Sajjan Act

Brother MPs

Letting go of a position isn't easy. And for Indian politicians it has often been said that they never want to retire. Some former members of Parliament devise ingenious ways to keep the tag.
The brotherly love between Sajjan Kumar, the former Congress MP from Outer Delhi, and Ramesh Kumar, who won from South Delhi, became publicly evident this week. Ramesh Kumar was made the official Congress candidate after the party denied ticket to Sajjan Kumar when his name cropped up again in the anti-Sikh riots case just ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
However, Sajjan Kumar chose the occasion of his annual New Year's luncheon meet to unofficially declare that though his brother may have been elected an MP he was the one who still mattered.
The official invitation cards mentioned the name of the ex-MP in front of his brother's name. The invitation went out from Sajjan Kumar-Ramesh Kumar.

Rathore the child molestor

It is shameful how the child molestor, SPS Rathore, is still roaming freely on the streets....days after his conviction in the Ruchika Girhotra murder case. The media are now doing their part, going after the criminal who has been able to intimidate and wrestle out of every spot he has ever been in.
It is the final leg and the pressure needs to be kept up for such people only deserve to be in a prison.

PS- The medianmen manning a vigil outside Rathore's house need to be more brave while talking to the child molestor. They know he is a convict and they know he has been sentenced. Please do not get intimidated by his empty threats.

Nari

Though it was a known fact that Narayan Dutt Tiwari aka Nari had a liking for the fairer sex.......the recent developments related to his alleged Gubernatorial experiments are an eye opener. The 86-year-old has successfully been able to achieve what our mature democracy was lacking so far....sex scandals involving senior politicians.
There have been several alleged sex scandals in the country so far but no one as big as this one. And to think of it that "His Sexellency" was within a whisker of becoming our Prime Minister. However, I hope that the case will finally begin to extract more skeletons out of senior politicians closets. How is it possible that Russia, the US, Israel and the UK could have so many of these sex scandals and our country's ruling class is missing out on them.
All this has happened because of the power and clout that the electronic media has come to command. A fact that should be appreciated by the print media as they are the ones who have been successful in keeping the sex lives of our political masters under wraps for so long. But that is a story for some other time.....

Child molestor DGP

It is a shameful day. Former DGP of Haryana SPS Rathore a child molestor has been let off with not even a wrap on his wristy. The former top cop has used his clout to get away with a heinous crime. The court's verdict of awarding just a six months sentence and a Rs 1,000 fine is a joke.
It has again brought forth the single most important unwritten law of this land. If anyone ise connected, powerful or rich he can literally get away with murder.
And why isn't the Indian media making it a point to go after the former DGP? Shouldn't the former officer, who has brought disgrace to his uniformed force, be disbarred of all his post-retirement benefits? And what for the parents and friend of Ruchika who suffered for over 19 years waiting for justice? Shouldn't they be awarded compensation by the state? It is time that we address these questions if we need to maintain the rule of law in this land.

Hamara Bajaj

Hamara Bajaj gaya. One of the greatest symbols of a license-permit raj regime during the better part of our post-independence existence has finally been bid adieu. The scooter, on which almost the entire present middle class has learnt driving, has finally rolled into history as the company has decided to stop its production.
Bajaj scooters may throw up a lot of nostalgic memories for several people but the truth is that it was a symbol of how strictly this coountry was controlled by the regimes who held swey in this land. I am glad that it is over and now we have moved to an era where the consumer is king and not the industrialist and politician nexus who keep a tight leash on the production lines.

Osama Nobel

What a joke....Send more troops to Afghanistan and get a Nobel peace prize for yourself. The worst ever decision by the Nobel prize committee. Which again proves that international politcs and being the leader of the most powerful nation does help in securing that award.
With this decision the Nobel prize has just been turned into another of those million dollar prizes that are up for grabs for the high and mighty.

Commonwealth excuse

It seems our government need the pathetic excuse of Commonwealth Games for providing us with even basic amenities. The entire city of Delhi has been made to feel as if they only deserve to stay in it because of the upcoming games. The government is wasting and usurping funds in the name of the games and making a fool of common man.
Perfectly good and working street fittings, street lights and other infrastructure is being torn apart in the name of these games. Shouldn't the government be more discreet in using the public money? They may be getting these funds as soft loans from several foreign organisations. However, ultimately it will be the common man who will be asked to shell out this money from his pocket by way of increased taxes.

White or black the result is same

You may put a white man at the helm or a black one. The results will be the same. This week US President Barack Obama has proved this point by increasing the engagement of US armed forces in Afghanistan.
The point here is that this man was chosen for the Nobel peace prize just a few weeks ago. Is this the way peace is promoted? Never heard of such a thing as increasing war involvement will improve peace. Maybe it will help the US president in maintaining peace in his own country by keeping the Taliban and Al-Qaida involved in the Afghanistan mess. But that again proves another point that George W Bush at least had the guts to say and do what he felt was right for his country. This war mongering will not help and is only going to present more targets for the extremists to fill the body bags.

Presidential flight

Was there any need for President Pratibha Devisingh Patil to fly aboard the SU30MKI? Was it a cheap attempt at overshadowing the real people's President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's feat a couple of years ago?

No the flight didn't serve any cause. The flight of the 74-year-old woman didn't serve any purpose than to waste the time and money of Indian Air Force. The sortie aboard the supersonic jet was meaninigless as it flew on sub-sonic speeds and didn't show our supreme commander any offensive manouvres of the jet fighters. Moreover, the point here is that she might be the nominal supreme commander of the Indian armed forces but her defence forces are not yet ready to deploy women combatants on mainstream duties. So it is better that she persuades her commanders to opt for a better treatment of the women in the armed forces. When world over women have been absorbed in active combat duty what are the Indian armed forces waiting for?

PS: And what is with the middle name? Devisingh......

Arundhati Roy

Went to a discussion on Arundhati Roy's new book today. And it really felt good to see another one of my tribe, "Frustrated Indian" for the uninitiated.
The author, who has come under severe criticism over the past for her anti-establishment political views, is indeed a fellow Indian who is frustrated by the way this country has been picking itself from where the Britishers left. The way it treats its own. The tribals, minorities and people who have been marginalised by any cause. The frustration was also evident as she has gone on to ask time and again why the establishment has been trying hard to cover up on the corporate mess.
She is trying to make her point strongly and she has been taken by the Indian middle class with some respect. Which is the reason that the establishment is so afraid of taking her on. The questions raised by her are noteworthy and do require an answer. Maybe the government will take note and start treating such questions from the members of civil society with some respect.

Unprofessional media

Instead of hearing the empty barks of a retired judge the media should have retaliated properly.

Justice Liberhan may have retorted to the media by saying

"Don't challenge my character...Get lost. I am not a person who is accessible to you (media)...I don't want to talk about it," he said. "I am not that characterless a person that I will hand over the report to the media before being placed in Parliament," he stated.

However, why didn't even a single mediperson have the courage to ask the retired judge to shut up instead. The judge owes an apology to the nation as he has taken 17 years to finish a job which was supposed to take just three months. Isn't he accountable to the taxpayers of this country whose money has funded his extension after extension of post-retirement benefits.
But I suppose asking this would be too much for the media as they continue to focus on the frivolous and forget the substance behind a story.

Sachin Tendulkar

Thanks for playing for our country. Though I am not a big cricket fan, ever since I got to know about the dirt that is match fixing, I still hold you in high esteem. You are undoubtedly the best batsman that has ever played the game. Even better than the Don.
And I loathe political leaders who are casting aspersions on you. You have been the one force that has often united this country in a time of crisis. A person who is seen as one that belongs to every Indian and not just a community, a region or a race.
For a deeply pluralistic society like ours you are one symbol of hope. The bad political leadership which has been thrust upon our country to ruin, divide and demean it has also tried to put you into dock. I hope that you are able to serve our country for a few more years and say good bye to the game in a graceful manner. Thanks Sachin, for bringing me out of my frustration by your playing abilities.

Finally Indian intelligence agencies wake up

After days of chatter about the involvement of David Headley and Tahawwar
Hussain Rana and their arrest by the FBI the Indian intelligence agencies have finally woken up. The National Investigation Agency has claimed to have former several teams here as well as in other states and started questioning several people to trace the footsteps of David Headley and
Hussain Rana in India.
The officials are looking at leads they had visited Kerala and are for an estate agent in Khar Mumbai. Interestingly, the Indian intelligence agency had all this while maintained that there was no other link of 26/11 suspe3cts. They had claimed that there were no recee missions and that everything was done through VOiP by their masters in Pakistan. And according to out intelligence agencies these terrorists had landed and started their mission through the sea route.

What a bag full of lies.....

I just hope that the NIA sleuths are able to understand the case and uncover what the other agencies have tried to cover up with their shoddy investigation.

Ban MNS

Nothing short of a ban should do on this issue. The political party of Raj Thackrey should be banned and he, along with all his goondas should be disenfranchised.
This is nothing short of an attack on the democratic norms of the country and the very heart of its constitution. Our constitution allows us the freedoms to anything in the democratic framework that we want. This rowdy behaviour of a street-side goonda is an attack on the institutions of this country. Such behaviour needs to be checked immediately.
Though a few political parties had propped up MNS for their ulterior motives of dividing the vote bank in Maharashtra, it may end up dividing and damaging the country beyong heal. There is not word of condemnation that is enough for this attack. It is not an ar\ttack on a lone SP MLA Abu Azmi but on the democracy that is called India.
Please stop these fools from harming the country.

Might is right

The Sheila Dik-shit government has proved it again that might is right. A convict, Manu Sharma,
who is serving a life sentence for murdering Jessica Lal, has been granted parole on the recommendation of, who else, but our beloved Dik-shit herself.
The scion of a influential Congress family from Haryana, who are also the owners of Piccadilly group of hotels, has apparently been released on parole for a month, which has been extended by another month, on the ground of his mother's illness. He has, however, reportedly been spotted in a nightclub in a hotel in Delhi. While his mother was seen addressing a press conference in their family hotel in Chandigarh.
Do politicians have any shame left? Using the pretext of his mother's illness a murderer is moving amongst law abiding common people and the CM comes out and defends this decision. 't the authorities verify whether there was no one to attend to the ailing mother of the convict and that his presence was required.
Even someone with a bit of common sense would know that the primary thing that has to be done is if a person is asking for parole for a particular ground, they have to find out and verify whether that ground exists.
However, Dik-shit has shamelessly defended her government's decision that there was nothing "illegal or unusual" about it as "parole is something that every prisoner wants and it is nothing illegal that he asks for."
"Whatever has been done is within the legal purview. It (recommending parole) has been done after taking suggestions from everybody (concerned agencies)," Dik-shit told reporters at her Players' Building office.
She said the recommendation for Manu's parole was made on the basis of reports from jail and police authorities certifying that "yes this person can avail parole because his behaviour has been good". Really????

ends

Vande Mataram

Do I need to add anything more................. And it happened when the Union Home Minister Mr P Chidambaram was at the session.......

A top Muslim body today asked members of the community not to recite Vande Mataram and supported seminary Darul Uloom's edict which opposes any prayer involving the song.
"The fatwa of Darul Uloom (opposing recitation of Vande Mataram) is correct," said one of the 25 resolutions passed by Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind today at its 30th general session here in presence of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. Darul Uloom's fatwa department had issued the edict in 2006 describing recitation of Vande Mataram as anti-Islamic.
"The judgement of the Supreme Court also clearly states that nobody can be compelled to sing Vande Mataram," said the resolution, which was adopted by over 10,000 clerics from across the country. It also expressed deep concern over the communal hatred and violence exploiting the issue.
"We love and respect the mother, but do not worship her...The house demands that the issue of Vande Mataram should not be deliberately raised for causing communal discord and threat to law and order," said the resolution, which sparked a sharp reaction from other groups
which burnt the effigy of Darul Deoband at some places.
The resolution also condemned the exploitation of Vande Mataram for targetting Muslims. "Patriotism does not require singing of Vande Mataram. We love our country and have proved this several times, but Vande Mataram violates our faith in monotheism that is the foundation of Islam," the resolution said.
The Jamiat also attacked the UPA government and asked it to stop making "lucrative promises" to minorities and immediately implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee report.
The body also adopted a series of resolutions asking the UPA government to stop interfering in minorities affairs, including tampering with madrasa education system.
"We demand from the UPA government to implement the Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Commission recommendations so that maximum number of people are benefited," a resolution said.
Jamiat opposed the government's plan to set up a Central Madrasa Board, saying it was yet "another attempt by the government to interfere in the madrasa education system. "The government must avoid setting up Madrasa Board," it warned. It also demanded government to make a law against communal riots and to secure Waqf properties.
The resolutions opposed amendment in article 377 and 33 per cent reservation for women, calling it "unnecessary" as well as "unacceptable". The Jamiat further condemned suicide bombings saying it take lives of innocent people.

Indira / Anti-Sikh Riots Forgotten

The Indian media seems to have conveniently forgotten the incidents that completely changed the course of this country's history 25 years ago. Not even a single media house has run a series on the events leading up to the assassination of Indira Gandhi, no follow ups or revisits to Golden Temple, not even a talk about Operation Blue Star.
It is shameful that a majority of editors who control the news media now, have forgotten the important part of our history. I was just seven years old at that time and even I can't ever forget the trauma of seeing Sikhs being beaten up and burnt. Their taxis smashed and burnt to ground. Is the Indian media so openly turning commercial that it forgets to revisit such an important chapter history. There hasn't been a single follow up the events, the incidents, the families who lost loved ones, the officials and politicians who were in-charge and haven't been brought to the book yet.
In independent India's history, till date, the riots that followed after Indira's death have been the worst ever witnessed by our country. Doesn't this elicit a response from our secular media? Or is it just busy bashing Modi.....and playing the appeasement card to one minority community...

grand theft auto

A pilot vehicle of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chair K Rahman Khan, which has a radio tag allowing its entry into Parliament, was stolen from the residence of his driver Delhi early this morning.
The SUV was stolen from R K Puram Sector-V residence of driver Niranjan Mohanty at around 5:15 am by an unidentified man who drove away with it despite the former giving a chase for some distance.
Though a Police Control Room call about the theft was made immediately and the police claim that a wireless message was flashed. However, the vehicle -- a Bolera with registration number DL2CQ 3678 -- could not be traced.
The vehicle has security clearance stickers which give access to prominent places in the capital The vehicle also has a radio tag which allows it to enter Parliament. Though it has been claimed that the tag has been de-activated to ensure that it is not misused.

afraid to show that we frustrated

Are Indians afraid to show that they are frustrated? Or are they just plain old hypocrites when it comes to accepting that there are problems and dealing with them.
A feudal society like ours still needs a maturity of another days before it starts to accept that a majority of our fellow citizens are frustrated with the system. A majority feels that the present system, read democracy, isn't working for the country and openly propagate a totalitarian society. But I feel that it is not a solution. And anyone who says otherwise can be restrained for a day in solitary confinement and should be able to understand this.

nobel low

How can the Nobel prize selection committee stoop so low? If there were any doubts that Nobel awards are wrongly held in too high an esteem it has been cleared today. The committee's decision to award it to a US President, who hasn't yet even spent an entire year in office, just points to what a big farce the entire thing is. Obama's contribution to the US and the world is not yet recognised in any way apart from him being of a mixed racial parentage and being able to rise to such high levels. The decision is a shocker.
This goes on to show that the Nobel prize committee is still as prejudiced and pathetic as they were during the times of Mahatma Gandhi. Though Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi didn't and doesn't need the recognition of a petty award like this but his oversight had established that the awards committee follows a definite agenda is its selection process.

honk honk honk

Driving on the roads is a nightmare.....with maniacs behind the wheel who are constantly honking. Without any rhyme or reason the honking continues. Though our home minister thinks that this maniacal tendency is only evident in the species plying vehicles on capital's roads, I find to be a common trait across the country. And unlike our Home Minister, who has the luxury of traveling as a VIP, I drive like any other common man.
Should there be a ban on honking on city roads? I suppose so ....... as a majority of drivers operating on our roads don't even have the basic driving skills. It seems that they are honking for other drivers to stay out of their way as they aren't as adept behind the wheel.

terror break?

Why is our country's leadership unwilling to take an action against terror strikes? The repeated and unrelenting terrorist strikes have shown us impunity with which these extremist organisations treat us.
The will power of an over one billion strong country seem to be lacking when it comes to dealing with terror outfits that don't want to relent. The intelligence agencies and police set up of the nation has in fact become a toll in the hand of political masters. The surveillance equipment and intelligence prowess, if there is any, is being used to snoop on their political masters rather than using it against the enemies of the country.
It seems that the political masters are more worried about their survival rather than the survival of the nation. Though there have been no major terror attacks on the country during the past few months, it can only be blamed on the business of these outfits who have been fighting against the US led assault. This breather from another round of serial blasts is not a show of competence on the part of our security agencies.

frustus welcome

good to finally be here. better late than never.....
wanna vent off some steam and off load my frustration onto other such souls on the net.