SMS Update

The blogger we mentioned in the previous post received some comments on her post and then responded to them. Here is her comment, reproduced in full:

Hi all, thank you for stopping by, taking the time to read the letter from FAOW, and leaving your thoughts. There are a couple of issues I'd like to quickly clarify so that we can, if necessary, take this discussion further.

First, Mayuresh, thank you for your insights. You haven't been rude at all, so don't let that be a worry. I haven't visited the link you directed me to as I can respond immediately to your points. You're right, the SMS itself cannot be classified as communal, perhaps jingoistic. I do think however, that sending that SMS to a Muslim Indian may be perceived of as communal.

Dijo points out, quite rightly I think, that the SMS could have been sent to everyone or several people in the reporter's phone book. It's possible that he didn't target one Muslim, but a group of people whose religion was irrelevant to him. In that case we can either say that he's thoughtless to have included a Muslim name or secular because he sees no difference between Muslims, Hindus, Christians etc. when making an India versus Pakistan joke. Fair enough.

Then too, for a reporter at a national daily to do so is at best unprofessional, at worst irresponsible. He clearly didn't know the activist at FAOW well enough for her reaction and decision to approach his Editor, rather than him directly, proves so.

We can certainly give the reporter the benefit of doubt unless one knows that he has sent or tends to send similar SMS's only to Muslims.

However: I've received so many similar messages, vitriolic and unarguably anti Muslim in the India-Pakistan context, that I have begun to feel that this is a subject which we must all deal with, with some care and sensitivity towards others. I felt, and tell me if you agree, that the behavior of the media and of the crowds at the match was perhaps the best I have ever seen at an India-Pakistan match. Spirit like this embodies what sport is truly about, while SMSs as sent by the TOI reporter do quite the opposite.Pointing out that Shoaib Malik makes pro Islamic comments is in my mind rather childish and illogical. He did it and therefore so can we? I'd rather it be he did it, but we certainly won't. [link]

Her comment validates our theory that it was likely a case of mass SMS forwarding or at the very least these nasty women didn't even care to investigate whether it was. She also didn't think the message is communal.

So let's see here:

1. the SMS itself cannot be classified as communal, perhaps jingoistic
2. the SMS could have been sent to everyone or several people in the reporter's phone book
3. sent to a group of people whose religion was irrelevant to him
4. we can either say that he's thoughtless [..] or secular
   
5. We can certainly give the reporter the benefit of doubt

But they didn't even think twice before killing a guy's career?

Also, see the potent absurdity in the blogger's explanation. If the reporter were secular, sending the message would be ok. Else, he would be considered thoughtless. I don't think the concept of "benefit of doubt" is clear to the blogger. Benefit of doubt applies when there are valid charges but ambiguous evidence. Here the crime was fictional and the charges possibly libelous. It will be cold comfort for Mr. Balkrishna after he loses his job and then receives the said benefit of doubt.

Just because there are other, vitriolic and unarguably anti-minority messages going around and other instances of other dudes heckling minorities, these women thought they would take a hapless dude and slap on charges him they themselves don't believe are true. Even encounter killings have a better logic built into them.

At this point we are not even angry, just sad. We appeal to FAOW to withdraw the letter and issue an apology to the reporter.

The enemy within

Technology spurs some curious cultural phenomena. Take for instance mass SMS messages. SMS is highly popular in Asian countries, so much so that in some South Korean and Taiwanese movies, there are sometimes whole SMS sequences. The screen is split into two, the protagonists are shown furiously SMSing each other while the native language transcript plays out at the bottom, subtitle style. Now, here is the kicker, you are already watching with subtitles on. Imagine the confusion. Anyway, we digress.

So here is how mass SMS works (for the benefit of those in the cellular-technology challenged Western countries). Some smart aleck comes up with a supposedly funny or interesting message and SMSes it to everyone on his contact list. Silly perhaps, but it does happen. Each recipient in turn forwards it to everyone on his contact list. Sometimes they snowball into a huge chain SMS.

So, one day, you are bored and sitting in your office. This happens to be the day India had won the T20. Your euphoria has already faded away, bringing you back to harsh realities. Yeah, the evening commute too. Suddenly, twang! An SMS!

"Pak ko sharafat sikha denge, Hind ki taakat dikha denge… Ae Pak, humse punga no lena varna, JOHANNESBERG main kya, LAHORE main TIRANGA lehra denge, jai hind."

Out of sheer habit you proceed to click the buttons in a familiar sequence. Forward -> Select Contact -> All -> Send. You don't even stop to think. You have done it a zillion times.

The next day the sky literally falls over your head. You are summoned to your manager's office upon arrival and tersely informed that you are no longer employed with the organization.

That was a somewhat fictionalized account of what could have almost happened to Times of India reporter Mr. Balkrishna. Still confused? Read this in full.

Although at this point we are merely speculating about the circumstances, but there is overwhelming evidence supporting our hypothesis. We took the phrase and searched on the web. It looks like the particular SMS has been going around a lot. As a matter of fact it might have originated, albeit in a different context and somewhat different form in 2004.

Now, exactly what part of the message is communal? Let's rephrase it a little bit and see:

"Australia ko sharafat sikha denge, Hind ki taakat dikha denge… Ae Australia , humse punga no lena varna, JOHANNESBERG main kya, CANBERRA main TIRANGA lehra denge, jai hind."

Is Pakistan a friendly nation? Yeah, there are those track II people and all, but have you forgotten this? Surely things like that will bring out some passionate reaction from at least some people in a country of a billion. Even if Mr. Balkrishna were to single out a Muslim female and specifically send this message to her (which we totally doubt), how exactly does it make him communal? This is wrong at so many levels. We are told that minorities are as loyal to the country as anyone else. We are constantly being castigated for allegedly casting aspersions on the allegiance of minorities. So, how are we to expect that a minority might take umbrage at an anti-Pakistani remark?

These qustions will never be asked and proper investigations will never happen. Any person who admits to being Hindu is communal by default. For Hindus, Jai Hind is communal. Pakistan, humse panga na lena is communal. Basically we are expected to live as second class citizens and give up freedom of speech and religion.

A group of nasty females have descended upon the poor Mr. Balkrishna like vultures. They are baying for his blood. They want to send him to the purgatory before his time has come. Fortunately for Mr. Balkrishna, his boss turned out to be a rather stoic chap. He rejected the rabid group's first appeal. But make no mistake about it, they are not going to stop there. Mr. Balkrishna should seek alternate career options.

The blogger who is up in arms over the incident, did not react to this or this. But she went ballistic in condemning the outright communal Mr. Balkrishna for threatening and abusing the sovereignty of another country. Apparently this sort of way over the top reaction and possible lies and propaganda is supposed to foster a goofy feeling of peace and communal harmony.

Mr. Balkrishna has already committed a cardinal sin. He just happens to be a Hindu forced to live in a secular nation.

Essay Competition

Let's take a trip back down the memory lane.

Imagine this is 2003. India has just defeated the formidable Australia in the World Cup finals. The Indian Team has come back home amid wild jubilations. Posters such as the one above are seen on billboards all across Bombay.

Imagine also that you are a socially responsible journalist who really believes in secularism and social justice.

Please write a short essay reacting to the poster. No prizes. Your essay will be published on this obscure blog. Competition open for two weeks from today.

Does this make sense?

The Centre on Monday compared its legislation granting 27% quota to OBCs in admission to educational institutions to Caesar's wife and stressed before the Supreme Court that it was, like her, above suspicion.

"It was not brought in to subserve votebank politics, but to help those who genuinely needed help to shrug off backwardness caused by centuries of oppression," solicitor-general G E Vahanvati argued before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan. Vahanvati attempted to answer the flurry of questions that were put to him on Tuesday by the bench, which also comprised Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari. [link]

As far as I remember Caeser divorced his wife on the grounds that she must be above suspicion. By the same logic, they should just dump this scheme.

In any case, we Hindus have a different way of dealing with such things. We will require an Agni Pariksha.

Blowing their own trumpet

These buggers are shameless beyond belief. A political party steals the limelight from a young cricketer. People friendly media conducts polls and pats each others backs.


As farmers in his backyards commit suicide by the droves and over 75% of the stuff from PDS system systematically disappear, Hon'ble Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution Systems, Sharad Pawar appears on cricket posters celebrating India's Twenty20 win.

A report card

Economist Dr. Ila Patnaik, who writes a weekly column for Indian Express, wrote a report card for the UPA Government.

She is a right of center economist and a fan of Milton Friedman. This means that she is not going to get one of those Bharat* awards anytime soon. But she writes well. Check out her column on investment in states (Tamil Nadu has dropped to 9th place in per capita investment) and the dubious ways the UPA Government is controlling inflation. Her scathing column on our financial policy shows the true colors of our Harvard Educated FM. She has also spoken out against the sorry state of affairs in our Public Distribution system.

Here is report card, reproduced in full. Things have changed somewhat since this was written.

Two Years of the UPA
Ila Patnaik
The good, the bad and the ugly


The good


Nuclear deal

For decades, India had a principled stance that it would not give up nuclear weapons. In return, the world strangled India's ability to import Uranium and thus make nuclear energy. Suddenly, that is history. The US and India have entered into a historic deal, whereby Indian nuclear weapons will be accepted by the world, and the world will be willing to sell fuel and reactors to India. This is great news for low cost electricity generation in India. It also removes a long-standing irritant that was holding back deeper friendship between India and the US, two natural allies on the global stage.

Railways

What happens when you mix the worst piece of Indian infrastructure (railways) with the politician from whom people expect the least (Lalu Prasad Yadav)? Magical results! The performance of the railways has been simply astounding. A far reaching reforms process has begun, by permitting the entry of the private sector into container transportation. Someday, the railways will be like roads:

the government will own the rails but multiple private companies will compete in offering trains. And we will remember Lalu Prasad Yadav for having started it all.

Fiscal revolution

For decades, we used to bemoan the Indian crisis on the fiscal deficit. Then came the rescue in the form of the FRBM Act, initiated by Yashwant Sinha, supported by Jaswant Singh, and seen through by P. Chidambaram. Far-reaching tax reforms were initiated, including the VAT and and an attack on the "exemption raj" highlighted by Kelkar. The deficit is now down to just 3.7%. A lower deficit means the government is grabbing less resources, and more money is available for investment.

Airports & civil aviation

Aviation has been revolutionised, first by the entry of new airlines. In a moribund sector that was trapped in the business interests of Indian Airlines, Air India, Jet Airways and Sahara, suddenly, we have competition! Prices have crashed and the middle class is flying. Tourism has prospered like never before. The second revolution has been unleashed, even though results are not on the table yet - that of privatisation of the airport. Now we can dream that the Delhi and Bombay airports will look as wonderful as the Delhi Metro. Praful Patel did what a Congress minister would never have been able to do.

Capital account convertibility

After years of a deadlock, the PM and the FM are ready to move on to the next big milestone of an India that is growing up: opening up the capital account. The RBI is still dragging its feet, having setup a committee for "fuller" convertibility as opposed to "full" convertibility. But it will be hard for the RBI to hoodwink this PM and this FM, and within 10 years, the Indian Rupee could be one of the great hard currencies of the world.

The bad

Wrong taxes

A great part of the "fiscal revolution" described above was rationality in taxation. We have slashed customs, shifted to VAT, lowered rates, and removed exemptions. But in the UPA years, a series of wrong taxes have crept back. The education cess, the securities transaction tax and the cash withdrawal tax -- all these are flat wrong. One expects better when an economist is the prime minister! The reformers have to now settle in for a ten-year fight to get rid of these.

Mindless expenditure on Education

The government is pouring huge money into its "flagship program" - the Sarkari Shiksha Ahiyan (SSA). But there is no evidence that SSA works. Independent tests show that our children continue to learn little at government schools - e.g. ONE HORRIBLE FACT: ONLY HALF THE STUDENTS IN CLASSES II TO V CAN SUBTRACT TWO DIGIT NUMBERS. What is needed is fundamental educational reform - not a more bloated government that spends more and more on dysfunctional institutional mechanisms.

Crippled Oil policy

The world price of petrol goes up. India imports petrol. The Indian price of petrol should go up. Obvious? Not if you are Mani Shankar Aiyer or Murli Deora. Both these ministers have derailed the effort at getting the government out of price controls in the oil sector. We are doing this exactly wrong: subsidising consumers to use more scarce oil. Men and nations will only do the right thing after exhausting every reasonable alternative.

6th pay commission

As Yashwant Sinha is reported to have said, the 5th Pay Commision "nuked Indian public finance". Now, in a shallow attempt at manipulating the next general elections, Manmohan Singh has embarked on the 6th Pay Commission. He did not need to do this. Now, the devil is in the details. If he finds good economists to drive the 6th pay commission, it can even do some good. More likely, he won't get fiscal hawks, and the 6th Pay Commission will nuke Indian public finance again. We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.

NREGA : Unbounded expenditures?

This is one way of generating employement that even Communist China did not think of. Let people dig holes and the government pay them. We have also discovered a new way of redistribution. The better off you are, the bigger the transfer to you. So a worker in a poor state will get Rs 60 and a worker in a rich state Rs 120. And, as to how much will be spent after all State governments have finished competing with each other to make the centre pay whatever minimum wage they fix, even the finance ministry has no decent estimates.

Stalled PFRDA Bill

India is on the cusp of a demographic transition. Waves of young people are coming into the labour force. This is the perfect time to catch them into a modern pension system, where each person can build up a personal hoard of pension wealth to shelter himself in old age. The New Pension System was a fundamental reform, initiated through extensive public discussion from 1998 to 2002. The UPA has been hijacked by the trade unions - who represent 2% of India - and has completely stalled the pension reform. We are losing valuable years. Years from now, starving old people will remember the UPA for this.

Stalled disinvestment

Arun Shourie did yeoman service exposing the massive scale of theft from PSUs by the political class - whether it is cronies of ministers consuming free rooms at ITDC hotels or it is cronies of bureaucrats selling expensive chicken to ITDC hotels. His jihad on privatisation stirred up this hornets nest of various crooks feeding on PSUs. But his accomplishments - such as the sale of VSNL or TCS - were major victories of the NDA. The UPA has killed off privatisation / disinvestment at the central level. West Bengal continues to powerfully move forward with privatisation. Remember Great Eastern. But the UPA behaves asif what is good enough for West Bengal is not good enough for India. Think BHEL.

Divide and Conquer: Higher education

There must be something wrong with higher education - the NDA had Murli Manohar Joshi and the Congress has Arjun Singh. Top universities in the world are begging to be permitted to setup campuses in India. Instead of a mere 3,000 seats at IIT, we could have 30,000 seats at university campuses in India run by Harvard and Stanford. Foreign producers have transformed our TVs and our cellphones, but clearly higher education is not important enough to benefit from the same reforms, and we are stuck in a Stalinist model of education. All we get is a tiny increase to accomodate quotas.

Rebuilding the planning commission

Modern market economies do not have planning commissions. The NDA was making progress on driving down the importance of the planning commission. A few more years of that, and it would have been possible to close down the planning commission. Now the UPA has done damage by putting a key player in cabinet into the planning commission, and resurrecting the role of the planning commision.


The ugly


SEZs: The mother of all exemptions

Cost: Rs 1,000,000,000,000.
Biggest benefit: Tax exemptions to real estate developers. Exports will get some tax breaks too, but nothing compared to what the developers will get. Land acquisition will displace ordinary people on a scale that will make the Narmada dam look like small change. With tax havens inside India, Caymen Islands will pale into insignificance. The country does not benefit. The real estate buyer does not benefit. The government does not benefit. A huge benefit goes to the real estate developers. Why this giant gift to real estate developers. One can only wonder how much election funding will flow out of this trillion rupee handout.

UPA versus FRBM

Indian fiscal was in a nightmarish state by the late 1980s. Manmohan Singh began India's fiscal recovery in the early 1990s. After him, every finance minister has fought on this question - P. Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh. Getting the central fiscal deficit down to 3.7% of GDP has been a great achievement, and is already generating results through a higher investment rate. And the FRBM promises us the nirvana of a fiscal deficit of no worse than 3% by 2008-09, and that too only for the purpose of capital expenditure. Alas, this glorious achievement is under extreme attack from the UPA. The SEZ Act - the mother of all exemptions - will contaminate growth of tax revenues. The NREG and the 6th pay commission will contaminate expenditures. The UPA is in a mood to roll out more and more foolish welfare programs. By 2009-10, the entire 15-year effort of fighting India's fiscal crisis could have been undone. The UPA could be remembered for having destroyed a marvellous 15-year piece of work. It won't be long when Moody's and S&P catch on and the FDI-FII numbers start dwindling.

Photo of the day

From the photograher, Dean Shaddock:

This was captured as I collected my things from airport security (Detroit Metro Concourse A). I think of it as something like a Rorschach test. Is an elderly Catholic nun being frisked by a Muslim security agent the celebration of blind justice? Or is it simply an admission of absurdity? [link via MichelleMalkin.com]

Partition again?

We are revising the probability of another partition upwards to about 30% in a decade.

That is all.

The power struggle between judiciary and legislature

If Arundhati Roy were a painter, she would have loved the brush on the left. She really did use some broad strokes to paint a fantasy filled picture of a "corrupt" judiciary, using the atypical example of the Justice Sabharwal (retired Hon'ble CJI) case, in a recent article.

This case is not getting the due attention because Lord Ram is on everyone's mind these days.

If there is one issue that attracts an unanimous vote of confidence from all parties, it is the idea that the judiciary wields too much power.

Ideally our politicians would like to be able to decide the outcomes of every court case. Starting from the quota case to the 123-agreement to the Ram Setu destruction conspiracy - they want to be the ultimate arbiters.

A problem with our bleeding heart liberals is that they appear to have no sense of scale. The alleged Sabharwal case is tiny compared to even the most garden variety scams pulled by politicians. Laloo still roams free, not only that he is still doing immense damage. Shibu Soren was let go. The land grab scams going on at a massive scale in Andhra, Kerala, Bengal etc. are too numerous to list.

As noted earlier, scions of politicians get preferential land allotments at Agricultural rates and scarcely anyone even raises an eyebrow. Arundhati Roy herself built a dream bungalow on illegally acquired land.

The judges do have enormous power but they are like knights whereas the politicians are like queens on a chessboard. Politicians control everything from law enforcement to the bureaucracy. They also have enormous powers over the fate of a lot of people. Judges are severely handicapped. It would be only under the rarest of circumstances that a judge can align the stars so that the outcome of a case can have a material impact. Also, politicians never retire.

It is difficult for a communist to understand a constitutional democracy. In their world (non-existent), there are the happy people and the people's leader. Goods and services appear out of nowhere, perhaps by divine intervention. In reality they come through massive aids given by capitalist countries, e.g. North Korea, Cuba, 70s India etc.

So, Arundhati Roy gets it wrong once again. It is our politicians who are the real Gods.

Straw polls and crystal balls

Just about two weeks ago, CNN-IBN hosted a TV show analyzing the results of an opinion poll conducted by the venerated CSDS. A number of politicians and subject matter experts including Yogendra Yadav, CSDS supremo, were on the show.

The very first thing that struck us were the outfits of the spokesmen of India's two biggest political parties. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad wore a dark brick red Kurta over white pajamas. A garish dress no doubt for such a formal occasion. But look at what Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi is wearing! A black leather short-sleeved shirt, with yellow-gold patterns running along the buttons, around the collars and across the front pocket. The last time we saw someone in an outfit like that was Bappi Lahiri.

Anyway.

Apparently this was the biggest opinion poll of its kind, a total of 18,000 respondents were surveyed all across the country. In the words of Yogendra Yadav (note: all transcripts ours):

Yogendra Yadav: This being a very crucial occasion and mid-term elections increasingly almost certain , we wanted to make sure that we wanted to do a poll which is almost a mock mid-term poll ..... here it is then we spread it out this is truly representative..... rural urban the same proportion as in country. 73% rural, 11 - 12% Muslim, 18% Dalits, 45% Women - this is microcosm of India.

The opinion poll revealed a vote difference of almost 10% between UPA and NDA. This translated into an immense difference in terms of seats (267 UPA, 133 NDA). Host Rajdeep Sardesai asked Prasad to react to this.

Ravi Shankar Prasad: Rajdeep, we have also learned a little experience of watching your surveys. In 2004 these projections gave us a big lead and there was no hostility against the NDA Govt. And what the results came about? I very acutely recollect one comment from Yogendra that a party in power initially gets a big boost in these surveys but when the concrete election campaign starts ...

Rajdeep then asked Yogendra Yadav to comment on this.

Yogendra Yadav: Absolutely and it's a fair point and this particularly operates in those states where UPA is in power at the center and also at the state level so there may be built an element of bias, so we have tried to correct it, we have carefully tried to eliminate but we can not give guarantee that this will not happen..

Fast forward several minutes and now we come to the point where they are discussing the predictions for Gujarat assembly polls.

Rajdeep Sardesai: One man, and this is another significant finding of our poll, seems to be bucking the trend of anti-incumbency. Remember he faces dissidence within his party almost since the time he came to power... severely criticized by many political analysts for his roll during Gujarat 2002, now as Gujarat prepares to go to the polls look at what our figures are saying.... Narendra Modi is holding firm, he is likely to get we believe 54% votes as against Congress' 43% if elections in Gujarat assembly are held tomorrow. Yogendra, any riders here?

Yogendra Yadav: One rider is one given already by Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad very important one, that in any pre-election poll, the ruling party, there is a bias in favor of the ruling party which we need to be careful about and second we must not underestimate [] what is happning to BJP at the national level .... its inability to form an alternative in presence of problems in the Congress, is happening to Congress in Gujarat.

This got us entirely confused. What is it Mr. Yogendra Yadav, was a correction really done to prevent a known bias or was it not?

What a difference a mere two weeks makes. Perhaps these results do not appear so valid in the backdrop of the Ram Setu controversy. During the same time period, C-Voter conducted another opinion poll and arrived at different results. For comparison, also check out qualitative predictions of an independent blogger.

That "Mayawati-like" lady

Chak De is the breakout Bollywood movie everyone is talking about. A review/analysis is overdue and will be up soon.

Meanwhile, we found this cringe inducing review of the movie on Tehelka:

Assisted by a Mayawati-like lady, Shah Rukh takes the talented, scrappy bunch of girls and moulds them into a killer team. The usual happens — tough training schedules, few players rebel, camps form, Coach resigns, then a killer moment of realisation and team spirit emerges. The crucial hockey sequences are shot beautifully and edited crisply. [link][web archive link]

This, from a bunch of folks who drop words like casteist, sexist, racist, capitalist at people who have a different political opinion. This shows the new lows our self-styled intellectual class people are capable of stooping to.

By the way, that Mayawati-like lady (called Krishna in the movie) is a supremely talented actress. In the movie she plays her difficult role as assistant coach with great aplomb. You can read more about Vibha Chibber here.

Remember this man?

He will be back soon. It appears that some rift has developed in the Gujjar leadership. Also, his main sponsors are busy with political crisis at the center. Our theory is that his sponsors didn't want him to erupt into an uncontrolled orgy of violence. Think of a Nuclear power plant (wonder where they got the idea). So they are using moderators, meaning a fractious leadership.

Another curious piece of news:

Bitterness between two warring factions of the Roman Catholic Church in Delhi seems to have disrupted the Christian spirit of brotherhood and harmony.

"On that day, people from the Latin parish started provoking us. They said we had no right to be there and that they were the only legitimate worshippers in that church. A heated argument followed and some of us were pushed and hit. It seemed to be a pre-planned job as the police had been stationed there from 6 am," said Sunil John, an SM follower. [link]

This sort of an unprecedented thing happens if you economically pit brother against brother without increasing the pie.

Speculations again but this may have something to do with the various affirmative action measures for religious minorities. At the very minimum, the Government should prevent religious bodies from determining eligibility. In the Thampu style schemes, certain religious leaders would have a final say in the eligibility matters. This is unacceptable. By the way, Thampu seems to be in a lot of trouble, apparently he was occupying his position at St. Stephens illegally.

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.