The Tank Man

Since last week New York Times is buzzing 20th anniversary of Tienanmen Square massacre. Various articles, photographs and old reports were getting published trying to shed more light on that tragic event. But any new material is so scarce thanks to absolutely tight control over this incidence by Chinese government that basic questions like how many people were killed and what happened to the ones who were caught are still largely unanswered. If it were the western world, scores of books would have been published by now along with handful of movies. Few universities would have tried to set-up a Chair on this incidence too. It’s a different matter that excessive attention paid in western world even on minute incidence usually ends up muddling the water same as excessive crackdown on any dissent that Chinese government enforces.

Coming back to the topic, I was thinking about the photo that encapsulated the whole event. A lone guy in white shirt with some sort of shopping bag in his hand standing firmly and calmly in front of fleet of tanks. The road, bereft of any life, looks ominous with only tanks moving certain direction, most probably towards the protesters. In one of the recent reports it is mentioned that soldiers were firing indiscriminately from the tanks but it is hard to see any soldiers on the tanks. Amidst this firing and people scurrying around for cover, our hero, the “Tank Man” as popularly known now, is standing serenely ready to welcome the fleet of tanks. It makes me wonder, philosophies, what must be going through his mind at that time. His action doesn’t seem like taken in haste. In one of most recent photograph taken from another angle, published in New York Times, there is a considerable distance between where he took his last stand and the approaching tanks. Basically, he had time to run away. He had time to think to about his future, which obviously was quite bleak at that point. He had time convince himself to run. But he didn’t! What prompted him to be so valiant? Did he believe his act would spare lives of innocents by stopping the menacing march of tanks towards the protesters?

We would probably never know.

The fact that Chinese decided to turn on military grade tanks on their own citizens confirms the magnitude of the protest and uneasiness of the government. Would they really stop for a lone guy with shopping bags in his hands? Or rather, stopped by a lone guy with shopping bags in his hands? They didn’t and rest is history. No one knows the fate of ‘tank man’. Some think he survived and still living in China. I highly doubt that. I mean we have an authoritarian government that hangs even juvenile convicts and it would be totally out of character for them to spare his life, specially, after killing thousands of his protesters comrades with ease. After such a gruesome slaughter killing the tank man would be merely adding to statistics.

The unfathomable courage he showed is so exceptional and surprising that majority would call him a mad-man. These cynics will further point out that his protest didn’t stop the carnage. True, but he showed us the power to take a stand. Whether it changes the reality is for later part. The most important thing is to act. He didn’t care if anyone was following him or not. He didn’t care about the consequences. He didn’t make any speeches or grandiose statements nor did he write any books. There is no way that anyone could stand up against military tanks and bullets. And yet he decided to show his strength by standing in front of them. He didn’t attack those tanks with grenades. He didn’t attack them at all. He just wanted to stop them. Perhaps, he thought that he can reason with the military personnel in the tanks because he did climb on the tank looking for someone to talk to and you can all most feel that he wanted them the tank operator to think about consequence of their act. What ever may be the reason; his act was in sheer desperation he showcased the enduring spirit of humans to fight for others; to look beyond individual interest and stand up for greater cause.

Somehow I believe he didn’t think this profoundly at all. Because one, there was probably no time to do so. But moreover, thinking so much can diminish the resolve. His act was instinctive but resolute. In any case when you are facing your death through barrel of the tank or in the bed, the only thing that remains is the debate with your soul.. You are answerable to your own self. Did you do what you were supposed to do? Are you satisfied with your actions? Were you true to your conscious? He had satisfactory answers for himself and with tank gun pointed at him, he set himself free.

Surprise, Surprise!

I haven’t blogged in all most a month. Such a long break is first of its kind. I wasn’t busy per se but I couldn’t write anything. There were quite a few things to write about but it felt like there is no point in writing. What’s going to change? Nothing! I don’t claim to be influential writer that well, influences people. No, it’s not about that. The question that kills me is that if a person of average intellect (which is me!) can see these issues so clearly then how on earth we as a nation fail to act on it? Does that mean majority in our nation have below par intelligence? I don’t think so. Then how on earth Congress can win this election so comfortably? I mean, it was a fair election. They had a plan and people voted for that plan. In short Congress party won an election legitimately. Congratulations to them. But they didn’t win on a successful five year term. I don’t know how they won but if their track record in last five years is of any indication then we are in for tough ride for sure.

Our nation has been constantly attacked by terrorists in last few years. None of the culprits were bought to justice. These terrorists grew so audacious that they bough the one of the biggest cities in the world to stand still and merrily killed 200 innocent people and fired thousands and thousands of bullets without any hindrance. And yet, nothing! Literally, nothing moved. Apart from this mayhem in Mumbai, we had several bomb blasts across the nation, from Guwahati to Bengalluru and from Jaipur to Hyderabad. All though the modus operandi was eerily similar, it seems the problem of catching the culprits has more to do with political will than simple law enforcement.

It’s often said that votes are decided by rather simpler demands like roti, kapada and makaan. I agree to that but even on that front the earlier government failed miserably. The inflation has skyrocketed with no end in sight. All though government figure steadfastly maintains that inflation rise is around 3 to 4%. To see the prices of lentils, rice, eggs and milk makes you wonder if consumer is mad. In the article published in Indian Express the author has conclusively proved that inflation rate has been 7 to 8% in urban and all most touching 10% in rural areas. That’s a staggering rise by any standards. This prices has been challenged both of rapid increase in demand and supply side inability to keep up with the demand. The second of this equation government is supposed to take care of. Instead, disinvestment has come to stand-still. The infrastructure has taken the back seat and red-tape hasn’t budged at all. I can understand that these age-old problems won’t be solved in one term but my concern is that the earlier government refused to take any steps towards modernization at all. This is particularly a sad picture considering our Prime Minister is hailed as a hero for his tenure as a finance minister in 1990’s.

The fiasco of another round of Reservation policy is long forgotten. The putrid character of Arjun Singh is still well placed in the government. After messing up another young generation he seems to be content person now. There was so much hoopla at that time that it wouldn’t surprise anyone if young generations boot out this government. Well, surprising it was that they actually voted in this government. As the saying goes “Khuda bachaaye”

And then there were foreign policy blunders like loosing Nepal to the communists. All though our foreign policy did great work in isolating Pakistan in the international community. But we will come to the foreign policy part in a separate blog.

These are some of the major points I would think of before casting my vote. Obviously it didn’t happen with majority of the people. I don’t know why. I am not saying BJP was the only choice and people should have voted only BJP but my contention is that folks aren’t thinking before voting. This is not a democracy we are striving for. Vote is not just a right but it’s a responsibility. The responsibility is to think and work for the betterment of the society and for the progress of the nation. It’s a heavy burden and should be treated with respect. In democracy we are supposed to ask questions to the politicians. They work for us. We are the rulers and they are serving us. If we are constantly getting attacked by terrorists then power is in our hands to protect and retaliate. If the food prices are sky rocketing then we are responsible for bringing them down. And easiest way to do that is to vote with responsibility.

If this election is heralding the age of two national parties tussling over power then that’s a welcome relief. However corrupt and incompetent Congress Party is, they are much better than likes of Paswan, Mulayam and Laloos. The other silver lining of this election was decline of Communists. Folks like Communist Party should be out rightly banned from India. Not only that they are corrupt, counter-productive parasites but they are anti-national too. Communists Party of India works more for China than for India. At least now they will be confined only to Bengal rather than wracking havoc in Delhi.

We will evaluate BJP’s future in next blog.

We The Election!

The general elections are round the corner and the consensus seems to be that anyone can come to the power. And that is of course very scary indeed. If third front comes to the power then we will have hodge-podge of parties that are hell bent on making as much money as possible as quick as possible and the results will be disastrous. Remember the period of 1996 to 1998? Nothing got done and we were in real danger of getting Mulayam Singh Yadav or Laloo Prasaad Yadav as our prime minister. Well, those ghastly nightmares are back. We may get them as our prime minister and the chaos will ensue. Muslim appeasement will peak out. Reservations will be doled out like Prasad in the temples. Private investment will dry out and infrastructure development will come to the grinding halt. Foreign policy initiatives will cease to exist and Economic policies will be shunted out and replaced with communist agenda. And we will be staring at the elections within next couple of years. But that’s not it. If any of those dangerous clowns get elected then that will be smack slap on the face of democracy. None of these parties have ability to win outside their base state. The maximum seats they can win don’t go beyond 20’s and yet they are close on becoming Prime-Minister of the country.

Now if Congress party comes to the power then sadly, we will be back to the square one. We will have a Prime Minister who have no say in anything. He doesn’t show backbone of any sort and refuses to be proactive in anything. Our country will get attacked again by the terrorists as well as by Naxals. Our foreign policy will be non-existent again. We will get into peace dialogue with Pakistan and will be attacked again by them in return. We will ask them to hand over the terrorists and they will refuse to do so in return. Months will pass and our moronic society will forget about those attacks and then we will have peace dialogue again. The inflation is through roofs and yet our finance minister who is also our home minister thinks that this is a good sign. He keeps babbling about strong fundamentals of our economy. Somehow he doesn’t see that the grain prices are getting so exorbitant that soon poor people won’t be able to afford daal-chawal.

The third possibility is that BJP wins the election and comes to the power with support from it allies. I would certainly prefer BJP coming to the power. Amongst the political masses BJP politicians at least get things done. Once upon a time, not so long ago to be honest, BJP had powerful second rung leadership. We had Arun Jaitley, Sushama Swaraj, Narendra Modi, Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh. They were competent, non-corrupt for most purposes and nationalist to the core. All of them (except for Pramod Mahajan who died couple of years ago) are still in the BJP but something’s not right. As much as I respect L. K. Advani, let’s be honest here, why BJP is projecting him as a Prime-Minstrel candidate when he will be 81 soon? Why not break the tradition of giving post to the eldest and present rather younger age. It’s true that most of the ‘young’ Turks are above 50 but that means they are ripe with experience, an absolute necessity in Indian politics, and yet young enough to lead our nation for sustained period of time. But internal feuds in the party are well documented denting the image of the party as party of differences instead of a different party.

Historically, the elections in India are decided by very basic issues like employment, price rise and lack of basic amenities. The rise of regional parties should be attributed to the fact that they know how to play with people’s sentiments in this regard. But we are currently dealing with catch-22 situation. Regional parties scarcely think beyond their state boundaries. In fact they actively work against projects or necessary decisions that may affect their state in short term but help nation in longer term. Moreover they lack the vision necessary to develop the whole nation. That in turn complicates an already tough task of providing basic necessities to the common, which in turn (too many turns!!) increases the appeal for regional parties. I am not sure how and when we will come out of it. Perhaps when people finally start identifying themselves with nation they will start voting for the overall development rather than roti-kapada aur makaan Road to that destination is treacherous and onerous.

The American Culprit

The AIG controversy gave slimmer of hope to American population to finally lay blame of current credit crises on someone. Alas, the pop fizzled out so quickly that the joy of revenge didn’t last long. Traders based in US returned their money and traders based in Europe didn’t even bother to take notice of this hoopla. After spending or rather printing, literally, two trillion dollars, getting $80 million back into government coffers was like dark comedy. But it shows the lack of understanding regarding current crises amongst the masses. Worse it shows how US government is running out of any better ideas to pull economy out of trouble. The current debacle in the financial market not only shook the very foundation of financial hegemony of US over rest of the world but it dealt severe blow to the American swagger that they are pioneers of finance wizardry.

It’s easy to blame the whole trouble on few people on Wall Street. They were greedy and they did stupid stuff. But technically speaking none of that was illegal. Unlike in Enron- where the top management was deeply embroiled in cooking books- here, the whole credit cycle process as well as Securitization processes was absolutely legal. Now whether that structure was sustainable or not is a different question. (It wasn’t!) That makes average Joe (common man in US lingo!) is confused that if he is loosing his pension plan and on the verge of loosing his job then how come the techniques that brought down the house is legal? The answer is not that simple. The game has been going on for long time and our average Joe inadvertently ended up playing a major role.

The American economy has been reshaped into a consumer based behemoth that gobbles everything and anything produced around the globe. The insatiable demand wasn’t fueled by higher earnings but rather illusion of earnings. People were borrowing heavily for everything. Right from the clothes to house everything was paid by credit. The credit cards were thrown at people like fliers. The houses were made available to everyone. And all though availability of resources and luxuries to everyone is a noble goal, the bitter truth is that the responsibility was bartered for greed. The saving rate was in negative – a fact lawmakers as well as general populace should be worried about. But not in this land of free! The definition of freedom was twisted in such an ugly manner that government in fact supported this binge consumption on borrowed money. And, why not, the government itself was borrowing money from foreign countries by selling debt to them. The chief of Federal Reserve was spreading the euphoria by telling everyone that this kind of debt restructuring (including securitization) is heralding new age of prosperity to American life. The first part was indeed true, the second, not so much! People borrowed more money by putting their houses as collateral. ‘Flipping’ houses became rage. Folks with no knowledge of financial juggernaut behind housing market or for that matter housing market itself bought houses after houses. In the initial years huge profits were made. But the simple rule of supply and demand is like gravity. It always catches up with you and brings you down. Usually with the loud thud!

The juggernaut didn’t just stop there. Financial firms got into the business they didn’t understand either. Creating securitization business, selling CDO’s, CDO’s of CDO’s, tranching, slicing, creating SPE and then buying insurance to find solace went on for really long time. With limited number of players in the market (both in terms of buyers and sellers) they effectively traded with each other creating a manor of cards. The house was meant to come down.

In short it’s all most impossible to pin-point a culprit. If Americans want to know who is the culprit then they need to stand in front of mirror and open their eyes. The reflection ain’t that pretty!

Analysis Of Recent Developments in Pakistan

I am kind of tired of writing about Pakistan but somehow these buggers manage to keep themselves in the news and that too for wrong reasons. I mean spreading terror around the world does take some efforts!

Things are moving so furiously in Pakistan that the repercussions will soon be felt throughout the world. I think another major terrorist attack is due soon. I don’t think the so called democratic government knows what’s going on but what’s worse is that even their military brass is clueless about these happenings. Dealing with devil is always a loose-loose contest. Pakistan should have known better!

Pakistani Government recently signed a peace accord with Talibani fighters in Swat region of Pakistan. In doing that they effectively gave away a part of their country to Taliban. Pakistani laws will be useless in that region and ultimate decider of anything that happens in that region will be Talibani fighters. I am surprised to see it hasn’t raised much of hackles in international media. There are articles about it in all the major publications but if that’s the maximum exposure even to of this proportion is getting then that’s more worrisome that the actual event.

Since getting their ass kicked by US forces Taliban has made North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan as their new home. Not knowing how to deal with these people Pakistan army allowed them to set up the base in their country. All though Taliban was Pakistani Armies creation the purpose was always to take over Afghanistan. The myopic leadership of Pakistan army can’t think beyond the boogie-man of India attacking them. They were worried that Afghanistan being friendly with India will support Indian invasion. So they created Taliban to take over Afghanistan in order to create strategic reserve in case if India attacks. India never attacked but now the chickens are coming home to roost.

The events of 9/11 were entirely unexpected for Pakistan army on many levels. One, it put the spotlight of whole world on them. Practically the whole world realized that the tumor of terrorism flourishes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Second, they got dissociated from India. That is, news stopped taking Pakistan and India in same breath. For International media Pakistan became a problem child and that has nothing to do with India. And third US army is sitting solidly right next to their door. Pakistani army couldn’t disown Taliban nor could it support them. The pressure from international community was immense and they had limited options to maneuver.US army as well as political leadership is getting impatient. US drones regularly intrudes into Pakistani soil and few months ago US soldiers entered Pakistani soil in pursuit of Taliban. That must have sent Pakistani army brass into seizure. So they turned to their favorite enemy for help! The spurt in bomb blasts in India was their desperate attempt to deflect attention from them. The brazen attack in Mumbai was height of their frustration. But it didn’t do any good for them.

Coming back to our original point we can look at the peace accord between Talibani fighters and Pakistani military in two ways. One, Pakistani army is playing another game with US. They are showing to US that unless US stop pressurizing them they will have to do peace accord with Talibani elements. That way they can check-mate US into submission. Basically Pakistan is telling US that you better listen to us or we will screw you by openly befriending your enemies. Or, the second more scary situation is Pakistani army really don’t know how to fight with Taliban anymore. They are outsmarted by Taliban and getting daily beatings from them. With US on one side and supposedly Pakistan on other, I wonder how on earth Taliban is getting state of the art guns and ammunition! Does that mean there is a fissure in Pakistani army itself with one flank supporting Taliban and other fighting with them?

Reading the conflicting messages emanating from Pakistan leadership aftermath of Mumbai attacks as well as attack on Lankan cricket team tilts me towards the second scenario. That is, Pakistani leadership has no clue what the heck is happening.

Terrorist attacks happening around the world and them knowing everything was scary but them not knowing anything and attack still happening is worse!

The Attack of a Black Swan

VaR or Value at Risk is a must model for all financial institution. What VaR model suggests in terms of Dollar figure is that there is a certain confidence that the losses of a firm won’t exceed a certain dollar amount. Calculating VaR number requires complex statistical and mathematical models. And people calculating such numbers are called Quants – a venerable job at least until now! For example if VaR number calculated at 99% confidence interval of an ABC firm is $50 million then that means 99 out of 100 times the maximum losses that can occur will be less or equal to $50 Millions. But the folly lies when we look other way round. It means there is a 1% chance that losses will be at least $ 50 million i.e. from fifty million to infinity. This 1% probability usually brings catastrophe. Nassim Nicholas Taleb christened this seemingly innocuous but probability of catastrophic results as ‘Black Swan’. Unfortunately, the in-built risk management system of human mind doesn’t take this probability into account and hence people tend to get caught unaware. This concept is not just a mathematical probability applied in financial world alone. But we can see imprints of Black Swan in every facet of Human life and across the human history.

For example, no one I mean no one really expected WW II to happen. I know it sounds lunatic. Aftermath of any civilization changing event usually makes us believe that the contemporary generation didn’t do enough to stop the catastrophe. It is true to certain extent but more than that the contemporary generation actually failed to see that something needs to be done. That generation slept like a baby. London Bond Market right up to the Poland invasion was working smoothly. There was no anxiety about getting investment back. And there was no apparent uncertainty in bond pricing about the possibility of a neighborhood country orchestrating war. The war did happen and more than the sheer magnitude, it’s the absolutely surprise that stunned the whole world. And total incompetency in handling the situation cost 60 million lives.

Now let’s try to see India-Pakistan relations through this prism.

It is often mentioned that Security issues is not foremost on Indian voters mind. If that’s the reality then it’s very sad. Considering we are surrounded by countries that don’t necessarily like us we need to be vigilant about our security. We are getting attacked repeatedly by Pakistan and yet we refuse to act against them. We don’t attack them; we don’t put economic sanctions against them. In fact officially they are not even on our Enemy List. (For Pete’s sake we are a peace loving nation!) We play cricket with those bastards and we allow their hopeless singers to make money in India. Any sane mind will think that if Pakistan doesn’t want peace then we will give them war. But sanity is in shortage in India.

The so called intellectual class in India believes that in case of war, losses that Pakistan will be negligible because being a failed state Pakistan don’t have anything anyways. On the other hand the losses India will incur will be huge. That means we need to think hard before going strong. Apart from that, Indians tend to believe that Indian army is too strong for Pakistani army. And Pakistan can never defeat India in conventional warfare In short there is a remote possibility of war and if any then India can kick Pakistani ass anytime. That’s what brings us to the possibility of Black Swan moment. The probability of Black Swan is very low but nevertheless it’s still a possibility. And whenever those events take place, and trust me they do, the results are catastrophic, earth-shattering and history changing. Why do I think the possibility of us getting humbled? Because the conventional warfare is so yesterday! Who wants to talk about conventional war when two of the great empires were humbled by rag-tag armies of Afghan Mujahidin’s and Viet-Congs! The war has changed its face but we haven’t changed our thinking and that can get us into the trouble. Because we believe we don’t need to do anything special and our future generation will curse us for not doing something that was required.

Pakistan is a sworn enemy of India. Irrespective of what Indians or Indian leadership think about Pakistan, in actuality Pakistan’s sole aim is to destroy India. They have tried repeatedly to wage war and when that failed they started creating unrest in India in every way or shape or form. Unfortunately, the usual response from India is nothing short of criminal. It is as if Indians take their freedom too lightly. It is flabbergasting to see Indians forgetting that they were enslaved and ruled by foreign invaders for all most one thousand years. And the freedom we are enjoying and the progress we are achieving is just 60 years old. We are peace-loving nation. Agreed! But peace is a two way street and if other party is hell bent on waging a war or in this case already in war with you then the choices are extremely limited. Either you defend yourself or get obliterated.

It always amuses that the strong Persian and Indian empires crumbled like pack of cards in front of Islamic onslaught. Looking at the history more closely we can see that Hindu kingdoms fought actively and valiantly against Islamic marauders for more than two hundred years. Their mistake was that they fought with invaders as if they are fighting their neighborhood Hindu kingdoms. They failed to see the difference. They didn’t realize that the Islamic invaders are not only hell bent on destroying everything on their way but these invaders, drunk on religious fervor, won’t stop until they destroy the very basic fabric of our society. That’s why Indian kingdom didn’t unite. Worse, they used to let go defeated Islamic invaders with gifts instead of out rightly killing them.
We capture terrorists and then let them go. We capture terrorist and don’t hang them. We don’t think that Pakistan is attacking our way of life and our freedom. We strictly see Pakistan from nation-state angle while they see us strictly through religious perspective.

The uncanny similarities between history and present are too scary to ignore. But we can find solace in the fact that the results will be same! I personally don’t believe there is Black Swan moment waiting to happen. I believe that there is in fact a 900 pound Gorilla sitting in the room ready to pound on us while we sleep like babies.

But then dream land is always more soothing than the reality!

The Masterstroke of Pakistani Army

I have no idea how we (India) always find classically fooled by Pakistan again and again? The Mumbai attack and the politics that followed is very well executed plan of Pakistan Army and we dumb Indians always find ourselves at the receiving end. Not only that we were criminally unprepared for the genocide that these Muslims unleashed in Mumbai, the responses to these ghastly murders are imbecile and lack ingenuity or statecraft. One of the Muslim cabinet minister speaking his ‘mind’ (it is so obvious that he was paid by Saudis!) is like icing on cake for highly incompetent and useless government headed by an equally retarded Prime Minister.

Let’s first dissect the situation in India. It was surprising to see that Indians were surprised with the attacks on Mumbai. We are having bomb-blasts practically every month in each and every major city in India. Even a retard could figure out that Mumbai is the next target and yet, both the state government as well as central government was dumbfounded with the meticulous execution of the attack. Bunch of clean shaven fanatics from other side of the border systematically butchered hundreds of people in plain sight and it took us three days to put them down.

But fear not, we are going to be world super power soon. A baloney that only balloon headed Indians can believe in!

Of course, politicians know better. They knew that within a month things will go cold turkey. People will forget about everything. There will be few protests (as BAL Thackeray correctly said that the protesters were probably protesting against their party place- Taj and Oberoi – being not open for New Year party!) and after that there will be deathly silence. The government will go about doing usual business of not doing anything until the next attacks when the whole drama will be recreated again.

In recently concluded state election Congress party won two states. The press went gaga over the fact that terrorism didn’t play any role in deciding election. Well, if that’s true then it’s in fact a tragedy of gigantic proportion. In spite of hundreds of thousands of innocent Indian citizen getting butchered by the nation of Pakistan, our oblivious public is not asking hard questions to the ruling party. That’s bad. That’s really really bad. We should brace ourselves for more attacks now. Because a nation sleep walking through killing fields of their own kith and kin deserves nothing better.

Now about Pakistani army - it’s a well known fact that whether they are officially in power or not, they are the one who govern this failed state of Muslim fanatics. The façade of democratically elected government is a joke. For example, the current so called President – Asif Ali Zardari – pleaded insanity in the court as recently as year ago. In short, we have an officially declared retarded person at the helm of a virulently Muslim fanatic society. So anything that this nutcase or his equally doorknob prime minister says is absolute garbage. They have no idea about what the fuck’s going on! They are clue less as well as shit less. Taking them with even pinch of salt will be too much. The real actor is Pakistan Army and its current chief – General Kayani. All though our beloved dictator Mr. Musharaff retired peacefully, the army is still running the show in Pakistan. The spectacularly successful attacks in Mumbai are going to pay them huge dividends. In fact, mother of all dividends.

Currently they are getting squeezed harder than the squash by American army. American army already bombing shit out of terrorists through un-manned Drones have started going into Pakistani territory for military operations. That means American army is violating sovereignty of Pakistani land and rightly so. All the bombast as well as hoax threats that Pakistani army regularly issues to their spine-less neighbors, are worth nothing against American army. Because by openly intruding Pakistani land American army made a statement that they don’t give a zilch about Pakistanis anymore. Plus the new administration has openly stated their disdain for Pakistani army. Now if I were in Pakistani army, that’s scary.

Apart from this worrisome development, Indian government as well as Indian intelligence is building huge infrastructure in Afghanistan. (This is a crown of Indian strategy planning. Kudos to brave people in Indian Intelligence community) The old fears of India encircling Pakistan from all sides are coming into fore once more. All most all of the Afghani government officials are educated in India and they are not only staunchly pro-Indian but they hate Pakistan more than Indians do. So even on Afghan front Pakistani army is finding itself increasingly impotent. The only weapon they have in arsenal to counter both American as well as Indian influence is Taliban. And that’s not slowing down the major strides the Indians and Americans are making. In such situation the only thing these cowards can do is to go after soft targets –that is, innocent Indian citizens. Because these bastards know that Indian ruling class are ball-less and Indian society suffers from short-term memory loss. And so far the attack on Mumbai is doing wonders.

Right after the attack the whole of Pakistani political class started shedding crocodile tears. They started showing solidarity with India. This was just to show that the attackers had nothing to do with Pakistan. I mean, common, who’s going to believe that? All the terrorists’ links always circle back to Pakistan. They have become one stop mall for all terrorist needs. Of course, Pakistani political class knows this. So in second part they started telling the whole world that India is getting to ready attack Pakistan. In short, India is the bully and Pakistanis are the peace loving tree-huggers. Then there were alleged threatening calls from Indian defense minister (that guy can’t even summon his balls at his service, forget about him threatening Pakistan!) and alleged air space intrusion by Indian Air Force.

In the mean time, Americans scared of Mumbai incidence getting repeated on New York Streets was tightening screws on Pakistan. So Pakistani army started telling Americans that in the face of imminent danger from India they gonna have to move troops away from Afghan border to Indian border. In short the operation that they were helping Americans in capturing terrorists will have to go on hold for now. Bingo! With stakes at the center, this master stroke made sure that Americans will be involved between India and Pakistan, something India steadfastly refused to allow.

Basically, without facing any danger from moronic Indian leadership Pakistani army gave a check mate to both India and America. Plus, they managed to give breathing space to Taliban on Afghan border. They killed innocent Indian civilians which I am sure the whole of Pakistani nation celebrates. Pakistani army showed who’s daddy in Pakistan and we are back to square one. An Islamic terrorist infected chronically failed state that possesses nuclear weapon and is governed by army of religious zealots.

Oh and we should definitely tour Pakistan for Cricket and allow them to play for IPL and ICL. Plus we should certainly allow their singers to sing in India. What’s 170 killing has to do with them? We got a billion more!

To be surprised or not to be surprised!

I am so tired of writing similar blogs that I can’t even think of any words anymore. How many times the words can be repeated to describe seemingly unchanging environment. We have terrorists coming from Karachi by sea this time. They captured an Indian fishing ship and killed all the fishermen (poor souls, no one is even counting them among the victims of Mumbai carnage) and after reaching Mumbai coast all hell broke loose. It’s obvious that readers will ask me that how come this is not surprising? Because same thing happened 15 years ago! Instead of men it was RDX that showed up at the shore. It wasn’t just Mumbai coast which is close to Pakistan border but the RDX landed all the way on to the shore of southern Konkan. Then explosives made their way into Mumbai and ended up killing at least 300 people. To be honest there was at least one difference in 93 bomb blast and 08 carnage. The main culprits Memon brothers were still in India after the blasts and so was Dawood Ibrahim – the sordid underworld mastermind of the blasts. But with grace of our politicians as well as cops then they were expatriated to Pakistan with 'honor'. In recent attack on Mumbai terrorists were killed in Mumbai only. Apart from this difference the Déjà vu continues!

One of my articles was published in Indian Express right after 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai. In the article I mentioned that modus operandi of the attacks are eerily similar. It’s all most like cut-copy-paste. Years go by the peripheral of terrorists hitting at will is encompassing more and more cities the official response to it remains blithely incompetent and morally corrupt. The government doesn’t talk tough nor does it act tough. In 1993 RDX was planted across Mumbai and in 2008 terrorists planted themselves across Mumbai. The emergency response was not adequate in 1993 and it still doesn’t generate any confidence. The political response to the attack was absolutely shameful in 1993 and in 2009 the response doesn't even exist. Our Prime Minster - a clone of Neville Chamberlain - is hiding at some location thinking about how to retire nicely. Our home minister resigns only when Sonia Gandhi shows her displeasure at him, not when 173 people were savagely put to death by terrorists.

The terror plot points directly to Pakistan in 1993 and it’s beyond doubt that it’s Pakistan (yes the whole nation is a terrorist nation!) that organized killing fields in Mumbai., In 1993 Pakistan was asking for proof and it’s still can’t understand that why on earth Indians are blaming them? Perhaps they should ask that question to Osama Bin Laden who I am pretty sure is celebrating his Christmas with Zardari!

But that’s not it. What’s worse is the public response to these killings remains same too! Life must go on and show must go on are some of the favorite phrases that always make merry appearance after terror attacks. You know what, fuck that shit…..sometime life doesn’t go on. It should be stopped and problem should be solved before starting the show. When diagnosed with Cancer do we say that “oh too bad but life must go on!” no, we immediately do the surgery. Similarly, right now it’s absolutely imperative for Indian society to take care of politicians (Sonia Gandhi? Where the heck is she? Holidaying in Italy?) And more importantly take care of Pakistan. The nation of Pakistan is a cancer to the world. With no known contribution to the civilization, it’s only known export to the world is terrorism. Moreover it’s not our responsibility to save that cancerous gland. We need to put all the options on the table (Mr. Mukharji, shame on you. You are defense minister of India, not of Pakistan) and evaluate pros and cons. We don’t have to go to war right away. But sever economic sanctions with complete freeze on any kind of ties with Pakistan would be a good start. And for the love of all that is sweet in this world fuck all the cricket (does anyone even know that Javed Miandad’s daughter is married to Dawood Ibrahims’ son?) Please I am begging the money-mongers of BCCI to not to send Indian team to Pakistan. In fact, I am begging to Sachin to opt out of tour. I am pretty sure when Sachin says no then the tour will be cancelled.

Also send all those bastard contestants in sa re ga ma back to Pakistan. We don’t need those terrorist singers in India. Anyone who says that music heals, should stand in a Local train approaching the train station where AK-47 wielding gunmen are firing 600 rounds per minute. Healing my ass!

Rabindranath Tagore went to Japan once. The university organized his lecture series. Surprisingly no one showed up. So the organizers started knocking doors in the neighborhood and asking people to come. But people refused to show up. They said that the speaker represents a defeated nation and what’s the point in listening to a defeated philosophy.

Japanese were right in their assertion. A Defeated nation can give only a defeated response. Only a defeatist society would go on with their lives nonchalant in the face of repeated catastrophe. Our society stands true to this criteria.

We are a defeated nation.

Mumbai Carnage and the Media.

As the gruesome carnage in Mumbai comes to macabre end the politicians, especially of the ruling party, are under severe attack for their ineptitude to read bold letters of terror on the wall. The failure that these coward politicans show in protecting innocent citizens borderlines treachery. But politicians and the terrorist are not alone in this ghoulish drama of Muslim appeasement and ghastly killings that usually follow that are worringly becoming a common picture. The media should be equally blamed for their biased propaganda that nurtures the Muslim terrorism. At least politicians have to care about the vote banks. But Media is answerable to none.

Media is fast transforming itself from merely publishing the happenings to actually creating the happenings. Moreover they have gained uncontested power in recording the history as they please. Mostly owned by conglomerates these news organizations have became a profit seeking predators and they can go to any extent, not to acquire the truth but to get the advertisers.
The case with Indian media is peculiar as these media houses are aligned themselves with political parties. So not only that these media houses more worried about making money but they are also concerned about keeping their political bosses happy.

The recent attacks on Mumbai were not only heinous in nature but the audacity of the terrorists to produce rampant mayhem was never witnessed before. And all though the enormity of the incidence is yet to settle into Indian conscience the media is working overboard to insert the jaundiced view that ranges from the recent terrorist attacks simply being a reaction to ‘Hindu terrorism’ to unsatisfied Muslim population and finally settling onto US foreign policy.
The public discourse regarding the Islamic terrorism that these media houses propagates is very similar to the policies the so called ‘secular’ parties tries to implement. The message that the Muslims are the victims in India and Hindus are hell bent on destroying them is constantly dished out. This rhetoric has finally created a monster that is spreading throughout India like a cancer. To illustrate my argument let’s analyze the a verbal exchange between terrorists and the victims published in recent edition of Wall Street Journal

…Restaurant workers there ushered guests closest to the kitchen inside. The assailants jumped in front of another group that tried to run out the door. "Stop," they shouted in Hindi. They corralled 16 diners and led them up to the 20th floor. One man in the group dialed his wife in London and told her he'd been taken hostage but was OK. "Everybody drop your phones," one of the assailants shouted, apparently overhearing. Phones clattered to the floor as the three women and 13 men dug through their purses and pockets and obeyed.
On the 20th floor, the gunmen shoved the group out of the stairwell. They lined up the 13 men and three women and lifted their weapons. "Why are you doing this to us?" a man called out. "We haven't done anything to you."
"Remember Babri Masjid?" one of the gunmen shouted, referring to a 16th-century mosque built by India's first Mughal Muslim emperor and destroyed by Hindu radicals in 1992.
"Remember Godhra?" the second attacker asked, a reference to the town in the Indian state of Gujarat where religious rioting that evolved into an anti-Muslim pogrom began in 2002.
Gunfire was reported at luxury hotels, a restaurant, police headquarters and a train station.
"We are Turkish. We are Muslim," someone in the group screamed. One of the gunmen motioned for two Turks in the group to step aside.
Then they pointed their weapons at the rest and squeezed the triggers.

Even in this narration one can see how information is selectively presented or rather, misrepresented. The Babri Mosque is a bone of contention for last four hundred years. It is an unequivocal fact that Babur built a mosque at the birth place of Lord Shri Ram and yet media consistently decides not to present the whole information. The discourse regarding this issue in Indian media oscillates from absurdity to outright falsehood. But one thing remains constant is that it’s Hindus that should be punished. Even after the fall of mosque the riots in Mumbai were started by Muslims only. (Radhabai Chawl burning incidence) and the coordinated 13 bomb blasts that took more than 300 lives were perpetrator by fanatic Muslims too.

Similarly Gujarat riots took place because 59 Hindus were burnt alive in a train by Muslim mob in Godhra, Gujarat. The riots, all though bloody and deplorable, were reaction to the gruesome murder of innocent Hindus.

Following is another example where truth is purposefully twisted in the name of secularism. All though this interview was conducted long time before Mumbai carnage, the questions that Shekhar Gupta asks will astound any sane reader. Unfortunately it is the common man that bores the brunt of this inanity. My favorite questions are “But why is your state a major victim? Is it because Gujarat is next door? And • Do you think Maharashtra is paying a price for being Gujarat’s neighbor? The questions were in regards with prior bomb-blasts that shook Mumbai.
(http://www.indianexpress.com/news/it-a-breakthrough-is-expected-as-early-as-possible.-i-cant-say-whe.../8691/)

I have not seen anyone mentioning that three of the biggest Hindi movie stars are Muslims along with numerous old luminaries. The last President of India was a Muslim and so were two more in laste 70’s. The most successful captain of Indian cricket team was a Muslim. Till recently richest Indian was an Muslim too. In fact, current commissioner of Mumbai is a Muslim and yet not a single Hindu is pointing fingers at any of them. The constant portrayal that Muslims are marginalized by a nefarious design is simply not true. As India is dusting poverty as well as other social ills off its clothes, there are opportunities everywhere. But only a hard-working and ambitious person can grab them.

As the facts are filtered and the context and the perspective are muddled, all that is left a misinformation on which terrorism feeds itself. On one hand we have so called ‘secular’ politicians who for their petty interest try hard to appease Muslims and on the other hand we have extremely biased media that support the inherently counter-productive rhetoric. These two players play major role in accelerating self-victimization in the minds of Indian Muslims. It’s easy to see how a whole community high on half knowledge consistently produces youth who think it’s their right to take revenge.

At least we can vote out the politicians but how are we going to deal with the Media?

Say what?

Apologies for my long absence! I was busy moving to new place and then I went on a vacation for all most a month. I tried to write couple of ideas but couldn’t finish them properly. Plus the issue I was trying to raise was changing so fast that it would even beat chameleon. So let’s get back to the business.

Allegedly, a Sadhvi – Female Hindu monk, planned to bomb innocent Muslims. What’s worse is that she got few army personnel and a sitting MP involved in her plot. They planted a small bomb in Malegaon - a historically riot ravaged town. Prior to bombing they formed an organization that has same name as the one founded (and still existing) by freedom fighter V.D. Savarkar. And if we go by cop’s account then all these people are not only connected to RSS, VHP and Bajarang Dal but also to BJP. So in one shot the ruling party (with a useless prime-minister at its helm) succeeded in defaming every Hindu organization as well as the opposition party in India. The only hindrance is that there is no proof to any of these theories. Even after doing NARCO tests (they conducted NARCO tests three times. Unprecedented by any account) and brutally beating army personnel cops got nothing to show except for a stolen bike. The special unit established to fight terrorists Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) is so politically motivated that in desperation they even tried to connect Sadhvi and others in another bomb blast that happened couple of years ago. Unfortunately, cops have already apprehended the master-minds of that blast. but without any evidence or any provable theory or without ever lodging these people under strenuous anti-terrorism laws, ATS even refused to grant them access to their lawyers. The list of ‘terrorist acts’ by ATS just continues.

If the crime has really been committed by these folks then they should be punished. But even the circumstantial evidence is a joke. The blasts when they occurred were reported to be crude in nature. Nothing fancy or sophisticated but now suddenly ATS is saying that the blasts were RDX! The somersault is too much to stomach even for die-hard secularists.

In the mean time Media - the so called torchbearer of secularism in India are having fields day. They are all over the place trying to come up with non-sense news headlines as well as gravity defying theories. The best wacko-theory I liked is that when NARCO tests proved inconclusive, media started saying that with her meditation power Sadhvi is defying NARCO tests! Well, if she would have just disappeared in thin air before getting caught. (For the crime she did not commit) This kind of reporting is comically dark but the news agencies, most of them funded by foreign organizations, are pretty serious in their objective of slander anything and everything Hindu. And for that they can go to any extent. During this whole drama there were huge bomb-blasts in Assam. The responsibility was promptly taken by an obscure Islamic Jehadi group based in Bangladesh. More than 50 people lost their lives and yet the whole incidence was out of news waves within 24 hours. I mean seriously there was no news about the blasts or about the victims or the perpetrators. As if nothing of that sort ever happened.

With this ploy the anti-national forces compromising politicians, pinko-secularist as well as Media finally managed to attack the most revered institution in India – the Indian Army. Even Pakistani army couldn’t do that in last sixty years. Muslims in Kashmir as well as Pakistanis have habit of accusing Indian army of orchestrating riots as well as bombings in Pakistan and in Kashmir. Now they can happily point to the army personnel falsely accused in Malegaon blasts as a proof to their propaganda. Moreover, with Islamic terror on rampage throughout the world, secularists finally got stick of ‘Hindu terror’ to beat Hindus. So for every bomb blasts that will happen in India from this point onwards, these secularists will always point out that terror has no religion and Hindus are terrorists too. I am not sure where this buck stops. The zeal of politicians and media to convict the accused without a fair trial or without any shred of evidence is worrisome. Even if we consider this whole drama is being played for general election due mid next year, what’s frightening is the extent to which these politicians (and media) is ready to sell our countries future for their electoral ambition. It’s depressing beyond words.

p.s. – as I was hammering keyboard to vent my frustration extraordinary events are underway in Mumbai. Instead of planting bombs, so old school, terrorists are creating havoc a’la Hollywood style. Firing indiscriminately and throwing hand-grenades, this terrorist coming out party is heralding a bloody future.

Sighs!!! *^&*^&

Sometimes I feel that it’s a curse to know or understand current affairs and politics. There are enough people in the world who don’t give a damm about politics and they live blissful life. Is it that large number of ignorant people or small band of ambitious people that makes politics is so nasty, so dumb, so counter-productive, so illogical, so irrational and worst, so bloody? I don’t know. One thing that I increasingly feel is that I wish I was ignorant.

I haven’t written any blog in all most a week. I thought about writing a blog on Jaya Bacchan’s comment that created an unnecessary controversy. The freedom of expression cannot and should not be curtailed under any circumstances. At the same time the reality that Bacchan family is heavily involved in the politics and attacks on them are results of them supporting certain political faction should not be missed either. Before I do that the blasts in Delhi happened. I was dumbfounded. I wasn’t sure how many more blogs I can write on the bomb blasts in India. The tale of a non-existent government supposedly taking care of billion people is beyond description. I was out of town for weekend and when I came back and before I formulate my thoughts to write yet another blog chronicling gigantic magnitude of ineptness and incompetence that we know as Manmohan Singh, the Wall Street nosedived. On the surface there is no link between bomb blasts in Delhi and Wall Street debacle. Sadly enough none of these two terrible events were surprising. And as I just started writing about Wall Street double whammy I came across a detailed article about Sarah Palin – the vice-presidential candidate for Mr. John McCain. She reminded me of Georgie boy and my morale took another round of clobbering.

The events I mentioned seem quite disparate in contextual spectrum. Even geographically these events took place in different time zones. But there is eerie similarity between all of them. All of the events are strangely connected to each other by the string of irrationality and chronic dumbness. All these events played as classic interaction between the ignorant majority ignorant and ambitious minority.

Jaya Bacchan is running election on Samajvadi Party ticket. The party that champions the Hindi cause appeases Muslims that borderlines treachery and they are banking on huge north-Indian population to elect them in Mumbai. These activities are obviously enraging native Marathi population and rightfully so. Obviously political attacks on Bacchan family should not surprise anyone. But majority of Marathi population i.e. Marathi people outside of Mumbai region don’t see this connection easily. That leaves us with frustrated and publicity hungry Raj Thakare to resort into anti-Democratic activities like threatening to expel North-Indians out of Mumbai or attacking Bacchan family. Unfortunately, the only winner so far is the Samajvadi Party.
It is a sad state that home minister of Indian owes his allegiance to the foreign born leader of his political party. He doesn’t give a damm that under his leadership thousands of people got killed in bomb-blasts as well as in Naxal movement. For him as public confidence in his abilities doesn’t count much. His ambition is to become Prime Minister and he knows that he can achieve that by licking feet of his Party president. This egregious behavior doesn’t affect the Indian population either. And that’s more worrisome. They aren’t demanding his resignation. That means Manmohan Singh doesn’t need to care about one more thing. I wonder what he does whole day!
The carnage on Wall Street wasn’t entirely unexpected. There were enough learned souls hollering about the housing bubble. By the time people started listening to them it was too late. The speculation leveraged trading, housing securities etc. will be studied for years to come in the Business school. What wouldn’t be studied is the insatiable greed. Actually, it should be called corruption. Everyone knew that something of this sort is coming and yet no one left the table. The last one holding the card was the sucker. Unfortunately, there were quite a few suckers this time and it will result into thousands of lost jobs, billions of equity vanishing and possibility of world economy going south. In this case though it was the ambitious tiny minority creating havoc for rather helpless majority

The article about Sarah Palin was the last straw that dumped me into depression. She is nuts’. An arrogant woman who is not only has very little experienced but whatever experience she has is in Alaska. Yeps, that’s the state with more polar bears than human population! But she has a book in her hand and she listens to higher authority. There mere mention of these two things sends chill down my bones. We have heard all this crap before and yet people are ready to entertain the same agenda again. A tiny ambitious minority and a majority that is eager to play dumb again.

There are 20 million bloggers in United States. I am one of them. The number is quite large for me to not to feel privileged enough to be member of the club. Yet the number is tiny compared to the general populace that these bloggers intend to attract. Again The ambitious yet useless minority that wants to change the world of majority that doesn’t give a squat.

The game just continues.

Democracy III

One the most celebrated aspect of democracy is freedom of choice. A person can speak anything, do anything (as long as it’s legal) and live life the way he or she wanted. So it’s quite ironic that freedom is like a rewinding coil that stops democracy from succeeding. Hallmark of any democratic institution is allowing commoners to elect the leaders. The idea to let people decide their own fate by electing the representative is quite noble in essence but for most part impractical in results. I think such problem arise because most of the people are unaware about how Democracy works or how it should work.

Generally people don’t appear for exams without preparing for it. If they do then they fail the exams. Now imagine that you don’t know anything about exam or the curriculum and you are expected to appear for the exams just because you are above 21. Moreover not only that you are guaranteed to pass the exam but the results of the exams will shape your destiny. Are you ready for this scenario? Well, you can’t answer No to this question because that’s what precisely happens in modern democracy. We have exams so that we have right to tell people that you are K-12 or Bachelors’ or Masters or Doctors. You have to pass the driving test to have right to drive on the road. Yet one doesn’t give any exam or acquire any knowledge before voting. We rely on so called expert opinions of Media. It’s sad that Media wields so much power lately but it’s not hard to understand why, because we as a society pretty much outsourced the ‘thinking’ part to Media. We ask them to evaluate our representative. We ask them to interview prospective representative. We get impressed with even though we know that the so called rallies or conventions is nothing but elaborate charade to create the illusion of popularity. We do all this only because we don’t have time from our busy schedule. We like to blame everything on dirty politicians but we conveniently forget that ‘we’ are the politicians. With such a scenario it all most makes sense for politicians to join hands with Media. The blurring line between two is worrisome.

The only way out of this situation is we the people start doing the job we are supposed to do towards maintain democracy. We the people should start playing our role in the democracy. Freedom doesn’t come for free. The way to fix the crumbling democracy and stopping it from turning into special interest entity is we learn about our democratic institutions. What does head of the state do? He can’t do no shit without approval of legislative body. So what exactly is legislative body? How do we put better people in the legislative body? How hold politicians and Media accoutable for their actions? Such questions are not hard to answer. At least, it shouldn’t be hard to answer.

How to make them more accountable? What are the ways to make them accountable? To attain this and it may sound little radical, how about we make people take a course on democracy and make them pass a small exam before allowing them to vote? We make people accountable for their own action, other things will follow automatically.

The trouble brewing in Orissa

The recent assassination of Swami Laxamananada in Orissa doesn’t bode well for India. The issue wasn’t properly addressed by Indian print media and as usual what ever scanty news the print media provided were obviously uninformed and biased. Swami Laxamananda was associated with VHP and he dedicated his life towards the betterment of Hindus in India. One fine morning people barged into his room and pumped bullets in his body. The motive wasn’t exactly clear immediately and the assassins were unknown. What followed were riots between Hindus and Christians in Orissa. According to Indian print media lot of churches were burnt and allegedly Christians persecuted. Now we all know how much Christian missionaries love to paint themselves as victims and persecuted souls. Considering that these missionaries have mastered the coy act of persecuting others while painting themselves as victims over last two thousand years, the news Indian print media presented weren’t surprising. What was surprising and obviously frightening was Maoist Naxalites taking responsibility of killing Swami ji.

Orissa has been hotbed for Christian missionaries to ‘harvest souls’ for quite a bit. Since the famous statement Pope made on his visit to India and as if these missionaries were waiting for official confirmation the proselytizing activities went up rapidly in last ten years or so. By luring illiterate and poor people either by money or by force these Christian missionaries funded mostly by foreign institutions are changing the demography rapidly. Obviously there is going to reaction towards such nefarious and illicit activities. Various Hindu organizations actively started re-converting the ‘faithful’ and increasing the social work to stop the Christian proselytizing activities. Swami Laxamananada was on the forefront. He made substantial gains on this front and that was obviously hurting Missionary business. He received quite a few threats but that didn’t stop his work. He paid the heavy price for that.

Now it’s fairly obvious about who killed Swami ji. Yet the issue of proselytizing business that Missionaries are engaged in wasn’t addressed by anyone. Because doing so needs use of brain for one and second, it requires hard work. Brains are absent amongst Indian media and it is far easier to blame all ills of society on Hindus. Such apathy of government and Indian media is leading our society towards dark chapters that is beginning with Swami ji’s killing. It’s an open secret that the separatists’ terrorists of North-East are funded by Christian missionaries and it seems that they have started doing that in Orissa too. Naxalities by definition are secular and atheists. In theory the class struggle that they espouse is above the differences of racial or religious differences. China for example doesn’t have any state religion and nor do Russia. The government doesn’t support any religion either. (In fact, China bans foreign Christian missionaries!) So when Naxalities took responsibility of killing Swami ji there is something more going on. They have never killed any religious figure in India before. They never talked about religion either. And suddenly they are making statements that VHP and RSS is destroying secular fabric of India! It’s strange because naxalites are hell bent on destroying the fabric called India itself. If they are merely getting money from Christian missionaries to kill people then that’s scary or if they are colluding with Christian missionaries to destabilize India then that’s worst. Either ways we are in trouble.

Freedom of Expression and Presidential Election

The presidential election in United States is upon us. Well, upon US citizens. And I am increasingly getting uneasy and frustrated with it. Not only that both the candidates are creating elaborate charade of sincerity and chicanery but Media is playing such huge role in creating this façade of “I am the only guy who can lead the world” bravado that I feel like puking. That got me thinking about the reality of Freedom of Expression in United States, particularly in US media.

The most enshrined and celebrated amendment in US constitution is first amendment - Freedom of speech. The text of the amendment is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This amendment is encoded in the genes of people born in this country. And barring few instances US government have never stopped anyone from expressing their views. I mean literally anything. People in US talk trash about every known political or religious figure. In my university, students used to publish semi-porn newspaper that would trash talk from Georgie boy to Jesus Christ. I was taken a back by some of the stuff even though I am not Georgie boy’s supporter or a Christian faith follower. But these students have right to say what they wanted to say. It’s up to the readers to ignore such stuff. Same thing goes at the debates on various forums. From university debate to YouTube, people from all walks of life express their views freely. The fact that the society even allows immigrant non citizens to express their views freely makes this country a special case. This is one of very few countries that truly accord such a freedom to its subjects. Now the important question we as a society should ask is whether people’s views are making any difference in a way the government works? The answer is not that that simple. The situation is quite murky and ambiguous. The government doesn’t impede freedom of expression but that job is done by Media quite cleverly.

American media – TV as well as most of the print media – is heavily partisan and biased. They are not only biased with respect to the foreign news coverage but they openly takes sides in the general elections. The case is more complex in TV news land. All of the news agencies are owned by five or six industry conglomerate. Broadcasting news on TV is a costly proposition for sure but for five or six organization to decide what news should be presented is worst than censorship. The economic necessity to broadcast 24 hours a day leads these news agencies to manufacture the news or make the news of molehill. It probably increases the viewership but in turn makes the news channel standing joke. (Aptly shown by Jon Stewart in his The Daily Show) So for example they can devote (I am talking about the entire news channel) all most a week worth of footage towards a girl gone missing in Florida beach but they can’t devote much time towards why there so much antipathy towards US in European nations. Or these news agencies can conveniently disregard the opposition of US citizens towards Iraq war while simultaneously helping administration in drumming beats for war. In short, the news or print media doesn’t capture the reality but it creates its own reality. And in the process it stifles the freedom of expression by effectively muting differing voices.

Coming back to the Presidential election, all the news media give importance to only Democrats or Republicans. I understand they are the biggest parties but there are enough small parties that should at least be heard. The job of news agencies is give space to various points of views and let readers decide the outcome. For example, I am sure very few people outside US know about Ralph Nader. Moreover, I bet that very few people in US know what Ralph Nader stands for. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with him or not but he is standing for election and yet Media stubbornly refuses the give him space. In fact they even blame him for Al Gore’s defeat. I have not read a single article about his intended policies in any of the print media. By not presenting him the news media is censoring substantial number of voters. If he garnered enough votes to stand for election in 37 states (in order to get on to the Ballot i.e. having your name as a candidate on the ballot, one need to garner certain number of signatories) then the least thing for news agencies to do is to hear him out. It’s quite ironic that in quintessential land of choices the Media presents only two choices in Presidential election.

Constitutional amendments are fine but the reality has changed drastically with the ascent of news media conglomerates. Their powers is only going to increase. And I don’t know what we can do to maintain sanity.

Oh No! Not again!!

Okay, so let me think when is the last time Indian politicians, diplomats or foreign policy experts behaved rationally and responsibly. Umm…..naah…..can’t remember nothing. Let’s try to understand history with real life examples. First, our beloved Mr. Nehru – he was so infatuated with Chinese friendship that he went into shock when China attacked us. I wonder why! I mean, India was under foreign rule for 900 year before 1961. But that shouldn’t be the reason behind his surprise over Chinese aggression. Then comes bungling after 1971 victory. Admittedly, before and during the war Indian diplomacy (along with Indian Armed forces) defined excellence in foreign relations but after we won for some weird reason and I don’t know why we didn’t ask Pakistan to hand back part of Kashmir these buggers are hogging. I wish we could ask what was going through Mrs. Gandhi’s mind. Then comes the moronic behavior during the Kargil war. Well, to be precise just before the Kargil war. Okey, to be really really precise our moronic behavior lead to Kargil war where we lost 1000 of our bravest soldiers. See, we were having peace dialogue with our ‘friend’ Pakistan. We thought we will live happily ever after this pact. So, our Army in fact scaled back the military forces in Kashmir. Speldid behavior indeed because taking advantage of this Pakistan captured the mountain peaks in the winter and surprise, surprise, bullets started raining over Indian forces in the spring!

Fool me once shame on you and fool me twice, well you can’t fool me twice because fool can’t be fooled again. I have used this expression (this is Georgi boy’s quote actually) few times in my prior blogs. And, for some meteor blasting reason I find this expression very apt for Indian political diplomacy. Because even after loosing 1000 young soldiers in Kargil, we again had peace dialogue with our neighbors. That resulted into attack on our parliament. Then bomb blasts in Mumbai, Delhi, Varanasi, Hydrabad, Ahamadabad, Mumbai again, Jaipur and Banglore. Yet we continued to believe in the fallacy of having peaceful and cordial relation with Pakistan. I think I am taking too long of run-up, so, let me come to the crux.

The recent controversy in Jammu and Kashmir is another example of how inept our politicians are and how regressive their mindset is. This is what happened. And in hindsight it all seems very well planned. The Jammu and Kashmir government currently headed by PDP – notorious for starting militancy in 1989 along with Congress party decided to grant 100 acres of unused and unusable (i.e. for agriculture) to land to Amarnath Temple Trust. (Amarnath Temple is one of the holiest shrines for Hindus and lakhs of people throng to the temple every year) That land was to be used by the temple trust to build temporary servicing facility for the pilgrims. This land transfer procedure was started couple of years ago. Suddenly, some Muslims in Kashmir decided to protest against it. The reason being that they feared that land will be used to relocate Hindus in Kashmir and that in turn will change the demography of the Kashmir. (in short, they don’t want no Hindus in Kashmir) Now land was given to the trust strictly for building temporary facilities for Hindu pilgrims. And, thinking sanely it’s all but improbable that 100 acres of land will demography of the state. But sanity is indeed a rare commodity. Like an orchestra this tiny protest was enough for PDP (the same political party that allotted the land at first place) decided to withdraw support from the state government. This prompted Congress Party Chief Minister to take the land back from the temple board. This was obviously to anger Hindu population. And they achieved their goal.

Hindus across the countries arose against this gross injustice and minority appeasement. Widespread protest was held in Jammu (there are very few Hindus left in Kashmir) against government decision. But the state government stuck with its guns. This was enough for JKLF - Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front, an separatist organization to start violence in Kashmir. And this leads to the climax - Pakistan is lodging complain against India in United Nations, in Organization of Islamic Committee (of which India is not a member) and various Human Rights group. Oh actually no! This is not the climax. . The climax is the statement issued by Indian government (and I quote from Indian Express) “such statements amount to "clear interference" in its internal affairs and will undermine the composite dialogue process.

Wow, so Pakistan has more say in Kashmir than India. They are creating anti-India activities in India and to that all that Indian government has to say is that it may affect the composite dialogue. I got no words on this! Bravo!!! Way to go.

But this is all fault of RSS,and BJP. Remember Pakistani’s are good, it’s just their army and politicians are bad. Hold on, I was under impression that Pakistani army recruits from general Pakistani population and recent government in Pakistan is democratically elected. Now this mystery I can’t solve.

We the Guantanamo - Post Script

It was purely coincidental that within a week of me writing a blog on Guantanamo Bay prison camp Wall Street Journal published an article that unequivocally proved the necessity of having that prison camp. I wish I could just copy and paste that article on my blog but one, it’s too long and second, that will be copy-right infringement. Not that they will come after me but we will save that for some other time and for some other incidence.

The article was written by DEBRA BURLINGAME – a former Attorney and director of National September 11 Memorial Foundation. Moreover, her brother was the pilot of Flight 77 that was rammed into Pentagon. So it is safe to say that she is one of the closest to the tragedy and involved greatly in efforts to maintain the sanctity of this ghastly incidence. All though, the article is concerned about the recent supreme court verdict that granted knuckleheads of Guantanamo Bay all the rights of normal criminals, the example that she illustrated in her article is relevant to my prior blog. Mr. Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi was an ex-resident of Guantanamo Bay prison camp. And for some reason, partly due to heavy public out-cry and partly due to continuous pressure of so called human rights activist, he was one of the few terrorists released from the prison camps. Earlier he was granted the status of enemy combatant and they lead the trial of him about his alleged crimes. His enemy combatant status was one of the first to be granted to Islamic terrorists of Taliban. This status qualified him for annual review of his past deeds. (I am not expert in Law. In case if I am misquoting law stuff then please let me know and I will correct the information.)

In his trials Mr. Ajmi denied any involvement in Jihad or about his participation in Taliban movement. He stated that he went to Pakistan simply to learn Koran. Interesting, because he was an Arab and last time I checked Arabs were still Muslims and they surely do have facilities learn Koran in Arab land. But instead of learning his lessons, after his repatriation back to Kuwait, he sneaked into Iraq and blew 100 tons of explosive along with himself. The blast was so severe that it ripped the surrounding buildings part. Surprisingly, it killed only 13 people. I wonder how many more blasts will require for so called human rights activist to shut up and mind their own business.

To rub salt on the wounds, the attorney – Marc Falkoff, who fought case for Mr. Ajmi recently published a book of poems penned by Mr. Ajmi. Talking about Mr. Ajmi, the attorney said – “One thing you won't hear is hatred,"

No kidding!