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NGOs Can Make A Difference In India!!

You have got NGOs and then you have got NGOs. And then you have one that is run by a guy who seems to really want to make a difference. No socialites or leftists agendas or padded bills etc. Seems like an NGO called “Sarhad” run by Sanjay Nahar who brings children from troubled parts of India to the safe havens in Maharashtra (thankfully Raj Thakray has kept his trap shut about this), houses them and gets them enrolled in local schools. He did that for children in Punjab back in the day. Now he has turned his focus on a state that has been screwed royally by Pakistani terrorists, local criminal demagogues and Congress led inept leaders i.e. J&K. Now from the footage of the youth we get to see are the stone pelting desi intifada guys. I was glad to hear that all this does not influence a whole lot of Muslim children from the state. In fact the ones in question are normal kids with normal worries and interests like careers, safety, Amitabh Bachchan, politics even joining the Indian defence forces. Yes. A girl wants to join the IAF while the terrorist leaders would have you believe that all the Indian Defence personnel do there is kill and rape. A lot of these kids want to stay back in Maharashtra and become professionals. It really is heart warming. I tip my hat to Sanjay Nahar. I will find a way to contribute to this guys NGO.

However, what he is doing should have been the Government of India policy. Using the NGOs or social welfare departments, they should have been identifying children who want better things from life than joining the terrorists under some pipe dream of unifying with a failed terrorist outfit called Pakistan. After doing that, these children should have been brought over to other parts of the country, then housed and educated. These kids should be allowed to see the real India. Not the India they get to hear from their paki paid leaders. I am not talking about population dilution like the Chinese have done in their minority areas. I am talking about genuinely winning the hearts and minds of J&K Muslims (Yes. Even forgetting all the atrocity they have inflicted on hapless Hindus). That is the only way to win this war.

How ill we pay for all this? You see, the amount of taxpayer money spent in J&K is (proportionately) far more than most other states. Some of that money could be held back for educating J&K youth provided they come and study in any of the other states. Some of these kids have liked their new surroundings so much that they do not want to go back.
With information and exposure, we need these kids to realize that their real future is with India not with the failed terrorist state of Pakistan, a country which is having trouble retaining their own talented people.

Kashmir's children chase their dreams
Misa Afzal is only 9 years old but already knows what she wants to do in life. She wants to become an engineer and work in Pune. Misa has left her family -- parents and grandparents -- behind in Kashmir. Misa's sister Rubina, who studies in standard 6, dreams of becoming a doctor and working in Pune.

The article and a related one can be read at the following:

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-miles-away-from-home-kashmirs-children-chase-their-dreams/20111019.htm

http://outlookindia.com/mad.asp?fname=Making&synopsis=&subsubsec=Pune&fodname=20041011&personname=Sanjay+Nahar

Mayawati, Rahul and UP Ka Bhagya

It is hard to remember when UP had decent governance. I guess the downfall began after VP Singh became the UP CM back in 1980. After that there was a brief period where Kalyan Singh provided some semblance of governance. Since then BJP has had a couple of chances but those terms were disasters with the Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh failing to consolidate and build on their wins. Since 1980, most of the rule has been shared by Mulayam Singh and Mayawati. In that, UP has been as bad as Bihar and Bengal (those two states especially Bihar have since redeemed themselves). However, just like a woman suffering from an Abused Spouse Syndrome”, the UP voters keep electing one or the other. Fortunately for the voters, SP is now in tatters. That leaves Mayawati on top of this rotten heap of politicians jockeying for a slice of the UP pie.

Why is UP politics dirtier than other places? It is because UP is the biggest prize in Loksabha elections with more than 80 MP’s. No trick is dirty or sleazy enough to win this prize. In other states it often comes down to powerful communities but in UP it is pared down to the barest and ugliest form politics i.e. caste politics. Votebank politics is practiced in its lowest forms. Thanks to Mulayam Yadav and Samajwadi Party, some towns in western UP may as well be practicing the Sharia. Sleazy Muslim businessmen / crimelords (they either have slaughterhouses, selling meat to the middle east or tanneries turning the UP rivers and bodies of waters into a toxic brew. With large amounts of money, they have ensured status quo by any and all means. Politicians and their relatives are behaving like bad Bollywood movie villains.

Having lived in both UP and Gujarat, I know that the population in both the states is equally smart (Raj Thakrey can go and suck an egg). However, people of Gujarat did one thing right. They elected Narendra Modi. People of UP have been on a slippery slope, electing exact opposites of Narendra Modi. You go to Gujarat, You will see greenery, prosperity, hope but no pictures of Narendra Modi. You go to UP you will see desperation, poverty, crime and pictures of Mayawati everywhere. She is an egomaniac of the highest order who has food tasters, shoes flown in on private planes, private roads, immense amount of illegal wealth and reminders of her power and hold over UP’s fortunes everywhere. Only in the rule of someone like her can there be parks worth hundreds of crore rupees and paltry sums being doled out to fight disease epidemics. That park which is supposed to be a monument to dalit power is actually a thinly veiled monument to Kanshiram and Mayawati. I am sure that the dalits of UP would rather have those crores spent on economic opportunities or better infrastructure or hunger alleviation or anything that will have an impact on their quality of life. I fail to see how can you console a family saying “you may not have any hope or job or food or clothes or a place to live but you have a park celebrating the accomplishments of your fellow dalits. It would be ridiculous if it were not so cruel.

So why do we still have her around? Mayawati has mastered the art of social engineering. She has Dalits, Muslims and Brahmins. A curious collection indeed but she has them all fooled. Her group of MLAs is nothing short of who’s who of UP crime. All this is due to our own faults. Everywhere in India, I went, people would ask me my name. When I only told them my first name (which is clearly a Hindu name), they would insist on my last name. They are trying to figure out my caste or my home state. This is why Mayawati continues to rule UP. It is as if being Hindu is not enough.

Now Congress which has been wiped out from UP is trying to get back in and reclaim what used to be their votebank i.e. Dalits, Muslims and Brahmins. Rahul took padyatras, ate at farmer’s houses made claims about police atrocities in Bhatta Rasul and other stuff. When none of them worked, his handlers came up with another idea. Image makeover. This story is so ridiculous that it could only happen in India.

Accompanied by UP Congress President Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Union Minister of state for Rural Development Pradeep Jain , who himself hails from Bundelkhand, Rahul was passing through Mohda block of Hamirpur district when he intercepted a tractor-trolly loaded with DAP fertiliser. "No sooner the trio confronted the driver with certain queries, he confessed that the fertilizer was fake," UP congress spokesman Subodh Srivastava told mediapersons. He said, "Finding himself cornered the tractor driver ran away from the scene, abandoning the vehicle with 150 bags of DAP fertiliser, that was handed over to the police.

WOW!! The scion of the Indian raj-gharana happened to be near a truck with fake fertilizer. Where were the body guards / police / Congress workers who were protecting the Rajkumar? Did they just let him accost the miscreant on his own. Did the Rajkumar smell the fake fertilizer? Does he have a portable gas-chromatograph or better yet, X-Ray vision? Yes. UP Congress bigwigs would have you believe that our Rajkumar is actually a crime fighter (like Batman or Spiderman) disguised as a powerful politician. Please read the article and see if you can read it with a straight face.

What can be done to stop the criminal and ridiculous activities to win in UP? Instead of dividing Andhra Pradesh and creating a Muslim dominated Telangana, they should divide UP so that we get two states with about 40 MPs each and thus will be lesser prizes. Thanks to disastrous SP and BSP politics, western UP’s culture has become entirely different from eastern UP anyway. So may as well split it. There won’t be any fight over Lucknow as there will be over Hyderabad.

Uttar Pradesh: 685 crore for a park, 18 crore for encephalitis
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati will inaugurate a Rs. 685-crore park in Noida today with an impressive posse of 2500 policemen and about 40,000 BSP workers in attendance. From about 750 km away in the same state come some more sombre statistics: More than 400 children have died in and around Gorakhpur in eastern UP this year of the deadly Japanese encephalitis, and the Mayawati government has sanctioned Rs. 18 crore to combat the menace.
The article can be read at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/uttar-pradesh-685-crore-for-a-park-18-crore-for-encephalitis-141178&cp

The Rahul Gandhi superhero exploits can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/rahul-detects-fake-fertiliser-on-bundelkhand-tour/20111012.htm

LK Advani: Bheeshma Pitamah or Arjun?

The always on the money and connected NV Subramanian in his latest analyses the by-poll debacle of the Congress. He lays the complete blame on the top tier leadership of Congress i.e. Sonia Gandhi. That her only qualification is marrying the right guy is only obvious to non Congress voters and workers. Expecting her to lead a country as complex as ours is asking for the moon. There are many interesting points made in the article. One is that Congress is that internal party reports about forthcoming elections in UP are gloomy. Another one is that Digvijay Singh has already started to distance himself from the Gandhi family (he has denied being close to Rahul). But we all know this man is a rat and a political survivor. However the most important thing in the article which really caught my eye is the following statement:

The BJP showed the way of coming to power by forging a coalition. The Congress mimicked it and clawed its way back to government. As such, there was no innovation on the part of the Congress leadership to win power. Top ranking ministers like Pranab Mukherjee considered the 2004 victory a fluke. The 2009 win was a bigger surprise.

Think about it. 2004 victory as per Mukherjee was a fluke and 2009 was even a bigger surprise. What this really means is that Congress was never really expecting to win either of the two elections. By implication, both of them were for the BJP to lose! Taking a step further we can safely say that people who were in charge of the BJP during those elections are to be blamed for the BJP losses and sadly for India, for the Congress wins. We all know that during those days, the BJP was divided into two camps – Advani camp and Atalji camp. Atalji was on his way out due to age so Advaniji was the crown prince (only in Indian politics and Arab monarchies can seventy plus year old men are can be referred to as crown prince). He and his coterie planned the disastrous India Shining campaign. The BJP lost big time.
In 2009, UPA had shown themselves to be failures on multiple fronts. Advaniji, Sudheendra Kulkarni and others were in charge. Beating Congress should have been easy. Even the Congress were expecting to lose. As seems to have become their habit, the BJP snatched defeat from the jaws for victory. That is two major losses. Advaniji must shoulder the blame for the losses.

Now that UPA is in deeper trouble and early elections are a distinct possibility, Advaniji is smelling the PM kursi again. He has taken a rathyatra at the age of 84. It is nothing but a very transparent attempt at the top job. Let us say there are early elections. Let us look at the possible voters. The BJP is definitely going to get the votes of their faithfuls (or fat fools. It is beginning to feel like that) but that will not be enough to put us over the top. We will need the Hindu middle class who seems to be sitting on the fence. If they did not vote for then septuagenarian Advani why do we expect them to vote for an octogenarian Advani. Those voters may not vote for Congress but they may go an vote for the regional parties which is worse (can you imagine Karunanidhi as a king maker again?). So to attract those independent voters we have to have proven and younger leadership. Someone who can attract the older middle class voters who are worried about the country. Someone who can attract the younger voters who are worried about their future. Advaniji does not fit the bill.

In a conversation with a friend who is an educated liberal I found out that he would vote for Narendra Modi because he is very impressed with Modi’s way of doing business and the continued success of Gujarat. This friend is by no means beholden to Hindu nationalism and yet for the first time he would consider voting for Modi. Will he vote for Advani? That is the crore rupee question.

As I have said on this blog, the BJP owes a huge debt of gratitude to Advaniji for putting us on the map with his first rathyatra. But that was then and this is now. His time is past and he needs to understand that fact. Ambition cannot overcome the effects of age. In the last month or so, he has send out mixed signals about his desires. On one hand he hints that he has no interests but he has never stopped his chamchas from making noise about it. He needs to come out and categorically say that he is not a candidate instead of hoping that somehow the title of PM gets attached to his name. That sounds too much like Chaudhary Charan Singh who is one of the most reviled names in Indian politics.

Advaniji has to decide if he wants to become Professor Emeritus or take on the grueling task of day to day decision making. He needs to decide if he wants to accept the vaan-prastha ashram or go back in time. He really needs to decide if he want to be Bheeshma Pitamah or fight the war like Arjun. He has to decide all this for the party and the country. We cannot afford another Congress or some sort of a third party rule in the nation (how does Prime Minister Mayawati sound?).

The NV Subramanian article can be read at: http://newsinsight.net/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=2208

Digvijay Divides Team Anna

When Arvind Kejriwal was in Hissar campaigning against the Congress asking the voters not to vote for Congress and Prashant Bhushan was making statements supporting plebiscite in J&K Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh's saw an opportunity. In Hissar, It was a double jeopardy situation. Not only was team Anna inflicting severe damage to Congress image for opposing the Lokpal bill but their campaign against Congress was unwillingly supporting the BJP candidate. However, that leftist idiot Prashant Bhushan gave him the perfect weapon in the hands of Digvijay Singh to cause a rift in Team Anna. Not the one to take this assault on Congress lying down, Digvijay Singh did the following to split the Team Anna.

a) He was openly opining in the media that Anna Hazare is being misled by Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal. This caused Anna to backtrack because he did not want to politicize his anti corruption campaign.

b) He wrote open letters to Anna Hazare to that effect lodging his protest and brought it to the public through releasing it to the media.

c) He then came with the open allegation in the media that RSS is supporting Anna's movement and he has proof of that.

d) He released the letters to the media that were written by RSS chiefs to Anna supporting his movement and proved his criticism while the team Anna continued to vigorously oppose it. Singh is aware of the revulsion that the leftists in team Anna have for all things RSS and BJP. Myopic team Anna instead of accepting the all encompassing support for this movement (i.e. the anti corruption movement belongs to all Indians, liberal and conservative alike) went on the defensive. They ended up repudiating the RSS support. This of course upset a significant population who thinks that just because RSS says the sky is blue does not change the color of the sky. Corruption hurts Indians from all walks of life and everyone has equal right to criticize it even joining hands with their ideological enemies against it. Team Anna failed to recognize it thereby playing into the hands of the wily Congressman.

If that were not enough, Bhushan gave him more fodder to divide the Team Anna. However a few noteworthy things indicate a more sinister plot. No sooner did the attack on Bhushan take place than Digvijay Singh had letters from written by the attackers to members of the BJP. He also was in possession of proof of the membership of the attackers in the BJP youth wing. How did Digvijay get his paws on these incriminating documents. Did Digvijay know about the attack? I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theory nut but is it possible that he arranged this attack? After all, the BJP / RSS combine is facing major elections in the next two years. By attacking leftists like Bhushan, they stand to lose the most. On the other hand, in spirit of “Cui Bono?” i.e. “Who Benefits?” it is Congress which benefits the most from this attack.

Now it may be a bloody coincidence that Singh got those documents so quickly. A BJP insider may have helped him for money. However, know Digvijay Singh, I would not put anything past him.
Nevertheless, selfish leftist agenda and loss of focus of Team Anna is threatening to undo Anna Hazare’s sacrifice. If Kejriwal thinks that he can deal with snakes in politics they he is a fool who is bringing a knife to a gunfight. The way to deal with the UPA is what Anna did – Satyagrah and public opinion. Instead his team after winning the first battle, decided to unleash their own selfish agenda. Now they are going to lose the war. For this I congratulate Digvijay Singh. He truly is the master of filthy politics.

Team Anna could have avoided all this only if they had stayed focused on the anti-corruption movement and boldly/openly agreed to RSS/BJP support. Anna should have then challenged all those groups/parties/organizations religious or not, to support his movement as corruption transcends color, creed, caste, religion, faith etc, etc.....

Unfortunate But True Colors Of Team Anna

An expert on the subject, Mr. G Parthasarthy says the following: “Pretentious intellectuals and bleeding heart liberals in India continue to push the ridiculous idea that talks can reduce the ISI’s animosity towards this country”. Here is what we, the Hindu nationalists know. We understand the nature of hatred because we live in the real world. We understand the extent of the hatred that the Pakistanis have for us. We understand that they want to balkanize India. We understand that the Pakistani army is nothing more than a group of terrorists wearing the uniform. We understand that the current leadership in J&K are nothing more than Pakistani stooges. We understand that the intifada style stone throwing youngsters did that for money paid by the Pakis. We understand how the J&K Hindus have been reduced to live like refugees in their own country and how their belongings were usurped by the Muslims. We understand that to quell the violence in J&K, many innocent Muslims have been gravely harmed. We understand how important J&K is to our national security and that loss of that state will make us vulnerable to Pakistan and China who would like nothing less that total destruction of the nation. We understand the importance of winning the hearts and minds of residents of that state but we also understand that the price has to be right.

Unfortunately, the knee jerk liberals live in a dream world which is akin to the paradise described in Bible and Quran. They would do anything to impose their vision of India down the throats of the rest of us. To achieve that they will resort to any trick. We have seen the cheap and criminal tactics used by them to bring down a democratically elected government in Gujarat. The latest trick they are using is to use a selfless patriot like Anna Hazare, his new found support and his demand for the Lokpal bill as a weapon. We always suspected that Team Anna is nothing more than a bunch of leftists who are using the anti corruption movement for their own end. We have written many time on that subject on this blog. The latest brazen attempt is by this delusional leftist Prashant Bhushan who said the following in an exchange with a CNN-IBN scribe:

Rajdeep Sardesai: Okay, hold on Prashant Bhushan let me tell you the exact statement that you made that has led to all this apparently. You said in Varanasi, “my belief is that we should try to normalise the situation in Kashmir, remove the army, get rid of AFSPA and should try and win the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people.” So far, so good. Then you go on to say, “If even then they continue to say they want to be separated, then we should allow a plebiscite and if that comes out and they still want to separate, then we should allow them to separate.” On a sensitive issue like Jammu and Kashmir, do you have any regrets about making this statement?

Prashant Bhushan: You see, I had made it very clear that I am giving my personal views and these are not the views of Anna or Team Anna. But this Kashmir issue is an issue which needs to be settled and which needs to be amicably settled, politically settled soon. If it is allowed to fester, it is leading to enormous alienation among the people of Kashmir, which will have all kinds of frightful consequences in the future.

This plebiscite suggesting traitor says that this is his view and not that of Team Anna. My question to this man is that if you were not on Team Anna, who would listen to you? This insignificant guy who belongs in the leftist trash bin, is using the popularity of Anna Hazare to push his own agenda. This man is hijacking the anti corruption movement which belongs to all of us and is now using that to further his own anti-national agenda. You see, people want Anna Hazare to fight corruption. That is what is expected from his team. That is why we supported them. Team Anna speaks for Anna Hazare. If they speak their own mind then they should be fired from that team like that pimp Agnivesh. Prashant Bhushan is NOTHING without Anna Hazare. So I what want to tell Bhushan is – SHUT UP OR GET OUT!

But this has happened and will not change. These leftists are an arrogant breed and will not listen to reason. This raises two scary scenarios. One is that if and when the Lokpal bill gets passed, people like Bhushan and Kejriwal are going to become very powerful, answerable to none. They WILL use it as a weapon to further their own agenda. We all know who the targets are going to be. Second is that when people realise that they have been had by these leftists, the anti corruption movement will get divided between their liberal and conservative supporters. The winner will then be the corrupt politicians. Already the inflammatory statement made by Bhushan has incited violence where he was the victim and is now trying to portray him as a victim of some sort of fascism. Now I want to support Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement but I cannot let his team go around making anti-national statements. For that I am going to hold Anna Hazare responsible because he is the leader. Now you can see how the anti corruption movement will get diluted because of idiots like Bhushan.

I am afraid that in the end the aam aadmi will be the loser. Corrupt politicians will win. Leftists would have enjoyed their fifteen minutes and we will be left with the status quo.

The Parthasarthy article can be read at: http://www.dailypioneer.com/pioneer-news/edit/12882-rogues-who-run-pakistan.html

The Bhushan interview can be read at:http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bhushan-stands-by-his-kashmir-plebiscite-remark/192758-3.html

An Appeal To the RSS and Advaniji

From the looks of it, the BJP is setting themselves for another loss in 2014 despite of the best efforts of Congress to surrender the power. Snatching defeats from the jaws of victory seems to have become a habit. Many things have happened in the recent past which tell us that not all is well in BJP.
Narendra Modi, who is widely acknowledged as a the most effective leader in the nation. He essentially went against the party and did his upvas and effectively announced his desire for the top post. Why would the most accomplished BJP leader would do that? It is clear that he found out that despite all his accomplishments, the decision makers were going to hang him out to dry. I am certain that it has got nothing to do with the Muslim votes because they are not going to vote for the BJP NO MATTER WHAT! So it must be his personality.

Now when it comes to making major decisions in the BJP, RSS has a big say. Ideological and personnel overlap are the primary reasons. RSS is one of the most admirable organizations in the nation. They are dedicated patriots and true sons and daughters of the motherland. But they are an ideology driven organization. If they want to treat the BJP as their political arm then so be it. However, the RSS bigwigs need to understand that ideology and politics are two different beasts. They need to provide moral and personnel support to the BJP but they need to let the BJP cadre decide the leadership issues. They should not and cannot (intra-party democracy is a BJP forte unlike the Congress where The Family rules) anoint leaders based on servile attitudes of leaders. Nitin Gadkari maybe a tremendous behind the scenes leader but cuts a sorry picture as a national leader. He may have gotten the Bariatric Surgery to reduce weight but his existing weight indicates an undisciplined man. He also has a propensity to shoot his mouth off which is a major liability for a national leader. So why are there reports that he is being propped up by the RSS bigwigs for PM post? Why are ineffective leaders like Sanjay Joshi who are Modi haters being given prominence and made in charge of UP elections especially when Joshi has no idea of the cesspool that is UP. Is it because unlike Modi he dances to the tunes of the RSS leaders? Is the RSS trying to punish Modi because he has committed what the Mughals used to refer to as “ Na-farma-bardaari”? Modi himself is an ex RSS worker but he is his own person and a very strong personality. It may be a weakness but it has not stopped the juggernaut called Gujarat. Slowly but surely, people in India are beginning to accept that despite all the baggage (most of it is the liberal NGO / media created), Modi is the best option we have to run the country. But because he does not accept the RSS diktats, he is being sidelined.

Modi is a political survivor and a tremendous achiever. Despite of the best attempts of Congress, liberals and the entire media he has won elections after elections. This shows that the man knows politics. However, how many victories can the RSS chalk up in their column. They have been around much longer than most of us. Despite of all their greatness, it wasn’t until a proficient politician like Atalji took over the reins. After him the RSS / BJP combine ruined every chance that the BJP had to return to power at national and state levels. That the BJP has been wiped out from UP is something that falls squarely on the shoulders of the existing decisions makers of the BJP / RSS combine. They have repeatedly bungled up most of the state elections in the last twenty years. Even today, the shining star in the BJP kitty is the one ruled by Modi. I dare say that it is because of any RSS decision. My humble appeal to the RSS leaders is that please accept your limitations. You are all people whom we should aspire to be. But you are not perfect. You do not have the political gumption. Leave it to the democratic machinations of the party. Let there be fair elections within the party for leaders. If Gadkari wins such an elections then we all will mobilize behind him. However, if Bhai Narendra Modi wins, you have to promise that you will stand behind him and help him win the election. You have to do it for the nation. Modi is not bigger than BJP/RSS but the BJP/RSS are not bigger than the nation. The nation cannot deal with more UPA rule.

My appeal to Advaniji is that you had your chance. If you are undertaking this yatra to improve the party presence in UP and Bihar that Bholenath may bless you. If you are doing it for any desire you may still nurse to become the leader, you must understand. As a Hindu you have come to the vaan-prastha ashram stage. This hunger for power does not behoove a true Hindu like you. Curb your ambition and let other shining stars have their moment. The nation cannot afford another debacle like 2009.

The articles mentioned in the blog can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-will-bjp-and-gadkari-thwart-modis-bid-for-pm-post/20111008.htm

http://www.rediff.com/news/column/lk-advani-could-have-won-the-race-by-sitting-out-column/20111011.htm

Stand Up To The Chinese

A report came out which has extensively quoted a “source” in the government. This means the South Block i.e. MEA. These guys are responsible for our foreign policy. The gist of it is that media and people who speak against Chinese misbehaviors are doing a great disservice to India and hampering Indo-China relations. This source wants us to calm down so as to not disturb the delicate Chinese constitution. Yes. China which is a godless nation only answerable to oneself or the party. China where the government killed thousands of students in one day (in case you have forgotten- Tiananmen square). God forbid their feelings should get hurt in anyway. Boo Hoo!!

Of course the world of diplomacy demands finesse and a tiny bit of what this “source” is saying is true. Demonization of the Chinese makes it difficult to sit across from them and talk business. However I think that this source, what the hell, let’s just say GoI are trying to suppress Chinese mischief from getting out in the public. That way they do not have to react to the Chinese crimes. The alternative is an ugly one – taking a decision. This is akin to hiding all the garbage in a closet to keep the house clean. It is wrong.

The Indian people need to know every one of the Chinese misadventures. The Chinese should know that we know. They should also know that we can do something about it. Otherwise there can never be a discussion fair to India. Chinese are bullies – plain and simple. Their entire foreign policy in towards South Asia is one of keeping India mired in Pakistan created problems. Pakistan is the mad dog the Chinese use to keep India in a corner. Pakistanis are too stupid to see that. They are not intellectually stupid but their visceral hatred for Indians makes them that way. Nevertheless, it is the aam aadmi who has to pay for all that. The Chinese have kept the Pakistanis propped up only to keep India down.

The sixty billion dollar Indo-Chinese trade that the GoI harps on, is useless from our point of view. They sell us manufactured goods (thereby destroying our nascent manufacturing sector) and buy raw materials from us ( a lot of it illegally thanks to criminals in Karnataka, Goa and elsewhere). Is this the kind of trade India needs? The GoI is lying to the entire country about the importance of Indo-China trade. We have brought the Chinese into our telecom sector where they can do real damage (the PLA has a cyber warfare division which actively hunts weak spots of their enemies). Yes, we can and should do without this kind of trade. We just have to provide infrastructure to our own manufacturing sector.

So here are some of the things that the Chinese have done or are doing that the GoI does not want us to even think about:

1. Unfair trade which will ruin our manufacturing sector.

2. Propping up the Pakistanis as a foil to undermine India’s growth. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and delivary systems thanks to the Chinese help. That itself should be reason enough to speak against the Chinese.

3. Hurting our interests in SE Asia. GoI denials about the INS Airavat issue ring hollow. China bullies everyone in the South China seas. That is not friendly behavior.

4. Constant needling us over VISA issues for people from J&K and Arunachal Pradesh.

5. Enabling anti India sections of the government of Bangladesh. The string of pearls to surround India is not a figment of the Indian imagination.

6. Damning of Bramhaputra, construction India specific infrastructure in the border areas, arming the Nepal government / Maoists.

7. Selling spurious drugs in Africa with “Made in India” labels on them.

8. Constantly work against Indian interests in the UNSC (completely ignoring the fact that if it was not for Nehru’s myopia they would not be even in the UNSC) including those of Pakistani terror outfits.

9. Repeated incursions into the Indian territories.

I am sure that I am forgetting a whole bunch or crimes. We are not even going to talk about stuff that happened in the past. The “source” says the following:

The sources explained that China is "the most important and most sensitive relation" for India. While accepting the fact that there are divergences between both countries, the sources added, "It does not serve any purpose to gloss over positives between India and China." After all, China is the second largest economy in world and in less than a decade it will be $ 6 trillion economy. "China's rise is the reality" said sources, before advising the media that, "It does not help our interests to have an antagonistic attitude."

Well, China is still not as big as the USA and we have always spoken against them. We have voted constantly against the US in UN. The Congress has always blamed the CIA for all kinds of Indian problems. So the size of economy is a non issue. As far as proximity is concerned, the US has a naval base in the southern part of Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia). So it is something else.

As I said before, the world of diplomacy sometimes demands finesse and even taking a step back. However sometimes you have to force an issue as well. Vietnamese have constantly repelled Chinese bullying. Why should not we? If anything else, it may show the Pakistanis the futility of their ways.

The picture and a related article are at: http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/sep/18/slide-show-1-truth-behind-chinas-border-misadventure.htm

The article discussed in this blog can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/india-china-relations-are-very-complex-and-very-sensitive/20111005.htm

Rahul, Sonia and a Desperate Congress

There are two reports on the mess created during Sonia Gandhi’s absence. One of them shows the failure of the four person committee to control the fight between Chidambaran and Pranab Mukherjee. The head of said committee was the future PM of India Rahul Gandhi. This report implies that Rahul Gandhi failed and cried Mommy who came rushing back to bail out her son. Very non-complimentary articles. You would think that such an article was published in an RSS magazine or Daily Pioneer. You would be wrong. It was in India Today which is a veritable mouthpiece of the Congress. It must really be getting bad because even the faithful (or shall I say fat fools) are turning on their masters.

That Rahul Gandhi has failed once again comes as no surprise to anyone with half a sense. However, the dependence of the Congress on the Gandhi family has reached become a malignant disease. It is pathetic. I will try to explain what I mean by that.

In a typical Indian family, fathers think they are the most powerful person but it is the mother who wields all the power. He only depends on her for advice. If the son in the family or anyone else tells him the color of the sky is blue, he will not believe it until the mother tells him that. People of a certain age and stature only believe or get their differences adjudicated by someone they respect / take seriously, either out of choice or by force. That is the premise of my argument.

Indian political parties are like families where the elders do not cede power until they are dead or handicapped. For someone young to come to power means that he will have to show strength and charisma backed by even more strength and threat. It is obvious that the elders in the Congress have scant respect for Rahul Gandhi. That is the only reason for the mess created in Sonia’s absence. She had to come back to solve the problem. It seems that she has solved the problem (at least from the Congress point of view). Does that speak of her abilities as a diplomat and a politician? Hardly. We all know her qualifications. The rudderless Congress of the late 1990s decided to make her the Goddess whom everyone in the party will worship without questioning. That action followed by a dictatorial coterie of chamchas has ensured the concentration of power. What is amazing is that the four man committee had three of the biggest chamchas from the Sonia Gandhi circle – Ahmad Patel, Janardhan Dwivedi and AK Antony. Even with her blessing, this gang of four could not handle the feuding elders in Congress. She was needed in person to solve this.

Does this look like a good system to you? The entire party is only functioning (if we can call the current government functioning) because of a perceived threat from a woman who nothing more than an anointed “goddess” by a desperate party. Hardly a picture of stability, the kind which India needs badly. Presence of Rahul and Sonia at the top of Congress tells me that this party has no internal democracy / system, ideological strength, character and unity. Even the despicable Communists in India are better that these guys. Congress is a house of cards. I hope the Indian voters are watching all this. Our country’s future is at stake here.

The India Today Articles can be read at:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rahul-gandhi-congress-sonia-gandhi/1/153853.html

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sonia-gandhi-cancer-surgery-in-us-upa-2g-scam-manmohan-and-rahul-gandhi-lurch-into-crisis/1/153246.html

Don’t Ignore the Indian Black Money Abroad!

Normally Mr. TVR Shenoy writes tremendous pieces. But his latest seems to be in the “sky is blue” category. Very obvious. Congress has thrown all non Congress UPA allies under the bus when they were found to embroiled in a scam (too many to be specific). However when it comes to their own people, they become defensive and dig their heels even in the face of most damning evidences (letter from the Finance Ministry in the 2G scam). Mr. Contends that Chidambaran is being defended to protect Manmohan Singh. This of course assumes that the decision making responsibility for something (2G project) involving so much money lies with him. That is a fallacy. The last domino is not Manmohan Singh. It is the Congress president because she is the one with all the power. It is there that the buck should stop. Pawns gets sacrificed to protect the important pieces. Raja and Kanimozhi were just that. More important pieces get sacrificed to protect the King and the queen. We all know who is whom in this Shakespearean tragedy.

All the talks of scams is diverting attention from the 800 lb gorilla in the room i.e. the trillion dollar black money in foreign banks. In fact some conspiracy theory aficionado suggested that Anna Hazare was helping the Congress in taking out Baba Ramdev from the protests because he was primarily protesting against the black money abroad. Farfetched as it may be, but the underlying fact cannot be denied which is that no one wants to deal with it. They are finding one way or the other to ignore / avoid it even though those safe haven countries have offered their help in the matter. Even the BJP during their tenure did precious little to get our money back (Yes. It is our i.e. taxpayers money!). Prof. Vaidyanathan of IIM Bangluru has been vociferous on the topic. He has written often and well on the subject. Some point he raises are pretty alarming. If the tax haven countries know about the names of the account holders then foreign secret services can also find it out (How difficult it really is for some outfit like the CIA?). That would make any number of politicians and businessmen susceptible to blackmail. Decisions made by such people could prove to be disastrous for our nation.

In his excellent article on the matter he raises four points about why the black money abroad is bad for our security.

Every two-bit expert on the Indian stock markets knows that our markets are moved by external flows – both inflows and outflows. Such flows may be the ill-gotten wealth of Indians kept abroad in tax havens or domestic funds sent out and brought back to facilitate these activities.

In other words, the destabilisation of our stock markets can be done using the black money in tax havens. The movement of the Sensex may not be related to the performance of our economy but to the actions of these black money holders.

The second concern is: are we adequately sterilised in terms of know your customer (KYC)? This is in the context of the concern expressed by our former National Security Advisor (MK Narayanan) regarding the possibility of terror funds coming through the financial markets.

Third, there is a question-mark about our ability to formulate policies without being blackmailed by foreign governments. For instance, many may not know that De La Rue Giori – the owner of more than 90 percent of the world’s currency printing business in Switzerland – was one of the passengers in the Indian Airlines plane hijacked to Kandahar. (Time magazine, 17 January 2000). It is easy to imagine the type of pressure that could have been applied by the Swiss on our government at the time of the hijack.

The fourth issue is about getting arm-twisted in our economic and foreign policy formulations. It is pertinent to note that if the CIA knows about our leaders holding black money in tax havens, then there is a strong possibility that the ISI can also have that data. This is the danger faced by our republic. Our national policies may not be formulated in Delhi, but in Washington or Islamabad – if they have the data and can use it to pressure our leaders.

His third point illustrates how the government’s decision making gets affected by this knowledge. If a party with some semblance of integrity can do what they did under pressure, one can only imagine what a corrupt government like the UPA would do. The implications are far too serious to be ignored. Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and all those people in whom the aam aadmi has placed his trust need to set aside their differences and egos and strive to solve one of the greatest dangers facing the nation. The Indian press and all the left wing intelligentsia should focus on this topic rather than chasing ghosts in Gujarat.

Prof. Vaidyanathan’s article can be read at:http://www.firstpost.com/politics/who-is-govt-shielding-in-hsbc-liechtenstein-tax-haven-lists-97183.html

The Shenoy article can be read at:http://www.rediff.com/news/column/why-is-the-congress-aggressively-defending-chidambaram/20110929.htm

BJP: Time For Leadership Overhaul

A misguided “India Shining” campaign killed the reelection of Atalji’s government. The elections were preponed against the wishes of a politically astute man and then run in a very haphazard fashion which made the BJP look out of touch with the ground reality and doomed the country with the UPA rule. Five years of punishment should have been enough. It seemed that the country hit by price rise, corruption and terrorism was set for a change. Yet another campaign by the BJP with an octogenarian like Advani ji seen lifting dumb bells to the tune of “Abhi toh mai jawan hoon” . People like Sudheendra Kulkarni were responsible for that. The man is in jail today for a different crime though. BJP snatched defeat from the jaws of a very likely victory. India was punished severely for BJP’s mistake with five more years of the UPA.
Since then we have seen the BJP take some steps towards becoming a true national alternative. Although the BJP leadership mantle has been in flux. It seemed that the fight for the top spot was between two eloquent speakers- Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. However, other than being good parliamentarians, these two have shown nothing to prove that they have the political acumen to make the BJP into an alternative that people can trust with their votes. Recent moves by Bhai Narendra Modi has made it clear that political correctness aside, the party needs and deserves a leader whom the lower level workers can respect and look up to for true leadership.
Advaniji’s rathyatra in days past put the BJP on the national stage. It essentially set up the stage for future victories. The party owes him a huge debt of gratitude. But that is where it should end. You see, he is a member of the party but not the party itself. He had his shot at the top job and He and Sudheendra Kulkarni blew it. Time has come for him to step aside. If he is undertaking the rath-yatra for the benefit of the party then Baba Bholenath bless him. However if this is another attempt at the “PM Kursi” then I hope he fails again. We need fresh ideas and younger blood. Advani needs to become the Professor Emeritus / Consigliore.

Now within the BJP itself, there seems to be a leadership issue. Until a few days ago when Bhai Narendra essentially announced his interest in the top job, there were two leadership candidates. Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. Now Sushmaji has proved her mettle as a politician but Jaitley is yet another Rajyasabha MP who is more capable of winning party elections rather than the general ones. Time and time again, he has failed to make an impact on the state elections. Therefore, the entire top BJP leadership needs to take a stock while putting their own personal ambitions on hold for a while. Sushmaji needs to look at Hillary Clinton who after a while came to terms with the inevitable and joined Obama’s cabinet as a high ranking official. Not every good soldier becomes the General. We have seen the results of the hierarchical system. Advaniji did not need to follow Atalji to the PM’s chair at the cost of the party. This has got to change.

If Modi gives us the best chance to win and good governance afterwards then the others need to shut up and give the man his due. It is because of him and other successful BJP CMs that the party has remained relevant. If it were up to our MPs in Loksabha and party leaders (especially before Nitin Gadkari), we would have become the Samajwadi Party of national politics.

Mr. PM: Speak For India. Not For Ghost Of NAM

The Non Aligned Movement was a bad idea from the start. It almost seems that it was done to shirk away from the responsibility of making hard choices. It is always said that Indian are a proud lot and thus do not want to become a vassal state. This of course assumes that becoming friends with a powerful country would reduce us to that. That has some truth to it. But the world of international politics mirrors the microcosm of life. Not all countries are equal. The powerful ones will get away with more than god intended to (or maybe God did). But then what is a country like India to do? This is where hard questions need to be answered. There are no easy solutions here.

NAM was a group of countries trying to stay independent i.e. not taking sides in the cold war. Noble thought indeed. But were we really non-aligned. As the UN records show that until mid 1980’s we voted against the USA more than 75% of the times. If the USA was on the wrong side of an issue, we needed to oppose them. However, a closer look would tell you that we were actually helping the Russians against the US. KGB records show that during those days almost all our Congress politicians and leftists were on the KGB payroll. So our NAM involvement was in name only. Dictators like Castro and Tito were the stalwarts of the movement. That is how ridiculous it was. And somehow, the ghost of the NAM is still haunting us.

The PM’s latest speech at the UN goes to show you that NAM still finds currency in the south block. The speech writing babu must have been instructed to do so (the guy made a grammatical error in the speech. WOW!). Not only did the speech reek of NAM rhetoric, it almost seem to compound recent mistakes and lay grounds for some new ones. In a well written article, Mr. KC Singh who used to be a diplomat says the following:

The PM then went on to justify through circumlocutory reasoning that Indian abstention on UNSC resolution 1973 on Libya, authorising a 'No-Fly Zone', and permitting all measures to protect civilians was right. Subsequent developments in Libya have shown the Indian judgement to have been flawed both on the basis of realpolitik, as Muammar Gaddafi could not survive, as well as the emerging principle of a global Responsibility to Protect when a massacre of citizens, even by its own government, is imminent.

Now we are once again on the wrong side of history because we were too cowardly to take a tough decision against Gaddafi who was no friends of India and we had no vested interests in the continuance of his brutal regime. The PM went on to support the Palestinian cause of nationhood despite of the fact that the Israelis have been our most reliable suppliers of weaponry. The Israelis are our kindred spirits and they could use our support. The Indian interests lie in helping the Israelis. But we chose to support The Palestinians in the spirit of NAM. I can only hope that this does not hurt the Indo-Israeli defense relations.

The PM then went on to engage Iran’s president Ahmedinejad. Here is what Mr. Singh writes about that:

The most pathetic was PM's interaction with President M Ahmadinejad of Iran. Ignored for six years, the PM's advisers have suddenly found virtue in engaging him when he had just finished embarrassing Iran and offending the US by questioning 9/11 on its tenth anniversary in the very city where it happened. How would India have reacted if a foreign leader had said the same about 26/11 while visiting India and then the US President was photographed hugging him.

This is reminiscent of the picture of Mrs. Gandhi hugging Fidel Castro which was then plastered on all kinds of publications the world over. I don’t think that earned us too many friends in the US or other places. Of course a knee jerk reaction would be “to hell with the US. Why do we need them. They are a bunch of racists who would like nothing more than to make India into a vassal state”. A close look at the friends of USA (Pakistan is no friend of the US) would tell you that it is in our interest to stay on the right side of the US rather than opposing them. That is the nature of the beast. From independence to the day PV Narsimha Rao took over we saw what our non aligned policy got us. Nothing but poverty, misery and defeat on the world stage. Since then, we have engaged the US and the west (and vice versa) and look at the results. Are we more respected today or when we were practicing Nehruvian economics and non aligned policies? The answer may be painful to swallow but it is very clear.

Of course there exists an uglier possibility for the latest snafus at the UN. Was the support for Gaddafi and the Palestinians or engaging Ahmedinejad meant to showcase the Congress’ secular values for their Muslim votebank? There are enough number of instances to support that as well. Now that is not only short sighted but a clear example of putting the party (or in this case that Family) before the nation. After all, Rahul Gandhi’s future Prime-Ministership is at stake.

We need a PM who will put India ahead of votebank politics or a family or his legacy or his party. We need a PM who should be willing to make otherwise unpalatable deals if it benefits the Indian people. We need a PM who would take care of poor Indians before taking up the cause of poor people elsewhere. We need a PM who worries about domestic governance rather than the global kind. We need a PM who will speak for India before speaking on behalf of a failed idea. It is painfully clear from just one speech that Manmohan Singh is not that PM. Not that we needed this speech to surmise that fact.
Mr. KC Singh analysis can be read at:http://www.rediff.com/news/column/why-the-pms-un-visit-wont-help-indias-cause/20110926.htm

Our blog post on the topic of Indian politicians on the KGB payroll can be read at:http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/06/soul-of-india-is-at-stake.html

Congress in a Catch 22 of its Creation

Before getting to the point, I would like to make a segue. Hindu dalits are an abandoned lot. It seems no one is talking about them. Shedding tears for them is not cool enough for the NGO’s and the leftists who would rather be dealing with the religious minorities. Majority Hindus are too caught up in their own mess to pay attention to this group. The self proclaimed messiahs like Mayawati is too busy with her own Eva Peron / Imelda Marcos like lifestyle. The direct result of all this is that they have become a convenient hunting targets for some cruel Muslims. Rape and murder of dalit girls is just one of the ways. On our blog, we had written on this topic. This is truly unfortunate. Of course to expect our government to do something about this is like asking for moon. In fact, the latest insult to the poor of India is the UPA ishtyle poverty fighting. It seems that if you are making more than Rs. 32 a day, you are not poor. Yes by lowering the standard of poverty, our government has taken care of this problem. Have any of these bastards tries to spend a day alone on Rs. 32 let alone taking care of a family? But I digress.

In the latest example of the criminal Muslim mischief is their fight with the Gujjars in Rajasthan. Of course in the interest of political correctness, this was kept under the wraps until the whole thing blew up. No one seems to know why this happened but in a case of Police firing, eight people died and dozens injured. What did the Muslims do to provoke such a response from the Police in a Muslim friendly secular Congress ruled state like Rajasthan? You can only imagine. There are two sides to this episode of course. On one side I would like to ask, where is Congress General Secretary, the maseeha of the minorities Digvijay Singh? He manages to be to be conspicuously absent during such incidents happening in his own party ruled state. He can be seen all over the media when it comes to Modi bashing for the Gujarat riots. The Congress is indeed in a Catch 22 situation in Rajasthan. The party have been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds in Rajasthan when it came to handling the Dalit girl gang-rape and murder case which happened a couple of months back. Such crimes need to be handled decisively, you cannot play vote bank politics and support two opposing causes. The police shielded the criminals and took no cognizance of the atrocity committed by the minority community on the socially downtrodden majority community. While in Bharatpur the congress is trying to give a communal twist to a clash that occurred between the police and the minority community. The congress has to realize that it has to face the consequences of its mistakes and bad deeds. The chickens have come home to roost.

Of course the other side to the issue is that we on this blog realize that things do go out of control. Just like after the Muslims burned alive the kar sevaks at the Godhra station, there were massive retaliatory riots where Muslims and Hindus died. The same way, things probably went out of control in Bharatpur and the police had to do whatever it took to bring the peace. Tragic. But was it avoidable? I don’t know the answer without knowing what led to this firing. However, If the Gehlot government does not want repeats of this kind then they would intervene in disputes of this kind and protect both the majority and minorities without worrying about political correctness and votebank politics.

Cong Govt Failed to Protect Minorities in Bharatpur: BJP
"A secular riot has taken place in the rule of a self-proclaimed secular party. 219 rounds were fired during the riots and eight people were killed while eight more are missing. 23 people were injured. Of the eight dead bodies, three were retrieved from a well and were charred," Hussain told reporters after returning here.
Read the complete article:http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?735589

Minor Dalit girl gang-raped, murdered in Alwar
TNN Jul 22, 2011, 05.31AM IST
Jihadi Gang Rape in Rajasthan:-Muslim Men Iqbal, Mushtaq, Foji and Mussaddi Arrested in Alwar, Rajasthan for gang raping and brutally murdering a Minor Dalit Girl.
Read the complete article:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Minor-Dalit-girl-gang-raped-murdered-in-Alwar/articleshow/9318336.cms?intenttarget=no

Minister faces protest in Alwar over girl’s murder
The victim's body was found on the railway tracks. The women alleged that the police are trying to protect the 4 accused from the minority community. "The men from that community regularly harass the Dalit women & police do nothing to ensure our safety. The accused are being shielded by the police, as they have political connections,''said Shanti Devi
Read the complete article:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Minister-faces-protest-in-Alwar-over-girls-murder/articleshow/9341929.cms?intenttarget=no

Muslim Atrocity on Dalit Hindus
So far only the upper caste Hindus used to commit atrocities on the hapless Hindu dalits but now the Muslims have joined in the “Dalit Hunt”. Unfortunately, the problem with poor Hindu dalits is that they are poor and Hindus. The national pseudo-secular brigade has no tears for them. Their tears are reserved for people from religious minorities.
Read the complete article:http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/02/muslim-atrocity-on-dalit-hindus.html

Sonia Gandhi: We Have The Right Know

Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s disease going into his second term. Can you imagine the world’s most powerful man with finger on thousands of nuclear weapons, unable to remember small things? His staff carefully kept this hidden and managed the entire administration. Did they do to protect their own turf or to protect Reagan’s legacy or honor / pride? If we had known about the extent of Jinnah’s TB who knows what would be the shape of the subcontinent? Nehru kept his afflictions secret. Of course all kinds of unpleasant reasons have been ascribed to that. His daughter also suffered from TB and that was kept from the Indian people. These people have a right to privacy. No doubts about that. But they are not private citizens. Their responsibility goes beyond their families. Things they do or decisions they make have bearing on all the lives of the citizens of the country. Yes, it may be their legacy or honor but it is our lives. If our leaders have a sickness or an addiction or a character flaw that may impair their ability to make timely and correct decisions then we have a right to know.

There are many leaders in the world who deal with their afflictions out in the open. New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani and more recently Hugo Chavez of Venezuela dealt with their cancers with their constituents. It did not lead to anarchy or loss of respect for these men. VP of the US, Dick Cheney (not a very loved man) had a heart condition and everyone knew about it. It did not decrease his influence.

Of course in India, everything is a matter of either legacy or “izzat” i.e. honor. People talked about Atalji’s love for booze in hushed tones. Why? If he had a drinking problem then we had a right to know because that may have affected our decision to elect him. On the other hand if he had a drink or so in the evening then who cares! Then we have the secrets of the Gandhi family. Those are better concealed than secrets which are important to our national security. If Nehru was in love with Edwina Mountbatten, then that may have affected his judgment when it came to dealing with the British at that time. If the Indian public had known about it then they may not have re-elected him. These are important pieces of information which have long reaching implications. Think about it. If Nehru were not the PM in early 1960’s we may not have recognized the illegal Chinese rule in Tibet or given up our seat in the UNSC in favor of China. Our lives would be safer right now. Yes, we have the bloody right to know.

Sonia Gandhi is the PM. Do not kid yourself about the man in the seat. She has all the power. She is privy to all our national secrets even though on paper she is just and MP. She talks to the foreign visitors and her opinion shapes their attitudes towards us. Yes, we have a right to know everything about her – her education (because that gives us a window into her intellectual ability), her allegiances to her country of birth (Indian foreign policy could get influenced by that), her associations with foreigners (Ottavio Quattrocci) or her health. If she goes abroad to get treatment for Cancer (doesn’t India have doctors who could take care of her. We have heart surgeons who have done open heart surgeries on infants) then we need to know about it. Her loyalists would have you believe that all was wrong with India because she was not here to guide them. We need to know what kind of cancer because if her influence is so crucial then we need to know how long she is going to live. If they are trying to keep it a secret because it is breast cancer then that is ridiculous. All our families have mothers and aunts who have suffered from this terrible disease. No one is going to snicker at that. However, if her affliction is due to her lifestyle then we have a right to know.

Sonia Gandhi is someone’s mother and daughter. We all wish her full recovery. But her sickness has bearing on all our lives. We did not opt for that. She put herself in that position. It is therefore her responsibility to come clean. If she wants her health to be treated with the privacy then she should become a private citizen. Otherwise, I would like to remind her that it may be her legacy, honor or dignity but for us, it is the matter of our lives and future of our country.

The Long View: Current Events Through the Lens of History
By SAMANTH SUBRAMANIAN
In this, Sonia Gandhi appeared to be following in an established tradition, by which Indian political leaders guard news of their health as if it were a state secret. Not for them the publicly fought battles of Rudy Giuliani against his prostate cancer, of Dick Cheney against his troublesome heart, or of Hugo Chavez against his recent pelvic abscess. Even the example of Mahatma Gandhi — who let it all hang out, often greeting his ashram’s residents with updates about his bowel movements — is an aberration in Indian politics.
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/the-long-view-current-events-though-the-lens-of-history/?hp

Sonia diagnosed with cervical cancer
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have undergone a surgery for cervical cancer at Memorial Sloan—Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) private hospital—in New York on
Thursday.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/181508/sonia-diagnosed-cervical-cancer.html

Modi’s Fast: Skullcap, Dunce Cap and Some Thoughts

Bhai Narendra has completed a fast for which he had his own reasons. It could be that he wants to tell the nation where he stands on the Hindu-Muslim issue which to the liberals and pseudo-secular population is a vastly bigger issue than all the malaise facing the nation. Well so be it. He has done his best to address a very painful issue something that the Congress never did in the aftermath of the Sikh massacre in 1984. I have the following thoughts on the matter.

1. We are big fans of the columns by Vivek Gumaste who has raised a very valid point. His point supports my assertion in an earlier blog post that the post Godhra-massacre riots were reactionary and unplanned. What Vivek says is the following and I hope he has provided a definitive answer to all those who like to bandy the word “pogrom”.

Comparison with other notorious riots is essential to expose the willful targeting of Narendra Modi. In the Mumbai riots of 1992 that followed the Babri-Masjid demolition, nearly 900 people died: 575 Muslims and 275 Hindus. In Gujarat 2002 there were 1044 casualties with Muslims accounting for 794 deaths and Hindus 254. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots were by far the worst: 3,000 killed with zero Hindu deaths: it was a pogrom in the truest sense of the word. But yet it is only Modi who is held up as the arch villain.

The media has been infinitely kinder to Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and others from Congress and even to Rajiv Gandhi who famously said “when a big tree falls, the earth shakes”. The Indian media and leftist bias could not be more stark. Today they are trying every dirty trick to besmirch a man who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unlike the aforementioned Congress persons, he has never done or said anything that could make him sound like what he has been accused of.

2. Some small town maulana is now saying that Modi’s refusal (if it actually was a refusal) to wear a skullcap is an insult to Islam. Wow! The Chutzpah of this man is astounding. I do not see the Muslim politicians wearing anything Hindu. Muslims in India refuse to sing Vande-Mataram or anything which extols the motherland and yet they want everyone else to prove their affection of Islam by wearing a skullcap. Of course the shameless Indian media is splattering this tidbit of information all over. These people who have been wearing the dunce cap provided by Congress for over fifty years are making a big issue of the skull cap.

3. The Bollywood celebrities who have discovered Twitter are now expressing every thought popping in their empty heads. Idiots like Pooja Bedi who are only known for advertisements I cannot watch with my son, have taken it upon themselves to pass their judgment on issues which are beyond their scope of thinking. “Please go back into your shells and talk about stuff that you have a better grasp of like ….. (This is not an adult rated site so I am at a loss)”.

4. Mr. B. Raman who has been a fount of information and a window into the word of terror has made yet another mistake. He wants Narendra Bhai to apologize for the riots. An erudite man like Mr. Raman should know that an apology is tantamount to a confession. If Narendra Bhai is innocent then why apologize? If an apology is a pre-requisite to the PM,s chair then it is the misfortune of the aam aadmi and we do not deserve a man like Modi in PM’s chair.

5. Shankersinh Vaghela is doing his own fast. This “thali ka baingan” does not deserve any attention. This man used to be a longstanding member of the RSS. When he realized that with Modi around, he will never be the CM. He joined the Congress. People join the RSS out of idealism, conviction and commitment. It is not a social club. Vaghela sacrificed his ideals for ambition. DO we really want to hear what this frustrated old man has to say?

6. All the sarcasm coming out of the UPA camp is betraying a deep seated fear. If it comes down to Modi VS Rahul Gandhi then the only hope that the Congress has are the dirty tricks, the brainwashed, liberal and pseudo secular Hindu middle class, votebank and caste politics. They hope like hell that it never comes down to actual achievement of the two men.

The B Raman article can be read at:http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers47/paper4700.html

The Gumaste article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-have-we-been-unfair-to-narendra-modi/20110916.htm