobrapost is merely a bastard child of Tehelka.

I won't hazard a guess as to whether Cobrapost was launched because of an internal dispute or is it merely a smoke and mirrors tactic to make us believe that they are really non-partisan. About their first report, well, it's not that innocent. The terrorists who plotted the whole attack are not really to be blamed - incompetent and corrupt Hindu officials were really responsible for the Bombay bombings.

How strong is the Rahul Gandhi brand?

[Update] If you are a Bombay based blogger, Melody would like to invite you to a blog party.

Perhaps this question is haunting the socialists more than anything else these days. Here is a cute pic for your viewing pleasure, from the website of a young Christian woman called Melody. She fantasizes herself to be wedded into the Gandhi dynasty.

Sikhs punished for abandoning Congress

May 23. In the recent assembly elections in the State of Punjab, India, the Congress party (which also leads the central Government of the country with a motley coalition of parties with various nefarious agendas) got a jolt when the electorate chose to elect BJP ally Akali Dal.

Senior Congress leaders were mighty upset at this defeat. This was merely one in a series of assembly level electoral upsets for the party.

However, senior party stategists were quick to react. They capitalized on the recent controversy over freedom of art and attacked the Sikhs, a religious minority in India (also the ethnic majority in the state of Punjab). Realizing that Sikhs as a potential vote bank are perhaps lost for the near future, they strongly condemned an internal religious dispute within the Sikh community. Eminent journalist and ardent Congress supporter Dilip D'Souza called for strict legal actions against a top religious leader (jathedar).

Our analysts say that this is a move to fine tune the vote bank. Sometimes the carrot alone does not work, one needs to wield the stick also. Mr. D'Souza did not return our calls when requested to comment on a few other incidents of religious intolerance in the country in the recent past.

Our local correspondent added: could we say the hand is mightier than the sword?

- Staff Reporter