Benched @Bangalore

Shocking Arrogance from a Cashmere Journo

2010-04-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

A prolific tweeple and fellow member of the Offstumped community Sudhir Kumar is quickly realising that even fact based scrutiny of newstraders masquerading as journalist invokes vituperative reaction from them.In this blogpost Sudhir shares with us his exchanges with a quintessential babalog journalist from NDTV .Quick perusal of the exchange reveals a display of arrogance by the lady journo whose fame has very little to do with her meagre journalistic talent

I had written this post long back about the shocking conduct of this same journalist during the runup to the last general election.I never bothered publishing this post but though this might be an opportune moment

I am writing this, aghast at how a blatantly biased left leaning media house, is running an vitriolic and vituperative campaign against the BJP This channel which is the bastion of phoney upmarket left liberalism is owned by the brother-in-law of the Stalin loving CPM head honcho and mostly staffed with journalists from the babalog class of Delhi which could possibly explain its natural affinity to Congress and Communist parties

I was viewing what appeared to be a clearly orchestrated studio discussion conducted by a moderator (her own meteoric rise, according to well- informed media watchers, is attributable to her father being a influential media power broker) on the purported identity crisis confronting the BJP The audience, I guess comprised mainly of smartly attired mickey mouse degree students probably drawn from JNU, the necropolis of toxic Marxist academia. Of course there were some chic girls possibly from Delhi convent colleges to lend color, glamour and diversity to the mix. I had just caught a brief glimpse of the same pretty faced moderator in a previous news section engaged in a tête-à-tête with new found poster boy of India’s left liberal ‘secular’ intelligentsia Omar Abdullah (its quite a irony that Omar enjoyed an uninterrupted stint as a minister in Vajpayee government) They were discussing on the alleged competencies and capabilities of Rahul Gandhi and on the timing of young prince‘s imminent coronation, democratic process be damned.

The panelist lined up for the ensuing studio slaughter of BJP was interesting. There was a glib tongued lawyer turned Union Minister interestingly sporting a tilak (in secular imagery this is now associated as a overt symbol of Yindoo Bajrangi). Then there was a dusky actress who acts in films that nobody sees (apparently it wins rave reviews in unheard of film festivals) but who virtually makes her way in to every TV studio discussion in her capacity as “ member of the civil society”. Just to clarify to the uninitiated, civil society in media speak is an euphemism for assorted collection of loony leftists, who are fancifully described among other things, as human right activist, media professional, secular intellectuals, grassroots activist, progressive film maker, psephologist, modern historian etc. Adding to the potent mix was a feisty lady lawyer who fought a passionate battle, both inside and outside the court, for the release of the murderous Jihadis who attacked the parliament .The moderator, who was oozing with sweetness when discussing with her fellow Kashmiri little earlier, lost no time barring her fangs - she could barely conceal her disgust for the BJP.Well every journalist is entitled to their political viewpoints and biases but does it fit within the framework of professional ethics to play both jury and the prosecutor during a discussion?

Ranged against this frighteningly formidable galaxy of stars from the secular constellation and a overtly hostile audience was a hapless wordsmith from the BJP party. A fine gentleman he might be but I have no sympathy for a party, which is a willing victim to the manifestly evident campaign of calumny. Needless to say he was made to look silly in no time –his own media skills were woefully inadequate. And mind you that was while defending the BJP’s manifesto released yesterday–masterly crafted document that is clearly the winner when compared with the lackadaisical Congress Manifesto and CPM’s Marxist trash. All that the slimy moderator did was pick a stray reference to the construction of Ram Mandir in 200-page document (BJP has been steadfastly committed to it) and in no time specious outrage was manufactured in the plush studio. The BJP representative, instead of combating the stage-managed indignation, was pretty lame and played in to the hands of the beautiful ‘secularists’ in the studio. Very soon the moderator herself threw way any pretense of neutrality and was leading the vicious vilification campaign against the BJP.If BJP cannot sell even this well-crafted, all–inclusive manifesto to the electorate (please note that many schemes outlined in manifesto have been implemented in BJP ruled states with great success), it has no one but only itself to blame

I gave this illustration to drive home the point to express the frustration, helplessness and indignation that millions of BJP sympathizer about the party’s media management strategy. That a party whose leaders like Advani fearlessly fought for the cause of democracy and free media and got imprisoned in the process gets vilified while a party, which had no compunction in suspending cicil liberties, is glorified is quite a paradox

It’s nobody’s case that BJP is a perfect party. It is infact a deeply flawed party (abundance of demagogues, inability to regenerate itself intellectually) but it’s the only hope for those in India who believe that emergence of a true, meritocratic centre right party is possible in the foreseeable future. To its credit BJP is not a family enterprise were ascendancy to key party positions is pre-determined by winning the genetic lottery of birth, it has a fairly enlightened national leadership, well articulated core vision and it has shown the ability before to respond to call of history. The 1999-2004 NDA government will probably go down as the most magnificent experiment in coalition building in post-Independence India. Not only it represented broad coalition of various social groups but had at helm was a leader would had a real mandate from the masses. Free from the pernicious influence of Congress and Communist, the government was able to deliver excellent results on infrastructure, defence and external affairs fronts. For once, there was renewed sense of vigor and energy in the country that it can leapfrog to the progress and prosperity, after years of wallowing in poverty and misery that Nehruvian policies engendered. But a series of local level anti-incumbency in crucial states and a poorly communicated election theme relegated them to the opposition benches

Ever since its shock defeat a perception has been gaining ground that BJP is on a downhill path. Please note that this perception has grown despite a) woeful governance record of the UPA b) NDA winning several state assembly elections cC) Nearly all well run state governments are in the country are NDA governments)-eg Gujarat/Bihar/Chattisgarh/Uttarkhand/MP. Admittedly ideological confusion and breakdown of its famed discipline could have contributed to it but the role of the media in this building up this perception needs to be examined. While its clear that BJP itself has not covered itself with glory by trying to electorally cash in on this nearly indefensible venom spewing speech of Varun Gandhi (if he had really made it) that doesn’t sufficiently explain the venom and vengeance with which media goes after the BJP.

Isolated incidence of hooliganism in Karnataka gets relentless coverage while Marxist Mafioso’s rape and gory violence in Nandigram gets relegated to background with a cursory mention. To give a few other examples there is a deafening silence in the media on Congress getting in to an electoral alliance with an outfit in TN that eulogizes the killers of late Rajiv Gandhi. Hate speech by a prominent Karnataka Congress leader goes virtually unreported while we were bombarded incessantly with the sound bytes of Varun Gandhi’s speech. Very few would know that CPM is in alliance with an outfit that masterminded a heinous bomb blast that nearly killed Mr. Advani. An Innovative IT vision document is totally ignored while an ego clash between two BJP leaders hogs the limelight for 7 days. And topping it all is media’s unabashed efforts to catapult the vacuous babalog Congress politicians to the centrestage of Indian politics. Cursory perusal of the credentials of these so-called generation-next Congress leaders from privileged political dynasties reveals a stunning bankruptcy of accomplishments but still

Given their less than sterling track record, the complete stranglehold of Indian Mainstream Media on the dissemination and dissection of news is providing detrimental to the health of the public discourse in the country. In today’s times, barring few glorious exceptions of indefatigably crusading journalists, vast section of Indian MSM appears to be seriously compromised. Time and again, many in the vanguard of Indian MSM have displayed their consummate skills in spin doctoring, to fulfill the dubious agendas of the political class (Congress party) and been rewarded suitably with Padma Shris and Padma Bhusans. The most recent glaring example was the meek capitulation of the vast sections of MSM to the ultimately successful efforts of foisting a person with antecedents of financial deceit and moral debauchery to the highest constitutional office of the country. In any other mature democracy, this person might have been hounded out of public life by the vigilant media

How as friends of BJP we can break this stranglehold and get the nationalist voices reflected?

1.”Nationalist” TV Channel-I think the idea of nationalist right of centre TV channel is not a great idea. Even the brilliant right wing ideologue Swapan Dasgupta has pointed out the limitation of this model including funding, quality staffing, professionalism et. I suspect it will quickly degenerate to become like of one of those media channels that we despise

2 Blogs-The world of world of vibrant and thriving Indian blogdom might be a proverbial silver lining in the dark clouds. Blogs like Indian National Interest and Offstumped have been doing a sterling work. By giving up the daily dose of sourcing news from newspaper and resisting the natural inclination to switch on the idiot box after returning home from work and depending on thriving Indian blogdom, this writer have gained immensely in terms of enhancing his perspective on issues of national importance. However given the low Internet penetration and blogs are still are on fringes of public opinion formation in India

3. Vernacular Media-There is some hope here but given commercial compulsion many of them need to take a petty provincial approach

4.Mayawati Model-Ignore the MSM and treat them with disdain that they deserve. Its clear that media suffers from a delusion of grandeur and exaggerated sense of importance. Can BJP,like Mayawati,afford to be openly taking on important pillar of democracy however biased they are.Afterall BJP is not a whimiscal ,undemocratic outfit

Please let me know your thoughts

Only Gandhi can be king.....

2009-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

Swapan Dasgupta is at his blistering best has he effortlessely exposes the ingratiating left-liberal mad media’s unabashed efforts to catapult vacuous babalog politicians to the centrestage of Indian politics. Cursory perusal of the credentials of these so-called gen-next Congress leaders from privileged political dynasties reveals a stunning bankruptcy of accomplishments. The discredited NDTV with its despicable bunch of journos (Barkha/Sonia) and juvenile Barkha wannabes( like that insufferable Sunetra Chaudhary) are leaving no stone unturned to endorse that epitome of mediocrity –the perpetually youthful Rahul Gandhi has India’s answer to Obama.The silly games that media play is so predictable that we had spotted it way back and alerted the readers

That ascendancy to key party positions is pre-determined by winning the genetic lottery of birth in to dominant political dynasties is something that vitiates very essence of democratic polity.One hopes that BJP (though constrained by its own regional allies who have embraced the dynastic principles of Congress) makes it a key election issue

Devil's Advocate

2008-10-12T01:58:00.000-07:00

As a part of its time tested localisation strategy, Church Inc narrows down on an obscure nun from Kerala who is alleged to have performed medically certified "miracles" and Ratzinger wastes no time in canonising her as 'Saint Alphonsamma. It would not be difficult to argue that this is a token gesture in recognition of enormous number of low cost religious foot soldiers that Church Inc has been able to recruit from the central districts of Kerala especially in the context of human resource crisis that its faces in the Christian bastion of Europe.

The fanatical followers of imperialist political ideologies aka desert bloc religions are completely entitled to believe in evidently manifest irationalities likes 'Miracle', 'Sainthood',"Immaculate Conception" but what was despicable was the way in which the self-professed secular mainstream media in India converted this purely private Vatican religious fantasy in to one of those now customary "India Shining " kind of campaigns that we are often bombarded -remember how a non-existent patriotic angle was played up when some out of work Bollywood starlet faked her way to glory in a British TV show or when a football used in a World Cup final was manufactured in Ludhiana or when an American,born to Indian parents won a municipal election in US.

Even more more shocking was seeing the journalist in NDTV/CNN blatantly declaring, without even an iota of skepiticism, that alleged "miracles" of Alphonsa were medically verified. All norms of journalistic properitary was thrown to winds and channels were doubling up as Christian Mouthpieces. A viewer would not be faulted if they believed that it was a gospel broadcasting channel that they were watching rather than a newschannel. That Christists have infiltrated media is clearly evident now-the outrightly biased coverage of the recent attacks on 'Churches' was one clear demonstration of this. It should come as no suprise if rags like TOI have sold space to Church groups to propagate their victimhood tales.

One vividly remembers that when millions of gullible Indians sincerely believed that Lord Ganesha was drinking milk, the mmedia rightfully assembled few eminent scientists in the studio who clearly explained the scientific rationale for that observed phenomenon. But on today's occassion of canonisation of Alphonsa, one could hardly find sceptics/rationalist being invited to the studio to expose the Vatican tricketers and charlatans who manufacture blatant falsehoods like 'sainthood','miracle" etc to deceive the masses.

Another aspect of the Indian mindset that this chest thumping and breast beating over the canonisation reflects is the continued servitiude to the erstwhile imperialist and yearning to be rewarded and recognised by the "Whiteman". I dont see much hope here

And about the Indian state,lesser said the better. A huge contingent of Christian pare in Rome on a government sponsored junket to witness this ceremony with Oscar Fernandes predictably getting the honor of leading it in stellar recognition of his role for maintaining peace and harmony in Mangalore.

India desperately needs its own version of Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris

Why Swami Laxmanananda was targetted

2008-10-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

As we had pointed out in our post yesterday,Naxals are paid foot soldiers of Church Inc.Pandaji the commander-in-chief of Orissa Maoist admits it no uncertain term the reasons for targetting the revered Hindu Monk who was resiting the marauding Maoists and Missionaries

Disrupting Communal Harmony in Karnataka

2008-09-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Its now increasingly evident that the continued attacks on 'Churches' (loosely used term that often encompasses several illegally occupied and forcibly grabed pieces of real estate) in several parts of Karnataka is a well-planned attempt to defame the BJP led Government.

This blog does not stake any claims to clairvoyance but wishes to point out that in one of its earlier posts ,it alluded to the strong possibility of a systematic destablisation campaign against the BJP government being orchestrated by two electorally discredited but supremely powerful Christian backroom operators of Congress party hailing from DK district.Its pretty clear that under the dispensation of a fellow Catholic ,the bigoted Christian lobby in the Congress party is enjoying immense clout and has been running berserk with the complete backing of the well entrenched Church propaganda machinery.Ofcourse,the Chrisist infested mainstream media is dutifully playing its role by resorting to phraseology like genocide/state sponsored massacare/pogrom to describe what are essentially localised incidents of hooliganism .If investigations are conducted one is certain that many of these eruptions can be clearly established as fallouts of long simmering commerical land disputes that often pits the land grabbing evangelical Churches against the powerful sections of local populace

It does not escape our attention that spate of attack on "Churches" mysteriously started within in a day or two of Education Minister of Karnataka 's rightful directive against the Christian institutions for their despicable act of indoctrinating innocent school children and using them as instruments in their blatant attempt to lend communal color to the caste violence that erupted in Orrisa.Also another key feature regarding the timing of the attack was that it served to distract the popular anger against the woeful track record of UPA government on internal security

That the serene and tranquil Dakshin Kannada district will become a communal flashpoint was clearly in the offing .Reading Chrisitian mouthpieces from DK district,one could clearly sense an aggressive moblisation by Chrisits bigots after the resounding defeat of their candidate who contested on Congress ticket and advent of BJP to power.Even the largely well-intentioned and peace loving coastal Catholics seem to quite perturbed by the venom spewed by the new age evangelical groups flush with ill -gotten foreign funds The younger generation of Catholic seems to come under the spell of these Penecostal groups and resorted to the public acts of vandalism and holliganism.One can pretty much count on the media to totally downplay the incidents of unruly Chrisitain mobs attacking cops with sharp objects reported to be safely placed in 'Churches' .

Provocative communal statements by Abrahamic fundamentalist and close aide of Sonia Gandhi,Margaret Alva added fuel to the fire.Oscar Fernandes is always around to fish in troubled waters(There can be only one reason why Oscar Fernandes survived without an even mild censure for his savage act of justifying the murder of a CEO in Noida).Supercop turned evangelist Sangliana with his avowed objective of converting BJP to Bharatiya Jesus Party was also in the thick of things trying to manufacture a non-existent Christian Unity against the Hindu groups.

It also needs to be highlighted that localised acts of vandalism on" place of worship" of all religious denominations have been occuring for several years now in DK district of Karnataka.It has happened during the reign of S.M Krishna/Dharam Singh/Kumaraswamy.But what could explain the Church overplaying the victimhood and sense of persecution card this time around.I think the answer can be partially located in the fact that resurgent nationalism in Karnataka has made it nearly impossible for the Church to make any substantial progress in their global soul harvesting project.Karnataka is now clearly moving towards the welcome state of Post Brahminical Hindu Social order.Unlike in Tamil Nadu were the Church skillfully exploited the faultlines in the Hindu Society by pitting sections of the Hindu society against the despicable ritual puritanism of Brahmins,its found the going tough in Karnataka.Hindu mutts in Karnataka have acted as remarkable bulwark against the marauding Church groups by ensuring that they provide exemplary service in the field of education/healthcare making it difficult for Church to continue its state supported monoply over the charitable services.The resurgent wave of Hinduism is largely spearhaded by intermediate caste groups and BJP has been able to successfully tap in to this.Outside of Gujarat,Karnataka is the only other state where the BJP has been ably to replicate this model.Long back that brilliant right wing ideologue Swapan Dasgupta spoke about the phenomenon called "Evangelical Hindutva" which he saw as the key to preservation of Dharmic religions.Karnataka might been witnessing this phenomenon

In this blogger 's assessment,vigilant citizenry should be alerted to two worrisome development

-The remarkable ability of the section of Indian Church to efforlessely "internationalise" the issue by networking seamlessely with rabid Church groups globally .It came as rude awakening to someone like this blogger who believed that that effortlesse manufacturing of transnational religious identity is a phenomenon exclusive to Islam.The Italian Government with its shameful record of ill-treating gypies has the gumption to direct its ire against the Indian government and pupet government of Mr Singh does not even have the wherewithal to retailate

-Tactical alliance between the Christist and Naxals..We have clear evidence of how liberation theology is used as the framework to support and nurture naxal movement in India.For example Naxals have been largely operated as private army of the church in several parts of India.The brutal massacre of revered Swamiji in Orrisa was the clearest manifestation of this connivance.If evangelical phenomenon is not nipped in bud,a naxalite like movement is likely to occur in Karnataka .

Oh unwashed heathen! When will you dress well?

2008-07-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

Bomb blasts are boring .And seriously speaking the death tolls are statistically insignificant.As our secular-socialist friend keep reminding us that more people die in road accidents than in terror attacks on an annualised basis .Get the urban chaos sorted out,fix the potholed road and then lets speak about the alleged problem of terrorism.Two or three low intensity bombs are triggered off by unknown groups and this routine phenomenon gets deliberately exagerrated by Yindoo Fundies as "War on the Nation" etc.And ofcourse Bangalore and Ahmedabad deserve this fate for electing evil Yindoo fascists to power.

While we leave it to Cybersaffronites and Bajrangi Bloggers to manufacture outrage on the loss of lives (statistically insignificant),we get our priorities right and focus on glamorous world of fashion

What a fashion statement this girl made when she graced the parliamentary galleries to presumably display solidarity with her brother who made a soul-stirring +sterling speech .

While dhoti clad,tilak sporting ,disgusting looking Yindoo fundies were making life miserable for the honorable Manmohan Singh by their lung power and cheap antics ,this youth icon without uttering a single word conveyed unequivocally her support to the N-deal .What Priyanka conveyed through her chic attire was that youth of India want to get rid of old baggages and they endorse N-deal compeletly.The point was made by Ghordesai couple too in CNN-IBN studios based on t he discussion that they had with young MP'S cutting across party lines.

Seriously when will our unwashed heathens develop a good sense of dressing.No wonder Sangliana finds them immature and dirty and voted against them

I have great hope from this super kool,gennext politicos-the epitomise the spirit of "we can do it" Range De Basanti generation

Omar as Obama

2008-07-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

Leading lights of Left-Liberal media in India try to shamelessely mimic their Amerikan counterparts by transposing the liberal discourse in US without any relevance to our local context.We often witness evidence of this in that bastion of upmarket left liberalism-NDTV .Barkha Dutt and her clones indulge in studio theatrics by hosting animated discussion on matters like transgender rights/same sex marriage/homosexuality/gun culture in school etc -none of which affect even remotely the lives of 99.99% of Indians .Indian Express for example earnestly tries to fashion itself on the lines of NYTimes.Given that Macualayised and utterly rootless trendy metropolitan liberal in India is deeply disdainful of anything Indic ,he constantly looks to the deceitful Atlanticists in Amerika/Europe for ideological inspiration and sustenance

Obama is now the toast of the Amerikan left-liberal establishment courtesy the tearjerkers/sob stories that he delivers admittedely with great rhetorical flourish.Media counterparts in India want to desperately invent a desi version of Obama.Ideally Mayawati should have fitted the bill but their uppercaste/upperclass bias combined with Maya’s lack of sophistication/no phoren degree /damage potential to their favourite Congress party renders her a persona non granta to them

Media would have ideally loved Rahul Gandhi to capture the "I represent change and hope ' political space. But the sheer mediocrity and incompetence that he epitomises, despite their desperate effort to prop him up, makes things little difficult .Hence they cannot go the complete distance in ‘Rahul as Indian Obama’ project.He badly floundered in Lok Sabha despite adopting the now familiar "Obama template for delivering inspirational speeches" .But they have not given upon on him.The other Congress gennext gasbags like Prasada/Scindia/Deora/Pilot etc cannot be given too much prominence as Rahul Baba will be dwarfed.Even otherwise they have no worthwhile achievements

Hence the search has now led them to Omar Abdullah.Suave,sophisticated,phoren educated and ofcourse belonging to the community that is alleged to be discriminated by the evil Yindoos makes him a good bet.It also helps Dhimmedia to whitewash the state sponsored genocide perperated by Islamists in Kashmir.A tame apology by Omar is enough for Dhimmedia to paint him in glorious light.Seriously its hard to fathom what was so inspirational in Omar's speech.Was it cliched reiteration of Indianess co-exisiting comfortably with transnational Ummah sentiments ?Was it because he managed to invoke the Gujarat riots which send our left-liberals in to state of frenzy?(bugger enjoyed high profile Ministry of External afairs during NDA regime and now without battling an eyelid wants to apologise for that.This shameless somersault is cheered on as a great speech)

The speech was all sound and fury but woefully short of substance.

Comedy Time-Tamil Nadu Catholic Church Edition

2008-07-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

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(All images courtesy widely read Tamil blog Idlyvadai which does a great job of covering TN politics)

Super rationalist and supreme atheist Thiru Mu Karunanidhi yesterday launched an potential Kollywood blockbuster ,a period film on the alleged life and times of Doubting Thomas in Kerala and Tamil Nadu during 1st Century AD

The movie on the 'Apostle', who was supposed to have lead a life of abject penury,spreading the message of messiah before the evil Yindoos(to be more precise Mylapore Brahmin) slaughtered him to death in Mylapore, is produced on a modest budget of Rs 500 million and will be fully funded by the Tamil Nadu subsidiary of Global Catholic Church Inc.There is hope for the movie goers in other states too-the star-studded production is envisaged to be a multi-lingual project

Thiru Karunandihi's emotional speech(really tempted to translate it verbatim ) during the occassion was soul stirring and spiritually powerful - even an avowed agnostic like your truly is contemplating rediscovering his originally theistic roots.Its not that Thiru.Karunanidhi is not known to see virtues in theism-he regularly does that during Ramadhan functions.Selective Amnesia afflicts the alleged rationalist Thiru.Karunanidhi when he shares the dias with pastors and maulvis

Catholic Church is planning a casting coup -it plans to rope in superstar Rajinikanth to play 'Saint' Thiruvalluvar(need to add -news from Rajini camp is that its merely speculative and image above is an imaginary protrayal ).Valluvar's legendary work Thirukkural represented the pinnacle of glorious Tamil literary tradition and epitomes the truly secular native wisdom and stands in stark contrast to the exclusivist Abrahimic traditions.Its pretty clear that its a blatantly shameless attempt on the part of Church to usurp that native wisdom manifested in the work of Valluvar and locate it in the teaching of Jesus of Nazreth.Greatest literary works of Tamil Nadu are profoundly 'Hindu' in nature

Tamil Nadu has the long tradition of rich indigenous 'folk Hinduism' while there is no denying that there has been always been earnest attempts to fiercely maintain the native 'Hindu' traditions from the influence of 'Brahminical' Hinduism'.

Whatever goes by the name of 'Dravidian' ideology is clearly a sinister collabarative project between the 'Dravidians' and the Church -exploit the faultlines in the Hindu social order and recast Tamil tradition in Christist narrative.Years of sustained soul harvesting by foul mouthed foot soilders of the dime-a dozen evangelical groups with the tacit support of the venom spewing Dravidians is clearly showing result in Tamil Nadu .While i generally do not subscribe to the conspiracy theories that altering demography is essential cornerstone of Abrahimic religious strategies,it appears to be true in case of TN .

The zeal of the neo-converts in truly amazing given that even the Vatican HQ has repeatedly expressed sceptism on the Thoma's alleged visit to India and maintains a very nuanced position .Anyway looking forward to see this work of fiction as the producers have promised 9 songs.Interesting movie in the making to say the least

Saluting Patriot Mulayam-Gupta Edition

2008-07-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Like our earlier posts predicted,MSM will outdo each other in finding hitherto unseen virtues in Mulayam/Amar and invent reasons to bestow respectability on these shady political operators .Predictably leading the pack is our super spindoctor and Congress spokesman Shekhar Gupta.

Like how IE is entitled to effect dramatic somersaults in its editorial position (witnessed ever since the UPA came to power),political parties too are entitled to shift positions .But to attribute non-existent "national interest" objectives to decisions made on hard political realities is something that even a seasoned spinmaster like Gupta is better advised not to attempt.Does he think that readers are so gullible to believe in Mulayam's magical transformation in to a powerful votary of the N-Deal courtesy a quick briefing by Hon.Abdul Kalam

Facing political marginalisation in UP and safeguarding /securing interests of his powerful corporate friends is what Mulayam and co, till recently leading the Mullah mobilisation against the N-deal , masquerades as 'National Interest"for supporting it now

However it comes as a pleasant suprise that unlike her powerful MSM counterparts, Barkha Dutt shows some scruples in exposing the charade that was played out /playing out in Dilli

15 Random predictions

2008-07-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

This blogger is now getting in to the hazardous business of making 15 random predictions on how things will unfold in Indian politics in the next 6-8 months and how one can expect MSM to cover it

1.Dr.Manmohan Singh will continue to be firmly ensconced in the chair. He will consummate the N-Deal.He will become the darling of the non-voting class for standing upto the Commies.Ofcourse the irony of Dr Singh 's shameless capitulation to the leftist on key economic policy decisions for 4 years will be a distant memory

2.SP will extend support to UPA government though it remains to be seen if they will travel the distance and join the UPA ministry .My guess is it will, though Amar Singh might not join the cabinent. Electoral alliance is near certainty between the two parties. Congress can expect to bag 8-10 seats in UP thanks to the captive Muslim vote of SP adding to its own Brahmin/Upper caste vote share in UP

3.Saachar Committee report will implemented as a quid-pro-quo to Muslims to overcome their paranoia against the evil Amerika. Ofcourse this can also help buy peace from the rage boys who otherwise keep coming out in full fury on the streets against imaginary grievances. Left, which was till now spearheading the Muslim mobilisation against the government for not implementing the report, would have no choice but to support it. Ofcourse only in India can we have the spectacle of an avowedly atheistic party championing the cause of religious based discrimination

4. A possible grand emotional reunion between Gandhi-Nehru and Baachan families to be played out in the full glare of NDTV/CNN-IBN.Given that Aarushi Murder case has been milked enough, the TV channels can count on this to captivate the teary eyed Indian public.

5.Orchestrated media campaign with the combined might of Shekhaar Gupta/Sardesai/NDTV to 'discredit' BJP. Images of lumpen saffronites will be regularly beamed. Destablisation efforts to bring down the first BJP government in South will be fully afoot with the help of born-again secularites Gowda and Sons. Oscar Fernandes/Margaret Alva might become the CM with support of Gowda and sons provided Congress manages to hold on to Siddaramiah.

6.Chapter 4 of 'State of the Nation ' psephology series will be aired shortly. Ofcourse there can be no winner other than Congress party in opinion polls staged in CNN-IBN studio. Sardesai will declare smuggily that their polls suggest that Aam admi appears not to be too concerned with issues like inflation. Key finding of the opinion poll will be something like this-a)69% people want Sonia Gandhi to replace Manmohan Singh as PM though 73% people rate Manmohan Singh's record as PM satisfactory b) Laloo Prasad has more support than Advani on the preferred choice for PM.Seat predictions will be done by that ISI professor using some magical formula to convert the 'tampered' field data collected by Yogendra' s foot soldiers

7.BJP will lose in MP badly unless a) they convince Uma Bharati to return to the fold and b) inflation overshadows the poor track record of the MP government. Rajastan will be a tough fight with Congress having the advantage of being the opposition party. Naxal-Church combined might will sink BJP in Chattisgarh especially if the trickster Ajit Jogi is projected as the CM. Delhi might go BJP way though Sheila Dikshit will be a formidable opponent.3-1 verdict for Congress means the party will go for the kill. Rahul Gandhi /Sonia Gandhi will get the credit for victory.

8.MSM's attention will shift to US presidential election. Almost certain Obama victory will see the left-liberal media and intelligentsia invoke comparisons between Obama and Rahul Gandhi.Shekhar Gupta will ask his readers through this Saturday column "Can Rahul do a Obama"? There will be a national wide media hunt for the India's Obama.My choice is Vijaykanth.He is called the "Black MGR", keeps invoking the mantra of change, has found acceptability in TN despite being a Telugu.He is now ready for the national stage

9.Increasing confrontational China basking in the glorious success of the Olympic game could indulge in miltary adventures.UPA government could be presented with the opportunity to take on the challenge and hijack the "strong on national security plank" from BJP .This could be another stick to beat the Left with.Not sure Congress has the instincts to take this course

10.Lok Sabha elections in April-May 2009.Naveen Chawla will raise the hackles of BJP by his typically partisan actions

11.Congress and BJP record their worst ever electoral performances with Deve Gowda type PM heading a UF type government a distinct possibility.

12. Sushilkumar Shinde stands a good chance of becoming the India's first Dalit PM.Nor one can never underestimate the staying power of the good old doctor.He might get another term.If BJP gets even one seat more than Congress and TDP/JD-U returns with good numbers,Mayawati or Abdul Kalam might be in the reckoning too.DMK and Ram Vilas Paswan will be part of any government that gets formed creating a record of being in power under 6 different coalitions.Poetess Kanimozhi might will a plum portfolio.Captain Vijaykanth's party will make its debut in Loksabha

13.Rahul Gandhi will decide to focus on strengenthing the Congress party machinery for 2014 elections

14.RSS will foist someone like Bal Apte/Kalraj Mishra as the next president of BJP(Rajnath could possibly lose if he contest the elections from UP as no seat is safe for BJP there).Ofcourse Modi/Jaitley combine will abide by the party diktat.Advani could begin writting the sequel to 'My Country,My Life" and turn moisty-eyed watching a Shah Rukh Khan tearjerker

15..5 or 6 faithful of this blog are requested to add their predictions

PS-It was quite suprising that even a seasoned blogger like Yossarin was envisaging the possibility of Manmohan Singh throwing in the towel.It was pretty evident the N-deal drama was charade clearly played out to distract the gullible Indian public from more serious issues like inflation

Amar Singh and N-Deal

2008-07-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Barbarindian,an remarkably astute observer of the Indian MSM,had predicted as early as September 2007 that SP-Congress alliance was very much on the cards.Ofcourse CNN-IBN and Indian Express were also providing clear pointers to the thinking process of their political masters in 10 Janpath.Its now nearly official that SP will hitch on to the UPA bandwagon with that much abused word 'secularism' coming to their rescue to justfiy this act of political opportunism.

For someone who is known to enjoy titlliating telecons with a sultry sirens like Bipasha,an one-hour briefing from the dull and dreary NSA Narayanan, that too on finer detals of the incredibly complex N-deal might not have been too exciting.Ofcourse the nation will be made to believe that Amar Singh has been convinced by NSA on the merits of the N-Deal after this one hour intervention.Amar Singh will also receive glowing praise from the likes of Gupta/Sanghvi/Sardesai who no longer will adopt a condescending attitude towards him/Mulayam

SP-Congress alliance's political potential against the marauding Mayawati is uncertain but what is certain is Amar Singh's entry in to the charmed circle of Nehruvian glitterati of Dilli .Going by media accounts, one got a feeling thatAmar Singh was quarrantined by the P3 ‘Nehruvian’ crowd in Delhi as he was seen as responsible for the rift between the two most ‘beautiful’ and ‘glamourous’ families of India.He appeared to be viewed as overbearing gatecrasher who wanted to bulldoze his way to their charmed circle. But now that he has executed this political somersault,he might well be on his way to earn respectability

Mommie Dearest

2008-07-02T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hitchens at his blistering best, writing on the so-called "Saint of the Gutters".He minces no words in describing Agnes Gonxha as "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud".She was precisely that

Two of a Kind -Fixers,Brokers etc

2008-07-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

Amar Singh and Shekhar Gupta-These two shady operators stand as testimony to the rotten depths to which politics and media in India has descended, maybe irretrievably.

Shekhar Gupta is a political henchman in the guise of a journalist- a spinless spinmaster if there is for the discredited communal ,socialist government of UPA and its lacklustre PM .He uses every dirty trick in the book none more dubious than quoting long dead politicians to discredit current ones.His incoherent rambling and disjointed thought process is evidently manifest in his pretenious talk shows on that commie family channel and even more in his intolerable Saturday columns .In a newspaper that regulary features brilliant polemicist like Arun Shourie and Pratap Bhanu Mehta,Gupta 's sham scholarship invariably shows up.The Saturday column penned by Gupta is titled National Interest perhaps in lighter vein.

There are some cruel ironies in Indian politics and none more than Amar Singh being the key functionary of a party called Samjawadi party -a party that uses a potent mix of casteism and communalism .Ever in search of respectability among the nauseating glitteratti of Dilli,he has time and again tried to gatecrash to the high society of Lutyens only to be snubbed by the 'beautiful' P3 people.However now that Congress needs the SP numbers to get the N-deal through ,the parasitic Delhi establishment might finally accord this noveau rich Samjawadi the respectability that he always sought.The political pimp can enjoy his day under the sun

Rage Boy(s) fight for environment

2008-06-25T01:25:00.000-07:00

Rageboy(s),popularised by that brilliant British polemicist Christopher Hitchens, are at it again. If one goes by the account of 'BBC', it's environmental issues that has apparently enraged them to manufacture outrage and indulge in violent protest.Or is it?

Make no doubt about it. It’s the Islamic theocratic totalitarianism that drives the secession movement in Kashmir.

The bleeding heart liberals, pinkintellectuals and useful idiots have long been been scripting stories of unemployment, poverty and Indian state sponsored oppression as being the root cause of terrorism . They have been repeatedely trying to hijack Indian public opinion (that has firmly rallied behind the Government on the issue of Kashmir) by trying to advocate resolutions using chimerical framework like Kashmiryaat, creatively reinvented in Sufi tradition

In combating the Islamists in Kashmir, the Indian state faces its greatest challenge as yet in safeguarding the secular ethos of the country. The outcome of the battle will fundamentally determine the raison d’etre of India as truly secular,multi-cultural,pluralistic country. Indian state has to win this battle at all cost. Thanks to the sagacity of Indian state that its been cautious in not exercising the easy option of ruthlessly crushing this blatantly Islamofascist with brute force and trying to repeatedly engage the secessionists within the democratic process. Looks like time and options are both running out.

Lets not delude ourselves by thinking that rageboys on the streets of Kashmir are concerned about the ‘environmental’ damage that the Amarnath project will cause or they are threatened by 'demographic warfare' that Indian state is alleged to be indulging in. India has never exercised the option of changing the demographic pattern in Kashmir unlike the Han Chinese who have tried to obliterate the traditonal Tibetean way of life

The truth of the matter is their opposition is firmly rooted in the ruthless imperialist ideology that masqureades as ‘religion’.

One sincerely hope that the street violence in Kashmir serves as a real eye opener to the public opinion in India.

KK Family Saga

2008-06-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

Most political parties in India with the exception of BJP and ‘Left’ are closely held family enterprises. Ascendancy to key party positions is pre-determined by winning the genetic lottery of birth in to the controlling family. To be fair, many of these family controlled parties do not pitchfork their family members brazenly in to political limelight. With help of senior party functionaries and media spindoctors, the descendant's initiation is carefully calibrated and skillfully stage-managed. Crisscrossing rural India in SUV’s under the garb of poverty roadshows appears to be latest preferred route. However when it comes to the Kalignar Karunanidhi family enterprise operating in TN, there are no such tentative steps. In the last few years, every member of his family with political aspiration has been quickly accomodated in the power structure. But despite this,bitter political battle is being played out in the First Family of TN politics

Karunanidhi family saga is unfolding like one of those soap operas that are aired in several of his family channels,often with tremendous TRP rating ('Revolutionary' schemes like free color TV s have easily made TN the state with best TV density). Aging patriach, warring wives, feuding families, estranged nephews, billion dollar business interests, political power, Dravidian vs Aryan subplot, literature, poetry, Ramayana, Asuras, tinsel town connection, private jets are intoxicating ingredients of this spectacular family drama. Ofcourse if Chieftain himself is to believed all these battles are part of the war waged to rescue the pauperised ‘Dravidians’ from the ‘Aryan’ exploitation

Two recent family events accentuated the faultlines running through the extended family of Kalignar Karunanidhi

First was the 85th birthday celebration of Kalignar Karunanidhi.He might be ruing his decision to give in to the collective persuasion of ‘Aru kodi Tamizhargal’ and retract his original plan of spending a quite and blissful birthday. Family squabbles burst out in the open marring this solemn occasion. His elder son Azhagiri apparently refused 'permision' to Maran family to wish the chieftain on his birthday

Second was the party event marking the coronation of Kanimozhi as the rising political demigoddess of Tamil Nadu. Kazha Kanmanigal congregated in massive numbers in Cuddalore to attend the DMK’s Women conference. Media touted the event as basically another display of strength by the anti-Stalin faction of DMK.Kanimozhi was showered encomiums by the Medai Pechalars as the mobilised ‘rationalist’ foot soldiers lustily cheered on. Kanimozhi expectedely launched a fullisade against the evil ‘Aryan’ forces that is destroying the ‘secular’,’rationalist’ ethos of Dravidistan

Kanimozhi is a suave, convent educated daughter of Karunanidhi’s partner Rajathiammal.She also had a brief journalistic career with Chennai Xinhua.A powerful section of DMK saw her as counterfoil to Jayalalitha (superior English, good looks etc). Very soon she found herself in the Rajya Sabha.DMK propaganda machinery amply aided by section of vernacular press has been projecting her some kind of literary genius. Karunanidhi even anointed her as his literary successor. Given the climate of intolerance prevailing in TN, no one dared to ask question on what the alleged literary accomplishments of Kanimozhi are.Few truly independent literary voices in TamilNadu who did pose the right questions were brownbeaten to submission by the powerful Dravidian propaganda machinery

When the ugly family battle (that resulted in the death of three innocent workers) erupted in the open, Dayanidhi Maran was stripped of his cabinent post .It was widely expected that Kanimozhi would fill that vacancy. However looks like the intriguing family saga unfolded in such a way to deprive her of the cabinent ministership. It appears that Stalin family and Maran family have now buried their hatchet and are united against the Azhagiri and Kanimozhi.The bonohome is best exemplified through the incesantly promotion by the Sun Network of a terible movie produced by Stalin's son as a thunderous box-office success

Elder son Azhagiri till now was contended to be a powerful backroom operator. Karunanidhi had geographically divided Dravidistan in to two dominions for each of his son to exercise their influence. But looks like Azhagiri is increasing trying to play a more overt role in the party affairs.His stranglehold over the party in Southern Tamil Nadu cannot be easily ignored.To keep him in good humour his daughter Kayalvizhi was given prominence in the party conference .He has also ventured in to cable distribution business trying to break the monopoly of Sun Group

If at all someone needs to be blamed for letting this state of affair to persist, its Kalignar Karunanidhi.Its perplexing why he refuses to exercise the simple step of letting the mature Stalin take his rightful mantle as the CM. Many neutral observers in TN will welcome mild mannered Stalin.He is seen as a level headed, efficient politican without the acerbic tongue of his father .He has acquitted himself well in all major responsibilities entrusted to him including Mayorship of Chennai.During his stint as Chennai Mayor, several excellent infrastructure programmes were not only launched but also taken to logical completion. Stalin at helm of afairs might also signify improvement in relationship between the various Dravidian political parties in TN, as he does not invoke the kind of animosity that Kalignar invokes

Sooner Kalignar exercises the option,its better for the state of Tamil Nadu.

Economic Terrorism?

2008-06-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

Its understandable that BJP is euphoric after a string of electoral victories .Its also clear that that it see itself as natural beneficiary of UPA misrule.But its utterly ridiculous to hear the intemperate articulation of its spokesperson in condemning the recent oil price hike.

There is no disputing that the overhyped “Dream Team” has been a monumental failure in its stewardship of the Indian economy. Dismal progress on the infrastructure front and profligate social sector spending based on Jholawala economics(despite being complete aware of leaky delivery system) stand as testimony to the nightmarish run of the "Dream Team". But brandishing petrifying phrases like “Economic Terriorism” to attack the UPA government ‘s decision reveals absolute intellectual bankruptcy on the part of BJP .For a party that has shown tremendous creativity in the political arena through skillful social engineering , its quite startling to note that its miserably failed to formulate a coherent economic policy. .

The cavalier manner in which Rudy resorts to gutter level phrase like “Economic Terriorism” shows that BJP is anything but a learning organisation. BJP has been a party which itself has been subject to vicious villification by its opponents who routinely use words like “Fascist”,”Hilterian”,”Neo-Nazist” to describe it.It has been rightfully opposing this type of characterisation .One would have expected BJP to be guarded will using language of simliar kind in attacking its opponents.

BTW Rudy seems to have been rewarded for his 'good work' .He has earned a Rajya Sabha nomination

Yechury Household and Karnataka Verdict

2008-05-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

A cliched cricketing maxim goes like this- “Fast bowlers hunt in pairs”. Now it can be safely said “Indian Comrades hunt in pairs”

Just couple of days back Congress Spinmeister Shekhar Gupta provided generous space to Seema Chishti to indulge in what can only be described as an utterly dubious piece of journalism. Seasoned bloggers like Sandeep and JK have fisked Seema’s malicious tripe pointing out that sanskritisation reference was grossly out of place and extremely mischevous. In Gujarat and Karnataka, BJP has shattered the ‘secular’ media propaganda that its a party with a narrow social base .It won the elections by running a skillfully crafted campaign around issuess related to governance. Leftist media is unable to reconcile this reality and hence resorting to its time tested strategy of spewing venom.

Today it’s the turn of Seema’s husband, the poster boy of Marxist Sitaram Yechury to analyse the reasons for defeat of ‘secularism’ in Karnataka elections. Yechury’s analysis is so hackneyed that it is more likely to evoke yawn rather than the derision that his wife’s analysis attracted .Its predictably based on the standardised template in vogue in A.K Gopalan Bhavan. Infact its unfair to expect Yechury to break any new ground in analysing complexities of Indian electoral politics given that he is an unelected Stalinist aparatchik with electoral experience largely limited to JNU campus.

However there is one glaring ommission from Yechury’s piece .There was no mention on the humiliating defeat of the lone sitting MLA of CPM in the assembly elections. Even before the results were declared, in-house newschannels like NDTV were congratulating Yechury for retaining the seat .The anchors were convincing themselves that alleged CPM MLA-elect can be trusted not to join the communal forces in their effort to manufacture majority.Ofcourse Sriram Reddy never made it to Vidhan Soudha .He bite the dust as he was punished by his constituents for his non-performance

CPM might be electorally irrelevant in more than 475 Lok Sabha seats but preponderance of fellow travellers and Marxist hacks in editorial boards across newspapers and newschannels means disproportionate presence in columns and airwaves of Mainstream Media. Bourgeois media it can be but very member of Marxist family have their say in it

Secularismna ennama?

2008-05-28T01:28:00.000-07:00

I remember a television commerical that used to be aired for Hamam soap It featured a divine looking little kid asking her mother “Nermaina ennama?”(What is honesty?).Sheer innocence manifested in that little kid ‘s question .

With purity of thought akin to that kid,I am asking this question to anyone who can answer-Sir /Madam -Secularismna enna?

I have read multitude of sources but I am still grappling for a convincing explanation Infact even the profoundly philosphical Gaurav ,Indian blogosphere ‘s master of aphorism, could only muster this much

The provocation for this philosphical enquiry is the barrage of analysis in the Indian MSM attributing the Saffron Surge in Karnataka to division of 'Secular' votes.Please note that the MSM analyst include the votes polled by JD-S in the 'secular' count.Yes the very JD-S which ran a fairly competent coalition government with BJP for entire 20 months till it reneged on its part of the agreement resulting in fresh elections

Marxists and Marriages

2008-05-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

The ostentation and opulence that was reported during the marriage of the son of Kerala CPM strongman and Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishna apparently irked his bete noire CM Achuthanathan and left him fuming.As a part of damage control exercise the electile dysfunctional aparatchiks issued something akin to "A guide to marriage-proletariat way" .It advised comrades to eschew bourgeois luxuries during marriages .No wonder Pinarayi Vijayan, who many believe controls the coffers of nearly billion dollar CPM Kerala Inc with diversified business interests, had to scale down the marriage celebration of his daughter in deference to his party' diktats

Commies's hypocrisy never ceases to amaze .Couple of years ago a marriage in the family of machiavellian Marxist Harkishen Surjeet (who foisted two Prime Ministers on the unsuspecting nation) came under intense media scrutiny for its pomp and splendour

Commies are being hoisted by their own petard.One always keep hearing them cry hoarse over any public display of wealth and affluence but exceptions are made to those in the vanguard of proletariat revolution

Rescuing Kat for IPL'sake

2008-05-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

Contrary to my earlier opinion,i am beginning to love IPL.It would have been quite a huge loss of morale and motivation for the already floundering Bangalore team not to have secularly named Kate egging them on .Thanks to Mallya for organising that dramtic rescue act.Hope Kate can also soon be rescued from that shirtless Khan

Down south,Trisha is reportedely replacing Nayantra as Chennai IPL's brand ambassador.

Its raining opinion polls in Karnataka

2008-05-05T02:52:00.000-07:00

Even before the furore over the blatantly biased opinion poll by the spin twins has barely settled ,we now have two more opinion polls published by other media houses.One, which predicts a outright BJP victory,conducted by the noted psephologist Narasimha Rao and another one by the Kerala based 'The Week' which forecasts a neck-to neck battle between Congress and BJP.

As a interested poll observer(setting aside my obvious bias) i think 'The Week' poll appears to be more accurate reflection of ground reality.I go with 'The Week' assessment despite the fact that Narasimha Rao is a seasoned practioner in the "market survey" industry .Unlike the Spin Twins,Rao is not afflicted with deep ideological biases though he has not exactly covered himself with glory all the time

The contrasting prediction made by three different polls underscore one point clearly.There is no clear winner at this point of time .Its a wide open race with 'undecided' voters still holding the key.It also demonstrates that runaway Congress victory predicted by spin twins is yet another instance of what Arun Jaitley so beautifully called “Participatory Psephology” . Its increasingly clear that the ideological biases of pollsters and those who fund them play a key role in influencing outcomes of polls.By his own admission Yogendra had massaged the ‘raw data’ of surveys to scale down the seat projections for a particular political party in Gujarat polls

I think there are two reasons why Yogendra repeatedely gets it wrong.First one is the inability to overcome bias that gets introduced when "Far Left meets Lohia" worldview of Yogendra combines the obvious political slant of CNN-IBN .I would have imagined that Gujarat experience would have chastened him and his media patrons a wee bit.The virulence with which they operated during the Gujarat polls might be missing this time around especially in the absence of a media created hate figure but the subtle mind games and spindoctoring continues unabated.

Two Yogendra, with his unhealthy obsession with caste based configuration, is bound to lose the plot sometimes.This was clearly evident in UP when all assumed caste based voting patterns were shattered by Mayawati magic. Yes caste is an important dimension of Indian electoral politics but not there are sometimes other several over overriding factors at play.For instance he has constructed a mythical,new social category called as “Lower Social Bloc” which apparently is swinging the fortunes in favour of Congress

All said and done,i cannot rule the possibility of outright Congres win in Karanatka which might be because of one certainty in Indian electoral politics-Muslims not voting for BJP.i foresee religious minorties consolidating and resorting to enbloc tactical voting(nothing wrong in it as its a legitimate form of political expression given that BJP too is not attempting to reach out to them )

In conclusion the Karnataka election appears to be heading for a photo finish as thing stand now.Either BJP or Congress could end up within striking distance of simple majority .My money is on Congress as it is better placed to pick up the JD-S votebank in South Karnataka and edge that it enjoys in Outer Bangalore region

PS-Need to add that my arm chair psephology 's success rate as been as good or as bad as CNN-IBN polls

Manufactured Outrage

2008-05-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

As Rohit of INI points out in a rare display of unanimity political parties across the spectrum have lost no time in condemning George Bush's speech outlining reasons for spiralling global food prices

If one goes through the relevant portion of his speech ,there is nothing violently disagreeable in what Bush has said to evoke this kind of ferocious attack from our political parties.He has merely stated that welcome prosperity in developing countries might have been a contributory factor for skyrocketing prices.

D.Raja ,one of the unelected Communist apparatchik holding the country to ransom,calls Bush's speech 'rascist' among other things.Jairam Ramesh,ever willing to play the card of bleeding heart Congressman with concern for Aam-Admi,takes cheap and irrelevant potshots at Bush's knowledge of economics.

With the help of friendly secular-socialist media,government spindoctors will now manufacture outrage over a lameduck US President's remark by deliberately casting it as "insult to the country" ,"threat to food security" etc .This is essentially a diversionary tactics to shift the focus away from economic mismanagement of UPA government .UPA's economic record has been dismal. The exchequer, that has witnessed healthy tax collection has been drained through harebrained schemes and pork barrel programmes.For a government that has perfected aam-admi chant in to a political rhetoric,the failure to control inflation is quite shameful

It will be quite some fun to watch the furore that our parilamentarians will create over Bush 's remarks.

Update-Gurmeet has a fanatastic post on this

Stalinist in Sansad

2008-05-03T08:10:00.001-07:00

Stalin,along with Mao and Hitler, should easily rank among the greatest mass murderers in the recorded history of this world.He orchestrated the murder of nearly two million of his own countrymen.

Its quite some paradox that a man who proudly proclaims that he is not ashamed of being called a Stalinist presides over one of the greatest institutions of democracy in the modern world.By a strange aberration of Indian parliamentary democracy that provides clout to political parties disproportionate to their electoral support,this erstwhile troublemaker of the Lok Sabha got catapulted to the position of the speaker of the Lok Sabha.

During the tenure of Stalin admiring speaker ,there have been attempts to stiffle the voice of a truly outstanding journalist when he wrote scatching piece on the partisan nature of proceedings in Lok Sabha .Erudite ex-official of the Lok Sabha was taken to task for an alleged offence of casting aspersion on the mighty speaker.Of course he appeared determined to get in collision course with judiciary courtesy the prescriptions sounded out in a provocative manner

And now comes an hard slap on the face of the opposition members for daring to raise their voice on issue of inflation and gross abuse of ministerial privilege

Stalinism might have been long since discredited and discarded where it all began but its adherents are truly in a position to influence the course of Indian democracy both inside and outisde the parliament

Lok Sabha should discuss Warne-Ganguly spat

2008-05-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

Going by the past precedent,Lok Sabha should discuss the injustice meted out to Saurav Ganguly. Saurav has been repeatedely vicitimised and its important that Lok Sabha unanimously condemns the treatment meted out to a great son of Indian Cricket. Somnath should also ensure that lights will not be switched off the during the discussion .

Chinese Honeytrap

2008-05-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Looks like the Chinese have perfected the art of honeytrapping to 'penerate' the Indian security establishment.Move over to Apollo's blog for more details.Apollo has been a remarkably diligent observer of the machinations of the usually inscrutable Chinese

Stalinist Speaker Strikes Again

2008-05-02T05:06:00.000-07:00

During my school days, a smart teacher devised what she thought was a brilliant stratagem.She used to appoint the most unruly student as the class representative.One key responsibility of the representative was to maintain peace when teachers were not around .The hope was that bestowing responsibility on key troublemaker would go a long way in curbing the unruly behaviour in the class .The strategy did succeed for a brief while .However the other troublemakers in the class could not reconcile to the serial 'lawbreaker' suddenly transforming himself in to a rigid enforcer of discipline .Uneasy clam prevailed before the natural inclinations of the riotous class representative took over and class plunged to utter chaos as he tried to combat the troublemakers.

The current Lok Sabha is witnessing something similiar to this.When he was in the opposition benches the Stalinist Speaker of the current Lok Sabha was in the forefront of creating ruckus in the parliament on the flimsy grounds.He could be heard interrupting the speeches of his fellow parliamentarians with acerbic retorts .

He merrily continues to muzzle the voice of opposition .Coming from the land of Sedappati Muthiah and P.H Pandian,i am not new to the misuse of power and privileges by the speaker.By usurping unlimited power to gag , Somnath might give a new life to the PH.Pandian coinage "வானளவிய அதிகாரம்"(sky high powers)

Update-
Exemplary disciplinary record of Somnath Chaterjee

Breaking News-Spin Twins strike again

2008-04-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

India' deadliest spin duo operate in tandem once again and there is no suprise that outcome is predictable.This is blatantly biased ,deceitful intervention done at the bidding of their political benefactors, to sway the undecided electorate .

The duo indulged in similiar kind of charade before the assembly election in Punjab,Uttaranchal,Gujarat,UP,TN(where they got the total number rights courtesy the net effect of two horrendously wrong region wise predictions) .Of course they also periodically indulge in that third grade studio psephology called the State of Nation polls .However the electorate proved smarter and the duo ended up with egg on their face.But i suspect that this time around,duo 's predictions could do the trick for the Congress party.The urban voters of Karnataka who are known to be heavily inclined to a particular political party might now change their voting preferences to hitch on to the bandawagon of Congress party that is alleged to be leading the race.The polls might particularly have a significant effect on the voter preferences in Bangalore.Pro-Congress Deccan Herald group and its sister Kannada publication have tremendous reach in Karnataka and the findings of this charlatans is likely to be splashed far and wide.In a politically aware state like Karnataka, undecided Voters disllusioned by political stability might also be influenced by this exercise

I seriously feel that there is a strong case for banning the pre-election opinion polls

And ofcourse doling out Padma Shri's does help

Loathsome IPL

2008-04-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

The spectacle of that Bollywood starlet already reveling in her new role as a Corporate Czarina (bankrolled by her billionaire businessman boyfriend) consoling an exasperating cricketer prompted this post .Not so long ago, this teary-eyed cricketer was bandied by one–time contender to the post of UN General secretary as the poster boy of India ’s newfound belligerence.

IPL is proving to be loathsome. And be assured that it’s not because of those scantily clad cheerleaders. If our cultural left ,right and centre permit , they could probably be the only thing to look forward to about the IPL matches. Just to list out a few that i find repugnant about IPL

1. Its crony capitalism at its worst .As always Ashok Mallick is brilliant in exposing the machinations of those who conceived this circus. Astronomical figures for which cricketers were auctioned prompted few bloggers to unabashedely celebrate IPL as true testimony to the power of market. One blogger who is often overcome by delusionary tendencies had no qualms in arguing that IPL auction could convince Indian masses, deeply suspicious about the reforms, to see merit in market driven model. Early evidence indicates IPL being nothing more than a rapacious moneylaundering scheme conceived by Lalith Modi, the barron from Baramati, his unscrupulous cohorts in cricket babudom (epitomized by despicable scumbags like Congress MP Rajeev Shukla) and coterie of ex-cricketers turned commentators from Mumbai.

2. IPL threatens to reduce cricket from an egalitarian and wholesome sport that captivated millions of India to a garrish K Jo variety Bollywood production about the life and times of Hinglish upperclasses usually patronised by the multiplex crowd. IPL appears to be less about the cricketing pyrotechnics of players on the field and more about the intolerable antics of that overated Bollywood showman and his clique. Down south the equally unbearable actor called Vijay is the brand ambassador of Chennai team

3. Organising IPL on regional lines could easily undermine the largely successful Indian identity project. Cricket as been one of the cornerstone on which Indian identity has been created. Even powerful civilizational narrative advocated by resurgent nationalist forces in this country has not been able to achieve this. In a cricket crazy country parochial regional forces could foment hatred exploiting incident like Sreesanth-Harbhajan flareup. I dread to imagine if say someone like Praveen Kumar gets in to a duel with Mumbaikar cricketer. Rascal politicans from Thackeray clan could have run amock .For example CPM including the Stalinist speaker of Parilament has shown tremendous alacrity in linking Ganguly issue to Bengali identity .If region based IPL system strengthens, gone are the days when Tendulkar, even if booed by the boorish Bombay crowd would be lustily cheered by his legion of fans in Chennai.

I wish this is the first and last edition of IPL.

'Citizen' Khan'?.Bravo Bhaichung

2008-04-02T01:07:00.000-07:00

Not long ago we witnessed the media orchestrated metamorphosis of reclusive Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan in to conscience -driven celebrity dissenter. Riding the wave of his new found status as a poster boy of left-liberal studio activism, Aamir was even christened as ‘Citizen Khan’ by PadmaShri Rajdeep Sardesai in one of those umpteen ‘special’ shows. Aamir Khan was holding fort on range of contemporary issues to a studio full of Delhi PYTs (for the uninitiated PYT-beautiful upper class Delhi Girls who among other things might find Rahul Gandhi charming). Aamir’s pronouncements were manifestly prosaic but the PYTs were swooning over the ‘profound ‘ insights ‘Citizen’ Khan was dishing out on the historic significance of each of his movies.

Ofcourse the subtext for the media to indulge in frenzied courting of Aamir Khan, who is otherwise reported to treat the media with contempt, was a subtle hint of brewing confrontation with a Chief Minister who has been subjected to unparalleled vilification by the disgraced Indian Media. It always helped that Aamir Khan made ‘path breaking’ movies like ‘Fanaa’, which for the first time spoke about pet left-liberal issues like plebiscite. Carefully staged ‘gestures’ in the full glare of arch lights like expressing solidarity with NBA protestors did add to his aura among the ‘bold’ and ‘beautiful youth of this nation atleast among those who were ‘infused’ with multiplex mutinous syndrome after watching the villainous Modi like politician in ‘Range De Basanti’. As Aamir Khan and producers laughed their way to the banks through the spectacular success of their movies,’ Citizen’ Khan disappeared in to the background with no visible signs of activism. For the media it was back to days of insufferable Rahul Bose as the token studio representative for cerebral celebrity activism

Bhaichung Bhutia did not have any media endorsements of his citizenship .But that has not stopped him from displayed exemplary moral courage and conviction in refusing to be associated with the butchers of Beijing in their dubious propaganda, which is what the Olympic games is. By this act Bhutia has shown us how it’s possible for common citizens to demonstrate their commitment to democratic ideals .While thecapitulation of the communist supported UPA government to the unscrupulous Han Imperialist is shameful,its public acts of courage by individual citizens and groups that keeps the vibrant Indian democratic tradition alive .

'Citizen’ Khan has given a convoluted justification for associating himself with Olympic torch ceremony. Try as he may, he cannot camouflage the fact that commercial consideration motivates his decisions rather than any lofty intentions .Or it could well be that oppression in Iraq or Afghanistan by US could or NBA agitatation against Modi government is what strikes emotional chord in Aamir Khan's heart.The selective heart-bledding has been consistent hallmark of left liberal intelligenstia .

Sound byte or two against 'fascist' nature of Gujarat state and its pretty sure that Indian media will eulogise you

Update 1-Nitin Pai ' excellent take on this

Update 2-Shri B.Raman weighs in

Sho Shweet............

2008-03-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

Prince Charming with killer looks .Celina Jaitley told us long back

Propaganda Journalism

2008-03-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

If you get past the the Marxist infested editorial board, South China Post boasts of impressive line up of journalist who easily pass off propaganda as journalism. Vidya Subramanian leads the pack with Harish Khare not trailing her by much. Of course all this is if you don't count Neena Vyas exposed for peddling such an outright lie that editor-in-chief has to issue a public apology as a damage control measure.

Vidya typically provides amusement during election campaigns with her template pieces on how the poor, unwashed Indian masses throng the rally of Sonia / Rahul and how a perceptible upswing in electoral fortunes of Congress can be discerned courtesy their visit. She was a political clairvoyant who predicted Narendra Modi's imminent exit in the Gujarat elections. But this time the Vidya ventures to conquer newer frontiers of journalism and she does that effortlessely without compromising on her humour quiotient. Vidya applauds Indian media for not indulging in kind of relentless scrutiny that the media in US subjects their key political players to. Vidya then bemoans that Indian media blotted their copybook by going overboard in unravelling the misdemeanours of P.Patil

Does it not even remotely occur to Vidya that when a despicable provinical politican who is alleged to have indulged in looting money from toiling farmers gets picked out of obscurity and pitchforked as the presidential candidate of this republic ,its bound to attract attention. Does Vidya expect that there would not be strident opposition against person who earned the post as a reward for managing the kitchen at Janpath and as a deferred wage for a career of shamlesse sycophancy? For once, a small section of largerly disgraced Indian media attempted to uncover the criminal antecedents of P.Patil, disssect her utterly communal thought process and highlight undemoctratic nature of her discourse.

Vidya also peddles some dubious propaganda on the nature of strident opposition Sonia Gandhi that faced early in her political career .She does that by writing this

her Italian antecedents did not matter to her voters just as they did not matter to a media (excluding the saffron kind) otherwise trenchantly critical of thedynasty.

This is the link of expose that Frontline(magazine edited by Vidya's boss N.Ram) ran on Sonia Gandhi in 2001.The simple truth is that issue of Sonia Gandhi's nationality deeply troubles most Indians irrespective of their political persuasions.

If doing this simple background check process by the media comes under attack from their fellow tribeswomen, it’s no suprise that Indian Media has plumbed to such depths

Exorcising the Kandahar Ghost

2008-03-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

There is no mistaking that Kandahar hijacking has become an albatross around BJP's neck. It comes as little surprise that a slimy spinmeister of Congress party in the Indian MSM has been gleefully exploiting the eerie silence of BJP’ top leadership in explaining its woeful ineptitude in handling the incident.

Even in his imminently readable memoirs, Jaswant Singh did not provide any the convincing rationale for personally escorting the dreaded Islamic terrorist to safety of Taliban’ embrace. All that I remember him writing was his presence in Kandahar was required to facilitate quick decision-making process. One can only speculate on reason behind Jaswant Singh’s decision but its definitely much more than his mere lack of confidence on the inept Indian babudom

While the shameful capitulation to the Islamic Militants can be partially attributed to the public opinion swayed by noisy demonstration by relatives of the passengers (orchestrated by Lady Karat accompanied with dramatic television footages in her family news channel), the NDA government cannot escape blame for several blunders including losing the plot in Amristar.

Jaswant Singh, who can otherwise be credited with skilfully manoeuvring India through geopolitical complexities that India encountered during his stewardship , owes to himself, his party and the nation to lay bare the complete facts on the Kandahar fiasco especially on his decision to personally escort dreaded trio to the Kandahar

Kuthu Music

2008-03-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

As a rule,i identify myself with any form of protest against the tyranny of 'Metropolitan Intellectual Elitism' .Personally encountered kool dudes who think its kind of 'trendy' and 'fashionable' to identify with Gangsta Rap,Hip Hop and idolise Eminem.Nothing wrong with it.But then its usually accompanied by condescension for any form of native creative expression

Tamil Kuthu musc is a vibrant subaltern tradition that largerly evolved as a protest music of the marginalised .To their credit,Tamil Music Directors have co-opted and creately experimented with this form of music sometimes to terrific effect

Enjoy the latest chartbuster that is improvisation based on Kuthu music.Its a remarkable piece of composition

Pol Pot Pandian writes to the Editor-in-Chief,The Hindu

2008-03-18T00:28:00.000-07:00

Respected Editor,

While the entire bourgeoisie media with deeply entrenched links to the imperialist powers is sparing no efforts to indulge in malicious propaganda against the permanent government of People’s Republic of China for its alleged ‘repression’ in Tibet, I sincerely appreciate your newspaper’s earnest efforts not to fall victim to this concerted campaign of calumny

The coverage of Tibet episode has enhanced my long-standing respect for your newspaper and in my humble opinion clearly exemplifies the newspaper’s exemplary commitment to progressive democratic values and commendable commitment to highlight the voice of the marginalized and emasculated proletariat whose very existence has been under ruthless assault by neo-liberal forces

It was with great sense of shock and despair that I read the diary of the hapless, distraught visitor who was an eyewitness to the recent ‘violence’ in Tibet in today's edition. It was quite illuminating as it clearly exposes the Tibetan monks for what they are, religious fanatics in the guise of saffron robes. As relentless crusaders against Hindu fascism, the violent unleashed in Tibet comes as no surprise to the progressive, secular and democratic forces .The rioting hooligans in Lhasa essentially derive their ideological sustenance from the same set of ‘Dharmic’ ethos that drove the marauding mobs in Gujarat to kill over 10,000 Muslims

The entire Dalai Lama movement is a spurious pseudo spiritual movement that is bankrolled by business interests in the west who view People’s Republic of China as an emerging threat. By ‘intelligently’ co-opting charismatic figures from popular culture and influential voices from the intelligentsia, English speaking Dalai Lama has managed to provide a façade of respectability to the movement and successfully managed to camouflage its nakedly violent designs

People’s Republic of China is a shinning example of open, tolerant multi ethnic society with Majority Hans living in perfect harmony with religious minorities .By systematically planning and deliberately targeting Muslim minorties in Lhasa, the murderous monks have clearly proved that they want to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in Tibet prevailing under the enlightened rule of Permanent government of People’s Republic of China. Its no coincidence that this ‘riots’ happens just few months before China is about to demonstrate to the world through the Beijing games that economic, social and cultural progress can be achieved without resorting to neo-liberal economic policies

I hope that the permanent government of People’s Republic of China under the inspiring leadership of Hu Xintao is no distracted by this bogus bourgeoisie calls for ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ and continue in its march following the path laid out by great visionaries like Mao

The UPA government also deserves kudos for adroitly handling the situation. The influence of progressive, secular and democratic forces in this government has really helped it not succumbing to the designs of representatives of reactionary forces who disrupted the parliament demanding official ‘condemnation’

I am sure that your newspaper and its fearless correspondent in Beijing Ms Aiyar will continue this balanced and objective coverage of China

I wish to conclude by saying that your newspaper richly deserves its tag as “India’s National Newspaper”.

Pol Pot Pandian
Melaneelithanallur
Tirunelveli District

Obama

2008-03-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

Gaurav must be smiling as the relentless scrutiny by the American media ensures that skeletons in the cupboard of Obama keep tumbling and his carefully cultivated 'flawless' persona increasingly unravels .For long I think Obama escaped examination as a perverted sense of political correctness appeared to have afflicted large section of American media.Given that a bigoted purveyor of the liberation theology who considers venow spewing Louis Fraakhan as his source of inspiration spiritually tutored him, little wonder Barak Obama is the toast of the left-liberal intelligenstia.

Liberation Theology is brillant but cunningly crafted mobilisation strategy that decives the depressed and marginalised to believe that Jesus of Nazreth was the first comrade who protested against the injustices in the world. It’s a pernicious ideology that seamlessely combines religious fanaticism with bogus concern for the poor. Closer home,the deadly Naxalite movement has been skillfully co-opted by the charlatans from this dangerous school of Christian theology. Subscribers to this ideology are not insignificant in number in social sciences/socilogy departments of prestigious Christist colleges in our country.. Many of them could be well intentioned, articulate with grounding in philosophy but they are indoctrinated in the liberation philosphy to the point of no return

i dont have any interest in American electoral politics other than from a purely Indian interest perspective i think McCain might not be a bad choice.He appears to reasonably enlightened indivdual without any ideological baggage

Friends in Blogosphere

2008-03-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

Lalita, a very good friend of my wife, maintains this delightful blog .She is a witty conversationist . She seamlessely blends humour with astute observations in her blog

In college he used to be reverentially called as ASS .Anand’ blog is a manifestation of his deep erudition .I am yet to come across a person with such eceletic interests.

Good friend Pallavi has started blogging recently and already churned out couple of lovely posts. She appears to have arrived at a perfect recipe by combining cartography and culinary skills

Harsh Verma, who recently published a book on management models based on Avatara concept that is deeply embedded in our Itihasas, is a truly inspired individual with deep commitment to Indic civilization. He used to run a blog in Sulekha and some of his posts were masterpieces. And it was pity throughout our time in college, little did I know that Harsh and me shared certain kind of ideological inclination

Paresh is a bundle of energy and ideas .4 day, 4500 km road trip across the length and bredth of Canada was his idea and inspiration. His travel blog is a work in progress

Note to Gaurav-Your evil mind might discern that a certain style of blogging adopted here.But please be assured that with a readership base of 6(her highness claims that she does frequent my blog these days),i do not suffer from any delusions of grandeur.

Gandhi and Gandhi

2008-03-12T06:05:00.000-07:00

By some distance, the greatest Indian of the 20th Century was Mahatma Gandhi.Rescuing the freedom struggle from the tyranny of intellectuals by drawing ideological inspiration and spiritual sustenance from Dharmic traditions of this great land, he truly build a groundswell of grassroot support by his personal austerity and impeccable integrity. He invigorated a civilization that had gone in deep slumber, marauded as it was by bloodthirsty invaders and pillaging imperialists

As Gaurav had observed in his incisive post, Gandhi’s fault was never his intentions .He fundamentally believed in the goodness of human nature. .He perhaps woefully understimated the forces of fanaticism that originated in the bleak landscape of Arabian desert few centuries back and till this day shows no sign of subsiding. He thought that they could be accommodated within the splendidly tolerant tradition of Santana Dharma

What even his most virulent critics would never fault is his call to dissolve the Congress party once India gained indepedence. For him Congress party was merely a project to overthrow the imperialists .He clearly realised that once this objective was achieved it will degenerate in to corrupt and immoral entity. How prophetic he was given the levels that this party has descended. Its now a discredited outfit, family enterprise run on feudal basis. Probably only a shade better than parties in our neighbouring country where legal will decide who gets to take over so-called democratic parties

After 4 billion USD was spend/earmarked only to come up with bad old corrupt bureaucracy tale, the party appears to be banking on 15 billion USD plan to ensure that that Crown Prince ‘s coronation.Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a discovery of India cheered on by the predictable media spindoctors with our favourite Barkha wannabe(without either the style or the skill) too quite excited .And Rahul appears to have answers for everything including reviving fortunes of Indian Hockey.Probably Mani Shankar Aiyar can smile now

Rahul ‘discovering’ India is a welcome exercise.Electoral inconsequence of Congress in constituencies were our celebrated scion sets foot is a established statistical fact .Since Psephologists operating in first family friendly media cannot be expected to do such a exercise , a quick correlational analysis on the performance of Congress party in constituencies were the charlatan Gandhi campaigns is a quite revealing.Infact in several constitutencies in Punjab,UP,Gujarat and HP the voting % of Congress falls dramatically

The spindoctors are excited too.Its now confirmed that chief of Congress media cell is Shekhar Gupta .Trust Gupta dude to find virtue in even in the most dubious act of Congress by inventing some spurious logic to justify it.And when Manmohan throw his pretense of nicety and indulges in some empty anti-BJP rhetoric ,Gupta and Congress cohorts Indian MSM appears to achieve their journalistic orgasm.’Combative Manmohan bares his fist’ is becoming a predictable copy

Does Congress and their media folks seriously believe that Indian masses are so gullible that they cannot see through this poorly disguised electoral gimmick that is sure to pay no electoral dividends to Congress.Its sure to cost national exchequer a huge sum providing security to the scion and his entourage of sycophants

This blog sincerely wishes that Rahul Gandhi fullfills Mahatma Gandhi's wishes

Comrade Media creates false heroes

2008-02-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

Comrade Media worships false heroes

One is a despicable politician who through his malignant brand of politics further impoverished the already suffering masses of Bihar .Another is a reel life hero, a serial delinquent and still a potentially dangerous gangster. These two contemptible characters, both of whom should have been rendered inconsequential in the national discourse, have rather remarkably ‘reinvented’ themselves.

The politician is now apparently a financial 'wizard' and turnaround 'expert' and regularly gets invited to the so-called top business schools in the country for preaching his brand of 'native' financial wisdom. The actor is 'credited' to have helped millions of India ‘spiritually’ reconnect with the great Mahatma courtesy his propagation of spurious Bollywood brand of pop Gandhism called Gandhigiri. Thanks to generous help from the comrade media, they are now basking in the glory of their ‘purported’ achievements .Its not difficult to decipher the reason for their image transformation orchestrated by the media. One need not look beyond the perverted political belief systems that comrade media has lend intellectual respectability in last one-decade, by safely disguising it in the language of ‘social justice’ and ‘secularism’. While Laloo was the torchbearer of ‘Social Justice’ brigade, Sanjay Dutt is the professional secularist‘s ultimate delight. Hindu-Muslim mixed blood, close bond with Islamic underworld of Mumbai, a father who was the embodiment of dhimmitude (who by the way had no compunction in being friendly with rascal politicians like Thackeray), sister who is a charismatic Rahulgen politican, disputed marriage with an item girl with a Hindu pseudonymn and possible role in Mumbai serial blasts. Teesta Satlvad ‘s dream profile of ‘victim’ if there was one.

Even as he was bankrupting Bihar and more dangerously keeping out determinedly even a iota of economic progress by practicing a cynical brand of electoral engineering that kept his state perpetually pauperized, the left intelligentsia in the world of media, academia and fanciful new disciplines like psephology were rapturously cheering him on as the ‘champion’ of social justice. As million of Biharis leave the state to seek livelihood outside, comrade media is busy now training the gun on the hapless Nitish Kumar who is sincerely trying to salvage the damage wrought by his celebrity predecessor. That he happens to be on the wrong side of the political divide adds to his predicament.

One is pretty sure that those in the vanguard of Indian media, though probably not the best and brightest in the country (or why else did they end up there) are at least smart enough to understand this charade of Railway turnaround That a monopoly rail services provider in a booming economy generating handsome profits is hailed as a ‘miracle’ is simply laughable and clearly shows that low levels of expectation that years of Nehruvian rate of growth has burdened us with. And when informed observers call Laoo’s bluff, the simple retort by the comrade media is “Why then did Laloo’s successors not achieve it” .The question needs to be ignored for its sheer stupidity.

Meanwhile our Bollywood hero finds himself in the wrong side of the law once again. Apparently some Abdul that Manayata was married earlier has resurfaced and challenged the validity of the marriage. And so the much- married star has now decided to annul his recent marriage. Habitual offender of law if there was one .

Laloo will continue to have the unstinted support of his numerically significant caste who will turn up in enough numbers to provide RJD enough seats to be a important player in the national scence. As Atanu says, all that we have is a cargo cult democracy while we delude that we are a great democratic country.

And of course the cinema obsessed Indian public will continue to patronize stars like Sanjay Dutt waiting with bated breath for the next installment of Gandhigiri

And comrade media will continue creating and celebrating false heroes

Pocahontas......

2008-02-20T02:50:00.000-08:00

Imaginary tales of romantic conquests appears to be a proven methodolgy of rewriting history ,primarily to whitewash tyranny of the marauding invaders

Do read the posthumous legend of Pocahontas .Bollywood better stick to skin flicks .You make them better than anybody else in the business

Whatever be,the protestors better follow Atanu's word of wisdom

Coming Soon…Natwarlal in BJP

2008-02-20T02:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Gaurav for the pointer

The ‘holier than thou’ attitude never fails to manifest in BJP’S pronouncement given that the party has usurped for itself the role of ‘moral’ custodian of Indian political system. Top stalwarts of the party (Vajpayee/Advani/Modi/Shourie/Jaswant) might be enlightened individuals with high personal integrity quotient. But beyond the party is barely distinguishable from any other political formation when it comes to indulging in indefensible acts of immorality and cynical political opportunism

In the late 90’s it had no qualms in cosying up to dubious characters like Sukh Ram and Buta Singh.Its currently courting an alliance with Jayalalitha who was singularly responsible for unceremonious exit of its government when she joined forces with Sonia Gandhi to dislodge them from power. And now through its flirtation with decadent political player like Natwarlal, it has clearly proved that party has come a long way from the heydays of early 90’s when it was seen as an inspirational ideological movement that stands for genuine nationalist resurgence. Political compulsions of BJP are understandable as it will fighting against overwhelming odds to retain power in Rajastan and it can do with whatever little support it can garner from any quarter But than there should certain minimum benchmarks of political propriety that political formation should adhere to and steadfastly stick to them.

Natwar epitomise the antithesis of what BJP stands He is the archetypal ‘nauseating Nehruvian’ .Natwar blazed a glorious trail even if one goes the standards set by brazenly corrupt Indian political class.He is probably the only politician who made millions through intricately planned and executed international commercial operation even when he in the opposition .BJP was in the forefront of demanding his removal by obstructing parliament (and rightfully so) as the government was initially trying to shield him.Its now executed a stunning somersault by cosying up to a politican whose scalp it demanded in the parliament

Incremental addition of 1% to its votebank in Rajastan delivered by Natwar Singh courtesy its hold over his bastion of Bharatpur can never be a strong enough reason to cohabit with dubious political operators

All that ails Indian cricket....

2008-02-17T23:15:00.000-08:00

Pretty simple.....Munaf Patel

‘Eminent’ commentators in the ESPN stable have launched yet another scathing attack on the hapless Munaf Patel

The tirade began during the Indo-Pakistan domestic series when Munaf was striving manfully on designer pitches tailormade for his spin colleagues. ESPN eminences are pretty categorical that its Munaf's lackadaisical fielding and obvious inability to wield the willow that often costs India dearly. Obviously you cannot really blame them for ridiculing Munaf given that an 'awesome' allrounder from Mumbai is cooling his heels and instead a wretched, awkward looking but supremely skilled Gujarat bowler is figuring in the Indian scheme of things. The vociferous Bengal brigade is always there to provide the requisite lung power to ‘Munaf is useless’ campaign of calumny - they believe that Munaf has usurped the slot that rightfully belongs to Ranadeep Bose (innocuous, pedestrain bowler though treated unfairly by the selectors). Right now Munaf by some distance is clearly the favourite whipping boy of cricket chatterati.

It appears that the very sight of Munaf nonchalantly walking back to his bowling mark leads to disparaging analysis of his supposed attitude.Definitely Munaf is ‘laidback’ especially when you contrast it with the ‘briskness’ with which Agarkar used to operate never mind that he get consistently slaughtered by the batsmen. It’s the on field theatrics that counts. Afterall this is new fearless Indian team infused with ‘Chak De’ spirit where aggression and age is of paramount importance, skill be damned

Recovering from his injury and playing for the first time down under, lanky speedster from Gujarat bowled an impressive spell consistently clocking 140KMPH upwards and operated beautifully in tandem with Ishant to restrict the Australians who looked menacing when they commenced the innings. But at the end of the game, all that he appears to have even gained is further ridicule. Already under attack after two successive losses and facing justified criticism on strange selections decsions, Dhoni will exercise the easy option of axing Munaf to appease his growing number of critics at least partially. It’s strange that more pressing problems like continued failures of Yuvaraj, the transformation of Dhoni to a scratchy, strokless wonder, an excessive reliance on the great Tendulkar and patchy form of T20 superstars will be swept under the carpet but single act of misfield from Munaf would warrant such a huge outcry and possible omission from the team. Way to go, Team India .

A simpleton living in his own little beautiful world but who has always acquitted himself creditably when he has bowled (free of injuries) Munaf will be made scapegoat for collective failure of the team .

The influence that failed cricketers of yesteryears have been wielding on shaping public opinion through their disproportionate presence in the media is becoming a dangerous phenomenon. Take for example someone like Ravi Shastri ,who epitomised the quintessentially mediocre Indian cricketer of late 80’s and early 90’s when India was consistently decimated by most international sides.A clichéd cricket commentator if there was one, he is pretty damning in his assessment of players

One cannot be blamed for to thinking that its Munaf who is the stumbling block for the struggling Indian side to regain its world beating ways. Munaf is definitely a shabby fielder no doubt but he does have the skill to be a regular part of Indian bowling attack

Nauseating Nehruvians

2008-02-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

Atanu is at his blistering best, blogging on the decision of the Indian Government to fund Cambridge University Rs 26,00,00,000 (US$ 6,500,000) to support the ‘Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise.’ .The paradox is that the scholarship is on

‘Business and Enterprise’ for which Nehru had deep disdain

Left-liberal intelligentsia, which has rapaciously profited from the patronage dispensation regimes run by Nehru-Gandhee family (not from the family’s own deep pockets but from government coffers), has been tactfully exploiting its stranglehold on vital societal instruments (governance, media, and academia) to elevate Nehru veneration to abominable levels. It was shameful that critical assessment of Nehru policies was unheard of in India even few years back especially given that his economic policies have clearly deprived million of Indians a decent standard of living and his diplomatic grandstanding as a peacenik has left our country paying the price even today

Nehruvian worshippers have ensured that everything from roads, bridge, colleges, universities, scientific/research institutions, poverty eradication schemes, urban renewal programmes, museums, stadiums, irrigation programmes, employment schemes is named either Jawahar or Nehru(Crematoriums and lavatories have been mercifully sparred).Even if one chooses to ignore this, the most telling damage has been wrought in the form of 'Panditji' culture that pervades the Indian intelligentsia-the haughtiness that emanates from their spurious ‘moral' superiority and superciliousness that camouflages their shallow pseudo-intellectualism. Brown sahibs sprouting Nehruvian non-sense usually from elitist, upper class families have been dominating all walks of cultural life in India and emasculated this country.

I would not be surprised if 50 years from now Indian Government no doubt headed evne then by some progeny of the discredited Nehru-Gandhee dynasty will fund a scholarship in one of those several colleges/universities that Rahul Gandhi is alleged to have been 'educated'It could be on 'Mobile Communication' .Oops ,i forgot that Rajiv Gandhi ushered in the 'computer revolution' in this country and even got a premier IT institute named after him

Poor Gangacharan , Lucky Pratibha and Rajdeep

2008-01-28T21:07:00.000-08:00

Poor Gangacharan Rajput in a bizarre display of sycophancy(act unsurpassed so far even by my Dravidian bretherns and sisters in DMK/ ADMK ) nearly decided to shoot himself, protesting against the Sonia Gandhi after the lady's 'inner voice' suddenly spoke and led her in to performing the great 'renunciation' act

Looks like this Congressi has not been really rewarded for his trigger-happy ways.No Rajya Sabha ticket or any other crumbs for this OBC Lodh Rajput

Smt.Pratibha Patil ,family loyalist with dismal political record and dubious financial antecedents including bankrupting co-operative bank that she presided over .

Today she presides over this nation.Supremer Commander of India's armed forces.

Son-in-law of Doordarshan ex-honcho and reigning Superstar of Indian TV Journalism.Congress party has won spectacularly in every national elections survey produced and directed in the CNN-IBN studio since 2004

Manmohan Singh and P.Chidambaram won the Indian of the Year award instituted by Sardesai channel in 2006/2007 through a robust selection process involving complex weighted statistical process.Simple coincidence that Sardesai has just been awarded 'Padma Shri and will be honoured by Smt.Pratibha.

This blog sincerely wishes that he gets the South Mumbai Congress ticket for the 2009 election

PS-Someone calling himself as Rajdeep'colleague had this to say in Churumuri (a really fine blog from Mysore) .That idiot better be told that for doing his job passionately ,Rajdeep gets paid a huge handsome salary.(I guess he should not be making anything less than Rs 40 million rupees/year without factoring in his shares etc) .Sainath why not compare the kind of money that Journalist make with what the poor farmer in the countryside makes when you write one of your long essays next time around

Pragati-The Indian National Interest Review

2008-01-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

You should read Pragati-The Indian National Interest Review. Influential voices in the blogosphere like Nitin Pai,Atanu Dey and Yossarin contribute regularly and it makes a great reading.

Another remarkable thing about Pragati is its ability to maintain consistently high quality even after providing space to bloggers of this kind

Read the latest issue of Pragati and subscribe to it(subsciption costs nothing).

Modi will lose...........

2007-12-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

Psephology was something that i got interested in late 90's .Yogendra Yadav was impressive those days .This blog turned a fierce critic of Yogendra Yadav when he began indulging in those 'State of the Nation' type studio psephology in the company of ruling party spinmesiters.This said,to his credit he has been attempting of late to regain the valuable goodwill that he frittered away by tightening up his process and struggling successfully to overcome the influence of his ideological predilections on the primary job of forecasting.I think in calling the Gujarat election he has done a great job.It would have been easy for him to be subsumed by the vengaeance with MSM went after Modi .

Based on years of following opinion polls/exit closely ,there are few golden rules i have arrived at .One such rule is - seat projection for BJP tends be inflated in exit polls.I cannot remember the last time that BJP surpassed what an exit polls electoral projected for it in terms of seats (Rajastan 2003 ?)

I think tommorow might be Indian MSM's greatest moment of 'glory'.Modi would lose sounding death knell for BJP .

I would be happy if the real outcome is contrary to my prediction

Angry Scientist wants to burn Bangalore.....

2007-12-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Spurred on by socialist media,Angry Scientist wants to burn Bangalore.....

In its special issue on the eve of India's 60th independence day, The Hindu, a Chennai-based Communist mouthpiece published one of Amartya Sen’s typically labored constructs, an essay purportedly on India's global attainments . Like in any of his writings, in this too Amartya Sen prevaricated ceaselessely to camouflage his profound predilection for Marxian dogmas .Not suprisingly essay on India was skillfully steered towards making a dubious claim that Kolkatta is the ‘safest’ metropolis in the world.This was achieved by resorting to statistical deceit. The tacit message that Amartya as an ideological fellow traveller wanted to communicate was that the ‘low’ rate of crime in Kolkatta is attributable to the city being the bastion of Left-Liberal intelligenstia’, not to forget that its capital city of the state ruled uninterrupted by discredited Indian communist for more than three decades now.

To be fair to Amartya Sen, Kolkatta is indisputably the metropolis with maximum number of ‘intellectuals’ per Sq.Km (given the ‘tough’ entry barrier set for admission in to the charmed clique of eminent left-liberals in India) .The exemplary ‘activism’ displayed by eminent citizens like Mrinal Sen during the protests that erupted over Nandigram is symptomatic of the robust ‘intellectual’ culture of Kolkata that Amartya justifiably takes pride in

Prior to his essay claiming Kolkatta as the safest haven in planet earth, the same newspaper had published the complete text of Amartya Sen's speech to NAASCOM that stood out for its JFKian kind of exhortation. In that intelligently crafted speech he made a clarion call to IT industry to return the ‘favour’ that Chacha Nehruji has generously done to industry. He used the time-tested socialist strategem of inducing gulit by focussing on societal externalities that are not really germane to issue being discussed

A person of Amartya Sen’s calibre can afford to indulge in such fanciful socialist exercises on IT / urban trends .Obviously his track record of outstanding scholarship provides him that safety. But if some of his lesser-endowed comrades, especially one of those abound in the Indian Mainstream Media attempt to indulge in chimerical socialistic notions they expose themselves to scorn and ridicule that they rightfully deserve

Sugata Srinivasaraju, the Bangalore based hack of scotch socialist Vinod Mehta edited ragtag Outlook has just done that. To Sugata’s credit, he was being faithful to the sensationalist style that the magazine adopts, often throwing discretion to the wind and violating norms of journalistic propriety. Sugata indulges in deliberate mischief by turning very complex issues involved in the rapid urbanisation of Bangalore in to impending 'class' war that pits the ‘rich’ IT folks against the ‘poor’ other sections of the society .The 'war' is waiting to explode if we were to believe the article. Marxism might have been consigned to the dustbins of history in most parts of the world but in Indian the battle against the pernicious influence of that murderous ideology has not even began.

And what was more appalling was the vitriolic outpouring of Dr CN Rao, the scientific advisor to GOI against everybody’s favorite bogeyman the IT Industry.It’s been few days since his essay has appeared in print and Dr Rao has not retracted/clarified any of what he has written(given Outlook’s proclivity to misrepresent). One can now safely assume he believes what he has written.Dr.Rao’s credentials as Scientist might be outstanding but it does send shivers down my spine that these kind of petty people with such limited perspective occupy crucial positions in scientific establishment (and reinforcing the cultural sterotype of South Indian as masala dosa eating clerical class with limited world view).

Even more disgusting was the kind of inflammatory tone adopted in Dr Rao’s essay-'If IT Is Going To Take Away Our Values, Burn Bangalore, Burn IT' says Dr.Rao.So lets gather mobs and burn the IT campuses in Electronic city and ITPL to safeguard the great 'culture' of Bangalore from the ‘assault’ of the IT Professionals .And then probably relish and celebrate that by eating Masala Dosa in Basvangudi.One could expect this kind of demagoguery from likes of Bal Thackerary. But this sort of rabble-rousing emanating from supposed thought leader of scientific community is simply shocking and unpardonable.Atanu has ripped apart the appalling views of this thoroughly confused scientist

If likes of Dr.Rao are quintessential products of the ‘intellectual’ and ‘scientific’ culture of bygone era in Bangalore that is now apparently facing threat with the surfeit of ‘Cyber Coolies’, I would not personally bemoan the demise of that ‘culture’.

This disturbing trend of pitching of IT Professionals against rest of the society appears to me as part of concerted campaign from the parasitic socialist class.As Nitin put it, IT industry is woefully ill-equipped to counter this campaign of calumny,since its till not found its political feet.Subroto Bagchi attempts a valiant defence but his voice is unlikely to be heard given that he lacks the public profile and media limelight that some of leading IT Industry captains enjoys

Outlook article cites instances of physical assaults on the IT professionals given the 'resentment' that other sections of society apparently nurses towards them.I read about a recent Tamil movie which indulges in the worst type of sterotyping of IT/BPO professional by giving exaggerated accounts about prosperity of IT professionals.

It would not be far-fetched claim to make - the safety of IT professionals are in potentially put danger because by these third-rate Kollywood dream merchants and shameless hacks (like Vinod Mehta) through their mischievous socialist propaganda.And if this happens ,expect the socialist parasites to jump in joy and tell "We told you so long back".

Indian Mainstream Media-True Merchants of Hate

2007-12-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

(Warning -Long post ,potentially communal.Also as per currently prevailing standards of public discourse can be classified as hate speech)

Without an iota of doubt Modi’s administrative acumen and record in governance is outstanding but I held the view that Modi was an albatross around BJP’ neck in advancing their electoral fortunes at the national level and possible impediment in achieving the objectives of any Indian centre right political project. But now i am increasingly reconciling to the view that Modi is a historical neccesity.

One has to see the newschannels to believe the virulence and viciousness with which the MSM goes after Modi.The ugly manifestation of this media manufactured ‘secular’ outrage over the purported ‘hate’ speech’ was evident in last night’s episode of ‘Face the Nation’ anchored by Vidya Shankar Aiyar, relative of Mani Aiyar and journalist of dubious antecedents who incidentally found himself on the wrong side of the law in Singapore not long ago. Like the proverbial devil quoting the scriptures, Vidya Aiyar was reading the portions of the law pertaining to hate speech. At end of it, he cut a sorry figure as he was unable to figure which part of the law Modi had breached .He miserably failed in his attempts to locate it within the contours of religious hate speech .He tried fitting his accusation in the framework of regional chauvinism. The he resorted to typical red herring perfected by these third-rate telejournalist when their inadequacies and subnormal intelligence levels are all too evident- invoking irrelevant comparison to obfuscate the issue .Then he tried to get the panelist involved in this dubious exercise.Lord Meghnad Desai(no fan of Modi) who was one of the panelist refused to come to poor Vidya ’s recue by clearly pointing out Modi did not breach any law(Desai had gone through the speech and felt the only thing Modi could be accused of was political incorrectness-fair point)

It is shocking that EC can slap notice based on this flimsy complaint by Teesta.I challenge any critics of Modi to point out which part of the election law has he violatedThis is link of Teesta’s complaint and EC’S notice http://www.eci.gov.in/press/current/NOTICETO%20CM%20GUJARAT.pdf.

WTF since when did allusion to Sohrabudding get translated as slur on the Muslim community.If i were a Muslim,i would feel humiliated by Teesta’s complaint and perverted sense of secularism that pitchforks Sohrabuddin as representative of the Muslim community

There is a grave threat to the democratic institutions in this country -its infiltrated by third rate scums whose credential starts and ends with unstinted loyalty to the first family.It sends shivers down this blogger’s spine that such dubious family bootlickers and people who managed the kitchen in 10 Janpath are now holding key constitutional positions

Meanwhile Advani and others in BJP are simply unable to recover from the malaise of ‘Panditji’ culture inflicted on the party by Vajpayee and his cohorts.Its sad to see Advani making pathetic conciliatory gestures when Sonia has launched no-holds barred campaign of hate against the party. Its time they rediscover the belliigerence that catapulted them in to the centrestage of politics.I was shocked to see Advani quoting The Hindu and N.Ram during the LS debate.Mr Advani- -you are one politican this blogger greatly admires but can't decipher why you are perpetually in search of ‘mainstream ‘respectability .For all your impeccable integrity and intellectual calibre you will never earn the respect of media and intelligenstia.It will be accorded to any lowly creatures with an certain surname.

Apologies for the digression.This blogger is pretty convinced that Modi brings out the worst form of hidden caste and class prejudices of Indian MSM.He belongs to a poor backward caste group (point that hardly gets mentioned in the MSM which otherwise has no qualms in celeberating Laloo type of regressive OBC politics) He is emerging as pan India leader. He is only politician in India who believes in genuine economic reforms.He is not the suave English speaking type but his achievements tower in comparison to the paper tigers.True man of action who has delivered on social and economic front.

Likes of Sardesai and Barkha clearly recognise that Modi is the only challenge to the pretty,young ‘handsome’ Congress faces whom this parasitic journalist class wants to rule the country.In reward of sycophantic services,these journalist will get to wine and dine with the Gen Next politicans and write pieces boasting of their closeness to the ruling class by giving teasers and tidbits about their personal lives as proof of it.Ofcourse they will line up their pockets too.Such bloody creatures these journos are

One has to give credit to the forces who are in the forefront of this campaign of calumny launched against Modi i.e closet Abrahimic fundamentalists masquerading as secularist (likes of Javed Akhtar/Teesta) ,overt fundamentalist and religious bigots like Father Cedric Prakash , the dubious professional secularist and sections of Indian MSM (which is in connivance with the first family and has enormously profited itself courtesy the crumps thrown at them by the Family ).They have great sense of history.They clearly recognise the implication of a Narendra Modi victory in the election.What explains the vigor and energy with which Sonia is campaigning .Modi is the greatest stumbling block to the covert ,subtle religious agenda of the Abrahamic religious forces who have contrary to all their expectation,met with stiff and determined challenge in India

Also final word on Indian Express-how long will that scumbag Shekhar Gupta continue this existence as sycophantic spindoctor of the first family.Not a word on ‘Merchant of death ‘ speech but he loses no time in writting editorial on Modi’s speech.Hypocrite of the worst order

Incredible Mr Dey on Parenting

2007-12-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Samriddhi is in really privileged company. She shares her birthday with incredible Mr Dey (coinage credit- Gaurav).Her father fervently hopes that Samriddhi grows up to possess, atleast in small measure the intellectual prowess and wisdom of the illustrious blogger with whom she shares her birthday.

Atanu was at his profound best as he wished this blogger well well and pithily summed up the challenge of parenting

"Child rearing must be the most important duty that a human being has if one chooses to be a parent. You pretty much hold the key to her reaching her potential. Potentially she is capable of an infinite variety of being -- what she actually becomes is critically dependent on you. What an awesome privilege and responsibility. I wish you all the best”

Paternity Break......

2007-11-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

Honestly the greatest reward of blogging thus far has been successfully establishing a faithful readership base of 5( generous estimate?)

In case you are among the 5 faithfuls wondering why this recent inactivity,its because a beautiful baby girl has been providing me immense joy ever since she was born on the 3rd of November .

Bring Back Agarkar

2007-10-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

'Colonel'-Enough of scheming and manipulation.

Please bring back Agarkar.Why go through the devious,tortuous route of picking up Praveen Kumar. The guy is a cruel joke inflicted by 'Colonel' and his cohorts to resurrect Agarkar's fortunes ,decoy for 'Bombay Duck' to book his ticket to tour down under

I am writing this as i view Praveen bowl in the Challenger Series.His fastest bowl so far is 113 kmph - comic commentators had the gumption to describe his 110kmph ball as a 'well disguised slower one' .He is as innocous as one can get.Really if he is the going to don India colors,Afridi and rest can be delighted.Yonus Khan can get back to his famed batting form against India

Bloody bast..rds .Blood boils when Vengasarkar of the world can describe Rahul Dravid as 'unidimensional' cricketer.

Don't get agitated.As Confused put it beautifully-Agarkar Zindabad.Support him

Welcome Rahul Bose

2007-10-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

The bar set for entry in to charmed circle of left infested intelligenstia in India is not very high .But i am shocked that it could be so low.No wonder the word "Eminent" has assumed pejorative sense in the Indian context and Arun Shourie called his seminal book as "EMINENT HISTORIANS: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud"

Courtesy the proliferation of talk shows in channels,every idiot in the town gets invited and introduced as 'eminent activist' and mike is handed over to them to mouth ridiculous platitudes .

I have caught glimpses of Rahul Bose sprouting utter nonsense to inanities .You have to hear him to believe what he said in one of those insufferable talk shows after getting introduced as the 'secular' voice .

Just stumbled on this link and discovered that he has graduated as 'Civil rights activist' .All that he needed to do was sign a petition

Looks like this is the standard operating procedure for inconsequential actors with zero histrionic ability, to gain limelight(there could be minor variations)

-Act in couple of 'award winning' documentaries screened in unheard of film festivals or even better perform role in controversial movies (deliberately scripted to inflame the passion of Hindu religious hotheads).The movie wins rave reviews from critics and if you are lucky to have friendly dispensation in the centre win even national awards.

-Participate in couple of talk shows in NDTV/CNN-IBN .And studio full of pretty looking upper- girls from Delhi colleges applaud every remarkable 'secular' insights that you provide.Now you have graduated to become a celebrity and chances that you will invited for more talk shows

-Sign petitions signed by 'Eminent' citizens that appears in all mainstream newspaper of India

Dude,you are well and truly in.Welcome to the world of Indian intellectuals.Please remeber to sign the next petition condemning Modi .

If you have lots of free time (like i have )read this pretenious pseudo-intellectual discussion between two individuals who suffer great delusions of grandeur.I remember this was the Anuradha who wrote one scathing post on Rajinikanth. Anuradha-Your pretenious interviews are so boring .Watching Rajinikanth's films like Baba is more interesting then the episodes of tete-a-tete you have with all and sundry.

Being Rahul Bose is painful.Ouch

Project Modi is a non-starter

2007-10-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Influential opinion makers and thought leaders from the right wing have been making effort to catapult Narendra Modi to the centre stage of Indian politics .They have been advocating that Modi has the wherewithal to revive the sagging fortunes of the moribund BJP.

No doubt,Modi has been relentlessly subject to vicious vilification campaign by the well-funded and organised 'cottage industry' that sprung up post Gujarat riots .The 'industry' has been a windfall for professional protestors and other assorted collection of humans fancifully described as civil right activists,media professionals, eminent intellectuals, grassroot activists,progressive filmmakers,social scientist,concerned citizens etc.Surrogate media organisations of Congress Party have deliberately directed efforts at demonizing him.The agenda of the likes of Teesta,amply rewarded by the UPA Government,was to exploit the communal faultlines and fester the wounds already inflicted on the divided communities by the riots

To Modi's credit ,post the 2002 assembly election ,he has consciously focused on the agenda of governance and worked assidously towards the development of Gujarat.Even its worst critics need to admit that Gujarat has made rapid strides during his tenure.Atleast there are no shameful food riots like inthe communist state of Bengal.Well left's version of 'Secularism''helps the fellow travellers and useful idiots to line up their pockets but does not necesarily feed the hungry stomach of the poor in their paradise state of Bengal

Now to the main point of the post.Depite his spectacular success in Gujarat ,ideologues of the right wing are better advised to abandon Project Modi.Any centre-right agenda with Modi at the fulcrum will be a non-starter and could prove electorally catastrophic for BJP outside Gujarat where Modi obviously enjoys iconic status.

Modi remains a highly divisive figure to vast sections of Indians.They might have strong reasons to back that belief.The administrative inaction of his government during the riots that followed the Godhra Carnage was shameful.For someone who has otherwise displayed exemplary administrative acumen,the tardy response in quelling the rampaging Hindu goons and gangs was inexcusable.His staunch supporters might hide under the statistics (254 Hindus and over 700 Muslims died in the riots )but Modi have cynically exploited the polarised communal situation to reap electoral benefits.

India is in dire need of a centre-right movement.NDA project under Vajpayee's stewardship was a excellent beginning but the few badly conceived electoral alliances abruptly ended what promised to be road to redemption from the deleterious effects off communal socialism of Congress variety.Congress's victory in 2004 elections was a fluke largely due to NDA alliance in TN crumbling and anti-incumbency faced by TDP in AP.It would be a real tragedy if BJP has already reached a conclusion that soft pedalling on divisive Hindutva issue cost it the election.

BJP is a national party with aspirations and electoral constituencies outside Gujarat.In the current scheme of things,for all its faults ( abundance of demagogues in the party ,inability to regenerate itself intellectually,discredited state level leadership etc),BJP holds the only hope for those in India who believe that a true,meritocratic centre right party will emerge sometime in the near future.Its not a family enterprise,it has a fairly enlightened national leadership and it has shown the ability before to respond to call of history(I for one endorsed both the Ayodhya Movement and also the decision to put it on back burner.) Well intentioned ideas like reviving Swantra Patry etc might make exciting reading a but the only political force of electoral consequence in India which can goaded to occupy the centre right space is BJP.

The danger of Modi led BJP is that it could be driven by its critics to occupy the far right space.Thats a dangerous space to occupy in a secular,multi-religious sociey like India.

Modi should stick to what he is doing best now.His supporters (many in number) should look elsewhere for answer to BJP's leadership woes

Pygmies Strike Again

2007-10-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry regular readers of this blog.This is not on the so-called 'Sting' by Tehelka or on the imminent formation of 'Communal' government in South India.Posts on that can wait

When this post was written ,few remarkably 'enlightened' commentators described this blogger as a loony peddler of imaginary conspiracy theories .

'Colonel' has remarked that Dravid does not add any value to the team.Its fairly reasonable to expect that Dravid might be axed for the tour down under as he has been asked to regain 'form' and 'fitness'.Afterall 'Colonel' knows what it takes to play against quality bowling attack in hostile conditions.Just for attention of cricket buffs who might be interested in numbers -this is Vengsarkar 'spectacular' performances in Australian conditions .And this is his 'awesome' record against WI in West Indies.To be fair,Colonel was one good flat track bully if you ignore his serious difficulty against bowling that is above the height of the knee.

If 'Colonel' was such a votary of performance based culture as he claims, the following members too need to be scrutinised closely

Dhoni (exposed thrice against quality fast bowling when the team was in precarious situation.For all those great advocates of 'Youth Policy' and susbscribers to ' Sachin fails in cruch situation',can you tell when has Dhoni delivered in crticial matches.Three failures in WC matches is still fresh in memory)

Motormouth Sreesanth (Okay Munaf is bad oufielder but by far the most accomplished bowler in the country)

Gambhir(failed in both the matched he played before he was 'injured'.Miracously recovered for the T20 game.I dont remember any player given such a long run despite so many failures.Okay agreed,he is an automatic choice for T20)

Ganguly did nothing of note other than that painstackingly compiled knock in Nagpur(that batting paradise).There is a case to argue that his woeful running between the wickets might have caused the the defeat in that match too

Yuvaraj mostly floundered except when he flowered in Hyderabad

Only Sachin,Zaheer(bowled his heart out without any luck ) and to some extent Uttappa acquitted themselves well in the series

Dravid ,one bad series and he finds himself out of the team.Sorry there is no design and evil intentions here.Its loonies like me who concot conspiray theories.The selection is based on objective,performace criterion.Dont we believe that everty time our managers hand over appraisal letters to us

Jerry gets it Right

2007-10-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

If you do not give much credence to his tame apologia for the pillaging imperialists and advocacy of that appalling geopolitical doctrine of Pakistan as ‘buffer state’ that insulates India fromthe potential onslaught of marauding warlords from Afghanistan,the columns authored by Jerry Rao in IE, usually comes like a whiff of fresh air .Given that the much celebrated chieftains of the Indian Software Industry, especially those who hog the media limelight, have perfected the art of banal pronouncements, it’s really refreshing to read the well lettered Jerry Rao.It helps that he is remarkably articulate in espousing his liberterian worldview

Jerry Rao’s latest column is on the electoral success of Bobby Jindal and Arnold Schwarzenegger .Jindal has just been elected as the governor of Louisiana,.Among the ‘poorer’ states in US ,its also regarded as the bastion of ugly racist elements .The electoral victory, to certain degree, validates the commonly held belief that America is truly inclusive society where one can achieve success irrespective of race/religion. (Jindal changed his religion. His critics accuse him of doing it to pander to the fundamentalist reliogious right .But it would equally be possible that it was based on profound, personal spiritual experience.)

Jerry Rao argues, be it Sarkozy in France or Schwarznegger/Jindal in US, it’s essentially the conservative political formations that have managed to provide leadership opportunities to members of groups traditionally outside the power structure.

He then makes, what I think is the most telling point, in the entire column. He exposes the moral grandstanding and empty rhetoric of the Indian left by pointing to the preponderance of elitist upper-class, upper caste in left dominated institutions. I remember reading a incisive column from Yogendra Yadav(not particularly a great favorite of this blogger) were he had systematically exposed the woeful representation of the socially backward groups in all levels of West Bengal power structure. Noted Dalit Scholar Chandrabhan Prasad had commented on the composition of the Indian Left, by pointing to the typical profile of activists who are abound in the frontal and proxy organizations of Indian left .Primarily from affluent ,elitist sections of the society, they are the enemies of the poor and marginalized, by standing in way of their progress with their patronizing attitude

Even on the gender empowerment front,left's record is dismal.Till recently there was not even a single women representative in the politburo of the CPM,the foremost left party in India .And the when the door opened finally,it was for the wife of the party's general secretary

On the other hand,BJP’s spectacular electoral success in 90’s was primarily due to the brilliant social engineering strategy formulated by Advani-Govindacharya duo.Powerful regional satraps from diverse social groups were identified and groomed for leadership position. One might disagree with few of its regressive policies but it’s a indisputable fact that BJP one of the few political parties that consciously performed “Social Engineering” to give representation to all caste groups in party positions.The hardcore left ideologues, masquerading as media columnists somehow successfully managed to perpetuate the charade that BJP and its allied organization are dominated by upper castes. The downward slide of BJP in UP was largely due to the marginalization of Kalyan Singh by the machinations of few discredited upper-caste leaders

Unlike the Communist part which is dominated by well entrenched elitist, upper class/upper caste and Congress which is essentially a family political enterprise, BJP is still uniquely positioned to co-opt newer social groups and experiment with bolder ideas. But the problem is BJP of today is that its a pale shadow of BJP of 90’s.It seem to be afflicted by kind of ‘Brahiminical’ Fatalism and appears to be reconciled to another long stint in the opposition. Given its suicidal instincts, I wouldn’t be surprised if BJP rediscovers ludicrous ideas like ‘Gandhian Socialism’ Its desperately in need of a “Intellectual Kshatriya” to bring it out of the doldrums and revive its sagging fortunes.Modi has shown a possible way forward by forging a powerful coalition of social and economic right and formulating a new agenda of governance devoid of potentially divisive issues .But I am not sure if that could be replicated across board.

BJP really needs to reach out to groups which have been hostile to it so far and engage in real and genuine political conversation with them . Starting point might be experimenting with bold ideas like projecting a Muslim leader in UP It could invite someone like Kalam to head the party and endorse him as the Prime Ministerial candidate.

BJP has shown the ability to do things differently and there is no reason why it cannot rediscover those instincts

Rizwanur Rehman and 'Secular' Confusion

2007-10-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

More than a year back, a typically animated discussion was staged on the studios of Sardesai TV. It was anchored by the first lady of the channel, the screaming Sagarika on the issue of inter-religious marriages .The aggravation that time around, for secular intelligentsia to ‘fabricate’ their familiar ‘outrage’, was few ruffian Hindu elements forcibly intervening to settle a petty dispute arising out of inter-religious marriage. The ‘secular’ angst, at least the way it was manifesting in the studio, was quite understandable .The incident had happened in the state of Gujarat after all.

The Secular-Social cabal was represented in the studio by one of its glamorous faces- Nafisa Ali, the aquatic champion turned activist .There was also this stern-faced CEO of a matrimonial portal ,presumably invited to extrapolate the online behavior of the visitors of his site and draw larger social trends on attitudes relating to inter-religious marriages

Sagarika and Nafisa were quick off the block,exchanging views on the ‘alarming’ current day trend of increasing societal resistance to inter-religious marriages. Viewers were made to believe that during the good, old days of secular, Nehruvian India, the archetypal Ram and Rahim had no qualms in letting their progenies settle in to the wonderful, secular marital bliss.At this point, the CEO was invited to share his thoughts. Alas he kind of played a party pooper ,asserting that there was tremendous spurt in number of Indians open to idea of getting married outside region/religion barriers ,especially in the last decade .But our Secular-Socialist cabal never likes to listen to contrarian world views that demolishes their script.The CEO was abruptly interrupted and mike was handed back to Nafisa, asking her the reason for the recent ‘alarming’ trend. Even in those days of naivety, I could scarcely believe what I heard from Nafisa.She attributed the ‘alarming’ trend to phenomenal rise of a particular political party.She offered the example of her own marriage as a proof of how wonderful things were, before communal forces viciated the ‘secular’ environment that prevailed for shaadis

Now move over to communist ‘paradise’ of Bengal.

The Secular-Socialist establishment is having a torrid time in fitting the Rizwanur Rehman episode in any of their standard templates. Of course the ‘dream’ script could have been- Poor,educated Muslim guy exterminated by forces of ‘Hindutva’ (represented by the scheming rich bania father)in connivance with despicably ‘Communal’ police –all this for daring to romance and marry a rich man’s daughter.

Unfortunately for the Sec-Soc gang this incident happened in the state of Bengal. They must be ruing their stars, for this did not happen in Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh. Remember even when the despicable gangster Sohrabuddin, who was also in the radar of AP police, was eliminated through a encounter, the Sec-Soc crowd was quick to give it a communal color

The confusion is showing visibly. The vicious ‘communal’ angle can’t be really invoked as it will demolish their own propaganda myth of Bengal being the showpiece ‘secular’ state where the Left rule had apparently exorcized the communal hatred (BTW-Qutubuddin Ansari is back to Gujarat) .The ‘class’ angle cannot be overplayed-after all the state is ruled by permanent ‘proletariat’ government, unlike other states in India where the 'bourgeoisie' forces is supposed to control all instruments of governance.

This blog sincerely wishes that the truth in this matter comes out and if it was not a case of suicide the culprits should be severely punished ,.However the incident clearly reveals how easily members of Secular-Socialist activists become victims of their own charade and how much they are divorced from the realities of the society .The fact of the matter is that,outside the elitist circuit inhabited by likes of Sagarika/Nafisa, large sections of Indian society(Hindus/Muslims/Christians) is still not reconciled to the idea of inter–religious marriage and justifiably so .The inter-religious love story might make a nice Bollywood blockbuster, especially if replete songs and item numbers but daily demands of lives are vastly different for ordinary Indians to contemplate on things like inter-religious marriage .

There are several deep rooted historical reasons for opposition to inter-religious marriage.Simplistic formulations that comes from Secular-Socialist camp are vastly limiting in understanding the complexities involved in issues like this.Its time they keep their ideological prejudices aside

Spinmeisters fall victim to their own Spin

2007-10-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

The pitiable situation of the Media Spinmeisters ,who went overboard ,reading too much in the empty rhetoric of their political patrons

Shekhar Gupta

Shekhar Gupta was initially all fire and brimstone, in his editorials on N-Deal .Later Gupta turned euphoric when his political masters, for once surprisingly revealed some spine in taking on the ideological neanderthals and unelected apparatchiks abound in A.K Gopalan Bhavan. He left no stones unturned, even resorting to his patented dirty tricks to discredit the opponents of the deals particularly against sections of BJP leaders who might have had genuine apprehensions on the deal.

Now that his patrons have effected a great somersault with such remarkable felicity, Gupta should be squirming. But expect none of it .He would dutifully continue his ignominious existence as Congress Spinmaster finding virtues in some banal administrative action of the government .Its pretty obvious that Gupta has destroyed every single value that the great institution once stood for. It keeps plumbing to new depths and add to this the fact that paper is also proving to be a unmitigated commercial disaster.The Goenka Family appears to have gone in to a deep slumber .Or might be there is more to it that what meets the eyes of lay reader.Afterall Congress party's pockets are reputed to run deep

Rajdeep Sardesai

Rajdeep Sardesai must be pretty disappointed too.Congress had already comprehensively won the general election staged by reputed psephologists in CNN-IBN Studio .A well-orchestrated, shrill , goebbelsian media campaign against the Modi Government was making good headway . A well-equipped election war room was already in place in CNN-IBN studio to wage a fierce battle in the undeclared media war on the BJP.Dhoni’s boys had just provided the perfect stage for scripting Rahul Gandhi’s dramatic entry in to centrestage of Congress Politics

The channel had also began its election countdown feasting at the huge commercial opportunity that showcasing the spectacle of general elections potentially provides.The fledgling channels's coffers could have swelled.

Alas,all that need to wait for long

The media worthies have been made to look silly .Far too long they have hoisting their own petard.The consistent spin in all their reporting was that BJP and Left was scarred of facing the electorate and Congress was raring to go to the hustings and win a decisive mandate.The truth of the matter is Congress is deeply discredited outfit which won a fluke victory in 2004 elections by bagging 5 more seats than BJP

Or could it be that these worthies have erred in genuinely underestimating the survival instincts of the communal socialist regime and its spineless Prime Minister ?.Unlikely.If that were to be case,why do they continue to perpetuate the charade that Manmohan Singh is a honorable man.He is as much a cynical politican with with bankruptcy of morality and ethics as one can find in the Indian political system

Where are you Sainath?

2007-10-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

Sainath’s shameful silence on WB Ration Riots represents all that ails the Indian Left

P.Sainath, the indefatigable media campaigner, has largely been successful in bringing to the public consciousness, the vast swathe of distress and poverty afflicting the Indian countryside. Sainath has hugely benefited by the career shift he made from tabloid journalism to covering rural India .He has been feted by international bodies, courted by parliamentarians and quoted by foreign publication .He is the toast of the Secular-Socialist seminar circuit. The Hindu and its super-affluent Communist Editor lose no opportunity to brag that theirs is the only notable Indian publication that employs a full-time Rural Affairs Editor (Sainath that is)

That is why its so shocking that this newspaper cannot find even an inch of space to cover the unabated ration riots in several parts of South Bengal, the citadel of Indian Communism and laboratory of ‘revolutionary’ economic polices that professes to be proletariat friendly. Food riots are unheard of India, atleast in recent memory.

Sainath has traversed the length and breadth of South India.And Mahrashtra too.But why not the vast rural landscape of West Bengal

Not that we expect great insights from him- one can hardly recall Sainath ever coming up with any path breaking suggestions that can be regarded as useful input for policy intervention. Given the ideological stable to which he belongs to, his polemics, on how neo-liberal economic polices is fundamentally responsible for pauperization of rural India, tends to be very predictable .And even more predictable is the ‘boilerplate’ template he typically use in his books/articles - contrasting the rural- side poverty with urban affluence and launch a diatribe against the economic policies.

However the imperative of Sainath’s presence comes from a different reason. He is now seen as the most credible media voice of rural poor and marginalized and he has so far managed to sufficiently sensitize us on the enormity of the situation in rural India in face of overwhelming media blackout. The Ration Riots in West Bengal are nowhere in the radar of Communist infested Indian media .In fact there is a virtual media blackout (Imagine things like this happening in a state like Gujarat.We would be inundated with coverage of how ‘Fascist regime is depriving poor countrysiders of their food’)

Knowing the ways of Comrade Ram, expect nothing of this kind to happen. The silence of Left intelligentsia and its is torch bearers like Sainath is shameful

Don't Trust Indian Mainstream Media

2007-10-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Don’t Trust the Indian Media

Given their less than sterling track record, the complete stranglehold of Indian Mainstream Media on the dissemination and dissection of news has proved detrimental to the health of the public discourse in the country. In today’s times, barring few glorious exceptions of indefatigably crusading journalists, vast section of Indian MSM appears to be seriously compromised. Time and again, many in the vanguard of Indian MSM have displayed their consummate skills in spin doctoring, to fulfill the dubious agendas of the political classes. The most recent glaring example was the meek capitulation of the vast sections of MSM to the ultimately successful efforts of foisting a person with antecedents of financial deceit and moral debauchery to the highest constitutional office of the country. In any other mature democracy, this person might have been hounded out of public life by the vigilant media

The pusillanimity of India MSM during the dark period of emergency when the government of the day suspended all civil liberties, the essential cornerstone of any functional democracy, prompted the then leading light of the opposition party to remark “Media began to crawl when they were only asked to bend”. Lessons seems to have not been learnt .What else explains muted response of those in the vanguard of MSM, to the draconian provisions of the proposed broadcasting bill introduced by those who come from same ideological stable that had no compunctions in invoking emergency,

Leave aside the rampant trivialization and concomitant tabloidisation of Indian MSM, it appears that the media’s principal obsession these days, appears to be that of making celebrities out of common criminals ,terrorist low lives ,despicable gangsters, dubious professors and doctors. Add to this the repugnant coverage by MSM on great ‘national events’ like what was dubbed as the 'shaadi of the millennium’, .A giggling Bollywood beauty queen first married a pepal tree before proceeding to marry the son of another Bollywood icon .The media frenzy on this lurid wedding was affront to the sensibilities of conscientious citizens

That downward spiral and ‘dumbing down’ of the India MSM now appears to have reached a seemingly irretrievable point where even restoring semblance of credibility might take years .This is assuming that media, with its skewed priorities even recognizes its pernicious influence on public discourse.

Most media houses in India do not have any institutionalized mechanism to reflect on the dissenting voices of discerning viewer .Independent media watchdogs are yet to take strong roots in the country. Some newspapers, suffering from delusions of neutrality, made a big spectacle of appointing ombudsman. Alas all that these Ombudsmen appear to be doing is to correct grammar, syntax and bloopers of their own journalist or even worst , threatening readers with defamation suits.

Everything is not lost though. As they say there is this proverbial silver lining in the dark cloud. That comes in the form of alternate medium. .Welcome to the world of vibrant and thriving Indian blogdom

Bloggers have been only too happy to usurp the wide open space for serious news analysis, left empty by the Indian MSM hungry to break its next story on Bhoot and Bollywood.

And like any other field of activity, we get a mixed bag of bloggers in India. One end of the spectrum there are those who belong to 'I have a computer, I am connected and so I blog' category. Incoherent ramblings might well be defining characteristic of this category. On the other hand I can point to several blogs that provide excellent perspective and the incisive analysis which are light years ahead of those paid professionals of MSM who come with their vested interest and dubious agenda.

Admittedly blogs are still are on fringes of public opinion formation in India - that is such a shame for some of the best analysis appears to emerge from blogs But with people who are talking to blogging growing exponentially, the Indian MSM might face some challenge on its continuing monopoly in the ‘market’, at least in the ‘thinking readers’ segment . And one can hope that this will be a wake-up call to the Indian MSM to correct its course However early signs are not encouraging.

Powerful and influential section of MSM, with its hitherto unchallenged throttlehold on news dissemination and analysis, appears to completely unnerved by the kind of unremitting scrutiny that they have been subject to by the vigilant blogging community. The ‘devious’ agendas of the MSM exemplified by symbiotic relationship with their political masters have been often laid threadbare by some inspired blogging.This section of MSM is camouflaging their rage at the bloggers, behind the smokescreen of expressing phony ‘concern’ at the damage wrought by what they see as ‘venom spewing’ ,'immature’ bloggers

The MSM should better realize that bloggers are here to stay and like influential media houses in the western democracies, try to co-opt them rather than combat them

By giving up the daily dose of sourcing news from newspaper and resisting the natural inclination to switch on the idiot box after returning home from work and depending on thriving Indian blogdom, this writer have gained immensely in terms of enhancing his perspective on issues of national importance

One sincerely hopes that the day won’t be far where bloggers play a significant role in shaping the public opinion like in the case of US where seasoned bloggers appears to just achieved that.

Abe Singhvi's Afternoon Humour-ROFL

2007-09-25T03:24:00.000-07:00

Loudmouth Abe Singhvi, spokesman of Congress has generally been noted for the sheer lung power that he brings to TV Studio discussions organised by friendly media outlets and also for his Bappi Lahiri inspired dressing sense .But he has now revealed little-known dimension of his personality-humour.Looks like this poker faced guy does possess a real sense of humour

Yaa,Dhoni gets invoked to build the legend around the Great White Hope of Indian politics

What can one say about the shameless and brazen ability of the First Family sycophants to appropriate success achieved by Indians in any walk of life?

Expect the seriously compromised MSM to follow this script faithfully in the days to come.

(This is my first post under Humour category)

Genial Giant defeated by Pygmies-Goodbye Dravid

2007-09-15T03:02:00.000-07:00

(This blog has never posted before on topics related to Cricket.First attempt.Apologies for long ,incoherent rambling)

The Barron from Baramati, his unscrupulous cohorts in cricket babudom (epitomized by despicable scumbags like Congress MP Rajeev Shukla) and coterie of ex-cricketers turned expert commentators can now indulge in no-holds barred celebrations

Through their dubious machinations , these pygmies have managed to oust a truly outstanding man, in my assessment, the greatest Indian Test Cricketer ever. That is if one is willing to cut through the blabber and hyperbole of worthies in ESPN/STAR commentary box who refuse to recognize any batting geniuses in the crease unless the occupant is a particular man from Mumbai.

Just a quick backgrounder. A certain Marwari from Kolkatta with his shrewd business acumen had brilliantly marketed the game of Cricket in India .The cricket coffers had swelled to unimaginable richness. That the board operates with no transparency made it easy to use the funds for personal aggrandizement, supporting parasitic existence of cricket administrators and doling out coaching assignment/other goodies to small clique of ex-cricketers.Dalmia was making merry as full-time politicians of the country rued the lost opportunity of pocketing billions

Who better than a Sugar Baron turned politician to challenge the small -time Kolkatta businessman. The baron made his entry to the cricketing arena with sinister agenda and clear priorities. Infest the board with chamchas .Of course embezzling funds is most politician's first nature .Is BCCI's financial statement a public document?

Do you remember Paras Mhambrey? Along with Bhupinder Singh and Nilesh Kulkarni,he should be in the reckoning for the contest of most incompetent player to have ever donned the India colors. He is now the coach of India A team. Geoffrey Boycott in his sardonic manner dismissed Mhambrey as a bowler who cannot even get his grandma out in the backyard

And Lalchand Rajput? A strokeless Ranji Trophy wonder is now the coach of T20 team

Of course we have the farce of septuagenarian Borde, who instead of playing with his grandkids, is managing the Indian Senior Cricket team

And then there is the good Colonel, Chairman of selectors. One could ‘empathy’ with him as he expressed disappointment that his favored choices like rotund Romesh Pawar and Ajit Agarkar not fulfilling their ‘true’ potential with bat and ball.Allrounders they are for Mumbai team, Colonel added for good measure.

BTW if you didn’t bother to stay awake last night , Agarkar ,the most outstanding match winner in Indian line-up nearly delivered yet another match in his customary fashion , to Pakistan (the spirited last over from Sreesanth helped India’s cause).So what if likes of Badrinath will keep performing while ‘allrounders’ like Rohit Sharma will emerge out of nowhere to seal their place in Indian Squad.(Cortesy-being rated high by likes of Gavaskar and Shastri)

With yesman strategically entrenched in several positions,this insidious barron's lobby was bidding time in anointing their own man for the Indian captaincy.That he was not in semblance of his famed form did not help matters .Now the opportune moment has come when a man of true grit, character and integrity can no longer stand the dirty games the baron's lobby plays

Dravid might never go public. I am sure he must have thrown in the towel, frustrated at this team of vainglorious stars with bloated egos who refuse to accept their diminishing utility to the team . The petty politicking of these stars with unqualified backing of their benefactors in the boards administration and political circles might have ruffled the even usually unflappable Dravid.Add to that the cheap potshots taken at him by ex-cricketers not even worth half his calibre, both on and off the field. ,Dravid would have decided enough is enough

Rahul Dravid ‘s regime was path-breaking in the sense that it attempted to shift the focus from individual centric,’netagiri’ model based on whims and fancies of ‘Cricketing Maharajahs’ to performance oriented model with strong emphasis on the work ethics ,’team interest’ first .There was this daring step of blooding youngsters, kind of baptism by fire . Admittedly it failed .The dismal state of domestic cricket and barren cupboard of cricketing talent proved a huge stumbling block in effectively executing Dravid’s plans. .Not to say everything was great under Dravid’s reign. Glaring mistakes likes persisting with likes of Raina (hoping that they will deliver) and some baffling decisions can be cited by his critics as examples of often insipid captaincy

Dravid has been subject to unrelenting scrutiny and often undeserving criticism .The meaningless press conferences where he had to respond to over-the top criticisms by worthless ex-cricketers, the subtle mind games played by the selectors and of course the machinations of reunited Mumbai-Bengal lobby might have done him in

The next captain has already been decided (long back).As expected, there was not even single official statement from the BCCI acknowledging the contribution of Dravid in leading the team through tough assignments and often emerging triumphant. .Dravid will take this in his stride. Unlike the whimsical superstars,Dravid , the quintessential professional if there was one,will go about doing his job with clinical precision and minimum of ruckus and rage .

It also helps this lobby that Dravid carries himself gracefully,on and off the field. He will never indulge in dubious politicking like sharing platform with loud mouthed members of parochial regional parties with lung power to disrupt parliament providing them opportunities to foment passion by concocting imaginary conspiracy theories (that i...t Somnath who always bemoans fall in standards of Parliamentary debate was in the forefront of raising voice against the so-called injustice meted out against living embodiment of Bengali pride)

It shows the skewed priorities of the nation’s media that while captain of Indian team is subjected to that level of examination,not many questions are raised about how effectively the Baron is multitasking -his full time job of Global Cricket Administrator with his part time job which in case you have forgotten, is that of Agriculture Minsiter of Union government

Why bother about agrarian crisis looming large in the countryside .Blame it on lazy Vidaarbha farmers .There are millions to be made in awarding lucrative television contracts , staging cricket matches and forming new leagues . Unwashed masses will continue thronging stadiums paying astronomical prices for tickets. So what if they pass urine in the same place where they sit and lustily cheer Tendulkar and Ganguly taking the Kenyan bowlers to the cleaners.Come on its not the job of BBCI to build toilets in stadium

The Baron wields enormous clout in the media courtesy his financial might .And it helps if fellow state guys like Rajdeep Sardesai(son of late Mumbai cricketer D Sardesai) are ruling the roost in media world these days And finally there is always the reliable services of spinmaster Gupta guy to 'spin' his media image -Progressive politican with great vision, who turned Baramati to paradise by using free market economics and importing agriculture technology from Isreal .Add to that a suave and pretty Gen Next daughter politician.Gupta guy can really go bonkers.

Just imagine a NDA Agriculture minister fiddling in Cricket Administartion.Gupta ,Sardesai and Sec-Soc media might have had a field day."NDA minister negotiates lucrative cricket contracts as poor Vidarbha farmer gets Rs 1 Cheque".The headlines writers in CNN-IBN and IE would have screamed

Remember the commotion that Pawar and his chamcha Gavaskar created with the media help. Pawar's ’king –sized ego got hurt when Ponting gently pushed him from the podium(he had no business to stand there after giving the trophy)

With exit of Dravid,Indian cricket is now firmly in the control of these petty men.

60 Years of Freedom......Yawn

2007-08-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am listening to the typically uninspiring and lackadaisical speech from the PM(can't he get soemone better than Sanjay Baru) and barely managing to combat the sleep that it so effortlessely induces.Just a little while back, i read all those long essays published in The Hindu and realised that reading Amartya Sen 's piece of writing ,early in the morning ,is not highly recommended for constipated individuals

All is not lost though .I read these two pieces of brilliant writing and re-reading to savour it(Swapanda and Ashok Mallik) .

Happy Independence day...............

Now Survey on Kashmir

2007-08-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

That they have repeatedly ended up with egg on their face has not detered them .This is not surprising, given that their farcical opinion/exit polls, strategically staged and deliberately directed, are essentially done to exaggerate the electoral prospects of their political benefactors or to tacitly buttress their ideological fellow-travelers.

One needs to highlight the sheer audacity of these redoubtable psephologists. The severely discredited tools and methodology that they use, the predictive validity of which is abysmal, cannot even forecast the electoral outcomes of small, peaceful states in India. The rightful thing to do would have been to go back to the drawing boards and plug holes in their defective processes. We have none of it though. Instead we are presented with findings of a new poll on, hold your breadth, Kashmir, the strife torn Indian state that is under the relentless onslaught of Jihadis and Islamo-fascists .The state where ethnic cleansing of religious minorities is happening even as this post is being written

Let’s us assume that the errors that stem from using dubious methodology has not vitiated the outcome of this poll and just address this question-What is that, those who commissioned and conducted this exercise, want to convey.

The Pseudo Secular-Phony Socialist cabal is living in a fool’s paradise if they think that they can sway the unwavering Indian public opinion on Kashmir a) by writing inspiring, flowery and emotion- laden high school type English essays b) by resorting to their time-tested mischief of conjuring up fictitious opinion polls c) by studio theatrics and hyper histrionics ,predictably led by the likes of the shrill Barkha’s and screaming Sagarika’s ‘ d)by trying to advocate resolutions , using the framework of chimerical Kashmiryaat now creatively reinvented in Sufi tradition

Make no doubt it. It’s the Islamic theocratic totalitarianism that drives the secession movement in Kashmir.The bleeding hearts and left intelligenstia’s now familiar script of unemployment,poverty and state sponsored oppression being the root cause of terrorism is a charade ,well past its sell date(eg-Kashmir has low levels of poverty compared to most other Indian States).

In combating the Islamists in Kashmir, the Indian state faces its greatest challenge as yet in safeguarding the secular ethos of the country. The outcome of the battle will fundamentally determine the raison d’etre of India as truly secular,multi-cultural,pluralistic country. Indian state has to win this battle at all cost. Thanks to the sagacity of Indian state that its been cautious in not exercising the easy option of ruthlessly crushing this blatantly Pan Islamic movement with brute force and trying to repeatedly engage the secessionists within the democratic process.

As the astute Nitin Pai in his brilliantly written post “The clash of convictions and the remaking of the world of wars” said “outcome of modern war is decided in the mind”.The remarkable insight Nitin provides makes our job of demystifying the motives of those who sponsored and published this latest opinion poll relatively easy

One,its yet another sham exercise in adversely influencing the unanimous Indian public opinion, which is standing firm in its collective resolve to defeat the militancy in Kashmir by all means,including the option of military might.Two ,its the handiwork of spin masters preparing ground for their political masters ,precursor to some kind of “out of the box “,”imaginative” solution to Kashmir Problem that will be shortly unveiled to the Indian public.

WTF…..Indian Express descends to new low

2007-07-31T06:31:00.000-07:00

It makes some astonishing claims about Sanjay Dutt

You can trust Indian Media to make celebrities out of common criminals ,jihadi low lifes ,despicable gangsters,dubious professors and doctors (the later two, especially if they botch up terror plots)

But this piece of writing takes the cake .For making outrageous claims like "he encouraged people to return to the Gandhian philosophy " to downright absurdities like "he inspired a whole generation to follow the principles of Mahatma Gandhi" (through his movies )and quoting that scum Bal Thackery (who invokes the 'soul 'of Bapu to pronunce that Sanjay is innocent)

Be grateful for small mercies in life - the judge who passed this order did not possess Pratibha Patil or Meera Nanda type ability to engage/imagine in stimulating conversation with people who are generally perceived to be dead, by common folks like us .Else he might have conversed with the Mahatma and pronounced Sanjay Dutt innocent .Afterall "Bapu would've wanted Sanjay to be free"

Jai Arjun Singh

2007-07-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

Having elevated this outstanding women to the post of president and usurping credit for the being the most pro-women political formation in the country, the Congress has another feather in its fur cap, towards the historic initiative of women empowerment

Arjun Singh appears to have done his bit, by joining the list of family retainers like Natwar Singh, who seem to have trouble with their daugher-in-laws.

Looks like senile socialist from the princely feudal family has run out of imaginative schemes like the phony Churhat lottery .Its’s now alleged he and his family members might have resorted to more direct and easier parasitic methods. Utterly shamless but very predictable these ‘socialist’ are. Enjoy the good things in life by endlessly sucking others

Anyway he can count on his legion of left and socialist friends to bail him out.Not to mention Renuka Choudhry and Brinda Karat

........................................................................................................................................................................

Good Doctor Suffers from Insomnia

2007-07-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

Indian Prime Ministers have had varying degrees of success with sleep . One past PM had plenty of it .The current one suffers from lack of it

Before the comatose Dev Gowda could wake up from one of his customary siestas,that shady Congress backroom operator,the Gandhian topi clad Kesri had already marched to Raisina Hill to hand over the letter withdrawing support to the United Front government

While Deve Gowda's public sleeping spectacles provided endless amusement,to be fair to the 'humble farmer' from Hassan, his sleeping habits did not inflict grevious damage to the country's polity.One-his tenure was too short .Two- petty provincial politican that he was,he had no pretensions of statesmanship and those accompanying delusions of striking peace accords and culinary subcontinentalism .But we are talking about the good doctor who is firmly ensconed in the chair.

No information is available on whether those visiting womyn journalist played the agony aunts(did the contingent include eminent blogger endorsed Mrinal Pande) but good doctor appears to have disclosed his insomnolence to them.

A conscientious citizen could be excused for thinking that good doctor lost his sleep dreading the prospect of tainted Mrs Patil becoming the next president of the Republic .But apparently its the anguish of the parents of Kafeel and Haneef that has rattled the good doctor.Last heard that Kafeel's dad played a instrumental role in indoctrination of the driver of the SUV that went awry.

Seriosuly this race for "My heart bleeds more than yours" is now assuming dangerous proportions.The secular circus was fun as long as the candlelight kissers and bleeding heart liberals did their regular rounds in celebrity circuits ,basked in the glory of media limelight provided by their ideological fellow travellers in media , churned out beautiful fiction and lived in the fanatasy world of conspiracy theories

But when Prime Mininister of the country sounds like one of them,its signals the advent of danegrous times.Not that he has not sounded like this before.But this one is unacceptable even by the dismal standards that this man keeps descending to

Cry my beloved India.While you and i lose sleep over families of innocent countrymen who are victims of the brutal violence unleashed by the "Religion of Peace",the leader of my country loses his sleep on plight of the not so innocent families of Jihadi Islamist

It’s all over bar the blogging

2007-07-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Pratibha Patil will be next President of India . It’s all over bar the blogging

The Congress dispensation's ability to brazen out was never in question. While Sonia deservedly earned the wrath for playing such a cruel joke on the nation, it needs to be pointed out that it was that honorable man Manmohan Singh (please,please for heaven’s sake stop calling him Mr Clean)who proposed the name of Pratibha for this post.How long will this charade of helpless PM continue to be perpetrated?.But what holds ominous portents for the democratic discourse of this nation was the stunning silence of the larger section of Indian MSM

Barring the efforts of those inspired bravehearts in CNN-IBN (don’t miss the irrepressible Karan Thapar mauling that fake commie Bardhan) and lethargic The Pioneer,there was total media blackout on the misdemeanors of Pratibha . Indian Express ,the newspaper with exemplary record of courageous journalism was predictably low key .No surprise here given that its editor has been recently reveling in his role as Congress Spinmaster .The relentless crusader Arun Shourie's exhaustive piece, shredding to smithereens Prathibha's false pretense of probity, appeared in The New Indian Express but not in The Indian express .This was some indication of the deep pro-establishment editorial bias inflicted by Shekhar Gupta . That Shekhar Gupta tried to redeem himself partially with a belated but benign editorial on the Congress ‘s dubious choice does instills some hope that all is not lost with IE .

While you expect ‘media whores’ of Congress Party like Pankaj Vohra(whose writings are hardly indistinguishable from that of infamous ‘Panditji’ who commented on Nitin’s post) and that nauseating limousine liberal Vinod Mehta (who ran a spurious opinion poll )to faithfully play out their sycophantic acts,the worst offenders in this respect were the surrogate communist mouthpieces -NDTV and The Hindu.

If there was any iota of doubt that The Hindu is now worse than vernacular red commie rag-tags like Deeshabhimani and Gananshakti, the Prathibha episode laid that to rest.The clearest message was delivered to that ever faithful constituency of the newspaper,Iyer mamas of Mylapore/Triplicane/T Nagar.Please do not bother Narayana(who is otherwise is doing outstanding job of high school English teacher)by casting aspersion on the neutrality of the newspaper .Suffice is to say Karat proposes,Ram disposes and Neena Vyas peddles ,sometimes even lies

The lesser said about that Karat 'family' venture, NDTV, the better.Save for chic female anchors,NDTV is now being pitifully reduced to virtual nonentity in the 'War for News' . It can now be rightfully called the ‘Frontline’ of Indian news television . Fashionable candlelight, celebrity activism of elitist left, liberal Jhoolawallah variety , woeful interviews anchored by the fumbling Prannoy Roy and yawning talk shows on lesbian rights/gay causes/revolutionary K.Johar film are now the enduring images that have come to represent this channel Even the trenchant critics of CNN-IBN(I can be counted as one of them) need to acknowledge the raw energy and passion that the Rajdeep and his team bring to the news reporting

With the media leaving the field open, it was once again left to the Indian blogsphere, led by that tireless Yossarin ,to rise to occassion and that they did remarkably. In these days of despair, the new variety of vigilante blogging that Yossarin has formulated provides some hope especially given the dismal track record of MSM, in toeing the establishment line blindly.But far worse is that they appear to condone even serious charges of corruption and gross constitutional improperity, committed by the ruling Congress alliance by viewing it through the idelogical prism of anti-BJPism.

Barring few honorable exceptions like the pugnacious Karan Thapar ,the dare-devil VK Shashikumar and occassionally sparkling Swapan Dasgupta and Rajdeep Sardesai,the vast sections of Indian MSM appears to be seriously compromised

Sorna Akka aka Pratibha Patil -Say No to her as President of India

2007-06-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

Read this,this,this ,this,this ,this

PS-Sorna Akka is the legendary character immortalised in the Tamil Movie "Dhool"

Rajinikanth Phenomenon

2007-06-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

A Fellow blogger whom i greatly admire Confused wrote a seemingly innocuous post, requesting help on deconstructing the charisma of Rajinikanth and his unabated ability to mesmerize Tamil masses. It appears to have raised lot of heckles and before one could blink, it predictably degenerated in to North-South slanging march .The slugfest then gave way to some outrageous funny exchanges featuring the best and brightest of the Indian blogsphere

The deluge of responses leads me to examine the ‘Rajinikanth Phenomenon’. I have read facile assertions to more nuanced interpretations on how this man continues to reign supreme in the minds of the masses but still the ‘Rajinikanth Phenomenon’ continues to intrigue me.

Not unlike M G Ramachandran, Rajini can be safely regarded as ‘cultural’ icon of Tamil Nadu.This is simply incredulous for someone who represents the antithesis of the tapered, exclusivist ‘Tamil Culture’ that the Dravidian politics has tried to ‘fabricate’ to achieve their devious socio-political-cultural agenda

It’s nothing short of remarkable that Rajini could defy such powerful forces ranging against him and still emerge triumphant in the Tamil tinsel town .So much reminiscent of the storyline in his films

The specious Dravidian atheists loathe him .Rajini’s religiosity is powerful countervailing influence against their essentially political project of building make-believe world of godless Dravidistan.His religiosity, which is curious mix of excessive piety and mumbo-jumbo of Himalayan spirituality and Mantralya mantras, strikes powerful chord among legions of undulating followers, who more often than not emulate his off-screen qualities, particularly his religiosity .And he invokes imagery of gods and goddess to communicate his thoughts and feelings. Remember those immortal words -”Even God cannot save Tamil Nadu if Jaya is voted back to power” and televised turnaround later comparing her to ‘Ashtalakshmi’(8 forms of Goddess Lakshmi)

Tamil Secessionist(voices get shriller especially when Karunanidhi is in power) detest him for Maratha lineage .Infact the ill-informed among them think that he is a Kannadiga and he his unfailingly target of their ire whenever monsoon rains fail in Cauvery basin. One could really identify with the pain of Rajini during the one of those periodic flare-ups over the Cauvery dispute. He pointed out how he gets insinuated as ‘closet’ Kannadiga by Tamil chauvinists, dismissed as being partisan towards the cause of Tamil Nadu by Kannada bigots and disdainfully referred as Madrasi by North of India.He volunteered to contributed Rs 1 crore for National Rivers Integration Project

The elitist intelligentsia treats him condescendingly - his ‘ridiculous’ comic scenes and ‘ludicrous’ punch lines is largely seen as insult to their fecund faculty. Their conceit would manifests usually in celebrating the acting prowess of Kamalhassan who panders to their ‘class’ by churning out abtruse, often pseudo-intellectual movies which are unmitigated commercial disasters

The votaries of Dravidian politics hate him .For them he is an ‘import’ who has been cunningly co-opted by ‘Aryan’ forces to perpetuate hegemony on Tamil cultural space. That he is married to Latha and is close friend of maverick but truly outstanding journalist Cho Ramaswamy is what they offer as clinching proof. Their concocted racial theories of ‘black’ Dravidian being in awe of ‘White’ Aryan explodes in the face of dark-skinned Rajini achieving superstardom in Kollywood

The political classes in Tamil Nadu have reached an uneasy truce with him. One shouldn’t be deceived by the public display of camaraderie-they deeply fear that even best laid political plans, for ascension of their sons and daughters to their mantle, will be in smithereens if Rajini decides to take the political plunge. Someone like Jaya smartly realized the folly of incurring his wrath. And the entire edifice of spurious Dravidian politics based on “Poor Dravidian is oppressed and pauperized by the scheming ‘Aryans’ will come crashing down. That he is admirer of Vajpayee-Advani adds to their discomfiture

Magalir Sangams, abound with localized clones of barking Brinda Karat and practicing their Marxist feminism, accuse him of being brazen male chauvinist .They create ruckus on some flimsy grounds whenever his movie is released. And the self-appointed guardians of Tamil morality are aghast with him for stylizing smoking and glorifying boozing

How does he manage to defy all stereotypes? How Rajini’s magnetism still sway the Tamil masses?

My guess is that its combination of off-screen persona and onscreen image

His movies revolve around universal themes that appeal to the subaltern who still constitute the bulk of movie-going audience. Rich exploiting the poor, underdog achieves spectacular success against overwhelming odds, practicing charity as one makes zillions, making personal sacrifices for the good of near and dear. Movie-goers live their fantasies through his movies. If you cut through the Dravidian propaganda, a Tamizhan is fundamentally god fearing, industrious and they root for this man by identifying with the simple themes that underlies all his movies

His off-screen persona (I have no reason to believe that it’s cultivated) is essentially that of confused simpleton with limited worldly needs, totally deglamorised ,terribly uncomfortable with the enormous riches chasing him, struggling to come in terms with the immense popularity and as a result of this seeking spiritual succor for salvation. But what really adds mystique to his persona is his elusiveness.He is unlike Amitabh whose is paying the price for being ubiquitous (Remember the distasteful and repugnant way in which the Bacchans court media attention and make a public spectacle of their lives).At any given point of time, Rajini’s whereabouts are subject of intense media speculation and untraceablility leads to conclusions that he is seeking atonement in Himalaya .It could well be that he might actually be savoring Scotch in his sprawling Kelambakkam Farmhouse.

Rajinikanth’s public appearances are far and few between but whenever they happen it invariably add to the ever growing legend of that man .He would be appear in the public platform bailing out some financially crippled Kollywood Producer or veteran Kollywood star who in the past launched unprovoked diatribe against him. Or he would seen deferentially bowing to touch the feet of his mentor ,the ace director Balachander.The only event where Rajini’s presence is foregone conclusion is the anniversary celebration of Cho Ramaswamy ‘s magazine where the famed Editor keeps the audience spellbound with his unconventional take on state and national politics

In Tamil Nadu, every eminent personality from past, present and future are being usurped and their identity defined within narrow, sectarian caste terms .Their deeds and actions have been reinterpreted to suit the blinkered predilection of Dravidian Ideology.Rajinikanth continues to pose challenge to them by exposing the limits of their pernicious project. In that sense he is truly unifying force

Any explanation of Rajini phenomenon is inadequate. The best possible thing would be to experience and enjoy his movies. For the thinking class, this might mean “suspending” their sensibilities. Sometimes it might be worth it. So try it out

Rajini is savvy businessman too.He is someone who is a primarily product of Dravidian irrationality which blurred line dividing reel life and real life in pursuit of political power.He strategicaly makes peace with the Dravidian establishment and laughs his way to bank .Yet to be launched Kalaignar TV ,the Kanimozhi-Dayulu Ammal join venture( family enterprise of Karunanidhi involving his wife Dayulu and soon to be Central Minister Kanimozhi, daughter through his companion) reportedely paid whopping amount to bag the rights of the movie 'Sivaji'

It’s close to a week since ‘Sivaji’ release and I have not seen it. It’s probably the first time that I have not watched Rajini blockbuster for so long after it got released.Thats a shame but blame it out on the Kannada groups that ensured that movie got released in only few theatres here.I am planning to travel to Chennai this week to see the movie. So what if I need to buy tickets in the ‘black ‘to see this movie which is purportedly about Rajini fighting against evils of ‘black money’.

Afterall Rajini is all about celebrating contradictions.

Don't Miss....

2007-05-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Don't miss

The latest expose from that indefatigable blogger,Barbarindian.

Ashok Mallik's review of Arun Shourie's latest book

Reality Check and Confused's take on Rajastan Riots

Swapan Dasgupta's excellent take on Dr Manmohan Singh's new brand of spurious socialism

Calling Barkha's bluff?

2007-05-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

It’s clear now. The bloggers have earned the ire of the leading lights of MSM(Mainstream Media) .MSM’s unrelenting onslaught on the bloggers is a good indicator of this

Powerful and influential section of MSM,with its hitherto unchallenged stranglehold on news dissemination and analysis, appears to completely unnerved by the kind of unremitting scrutiny that they have been subject to by the vigilant blogging community. The ‘devious’ agendas of the MSM exemplified by symbiotic relationship with their political masters have been often laid threadbare by some inspired blogging.This section of MSM is camouflaging their rage at the bloggers, behind the smokescreen of expressing phoney ‘concern’ at the damage wrought by what they see as ‘venom spewing’ ,'immature’ bloggers

MSM ‘s outlook towards bloggers is best typified by this despicable diatribe unleashed by Sagarika Ghose,(which deserved the widespread denunciation that it received).Not to left behind the lurid TOI and sanctimonious ‘The Hindu’ resorted to their own patented means and methods to convey to the bloggers what they think of them.

The latest to hitch on to ‘Bash the bloggers” bandwagon is Barkha Dutt.In otherwise well constructed piece,Barkha Dutt has this to say

Log on to the Internet, and you will be stunned to discover how many bloggers —anonymous, or otherwise — have worn their obvious bias on their computerscreens. Some even write about wanting to “leave India if Mayawati ever becamePrime Minister” — all this without a trace of irony or shame. Their delusion is
not just offensive; it’s positively frightening

This bloggers spends considerable time scanning several blogs that cuts across several ideological strands, from the rabid right wings to loony left wing to more nuanced/balanced one .I have not come across single post that talks or takes the position of wanting to ‘leave the country' ‘as a aftermath of Mayawati’s victory.

Infact the reactions of blogs has largely been one of general satisfaction, that UP has not thrown up yet another fractured verdict and cautiously welcoming Maya’s victory .

During the prelude to the polls andallso during the post poll analysis, blogs have been more balanced in their analysis of UP elections that culminated in Maya’s ascendancy. It was vast sections of MSM which woefully underestimated Maya's might in the run up to the poll and then went overboard by eulogizing her, a point Barkha herself makes .Probably they were compensating for ignoring Maya and barking up the wrong tree(read Rahul Gandhi)

There was one condescending piece that I read ,which fitted within the framework of Barkha’s criticism . .Alas it comes from a member belonging to Barkha’s own tribe and employed with Rajdeep News Channel .And it appeared in the newschannel’s own blog section

Barkha's captive readership in HT/NDTV will read follow whatever she says faithfully and will possibly conclude ,errorenously, that bloggers in India are casteist bigots.And that is a real shame

Barkha Dutt should either point to specific blogs(since she says that there are many of them,it might not be difficult to locate one) or retract this damning indictment.

Otherwise ,to me it smacks of the increasingly familiar 'hit and run' tactic resorted to by the media .Make sweeping generalization to captive audience /readership, defame /malign without providing specifics and move on (Arun Shourie had often written about this time tested methodology of this of the pernicious left,liberal infested Indian media)

Just conclude by making a simple request to her-Please do make assertions with specific pointers,given your rightful reputation as one of India's foremost journalist

Updates

1.Apollo's excellent take on the same subject

2.Spaceman Spiff's take on this

A blogger’s guide to understanding UP Verdict

2007-05-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Anyone ,who tried predicting the UP polls, had to eat the proverbial humble pie.

Hindsight wisdom is generally copious in this country. Yes,its time for understanding the implications of this stunning verdict

Discerning bloggers have been consistently highlighting that MSM has either been resorting to facile interpretation of electoral verdicts or labored analysis to fit their ideological biases .The MSM’s analysis of 2004 Union elections stands as testimony to this. Lazy analysis that has now come to rule the roost in MSM can be ignored but one should be equally alert to 'inspired interpretations'

You can be safely advised to ignore creative interpretation like class based mobilization (likely to appear in Frontline/CSDS post-poll electoral studies) propounded to explain Maya’s annihilation of the opposition .It would tacitly veer towards formulations suggesting poor, cutting across caste/creed/communal stratification, voting en-bloc for Mayawati(Do note that Communist parties go unrepresented in UP assembly for the first time).Also abound will be references to how that 'Economic Reforms' has resulted in countryside papuperisation ,which has given way to 'rural resentment'

Outside MSM , if you are looking for some humorous relief you can give heed to typically mindless, predictable,pavolovian post-poll interpretation from the RSS stable on dismal failure of BJP .Yes you guessed it right. It’s apparently the reluctance of its political arm to flog the Hindutva plank based on Ram Mandir that cost BJP dear

Leaving aisde all very formulations and interpretations that range from facile to farcical to funny, certain facts need to be highlighted.While Mayawati ‘s stranglehold over the Dalit votebank is elementary rule in analysing UP electoral politics,Muslims and Yadavs continue to remain the captive votebank of Mulayam.27% votes with more than 25% of SP victors being Muslims is clear demonstration to this.

The Dalit anger against the brutal violence unleashed by tyrannical agrarian mid-castes in the rural heartland combined with the deep resentment among large sections of poor ,urban 'upper' caste against the cynical OBC quota politics( best exemplified by one point agenda of sending rich OBC kids to biz schools, court be damned)has resulted in (re)crystallization of powerful electoral coalition of Dalits and poor 'upper' castes .

The communal, socialist politics of UPA government with the connivance of powerful Dravidian Ministers has resulted in near decimation of the national parties in UP

Now under one umbrella are the most marginalized and despised social groups –the socially marginalised Dalits and econmically impoverished 'upper' castes(Its tragedy that of our times the disproportionate representation of ‘Communist,’Secular’ elitist 'upper caste' in media/politics/bureaucracy/social activism continues to hide the pitiable condition of vast section of 'upper castes)

The biggest loser of the UP polls is the BJP(Rahul Gandhi’s charisma existed and exists only in the op-eds and ‘planted’ stories in MSM .He provided the much-needed glamour quotient in contrast to dullness of Maya/Mulayam/Kalyan)

BJP tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.Taking its traditional voter based for grated,it tried to co-opt the OBC .This itself is not a bad political strategy .But we are living in extra-ordinary times where the social agenda of the Union Government mirrors the agenda represented by spurious brand of Dravidian social justice perfected by ‘kingmaker’ In between times that he presides over state sponsored celebrations where nubile nymphets perform half-naked jhatkas,he could be seen distributing free TV’s or casting aspersion on Supreme Court or resolving blooy family feuds

This blogger is certain that the coalescing of caste groups engineered by Mayawati has sounded the death knell for BJP .With leaders like Vajapyee and Advani (both of them who had the stature and intellectual wherewithal to understand the importance of nuanced right wing politics )past their prime,the party has to now fight for its electoral relevance.I hate to sound like Praful Bidwai but I think BJP could soon be consigned to the margins of Indian electoral history unless some radical rethinking and fresh leadership doesn’t emerge in the next 6 months

While one would agree with most of Swapanda ‘s prescription on what ails the right,Narendra Modi is definitely not the answer for all that ails.Dynamic administrator he is be but to most Indians he continues to be seen as highly divisive figure and rightfully so.New centre- right agenda with Narendra Modi as the fulcrum is definitely a non-starter.Any transformation of the party cannot be achived with Rajnath Singh being in the helm .His juvenile worldview , penchant for coterie politics and willingness to toe the RSS rhetoric represents everything that is wrong with BJP right now .The party can do well introspect but not sure that would help given the utter intellectual bankruptcy that it has displayed after being shown the door in 2004 elections.

Mayawati is destined for meteoric rise in Indian politics if she continues to follow the ‘Chandrabhan Prasad’s formulations’ rather than dangerous ‘Kanchi Illiah worldview ‘( faithfully toed in the blogworld by the Shivam Vij types).

Finally,this election was one humbling experience.And for this i need to take inspiration and resort to the cliched MSM formulation of "Indian Democracy being the real winner"

A blogger’s guide to understanding MSM 's role in UP Polls

2007-05-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

Just few days in to Election Commission notifying the 7 phased UP polls, spread over two months ,we were foisted with the first installment of spurious opinion polls that gets periodically published through dynasty friendly MSM mouthpieces.It definitely helps if you have preponderance of party loyalists and family sycophants doubling up as media henchman and spinmeisters.

Using this dubious poll as basis, pretentious Shekhar Gupta in his characteristic smart-ass fashion, editorialized in IE, seeking to establish ‘electoral equivalence’ between Congress and BJP in the ensuing UP polls. Cunning strategy from sly Gupta was using the garb of ‘National Interest ‘ to bemoan at the dismal prospects of national parties, while the reality was that atleast one national party was very much in the reckoning in the three way electoral battle for UP.

Studio action on the UP polls soon began.Motormouth Rajdeep Sardesai invited usually dumb-witted spokesperson from BJP and some resident CPM representative, to his plush studios for analyzing exit poll findings (one keeps wondering why CPM comrade gets invited for UP polls,why not DMK /ADMK politicos then.After all Jaya campaigned for SP) .Animated discussion follow with visually pleasing bar charts flowing in and out of TV screens .One could be forgiven if he/she were to believe it was May 11 already - the panelist were discussing as if the polls result are out.Not to be outdone, the ‘pensive’ Yogendra, the eminent psephologist chips in the midst of all these cacophony with his ‘astute’ interpretation of the caste based voting pattern, eastern UP voting behavior etc. Not even cursory mention of strong non-Yadav OBC consolidation behind one particular party (because it will demolish the carefully constructed myth that it’s a upper caste party). All this fun interrupted only by commercial breaks

Analysis résumé. Hand over mike to some VP guy working in Bangalore-based software firm.Results of UP declared.
SP-145
BSP-135
BJP-45
Congress-30(could be more given Rahul Gandhi’s barnstorming of UP but you know that worthless Congress worker, who cannot cash in on the Gandhi goodwill and that ineffectual party ‘machinery ‘)

Electioneering begins .And predictably there was incessant media blitzkrieg on the campaign of ‘charismatic’ Rahul Gandhi, with cavalcade of cars and gun totting black cats to guard him,criss- crossing the length and breadth of UP in sweltering heat and making ‘impassioned’ appeal.The great white young hope of Indian Politics has finally arrived .Not since Rajeev Gandhi,has such a ‘cute’ and ‘nice’ boy entered politics” remarked my office colleague impressed with this foreign ‘educated ‘ and ‘handsome’ scion.What more Celina Jaitley has endorsed him

’Rahul takes UP by storm’,’Rahul storms Vajpayee bastion’

Every morning you wake up to read these headlines , in the front page of MSM usually accompanied the beaming photo of Crown Prince lost in splendor of color and garlands.PM Singh, with no pretensions of power that afflicted Mr Rao ,came as close as admitting that he was basically keeping the chair warm for the Crown Prince to smoothly step in to it

The understanding of ‘Future of India’ (as per our honorable PM) on history and geography was innocently naïve and simplistic. Roughly all that he implied was ‘India is land of one family and another billion people’. No wonder the Prince thundered ’My grandma created Bangaldesh.”My papa could have protected the disputed structure in Ayodhya"

Vir Sanghvi,barely able to conceal his anger on lack of public approval for the Crown Prince, wrote in official party mouthpiece on India ’s reluctance to embrace young leaders.And we are told that Rahul is young guy with bright ideas

Another ‘Secular assault’ was to follow.Sister channel of CNN-IBN makes some 'stunning' revelation .It stumbles upon some ‘Inflammatory CD’ produced by sick, lower level functionary of BJP(looks like that party has too many demagogues and loonies in their ranks) that is currently in circulation .Within no time phony outrage is manufactured by the MSM, best exemplified by the quick release of ‘Secular’ CD endorsed by that usual suspects(Geet Sethi was only new entrant) described as ‘eminent ’, to counter ‘Communal’ CD. Seasoned journalists covering politics suddenly seem to have woken up to the vitriol, virulence and diatribe that always marks the farcical electoral process in this country cutting across parties .And as far as I remember. Didn’t you know that all election were fought on ‘bread and butter issues’ till BJP arrived and communalized the electoral process.

Mount Road Mahavishnu and its Marxist editor published verbatim translation service of the CD transcripts,for benefit of English speaking secularists and sundries to read it over and over again and feel disgusted .Suddenly the issue of disgusting CD, prepared by some brain dead political functionary hogged political limelight .For a newspaper published from Chennai (bastion of Dravidian Politics with abundance of Medai Pechalars)the vitriol and virulence of political discourse in UP was too much to tolerate-atleast that’s what readers were made to believe

Not to be left behind,cometh the partisan Navin Chawla, family loyalist strategically placed and now firmly ensconced in position of constitutional authority. Sidelined Jaitley needed to summon his legal acumen to ward off the challenge of imminent derecognition . Election Commission was so seriously worked up that one was wondering if they really believed that CD was actually scripted and enacted by Vajpayee ,Advani and others

By this time two rounds of polling was over

Suddenly you had the ‘secular’ psephology,manifesting this time through exit polls.However this time around the findings were different.Serious disconnect was visible between the way UP electorate vote and way ‘secular’ intelligentsia want them to vote.It was now confirmed to us,the viewers that it’s a three way battle. For few parties exit poll projection were doubled from their opinion poll scores.

Shekhar Gupta ,now calling himself the limousine liberal, discovers suddenly that there is a groundswell of support for national parties and this is encouraging trend.He wrote a column on ‘healthy’ trend of revival of national parties without even mentioning the party that is leading the revival

With SP down and out,the next best bet for achieving their best case ‘secular’ post election scenario was Mayawati winning sufficient seats and needing to bank on the paltry strength of Congres

Overnite the MSM that largely ignored the ‘behenji’, woke up to the fiery Dalit leader (who had no qualms in offering tickets for a price) She became the darling of media(It was crystal clear to any political observer that she had made huge stride in cobbling social coalition and was leading the race ever since it began).Brand Maya was conjured upon.’Vengeanceful and 'Vainglorious' Mayawati magically transforms to only strong leader, capable of ending ‘goondagiri’ in UP.

Thankfully there is only one more round to go.And that should provide respite

Maximum City-Interesting exchange in my school Yahoo Group

2007-05-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

One of my dear school friends(most academically accomplished and by some distance,best and the brightest of our batch) quickly penned his thought on his take on Mumbai.He had moved there recently to take up a new professional assignment

Another batchmate(by long distance the most uncouth and recusant one in the batch) responded to this mail,by rambling in his typically incoherent manner

Another dear friend(known for his amazing memory power) too chipped in

Respected Yogendra Yadav

2007-04-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

(I am writing this letter sincerely hoping and assuming the person who commented on my previous post is indeed Yogendra Yadav.If it was case of stolen identity,part of this letter is still addressed to 'real' Yogendra Yadav)

..........................................................................................................................................................................

Respected Yogendra Yadav,

I count it has my privilege that you visited this blog (and left a comment too)

"Yogendra Yadav is remarkably articulate, has an incisive understanding of the political landscape of the country and can be credited with demystifying the esoteric field called Psephology, much to the benefit of television viewers. Also his model/methodology for proposed OBC reservation definitely was an excellent effort"

This was what I had to say about you in one of earlier my blog posting and that’s why I count it has my privilege to have you on my blog.

Reality Check, one of India’s terrific blogger has been emphasizing ad-nauseam, on the imperative of data driven approach to policy discourse .Its a different matter that it’s the Sardesai/Barkha type of 'pontificate, propagate and preach in studio' type of journalism, which is unfortunately becoming the norm and often passed off as serious debate.And that’s why many of us owe a lot to you, for being one of the pioneers in data driven understanding of social issues.

You had this to say to me “What I found was your analysis of my character and motives”. This is only partially true.Yes we have tried to understand your motives but never ever remotely indulged in any sort of personalized attack (unless you consider name calling like “Spin Twin” a personal attack)

On the “motive” part of it. In the last couple of years, there have been huge difference between the projection of various polls conducted by CSDS and actual outcomes.Debate began among the bloggers -whether these polls going awry, has got less to do with statistical nightmare involved in calling Indian elections and more to do with 'deliberately' introduced 'bias' and ideologically inspired 'interpretations’. And not the least because it was coming from someone like you, who many of us remember doing outstanding psephology work in late 90’s

Just to cite specific instances which baffled many of us

-State of Nation Survey predicting 240 for the Congress Party (Just short of simple majority)

-Punjab /Uttarakhand Opinion Poll which predicting huge edge for Congress

-Abysmal projection for a particular political party during UP Opinion Poll and sudden but steep upward revision in exit poll with facile explanation of alliance with Apna Dal (i guess the first round of Opinion poll was done after the alliance was firmed up)

Its only the politically innocent who might be see polls/surveys in splendid isolation and only the naïve who will deny the political ‘preferences’ and ‘agendas’ of Hindustan Times, The Hindu ,Shekhar Gupta and Rajdeep Sardesai who commission and patronize these exercises. Very recently discerning viewers could hardly miss the irony of Rajdeep presenting Manini Chatterjee in his studio as 'neutral' media observer for UP election analysis

The undivided attention of MSM (for that matter even few Lohiaties /Page 3 Samjawadis) on pressing matters like 'marriage of the millienium', leaves them with no time to reflect on the dissenting voices of discerning viewers and readers. ‘Reader’s Editor’ are also caught mostly in to correcting grammar, syntax and such things or seen threatening the bloggers with defamation suits. Independent media watchdogs yet to take strong roots in the country. Bloggers have been only too happy to usurp this wide open space Admittedly they still are on fringes of public opinion formation in India - that is such a shame for some of the best analysis appears to emerge from blogs(my personal opinion)

The analysis of UP polls which I described as terrific is done by one ‘Yossarin’ who runs this excellent blog called Offstumped.(Time permitting,you should go through his ‘data driven’ review of NCERT textbooks

I called it terrific because think Yossarin comes up with prediction based on Realpolitik(even more remarkable given the fact he might not be doing political analysis for a living)

And like any other field of activity, you get a mixed bag of bloggers in India.One end of the spectrum you have guys like me , who belong to 'I have a computer, I am connected and so I blog' category .Crudity and incoherent ramblings might well be defining characteristic of this category.

On the other hand i I can point to outstanding bloggers like Nitin Pai, Yossarin,Gaurav ,Confused Apollo(just to name a few ) .Some of them have had nuanced questions to ask on these polls

http://acorn.nationalinterest.in/2006/08/16/spinning-the-security-survey/

http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2007/02/27/punjab-uttarakhand-poll-results-brand-sonia-more-myth-than-reality/

http://lifeandsomething.blogspot.com/2006/09/tale-of-two-surveys-i.html

http://hawkeyeindia.wordpress.com/2006/06/10/cnn-ibn-twists-the-reservation-debate/

http://theprudentindian.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/ncert-yogendra-yadav-another-secular-assault/

And let me finish by saying that i sincerely apolgise if you even find anything in the nature of personal attack in my postings

Thanks

Prasanna

Data,Deception and Yogendra Yadav

2007-04-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

Its no longer a urban legend.Its fairly certain that Yogendra Yadav and his cohorts resort to suspect statistical exercises (usually manifested as farcical pre-election opinion polls and dubious "State of Nation" surveys), either to undermine the electoral fortunes of a particular political party (against which he and his media patrons share undisguised hatred ) or to indulge in intelletual skullduggery, by finding 'patterns' in data to suit his spurious "Left of Left Meets Lohia" worldview

Nobody contests the right of Yogendra Yadav to hold his own ideological viewpoint and further it to.But to use facade of 'polls' and 'surveys',claimed to be done using 'scientific' manner with help of 'statistical 'tools'and robust 'methodolgies' is to put it charitably, plain deception

Or would it be that, unlike conventional scientific experiments, 'social' experiments always tends to yield outcomes favoured by those who design it.

Well it help calling oneself a 'Social Scientist'

Read-Offstumped's terrific analysis of the UP polls

Rajdeep Sardesai and Dawood Ibrahim-Interesting Exchange in 13th Lok Sabha (Unedited)

2007-04-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

13th Lok Sabha(12.04 hrs. Discussion Under Rule-184)

Discussion on motion regarding expressing grave concern on over failure of administration in ensuring security of minority community in various parts of India SPECIALLY IN GUJARAT. (Concluded and motion negatived)

Excerpts from the Discussion

..................................................................................................................................

SHRI SOMNATH CHATTERJEE -Mr. Deputy-Speaker, Sir, I do not wish to take any more time except to make one point. It is not a recent aberration of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

We are thankful to Shri Rajdeep Sardesai for finding out the speech of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee delivered in Parliament in 1970. He said:

"Whatever the reason, our Muslim brethren are getting more and more communal, and as a reaction Hindus are getting more and more aggressive. Nobody made the Hindus aggressive. If you want to give the credit for this to us, (‘us’ means, Hindus) we are willing to take it. But Hindus will no more take a beating in this country. Hindus will not start, Hindus will not initiate. If you promote Muslim communalism, the other feeling will run high. Communalism is like a double-edged sword, it acts both ways. "

This was delivered by him in 1970 in this House. He further said:

"I agree, the feeling of the revenge is not good. We cannot allow any individual to take the law in his hands. But will this rule apply only to Hindus? Will it not apply to Muslims?"

…(Interruptions)

SHRI KHARABELA SWAIN (BALASORE): Sir, does he know that the same Shri Rajdeep Sardesai wrote that Dawood is a great patriot? … (Interruptions)…

This item was published in 1993.… (Interruptions )… Do you want that I should read it out… (Interruptions)…Sir, on 2 nd April, 1993, Shri. Rajdeep Sardesai wrote Dawood as a great patriot… (Interruptions)…Here is that news-item. I can lay it on the Table of the House… (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEKAER: Shri Kharabela Swan, when you get a chance, you can refer it. Let him speak.

Battling Imperialism-SAIL's way

2007-04-03T01:51:00.000-07:00

Basking in the glory of Tata Steel’ acquisition of Corus, over-excited observers, in the vulgar display of crass economic jingoism saw it as triumph of Indian entrepreneurship Also heard was familiar voices of how an Indian underdog worsted the imperial designs of the marauding Western Corporations. In their assessment it was some kind of poetic justice, for it was through the infamous East India Company that colonization of India began

That be it SAIL,India’s largest Steel Maker and company funded by tax payer’s money seem to have found innovative ways and means to fight its own battle against the ‘neo-imperialistic ‘ world order

Courtesy SAIL’s largesse, usual suspects of red and green variety, representing the most dangerous ideological cocktail of Marxism,Islamofascism and perverted version of uniquely Indian pseusosecualrism, converged together in the hallow precincts of India’s Scotch Socialists, to organise Int'l Conference on War, Imperialism and Resistance in West Asia

Leave alone the prioperity issue,one is hard-pressed to understand the rationale behind SAIL( Public Sector undertaking) decision to fund these events .Can citizen funded governmental organization associate with overtly political platform of this nature especially if the conference,quite predictably,comes up with resolutions that violate the officially stated foreign policy of Government of India

Well this might be discredited Left's idea of autonomy for public sector corporations

Why The Pseudo,Phonies Oppose Capitalism?

2007-03-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Is it just more than coincidence that those who are in the vanguard of the phoney left ,liberal intellectualism (Prannoy Roy,N.Ram,Barkha Dutt,Suzzane Roy, Karat Couple,Yechury Dude, Rajdeep Sardesai, Honey’s one time husband + current spouse, Teesta Javed- lack of space permits from me from listing all and sundry who are also usually described as intellectual/activist/progressive etc) invariably come from privileged families, get educated in most prestigious instiutions,speed in luxury cars, pocket astronomical salaries, globe trot in biz class, hobnob with the wealthiest, use proximity with powers that be to curry favors , sip the finest fines, holiday in exotic tourist destinations and still pour scorn on the very system that has bestowed privilege on them

If you are always wondering why these self-proclaimed leftist intellectuals loathe capitalism,just find time to read this this wonderful writeup that convincingly explains

If only Editors read their own Columnist

2007-02-28T03:53:00.000-08:00

Not for nothing was Shekhar Gupta derisively referred to as “Item Girl Editor” by the now defunct Spinindian Express .The apparent preponderance of nubile nymphets and busty bimbettes from Bollywood in his pretentious walk show “Walk the Talk” in NDTV might have prompted this unflattering name calling ,though this has no way deterred Gupta .

Only recently,the beautiful Hyde Park provided the perfect backdrop for Shekhar Gupta to take Svelte Shilpa Shetty on a nice stroll and indulge in puerile chitchat on Gandhi,God and Goody

While refraining from suggesting to Gupta on which Bollywood bombshell he could invite next to his walk show,this blog does advises him to read , what KPS Gill writes in the Op-Ed of Indian Express

Every word of Gill’s brilliant piece his worth its weight in gold,I am just highlighting portions that hold relevance to the editor of the newspaper

Since then, a veritable ‘Gujarat riots industry’ has come into being, whipping up flagging passions at every opportunity, and manufacturing a range of ‘products’ that are marketed principally to foreign ‘buyers’.

One of the manifestations or ‘products’ of this ‘Gujarat riots industry’ has been the constant, ill-informed and often hysterical attempt to blame a great deal of subsequent terrorist activity in India on the Gujarat riots. Every time there is a major terrorist attack by Pakistan-backed Islamist extremists anywhere in India, we are told by a particular lobby that this is ‘because of’ the Gujarat riots. This is the most arrant and malicious nonsense.

Not long go , Shekhar Gupta wrote in Newsweek about Bombay train bombing.

Only if editors read what their own columist write ................

DMK 's volte -face and lessons for Indian State

2007-02-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

The trenchant critics of DMK will rightly locate its now infamous volte -face on Article 356 in the realm of farcical world of competitive Dravidian politics .AIDMK chieftain’s new fond affinity with Page 3 Samajwadi might have forced the DMK to jettison its steadfast, at times sterling opposition, to this draconian constitutional provision that has been abused ad nauseam by the most undemocratic political formation of this country. However this somersault by DMK represents the ideological nadir of its political journey. It now probably holds the dubious distinction of being the only party that can now safely claim to have abandoned or compromised on all its founding principles

This act of opportunism gives us the opportunity to chart the fascinating journey of DMK from fissiparous, rabble rousing (though ideology driven) regional outfit to yet another 'mainstream' political formation that it has metamorphosed to now.

During the 80's when that matinee idol turned great nationalist MGR(only post independence Indian politician who rightly fully deserved the title of ‘Bharat Ratna’) was in power,DMK was reduced to hate- mongering outfit resorting to political discourse based on crude version of ‘Tamil Nationalism’. Unlike benign regionalism in other Southern States that could be easily accommodated within the framework of Pan- Indian identity, ‘Tamil Nationalism’ always had transnational implication. Tamil Identity politics gets inextricably interlinked with struggle for separate Tamil Eelam

In early 1991 DMK government was dismissed for allegedly providing conduit to Tamil separatist elements. Soon after this LTTE committed the heinous crime of assassinating Rajiv Gandhi (so much for the notoriously short memory of the Indian public, Sonia Congress and DMK are now the greatest allies).Karunanidhi was at the receiving end of overwhelming ire of Tamil public fury for creating the ‘enabling environment’ for the LTTE to perform this gruesome act of violence (need to add that it was tad unfair to Karunaidhi).In the ensuing election DMK was wiped out .

With the threat of political extinction loomed large, there was still the possibility that DMK could revert to whipping up dangerous, exclusivist version of Tamil Regionalism despite electoral setback. The disastrous consequences of the Nehruvian economic model pursued by the Indian state combined with inherent hositility to Hindi (quite justifiable, given the hegemonistic Congress designs on this) left huge number of Tamil Youth without employment opportunities. This disillusionment could have been potentially channelised in to subscribing to the regressive, subversive parts of Dravidian political agenda originally formulated by DMK.Infact the charismatic Vaiko, expelled from DMK was tapping on that

Why this did not happen? If there is one significant factor why this discontentment did not get caught in the vortex of Tamil Identity Politics , its the economic liberalization that resulted rapid expansion of private business in India., The path breaking midday meal scheme that arrested dropout at Primary School education and surfeit of private engineering colleges/ITI’s churning out steady pool of technical talent made Tamil Nadu was one of the few states that was well positioned to take advantage of the new economy opportunities. Add to the fact, Tamil People are fundamentally peace loving, pious and tolerant but for the influence of the pernicious Dravidian forces

Another favorite political rhetoric that Karunanidhi cunningly scripted was Tamilian being ‘pauperized’ by the marauding Indian state. However this rhetoric lost its edge when the US-educated scion of the DMK First family,Kalanidhi Maran ‘skillfully managed ‘ to create the mighty Sun Television Network with interests spanning across several states. Today not only he features in Forbes billionaires list, he is now really reaching ‘stratospheric heights’

Not so insignificant is the role of the pragmatic Murasoli Maran.He not only architected DMK-BJP alliance but also Commerce Minister in the NDA government, he played significant role in ushering in economic reforms

The recent fracas between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka post the verdict of the Cauvery Tribubal exemplifies the new approach of DMK.DMK might have had no qualms in queering the pitch on this issue. But the deeply entrenched commerical interests of SUN network in Karnataka and also the fact that millions of Tamilians are now gainfully employed in Bangalore forced the party had to perform some deft balancing act

I am not sure if it’s safe to generalize but i do think there is lesson in this for the Indian state. Can Indian state can come up with some ‘intelligent design’ - those ‘spearheading ‘secessionist struggle or those ‘capable’ of dangerous ,divisive mobilization can be creatively co-opted to develop ‘cross-territorial stakes in Indian growth story, many of the fissiparous tendencies will just lose steam

PS-I can straight away think of one exception to this-Jihadi Islamism.

Analysing Amartya Sen's JFKian Exhortation

2007-02-16T22:35:00.000-08:00

In the incestuous left-liberal world , everyone and his brother quickly qualify as ‘intellectual’, as long they espouse an particular world view. Though Amartya Sen is the torch -bearer and intellectual inspiration of this left, liberal pack, he is definitely one of the few truly outstanding and towering intellectuals of our times

I have never read any of his seminal work in the area of Economics (subject that is beyond comprehension of the intellectually challenged like me) .However I did expend lot of effort in reading two other labored pieces of his writing and i could only agree with one of my favorite bloggger’s take on that

I got to read the excerpts of Dr.Sen’s speech in NASSCOM Leadership seminar .It appears in the Opinion section of yesterday’s The Hindu.The highlight of the speech revolves around the exhortation to the burgeoning Indian IT Industry

“Given what the country has done for Indian IT, it is not silly to ask: what specially can the industry do for India?”

We leave it to the Manmohan loving IT honcho Narayana Moorthy(now wih the added burden of presiding over the largets hopitality chain in India) and his ilk to ponder over Dr Sen's advise.However i would appreciate if readers of the blog (by generous estimate 5 0r 6 faithfuls) help me in understanding ,in layman's language, what exactly Dr Sen wants the IT industry to do in return for the yeoman service that Nehru did to the cause of Indian IT Industry by setting up IIT's/IIM's

Yes this portion of Dr.Sen's speech that caught my attention

"Perhaps most immediately, the IT sector has benefited from the visionary move, originally championed by Jawaharlal Nehru, to develop centres of excellent technical education in India, such as the IITs, to be followed by the Institutes of Management and other initiatives, aimed at enhancing the quality and reach of Indian professional and specialised education."

At a personal philosphical level ,i am of the view that IT Industry grew, not because of the government but inspite of it(the funniest thing i ever heard was from one Congress sycophant ,in DD , crediting Rajiv Gandhi for "Computr Revolution"in India.Much like Al Gore "inventing" internet.)

While Amartya Sen might be partially right in blaming Nehru for lack of focus on Primary Education,but linking Nehru 's vision in creating IIT's to growth of Indian IT services industry deserves greater examination

1)How many among those who pioneered the low-cost, off-shore centric Indian IT services industry come from the rank of IITians?

2) Can it be disputed that not less than 60% of the foot soliders of the Indian Industry,the quintessential software programmer,are drawn from private engineering colleges and science colleges (several of them based out of South India)

If you follow Amartya Sen's peculiar line of reasoning,there are many others who deserve greater credit

Have you heard about these names? Education Entrepreneurs -Jeppiar,A.C Shanmugham,G.Visvanath from Tamil Nadu(there might be few others from state of Karnataka ,the state which pioneered concept of affordable private higher education for middle classes).And with little or no help from the government

Shady,louche politicians they might be but definitely they deserve credit for pioneering affordable engineering education in South India .The educational standards might be slightly dubious in instituations established but they have churned out thousands of engineers who were gleefully lapped up by well-oiled recruitment machinery of the Top Indian IT Companies

And by the same logic,Arignar Anna also deserves a large measure of credit for fighting the imposition of Hindi tooth and nail(another story that ).Afterall the working knowledge of English gives Indian Programmers as much global edge as programming language proficiency

Its noboy's case that Indian IT industry should be oblivious to the social reality and operate in some kind splendid isolation, divorced from the context of our times .But using fuzzy logic like "Nehru did if for you,so better do your bit' dosent behold the eminent intellect of Dr.Sen

PS-This blogger has no qualms in admitting that he suffers from visceral, pathological hatred for the ubiquitous left-liberal intelligentsia .And this often manifests in no-holds barred tirade against their pernicious agenda (mostly it degenerates in to incoherent articulation).

1.India's blogger extraordnaire Nitin Pai's take on this speech

2.This post was originally titled "Analysing Amartya Sen's Churchillian Exhortation" but it was JFK and not Churchill who provided the inspiring quote "Ask not what Country......."

India's Spin Twins

2007-02-14T04:58:00.000-08:00

This post is not about chronicling the exploits of the spin twins, Bhajji/Kumble, wrecking havoc against hapless opposition on designer dust bowls that turn square from day 2. It’s been quite a while that they have operated in tandem ,even longer since they helped India register a home victory. With duo now largely ineffectual, few discerning observers of the game would disagree that they are not longer ‘the spin twins’ who used to give the opposition torrid time on the cricketing pitch

Given that country ‘s cricketing cupboard is not exactly brimming with tweakers (even the exclusion of some rotund ,run of the mill spinner from the final 15 evokes great national debate),there is definitely a case for broad basing the search for India’s new ‘spin twins’ beyond the confines of nation ‘s prime obsession.

And if you do this, it’s not much effortin identifying the duo who deserve this mantle now.

Readers of this blog, please join me in applauding India’s most potent 'Spin Twins' now -devastating and deadly duo.The quintessential Spin Doctors -Rajdeep Sardesai and Yogendra Yadav.

While this blog has written once before ,on the devious methods of these media manufactured exercises, it's time they are formally anointed as India’s 'Spin Twins' for their consistency

I am not even going to expend effort on how the journalist driven channel choses its "Indian of the year" or about the farcical State of Nation poll done in collusion with HT (which can be charitably described as official mouthpiece of Congress Party )

PS-

1. Opinion Poll conducted on Punjab Elections published on Jan 23,2007 by the Spin Twins(Congress with huge 5 % lead.In context of state like Punjab this potentially meant landslide for the Congress Party.However the duo refused to translate vote shares to seats)

2.Exit Polls- Advantage SAD-BJP.Dead Heat

One possible reason for the Akali's closing the gap-CNN -IBN 's Indian of the year' campaign across the state which seemed to have evoked tremendous response

Breakfast in Amristar,Lunch in Lahore, Dinner in Kabul

2007-01-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

Our PM is largely seen as tactiturn and phlegmatic man ,not usually prone to hyperbole .And he definitely has none of those poetic pretensions that used to frequently afflict his predecessor.

He is equannimous person too.From whatever glimpse that i could get of him courtesy DD, he was largerly unflustered and unruffled .This was when he (read the boilerplate template) addressed the nation soon after 'few hundred upper class Gujaratis were attacked in the first class compartments of suburban Mumbai trains for their moral complicity in Gujarat riots.'(Contact Shekhar Gupta and Newsweek for more on this)

But you can trust the 'Indo-Pak Bhai Bhai thing' to get even the most restrained imagination run amuck

What an inspired methaphor that Manmohan has used to unveil his grandiose vision of borderless South Asia

Breakfast in Amristar,Lunch in Lahore, Dinner in Kabul

'Culinary internationalism' or 'Culinary Subcontinentalism' is the latest CBM ,it seems

I end with this quote -

"Power has a way of undermining judgment, of planting delusions of grandeur in the minds of otherwise sensible people and otherwise sensible nations." - Senator J. William Fulbright, 1966

The Hindu and Medai Pechalar

2007-01-04T00:37:00.000-08:00

Cinema and charisma aside, there is one understated reason for the stranglehold the Dravidian parties have achieved on the political landscape of Tamil Nadu

Street side political awareness of their ‘ideology’ and concomitant popular mobilization that they have achieved is largely due to the surfeit of “Medai pechalars”in their ranks.

Stage Orators –that’s the nearest English translation that I can come up for this .However it does not do justice to the profound ‘nativeness’ of this Tamil word. (With the danger of being accused as closet chauvinist, Tamil is incredibly rich language that deserves every bit of its classical tag)

“Medai pechalar”are exemplary orators-all ‘fire and brimstone’ (apologies for using religious allegory to describe supposedly agnostic, godless Dravidian political world).Their originality and creativity is to be seen or should I say ,heard to be believed.

Energised with two or three liberal servings of ‘Golie Soda’ during the course of their speech, they spew venom on their political opponents in the most crass and vulgar way . The assembled audience gleefully lap it up all.

By drawing analogies and allegories from ancient Tamil Literature , Tamil Movies ,global political developments, Mahabharat/Ramayan/Bible ,contemporary national political scene ,they create engaging and compelling canvas that manages to keep the audiences spellbound.

As quickly as they move from one meeting to another they also keep switching loyalities from D Dravidian formation to A Dravidian formation and back .One professional Pechalar joined Congress party albeit very briefly and made a quit ,uneventful exit .Reason-he said Congress doesn’t organize enough political meetings for his trade to flourish and eke out a living .

By all accounts Medai Pechalar get a subsistence wage of Rs 100(even the celebrated ones) with added incentive of autorickshaw pick up and drop from/to residence , sumptuous lunch, which is mostly briyani packed from the nearby military mess plus 60 ml Gold Monk rum or Monitor brandy

ADMK Medai Pechalar can typically be heard describing Jayalitha as “Joan of Arc”,”Jhansi Ran’,” Mother Theresa” and “Maragert Thatcher” all rolled in to one (this would be potentially countered by Medai Pechalar from the opposing Dravidian camp with retort” This explains her size”. This is just how dirty it gets)

Another famous stage speak was the hyperbole on how Clinton advised Katrina relief efforts committee to take inspiration from Jayalalitha’s work on Tsunami

“Hitting below the belt” AIADMK stagespeak includes linking the construction of flyover in the heart of Chennai city to the alleged bigamy of CM who initiated the project .Pechalars felt that flyover was bulit to facilitate his travel from one “house” to another ,with no traffic jams to worry .The other notable speaks centred around his supposedly stage managed theatrics when the high-handed Chennai Police clamped down on his house at wee hours

The other side of political divide, the original Dravidian political party, DMK boasts of impressive array of Medai Pechalars who revel in wisdom,wit and not the least in sexist innuendoes and crass cracks (That their principal antagonist happens to be lady makes it easier) .

In one particular speech that was purported to emphasis the ‘secular’ credentials of Karunanidhi ,’biological explanation’ of Ram’s birthplace was provided as opposed to the ‘geographical’ birthplace beliefs of Ram bhakts. Infact the speaker incurred the wrath of the law enforcing authorities for coming up with this Dravidian variation of 'secularism '

Its rumored that the most infamous is the one on the bio-break taken by the lady CM of the state .Decency demands that I don’t elaborate this one though I need to add that DMK Medai Pechalar ,who is credited with this ,is now cooling is heels in ADMK

This brings me now to the original purpose of the post

While ending their fiery speech, Medai Pechalar never fail to describe the Dravidian Ruler of the day as “Tamizhagathin Neeranthara Mudhalvar” (Permanent Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu)

When it was only used by the Medai Pechalar, who largely operated on the fringes of the political space and not part of serious political debate, this bit on "Neeranthara Mudhalvar" was largerly ignored by the so-called intelligentsia and informed citizens of the Tamil Nadu. However very soon the ruling class - Ministers, MLA’S and even some IAS officers started using the tag of “Neeranthara Mudhalvar’. And the coinage soon began to epitomize the sycophancy and unabashed adulation that Dravidian Thailvars and Thalaivees bask in the Tamil Land and degeneration of the political culture in the state .

When the mainstream political class started using this description, the so called intelligentsia took affront to it (and rightly so) because the description smacked of utter disregard for democratic traditions .How can someone be anointed as permanent chief minister especially when there are election to be fought ,potentially every 5 years or even less ,where people can either throw out the incumbent government or renew the mandate .

With the benefit of hindsight wisdom, it seems intelligentsia have unnecessarily got worked up about the “Neeranthara Mudhalvar”(Permanent Chief Minister ) thing.

Very recently, pride of the so-called intelligentsia editoralised with references to the “Permanent Government” not of China but of Indian state of West Bengal

I dare say that “The Hindu” is now imminently taken the first step towards becoming the “Medai pechalar” of the CPM

The so-called intelligentsia will fume when the political class does it but when this red rag-tag of a newspaper that masquearades as respectable one indulges in this ……………………………..

PS-Related Reading

1.Thanks the ever alert Jagadish for firing the first slavo

2.Chenthil's post on The CPM’s press release describing CPM lead government of WB as “Permanent Government”

3.I am prone to committing typos/grammatical errors Since there is no recorded vists of "The Hindu journalists visiting my blog,i hope there are no corrections suggested

Devil's Advocate

2006-12-11T07:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr.Karan Thapar

There is no gainsaying that you are India’ best television interviewer though i might be challenged on my personal assessment that you are the best in the globe

The tremendous homework, incisive questioning style and the deliberately 'confrontational' ' approach that you have perfected ,has definitely provided the viewers with some of the 'best television moments' especially in current Affairs programming

And your excellence stands in stark contrast to the mediocrity that pervades Indian Media. It's mostly scums and gasbags with dubious agendas who dot the leadership positions in Indian media landscape .Less known for any journalistic merit ,they are more noted for their 'maneuvers' and 'manipulations' in fulfilling dubious agendas of their political masters.

Though your style is perceived by many as high obtrusive I guess it’s stood in good stead in cutting short the 'rhetoric 'that our politician resort to when they deflect difficult questions

I have thoroughly enjoyed the way you have methodically exposed the hypocrisy, incompetence and cynical nature of politician covering the complete political spectrum-right, left, centre and Samajwadi

Your examination proved the woeful and inadequate leadership capabilities of Rajnath Singh –given his role as one entrusted with the future of Indian Right Wing.

You exposed the pernicious politics of Arjun Singh .How shamelessly was he stonewalling questions posed at him?

You cornered even the indomitable Arun Shourie.

And Prakash Karat ran for cover when you highlighted the politics of hypocrisy practiced by the regressive Indian Left .And Karat learnt nice lesson that matters television are best left to his telegenic wife.

And Amar Singh-the loudmouthed political fixer was silenced for once

You even managed to interview the elusive Amma alias Jayalailtha who not only shuns media but treats them condescendingly .The juvenile tantrums and absurd behavior that she displayed in response to your relentless questioning betrayed the lack of tolerance and complete disregard she has for operating within any democratic framework

Very rarely do you find your match. For example lady from the Rajasthan Royalty was able to hold her own .That’s perfectly understandable

But I have been wondering for long. In the galaxy of political heavyweights who have been at the ‘receiving end’ of Thapar Thunderbolts, there is one name that is conspicuous by its absence

It’s the demigoddess of Indian Politics. The Supreme Sacrificer.Epitome of value-based politics

I have seen her being interviewed by some of your colleagues.-Vir Sanghvi, Barkha Dutt,Rajdeep Sardesai and Shekhar Gupta.

Given that they double up as spin doctors, cheerleaders, official spokesperson and at worst as even sycophants (like in case of Sanghvi) it’s downright unfair to expect them to pose probing questions.

You have interviewed someone like L K Advani on quite a few occasions and posed really difficult questions . The much reviled politician gave his side of the take on several contentious issues. Take it or leave, atleast you know here is a man who shares his definite views and thoughts on national issues

I always though this is the essence of democracy .Because in democracy for common citizens, we need to hear leaders coming out in the open and sharing their views and thoughts on issues.

I am just waiting for that episode of Devil's Advocate with Sonia.And hope that Karan does not disappoint like Barkha who chose to explore the private side of mighty shy individual or like Sanghvi’s interview which unfolded beautifully –the masterly scripting and enactment.

Thanks

Prasanna

Malegaon Muddle

2006-11-28T02:33:00.000-08:00

Gory Imagery of fanatical ‘Hindu Jihadi’ outfits with access to abundant quantity of ubiquitous RDX were conjured upon.

The comrades and bleeding heart liberals came close to conclusively suggesting who committed the crime. If they had to be believed Bajrangis, with no virgins waiting in the heaven, had finally found some other source of inspiration to cut the Gordian knot .

Cometh the Hanumanwadi, the Hindu counterpart of Jihadi-the foot soldiers ready to bomb themselves to smithereens for the cause of his religion

The media charge was lead by Chennai headquartered Indian arm of the official Chinese news agency Xinhua ,gloating on how terror is now finally becoming ‘secularized’. Wasting no time its correspondent, Praveen Swami (otherwise one of very few fine perspective correspondent on matters related to terrorism) ,blotted his copybook and wrote uncharacteristic piece (might be under the pressure to toe the editorial line of the paper)

Not to be left out ,Vinod Mehta quickly commissioned some hack who asked juvenile questions under the garb of investigative journalism .The fake beard was convincingly rebuffed by the police

Contributing to the muddle was our man with “Wow –Can you beat this résumé”. Onboard his way to the silly sojourn in Havana,he gave some sound bytes which went like this-"I neither rule in or rule out anybody “

And predictably the piece de resistance came from the Resident idiot who called the investigation as "Litmus Test of Impartiality".And only way for police to pass this litmus test is by ruling out the involvement of Islamist in this blast.

As Swapanda put it , there was spring in the stride of the secularist

The intellectual Osamas were basking in the glory of the Malegaon Muddle

Now that its been established by the police that Malaegaon blast is afterall charade by the usual purveyors and perpetrators of terror there are two possible things our Media cheerleaders will resort to

-Launch smear campaign and spread calumny about the Maharashtra Police .Question the credibility and modus operandi of the police .The fact that anti-terror operation means police need to resort to various unconventional techniques makes it easy to pick gaping holes .Launch smear campaign and spread calumny about the Maharashtra Police

-Maintain stunning silence or at worst relegate to inconsequential corners this piece of breakthrough which stands as testimony to police efficiency

What say-Your guess is as good as mine

Intensely Personal.......................

2006-11-15T01:01:00.000-08:00

Two Years have elapsed.

It was November 15th 2004, a week before I was going to be married.The doctor, after 2 hrs of heightened activity inside the critical care ward that typically precedes that moment of inevitability, called me.” She is dead. We tried our best but……”

And come tomorrow it will be two years since her last journey in the black mortuary van that took her to our neighborhood electric crematorium .She blazed in the newly commissioned furnace .Little over 10 minutes she was just ashes and few bones .The furnace operator faithfully handed over the earthen pot to me .The impatient priest resumed his rituals.

Not even a week before her demise my mother was hale, healthy and definitely hearty. 52 year school teacher with no medical history (probably the last time she was attended to in the hospital was for natal reasons - giving birth to yours truly some 29 year back.).

How could it happen that events unfold itself in such a way that she literally walked in to that proverbial death trap?

I was just reminiscing about all this and these random thoughts crossed my mind .

-The decision of my panicky dad, to rush her to that dubious nearby nursing home when she felt slightly dizzy

-The unquestioned loyalty, bordering on blind faith that my family elders have on that old, tired arrogant ‘family’ doctor who’s every word for them is gospel

-The integrity of that doctor who tried covering up his 'initial blundering' by more 'blundering' and was misleading us by giving false impression (later realization)

- My own cowardice and pusillanimity in not confronting the doctor and taking total charge of the situation when I could clearly sense that the old doctor and the ill-equipped hospital were struggling after the blunder

-My dad, who did his best to dissuade me (when I mustered enough courage) that even asking question to the doctor, would be mean offending and slighting him

-When I finally told the doctor that we are shifting her to Apollo in the evening , not unsurprisingly met her end in less than 3 hrs

And if at all i had shown some more courage ............................

Happy Days are back again

2006-11-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

I was trying hard to figure out factors contributing to my failing health.

My wife’s prognosis, readily attributing it to the fact that I get too worked up about the 'problems of the world, though very general, was a good pointer .I wanted to get more specific and pin down the root cause

And i have nearly concluded the major non-medical causative factor might be the deeply entrenched ,daily habit of mine -the routine of newspaper scanning and news channel surfing(atleast one hour/day) .This more often then not results in me raving and ranting ,agitated and aghast at 'machinations' and 'maipulation'of the Indian Media

Now the realization has dawned on me-that their antics can only get only worse.So no more daily dose of the Jai Shri Marx and his Mount Road Mahavishnu, Sarkari Gupta and Spindian Express, Sycophant Sanghvi and Congress party’s national daily.

And I am making best efforts to “black out” the pretentious and haughty Barkha Dutt, motor mouth Sardesai (though I quite like his wife’s writing skills), lousy loudmouths like Bhupendra by resisting my natural inclination to switch on the idiot box after coming back home from work

Trust me- it’s been nearly little more than a week now and I am not missing anything. Its a nice feeling to secure yourself from verbal assault unleashed by these anchors from their plush studios (BTW honorable exception is Vikram Chandra who I think is the one anchor who actually listens).

And how this vacuum has been more than adequately filled by the vibrant and thriving Indian blogdom –the excellent perspective and the incisive analysis provided by several outstanding bloggers in India is light years ahead of those paid professionals who come with their vested interest and dubious agenda

Thanks in no small measure to the Arnab/Nitin/Confused/Doubting Gaurav/Atanu /Amit/ Apollo/Patrix /mysterious K /RC and of course many other blog that i get to visit courtesy Desipundit .

And I am beginning to feel rejevunated and invigorated.

Comrades as Coders and Call-Centre Operators

2006-10-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

I always used to brush under the carpet reports about the attempts of the disruptive and discredited Left-Trade Unions to mobilise employees in India’ sunrise IT/ITES industry

I was quite sure that it would be very difficult ,if not impregnable, for the Marxists Morons to get a toehold among the employees working in this sector

The last thing that overwhelming number of those in this fledgling industry would want is media millionaire Prannoy Roy’s chic sis-in-law ,the pretty poster girl of Desi Communism along with that generally nauseating Gurudas Dasgupta indulging in their customary rabble-rousing under the guise of taking up their cause

Given the fact that it was essentially desperate attempt on the part of the Left Unions to bolster their dwindling membership by inviting the supposedly oppressed and exploited “Proletariat Programmers” and “Call-Centre Comrades” to join forces in establishing the mythical egalitarian world order, I thought that better sense will prevail and that realizing the futility of their misguided and ill-advised exercise,comrades will give up .But you know ,we are talking about the Indian Communists.

Looks like I have grossly underestimated their perseverance- by reliable accounts they have used their time-tested and patented techniques of ” Infiltrate and then Infest” .It definitely helps having perfected this technique in Mainstream Media/Schools/Colleges/Scienctific Institutions/Televison Media/Police to various degrees of success .

Given that they have no qualms in disrupting economic activity in strengthening their pernicious agenda, its imperative that IT/ITES organizations better be aware of this disturbing development, though its not definitely the time to press the panic button or time to ring the alarm bells

The IT/ITES organizations that have already set up shop in Kolkatta/Kochi or planning to set up shop there -Better tread cautiously.

Brand Buddha might be alluring but at the end of the day it’s the leftist loonies sitting in the Central politburo who are final decision making authority

There is a excellent article by Saubhik Chakrabarthi on how Government can respond to this,

Dismal Choice

2006-10-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

As usual the ubiquitous media spindoctors, cheerleaders and drumbeaters of the discredited UPA regime will work overtime to project the anointing of Pranab Mukherjee as inspired selection by the PM and Sonia .

Some ruling party sycophants like Pankaj Vohra of Hindustan Times (I can’t believe the number of blatantly political partisans holding editorial positions in Indian Media) will spare no efforts to write typically sloppy pieces suggesting that this move is a precursor to ushering of a new epoch making era in foreign policy making.

It’s disappointing that the best Manmohan could come up, as a replacement for the disgraced 'Nut’warlal, is this run of the mill, uninspiring, tired, status quoist. One is left wondering whether this portfolio is better left unmanned.

Pranab is not even a political heavyweight that UPA media cohorts are trying to portray him-I guess 2004 was the first time he won a Lok Sabha election thanks to the tacit Left backing

The choice shows that the government suffers from utter bankruptcy of ideas .For once, the First-Family obsessed Congress party did have some options ranging from suave Salman Kurshid to the grossly under -utilized Kapil Sibal or even S.M Krishna .Obviously petty intrigues and palace politics outweigh meritocratic considerations when it comes to ministerial selection

In the current regime, thought leadership (including the absurd Havana Handshake) on conducting India’s international affairs seems to have come only from PMO .In a way this is not that bad because Prime Minister has served as some kind of bulwark ,limiting the pernicious impact the discredited ideological inclinations of Congress Party can afflict on foreign policy making

The working out the mundane details always falls in the domain of the Foreign Service.

This essentially makes Foreign Minister the face and voice of India diplomancy Given this role, Pranab is a terrible choice .

In this good article in DNA, Gautam Adhikari makes the point about how Pakistani diplomats being able to steal march over their Indian counterparts because they are more articulate and better groomed.

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri/ Maliha Lodhi/ Tasnim Aslam and many others seem to come across as articulate ,suave ,urbane and well-groomed all essential qualities of a diplomat

For example ,I have witnessed how the obnoxious and outrageously bad anchors like Bhupendra Chaubey/Vidya Iyer have been ridiculed and ripped apart by Tasnim Aslam, the remarkably articulate foreign affairs spokesperson of Pakistan in Prime Time news programmes in Indian television channels.Okay the juvenile and puerile questions that these anchors ask Ms Aslam makes things easy for her but the manner in which she goes about her job is excellent

The UPA regime should realise that with a wee bit of imagination ,the foreign policy can be shaped in such a way that India can play a decisive role in the world affairs.And in the choice of Pranab Mukherjee its has not displayed iota of imagination

Why does the Left, Liberal Intelligentsia hate President Kalam?

2006-09-28T02:44:00.000-07:00

Why does the Left, Liberal Intelligentsia hate President Kalam?

I have always tried to fathom the reasons why many in the haughty and conceited Left, Liberal Intelligentsia in India nurture such a strong sense of contempt towards President Kalam.

When NDA government came up with the inspired but unconventional choice ,of this modest and unassuming technocrat, for the post of President, the entire nation, in rare show of unanimity ,rejoiced at his elevation to the coveted post .Only exception to this were the usual suspects comprising the useful idiots/bleeding heart liberals/ideological fellow travellers of the comrades and dubious peaceniks .They resorted to their standard technique of smear campaign which ranged from barely concealed barbs to no-holds barred attack on Mr Kalam.As usual, the most vicious and vitriolic attack came from Praful Bidwai (who is increasingly getting to be known as “Resident Idiot”) .

At that moment, I had some senes of why this “Disparage and Discredit Kalam” project was undertaken.However the immediate reason for some nuanced understanding of this phenomenon was this recent posting by Amit Varma of India Uncut, who runs an excellent blog and in the mind of many bloggers India‘s answer to Instapundit

I know that Amit Varma is avowed libertarian and locating him in the realm of leftist intellectual space would be grossly unfair to him .But strictly for the purpose of understanding the motive behind “Disparage and Discredit Kalam” project,I am making no distinction among the critics of the President .This is because, despite ideological differences that might exist among his critics on larger issues, I find a single underlying thread in their criticism- the sense of intellectual snobbery and superciliousness which they nurture witingly or unwitingly .Atleast the Left Intelligentsia in India has shown no qualms in displaying the attitude

In a slightly uncharacteristic posting (written in a sardonic and contemptuous tone with some delusions of self-grandeur, unless I misread the tone and tenor completely) Amit tries to understand why his supposedly well-read blog doesn’t attract as much traffic as the website run by President of India.He then sarcastically points to the poems written by the president as probably reason for the heavy traffic. Admittedly the Poems are obviously not of any great literary value but one attempt to relate with it as soulful reflections of president’s nationalistic aspiration.

Obviously the patchy wordsmithry of our President can never pass muster which our sophisticated, suave intellectual class with their "highly refined" and "evolved "literary tastes. Kalam, coming as he is from an impoverished ,non-descript hamlet in Rameswaram did not have the benefit of early education in any elite educational institutions ,that many of our left intellectuals owing to their affluent background had.This obviously helped them in evolving 'Refined' literary tastes .So any native wisdom ,even if poorly articulated as some form of literary expression, is frowned upon with no attempt to contexually understand it .Also in the later days Kalam ,busy has he would have been managing several crucial defence programmes ,might not have focussed on honing his poetic skills to the "acceptable" level.But real tragedy would be if his presidential legacy comes to be judged through the poor poetry that he curns out .Amit might have just done that

Amit could have stopped at the point of expressing his exasperation, at the ‘juvenile’ quality of the President’s poems but then goes on “ I myself will go there eight times a day now, read his poems, and think, "This is our president?".

Let me make my parochial sentiments clear.Kalam hails from my home state so probably I might be blinded to even fair criticism directed at him. However its not my case that President, who happens to the cult status among the common man, should never be criticized nor his actions scrutinized.

Dr Kalam is by all accounts outstanding people manager but not a great scientist. His worldview, sometimes sound too naïve, given the complexity of India’s problem. However he needs to be fairly assessed within the framework of the largely ceremonial role of Indian President that he is currently holding. And in this role, he is trailblazer, head and shoulders above the many of past presidents, most of them who were petty provinical politicians (barring few exceptions)

Though not sure about Amit, the Left intelligentsia‘s contempt for Kalam is easily explainable.

Kalam radiates positive energy, always talks passionately about India’s emerging strength sometimes drowning the voices of the professional poverty purveyors and doomsday prophets. He seeks to leverage technology for solving nation’s problem and wants to build militarily mighty India. And he happens to be secular in the politically incorrect way. He plays the Veena, is inspired by work of the great nationalist Poet from Tamil Nadu Bharthiar, quotes heavily from Bhagvad Gita and is apparently avid listener of Carnatic Music. He doesn’t wear his minority tag, doesn’t seem to subscribe to the now popular “perpetually under siege and forever prosecuted” theory about religious minorities in India.All this essentially anathema to the Left intelligentsia

Secularization in perverted Indian sense of the term means striping of any identity remotely Hindu and do a la Manishankar Iyer, who proclaimed eating beef as symbol of his secular identity (Come on, I too have dietary habits that doesn’t necessarily discriminate any type of food but to equate this as his symbol of secularism-That’s Classic Doon School/Stephens educated Mani for you)

To be ‘qualified’ as Intellectual in elitist left circles one must essentially read pathbreaking linguistic works of Chomsky, quote from the seminal works of Amartya Sen,fill book shelves with works of Pablo Neruda/Gabriel Garcia ,sign along with Peter Seeger , light candles to fight for justice ,be part of dime-a dozen signature campaigns for all and sundry and champion so-called ‘unfashionable’ cause that would be featured in NDTV.

Kalam is far from this. However he is truly India’s first egalitarian President unfettered by the trappings of the office, mingling with the masses, breaking protocols and powerfully communicating his vision of India however flawed and limited it might be.Not only that, he has an action plan for translating his vision. His vision is not those bombastic pronouncements or empty rhetoric that political class comes up with

Unlike many of his predecessors Kalam never indulges in palace intrigue or blatant political maneuvering. Neither he is driven by any ideological biases .He does not choose to communicate to the world through friendly journalist and deliberately make noises to embrass the government of the day .We have had Presidents taking additional interest in allegedely ensuring plum foreign assignment for his family members .Those who go every second week went on pilgrimage to Triupathi at taxpayer’s expense.

Millions of Indians especially in small towns/cities of India looks up to Kalam as an inspiration. Because they can relate with this simpleton of uncomplicated world view.He talks to them in the idiom and language that they understand. He has no pseudo-intellectual pretensions .A man of boundless and indefatigable energy he travels through the length and breadth of the country and reaches out to millions of School children and provides them with inspiration and succor

Across India millions of children cutting across caste and religious lines are attending schools and colleges, contrary to the dismal picture of dropping enrollment rates by this professional misery mongers .Agreed the kids might not be having the best of infrastructure .They might not be taught by highly motivated teachers. But these young kids are full of energy and passion ,egged on by their parents to study well for building a better tomorrow .Atleast in southern states

Kalam reaches out to them and fires their imagination. Tell me one another individual in India who is doing that

Emerging Danger-The Intellectual Osama

2006-09-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

(The coinage of term "Intellectual Osama" to be rightfully credited to either Pankaj or Chandra who regularly comment (incisively) on Nitin Pai's blog)

Emerging Danger-The Intellectual Osama

Confused writes another good post ,fisking an article written by A.G Noorani on the Malegaon Blasts.

While at one level ,Noorani and their ilk embody the most pernicious manifestation of perverted version of secularism practised in India ,at another level they represent the most dangerous ideological cocktail that is getting crystallised through the convergence of Islamism ,Marxism and elements of fascism.If not fought vigorously ,this has the potential to destroy the all cherished values of modern society

Here is a rank Islamic Communalist masqureading as Marxist .With liberal space provided by Comrade Ram in that loony leftist mouthpiece,he regularly resorts to his overtly communcal agenda including blatantly locating the regressive practices of his religion in the secular space,inventing enemies,conjuring up imaginary conspiracy theories,perpetuating the persecuted feeling among his community and reinventing / celebrating miltary dictators like Musharaf and spewing venom on democratic institutions and leaders elected through democratic process

I recently read the use of the term "Intellectual Osama" in the blogsphere.Noorani fits the description perfectly.In the long run this intellectual tribe could prove more dangerous than the "Militant Osamas" .After all the the allegedely Whitney-Houston obsessed Jihadi is hiding in a cave and except for his occassional appearances in Al-something channel,he mighteven now be reduced to hors de combat after having successfuly globalised Al-Qaeda Terror INC .But the intellectual Osama variety is vibrant and kicking-more disturbingly enjoying "manufactured mainstream respectability " as they fight their battle in through the op-ed pages of leading dailies /prime time of news channels

My only request to generally well-meaning liberals like Sanghvi is to be cautious in providing media space to these characters

If Malegaon blast is conclusively proved to be the handiwork of Hindu Terrorists as insinuated by this journalist of Outlook(Secularist - Can i use this phrase as i have been advised by all including the good hearted ,'Noorani-certified' General Mushy not to associate religion with terror) one cannot fathom why the law enforcing agency is reluctant to laybare the details in the public domain. Please do this immediately and then follow it up with merciless crackdown on the Hindu terrorists ,with Iron Hand . Nip this fissiparous elements in the bud.India cannot just afford to have terrorism of another religious variety.

The law-enforcing agency will definitely not be hindered by 'manufactured outrage',street-side rowdyism and definitely there is no external security threat to India if this type of crackdown is launched ..If they are withholding the details on progress of the investigation from the public citing reasons like communal backlash this will represent the abysmal depths to which the government can stoop down to pander to the communal sentiments

Home Minister -Don't keep the pot boiling and let the suspense lasting forever by trying to stall/influence the police probe .We face the dangers of the "The Intellectual Osama" taking on the role of investigators and coming up with their own versions of conspiracy theories-latest in circulation is the "Fake Beard" line of investigation.This will prove more dangerous

Additional suggested reading on this topic-Brilliant Article by Martin Amiss

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868732,00.html