Here we go again

'South Park' and the Informal Fatwa

Our "Liberal" Values - Part I

The torture was so brutal that there were blood stains on the wall of Anu's room ....

The news that dominated the headlines and TV spots for the past few days was predictably the Swamy Nithyananda happy ending case. Since it involved a religion which is every secular person's mission to fix and a movie actress, the case had great tabloid appeal. Prima facie it does not appear any laws were broken. Plenty can be said about the moral aspect of the case but should the secular state get involved? There is an obvious catch-22 in such private sting operations, especially when it involves gross violation of privacy, you can not just barge into someone's bedroom. Yet, the courts admitted a case of "rape and intimidation" against the Swamy. This is a very clever ruse, something tells us the dude called K. Lenin did not think it up all by himself. Maybe it had something to do with land disputes between the Swamy's organization and a powerful regional satrap, who knows?

The point is, we expected our liberals to take a contrarian stand with their fiercely individualistic fearless selves. Alas, as "liberal" journalist after "liberal" journalist wrote about and one rating hungry secular TV anchor to the next discussed the salacious aspects of the case, no one gave the poor Swamy a break. Forget the Swamy for a moment, what about the poor woman's privacy? The sting video kept on running until it was dislodged off the prime slot by the Queen's triumphant appearance post passage of the Women's reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha. What good is empowerment if ladies can't have a bit of private fun on the side?

In any case, titillating as the case might have been, no small animals or little children were hurt in the process.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said about another case that flew past in the minor headlines. No one took any notice:

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Kerala Christian priest has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a minor girl inmate of a hostel run by Orthodox Church at Pothukal in Malappuram district in September last year. The victim is a student of Catholicate Higher Secondary School run by the church. [source: The Times of India]

This is a very serious, big ticket crime, the holy grail of any public prosecutor, and yet:

Father K G Joseph alias Father Habib Joseph was arrested and produced in a local court on Thursday. He, however, was granted bail. Joseph later denied charges. Crime Branch sources said the priest was charged under Section 354 IPC (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), a bailable offence.

It is astonishing that a monster who abuses a 14-year old kid gets booked under IPC 354 as opposed to IPC 375. Given the situation, letting the dude out on bail basically means letting him walk free.

Wait, there is more:

Police are also probing the "unnatural" death of the girl's elder sister, who "succumbed" to suspected food poisoning at hostel in October last year. A few days after her death, the 14-year-old class IX student had alleged that she and her elder sister Anu were made to wash feet and massage Joseph and another priest who was a regular visitor to the hostel and that it often ended up with them being sexually harassed.

If you are still shaking your head in disbelief, you are not alone. Yet the priest was booked under a bailable offense. This is what we call outstanding success of sensitivity training of public prosecutors in a secular country.

Further along, we find that the abuse was almost institutionalized and happened with full knowledge of other personnel of the institution:

Though they took up the matter with a nun, she instead of helping, threatened them with dire consequences, the girl had alleged. The two sisters belonging to a poor family of Kelakam in Kannur district thought it better to resign to their fate as otherwise they would have had to discontinue studies. Sixteen-year-old Anu, a class XI student, died on October 24, 2009. Soon after her death her younger sister had told reporters in the presence of her father that Anju was taken out in a car by the second priest on October 21 and they returned late in the night. Anu looked very tired and was crying and didn't eat anything the next day. This infuriated the nun who beat her up, she had alleged.

The systematic, pervasive and almost institutionalized abuse in such institutes happens right under the noses of our "liberal" people, the type whose every other spoken word is "justice". Just a few months ago, the Sister Abhaya case was finally wrapped up after years of legal intrigue. Another sister came out with a tell all book and received little attention. Every now and then one reads these horror stories and shivers, most of them involve a clique of religious leaders, politicians and powerful people. Little girls suffer silently, occasionally the walls carry the stains of their muffled cries .....

Minority Report

Outrage: People enforcing bandh in Khammam town protesting

against a book authored by Macha Laxmaiah on Thursday. [Link]

Move over the anguished, impoverished minority stereotyped by the Sachar report, here comes the newly assertive variety. In Khamman, AP (pictured above), minority youth protested against a supposedly inflammatory book and brought life to a standstill. Special forces had to be deployed to keep matters from going out of control. The Government did not take any chances, copies of the offending book were seized and the author promptly arrested.

In Shimoga and Hassan, Karnataka, things did not end so well. Protests against an article written by controversial author Taslima Nasreen turned violent and two people died in the ensuing police firing.

Alert netizens point out that cars with bumper stickers "KHANS" were noticed in and around Bangalore, it is not clear if it is the effect of the movie "My Name is Khan".

40 year old nabbed for raping minor
Youth gets bail in elopement caseKolkata
Kidnapped girl rescued after chase in Choolaimedu
Moharrum passes off peacefully
Four held with firearms in Uttar Pradesh
Indian workers sold like cattle in Saudi Arabia Stowaway
20 unruly fliers hijack AI flight for 15 hrs
Dawood man held with fake currency
Miracle doc took two govts for a ride
SIMs being misused by Pak callers
Victim gives two versions court acquits rape accused
Man who murdered vagabond held
Four held with 50 kg date rape drug from city airport
Bombay HC upholds ban on Islamic book
Sultan ul Uloom lands in trouble
Vedic case MLA brother surrenders granted bail
Man accused of molesting Jet airhostess lands in custody
Furnish whereabouts of Gulshan Kumars killer
Truck looting Gang of robbers busted
Minor girl rescued from Delhi brothel
HuJI south India chief arrested in Hyderabad
14 year old raped killed in up
Men killed by wife paramour
D company got fake passports issued from Lucknow office
Girl spills beans on killer father
6 with fake currency held
Man behind 1993 train blasts held near articleshow
Ex MLA could face minimum 3 yrs in jail for giving shelter to IM terrorist
Ban on SIMI extended by two years
Cops crack Rs 42 lakh heist
3 town planning men suspended
Wanted accused in 1993 bomb blasts held after 17 years
Indian Mujahideen terrorist sent to police custody
youth arrested for kidnapping raping 15 yr old in mumbai
HuJI man in city for fake notes probe
IM man posed as BTech student to buy ball bearings
Suspected terrorist arrested in
Two suspected Bangla nationals held in Muzaffarnagar
200 kgs of ammonium nitrate 600 detonators seized in Gujarat
Cameras of mediamen snatched by cops
mumbai boy rescued from employer s custody
rapist in ties the knot victim bails him out in mumbai
Ketamine powder seized from Ahmedabad airport three held
Judge to face probe over links with woman officer
First time offenders
jammu and kashmir sex maniac in police net
suspect rider leads cops to robbers
railway cops put lives on the line to catch a con man
Gang of highway robbers busted
Two arrested on rape charges
Rape accuseds bail rejected yet again
Five arrested in molestation saga
Left hoodlums in khaki attack N Bengal village
hubby in laws get 7 year ri for raping woman
haj house imam accused of harbouring terrorists acquitted
al qaeda terrorist arrested in bihar
HC nod for CB plea on Naseer Khan
16 yr old girl set on fire
Delhi serial blasts accused arrested in Azamgarh
Vedic case Court extends Khude bail
hamza handled dawood s ops
shahbaz khan plans to sue airline authorities for maligning his name
sons of deplaned businessman quizzed police do not get any clue
how many female cops do you have Woman Trafficked
fake notes flood wholesale market in and around mumbai
youth arrested for kidnapping raping 15 yr old in mumbai
centre to pardon j and k youth training in pok
boys face 55 cases in four states
indian mujahideen had plans to attack iit bjp cong hqs
2 held with 20 stolen bikes
Three gunrunners held in Palamau
Four get life for kidnapping killing boy
Counterfeiters arrested in Bangalore
MLA aspirant 2 others held for killing tailor
Five held for cheating woman
senior citizen held for rape in mumbai
jealous of ex wife s success lawyer turns into an outlaw
dawood paying crores to ensure own protection
double murder convict gets bail after 8 years
convicted murderer may walk free if dna test is valid
three persons arrested poppy straw recovered in kashmir
11 get bail in Shopian case
dalit woman set on fire for objecting to molestation
Cargo plane lands with AK 47 rifles from Dubai
Constables son arrested for chain snatching
Taslimas article sparks violence in Karnataka 2 killed
2 AI employees suspended for molesting 2 minor passengers
Two more arrested in drug seizure case
10 yr old girl molested in tony south mumbai club
eve teasing leads to mumbai youth s murder
Plucky 7 yr boy survives uncles bid to kill him
Four teenagers arrested for robberies
54 yr old aide of state cong leader detained in german bakery probe
Kerala priest held for sexual abuse of minor
Lover murders pregnant girlfriend in public loo
delhi cop killer arrested in mumbai
molester in south mumbai thought victim was a foreigner
Aftab case judge gets death threat
Man held for fraud

Previous:

Minority Report - December 27, 2009

Minority Report - September 20, 2009

Minority Report - August 2, 2009
Minority Report - May 10, 2009

India's bestest Home Minister evah!

India Inc. appears to be completely enamored by Shri P Chidambaram, who has already been anointed the best Home Minister ever by the secularatti. How quickly we forget that he has been at it for just a little over a year, having taken over the reigns very reluctantly in a politically expedient transition post 26/11. Till date Chidambaram has little to show for other than the creation of ever bigger bureaucracies.

There appears to be little evidence that any serious domestic investigation was even undertaken, if FBI hadn't caught Headley, India's "breakthroughs" post 26/11 would be exactly zero. Despite strong evidence of domestic terror cells in many cities, there seems to have been no attempt to bust these cells. Perhaps one such cell, alleged to be linked to Indian Mujahideen, which in turn is a polymorph of SIMI, may have been behind the recent Pune blast.

Yet, media persons covering the Pune terror attack proclaimed in reverent adulation how Chidambaram had "rushed" from Chennai to Pune and how well he handled the aftermath. This handling mainly consisted of a press conference, held in his preferred style, which is essentially a royal sermon. He does not like to be asked questions, setting the boundaries at the get go. The few he chooses to answer, he makes no attempt to hide his contempt towards the questioner, making hand gestures of impatience, his body language reeking of elitism. He drops recycled cliches ("they have to get lucky just once..") and his fanboys in the media lap it all up.

After Pune, Chidambaram claimed that there had been no intelligence lapses, which is probably true. There had been ample information related to flourishing terror cells in Pune. What was lacking was the political will to act on this information. It is obviously hard to prevent terror attacks, but "you are a sitting duck, too bad" isn't exactly confidence inspiring.

Perhaps what is most astonishing is that even after establishing the much touted NIA, the Pune terror attacks are still being investigated by Maharashtra ATS. Meanwhile there is something brewing with the whole NSA thing.

In any case, minor structural adjustments within the bureaucracy isn't really the job of the Home Minister. A seasoned bureaucrat can pull this through, there is no direct political consequence involved. A Home Minister is supposed to provide vision and handle politically difficult situations. This is where P Chidambaram has so far proved to be a complete failure, sending wrong signals to both fundamentalists and Naxalites.

The Naxalite situation has gotten progressively worse, now we are down to blaming local state governments. One wonders if the said state Governments will be given credit if the situation improves. P Chidambaram himself has denied there is such a thing called Operation Green Hunt.

On the other hand, for someone who insists on taking the secular version of the ministerial oath, P Chidambaram allowed himself to be summoned by an Islamic seminary who then read him the riot act. Chidambaram went with his tail tucked between his legs and then surrendered. A good dog knows his masters. Under P Chidambaram's watch, Kashmir type tendencies has spread throughout India. It started with the student agitations post Batla-house encounter. Conspiracy theories abound yet the Home Ministry remains silent.

If P Chidambaram doesn't wipe off the smirk on his face soon and start showing some leadership, his legacy might as well turn out to be the Kashmirization of rest of India.

15 ...

On February 13, 2010, a powerful blast occurred inside a popular eating joint at Koregaon, Pune. The death toll from the blast has now reached 15. Most of the victims were in their early twenties. There were also scores of people injured, some with visible wounds, some with a scar deep inside ....

Excuse us for this anachronistic post, India has bounced back. We haven't ...

Justice gets a Secular angle

In an earlier post (Justice gets a Social Justice angle), we had discussed how the Secular Govt of India is slowly but surely changing the legal framework to incorporate ideas of social justice into it. A recent Supreme Court judgment not only confirms this, but starts an extremely alarming trend:

Poverty could mitigate crime, even murder: SC

In an order that is sure to spark a debate, the court said poor background of the accused should -- along with old age and years spent behind bars while awaiting death sentence -- be considered as mitigating factors when courts ponder whether life sentence should be used in an otherwise fit case for death penalty. The order was passed by a Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and H L Dattu while hearing an appeal against death penalty awarded by the trial court as well as Allahabad high court to two members of a gang of bandits convicted for killing four people in December 1995.

The Bench noted that apart from being old, the convicts had been in custody since 1996 and death penalty had hung over their heads since 2005, when the trial court gave its verdict.

The Bench further said, "The convicts (Mulla and Guddu) belong to an extremely poor background. One thing which is clear to us is that they have committed these crimes for want of money. Though we are shocked by their deeds, we find no reason why they cannot be reformed over a period of time." [source: The Times of India]

Were these men particularly destitute? How about the victims? They were farm laborers who had been kidnapped for ransom by the two men. Just because the ransom amount was small (Rs. 10,000) does not make the perps poor, it just reflects the fact that the victims' capacity to pay might not have been very high. To brutally hack to death five farm laborers upon non-payment of ransom does not reflect desperation, it reflects cold blooded sadism of seasoned criminals.

What if the names of the two condemned men had been Munna and Guddu instead of Mulla and Guddu? Your guess is as good as ours, but something tells us no minority is ever going to be hanged in this country, no matter how gruesome the crime. This isn't a stretch, if you take the Sachar generalization across the whole spectrum and apply the observation of the Hon'ble Justices Dattu and Sathasivam, this is but a natural conclusion. Indeed, the secular zeal of UPA is going in this direction for quite sometime now. Recent examples include clemency to J&K youth who had attended terror school in Pakistan and continued attempts by secular politicians to get the UP terrorists off the hook.

A quick search on Justices HL Dattu and P Sathasivam reveals interesting facts. Justice Dattu has Karnataka / Kerala HC background while Justice Sathasivam is a former CJ of the TN High Court. In other words, both hail from citadels of a certain model of social justice. Both are interesting 2008 appointees to the supreme court with a long tenure ahead of them.

It also appears that Justice Dattu had earlier recused himself from the well publicized and infamous Nun Avaya murder case.

Justice Sathasivam appears to be one of those who do not believe in practicing what they preach:

The Supreme Court’s pivotal role in making up for the lethargy of the Legislature and the inefficiency of the executive is commendable. But the law can be dehumanized and the final forensic floor–the Supreme Court–may turn into a dictator. He concluded by saying that the weapon of judicial activism should be used carefully. [source]

That rhetoric would nominally mean a judge who makes the strictest interpretation of the constitution and the laws, and these currently most decidedly do not have any provision for factoring in the "poverty" of perpetrators of heinous crimes in doling out sentences.

These two judges seem to be getting a disproportionate number of Police encounter cases and have presided over the bail plea of Gujarat encounter cops.

This is why we need think tanks to analyze and collate the judgments of supreme court benches, just to make sure nothing funny is going on. Watching this page would be a start.

Trial lawyers all over the country will make a keen note of this case, suddenly we will start seeing a lot of perps on trial suddenly turn poor and destitute, especially if they happen to belong to the minority community.

Asif Zardari featured on Indian National Congress Ad

Well, not quite, but if that happened, it would be in the same league as this one.

This GOI advertisement came out on the National Girl Child day, released by the Ministry of Child and Women Development under Krishna Tirath of Congress. The first thing that strikes you is how amateurish the composition is. A high school student could compose a better ad and write better copy too. Most of the real estate is taken up by post-modernist blocks of color, an advertisement against female foeticide features mostly successful male icons (including the Pakistan Air Force general, of course). The ad is clearly off message. It is also way off target, people who can read that ad usually do not kill their girl children.

It is admirable that the Government takes up such a strident stand against this social malaise but haven't we done just about enough on this particular issue? We have legislated the heck out of it, there is no dearth of jhollawalla funds or enforcement. Yet, clearly Government action is unable to make a reasonable dent on the problem. On the other hand, is the problem as big as it is made out to be? Reports indicate female foeticide is fairly common in the Southern parts. Reports also indicate in male-female ratio, China does far worse than India.

Obviously, this is a secondary problem that can not be easily fixed by running bogus color ads on English language newspapers. On the other hand, it does provide two essential services - provide employment to extended members of the family (ad design, publishing, copy writing, printing etc.) and a moral cudgel to a group of people whose sole purpose in life appears to be to pick faults within other religions.

We recommend the Ministry of Child and Women Development to expend at least some resources to other areas. We do not see Hindu priests or religious leaders advocate female foeticide, in fact many of them are vocally against it. What we do see are advertisements for Arab Pardha adorning billboards in major cities in Kerala.

Forgotten Genocides

Find a Kashmir Hindu around you, he will tell you the significance of January 19. It was exactly 20 years ago to the day when all hell broke loose in the valley of Kashmir on the peaceful, patriotic community of Kashmiri Hindus.

Twenty summers and winters have passed since then but the memories, scars and hopes are still fresh and alive. It was a night from hell when the gruesome threats emanated from loudspeakers mounted atop mosques all over the Kashmir valley. That night, Islamic terrorists gave our parents three choices -- convert to Islam, get killed, or flee.

Which one would you have chosen?

A majority of us chose to escape because the honour and dignity of our sisters, daughters and mothers was sacred for us. Most of us seized the very first transportation we could find, hid our womenfolk in the back of the vehicles, prayed and escaped. [source: Rediff]

This is just one example, albeit the most heartbreaking one. Any reasonable person would see this as a pattern that repeats with deadly predictability when certain conditions are met.

There is no escaping this menace, where would you go to? Europe? Africa?

In this world and in this fight we stand alone.

Did Kashmir separatist leader Yasin Malik really commit a rape?

Yasin Malik with his brand new Pakistani wife (backstory)

That Aman ki Asha thing between The Times Group and the Jang (literally "war") group of Pakistan? Not going well. Had we not known about The Times of India's seemingly endless appetite for self-parody, we would have called the exercise totally redundant. As far as we can tell, the peace process between India and Pakistan isn't stalled for lack of candle light vigils or goofy editorials.

Within days of announcing the citizen-to-citizen over social media and web peace gesture, we had:

(a) Fidayeen attack on Kashmir

(b) Rocket attack on Punjab villages

(c) Verbal attack on Hindus

... or, if you prefer, business as usual with that country. Anyway, we digress.

The peace initiative had a two day conference in New Delhi, with delegates from Pakistan flown in. Guess who was one of the keynote speakers? Yasin Malik.

According to reports, the separatist leader was delivering a key-note speech on the road map towards peace between the two hostile nations, when he was interrupted by some unidentified youths. What started as a normal interaction with the JKLF leader soon turned out to be an altercation where in Malik was accused of supporting anti-India activities, misguiding people and politicising sensational issues just in the name of building peace.

The protestors then raised slogans against Malik. In the full glare of media, Malik was accused of raping a nurse and escaping justice due to his political influence. [source: zeenews]

Now, rolling out the red carpet for the enemies of the country is not a terribly new thing for our secular people, but we were stunned at the serious allegation leveled at Malik.

Sure enough, a google search throws up several hits which make the allegation, including detailed analysis and even the name of the victim. There is no way to corroborate the story, it is not like Indian media will report anything like that.

So, did he or didn't he? Knowing what we know about the man, we certainly won't put it beyond him.

Just how broken is the Mid-Day meal scheme?

Poor: adjective, -er, -est, noun
1. having little or no money, goods, or other means of support: a poor family living on welfare.

[Applies to: NDA Regime]

Remember poor folks? The kind that used to show up on front pages of newspapers every now and then during the NDA regime? Well, they disappeared again. No more editorials lamenting poverty etc. from the career socialists either. Anyway, we digress.

One of the flagship schemes of the UPA 1.0 Govt much loved by socialists is the mid-day meal scheme. So, we did a quick google news search to see how the scheme is doing:

• Bhubaneswar: Self-help groups unable to serve meal on meager allowance (74 paise in primary schools, 91 in middle), serving only substandard daal and rice
• Goa: 12 complaints in a year
• Sambalpur: Mid-day meal allocation just 44 paise per child (about a penny for you Americans)
• Varanasi: Only Khichdi with bare hands, carried & cooked under unhygienic conditions
• Patna: Dead rat in mid-day meal creates panic
• Lucknow: 12 kids fall sick after taking mid-day meal
• Andhra Pradesh: Mid-day meal schemes floundering, organizers in debt
• Pune: Food poisoning hits 19 students
• West Bengal: 10 Lakh kids go without mid-day meal
• New Delhi: 125 kids fall ill; frogs, lizards commonly found in food served

Oh, by the way, did you know there is actually a Mid-Day Meal Scheme Workers Union?

Meanwhile, MDM Scheme Workers Union led by its district president Babaji Parida organized a dharna in front of the collectorate demanding the government to supply pulses, cooking gas and vegetables along with rice to the implementing agencies and pay salaries regularly.

Obviously, none of the water carriers of social justice will show any interest whatsoever in these stories. This is how the whole thing is supposed to work. It is simply amazing how quickly any socialist scheme assumes a mammoth bureaucratic structure, grows unionized work force and then suddenly starts running out of money.

As discussed before, the only places where the mid-day meal scheme is reasonably working is where a public-private partnership exists. Even in that example, since the organization running the scheme is ostensibly a Hindu charitable trust, it ran into other types of trouble - apparently serving children a full nutritious meal of Daal, Rice and Sabzi is Hindutva indoctrination!

Eyeballing this sad state of affairs, it looks like completely broken doesn't even begin to describe the problem, it is so bad that we are seriously jeopardizing the health of millions of children to not only just malnutrition but also to serious type of food poisoning. The kids are obviously better off bringing whatever food their parents can afford. We just don't believe that parents who can spare their children for school can not spend 44 paise on their meals.

Tribals see through Human Rights Mafia

Dantewada tribals attack Medha Patkar

BHOPAL: Tribals angry with activists fighting for human rights of Naxals while ignoring poor ‘adivasis’ threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Magsaysay award winner Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey as they reached Dantewada town in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.

While Medha, being a woman, did not face much humiliation, her companion Pandey was pulled down from the motorcycle and given a hiding. He was pushed around and asked why the activists had done nothing for the tribals but found cause to support Naxals.

Medha, who leads Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Pandey who founded Asha for Education, were on their way to participate in a 'jan sunwai' (people's court) in Naxal-hit areas on Thursday. Patkar and Pandey were on a motorbike when tribals carrying banners of ‘Maa Danteswadi Adivasi Swabhimaan Manch’ surrounded them, asking them to go back.

Shouting slogans like "Wapas jao, wapas jao (go back)", the tribals alleged that NGOs "support Naxals under the pretext of human rights." [source: The Times of India]

It is just incredible that these human rights activists were actually on their way to participate in a "people's court". The Naxals have basically four uses for villages. They hit them for recruiting soldiers (often using coercion and threat), food, shelter and women. The people's courts are used to settle issues like who were the "informers" and so on and so forth.

It is no secret that most of the so called Human Rights Activism is media propaganda aided by astro turfed crowd financed by NGOs (paid by YOU).

The only regret we have out of this incident is that Genocide Suzie was not on the scene. Readers will recall that in recent interviews she can't seem to stop boasting about her visits to Dantewada. Go ahead Suzie, visit Dantewada again, the tribals are waiting for ya.

Resist "Global Governance" - your life may depend on it

Read this and weep:

The Elephant in the Room

The biggest pain in Asia isn't the country you'd think.

BY BARBARA CROSSETTE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

Think for a moment about which countries cause the most global consternation. Afghanistan. Iran. Venezuela. North Korea. Pakistan. Perhaps rising China. But India? Surely not. In the popular imagination, the world's largest democracy evokes Gandhi, Bollywood, and chicken tikka. In reality, however, it's India that often gives global governance the biggest headache.

Of course, India gets marvelous press. Feature stories from there typically bring to life Internet entrepreneurs, hospitality industry pioneers, and gurus keeping spiritual traditions alive while lovingly bridging Eastern and Western cultures

[source: Foreign Policy Magazine via: Varnam]

In the context of the Global Warming scam, we briefly touched upon the subject of "World Government". For those unfamiliar with the concept, basically the initial draft text of Copenhagen had this apparently innocuous reference to "World Government".

A big problem with the Indian media and indeed media in many developing countries is that, they filter out anything other than the Left-Liberal opinion from the developed nations, which means anything right of The Guardian magazine never reaches a large proportion of the global public. The public thus comes to accept an incomplete and highly distorted image as the consensus opinion of the West.

People in India do not know that the Australian senate recently rejected a carbon trading scheme. They are not aware that just a few days ago, the French declared a newly enacted carbon tax law unconstitutional. A cap and trade style legislation has practically no chance of passing in the US senate, of course that may change.

The sinister idea of World Government must be summarily rejected by the people of India, because it will mean becoming colonized all over again. However, a section of people in India will make out like bandits, for a glimpse of this sinister crowd, please peruse this link at leisure.

The people who can come up with this audacious plan are the sort that keep coming back for seconds, as they will when they reconvene for another round of tamasha at Mexico City. The UPA Government wants to jump on to this bandwagon because through it they can rule India indefinitely.

We feel so strongly about this threat to our freedom that we added this to the banner of our blog:

Resist "Global Governance"

India's "insecure" minorities

Images - from left to right:

(a) Haj Pilgrims at Mumbai hijack airliner for 15 hours [link]

(b) Violent stone pelting protest in Gujarat to get a BRTS stop named after a Pir [link]

(c) Muslims protest to ban Google in India [link]

Haj pilgrims confine crew in AI plane for 15 hours

Mumbai, Jan 3, PTI:

Haj pilgrims on board an Air India flight from Jeddah refused to leave the plane on arriving here and confined its cabin crew for 15 hours resenting the diversion of the aircraft from fog-hit Delhi.

Due to fog, the flight AI-891A was diverted to Mumbai at 5.30pm on Saturday and the plane could not leave until 9 pm. When the passengers were asked to deplane and make their way to the transit lounge and hotel for overnight stay, a few of them refused and created a ruckus on board the aircraft.

"The unruly passengers blocked the exits and prevented the security and traffic from coming on board and/or deplaning the other passengers into the parked buses," a statement issued by All India Cabin Crew Association said. [source: Deccan Herald]

This piece of news was not meant for public consumption, but it made it to you anyway. What you don't know, couldn't possibly hurt you, at least not in the immediate future, subject to abrupt changes of course.

By the time news reaches you, several filters get applied. Some of it does not reach you at all, or, sometimes when they do reach you, they get sanitized by the "style guides". For instance, once the news factory churns out the above piece of news, it becomes something like this:

20 unruly fliers 'hijack' AI flight for 15 hrs

Manju V, TNN 4 January 2010, 03:31am IST

MUMBAI: It was a 15-hour nightmare on the ground for over 200 air passengers and flight crew at Mumbai airport thanks to the hijack-like

The unprecedented case of unruly passenger behaviour in the country came about when around 20 Air India passengers—who like hundreds of others found their flight diverted to Mumbai because of fog and technical glitches at Delhi airport—stopped their co-passengers and 12 flight attendants from leaving the aircraft that was parked on the Mumbai tarmac from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. [source: The Times of India]

See, how easy it is? "Haj Pilgrims" become "unruly fliers", like they say, news is like sausage, you don't wanna know how it's made. At least you know the broad outline of how this one panned out, including how the security personnel made no attempt whatsoever trying to rescue the crew. What you don't know is just how much never makes it beyond the editorial desks. You didn't hear about Miraj riots, perhaps you didn't hear about violent stone and bottle pelting at oncoming cars at Mahim during Muharram either.

If this is the state of news reporting, when secular blowhards like Harsh Mander and Ram Puniyani etc. add their spin, you really start to feel guilty.

The truth of course is stranger and harsher than their fiction. The docile "minority" cowering under the glare of majorities is mostly a myth. Actually, it is quite the reverse. Most people are constantly afraid when the short fuse is gonna ignite. It can happen anywhere, anytime, for any reason and sometimes no reason at all. Mobile phones have made it better, earlier used to be many anxious moments spent by family members.

It is not just a case of a few rotten apples. The whole basket is so far gone that by the time crooked opportunistic secular politicos realize it, it is going to be too late.

Happy New Year. Stay alert, stay safe.

Climate Concerns: OMG!!! We are all gonna die!!!

Nikki says:

December 10th, 2009 on 8:21 pm

If climate change is not TOP priority WE ARE FINISHED !!!!!!!

Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz save US all, it’s us ,the WORST ANIMALS who will pay a very very heavy price

What development are people taking about which will come in the way ….when we wont have mankind for who this development needs to be done !!!!!!!!

Cheers

Nikki

This exemplifies the nasty effects of the pervasive fear mongering that prevails in the atmosphere. At a time when her outlook on life should be as cheery as her sign off, poor little Nikky is scared of the possibility of extinction of her species.

How exactly do you get an impossible demographic like teenage fans of Shah Rukh Khan to actually get serious enough to truly believe in a cause, however fake and farcical it is? This is really a question for behavioral scientists, psychologists and philosophers. We suspect billions of dollars worth of advertisements and news items (paid by YOU) has something to do with it. Perhaps there is something about climate change fears that appeals to the post-modern lifestyle, to people who like to be in a flash crowd or be a "friend" of a celebrity on social networking sites.

Anyway, we digress.

Many of the "climate" concerns shared by Indians are actually for real. Our cities are overloaded, a walk outside causes a deposit of soot on our clothes. Toxic fumes permeate the air, grime, dirt and squalor everywhere. Factories billow dark plumes of poisonous gases in obvious and flagrant violation of environmental laws, right at the heart of our cities. The water table continues to get depleted, the summers seem severe and dry. Coastal areas and mountain sides undergo land erosion.

Unfortunately, none of these problems have anything to do with what the folks at IPCC have been talking about. As a matter of fact, even if the full recommendation of IPCC is adopted into a binding international treaty, none of these concerns will be addressed.

In fact, most of these problems will be aggravated and some very nasty new problems will likely get introduced.

Although cleverly named InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the central focus of IPCC and the "scientific" research they publish is global warming. Between "global warming" and "climate change" a lot can happen, the gullible public can be duped into believing anything.

The actual IPCC report is not all that scary, none at all. Politicians add another layer of polish on top of the IPCC report which gets further amplified in the media.

Let's take a recent example of media fear mongering:

Warm trend to rob Mumbai of winter in 10 years?

MUMBAI: White Christmas may soon be relegated to a poet's analogy for Mumbaikars. Deputy director-general of meteorology, regional meteorology centre, Colaba, R V Sharma confirms our worst fears.

"We have conducted a survey, studying the variation of maximum temperature in Santa Cruz spanning more than a hundred years. There is a significant rise (1.62 degrees Celsius) in the average maximum temperature in Mumbai. It means that the city is getting warmer and, if this warming trend continues, Mumbai may cease to have any winter in a decade or so. If you see December's temperature over the past 100 years, the average rise is about 2.98 degrees Celsius. The rare cold that we have experienced this month is because of the air flowing in from the north but, on the whole, it has been a warmer month," he said. [source: The Times of India]

Winter in Mumbai? White Christmas in Maharashtra? Funny, the report itself contains evidence to the contrary. We have been set up for the worst type of confirmation bias, we feel scared no matter whether it is hot, cold or temperate; whether it rains or remains dry. This winter, like the previous one has been much colder than averages in large parts of Northern India. Europe and North America reeled under severe snow storms and blizzards over the past week.

As a matter of fact, there is no discernible long term change in climatic pattern observed in India.

What if we believe Anthropogenic Global Warming is a certainty and indeed adopt in full measure all of IPCC's recommendations?

Our emissions account for just 2 ppmv a year, or 20 ppmv over the next decade, of which 7.5% is just 1.5 ppmv. So, how much “global warming” will the Copenhagen Accord forestall? The answer lies in the following sum, still based on the UN’s high-end estimate of the warming effect of CO2:

• No cuts in emissions: 5.7 ln(408.0/388) = 0.29 C° = 0.51 F°.
• Copenhagen cuts: 5.7 ln(406.5/388) = 0.27 C° = 0.48 F°.
• Copenhagen cooling: 0.02 C° = 0.035 F°.

That cooling – or, rather, warming forestalled – would be so small that our instruments would not be able to detect it. Yet the cost of achieving it would run into the trillions. [source: SPPI Blog]

If India eventually signs up for a binding global climate treaty, its impact will be felt by the poorest segment. There will be an enormous increase in energy costs, which will of course be subsidized by the Government leading to severe economic imbalances. Subsidies do not work perfectly even when they do work at all - so there will be a steep increase in poverty.

The monies that could potentially go towards cleaning up the real pollutants such as SO2, NOx, soot, asbestos etc. would chase the mirage of CO2, which is a harmless trace gas. The monies that could go to provide good quality electric coverage will be wasted on solar lanterns. The monies that could go to prevent deforestation, sand mining would actually be chasing large wind farms and solar cities, actually causing more deforestation and land erosion.

If we let ourselves be coaxed into a binding global treaty premised on demonstrably false science, we will be basically ruining our future and little Nikky will be none the wiser for it.

Move over NGOs, here comes the GONGOs

Commenter Ashok Kumar forwarded a few fantastic links on the NGO menace.

The first article focuses on the GONGOs and the obvious problems they pose in the democratic setup:

Democracy's Dangerous Impostors

The Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation is a gongo. So is Nashi, a Russian youth group, and the Sudanese Human Rights Organization. Kyrgyzstan's Association of Non-commercial and Nongovernmental Organizations is also a gongo, as is Chongryon, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. Gongos are sprouting everywhere; they're in China, Cuba, France, Tunisia and even the United States.

Gongos are government-organized nongovernmental organizations. Behind this contradictory and almost laughable tongue twister lies an important and growing global trend that deserves more scrutiny: Governments are funding and controlling nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), often stealthily. [source: Washington Post]

The second link is an excerpt from a book by Dr. Sam Vaknin:

NGOs - The Self-Appointed Altruists

Their arrival portends rising local prices and a culture shock. Many of them live in plush apartments, or five star hotels, drive SUV's, sport $3000 laptops and PDA's. They earn a two figure multiple of the local average wage. They are busybodies, preachers, critics, do-gooders, and professional altruists.

Always self-appointed, they answer to no constituency. Though unelected and ignorant of local realities, they confront the democratically chosen and those who voted them into office. A few of them are enmeshed in crime and corruption. They are the non-governmental organizations, or NGO's.

Some NGO's - like Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Amnesty - genuinely contribute to enhancing welfare, to the mitigation of hunger, the furtherance of human and civil rights, or the curbing of disease. Others - usually in the guise of think tanks and lobby groups - are sometimes ideologically biased, or religiously-committed and, often, at the service of special interests.

The encroachment on state sovereignty of international law - enshrined in numerous treaties and conventions - allows NGO's to get involved in hitherto strictly domestic affairs like corruption, civil rights, the composition of the media, the penal and civil codes, environmental policies, or the allocation of economic resources and of natural endowments, such as land and water. No field of government activity is now exempt from the glare of NGO's. They serve as self-appointed witnesses, judges, jury and executioner rolled into one.

The third article is a treatise from The International Journal of Not-for-profit Law:

The Power Shift and the NGO Credibility Crisis

By James McGann and Mary Johnstone1

World politics has undergone a radical and often-overlooked transformation in the last fifteen years, resulting neither from the collapse of the Soviet Union nor the rising tide of fundamentalism, but from the unprecedented growth of non-governmental organizations around the globe. NGOs or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have moved from backstage to center stage in world politics, and are exerting their power and influence in every aspect of international relations and policymaking. NGOs have been a positive force in domestic and international affairs, working to alleviate poverty, protect human rights, preserve the environment, and provide relief worldwide. Few, therefore, have felt the need to take a critical look at the effectiveness and accountability of these organizations. [source: ICNL]

* * *

In the Indian context, NGOs are already starting to create massive damage, as we discussed in a recent post: NGO: Government is their middle name.

It should be blindingly obvious to anyone by now that these organizations are involved in wholesale graft and corruption involving amounts that probably exceed the services they provide. If we add on the salaries and perks received by the NGO personnel, we will probably not even get a social surplus. A recent case is the usurping of money received in donation for Tsunami aid from abroad.

One such donor agency, US-based Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), which gave Rs 7.5 crore to the Church of South India (CSI), demanded the audited accounts for the funds and that led to the church filing a case against a few people with the police. Apart from that, two other cases were filed with the police relating to swindling of tsunami relief funds. [source: ExpressBuzz]

The fact that The Church of South India (CSI) is one of the most powerful and prominent religious organization in the Southern region is a testament to the extent of the rot.

In India, we also have what can be called GANGOs, i.e. Government Aided Non-Governmental Organizations. These GANGOs receive a ton of funds from the Government, i.e. YOU. There is no systematic audit requirements or disclosures in place. These are completely destroying the natural feedback mechanism of our democracy. Newspapers quote NGOs, Government use their statistics. They end up influencing policy in harmful ways.

NGOs have managed to insert themselves even in our foreign policy areas. During the PM's US visit, he made an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Among others, NDTV's Prannoy Roy is on CFR's International Advisory Board. The Clinton Foundation is also involved heavily in India. There were reports that Amar Singh of Samajwadi Party gave millions to the Clinton Foundation.

But people are smart, they know which side of the bread the butter is on. There is a mad rush to open NGOs, if you have connections, or join one.

Minority Report

Harsh Mander is a perfect case that illustrates many of the problems with our Administrative Services. For a former bureaucrat, Mr. Mander's complete lack of statistical sense of proportion is remarkable. Does he even read the census reports? So, we have another one of those reruns of virtually the same column, which claims minorities live in fear in India. Sure, in a demographic segment of more than 150 millions, at least some of them are liable to have a little bit of everything. If stats not his style, he could simply ask the Hindu teen girl who must go past a Muslim ghetto to her tuition classes or a stewardess on a Haj flight.

What is it with India? The Agriculture Minister wants to do Cricket, IAS officers want to be Human Rights Activists and writers. Maybe our problem is that we got too many people stuck in the wrong career.

In any case, this issue of our report is dedicated to Harsh Mander.

Man who was blackmailing Anoushka Shankar arrested
Woman nabbed with 3 passports
Piracy racket Producers seek Rs 100 cr in damages
Youth who used pals bikes to snatch chains held
Man accused of luring 15 yr old maid
5 Bangladeshis held
BBA student alleges repeated rape by father
Man wanted in fake currency racket arrested
Two held in fake credit cards case
Murder case accused killed
Cops raid CPM mans home in Kaliachak
Wife lover held for mans murder
Gang involved in printing fake postal stamps busted
report_man kills wife for fling with clients
Agnecy dupes job seekers of Rs 1 cr
Passenger held for misbehaving with air hostess
Man beaten with shoes for raping 13 year old
Father daughter gun down 2 over incest taint
Cuffe Parade cops nab 4 for extortion
Youth kills sister over love affair
Youth Congress activists protest at MLN Hospital
Girl kidnapped rescued in Sikar
7 Pak nationals arrested with boat
Charges framed against gangrape accused
Four held with antiques worth Rs 2cr
Top guns of Latif gang to go for Haj
RJD activists protest implication of Shahabu in criminal cases
Burglar gang arrested
report_absconding from bihar jail arrested in city
report_teacher tortures adopted student
report_teen arms supplier arrested
JK cricketer held for RDX in bag
Police attach property of ex SP MLA
Five women stripped paraded naked in Jharkhand.html
Kidnapper held
5 held for assault
Cops and robber chase led to deadly accident
5 SIMI activists arrested in Madhya Pradesh
Jetpur villager abducted 3 arrested
city
3 youths held in Nigerian credit card scam
Kamal Khan off Bigg Boss for violent behaviour
Accused in multi crore recruitment scam arrested
Forgery charge against head of Delhi NGO
Case against NGO man for using fake ministry IDs
Man marries daughter claims divine sanction
Love jihad Karnataka joins probe
Bihar cop killed in Jharkhand mob attack 4 hurt
Two dozen trees on Halim College campus cut down
report_three held with fake notes in haridwar
Pancholi has helped Munir escape Police
Minister gets notice for gun licence
Cops nab real estate agent for visa fraud
Model is nabbed at mall in dowry case
Two more held for Vile Parle guards death
High court orders protection to runaway Hindu Muslim couple
HC asks top cop to decide on MCOCA against 3 BMC men
FIR against Amar for election remark
Three held for attacks on 2 Naga students
Militants object to judges remark comparing them to Kasab
Fresh arrests in MP show banned SIMI active again
Anoushka case Warrant against accused hacker
Driver behind girls abduction caught
Kidnapped girl rescued unharmed
18 year old robs Thane policeman of revolver
Notorious burglar who escaped from Godhra nabbed policemen suspended
Victim nabs robber fleeing with Rs 2 lakh
Cops oppose Wahabs Haj pilgrimage
Pak spys passport was issued from Lucknow
Two aides of Pak spy arrested in Lucknow
3 HuJI LeT linkmen held in Kolkata
report_dawood thought he was the us president
report_now fake notes are almost as authentic as the original
Bangla terror trio nabbed in city
report_cops hunt for bangla girl
Top Shakeel man gunned down in Borivli encounter
Man alleges human traffickers took his wife to the UK
Top Shakeel man gunned down in Borivli encounter
6 more fake passports found
NIA chargesheets Assam babus netas
Cops arrest another city Limouzines director
Hyderabad bound Indigo flight grounded after bomb threat 1 held
Duo admits role in Bangalore blasts
Hoax terror SMS a bid to frame wifes lover
sex racket delhi hotel manager is bangladeshi national say cops
D gang is now dialling rural areas IB
Fake currency unit unearthed in Delhi
report_naxal arrested 20 gelatin rods recovered from up s manchi area
report_demonstration held over conversion of sikh girl in j and k
report_five simi activist further remanded till nov 17
report_teenager held for raping 6 year old girl in vakola
report_bar girl turned drug kingpin held 1240kg marijuana seized
report_30 yearr old kidnaps sells baby in tardeo
report_jilted lover gets life for killing girl s mother in delhi
report_did disappeared simi and im cadres use headley s services
report_gold worth rs2 lakh recovered from robber in ap
Rape convict escapes Kutch police custody
report_up stf arrests two persons involved in visa racket
report_wahab changed cars on way to mumbai to dodge police
report_wanted criminal arrested in meerut
Man gets 3 years for placing iron bar on railway tracks
Women bartenders face the bar again
Who is Syed Wasim
Sherwani of Nizam era seized 2 held
Gangrape case Cops another girl cross examined
Five held on eve teasing charges
Youth attacks rapist dad
NRI techie arrested for rape
Cops in a spot over Habib Hussain case
Six inter state gang members held in Hyderabad

Previous:

Minority Report - September 20, 2009

Minority Report - August 2, 2009
Minority Report - May 10, 2009

Climate of corruption

Source: Livemint

In our previous post, we summarized the current state of the AGW debate in the world in the wake of the climategate scandal. In covering these issues, we also took a departure from the big stories of Indian politics for several weeks. It was very hard. Consider the following stories:

• A Goa Congress politician rapes a Russian woman and then tries to weasel out using political clout. Comment by other Congress politicians? The woman should not have been out and about! Yeah, who are the Taliban here?
  
  
• A Karanataka Congress politician caught with a woman and subsequently into immoral trafficking dragnet.
  
  
• Telengana or not to be? A fine example of leadership. Crown Prince not available for comment even as his Youth Congress erupt in riots in Kerala.
  
  
• A church pastor in Karnatana vandalizes his own Church and media spins the story. Nothing new here.
  
  
• In Mumbai, evangelicals use deceit to convert children without the permission of their parents.
  
  
• PDP Politician Madani's wife caught by police on terrorism charges inevitably leading to secular indignation, signature campaign by concerned citizens etc.
  
  
• The usual minority related troubles including busting of a gang in Bangalore that used to kidnap bar girls and sexually assault them to force their employers to pony up.

As you can see, it tested the very limits of our self-control to pass up stories like this, yet we did. Why? Because the issue at hand is that important.

In India, we have a tendency to miss the forest for the trees. We obsess over silly little political games they play and that have no real consequence. We debate over the Swiss minaret ban which has practically no consequence in India, thankfully, aside from the comic relief provided by presumably Hindu secular journalists feigning more indignation than Muslims themselves. Yet, scams worth tens of thousands of crores get virtually no attention.

Funny thing is, we can at least recognize those scams. Take for instance the Madhu Koda scam or the Ambulance scam. These were low tech 19th century scams. Then the spectrum scam - tricky, but nothing you couldn't explain to the Mufassil types over a cup of tea.

Just how exactly do you even begin to explain the AGW scam? While you remain fixated over Copenhagen, your aam aadmi friendly Government has already bartered away your interest and you don't even know it.

In our next post, we will expose how our Government has already committed to a certain energy regime at a potential cost of literally hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, please take a few moments to ponder over the chart at the top of the post as well as the following:

Delhiites wrapped themselves up in more woollens today as the national capital woke up to a chilly and foggy morning with the mercury plummeting to the season's lowest of 7.4 degree Celsius. The capital is likely to get chillier ahead of Christmas with the Weatherman predicting minimum and maximum temperatures falling below average levels. (Source: Yahoo India)

Cold conditions intensified in most parts of the northern region on Monday as mercury dipped by several notches with Leh in Jammu and Kashmir freezing at minus 16 degrees. The minimum temperature in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh hovered between two to four degree Celsius below normal at several places. (Source: IBNLive)