Food Security In India: Sonia VS Modi

To Sonia Gandhi and her NAC (read “Chamchas”), the food security bill is not about hungry Indians. It is about those hungry Indians thinking that the government is doing something and then they will be hoodwinked into voting for her son as the next PM. She is the de facto PM and is thus running the most corrupt government in our history. In India which is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, the most corrupt moniker means something. She wants to spend Rs 5,45,000 crore to feed the poor. These people cannot hold games without stealing it completely blind. How can we expect them to spend this kind of money honestly? All that is going to do is to make netas, babus and lalas rich. Why do I sound so negative? If Sonia Gandhi were sincere about feeding people of India she would have stopped the wastage of food. She has been running the country for so long and has not done anything to ensure that the food that rots out in the open gets fed to the hungry. Her government talks about building cold storages to help Walmart and other large retailers and yet they cannot build granaries to stop our grains surpluses to rot. All they have to do is build four rodent-proof walls with a waterproof roof. How difficult is that? We can build fancy living quarters for foreign athletes but we cannot build a simple building to store food! How can I believe any plan that comes out of this charade of a government?

Does that mean is a lost cause? No. I will cite two examples which will show you that simple, well meaning, honest and efficient techniques can solve most of our problems. One example is that of Bhai Narendra Modi and the other is of an entrepreneur Sarath Babu. Now if all our netas become like Bhai Narendra and all our Lalas become like Sarath Babu then we can solve the neta – Lala aspect of the equation. All we have to do is bypass the babus (IAS/PCS et. al.) and the problem would be solved.

Sarath Babu who comes from a very humble background (humble is an overstatement) who got his first degree from BITS PIlani and second from IIM-A. No shortage of such guys, right? Wrong. He did not forget his background and set off to do something which is remarkable. Here is his story:

Sarath launched Foodking in 2006, supplying snacks to banks, software firms and other corporates, with just 2,000 rupees (£24; $38) to fund the first month.But with his impressive academic pedigree, he was soon able to secure a bank loan of 100,000 rupees (£1,205; $1,890), and employed eight to 10 workers. The expansion continued, and he now has seven outlets and an annual turnover of $1.3m.
He wants to have 100 outlets by the end of this year - and 5,000 across the state eventually. Foodking aims to offer good food at affordable prices - as well as to create jobs for the poor And he hopes to inspire 1,000 entrepreneurs across the state, who too would go on to create employment opportunities for others.
Sarath's approach is clearly shaped by his humble beginnings. He is determined to provide affordable, good quality food. Foodking's meals cost 20-45 rupees (25p-54p; $0.37-0.84) each - which would more usually buy only fast food. To keep prices low, premises are simple. And while Sarath is happy to pitch in and help the workers out, he's tough on waste, challenging staff over unused chopped vegetables and taps left running.

Is this a solution to our problems? No but it is an example in efficient management which is enabling sale of affordable meals and providing employment while making profits. To use an allegory, instead of feeding fish to the hungry, he is teaching them how to fish. Of course this still is not the real solution. The real solution has been shown by Bhai Narendra Modi. The praise for him in this regards comes from the Planning Commission which is run by none other than the acting PM Manmohan Singh’s right hand man Montek Singh Ahluwalia. As per Business Standard, a Planning Commission working group set up to suggest booster shots for agriculture during the 12th plan – which starts next April – said that Gujarat and Chhattisgarh were the states to emulate. Coincidently, both states are run by the BJP. I wonder how long will it take for Digvijay Singh to brand Montek as an RSS agent!!

Gujrat’s industrial accomplishments are known the world over. However, Gujarat’s oft ignored success comes from agriculture where the state has outperformed all other states including the fertile bread baskets of India i.e. UP and Punjab. An arid state, Gujarat’s started to succeed in this field after 2002 so the Modi haters cannot deny him the credit. With small initiatives, he has managed to make his state into an agricultural success. Here are examples of some of those steps:

First, he focused on sustained water conservation and management programmes. Gujarat is one of the biggest users of drip irrigation in India today, and built many check dams, small ponds and minor irrigation sources. In 2008, Gujarat had 113,738 check dams and 240,199 little ponds dotting the state.
Second, the state launched a massive and well-coordinated extension effort – telling farmers what to grow, when to grow, how to grow and how to maximise output.
Third, Modi completely overhauled rural power supply. Even though supplies are subsidised, farmers get assured power. This contrasts with other states that offer free power, but irregularly and unpredictably.
Four, says Shankar Acharya, agriculture’s allied sectors – like livestock development – were given a boost. This ensured steady and sustainable growth in rural incomes – a prerequisite for comprehensive food security.
Five, Modi also promoted non-food crops and horticulture, Bt cotton, castor, and isabgol. Contrast this with the endless debates we now have about the dangers – or otherwise — GM seeds.
Six, Gujarat made huge investments in infrastructure – especially rural roads, electricity and ports.

These examples clearly demonstrate that we do not need to throw money at the problem. We need to work at the problem like Modi and Babu. For Sonia, spending taxpayer money to win her son the PM’ship is an easy way out to a very large problem. If we adopt her method, we will have more mega scams and the problem would remain. If we adopt the Modi / Babu solution, we can chip away at the problem and solve it eventually.

The Sarath Babu story can be read at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16248442

The Gujarat story can be read at:http://www.firstpost.com/economy/modis-gujarat-shows-the-way-to-better-food-security-160797.html

Our blog posts on the topic can be read at:
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/04/modis-silent-green-revolution.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/02/penny-wise-and-pound-foolish-upa-govt.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/07/hungry-india.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2010/07/water-water-everywhere-not-drop-to.html

The Evil In Our Midst.

Right about the time I read Udayan Namboodri’s article on comparing corruption in India versus the evil in the world, my twelve-year-old son was writing a paper on Vlad the Impaler. He told me that Vlad was one of the most evil men ever. I told him that he was just one of the many. I gave him some examples. What I could not tell him are the examples of evil in our day to day lives. He is still too young for that.

Here is what Namboodri wrote in his article: The term “banality of evil” was coined originally by Hannah Arendt, a famous political scientist who went to Jerusalem to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann initially took the stand wearing a deadpan expression, which made most people imagine how hopelessly dark and bureaucratic was the core of the Nazi mass-murder machine.

Evil in real life does not go around growling “kitne aadmi thay” like Amjad Khan’s Gabbar or “Mogambo khush hua” like Amrish Puri. Evil in real life is the harmless looking old woman who forces her daughter in law to abort her female fetus or worse, kill the baby girl. You will go past this person on a daily basis and not know it. Evil in real life is the middle class family, which exploits a child servant on a daily basis and robbing the kid of the most precious of Bholenath’s gifts – innocence.

If you look at various examples of cruelty in the history of mankind, you will realize that most evil goes unpunished. Hitler was punished. Jews in the media and elsewhere have used all their power to ensure that not a day goes by when people are reminded on the Holocaust. I understand and support them wholeheartedly. But I will cite some examples which in sheer cruelty match up with Hitler’s evil while others aspire to do so.

1. Pakistanis killed a very large number (upto Six lakh by some estmates) of Bangladeshis at a kill rate that even the Nazis could not maintain. Did anyone get punished? Tikka Khan lived comfortable till well into his eighties. Other army butchers got promoted and became prominent members of Pakistani society.

2. Jalianwalabagh massacre. Even more impressive kill rate. Thanks to Amar Shaheed Udham Singh one of the perpetrators got punished. But what about the others? What about the Indian soldiers who fired upon their brothers and sisters?

3. Entire Mughal period is replete with examples of cruelty inflicted upon Hindus but our history books have been sanitized and now the Muslims have become the victims only to be protected by our pseudo-secular champions. Cruelty covered up by a cruel joke.

4. All the people killed during the partition of the country because a slew of selfish decisions made by leaders who are now worshipped.

5. Corruption. Yes. Think about it. This is one evil which does not kill directly but it does so slowly in a way like acid dissolves metal. You know exactly what I am talking about.

6. Social practices like dowry, female feticide, killing of female babies and honor killings are all rampant practices in India which still confound any self respecting Hindu. As we have written on this blog many many times that while all kinds of female deities are worshipped in India, Indian girls are treated with an inexplicable disdain.

These are a few examples of absolute evil in just our sub-continent. Some of it happened in the past while others go on in front of our eyes. As Edmund Burke said: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” But what can we do you ask? Of course in some cases we need to pick up a weapon or have a time machine – luxuries we cannot afford. But the victims of social evil, which happens right in front of our eyes, could use a helping hand. It is our dharma. It is our Karma. If we don’t do anything about it then we have no right to call ourselves Hindus.

A MUST READ is at : http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/267181/20111214/india-40-million-missing-girls-problem-gendercide.htm
The Namboodri article can be read at: http://dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/50688-the-banality-of-evil.html

Our blogs on related subjects are as follows:
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/06/worship-durga-ma-kill-girls.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/01/domestic-violence-and-future-of-indian.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2010/09/dowry-and-divorce-banes-of-indian.html

Pseudo-seculars Strike Again

Just when I thought that our country is the only one loaded with a hoard of pseudo seculars – the self-proclaimed champions of humanity, religion and freedom of speech, I got a temporary solace to find out that America is soon catching up with us.

Recently, Subramanian Swamy was dismissed from Harvard after decades of teaching association. His fault - he dared to say the fact as a fact, he dared to say the unsaid, and he dared to shoot the pseudos right in the middle of their forehead.

Yes, all this happened when Dr. Swami wrote an article advocating denial of voting rights to non-Hindus with the goal of stemming terrorist attacks in India. And as expected the pseudos almost choked to death. Now they are trying to get some fresh air by dismissing him as ‘communal’, ‘anti-Islamic’ and a ‘Hindu fanatic’.

Many are stung by Dr. Swami’s article – from Congress to Congress bought media to Arabs and to the hypocrite Americans. They needed to do something urgently because if they don’t then Dr. Swami with his forty years of credibility could almost turn the tide against their well-established norms of freedom of speech - freedom of speech that is only made for people like Arundhati Roy to Geelani to Bukhari.

So therefore they kicked him out. When these high profile institutes, with a bunch of ‘highly politicized faculty’ get the colors of Islamic-mania and preach the theory of ‘political correctness’ – correctness that suits their political interests only – it is a very dangerous sign. Of course, when it receives millions in aid from people like Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia, it does not leave much scope for them either.

In words of Prof. Phyllis Chesler – “This situation affects us all. The West must understand that silencing men like Professor Swamy is in a sense an act of Jihad. We are aiding the Islamic fundamentalists in their quest for domination in India and South Central Asia.”
The article can be read at:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10998

BJP Will Lose In UP Elections

UP is the big prize for whoever wants to win in 2014 (BJP or Congress) or want to stay out of jail (Mayawati). As we have repeatedly written on this blog that no stunt will be cheap enough to win this prize. We are already seeing the evidence. Inevitably, there are reports out there which predict on which party has an advantage. There are polls doing the same. What is consistent in all those is that the big winner is going to be SP followed by BSP, Congress and BJP. My sentiments on SP, BSP and Congress are well known to the readers of this blog. For the newer readers-please read some of our older posts and you will see. What really bothers me is the BJP’s fourth finish especially because BJP owes both of their tenures at the center to the UP voters.

What is curious is how the BJP rewarded the UP voters. The BJP rewarded them with Kalyan Singh, RP Gupta and Rajnath Singh. Kalyan Singh was a capable grassroots worker with good deal of control over Lodh community votes (good ol’ caste politics) but nothing more. RP Gupta was a septuagenarian with charm, ability and enthusiasm of a wet sock. Rajnath Singh projected himself as the keeper of the Thakur votes of UP and has since exploited that into the post of CM of UP and BJP President. Despite of failing miserably at both positions, he is still around and playing the spoiler.

But that was then. Now all of the UP mess is on Gadkari. He is doing a poor job of projecting leaders in UP. He has consistently antagonized the BJP superstar i.e. Bhai Narendra Modi and nominated his bête noire as the in charge of UP elections- a man who is alien to UP politics. Gadkari could have used Modi’s help in campaign as has been desired by UP’s local leaders but he has chosen not to. He brought in Uma Bharati which was a very good move but it was too late. But as Mr. NV Subramanian writes in his article that:

But Uma Bharati can be a huge political mover. She doomed the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. Her problem is that the campaign is being pulled in other directions by other UP BJP heavyweights, including Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra. Objectively speaking, neither Rajnath Singh nor Kalraj Mishra is a match for Uma Bharati, who is hungry to prove her worth to the BJP. If Mayawati has a worth contender, it is Uma Bharati. But the BJP in UP is a case of "Too many cooks...."

Ultimately it is going to be egos of people like Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra which is going to sink the BJP. The responsibility of keeping such people falls on the shoulder of Gadkari who seems to be playing the Advani camp versus the Vajpayee camp games. Gadkari should have projected a young dynamic leader from the beginning and sought the help of star campaigners to win the state. Instead he is running the show like UP is just another state that the BJP has no shot of winning. If the BJP cannot defeat someone like Mayawati then they should just pack it in for the 2014 elections as well. After all, other than the CM’s of the BJP ruled states, none of their leaders inspire any confidence.

Missed opportunity
At one level, you would think both the BJP and Congress are reconciled to defeats in Uttar Pradesh, and are content to compete for the third and fourth spots. If that is so, it is sad. The backwardness of the so-called cow belt but particularly UP partly drags India down. If either of the two national parties had a spell of power in UP, it would do the state and the country good. And only Uttar Pradesh has the singular capacity to end the interminable cycle of weak and visionless coalition rule at the Centre.

The article can be read at:http://newsinsight.net/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=2233

Nitish Kumar: Votes vs Islamic Terrorism

State of Bihar seems to be cursed. After shedding the yokels of Lalloo rule they elect themselves a capable leader who has done nothing but good things. Of course an argument can be made that seeing where Bihar was before Nitish Kumar, anything he does is going to be positive. But by and large he has done good things. Having said that, we all saw what seemed to be signs of pseudo-secular hypocrisy in the man. While he was and is emulating Bhai Narendra Modi, he did not want to be seen sharing a campaign platform with him. I guess he deems Muslim votes to be too important. Which is why his state has now come to this pass. Bihar now has become the latest terror central thanks to activities of Indian Mujahideen.

The theory about disaffected Muslims will not work. There are more of them in Gujarat or at least that is what every liberal in India would have you believe. Of course proximity to Nepal and Bangladesh is a factor. Nepal’s Muslim politicians are nothing more than faces of ISI. The old practice of tacitly supporting illegal immigration from Bangladesh is now coming to haunt us in a much bigger way. It has gone from being a socio-economic problem to one of security. Thanks you CPI / other Communists / Congress / Lalloo / assorted pseudo secular traitors!!

What is stopping Nitish Kumar from getting the state law enforcement (since he probably cannot get any help from the central government) to go after these terrorists? Is it political correctness in the name of votes? From Nitish Kumar’s snub of Narendra Modi it would seem to be the case. What seems to be eluding Nitish Kumar is that the BJP did better than his own party in the last state elections (BJP had a much higher percent of wins – seats won versus contested). This indicates that either his coalition is getting the Muslim votes despite of the BJP or those votes are not a factor at all.

He would be well advised to wake up and smell the cordite before it is too late. Illegal Bangladeshis are not only a drain on the state but also a source of terror. He needs to tackle that head on. He also needs to come down on the Bihari Muslims who are supporting the IM. Security of the state and the country trump possible hurt sentiments. He needs to emulate Bhai Narendra Modi in more ways than one.

Bihar, Indian Mujahideen's new playground

Vicky Nanjappa

The recent arrest of Indian Mujahideen operatives in Bihar has confirmed the suspicions of the Indian intelligence agencies that the dreaded terror outfit was trying to set up a base in the state.

With nearly 20 million illegal immigrants in India -- most of whom are in Bihar and West Bengal -- the task ahead appears to be extremely tough. There are only a handful of ideological terrorists in these modules while the rest of them have been recruited for money. This would mean that they carry out the operation and then slip out, thus leaving no trail.

Agnipareeksha For UP Voters!

We all knew Mayawati was making money but did not have the details. Now we know it was through her brother. In fact he is nothing more than a money launderer. He opened up dummy companies and converted the black money into white by showing it as profit. I guess he was in such a hurry and had so much to convert that he made some mistakes. They are as follows as described by BJP’s Kirit Somaiya

Somaiya identified one of these companies as "DKN Infrastructure Pvt Ltd that was shown to have earned a profit of Rs 37 crores when the total business transacted was of the order of Rs 34 crores."

Another company was identified as Adept Realcom Pvt Ltd., showing profit of Rs. 15 cores. There was no description of the type of business it had transacted over the two years of its existence.

The case of the third company -- Naveen Infradevelopers and engineers pvt ltd -- was even more intriguing . While the total transaction of the three-year old company did not exceed Rs 30,000, it received an usecured loan of Rs 67 crores and also gave away advances to the tune of Rs 62 crores.

Surprisingly, the fourth company named by Somaiya had transacted business worth only about Rs 8,000.

What are the government agencies doing? Are the employees of the tax department asleep at the wheels? Or do I smell collusion?

To deal with these accusations, Mayawati and her team have taken a page out of Karunanidhi book and have described them as "reflection of anti-dalit mindset of the BJP."

This should be an affront to every self-respecting dalit. The Dalit–Muslim-Brahmin group elected these people who have not looked after anyone's interest except their own. Entire state has been paying for their sins and seems like the dark days will continue.

As we have written on this blog that UP is a big prize and political parties are going to do their worst to win it. Too much and money and too much power comes with a win. That is why it is up to the voters of UP to make a choice. Continue to trust the state and future of their families in the hands of people like Mayawati, Anand Kumar, Vichitra Lata and Yadav Singh or vote for a change. All they need to do and see their neighbors to the east. After dumping Lalloo Yadav and electing Nitish Kumar, the Biharis are on a road to recovery. UP can do the same. There are no capable leaders in Congress (we would have seen them by now) or SP or BSP. Even the BJP has propped up one bad choice after another. The BJP owes it to the people of UP (who elected them to the center) to find another Narendra Modi and project him or her as their CM.

BJP accuses Mayawati's brother of money-laundering.
Among those who were alleged to have been hand-in-glove with him was Noida's powerful chief engineer Yadav Singh. Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, Somaiya sought to point out how Anand Kumar had floated as many as 26 companies over the recent past "solely for parking his ill gotten wealth that was discreetly converted as profit of those very companies."

FDI In Retail: A Scam Nipped In The Bud

Mr. B Raman who is a retired government employee is very well connected all over the world and is quite an authority on security and political matters. He has also successfully managed to be neutral when it comes to politics. In short he is a man to be taken seriously. When he goes out on the limb criticizing the abject lack of leadership in India, I guess things must really be bad. Of course political animals like us always knew and said it. Mr. Raman was just holding it back till he could no more. In his latest article which seems to lament the loss of decorum and gravitas in the Loksabha he makes two points. One is that he does not think that Sonia and Manmohan can provide any kind of leadership. I guess debacle after debacle forced him to change his mind. The latest being the FDI in retail and the way the Congress tried to ram it down the nation’s gullet. They were badly stung by Mamta Bannerjee and essentially have been reduced to a lame duck government now.

In an article, NV Subramanian calls out Manmohan on a very poor demonstration of leadership and says that the FDI was a diversionary tactic. This is where the Raman article is interesting which claims the following:

Some retired senior officials with whom I had discussed this in Delhi last week attributed the haste displayed by the Congress to its urgent need for funds for the UP elections next year. They alleged that some corporate houses, which would be the main beneficiaries of the FDI decision, were expected to be the main contributors to the coffers of the Congress for the UP elections. According to them, the determination of other political parties to prevent the Congress from financially benefiting from the decision before the UP elections accounted for their obduracy in preventing the normal functioning of the two Houses.

There is no reason the doubt the veracity of Mr. Raman’s information. This means that the FDI in retail was just another huge scam in the making. It is not only criminal but also cruel that the Congress is treating the Indian taxpayer’s money and Indian Infrastructure as an ATM. The Indian voters are being punished for their mistake of electing the Congress. However the punishment has far far exceeded the crime. It is cruel and unusual.

The Raman article can be read here.

The NVS article can be read here.

Shame On The Voters Of Bellary

The voters of Bellary have chosen to elect a person who essentially is a henchman of the Reddy Brothers who have been raping the Bellary mines. As we have repeatedly written on this blog that we think that the Reddy brothers spread their tentacles by paying bribes to all political parties. The BJP eventually did the right thing and punished the guilty. YSR and his family are also in hot waters. Now we find out that our sitting Foreign Minister and tow other Congress CMs are also embroiled in this scam. But they are politicians and being a thief comes with the turf.

However by electing the Reddy brothers' henchman, the voters of Bellary have done such a great disservice to the nation. Obviously the Reddy brothers have either bullied and seduced the voters of Bellary. The Circumstances indicate that the latter must be true. This must have been an extremely watched election (especially with BJP CM in Bangluru). I don't have any knowledge of how the Bellary voters fell for the Reddy brothers but they did. They are sending the wrong message to politicians and saying that we, the voters are equally corruptible. I and sick and disgusted with these voters. Shame on them!!

BJP suffers jolt as Sreeramulu wins Bellary bypoll
BJP finished a poor third with its candidate P Gadilingappa losing the deposit managing only 17,366 votes behind Congress' B Ramprasad who garnered 27,737 votes in the triangular fight, seen as litmus test for the Reddy brothers, facing the CBI heat in illegal mining cases. 40-year-old Sreeramulu had resigned his Assembly seat in August in the wake of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining that indicting him, saying his pride has been hurt. He quit the BJP days before the November 30 byelection, result of which was announced on Sunday.
Read the article at:http://www.newsbullet.in/component/content/article/34-more/22427-bjp-suffers-jolt-as-sreeramulu-wins-bellary-bypoll

S M Krishna, two ex-chief ministers face probe in mining scam
BANGALORE: The Special Court on Saturday ordered a probe into a private complaint against external affairs minister S M Krishna over alleged illegal mining. The court also directed the police to register a case and probe two other former Karnataka chief ministers - N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy - overillegal mining controversy. With this, Congress, which was free from allegations in connection with illegal mining, has joined BJP and JD(S) bandwagon in the row.
Read the article at:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/S-M-Krishna-two-ex-chief-ministers-face-probe-in-mining-scam/articleshow/10972572.cms

Dynastic Rule and Sycophancy

Concentration of power is an evil in any democracy. That power feeds off on sycophancy. When the power is dynastic in nature, sycophancy is raised to the level of worship. We in India have been under dynastic rule for most of our free lives. It has done nothing but hurt us. Even a part time student of history knows that.

Congressmen brought back Sonia and Rahul just when it seemed they had broken the shackles of the dynastic rule to reunite the party. A tragedy of the highest order as it led to the most corrupt regimes in our history of which the two have no idea other than what the group of chamchas tells them. To them India is Gandhi family and Gandhi family is India.

Now all these minions owe their position to their proximity to the power center. The closer you are to the Gandhi family the more powerful you are. You get plum posts or ministries based on how you sing the paeans in their honor. People like Ahmad Patel or Ambika Soni or Oscar Fernandez are essentially ruling India by proxy because they are really really close to Madam.

All Indians despite of their party affiliations respect Sardar Patel. Man was a true patriot, visionary and the Iron Man India needed then and has since missed. This is what was said about his anniversary:

As coincidences go, Patel's birth anniversary falls the same day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. This year, the BJP noticed the indifference towards him, and asked why the government had issued just one ad in his honour, while dozens were issued to mark Indira Gandhi's death anniversary.

Congress workers from various states were taking out ads after ads (not from their pockets obviously) in honor of Indira Gandhi. The following was said about that in another article:

Moral of the story: You may be India’s greatest freedom-fighter, visionary or statesman, and you may be fondly remembered by the people across the land. But, if you do not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi Family, India’s Congress-run Government will not remember you. For how long will we allow the public exchequer to be milked for the political promotion of a single family and the icons of a single party?

If the chamchagiri was limited to taking out ads in the newspapers, we would still be OK. What is really bothersome is the sheer number of projects, monuments, landmarks and public property (bridges, airports etc.) have been named after Members of the Gandhi family. People from Congress have no locus standi when they criticize Mayawati on her penchant for parks and statues to honor herself. The intrepid Mr. A Suryaprakash has compiled these in a document and submitted to the CEC. The list is mind-boggling but you must go through it. What you will realize is that unless we vote the dynasty out, meritocracy would always yield to sycophancy and that is not the way India can progress.

The following is the list of Government Schemes and Projects; Universities and Educational Institutions; Ports and Airports; National Parks and Sanctuaries; Sports Tournaments, Trophies and Stadia; Hospitals and Medical Institutions; National Scientific and Research Institutions; University Chairs, Scholarships and Fellowships; Festivals; Roads and Buildings named after three member of the Nehru Gandhi family viz. Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, which has been submitted to the Election Commission by A.Surya Prakash as an Annexure to his complaint. This list includes most of the projects, schemes and institutions funded by the Union Government and the Governments in the States.

The Suryapraksh artcile can be read at: http://asuryaprakash.com/annexure1.html

The other articles of interest are as follows:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/50575-airbrushed-from-history.html
http://in.news.yahoo.com/blogs/boxpopuli/indira-gandhi-legacy-sycophancy-133835644.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2010/08/chinese-democracy.html

Pakistan: Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum?

There is a scene in Deewar. Vijay (Big B) laments that he and his younger brother came from under the same bridge and yet he had achieved so much while his brother was languishing in a lowly paid police job. Of course that was a movie with the younger brother walking away with the line “Mere paas Ma hai” because he was on the right side of things.

India and Pakistan could have a similar conversation. Of course the “bigger” brother would be on the right side of things here. Pakistan does not get to walk away with a clever line. While India has become an example in Democracy and progress, Pakistan has become a basket case. How did they come to such a pass?

Since Muslims were not really expecting a separate country, they were not prepared for a post independent Pakistan. It took them over ten years to come up with a constitution. This gave rise to a bureaucracy and Army with unlimited power. Moreover there were no land reforms so the Punjabi landowners became the almighty slave owners. I am not kidding about that. I have read that these people had their private jails where the bonded laborers were locked up in the nighttime (I read that in early 1990’s. It may have changed by now). These three power centers refused to abide by the new constitution. The army continued with its merry ways of making money and daydreaming of having a meal in New Delhi while hoisting the Pakistani flag over the Red Fort. The Bureaucracy played along and started a system where the future generations of Pakistanis were nothing more than India hating automatons. In fact, looking back at the ethnic fault lines in Pakistan (Punjabis, Bengalis, Pathans, Kashmiris stuck in Pakistan, Balochis, Sindhis and the unfortunate Mohajirs) it is amazing how long has that country stayed together (only losing half of it) despite of the fact that it’s raison d'être is hatred for Hindus and India. Matters only became worse after Zia Ul Haq became the terrorist in charge. Armed with nukes Pakistani Amry, ISI and their veritable arm i.e. the terrorists including the Taliban, they went on to take on all their enemies i.e. India. Of course they were ably helped by the Chinese, Saudi Arabians and in some parts the USA (who themselves were so blinded in their hatred for the Russians that they helped create the man who changed the world forever – Osama Bin Laden).

While this was going on, the Pakistanis still were doing better than Indians in various parameters like per capita income, Hunger and poverty. Yes. It may be surprising to the young Indians but that is the truth.

However, in the early 1990s, two things happened. Pakistan continued on its slippery slope while India saw the light through the eyes of PV Narsimha Rao who abandoned the Nehruvian policies in Economics. Even Manmohan Singh could not screw things up for us. We broke the shackles of the Gandhi family and broke free towards what should have been (that we find ourselves again in the same trouble is a testimony to our misfortune and naiveté). So today, India stands as a shining example (with miles and miles to go before we rest) in the world. On the other hands, Pakistan has become the proverbial “ga-lay ki haddi” for the world.

Unless Pakistan abandons its hatred for India and Hindus, there is no stopping it from descending into hell. Only Pakistanis can stop that.