Poison Plants

So, the so called Nuke Deal has started yielding some fruits, so to speak. We are going to get two brand spanking new Nuclear Power plants, 1000 MW each. The plants are being built in Tamil Nadu by Russia. Read more details in the Open Magazine, including the economics of these plants and major concerns of the local community.

India is also building a $5.1 Billion, 6000 MW gas fired power plant in Iran, for generating power for India.

Funny.

Meanwhile the various Bhopal tragedy activists are strangely silent about the fact that private operator liability for Nuclear power plants is being capped at Rs. 300 crores. This is understandable since many of the plants will be built under partnership between FOC (Friends of Congress) corporations in India and their foreign collaborators.

BJP gets more coverage in a week than during the entire election season

To the secular intellectuals and media, the only good Hindus are dead Hindus, the kind that don't talk back. Expelled BJP leaders come a close second.

"Impeccable taste", "connoisseur of high art", "grand personality", "elegant" - these are just some of the adjectives that are generously being used by the media about Jashwant Singh. His book is now getting rave reviews. Even Congress leaders would be envious of the treatment Singh is getting from the media. This is also the first time Jashwant Singh's name is being mentioned in a context other than the Kandahar hijack episode. Now that we learn Jashwant Singh is such a cool dude, maybe we can revisit the issue and give the way the situation was handled a different grade?

Jashwant Singh is as much a victim of the confusion and paranoia that must surround a national party post election defeat, as he is of a mercenary media. As soon as the book hit the stands, the headlines screamed: Jashwant has praised Jinnah! That is pretty much all you need to set the ball rolling so to speak.

As far as we can tell, the partition issue still remains an unfinished business. Hey, mi casa su casa, but in practical terms, does anyone really believe that .....

The holiest of the holy and the rarest of rare

India does not award the capital punishment except for the "rarest of rare" cases. Once you throw "liberals" into the mix, things tend to get rather complicated but since independence, we have hanged about 4,300 people, at the outside. The last one was hanged in 1995.

By any standards, we are hanging too few people for a country of this size. China executes thousands each year, they also have a rather efficient way of doing it.

No one is quite sure what exactly "rarest of rare" means any more. Violent crimes are on the rise at an alarming rate. We certainly can not structure it around frequency, even terrorism is not all that rare in India.

Clearly, putting a cap on the number of people executed per year can not be the stated goal of a legal system. Yet, no objective sentencing guidelines are forthcoming. Statistically speaking, too few hangings make each one them more likely to be unjust. Justice also means if Dude X got it for a certain crime, Dude Y must also get it for the same crime. Yet we are supposed to believe there was just one dude in India to rape and murder a minor since 1995!

So, from any objective POV, either we start hanging a lot more people, or we get rid of the death penalty altogether.

Yet, a Supreme Court bench stated that we must make the death penalty even rarer. This is a very disappointing stand. Coming on the heels of a recent case where the death penalty was waived, this also appears to be immensely suspicious.

We can clearly see where this is headed. Recently our Law Minister Shri Moily and Home Minister Shri Chidu introduced a peculiar spin to the Afzal hanging story. Apparently the death penalty is like a queue. If the mercy petition of one is pending, the next one in line can not be hanged. This is obviously absurd. A fair justice system gurantees a fair trial and objective sentencing - not an execution strictly according to order.

It should be obvious by now that we have an "activist" judiciary on our hands which wants to add another layer of social justice on top of the legislative and executive. The death penalty system is being redesigned to ensure only certain people hang or rather certain people never hang.

PAWS: Meet minorities

Some of the global "liberal" concerns do not work very well in the Indian context, for instance the Environment debate or the abortion issue. It seems the animal welfare folks from the Plant and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS) are hitting some unexpected roadblocks as well:

...We pleaded with them for help, but in vain," said Bhanage. She said one of the officers was Prabhakar Bargav, who was on an official motorcycle (MH 05 AN 1299). Realising that police were not going to intervene, Bhanage said, the butchers turned violent and assaulted her and Parinita Joshi, another PAWS volunteer. The duo was beaten by nearly 25 men, she added. The male volunteers were restrained from helping the women.

Joshi added, "To top this they strangled one calf in front of us to tell us that we would be treated similarly if we didn't back off." The drama lasted for half an hour and in the end, the attackers put all the calves in a truck and left. [link]

Week of secular indignation

Sometimes we do not understand the intense hatred some folks on the secular left feel for President Kalam. A few weeks ago President Kalam was frisked at a security checkpoint of an American airline. Sagarika Ghose chatted online with readers and this is what she had to say:

Sagarika Ghose: Can I ask you a simple question, sir? Can you please expalin to me exactly what is so "humiliating" about a security check? Continental Airline is governed by American law. Its a direct delhi New York flight. The horrifying 9/11 attacks happened on New York bound flights and security checking is mandatory on all such flights. We love and respect APJ Abdul Kalam. But is the honour and dignity of the great man so flimsy that it can be brought down by a mere security check? If all former heads of state were exempt can you imagine what would happen if a tin pot head of state from say, Somalia, boarded a aircraft and proceeded to hijack a plane--hypothetically speaking. Please be a little mature sir. Security checks are there for your own safety and for your own well being. They are not intended to humiliate, harm or hurt. They are perfectly rational processes and Kalam himself, wonderful human being that he is, regularly submits himself to checks and stands in queue. he is an example to be followed! [link]

We are willing to bet the chat transcript will soon disappear, so grab it while you can.

There is only one Muslim in the whole world whose frisking would elicit that response from Sagarika Ghose, in complete contradiction with her usual position on the "racial profiling" issue. Ghose tried to put a unique twist to the issue, apparently she is against privilege seeking of our VIPs.

If that chat transcript wasn't bad enough in taste, Ghose repeated the same idea in a later blog post:

Our netas and top babus all send their children to the US for higher studies. Surely, when taking the SAT and GRE exams, these students submit to American rules. In applying for visas they also submit to US legal requirements. But when Kalam submits to US laws when traveling on an American airline, we are suddenly shaken to our foundations. The VIP culture of India is truly a slur on our Constitution. [link]

Well, talk about poor timing - Shah Rukh Khan got held up at a US airport for technical reasons for about an hour. Every news media is running headline stories on it, CNN-IBN's response has been muted.

Funny thing is, if there is one Muslim in India who could be exempt from frisking, it is President Kalam. Former head of the state and India is not Somalia. It is ok to knock Hindu fundamentalists over their false pride, but that comparison was potently absurd and disgusting.

* * *

Meanwhile, Khan's alleged harassment looks more and more like a made for media story. He way exaggerated the situation, which may have something to do with an upcoming film which incidentally deals with racial profiling.

If what one hears about the planned movie My name is Khan is true, then together with the recent film New York, Bollywood is now the official propaganda vehicle of the global Muslim community.

* * *

While Indian seculars ferment in indignation, here is a story many have missed: couple of days ago, Rock music legend Bob Dylan was apprehended by the Police in the US and made to prove his identity.

Pakistan: 200, India: 1

Concluding passage of Sagarika Ghose's latest blog post:

What causes democracies to fail? Pakistan provides an answer. Democracies fail when 200 powerful families manipulate the country for their own ends and communication between classes break down. A gleaming pajero with beggar children scratching at the black tinted windows is a stark symbol of failing democracy in South Asia. The dreamers of 1947 had no Pajeros. Instead they wrote an idealistic Constitution. Justices S. Murlidhar and A.P Shah recently delivered a terrific judgement decriminalising Section 377. They did not endorse homosexuality, instead they asserted constitutionality. Similarly, this 15th August lets pledge to assert constitutionality in our daily lives. [link]

Well, it took us just one family to do the job.

Free, but ...

Shikha Dalmia

She is getting a lot of praises for her articles, for instance this one. A solidly free market thinker and a breath of fresh air amid the airheads who parrot the socialist mantra.

Master of puppets

Amartya Sen is all over the media, having just published a new book called "The idea of justice". In an interview to a newspaper, Amartya Sen offers the following example (via RealityCheck):

Three children — Anne, Bob and Carla — are quarrelling over a flute: Anne claims the flute on the ground that she is the only one of the three who knows how to play it; Bob demands it on the basis that he is so poor that — unlike others — he has no other toys to play with and it would therefore mean a lot to him if the flute were given to him; and Carla says that it belongs to her because she has made it with her own labour.

The important thing to note here is that none of the claimants questions their rival’s argument but claims that his or hers is the most persuasive. So, who deserves the flute?

Should it go to the child for whom it represents the only source of entertainment as he has no other toys to play with? Or to the one who can actually make practical use of it; or to the child to whom it must belong by virtue of her “right” to the fruits of her labour? (emphasis added)

Okay, this is a made-up story. Why doesn't Prof. Sen make the Anne character break out into an impromptu performance of The Internationale? Alternately, why doesn't Bob suddenly start quoting Marx?

Why so socialist?

[ The Dark Knight is a deeply anti-communist film. We meant to work some more on this review and analyze the script more thoroughly. However, we felt this overview can help understand some recent events better. ]

The big studio treatment of comic book adaptations seldom have anything to offer beyond stylized special effects. M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable was an attempt to break out the mould, but it wasn't a big success. The movies based on the Superman, Spiderman and Batman comics stayed well within the formula. The huge budget of these movies (often exceeding $200 million, half of it marketing costs), explains part of the problem. The movies must appeal to the widest segment possible. The Spiderman III movie took this to the extreme, with different targeted ad spots for men, women and children. The spots for men showed the action, the spot for women mostly showed the tender moments.

A comparison of the two comparable series (Spiderman and Batman) offers some more insight into how The Dark Knight came into being:

Company: Warner Brothers Pictures

Batman (1989) User Rating: 7.6/10 Director:Tim Burton

Batman Returns (1992) User Rating: 6.9/10 Director:Tim Burton

Batman Forever (1995) User Rating: 5.4/10 Director:Joel Schumacher

Batman Begins (2005) User Rating: 8.4/10 Director:Christopher Nolan

The Dark Knight (2008) User Rating: 9.0/10 Director:Christopher Nolan

Company: Columbia Pictures

Spider-Man (2002) User Rating: 7.4/10 Director:Sam Raimi

Spider-Man 2 (2004) User Rating: 7.7/10 Director:Sam Raimi

Spider-Man 3 (2007) User Rating:6.5/10 Director:Sam Raimi

Spider-Man 4 (2011) (*** announced *** ) Director:Sam Raimi

The above can explain the unusual choice of Christopher Nolan as the director. Prior to Batman Begins, Nolan had directed a few low budget films, including The Following and Memento, the latter being a cult success. This was followed by Nolan taking up Insomnia, a remake of a brilliant Norwegian film.

None of these prior works could predict Nolan would take up something like a Batman picture. This simply isn't his genre. Perhaps the dwindling fortunes of the Batman franchise forced the studio to make a bold decision. Batman Begins was a wild success and in retrospect one can clearly see Nolan was holding back. Then came The Dark Knight.

When people went to see the movie, they had a clear expectation. They wanted to see a spectacle - CGI, explosions, pop culture etc. The Dark Knight didn't disappoint, yet there was something shocking lurking underneath, something sinister and evil, something they could not quite put their fingers on.

They were most fascinated yet repulsed by the villain:

THE JOKER: [...] Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics. Because it's all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, everybody loses their minds!

Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey?

(Dent looks into the Joker's eyes. Finding meaning.)

THE JOKER: It's fair.

Chaos is a recurring theme in the movie, a moral alternative to the unjust society. The Joker has a far reaching agenda. He does not believe in wealth (sets fire to a mini hill of currency notes), he does not make friends. He wants to transform the entire society. He is a violently unpredictable anarchist, yet his approach highly systematic.

What the audience was experiencing was essentially a communist "revolution" condensed into two hours of Hollywood format. Introducing a little bit of chaos can do wonders to society, permanently damaging the moral compass of the citizens.

Chaos later beccomes chance, the way intellectuals usually rationalize the movement. This was demonstrated via the Harvey Dent character.

Harvey Dent was a straight as an arrow character in the beginning, who believed in himself:

DENT: My father's lucky coin. As I recall, it got me my first date with you.
RACHEL: I'm serious, Harvey, you don't leave things like this to chance.
DENT: I don't. (sincere) I make my own luck.

.. and this is what became of him:

DENT: It's not about what I want. It's about what's fair. (to Gordon and Batman) You thought we could be decent men in an indecent world. You thought we could lead by example. You thought the rules could be bent but not break... you were wrong. The world is cruel.
(shows his coin)
And the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.

Harvey Dent is easily brainwashed by a simple trick of the Joker. The Joker pretends to put himself to the test. Funny thing is, by the time the socialists put themselves to the test, their words start being taken for granted. In one poignant moment in the movie, the Joker appears to stake his life to the outcome of a coin toss. The coin toss is not shown - it is implied that merely by suggesting that the Joker himself is not afraid of the outcome of chaos, he waives the need for an actual test. This is also what we see in practice - socialists constantly talk about sacrifice, but we have to take their word for it.

The movie is replete with imagery and verbiage of socialist regimes, at one point the Joker conducts a "social experiment".

The Joker in this movie uses techniques that appear uncomfortably familiar - IEDs, bomb laden suicide vests, rigged vehicles and boats, hijacking, gasoline ....

There is a parallel theme running in the movie about terrorism, statecraft and leadership in times of challenges.

NATASCHA: But this is a democracy, Harvey.
DENT: When their enemies were at the gate, the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to protect the city. It wasn't considered an honor. It was considered public service.
RACHEL: And the last man they asked to protect the republic was named Caesar. He never gave up that power.

This is a clear allusion to the War on Terror, which as we know was called off recently.

Few critics and reviewers really examined the movie in depth. Many simply called it "dark" (duh!). Some were fascinated by scenes in line with their ideological (conscious or otherwise) belief, for instance Tehelka report Shoma Choudhury liked the boat scene (social experiment). Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN found the movie to be "spectacularly inellectual", without quite explaining why.

It is no wonder the Academy Awards gave the movie a pass, as it ran counter to the current political ideals. The award went to the other highly revered movie, in which chance is not only celebrated, it plays a starring role. Redemption comes from chance, not from ones actions.

Resources:

IMDB Link

Screenplay (Warner Brothers) [PDF]

Lies you can believe in

Is the Indian media and intellectual establishment acting dumb or are they really not getting the power equations of Washington?

The Nuclear cheerleaders are trying to grasp at straws to avoid admitting what a load of crock the deal was. Some of these attempts border on hilarity (read the second point in the post).

Hillary Clinton's India visit provided another out. The visit was expectedly covered with much fanfare. Mrs. Clinton mostly said what the fawning Indian politicians and Indians wanted to hear and believe.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has delighted reporters repeatedly during her travels by speaking off the cuff, but is she also speaking off the mark? At a press conference in New Delhi on July 20, she was asked by an Indian reporter whether the United States opposed the transfer of sensitive reprocessing and enrichment nuclear technology from India to other countries.

"Well, clearly, we don't," she said. "We have just completed a civil nuclear deal with India. So if it's done within the appropriate channels and carefully safeguarded, as it is in the case of India, then that is appropriate." The Indian reporter got excited, because what he heard was a policy change. Since the beginning of the U.S.-Indian negotiations on the civil nuclear deal in 2005, both the Bush and Obama administrations have refused to allow India to transfer sensitive technology, citing proliferation concerns. Now Mrs. Clinton was saying the opposite.

A diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi immediately noticed the discrepancy and alerted the State Department, which speedily compiled "press guidance," anticipating questions from reporters about the secretary's remark. "U.S. policy on restricting transfers of enrichment and reprocessing technology, equipment and facilities has not changed," the guidance said. "Efforts… to restrict transfers of [such] technology are not aimed at India, or any other country, but reflect our global nonproliferation efforts."

Washington's arms-control community also noticed the secretary's comment and immediately tried to correct it. [link]

Minority Report

Once again, we bring you a selection of broad range of activities, randomly picked. We see this report as an extension of Sachar report.

3 Held In Connection With Bjp Leaders Murder
5 Get Life Term For Shoe Barons Kidnap
Youth Arrested For Kidnapping Arabic Teacher
Cops Solve Murder Of 14 Yr Old
College Students Kill Teen Over Love Affair
Pune 5 Get Ri For Helping Isi Agent
One Arrested For Air Hostesss Murder
Immigration Knew Little About Ismails D Company Connections
Rape Convict Tries To Flee Court
Rape Accused Dies Of Injuries After Jumping Down From Court Building
Man Caught For Travelling On Fake Pass
Man Rebukes Eve Teasers Thrashed To Death
Atiqs Father Sent To Jail
Labour Union Leader Hacked To Death
Flyer Held For Molesting Air Hostess
Man Held For Throwing Acid On Ex Wife Kin
Dead Girl Returns To Nail Rapist
Girl Critical After Boyfriend Pushes Her Off Charminar
2 Held For Raping 16 Year Old
Minor Gangraped Filmed In Car
19 Yr Old Woman Sexually Assaulted Killed
Cops Track Down Another Victim
Youth Abducts Minor
Teacher Forges Documents To Become Hm
Three Held On Eve Teasing Charges
Criminals Gun Down Govt Lawyer In Araria
Woman Gangraped By 6 Youths 3 Held
7 Minors Rescued From Brothel
Shakeel Aide Held For Extortion
Woman Stabbed 15 Times By Brother
Bdo Office Ransacked Teacher Arrested
DGP Nabs Two Eve Teasers
4 Arrested For Loading Activities In Port Town
Mns Vice President Booked For Rioting And Dacoity Police
Police Solve Malad Bar Girl Murder Arrest Two
Crime Branch Sleuths Nab Absconding Man
Undertrial Escapes From Nampally Court Premises
Burglar Teens Wanted To Impress Girls
Youth Held For Threatening Sania Mirza
6 Yrs Ri For Molesting Extorting Japan Tourist
Yemeni With Indian Passport Arrested
After 6 Day Lull Violence Rocks Mysore Again
Pak Woman Caught From Alang Shipyard
Mumbai Software Engg Student Among Four Held For Piracy
Hyderabad Son Kills Father For Molesting Sister
Lucknow Stepson Arrested For Killing 20 Yr Old Woman
Top Operative Of Indias Terror Group Arrested In Bangladesh
Ranchi Cong Mlas Son Sent To Judicial Custody
Mumbai Fraudster Surrenders After Wifes Arrest
Mumbai Four Land In Net For Double Murder Of Carpenters
Mumbai Ca Tax Consultant Nabbed For Human Trafficking
Bangalore Two Held In Currency Racket At Hoskote
Suspect In Bangalore Blasts Held In Kerala
2 More Simi Men Held More Arrests Likely
Fake Currency Racket Busted 3 Held
One Held In Mumbai Model Murder Case
Drunk Fliers Force Sudden Landing
Arrests Soon In Chhote Miya Killing
Man Caught Clicking Women Is Ex Councillor
3 Caught With Sex Worker In Car In Madhavpura
Man Caught With Four Passports


Previous:

Minority Report - May 10, 2009

Minority woman makes threat even as she decries labelling of community

Bollywood B-Movie actor Emraan Hashmi made allegations of discrimination against a housing society in Bombay. This issue is being hotly contested by the housing society.

Mid-day interviews a minority woman who also claims discrimination and harassment in a two part video (Part 1, Part 2 - the embedded above).

It is hard to make out Nagina Hasan's story from her long rant but as far as we could make out, she rented an apartment under the name of a business run by her husband. When the society folks found out that a Muslim family was occupying the apartment, they were asked to vacate immediately.

We generally sympathize with the woman's plight but she makes some highly objectionable statements:

In the interview, she says that the landlord threatened to cut off water and electricity supply to the apartment to which she had responded - I won't be responsible for what happens, what I do if you cut off my water and electricity etc. (at around 3:15 mark on the video). It pretty much sounds like a threat of a particular kind. This is astonishing as the woman objects to the labelling of all minorities as terrorists.

The woman also keeps referring to religion as jaat (literally caste, although she should have used Qaum or Mazhab or something like that) and India as Hindustan. Elsewhere in the video she also says humanity is above rule of law (Insaaniyat vs. Kanoon) and calls the society folks who had allegedly denied Emraan Hashmi housing Hijdas.

The Hijda epithet refers to a news report that some members of the housing society in the Emraan Hashmi case had claimed the actor was refused on account of being a serial kisser and thus a possible bad influence on women. According to Nagina Hasan the housing society males were unable to control their mothers and sisters and keep them away from temptation and thus they were Hijdas. The point about insecure males is well taken, although one could turn it around and make the same point about her religion which insists on certain dress codes.

At another point she says she was rudely treated as though she was from a scheduled caste.

As you can see, Bollywoodization of Secularism is quite entertaining.

A mini riot in Pakistan

9 killed in communal violence in Pakistan's Punjab province

LAHORE: At least nine persons died on Saturday in police firing and violent clashes between Muslims and the minority Christian community in Pakistan's Punjab province following the alleged desecration of the holy Quran.

Hundreds of Muslims gathered this morning and marched towards Christian homes at Azafi Abadi village, 160 km from Lahore. Witnesses said at least three persons were killed and some others injured when police fired at a mob that was trying to forcibly enter the homes of Christians. The bodies of six Christians - three women, two children and a man - were pulled out of houses that were set alight by the mob. Officials said they feared the toll could rise as the rubble of some 70 burnt houses is yet to be cleared.

A mob had on Friday burnt over 70 houses of Christians at Azafi Abadi over an alleged incident of desecration of the Quran. Muslims set on fire another 15 houses of Christians on Saturday. Violence erupted in the area when a group of Muslims alleged that three Christians had burnt pages of the Quran at a wedding ceremony. [link]

The Dawn reports:

ISLAMABAD: Days of rioting between Christians and Muslims in eastern Pakistan following allegations that a Quran was defiled escalated Saturday, leaving six Christians dead, including a child, authorities said. Members of a banned Muslim organization began torching Christian homes in the Punjabi city of Gora on Thursday after accusing them of desecrating pages from Islam's holy book, Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti said.

'There is no truth in the allegation [of desecrating pages from the holy book],' he told The Associated Press, adding that he had himself visited Gojra on Friday and asked police to provide protection to Christians who were facing threats.

Ok, so the Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti says the allegation of desecration is untrue. What if there is truth in the allegation?

Queen eclipsed by the Other Queen

As rare as that recent celestial event and perhaps as evanescent.

Two dangerous ideas

There are two dangerous ideas floating around and we can't seem to decide which is worse.

The first relates to the massive diplomatic fiasco committed by the UPA Government. One can tell it is a big blunder from the fact that intellectuals of various hues took more than a week to cook up theories in the Government's defense. The major idea right now is that it is a display of Gandhigiri by Manmohan Singh, albeit at an international level. Unfortunately the other cheek being offered is one that belongs to a lower region of the body and Pakistanis are already seen gleefully preparing to put a Lahori chappal imprint on it. Worse, they might just give the cheek a miss and aim straight for the you know what.

This theory clearly does not stand up to scrutiny, just like the absurd idea put forward by Indrani Bagchi of The Times of India about the Nuclear betrayal. That theory now stands completely demolished, with India having put its foot down emphatically against any environmental agreement.

In any case, to think that Manmohan Singh can actually go ahead and attempt antics like this on his own is absurd. We believe this whole thing happened because certain levers were pulled at Washington.

The second idea is that of global nuclear deterrence. A set of people seem to totally like this idea and coincidentally these were the same set of people who were the leading Nuke cheerleaders. The idea is as follows:

1. Nuclear countries make a pact to have a joint deterrence mechanism
2. They all sign CTBT, NPT etc. etc. and force others to do it
3. They pledge to defend countries who sign above by jointly committing to do a Nuclear retaliation against any country which uses Nukes first against the member nations
4. Because of this carrot and Nuke stick approach, everyone signs up, everybody lives happily ever after
5. (Fine print) Once you sign up, you are not allowed to retaliate on your own, unless all the members authorize you to do so

Okay, if this idea sounds too much like the United Nations to you, you are not alone. That was quite a successful organization, wasn't it?

The big problem with global Nuclear deterrence is simply that to launch a Nuke attack takes a certain type of mindset. A single country like India can retaliate against another country, but try achieving that consensus within a dozen or so countries, especially when the member nations will consist of reputable peace loving nations of Europe. Typically you can launch a counter attack within hours. If you wait, the scene gets complicated. The leaders start getting phone calls from powerful nations with deals, sweeteners and threats. Peaceniks are out on the street, demanding that the victim nation forgive the aggressor to spare innocent bystanders. We can already read the headlines on New York Times: President of France invokes Gandhi, pleads Indians to forgive etc. Try putting that scenario to the global Nuke defense setting.

Using backward induction, once India signs up for this stupid concept, it is a virtual guarantee to the loonies that there is NOT going to be a Nuclear retaliation.

Cranes are falling

It seems like the Delhi metro is falling apart at seams. Now even the rails have developed cracks, this can lead to a really serious accident.

Sidharth Mishra of The Daily Pioneer elaborates on the mafia controlled construction projects in New Delhi. All this is common knowledge, people at the very highest level are on the take.

However, we did not find any of this surprising at all. This is the 'shyte' Indians have been taking for more than sixty years. The surprising part is that the name of Delhi CM Sheila Dixit never even came up on the media - the whole reporting and editorializing is focused on E Shreedharan (Managing Director of Delhi Metro). Contrast this with the Gujarat hooch tragedy, they immediately reached for the CM's jugular.

Why blame the NYT?

NEW DELHI: Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was captured in a chilling photograph and now he has confessed his role in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but he remains a 'gunman', rather than a 'terrorist', for the New York Times and other leading American newspapers. And with a reason.

After his surprising and dramatic confession before a special court in Mumbai on Monday, Kasab is hogging headlines in the American media that is revisiting the semantic-ethical issue of which attacker qualifies as terrorist.

For the New York Times and the Washington Post, Kasab is strictly a gunman.

"Mumbai Gunman Enters Plea Of Guilty", the Post headline read a day later, and the 428 words of the report from New Delhi do not include "terrorist" -- not even to qualify the "attack". [link]

This is a strange article from TOI, the paper which does its very best to perpetuate secular myths. Our home grown intellectuals are yet to call Kasab by the 'T' word. The Arundhati Roy types have openly blamed India for 26/11. Apparently Indian security forces rape Kashmiri women which leads to illiterate runaway teens in Pakistani villages to join up certain organizations and who then invade India so they can sexually humiliate guests in Indian hotels before killing them.

The American press is merely following the diktat of the current administration. If the administration is loathe to call a spade a spade, the media, having thrown its total weight behind The One can't really do otherwise. The Times of India and other secular newspapers couldn't get enough of the new savior of the new world. Developing this late allergy over semantics is hardly going to help.

We recommend the TOI stop losing sleep over this and go back to their regular programming of Hindu bashing.

MCOCA charges dropped against Abu Salem

New Delhi: A Delhi court today reserved its order on a plea by the city police seeking to drop charges under stringent MCOCA against underworld don Abu Salem on the ground that it was against the conditions for his extradition agreed to between India and Portugal. "The pending application of the Delhi police is heard. Fix the application for order on July 22," Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pinki said after the counsel for the police and CBI wrapped up arguments.

Salem, a gangster extradited from Portugal in 2005, was booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) for allegedly making extortion calls to city-based businessman Ashok Gupta in 2002, demanding Rs 5 crore as protection money. The police, on the directions of the Centre, had earlier moved an application for dropping of MCOCA charges against Salem saying it would be in violation of extradition terms. [link]

In most situations, the police seek to book a criminal under the most stringent laws possible. Only in a secular country will you see cops begging the courts to not apply existing strong provisions.

As you can see, we have a pretty funny situation here. The Government (secular) claims that Portugal demanded waiving the death penalty before allowing the extradition of Abu Salem. How do we know they bargained hard enough? Were they trying prevent an Afzal like situation?

There is no reason MCOCA(*) should not be applied in the case. The charges are not severe enough to warrant a death penalty. In any case the waiver could be applied using a Governor's pardon and handled politically. Applying the law would have helped the police to find other conspirators.

(*) MCOCA: A stringent law against organized crime that is invoked only against Hindus.

It takes a whole new level of talent ...

Now, Pak details 'Indian hand' in Balochistan

NEW DELHI: As the Manmohan Singh government faces flak for allowing the mention of Pakistan's "concerns" about Balochistan in the joint statement the prime minister signed in Egypt, Islamabad seems determined to compound his difficulties.

On Wednesday, Pakistani media carried reports quoting official sources suggesting that Singh agreed to the mention of Balochistan when his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani confronted him in Sharm el-Sheikh with a dossier detailing India's covert subversion in the restive province of Balochistan.

The report in the Dawn claimed the dossier also had details of India's role in fomenting trouble in other areas of Pakistan as well. It said it was India that was responsible for the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police academy, apart from maintaining a terror training camp in Kandahar from where trained Baloch insurgents were sent into Pakistan. "Operatives of RAW who remained in touch with the perpetrators of the attacks have been identified and proof of their interaction have been attached. Besides, description of Indian arms and explosives used in the attack on the Sri Lankan team has been made part of the dossier," the paper said. [link]

... to take a favorable situation and turn it completely around. In other words to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is kind of hard to decide what is worse - this being by design or a result of drafting error.

Meanwhile planted media reports about Manmohan Singh's waning popularity n Congress continue. As we said before, this could be just setting the stage for the grand debut. Prepare to genuflect and learn to salute in proper form.