Indian Interests

[Sagar G]

This is a victory? For the sake of the religious beliefs of one tribe, a big mining project which would have created many jobs and contributed to the economy was scrapped. We can't turn away investment like this and then whine about the terrible state of the economy. Indian interests weren't served here, they were compromised.

Victory or not but you can't enforce your "development" down anyone's throat if they don't like it or want it. Living in a democracy also means to respect other's view even if they don't match your's (unless and until the view severely threatens national interest) and please it's not like because this proposal was shot down hence Indian economy is in a poor state, so stop trying to sell that idea. You seem to have also missed a realization that the villagers themselves have,

Mr Sani said he rejected the advance of development and expressed the hope that his eight year old son Dili will never go to school, watch television or play computer games.

But he conceded that despite the famous victory of his small village over a mining giant, the march of development was probably unstoppable.

"Once he is educated, he will leave this mountain and learn this lifestyle. He will sell our land to the company. At these schools, they don't teach how to live with nature, they teach how to live by exploitation," he said.

I agree here in our thirst for "development" we are putting too much pressure on nature which is already showing the negative impacts. There is a need to have a balance otherwise the future won't be hunky dory.

[Philip]

I remember about a decade back S.Gurumurthy giving a speech about the country's economy,it was in the first stage of the open economy.He advised cityfolk not to imagine that the stock market was the be all and end all of India,and that the true economy was in the villages.What we are seeing today is a migration from rural areas to overburdened cities as out population increases,a dwindling productive rural folk,as the NREGA dole has made them lazy,decline in agriculture in most of India except the Punjab and a few other states,and a wholesale rape and pillage of our forests and destruction of our environment through legal and illegal mining,sand mining,timber mafias,and driving the tribals and rural folk straight into the arms of the Naxals/Maoists.Cheap Chinese imports have destroyed many small scale industries.I mentioned a few years back how the Chinese had driven native Africans out of work into poverty,by copying their handicrafts,mass producing them in China and shipping them in containers to Africa using middlemen to market them.

Moreover,this massive migration and the burden put on metros like Bombay,cost billions to put right,that too only for a short time as the population overwhelms the city.The one large city that I've seen for the last few decades which has bucked the trend is Colombo.No matter how hard it rains,within half an hour the streets are dry.There is hardly any garbage.The place is cleaner than London.All service lines like elec.,tel,etc., are buried underground,no ugly wires criss-crossing roads.By comparison,I've watched how Bangalore,Madras,not to mention Bombay where one has been stuck in traffic jams for hours,have deteriorated .Only Hyderabad has bucked the trend with Naidu doing a miracle.Those who knew what it was before he cleaned it up know what has been achieved.No wonder the massive protests about Telengana,no one wants to lose H'bad. The 2-Tier cities too are going the same way.They have less money than the state capitals where the max. moolah goes.

If our eco policies are balanced,so that both urban and rural areas benefit from policies and govt. largesse,we will see our economy grow much faster than the lopsided cripple of today.We cannot have Rolls' Bentleys and Ferraris while farmers and even urbanites are committing suicide in droves because of poverty.Industrial and human development cannot lay waste to our forests and eco-fragile regions without serious climatic and natural consequences,as we have just seen in U'Khand.In fact,greening the wastelands of India and conserving our forest wealth will generate considerable employment in the rural regions as well as agriculture.

[abhishek_sharma]

A Historical Sense: What Sanskrit has meant to me: Aatish Taseer

[ramana]

Something is wrong here.

Patience has its limits:Pranab Mukherjee warns Pakistan

[shyamd]

^^ He is just playing politics and playing in tune with the mood in the country on the TSP. Although he did look pretty pissed off. Don't read much into it.

[ramana]

X-post...
Scuttling the future

http://newsinsight.net/Scuttlingthefutu ... age=page-1

The loss of INS Sindhurakshak to accident or sabotage reflects in a sense the sinking fortunes of the country under ten years of United Progressive Alliance rule. With the likely death of the 18 officers and men on board the ill-fated submarine, India can scarcely be in celebratory humour at tomorrow’s Independence Day anniversary, and to the naval tragedy must be joined the earlier murder of five Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops in Poonch. Never has the nation felt as demoralized, humiliated and hopeless as now, and Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh squarely must take blame for heaving India to the bottom.

As the rare “silent service”, the submarine arm constitutes the country’s last line of defence. It is obviously the most critical leg of the deterrent nuclear triad, but even in a conventional role, its contribution to strategic defence is unequalled. Since the end of the Falklands War in 1982 and especially with the termination of the Cold War, forward-looking navies have begun to cut back on their surface assets, and whilst the age of giant aircraft carriers hasn’t ended, practically only America can afford them on a mammoth scale, and even that is a declining trend. As the world becomes multipolar and the oceans teem with diverse rivalries, the investments in stealth and submarines have become significant, and China is rapidly headed down that course. In exercises conducted over many years by the United States navy, its prized carriers have been “sunk” at an alarmingly high rate, and if you believe it, rather counter-intuitively by diesel electric submarines, such as the Sindhurakshak that went down today. In navies across the world, submariners are considered amongst the best fighting crew, a class apart, and it is a roaring shame that so many of them perished in yesterday’s tragedy. Apart from the considerable naval setback, the loss of Sindhurakshak generally would mark a terrible nadir for India.

This writer and this magazine have relentlessly focussed on the collapsed political-economy under Sonia/ Manmohan Singh/ Palaniappan Chidambaram, but it is time to address the disastrous tenure of Arackaparambil Kurien Antony as the defence minister. Because the defence ministry provides a perfect cover to loot the country but is at the same time not the ideal place for an individual’s power projection, it holds limited appeal for ambitious politicians. After all the decades, there has never been a better defence minister than Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan who rebuilt the Indian Army from the ashes of the 1962 war to a fine force. Jagjivan Ram comes lower in the order and George Fernandes made a difference but his tenure was clouded by scandals. And the less said about Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the better.

Anthony, on the other hand, may be personally honest (at least he doesn’t attend the lavish farmhouse parties of arms dealers in South Delhi with barely clad call girls in attendance), but that has not prevented defence corruption from peaking under his watch, with the latest Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the AgustaWestland helicopter deal creating a fresh stink. Anthony has no interest in the defence portfolio and is as keen to replace the prime minister as to return to the politics of home state Kerala, tracking which regularly and unfailingly consumes the first half of his workday. Officials say he does not read files as a rule. He does not keep abreast of operational matters and defence management under him has reduced to a cipher. As for defence-preparedness, don’t ask. Anthony may not be personally responsible for the destruction of INS Sindhurakshak but the ad hoc culture he has bred and his contempt and disdain for military matters has brought decisive slippages in the armed forces. Of the three service chiefs, only Devendra Kumar Joshi of the navy gets a decent rating, but he would have to labour to salvage his reputation after the submarine tragedy. The army chief, Bikram Singh, is most poorly ranked, and the negligence that caused the carnage in Poonch is a clear reflection of his deficient generalship. It hurts to write this.

But the principal culprit is Manmohan Singh. For reasons of delicacy, it was not earlier revealed that his adamancy to visit his native place, Gah, led to the minimization of Pakistan’s perfidy in Poonch by Anthony. Anthony’s statement was cleared by the so-called Pakistan/ China expert, the national security advisor, Shiv Shankar Menon. “Clear” is a euphemism because he changed the substance to let off the Pakistan army. Could a NSA maul the defence minister’s statement on his own? Plainly, he got directions, and it must have come from the prime minister’s office. But the PMO denies any role in Anthony’s controversial statement. Obviously, the PMO is lying. PMO officials now say that Manmohan Singh was determined to visit Pakistan in October or November after the conference with Nawaz Sharief in New York, and since this would perhaps be his last trip as prime minister, he wasn’t willing to forgo it for the Poonch killings. Anthony’s statement was amended for this reason. It has since been downhill for India on the national security side. Pakistani attacks on the Line of Control have only gotten worse. Will the Chinese stand quiet?

If neither the prime minister nor the defence minister cares for the sacrifices of the forces and adheres to a gross and insensitive business-as-usual approach, what message does it transmit down the officer corps? And this cynical decline and widespread demoralization of the forces have picked fierce pace in the ten years of Sonia and Manmohan Singh’s government. The iron discipline of the forces is crumbling. The generals are battling one another. Corruption and nepotism have flared. The Intelligence Bureau recently busted a party attended by arms sellers and air force officers but no one was penalized. And even to be promoted from lieutenant-colonel to colonel now needs political connections. During the Uttarakhand disaster, some officers tried to gain proximity with Rahul Gandhi. Where is the armed forces headed? Whereabouts is the country going?

With the loss of INS Sindhurakshak, you don’t have to look far to guess or know. The ignominy of losing territory is only seconded by a sunken flagship or a downed submarine. We just shot ourselves in the foot in full view of the world.

[svinayak]

My God!!!

[Dipanker]

^^ He is just playing politics and playing in tune with the mood in the country on the TSP. Although he did look pretty pissed off. Don't read much into it.

President of India can dissolve the parliament! It is possibility.

[devesh]

Secularism zindabad. The rot is spreading into sections that it should not.

[Sushupti]

Seminar on Shah Waliullah and book release of collection of his treatises

Union Minister of Technology Kapil Sibal graced the occasion and offered his congratulations to the institute and its director for their work and academic services

http://www.milligazette.com/news/7222-s ... ok-release

[Philip]

While the Congress fulminates abourt Modi,the Stock Market has crshed,losing almost 800 points,the whoopie...sorry,the rupee has breached the 62 to the $ mark,and the UPA's great Humpty Dumptys are clueless about saving the economy! "All the Queen;s asses and all the Queen's men,cannot put together the Indian economy again!"

Only God can now save the nation.Start praying hard!

[harbans]

IDSA, New Delhi ‏@IDSAIndia 6h
We are so close to 6,000 followers! Help us reach that milestone...tell your friends to follow IDSA https://www.facebook.com/InstituteforDe ... esAnalyses …

[svinayak]

Psy ops article trying to create FUD

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -for-india

A Grim Independence Day for India
By Bruce Einhorn/
August 15, 2013


The Indian government tried to make this year’s Independence Day a special one, despite the country’s economic woes. That was never going to be easy, with the rupee continuing its long slide to record lows. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged the problems of India’s economy in his speech at the Red Fort, the Mughal-era citadel in the center of Delhi. “Economic growth has slowed down at present, and we are working hard to remedy the situation,” Singh said as he marked the anniversary of the end of British rule in 1947.

In the days before the Aug. 15 holiday, the government tried to change the subject by publicizing some impressive military breakthroughs. The country activated the atomic reactor for its first Made-in-India nuclear submarine over the weekend, for instance, and followed that up with the launch of its first home-developed aircraft carrier. The 37,500-ton ship won’t actually be operational for several more years, so the debut seemed timed to provide a nice setup for Independence Day.

Then disaster struck. A day before the holiday, an explosion rocked a diesel-powered Indian navy submarine docked in Mumbai. The blast and the fire that followed left 18 Indian sailors dead. India is “deeply pained that we lost the submarine,” the Prime Minister said in his speech. “We pay homage to the brave hearts we have lost.”

[habal]

Montek, Manmo, & Chidu's participatory note FII was always meant to be another weapon in US arsenal to stifle Indian foreign policy. Now the stock market downtrend is precipitated because of mainly US FII withdrawing, amongst other reasons, to restrict Indian options for retaliation on Pakistan in light of Afghan withdrawal.

Autor of above article is also downplaying Indian economy, which may be otherwise justified, but the connections he draws, makes it clear that everything is not entirely coincidence.

[brihaspati]

Islamic banking proposal may get a push under Rajan.

http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/ ... 81465.html

New Delhi: With appointment of government's Chief Economic Adviser Raghuram Rajan as the next RBI governor, Union Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan Tuesday hoped that his ministry's plan to establish Islamic banking in India will get a boost.

Khan said Rajan was positive when he met him recently to push the proposal.

Yes most likely. I have quoted an article by him where he brought on the "Bharat" versus "India" framework and the undertone against "Bharat" was clear. Typically this is an uncanny marker of anti-"Hindu" - pseudo-west, p-sec == islamophile psyche, by early training or opportunism. Therefore also marks a lack of independent and self-critical mindset, by which alone people can come out of brainwashing or conditioning.

Noting that, a new thought struck me - is this the fundamental reason as to why our illuminated professional economists and admins can never really go far beyond the models they were taught and educated in? That is why their reforms lack steam, lack the political vision rooted in a deep understanding and feel of the society and what drives societies on longer term historical trends? Their attempts work up to a point where temporary external or larger world trends are conducive, but fall flat when those trends reverse - because they are boxed into thinking only along those models they were taught to think along by those who controlled and whose experiences were shaped "outside" in those larger global frameworks?

[devesh]

from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghuram_Rajan

Raghuram G. Rajan was born in 1963 in Bhopal to an IFS officer from a Tamil family.[2] He was abroad till his 7th year of school, having lived in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Belgium, and in 1974, he moved back to India from Belgium.[3] Then he did the rest of his schooling in Delhi. In 1985, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and he completed the Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1987. Rajan won the Director's Gold Medal for best all-round achievement at IIT Delhi[4] and was also a gold medallist at IIM Ahmedabad. He received a PhD in management from the MIT in 1991 for his thesis titled "Essays on Banking".

[brihaspati]

This is a victory? For the sake of the religious beliefs of one tribe, a big mining project which would have created many jobs and contributed to the economy was scrapped. We can't turn away investment like this and then whine about the terrible state of the economy. Indian interests weren't served here, they were compromised.

Victory or not but you can't enforce your "development" down anyone's throat if they don't like it or want it. Living in a democracy also means to respect other's view even if they don't match your's (unless and until the view severely threatens national interest) and please it's not like because this proposal was shot down hence Indian economy is in a poor state, so stop trying to sell that idea. You seem to have also missed a realization that the villagers themselves have,

Mr Sani said he rejected the advance of development and expressed the hope that his eight year old son Dili will never go to school, watch television or play computer games.

But he conceded that despite the famous victory of his small village over a mining giant, the march of development was probably unstoppable.

"Once he is educated, he will leave this mountain and learn this lifestyle. He will sell our land to the company. At these schools, they don't teach how to live with nature, they teach how to live by exploitation," he said.

I agree here in our thirst for "development" we are putting too much pressure on nature which is already showing the negative impacts. There is a need to have a balance otherwise the future won't be hunky dory.

I agree on the need for more "natural" living styles. But people always have to think on capacities and bargainings that go on based on capacities. If tomorrow the Indian state is unable to defend this sacred hill from Chinese takeover for example, will the Chinese stop and respect this tribe's beliefs?

A lot of our commons have been given a sense of entitlement by which netas are rewarded by their constituencies if they can extract from the national or regional surplus resources to be consumed by the constituency. People demand bridges, infrastructures, healthcare, housing, etc without always calculating how much their own subregion actually contributes. But even when nothing concrete is being demanded in terms of materially verifiable benefits - the very fact that the state exists - may actually be giving benefits that are not always directly tangible.

My experience with the "tribes" shows that they are as prone to opportunism and corruption as non-tribes. I understand the spirit and sentiments by which thsi generation is doing it - but the fact of the matter is they should be engaged to make them understand the wider implications of preserving aspects of the state without which their "hill" itself could be threatened in the long run.

[Agnimitra]

A Historical Sense: What Sanskrit has meant to me: Aatish Taseer

Atish Taseer is a good example of how deracination is essential to recognition, while remaining comfortable with the winds of change. Without deracination, encrusted 'traditionalists' will build walls against the winds of change, while shallow deracinates will be swept away by them. But the returned deracinate can build windmills.

[sanjaykumar]

Let me congratulate Aatish on the Nobel he will eventually be accorded.

[harbans]

I hear NM is OK growth and all, but it should be inclusive, so he is a model unworthy to follow. Same lot eulogizes China next breath which stiffles millions and grows as some model to follow. And NM has never done anything against like what the Chinese do in Tibet, Tiannenman, against the Faung Gong and so on...

[member_23692]

X-post...
Scuttling the future

http://newsinsight.net/Scuttlingthefutu ... age=page-1

The loss of INS Sindhurakshak to accident or sabotage reflects in a sense the sinking fortunes of the country under ten years of United Progressive Alliance rule. With the likely death of the 18 officers and men on board the ill-fated submarine, India can scarcely be in celebratory humour at tomorrow’s Independence Day anniversary, and to the naval tragedy must be joined the earlier murder of five Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops in Poonch. Never has the nation felt as demoralized, humiliated and hopeless as now, and Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh squarely must take blame for heaving India to the bottom.

As the rare “silent service”, the submarine arm constitutes the country’s last line of defence. It is obviously the most critical leg of the deterrent nuclear triad, but even in a conventional role, its contribution to strategic defence is unequalled. Since the end of the Falklands War in 1982 and especially with the termination of the Cold War, forward-looking navies have begun to cut back on their surface assets, and whilst the age of giant aircraft carriers hasn’t ended, practically only America can afford them on a mammoth scale, and even that is a declining trend. As the world becomes multipolar and the oceans teem with diverse rivalries, the investments in stealth and submarines have become significant, and China is rapidly headed down that course. In exercises conducted over many years by the United States navy, its prized carriers have been “sunk” at an alarmingly high rate, and if you believe it, rather counter-intuitively by diesel electric submarines, such as the Sindhurakshak that went down today. In navies across the world, submariners are considered amongst the best fighting crew, a class apart, and it is a roaring shame that so many of them perished in yesterday’s tragedy. Apart from the considerable naval setback, the loss of Sindhurakshak generally would mark a terrible nadir for India.

This writer and this magazine have relentlessly focussed on the collapsed political-economy under Sonia/ Manmohan Singh/ Palaniappan Chidambaram, but it is time to address the disastrous tenure of Arackaparambil Kurien Antony as the defence minister. Because the defence ministry provides a perfect cover to loot the country but is at the same time not the ideal place for an individual’s power projection, it holds limited appeal for ambitious politicians. After all the decades, there has never been a better defence minister than Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan who rebuilt the Indian Army from the ashes of the 1962 war to a fine force. Jagjivan Ram comes lower in the order and George Fernandes made a difference but his tenure was clouded by scandals. And the less said about Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the better.

Anthony, on the other hand, may be personally honest (at least he doesn’t attend the lavish farmhouse parties of arms dealers in South Delhi with barely clad call girls in attendance), but that has not prevented defence corruption from peaking under his watch, with the latest Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the AgustaWestland helicopter deal creating a fresh stink. Anthony has no interest in the defence portfolio and is as keen to replace the prime minister as to return to the politics of home state Kerala, tracking which regularly and unfailingly consumes the first half of his workday. Officials say he does not read files as a rule. He does not keep abreast of operational matters and defence management under him has reduced to a cipher. As for defence-preparedness, don’t ask. Anthony may not be personally responsible for the destruction of INS Sindhurakshak but the ad hoc culture he has bred and his contempt and disdain for military matters has brought decisive slippages in the armed forces. Of the three service chiefs, only Devendra Kumar Joshi of the navy gets a decent rating, but he would have to labour to salvage his reputation after the submarine tragedy. The army chief, Bikram Singh, is most poorly ranked, and the negligence that caused the carnage in Poonch is a clear reflection of his deficient generalship. It hurts to write this.

But the principal culprit is Manmohan Singh. For reasons of delicacy, it was not earlier revealed that his adamancy to visit his native place, Gah, led to the minimization of Pakistan’s perfidy in Poonch by Anthony. Anthony’s statement was cleared by the so-called Pakistan/ China expert, the national security advisor, Shiv Shankar Menon. “Clear” is a euphemism because he changed the substance to let off the Pakistan army. Could a NSA maul the defence minister’s statement on his own? Plainly, he got directions, and it must have come from the prime minister’s office. But the PMO denies any role in Anthony’s controversial statement. Obviously, the PMO is lying. PMO officials now say that Manmohan Singh was determined to visit Pakistan in October or November after the conference with Nawaz Sharief in New York, and since this would perhaps be his last trip as prime minister, he wasn’t willing to forgo it for the Poonch killings. Anthony’s statement was amended for this reason. It has since been downhill for India on the national security side. Pakistani attacks on the Line of Control have only gotten worse. Will the Chinese stand quiet?

If neither the prime minister nor the defence minister cares for the sacrifices of the forces and adheres to a gross and insensitive business-as-usual approach, what message does it transmit down the officer corps? And this cynical decline and widespread demoralization of the forces have picked fierce pace in the ten years of Sonia and Manmohan Singh’s government. The iron discipline of the forces is crumbling. The generals are battling one another. Corruption and nepotism have flared. The Intelligence Bureau recently busted a party attended by arms sellers and air force officers but no one was penalized. And even to be promoted from lieutenant-colonel to colonel now needs political connections. During the Uttarakhand disaster, some officers tried to gain proximity with Rahul Gandhi. Where is the armed forces headed? Whereabouts is the country going?

With the loss of INS Sindhurakshak, you don’t have to look far to guess or know. The ignominy of losing territory is only seconded by a sunken flagship or a downed submarine. We just shot ourselves in the foot in full view of the world.

I have been saying exactly this in all my posts. In fact, "the hollowing out of our defenses" is the major theme of all my posts to a point, where people tell me that you are repeating the same thing over and over again. Check out my posts in particular in the "Corruption" thread. Even without the article above, it is quite obvious that a "hollowing out" of our defense capabilities has been going on since the late 1980s. All political parties are responsible for it. Some have it in their agenda to weaken our country, like the Congress, others participate in it by having corruption on their agenda, which leads to the same result, like the BJP. The less said about the regional parties and satraps like Mulayam, Lalu, Mayawati and others the better. The reason is that it is on no one's agenda to strengthen our defenses. Who cares about the country, it is all about me, I and myself. Even our general population has been corrupted to a point where it does not care about anything other than themselves either. And therefore, the general population is not able to exert any pressure or keep any check on the politicos to act in the interest of the country. Everyone is corrupted by dreams of a shiny new car, air conditioned malls, beer bars, cricket and easy money in our country. Most of us sell ourselves very cheap in this country.

Fundamentally, we have a system of governance imposed on us by people who defeated us, the British and the Islamics. In 1947, they got together and set terms for withdrawl from India. In the eyes of the Hindus, they were granting us independence, but in actuality, the terms they set to grant us independence was to accept conditions and a system of governance which were in the interest of the victors, ie., the West and the Islamics and to keep us Hindus suppressed and oppressed for ever. They first cut up our country and gave our heartlands away to the Islamics to do as they willed. Then they made sure that with their Hindu collaborators like Nehru and others, most of the Islamics were left behind in India, while in Pakistan, all Hindus were kicked out. Then they made sure that Paki was to be an Islamic nation with an Islamic state religion and an Islamic constitution, while India had to have a "secular" constitution, which ostensibly treated everyone equally, but was to in practice serve the interests of non-Hindus in India and keep the Hindu suppressed, oppressed, both in the mind and physically. So, Hindus were systematically separated from their self esteem and self respect. Then the Brits and Islamics made sure that the Hindus accepted a constitution and a system of governance, which they called "Democracy", but knew fully well that it was far from any functional democracy. Our people(Hindus)too, who despite a 1000 years of collective humiliation and defeats, thought of themselves as "very smart" and "highly educated", and "inheritors of a great culture", in our haughtiness and stupid arrogance, failed to see the larger game and lapped up this system which our victors imposed on us as victors and actually started celebrating it. Hindus went far beyond celebrating a slave system imposed on them. They started being emotionally vested and involved in the very symbols of their slavery, such as "corrupt, criminalized and total sham" of elections and a total perversion and distortion of the term, "democracy". We wore our "democracy" as a badge of honor, instead of treating it like the plague of an imposed system of slavery, and walked around, wearing this "democracy" around our necks. How stupid we looked to the rest of the world. The rest of the world laughed at us, the spectacle we were creating of parading around glorifying the system that enslaved us, they ridiculed us, they made fun of us, they had nothing but contempt for us, they had no respect for us, they never took us seriously despite our nuclear weapons, they treated us with disdain and as second class citizens, not because we were "Kafirs" or "dark people", but because we not only accepted a system imposed on them to enslave us, but we whole heartedly embraced it, we held the words, "democracy", "secular", "non-aligned" dearer than life itself. Then when one of the most corrupt among us, Mrs. Gandhi tried to become a dictator, we started associating any attempt by anyone to even debate "democracy" as Mrs. Gandhi-sque type attempt to grab power, as another symbol of "corruption on steriods", not being able to distinguish between patriotic attempts to get rid of the Hindu Enslavement System put in place by the West and the Islamics and crude power grabbing attempts by the likes of Mrs. Gandhi.

And on and on I can go. Such is the tragedy of our people. Such is the tragedy of the Hindus. The Hindu Enslavement System keeps going. It keeps weakening the Hindus day by day, as it was intended to do. The Islamic and the Brits' plans for the Hindus in 1947, succeeded even beyond their wildest dreams. Why ? Because the Hindus themselves became complicit in their own enslavement. The complicity can be called many things, suicide, stupidity, arrogance, idiocy, self-destruction, self-hate, lack of self respect, but all of these can be encapsulated in one word - "CORRUPTION".

PS. I see Acharya totally surprised and shocked by this article by Subramanium.

[JwalaMukhi]

India has been precariously positioned with a veneer of voting democracy.

Many of the ruling class/elites are already abroad (some near some far away) expect for accidental physical presence in India. These elites believe that for all those they lord-over/influence is to look outside for inspiration, strength and aspirations. Worse than their belief is their principal prescriptions that India should disown its heritage to even began to contemplate the set of beliefs and ideals they have adapted.

All in all, what started as British Raj 2.0 version has metamorphed into British-Aurangzeb Durbar 2.0 version.

Some of the benevolent (sic) elites are willing to convert this British-Aurganzeb Durbar 2.0 to British-Akbar Durbar 2.0.

While the actual leaders who wield street level strengths, are more interested in converting the British-Aurangzed Durbar 2.0 to pure sharia compliant "Aurangzeb-Akbar caliphite 2.0".

If UPA3.0 is returned to power "Aurangzeb-Akbar caliphite 2.0" will become a reality.

While some of the entrenched elites whose gravy trains cannot be upset, are dreaming about "British-Raj version 3.0" as the ideal solution atleast on paper, going forward.

Hope springs eternal, where India, that is Bharat, can actually attain "true freedom".

[Agnimitra]

Happy I-Day. May casteism and the priesthoods and politicians that promote it once again rule the land so that Kali Yuga may end!

Dalit killed, 40 hurt for unfurling tricolour in Bihar village

SASARAM: A dalit villager was stoned to death and at least 40 people were injured, eight of them seriously, as a 500-strong mob of upper caste men attacked them for defying their diktat of not to unfurl the tricolour in front of a temple of Sant Ravidas at Baddi village in Rohtas district, 160km from Patna, on Independence Day.

The deceased was identified as Vilas Ram. The assailants did not spare even schoolchildren as they attacked them with rods and later threw some of the children down from the roof a house, where they had taken shelter, while the policemen allegedly looked the other way. Most of the injured are elderly, women and school-going children. The seriously injured were referred to PMCH in Patna.

Reports reaching the district HQ here said tension had been brewing in the upper caste-dominated village for the last 15 days after the upper caste villagers decided to install a statue of freedom fighter Nishant Singh and unfurl the tricolour on the small plot at the entrance of the Ravidas temple, where dalits had been unfurling the national flag, on August 15. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the local police convened a meeting of both the sides at the Baddi police station on Wednesday. But the standoff continued as the upper caste villagers allegedly stuck to their decision and the dalits refused to bow down.

As a result of the assault on Thursday, a woman's pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Several houses of dalits and the Ravidas temple were partially torched.

In a swift reaction, Rohtas SP Vikas Burman suspended Baddi police station SHO Balwan Singh on the charge of dereliction of duty. Burman said 11 of the 35 named accused were arrested and the police were in the process of procuring property attachment warrants against the remaining accused.

On Friday, state industries minister Renu Devi visited the village at chief minister Nitish Kumar's behest. Principal secretary (home) Amir Subhani and IG (weaker sections) Arivind Pandey also visited the spot and the hospital where some of the injured were being treated.

Subhani said the Rohtas DM had been directed to cancel the firearms licences of all the accused named in the case. They would be put on speedy trial. The deceased will get a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakh and the injured Rs 60,000 each.

Rohtas district JD(U) president and Karakat MLA Rajeshwar Raj, on his return from Baddi, said the incident could have been averted had the administration taken precautionary measures. Local leaders of BSP and CPI (New Democracy) burned the effigy of chief minister in protest against the incident.

[brihaspati]

I have been saying exactly this in all my posts. In fact, "the hollowing out of our defenses" is the major theme of all my posts to a point, where people tell me that you are repeating the same thing over and over again. Check out my posts in particular in the "Corruption" thread. Even without the article above, it is quite obvious that a "hollowing out" of our defense capabilities has been going on since the late 1980s. All political parties are responsible for it. Some have it in their agenda to weaken our country, like the Congress, others participate in it by having corruption on their agenda, which leads to the same result, like the BJP.

Are you sure that BJP is hollowing out "defenses" by having corruption on their agenda? What exactly is the meaning of your phrase - are you saying "corruption is on their agenda" means they support/use corruption as an agenda? Or that by targeting or criticizing "corruption" they are "hollowing out defenses"?

The less said about the regional parties and satraps like Mulayam, Lalu, Mayawati and others the better. The reason is that it is on no one's agenda to strengthen our defenses.

Do you have comparative corruption scales for national/central parties and regional ones?

Who cares about the country, it is all about me, I and myself. Even our general population has been corrupted to a point where it does not care about anything other than themselves either. And therefore, the general population is not able to exert any pressure or keep any check on the politicos to act in the interest of the country. Everyone is corrupted by dreams of a shiny new car, air conditioned malls, beer bars, cricket and easy money in our country. Most of us sell ourselves very cheap in this country.

This is rather difficult to prove about aam aadmi. They simply do not have the resources and means to be corrupt. I am rather curious now about what your actual access to Indian aam amounts to. Can you give me a broad region of India where you are observing or observed generic, aam aadmi level corruption in daily life?

Fundamentally, we have a system of governance imposed on us by people who defeated us, the British and the Islamics. In 1947, they got together and set terms for withdrawl from India. In the eyes of the Hindus, they were granting us independence, but in actuality, the terms they set to grant us independence was to accept conditions and a system of governance which were in the interest of the victors, ie., the West and the Islamics and to keep us Hindus suppressed and oppressed for ever. They first cut up our country and gave our heartlands away to the Islamics to do as they willed.

Do you consider current Pakiland and BD the "heartlands"?

Then they made sure that with their Hindu collaborators like Nehru and others, most of the Islamics were left behind in India, while in Pakistan, all Hindus were kicked out. Then they made sure that Paki was to be an Islamic nation with an Islamic state religion and an Islamic constitution, while India had to have a "secular" constitution, which ostensibly treated everyone equally, but was to in practice serve the interests of non-Hindus in India and keep the Hindu suppressed, oppressed, both in the mind and physically. So, Hindus were systematically separated from their self esteem and self respect. Then the Brits and Islamics made sure that the Hindus accepted a constitution and a system of governance, which they called "Democracy", but knew fully well that it was far from any functional democracy. Our people(Hindus)too, who despite a 1000 years of collective humiliation and defeats, thought of themselves as "very smart" and "highly educated", and "inheritors of a great culture", in our haughtiness and stupid arrogance, failed to see the larger game and lapped up this system which our victors imposed on us as victors and actually started celebrating it. Hindus went far beyond celebrating a slave system imposed on them. They started being emotionally vested and involved in the very symbols of their slavery, such as "corrupt, criminalized and total sham" of elections and a total perversion and distortion of the term, "democracy". We wore our "democracy" as a badge of honor, instead of treating it like the plague of an imposed system of slavery, and walked around, wearing this "democracy" around our necks. How stupid we looked to the rest of the world. The rest of the world laughed at us, the spectacle we were creating of parading around glorifying the system that enslaved us, they ridiculed us, they made fun of us, they had nothing but contempt for us, they had no respect for us, they never took us seriously despite our nuclear weapons, they treated us with disdain and as second class citizens, not because we were "Kafirs" or "dark people", but because we not only accepted a system imposed on them to enslave us, but we whole heartedly embraced it, we held the words, "democracy", "secular", "non-aligned" dearer than life itself. Then when one of the most corrupt among us, Mrs. Gandhi tried to become a dictator, we started associating any attempt by anyone to even debate "democracy" as Mrs. Gandhi-sque type attempt to grab power, as another symbol of "corruption on steriods", not being able to distinguish between patriotic attempts to get rid of the Hindu Enslavement System put in place by the West and the Islamics and crude power grabbing attempts by the likes of Mrs. Gandhi.

No. Those who hate us, hate us for our "pagan" culture, because we are kaffirs and heathens according to their measuring stick. Not because we follow a modern form of "democracy". But democracy was not an invention of the west, and ancient Hindus did have well described formulations of democracy. The founder of the Pala dynasty for example, was elected to rule. Earlier many political ethnic groups throughout North India practised this. This was the reason that the early Buddhist Sangha took over this model of electing sangha hierarchy.

The hatred is based on "dark skin" - as Islamics everywhere yearn for the fair skin, and the overwhelming cultural urge to identify with fairer skinned Arab and Persian imagery [many in those regions are dark skinned which would be what it is expected from natural selection], with the same racial thing going on for European Christianity and religion in general.

And on and on I can go. Such is the tragedy of our people. Such is the tragedy of the Hindus. The Hindu Enslavement System keeps going. It keeps weakening the Hindus day by day, as it was intended to do. The Islamic and the Brits' plans for the Hindus in 1947, succeeded even beyond their wildest dreams. Why ? Because the Hindus themselves became complicit in their own enslavement. The complicity can be called many things, suicide, stupidity, arrogance, idiocy, self-destruction, self-hate, lack of self respect, but all of these can be encapsulated in one word - "CORRUPTION".

PS. I see Acharya totally surprised and shocked by this article by Subramanium.

Reserve this for the elite faction involved in the mercantile mentality. But do not paint all of Hindu aam with the same brush. It is a complex choice for them between physical survival, coercion - subtle or direct by the state, the biz+mafia+politician+admin nexus, and lack of trust in elite harangues out of long historical experience. They make temporary, survival choices, not having the trust or vision as yet. But do not call them corrupt.

[member_23692]

Are you sure that BJP is hollowing out "defenses" by having corruption on their agenda? What exactly is the meaning of your phrase - are you saying "corruption is on their agenda" means they support/use corruption as an agenda? Or that by targeting or criticizing "corruption" they are "hollowing out defenses"?

I am very uncomfortable with answering your question, because I believe that the entire system is corrupt and an imposed slave system on us, by our victors and serves their interest. So, my belief is that such a system cannot evolve people or parties or individuals who will truly advance the survival and advancement of Hindus and their culture. It is like a fish out of the water. Say land is the eco system which is created for Islamists and the West and water is the eco-system which is necessary for the survival of Hindus. If Hindus are forced to live under the rules of the land, then even in the water, a fish will never be allowed to emerge as the leaders, it will always be the land mammals who will lead, or worse, those fish which can mimic some land mammal characteristics or those fish that are totally subservient to the land mammals. So, again, why I am uncomfortable with your questions is that most of your questions are asking me to make distinctions and discuss the relative merits and demerits between different groups of fish that are both subservient to the land mammal but does not or cannot act as a real fish. To me it is all as Mayawati once said, "some are "Naagraj" and some are "Saapraj". They are all poisonous. To get into the subtleties of the relative differences between their poisons, is really the ultimate in defeatist attitude. It is bad enough that we are forced to live in this destructive system, and now we should be forced to or brainwashed into discussing the merits and de-merits of our torturers. Imagine jews in a Nazi camp critiquing the relative "dress sense" and "style" of the camp guards who take turns torturing them.

However, out of respect for you, I will attempt to answer your questions directly, just this one time. Out of respect for me, please dont ask me again to get into the details of critiquing the relative merits and de-merits of various political factions in India, as ALL of them are evil. That is not to say that they are all equal equal. Just that in my mind, their differences are not significant enough to where it will make any difference on the ground whatsoever. What we need is a new system of governance, in my above example, which is more natural and conducive for Water, not land, and where fish can be fish and fish can lead the fish.

I meant in my post which raised this question in your mind, the BJP unlike Congress does not have it in their agenda to proactively weaken India's defenses. To be fair, even the Congress as a whole doesnt have a conscious agenda to proactively weaken India's defenses. (After all, deep inside all are fish). But in case of Congress, if maintaining our defenses come in the way of even their very small priorities, leave aside massive corruption, they will not mind sacrificing the defense of the country. It is as if, after indulging in massive corruption, dividing the general populace on caste, religion, region, everything that they can to garner votes, serving some of their foreign masters, demeaning the Hindus (all these things are on their active agenda), they can still manage to maintain some defense capabilities, they will take those defense capabilities. But if in forwarding any of those active agenda items, I listed above, if defense and our territorial integrity has to be sacrificed, of course, it will be sacrificed, no questions asked. They wont even give it literally a moment's thought. This does not mean that every Congress person is equally destructive. PV Narsimha Rao was relatively good, but even he was quite corrupt and this corruption put a ceiling on his ability to do good, particularly within the hugely corrupt Congress eco-system he was operating within. Mrs. Gandhi was on the other hand, very corrupt, but made some exception for defense, as she did accord some minimal priority to our defenses. So individuals are all a little different form each other. Someone likes a green salwar, someone a red, but they all are salwar wearers, not Sari wearers.

Now about the BJP. BJP is a little less destructive. But they are also very corrupt and power hungry. They are a little more like Mrs. Gandhi when it comes to prioritizing our defenses, accept they are even less effective. BJP leaders, with the possible exception of Modi, too, if they have to sacrifice our defense capabilities, so that their higher priority agenda items are advanced they will do so. This is evidenced by the fact that they NEVER, whether in opposition of in power, ever, raise the issue of long term and systematic "hollowing out" of our defenses by our system of governance, particularly since the 1980s. Have you ever heard Advani, or Vajpayee or any other leader ever talk to the nation about our defense preparedness and leveled with the nation ? Have you ever seen these BJP leaders trying to mobilize public opinion to drastically reverse our decline in the defense capabilities through a radical restructuring of our processes and resource allocation ? It was bad enough that when they were in power, they not only not talk about this, they took no steps (other than the nuclear tests) to further our core defense capabilities and allocate radically increased amount of money to our armed forces or even reform some of the destructive procurement procedures, but while in opposition, where they get more of a license to criticize their opponents in the government, they never take the opportunity to do so. Vajpayee maintained goodie goddie relationship with everyone in the Congress and other parties, and Advani in his pathetic and comic attempts to be Prime Minister even at this age, tries to emulate Vajpayee and bends over backward for Sonia (have you ever seen his body language whenever he is with Sonia - all subservient and so goodie goodie), but his attempts come off as even more buffoonish than Vajpayee, where sometimes he praises Jinnah, sometimes he criticizes Modi for criticizing MM Sardarji.

Hindus have several problems at the same time. Like you keep on mentioning, one problem is the Macaulyte Hindu. He has ceased to be a Hindu and turned a mercenary. There are a large number of these, and these large numbers of turncoats is UNIQUE to Hindus and presents a special problem to the Hindus, as most of the babus and non political ruling establishment and some within the ruling establishment too, come from this section of the population. Here we agree. But where you will probably disagree with me is that we have another problem, which is NOT UNIQUE to us Hindus, it is true for all peoples and all cultures. This is the problem that even without the Macaulyte factor, there is a segment of us Hindus who are just pure bad people. I dont mean just bad Hindus, they are bad human beings. They are not Macaulytes, they are quite native, but they are bad people. Just like there are some Americans who are bad people, some Europeans who are bad people, some Africans who are bad people, there are some Hindus who are bad people. These people would not have been a particular problem for us, if we did not also have Macaulytes or if we did not have a slave system imposed on us. Because a normal, healthy, non-slave system will weed out these bad people and at least not reward them and they would be nowhere near any positions of power or influence in our society. But in our slave system, it is these non-Macaulyte bad Hindus(bad people) that have risen to the top, and the BJP is composed of these bad people. So, there is the difference. Both are evil. Congress is derived from the non-Hindu mercenary, Macaulyte mentality, BJP is derived from the bad seed amongst us mentality. Both are corrupt and vicious but both are different. Both are evil and destructive. And yes, in that sense, I dont really care if I get shot by a mercenary macaulyte who is a servant of the West or a native evil person, who is not.

Do you have comparative corruption scales for national/central parties and regional ones?

No statistics, just anecdotal sense. I just believe that in relative terms the "casteist" outfits, just by virtue of their nature of being pure "casteist" are more corrupt, even if they are not more money corrupt. But anectodally, I feel that they are more money corrupt too, maybe not in terms of the quantum of money involved in their scandals, but just in terms of the ubiquity of corruption in their regimes and their total non-pretense of even being honest.

This is rather difficult to prove about aam aadmi. They simply do not have the resources and means to be corrupt. I am rather curious now about what your actual access to Indian aam amounts to. Can you give me a broad region of India where you are observing or observed generic, aam aadmi level corruption in daily life?

Prove about aam aadmi ?? I can prove it, right here. While you are right, that the average person does not have the means and the resources, but do you think logically that that is a sufficient condition to be always non-corrupt? I think such a person can be corrupt too. Why ? Because corruption is a behavior, not an amount. A person who has access to one rupee, if he is corrupt, will be corrupt with that one rupee, if not, will not be corrupt with a billion rupees. And it is not even about rupees. It is about whether you honestly do your job, you want to move ahead the right way, or you are always on a look out for a "government job". Then if you are a trades person, like a carpenter or an electrician, whether you will do an honest job for your client or do a shoddy job. Then if you are an employer of these tradespeople or any other people, are you always trying to short change them, by not paying them enough, or not paying them at all, making them visit you a hundred times, before you "settle" the payment with them. If you have borrowed money from someone in a private capacity, how promptly do you pay back, or not pay back or "settle" with your creditor. If you go to a bank, even a private bank, are the employees eager to serve you or are just trying to short change you on service. If you want admission in a school, how much will you have to pay, or how may "IOUs" you will have to cash by "tapping your contacts", in terms of "who you know". Do kids attend their classes in college regularly, or never attend and the professors mark the attendance, and if some honest professor tries to get you to attend, then call a strike, gherao the principal and force a humiliation on that honest professor. Am Admi is everywhere in our culture, accepting money, demanding money, extorting money. It is the am admi all the way. Yes, the scale of money he makes is not the billions that the politicians and babus make, but that is simply, because as you said, they dont have access, not because they are not corrupted. When some of these am admis become babus or politicians these same am admis rob in the billions.

You get the idea. If in every sphere to day to day life, ever minute of your existence in India, everyone from top to bottom is trying to steal, is the am admi not corrupt. In terms of what region and how much contact I have with am admi, your question is rather patronizing, insulting and presumptuous. The previous paragraph that I wrote should provide you enough clues about where my "karmaboomie" is in India. The answer is "everywhere", as all things I mentioned in that paragraph happen everywhere in India, from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari and from Kutch to Bengal. Even you will not be able to argue against that. If there is one disagreement I have with you, it is your automatic defense of the "am admi", Hindi movie style. Hindi movies idoloze am admi. In the movies, am admi can do no wrong. I think you are watching too many Hindi movies and you form your impressions from them, rather than direct contact with the am admi and aam life in India. I saw it somewhere in other posts that you dont live in India, and while it is not true that every person that does not live in India is out of touch with am admi in India, to me, you do seem a bit out of touch or at least you are unaffected by the daily trials and tribulations of an average citizen who lives in India and what he has to go through.

Do you consider current Pakiland and BD the "heartlands"?

If you consider India as at least starting in Afghanistan and consisting of the entire subcontinent, even if you dont consider it extending all the way down to Malaysia and Indonesia, yes, I consider Punjab, Sindh and Bengal to be heartland of India, not necessarily physically (although they are pretty close in terms of physical heartland too), but certainly, they are very much our cultural heartlands or at least were in 1947.

No. Those who hate us, hate us for our "pagan" culture, because we are kaffirs and heathens according to their measuring stick. Not because we follow a modern form of "democracy". But democracy was not an invention of the west, and ancient Hindus did have well described formulations of democracy. The founder of the Pala dynasty for example, was elected to rule. Earlier many political ethnic groups throughout North India practised this. This was the reason that the early Buddhist Sangha took over this model of electing sangha hierarchy.

The hatred is based on "dark skin" - as Islamics everywhere yearn for the fair skin, and the overwhelming cultural urge to identify with fairer skinned Arab and Persian imagery [many in those regions are dark skinned which would be what it is expected from natural selection], with the same racial thing going on for European Christianity and religion in general.

Yes, they hate us because of our "dark skin" and Hindu culture. But if you read my post carefully, even the portion you quoted right above this answer, you will notice that I did not use the word hate. You are absolutely correct, they HATE us because of our black skin. They hate the Chinese because of their yellow skin too. But they dont ridicule, make fun of, are contemptuous of, are disrespectful of, trivialize or are disdainful towards the Chinese, while they are all of that towards us (note, I did not use the word hate). They are all those things towards the Hindus, not because of the color of our skin, but because of our self-destructive and stupid behavior. The HATE is totally undeserved, all the other things I mentioned above are well deserved.

Let me quote below from my post

"How stupid we looked to the rest of the world. The rest of the world laughed at us, the spectacle we were creating of parading around glorifying the system that enslaved us, they ridiculed us, they made fun of us, they had nothing but contempt for us, they had no respect for us, they never took us seriously despite our nuclear weapons, they treated us with disdain and as second class citizens, not because we were "Kafirs" or "dark people", but because we................."

NOTICE THE ABSENCE OF THE WORD "HATE"

Reserve this for the elite faction involved in the mercantile mentality. But do not paint all of Hindu aam with the same brush. It is a complex choice for them between physical survival, coercion - subtle or direct by the state, the biz+mafia+politician+admin nexus, and lack of trust in elite harangues out of long historical experience. They make temporary, survival choices, not having the trust or vision as yet. But do not call them corrupt.

There you go again on the elite vs the am admi.

I make no distinction. Most of the elite today is first generation elite and not from the Macaulyte class. This is a fact and can easily be ascertained. We can point to all kinds of flaws in our system, but the one thing we cant accuse our system in the past 60 years is that it did not promote social churning. As a result, most of the elite today is quite nativist "bad humans".

Am admi today votes in a destructive manner, not because he he ignorant. He is quite smart about it, although "short term" smart. He will vote for a castiest party because he wants something for nothing, plain and simple. That is as pure a form of corruption as there is - wanting something for nothing. Am Admi of India too doesnt care about our defense capabilities or territorial integrity of our nation or feels invested in the concept of nationhood or even a community of Hindus. If he did, he would vote in a different manner and put other pressure on the ruling establishment to strengthen our defenses. He comes out on the street at the drop of a hat, for all kinds of trivial and self serving things, but very seldom to cry for maintaining our territorial integrity. That is pure unadulterated corruption. Am Admi is neither ignorant nor uneducated. Every villager and urban slum dweller owns a cell phone and knows how to use it. Every village and slum dweller owns a TV and knows how to use it. Most Indian am admi have at least a two wheeler. They are not stupid. They willingly sell their vote. That is nothing but CORRUPTION.

If we dont correctly diagnose the problem we will never solve it. As difficult as it may be for you to imagine, that the problem is "us", not our elite or our leaders, who are merely a reflection of "us", we will not solve the problem. It is a hard thing to accept that our aam aadmi is corrupt, but it is a fact and if we address this problem, the elite and the corruption within the elite will be automatically taken care of. No society will survive, if its aam aadmi gets corrupted and hides behind "these are my everyday survival choices". What he is choosing is not "survival", but death, when he makes those treacherous choices. He thinks he is very common sense and street smart, but that is the problem with street smart. It is only smart within the confines of that street. Street smart is the one of the most overrated things in the world. In my book street smart is pure Stupid and Dumb.

[Prem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world ... .html?_r=0

Train Kills Dozens of Hindu Pilgrims in India

NEW DELHI — A high-speed train plowed into a crowd of Hindu pilgrims who were crossing the tracks at a remote station in east India on Monday, killing dozens of people and leaving a scene of carnage. An enraged crowd dragged out the driver and began beating him, and set parts of the train on fire, sending up a pillar of thick black smoke that could be seen miles away. The crowd remained so furious that hours passed before firefighters and rescue workers were able to approach the site of the accident, officials said. A train sent to help the wounded was forced to halt on the tracks a mile away. The disaster stood out even in a season of terrible accidents. The station was a remote one — inaccessible by road — and the high-speed Rayja Rani Express typically barrels through without stopping at a speed of around 50 miles an hour. Railway officials said the driver had been given clearance to pass through.ut Monday was the last day of a holy month in India, and hundreds of people were disembarking from two stopped passenger trains while on their way to a temple a half-mile away to offer holy water to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. A top official at the railway ministry, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said the driver had pulled the emergency brake when he saw people on the tracks but was unable to stop the train.
“It was all quite frightening,” said Rohit Kumar, a passenger, who jumped off the train and ran for a quarter-mile to the nearest station when the crowd began to attack. “I’m standing here and watching smoke billowing out from the train. It was nightmarish. So scary.” S.K. Singh, the deputy magistrate of the Saharsa District, said 37 people were confirmed dead, including several children. India’s railway minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, said 28 had died, and noted that the pilgrims were crossing the tracks illegally. Parliamentary discussion on Monday afternoon deteriorated into a shouting match over whether the government bore responsibility. The chief minister of Bihar, the state where the disaster occurred, called it “the rarest of rare tragedies.” He pledged 200,000 rupees, or around $3,180, to the victims’ families, and urged the railway ministry to do the same. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a statement calling for “calm in the area so that the relief and rescue operations can be carried out without any hindrance.”
The station, Dhamara Ghat, was inaccessible by car because of the current flood season, so rescue workers had to walk more than two miles from the nearest road to reach the injured, a regional police spokesman said. A series of disasters have befallen pilgrims in India this year. In June, thousands drowned when flash floods struck the northern state of Uttarakhand, and the Indian authorities evacuated more than 100,000 people. In February, dozens were killed in a train-station stampede at the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival on the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers.

[Philip]

Such misplaced priorities by MMS and Co. he talks about "Green" issues.No doubt very important,preserving our fragile ecology under threat from sand mafia and other criminal interests protected by the political class.But what about the "Greenback" issue? The Rupee has lost 15% in the wink of an eye,in supersonic free-fall,the stock market is plunging into the abyss like a sky-diver without a parachute,all eco. growth indicators are slipping steadily,prices shooting up like the mercury in summer ,another round of huge petrol price hikes in the offing yet again,but what do we see? The festive launch in Delhi of the Rolls Royce Silver Wraith at the staggering price of 4.8 crores whatever.As S.Gurumurthy put it perfectly,the only ones to have benefited are certain sections of corporate India.As for the Aaam Admi,the Middle Classes,and the poorest of the poor,the UPA's attitude is devil take the hindmost! The mandarins and Sancho Panzas, of the UPA's crack team of eco clowns do not know even how much it costs to exist a day,with their outrageous and insulting statements that 28 rs,35,rs,etc. is enough for an Indian.

As was posted above Corruption galore and unabated,mental and financial has robbed the people's wealth .
The sudden "loss" of files relating to the Coal scam,involving the PM himself is incomprehensible.The UPA looters are simply destroying the evidence.Gen VKS's evidence is "not good enough",so throw his well-proven allegations into the garbage dump.Protect the criminal mafia dressed in white.Allow the Kalmadis,Rajas,Dikshits,Ministers galore to loot and scoot.When the UPA "rots from the head",the stench of rot emanating right from the PMO,what else can one expect but a total collapse of the Indian economy and misery for almost all Indians? Unless elections are held very soon,the damage done will be irreperable.

PS:Watch the tamasha unfolding about the Food Security bill.It is nothing more than a scrap of paper which the poor will be asked to eat instead of food that they cannot afford to buy!

[ramana]

X-Post...

It seems Network18 is undergoing a big layoff season.
Layoffs at TV18 group

https://twitter.com/avinashbhat01/statu ... 1040892928
As per tweet rajdeep gets 1.8 crore package. Also it seems he took 5 crore loan recently.

http://www.network18online.com/reports/ ... 012-13.pdf
PAGE 172, 174 talks about package,loan thing.

Also this tweet from former colleague should rub it in even more
https://twitter.com/VidShankarAiyar/sta ... 6362270720

How to embed a tweet??

EDIT: It seems this vidya shankar aiyar is no better. His wiki says the following.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar is a journalist and independent strategic analyst, and former Executive Editor of CNN IBN. Aiyar obtained a doctorate on the breakup of the Soviet Union from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1997. Aiyar worked an an anchor for Channel NewsAsia, Singapore. While working at Channel NewsAsia, Aiyar was sentenced to 16 months in prison and four strokes of the cane by a district court in Singapore in 2004. The court reportedly found Aiyar guilty of molesting a female colleague after a party in 2002, describing him as a "hunting wolf in sheep’s clothing". Aiyar was released before serving his sentence on grounds of good behaviour, and was also spared the cane. After his release, Aiyar joined CNN IBN, where he served as Executive Editor.

Aiyar is the nephew of the Indian politician Mani Shankar Aiyar. Aiyar and his uncle have together been a part of an Informal Group on carrying forward the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan on disarmament

[krithivas]

India: the Story You Never Wanted to Hear
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1023053?hpt=hp_c3

RoseChasm says she shared her account of studying abroad in India and experiencing repeated sexual harassment in hopes of spreading 'international exposure about what women travelers and residents experience in India.'

What has changed in Indian culture over the past decade that harassment has not become the tag by which India is now being referred to? The slide from incredible India to infamous India is not good.

[vishvak]

I distinctly remember a few years ago one fine Sunday evening in ashram, a group of hippies were doing their fad hippie routines during Satsang/bhajan/keertan. 2 hippies - a woman and a man - on the floor were vying for microphone for what looked like chanting attempts very loudly. On first floor balcony - in full view of all sitting on the floor - were 2 hippie girls doing something independent but in parallel - some dance moves, hi-fi s, running round and round and then around themselves, laughing aloud like crazy - the hippies were having time of their life when bhajans were ongoing. Another gora was sitting amongst members of ashram - he knew what was going on - was sitting tight without saying a word. To me it looked like the western crowd was there to not just discover India but make every penny count for everyday spent here. The discover India advertisements are taken by westerners as dance bar holiday sessions it seems. These PhD-wannabes are perhaps as much sane as another wild wild trigger happy westerner lecturing others on non-violence - and these are PhD wannabes the creme de la cream of all literates!

Disclaimer: Does not mean that nomad had to undergo any harassment whatsover while going all over India on holiday tours.

[Atri]

India: the Story You Never Wanted to Hear
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1023053?hpt=hp_c3

RoseChasm says she shared her account of studying abroad in India and experiencing repeated sexual harassment in hopes of spreading 'international exposure about what women travelers and residents experience in India.'

What has changed in Indian culture over the past decade that harassment has not become the tag by which India is now being referred to? The slide from incredible India to infamous India is not good.

Men flock to cities for jobs, leaving behind their women folk. The intelligent opinion of PM and the planning commission is ppl should be removed frm agricultural sector. But this was taken to mean that ppl should be removed from villages. Last year 46000 ppl from villages of western MH migrated to shanties in Pune. I do not even know the number which migrated to mumbai or to pune from rest of MH, forget rest of desh.

The gender ratio does not help the matter. 200 young boys out of 1000 are left without women. Result is natural and is seen in many natural geographic documentaries with pack of left-over males forming a raiding party and indging in sneak attack, copulation (forcible at times) and unnatural sex-acts.

If ppl did not have to leave villages en masse and could earn a decent living in their villages while staying under the watchful eyes of their elders, things would be less grotesque. If there were 200 girls more per 1000 then it would be perfect. The natural order is there are always more females than males. That is how it should be.

[member_20317]

The ideal sex ratio is supposed to be more males and less females. I think its something like 950 girls to 1000 boys.

Besides Kerala has more girls but more crime against women too. 27 per lac compared to say Punjab that has 10.5 per lac which actually has a ratio that is the exact opposite of what you suggest as reasonable.

See page 4 of following data:
http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2010/cii-2010/Chapter%205.pdf

IMHO it is the level of idleness/vellapanthi/aimlessness that counts for more [Added later : coupled with a sense of entitlement]. While the immigration is certainly one of the contributors to this general aimlessness there are other factors too. Not just for crime against women for crimes in general.

That explains high crime rate in Delhi and NCR despite high employment and education compared to say UP & Bihar. The conservative masses keep the men folk outside the home and mostly get them to migrate to cities but they also keep a reasonable protection ring around their women folk. This I hypothesis results in lower crime against women in UP and Bihar but higher in Delhi NCR.

Employ the young and restless. Protect the womenfolk. Better policing and vigilantism is what I believe is the way to go.


For anecdotal evidence - I have had at least 4-5 crimes committed on my relations and friend circle and at least 1 terrorist attack. None by an under-educated migrant from villages.

[Philip]

http://article.wn.com/view/2013/08/20/I ... lated_news

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

Indian capital Delhi gripped by 'onion war'
India News: Onion prices worry Sheila Dik­shit

Delhi: The sharp rise in onion prices - near­ly 58% in the past one month alone - has Delhi...
pub­lished: 13 Aug 2013

Onion prices touch the sky, 80 kg in Delhi
Delhi onion prices are sky­rock­et­ing. Peo­ple need to pay Rs 80 for a kilo of onions are. In...
India News : BJP sells onion at Rs 40 a kilo­gram to make Congress cry

The Daily Telegraph 2013-08-20:

India's opposition parties have declared an 'onion war' on the government after prices for the staple curry ingredient soared beyond the reach of the poor. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists demonstrate against the spiralling price of onions Photo: SANJEEV GUPTA/EPA 4:38PM BST 20 Aug 2013 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the anti-corruption Aam Admi (Common Man) parties have opened greengrocery vans in the capital Delhi to sell heavily subsidised onions to embarrass the government and highlight eye-watering price increases.

[ramana]

How is that an onion war? Does the reporter need an English usage check?

[ramana]

X-Post...

JhoneeG
Exactly why swamyG's claim is a bold one and I posted the opposing extremal unsupportable claim. BJP karyakartas and RSS are on the ground in AP. If what swamy says is true then why did they support T in LS?

But saar, how can one conclude that lotus cadre/supporters on ground are in favour of division? ABVP and RSS seems to be present in all sub-regions of AP, so there will be many guys who oppose division in ABVP and RSS cadre in AP. Lotus, on its own, does not have much cadre to speak of. Why, even trs does not have much cadre. There have been some jumpings in and out, but these are opportunistic and unreliable.

Lotus is playing a shrewd and opportunistic game when it comes to its stand on small states. It supports division of those states where it does not have any chance. Because it is unable to enter into new states. Last time, BJP entered new regions was during RJB movement. But once they came to power, they tried to give up hindutva and become just another party. So, they had to find some other way of entering new states. Thats why they are now reduced to fanning sub-regionalism and supporting arbitrary division of states that can have longterm negative for desh. Small states are politically vulnerable, economically dependent and unable to defend from threats that have presence multiple states.

Still, if lotus thinks small states are good idea, then it should do it in systematic manner. It should support a states reorganization committee and cut all the states to the ideal size after addressing the related issues like water sharing, debt sharing, funds for the new states, ... etc. I think such a process, if taken up in a serious and systematic manner, will take a long time(20 yrs) assuming that everyone else agrees to the concept of small states.

And lotus should start from those states where it is already in power if it is convinced about the virtues of small states.

The first question it should answer is," how small should the size of a state be?"

Goa is a very small state compared to Guj. Which size is ideal: Guj or Goa?
If Goa's size is too small, then Goa should be merged with another state.
If Goa size is ideal, then Guj should be sliced into slices as small as Goa.

In both Goa and Guj, lotus is in power, so it can pass the bill in assembly to kickstart the process. Will they do it?

No, because it is an opportunistic ploy to break only those states where it doesnt have chance.

Those lotus guys who are supporting the division in AP are doing so because it is their party policy. So, it is top-down that is seen, not bottom-up.

It seems to me that supporting division of AP was susma aunty's idea. Namo seems to have in inherited it and seems to think that he cannot do a reverse the policy without losing the credibility. So, he is trying wriggle out slowly. Anyway, I don't think BJP can expect any seats from telugus on its present policy, Namo or not. Kongis just prempted them.

It seems to me that Namo is trying to do on AP what he is doing on fsb, pretending to support but opposing on some excuse. Because, in both cases lotus will not get any credit even if those bills pass. Further, I think politicians are starting to figure out that kongis may not be really doing anything about T except make noise.

BTW, CBN is also slowly trying to apply a reverse gear.

[Prem]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 52758.html
China Banks on Buddhism (and India on Secularism)

The plain of Terai, a poor agricultural land crossed by holy rivers, straddles the border between Nepal and India. Its sweltering summers see temperatures climb above 100 degrees, but this parched terrain might be on the verge of tumultuous changes. On the Nepali side is the small city of Lumbini, which, after long neglect, is now at the center of great power politics.This is where the Lord Buddha was born, about 2,500 years ago, under a bodhi tree at the bend of a small creek. His mother, a Hindu princess called Maya, was traveling to her parental home in Kapilavastu when her labor started, and all her entourage could do was stop and arrange a place for her to give birth under the tree, near a pool of water. Lumbini, sometimes called "the Buddhist Mecca," has been described as a potential gold mine for Nepal, and many have been lamenting that its impressive tourist potential should be so underdeveloped, with just a small white temple sitting on the holy grounds. Those who come, though, appreciate the calm of the place, and sit cross-legged in meditation, or murmur sacred scriptures in small groups. Monks and nuns from all over the Buddhist world tour the temple, which shelters a series of carved stones that depict the holy birth, and just sit on the grass outside, in contemplation. The U.N. got its eyes on Lumbini early on, under the presidency of U Thant, himself a Buddhist, who visited in 1967. Three years later, the U.N. International Committee for the Development of Lumbini (now the U.N. Lumbini Development Trust) was established, with the approval of the Hindu King Mahendra, traditionally regarded as a descendant of Hindu gods.
In 1972 the committee selected Japanese architect Kenzō Tange to draw up a project for a Peace Park that would surround the temple, approved by the king (who died later that year) and the committee itself. Six years and a few more high-level U.N. visits later, part of what became known as the Tange Master Plan is now partially built. Arched red-brick bridges reach over a straight canal, and a red-brick museum with a Bauhaus-like flair to it sits by a reflecting pool about a quarter of a mile from the small white temple.The U.N. involvement means a lot of emphasis is given to representing Buddhist nations: On one side of the canal, every country that follows the Theravadha ("Small Vehicle") tradition of Buddhism—such as Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and Thailand—has, or will have, a temple. The other side is reserved for the countries following the Mahayana tradition ("Greater Vehicle"), like China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia. It translates into a hodgepodge of styles and many replicas of famous buildings. Burma has built a concrete Shwedagon Pagoda; China, a smaller version of the Forbidden City. So far only about a dozen of the foreseen 42 buildings have been erected. One of the problems has been the lack of cash: The finished project should cost about $64 million in total, but not all contributing Buddhist countries see this as a priority.
Enter the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APECF), a well-funded Chinese association headed by a rather mysterious figure, Linus Xiao Wunan. A Buddhist and a Chinese Communist Party member, he wants to see a whole Peace City built here and a tower called "Lumbini Cloud." "We have already broken ground," says Mr. Xiao, in his living room in a diplomatic compound in Beijing, showing an artist's impression of a tall and slender "celestial observatory" building that will host restaurants, temples, shops and prayer rooms in a circular ring built several hundred feet from the ground. "We have agreed on a project with VTP Global," he says, referring to a theme-park development group based in London. Around him, a confusing array of pictures hints at a complex biography: At the back, Mr. Xiao is seen posing next to the Dalai Lama, whom he met in Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government in exile resides. Other photos show him surrounded by high prelates of various Buddhist sects. But next to where he sits, on a coffee table, is a portrait of Mao Zedong.

"We have the full support of the Nepali government," he says. Not that Nepal has much of one at present, since a caretaker administration has been sitting in Kathmandu for the past 10 years. Before that, a lengthy civil war led to a short-lived communist government, which subsequently collapsed. The next elections are scheduled for November. The caretakers are headed by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the former leader of the Maoist guerrilla known as Prachanda, or "the Fierce," who also sits on the board of the Lumbini Cloud Project, and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mr. Xiao to go ahead with it.
Not everyone is in accord, and some even see self-interest in Dahal's motives, but Mr. Xiao is not troubled with these developments. Yet he remains vague on many details—like questions about where the $3 billion he claims to have for Lumbini is coming from, or if the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is backing APECF."APECF is part of the grander strategy of increasing China's soft power," Mr. Xiao says, "but we are independent, and the Lumbini development project is our own idea." Still, China is also getting busy building an international airport here, with direct flights from major Chinese cities, as well as restaurants and hotels to cater to the devout masses. The U.N. is also still involved: Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General and himself a Buddhist, has often mentioned the need to develop Lumbini, and those in the know say that the push comes from Mr. Ban's mother, a fervent Buddhist. At least one Korean sect, called Chhoge, has been received by Mr. Dahal for this very reason, and according to Nepali newspaper reports Mr. Dahal has signed an MOU with it, too."Our plans are not incompatible," says Mr. Xiao in Beijing. "This is going to be for the whole Buddhist world. To those who find it too striking, I say: At the beginning nobody liked the Pyramid at the Louvre."India, once more, is left looking uneasily as China expands its influence in its backyard, tapping into the soft-power potential of Buddhism, and an air of Buddhist Great Game can be felt in what was until now the sleepy, holy site of Buddha's Birth

[Jarita]

^^^ It is all about owning the narrative. China always felt India had an edge.

[abhishek_sharma]

Coomi Kapoor's Column

Post-poll planning

There may be more than six months left before general elections but the SPG has swung into action to locate a suitable residence for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in case he does not continue in office. Planning is necessary since the house has to be kept in readiness so that the departing PM can move out of 7, Race Course Road, immediately after the election results. It is learnt that the SPG has zeroed in on half a dozen houses on major avenues of Lutyens Delhi. From a security angle, a corner house is considered best.

Missed deadline

Amid confusion over which day Raksha Bandhan fell this year, many Delhi schools and colleges as well as courts were closed for the festival on August 20, but Parliament had a holiday only the next day. This was apparently because the Congress was keen to ensure passage of the food security Bill on Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary on August 20. However, despite its best efforts, the ruling party could not get the Bill passed that day.

The Congress's original plan was that party president Sonia Gandhi would announce passage of the legislation in her speech at Talkatora Grounds, for the launch of the food security scheme in Delhi. But she had to revise her address in view of the changed circumstances. Even the wording of the spate of advertisements to mark Rajiv's birth anniversary had to be altered. The Delhi government ad announced inauguration of a food security programme, not Bill. The Uttrakhand government ad declared it was launching the food security ordinance. Ads of various ministries talked about the Sadbhavna Divas and "Rajiv's vision" and not the food security Bill.

Changing roles

In 2009, Jairam Ramesh was at the forefront in planning the Congress strategy for the general elections and was allotted 99, South Avenue, as his base. For the 2014 election, Congress general secretary Madhusudan Mistry appears to be the pointperson for the campaign and has moved to 99, South Avenue. Already Mistry has become very active in Uttar Pradesh, appointing 75 district Congress presidents and 400 block chiefs, causing much heartburn in party ranks. Incidentally, there was a buzz in the Congress when an SMS to Shankersinh Vaghela claimed that the BJP's Amit Shah, Mistry's counterpart in Uttar Pradesh, had taken a turn for the worse. In fact, Shah, who was hospitalised in Ahmedabad, is out after a bout of pneumonia.

Dual responsibility

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was in the US consulting doctors when there was an attack by Maoists on a Congress procession in Chhattisgarh. He was also missing when communal clashes took place in Kishtwar. In both cases it was Finance Minister P Chidambaram who dealt with the situation. On August 20, Shinde returned to Delhi after a liver operation in Mumbai, but his health is still fragile. The government has to take a call on whether Shinde should be moved from the key ministry. Since Chidambaram cannot handle dual charge indefinitely, there is a proposal to bring in Kamal Nath as home minister.

In revolt

The Congress in Chhattisgarh may be heading for a split. Ajit Jogi has defied party by asserting publicly that he is the leader of the Congress in the state. Jogi has even announced candidates for Assembly constituencies without checking with the party first. But Jogi is no Virbhadra Singh, and the high command in Delhi has not taken kindly to his tactics.

Getting away

Retired Tata group chief Ratan Tata appeared in the Supreme Court on August 21 in connection with his petition that publication of the Niira Radia tapes was an invasion of his privacy. Tata will be in the US for the next six months, teaching a course in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nixing rumours

The buzz in Delhi was that relations were strained between Minister of State, Human Resource Development Ministry, Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda after the paperback edition of his latest book did not carry a dedication to his wife. There was also talk in Congress circles that Robert Vadra and Priyanka were not seeing eye to eye since his name figured prominently in the media for his land deals. Both couples appear to have made it a point to squash such rumours. Tharoor threw a party to celebrate his third wedding anniversary. The Vadras were seen last week dining at a five-star hotel, holding hands and engrossed in each other's company.

[Prem]

Manmohan Singh returns to Rao, finallyWhen the prime minister thanked his predecessor during his Independence Day spe
Why Now Mr Singh

Something remarkable happened last week. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort for the tenth and possibly last time, Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh finally underscored the central role that the late P V Narasimha Rao had played in crafting India's economic policy as prime minister in the early 1990s. In his speech, Dr Singh said, "In the year 1991, under the leadership of Shri Narasimha Rao, we successfully negotiated a major economic crisis and embraced reforms for strengthening our economy. These reforms were opposed by many political parties at that time. But the reforms were in national interest and were therefore continued by all governments that came to power subsequently. Since then, the reform process has continually moved forward."
Dr Singh's subtle tribute to Rao is significant because he was the only non-Nehru-Gandhi prime minister that he mentioned in his speech - and that too after a long time. This is a time when there is widespread doom and gloom about the state of the Indian economy. The rupee is plunging, investment is drying up, growth is nowhere to be seen and there are suggestions that India is moving back to the era of controls as exemplified by the RBI's decision to tighten capital controls on order to defend the exchange rate. The markets are expecting more restrictions and getting fidgety in the process.The prime minister has tried to reassure the markets, suggesting that despite recent upheavals, India is not about to face another economic crisis like the one experienced in 1991. But no one is listening anymore. The inability of the prime minister to bring even his own party on track on the reform agenda has been perhaps his biggest failure.But then this is not his fault. And as Dr Singh seems to be suggesting again and again these days, it has always been politics that tends to drive economics. Managing and nurturing economic reforms is a political process. It's not a technocrat's job but that of a political leader. And Dr Singh has never been either an effective politician or a leader.

[gakakkad]

The ideal sex ratio is supposed to be more males and less females. I think its something like 950 girls to 1000 boys.

its actually more females than males.. females have a longer lifespan on an average..so they are more in number.