Bharat Rakshak

vera_k wrote:

12:22 pm: Omar questions removal of US embassy security barriers

"I'm all for reciprocity but removal of US embassy security barriers is taking things too far. These barriers weren't a privilege, were they?"

If the security barriers weren't a privilege, there should be records of how much the embassy was paying or being billed for those barriers. Have the barriers been paid for going back to the time they were first placed?

Truth to tell, instead of cursing Bharara, we should try and import him as our first lokpal.

Singha wrote:so long as this circus of all critical parts of the indian power elite 'placing' their sons/daughters via marriage and immigration into the US does not end, this unequal treatment will continue. even MMS daughter who last I heard was a ACLU lawyer is probably carrying a american passport by now! not having foreign entanglements must be strictly enforced for higher levels of babus and political appointees.

our elites can do nothing - not the congi regime for sure. and all the senior babus have their sons/daughters/bhatijas in the US.

The president himself makes that case: Davis is a diplomat, a man who shoots and kills two Pakistanis in full public view and causes the collateral death of another. We still do not know what else Davis did during his Pakistani stint in line with his “diplomatic” work but surely it wouldn’t be pretty. As Obama saw it, starkly in black and white: “If our diplomats are in another country then they are not subject to that country’s local prosecution.” What sort of diplomat carries a Glock and shoots people dead and is immune from “local prosecution”?
....
....
According to America, Davis is a diplomat and deserves the full weight of the Vienna Conventions and Devyani Khobragade does not deserve the minimum courtesy due to a real diplomat.

Francois Gautier: #DevyaniHumiliated However much I love India,I've often been shocked at how Indians - specially rich ones -treat & underpay their servants.

sanjaykumar wrote: South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, post war Germany have all used their proximity to the US for economic development. India and South Korea had similar poverty as recently as the early 1970s. Where are they? Where is India?

Or is it that Indians are culturally incapable of engaging the US in a mutually beneficial relationship?

nageshks wrote:She is never as strong as she believes, and never as weak as her foes want her to be.

LokeshC wrote:In all this stuff, I find one element surprisingly missing :- An underlying reason to unite.

There is no framework in current day India that is powerful enough to unite people over their differences. Instead there are divisive frameworks like caste, religion, region etc etc.

Our macaulayized elites and macaulayized population have made a major self-goal has been accepting the "knowledge" from the west that Hindoo == caste system. People stop looking into Hinduism as an framework that is powerful enough to unite, instead they go intellectually bankrupt and borrow everything from the west, like sekoolarism, communism and many other ism resulting in competing frameworks and even more divisiveness.

This kind of intellectual bankruptcy is the biggest bane of India. In the US thread I was mentioning that we have had almost zero true post colonial thinkers and I was wondering why. I think the answer is we started borrowing things from west and became intellectually lazy to create anything by our own way and be confident enough to stand by it.

And so we have an army of snake-oil salesmen who know to vomit post-mordernist prose and are fanatically devout believers in one of the "isms" of the west. For any issue in India there solution is the same"ism". People in the west who create ideas love these guys and they get invited to posh foreign conferences all expenses paid and what not: to tell the story on how that "ism" saved 10000s of poor people in a secluded village of snake-charming SDREs. Once they taste this money, they will be even bigger followers of that "ism" and they develop an army of local Indian chamchas. This is the new International intellectual slavery and/or colonialization. The kingdom of "isms" and their game of thrones, ofcourse all "isms" are alien to India.

The fact is, India is in such a deep economic bind by following these "isms" from the west, to which the solution is some or the other new"ism" and some new local gungadeen will emerge singing paeans to that "ism". Meanwhile people keep going around in circles.

Fun Fact: Post-mordernist prose can be generated by an automated computer algorithm: http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/ refresh the page and you will see a new post-mordernist essay that has never been seen before.

nageshks wrote:
South Korea has succeeded in eliminating poverty, but at a terrible price.

CRamS wrote:

nageshks wrote:
South Korea has succeeded in eliminating poverty, but at a terrible price.

Just curious, this is OT, and to me it does appear that SK's success is simply dazzling. What is the terrible price they have paid?

LokeshC wrote:As long as Brown Sahibs exist, India will not be developed.

The US state department recognised Sangeeta Richard as a victim of trafficking as far back as July at a time New Delhi was asking Washington to help trace her, exposing its deep mistrust of India’s claims that the nanny at the centre of a diplomatic row was an absconder.

The state department awarded Sangeeta a T-1 visa, exclusively given to victims of human trafficking. In December, it handed her husband Philip a T-2 visa and their daughters T-3 visas, which allow family members of trafficked victims to join them in the US.

These new details, confirmed to The Telegraph by multiple Indian and US officials, challenge the perceptions of differences between the state department and US attorney Preet Bharara whose move to arrest diplomat Devyani Khobragade has exploded into a rare public feud.

Dipanker wrote:Unfortunately for Devyani K. the judicial report on Adarsh Scam is out, does not bode well for her. Apparentally she lied and submitted false papers to get a flat in Adarsh complex.

According to a story in Rediff.com, Devyani Khobragade is not pleased with her portrayal, by some sections of the media, as "a rich elite exploiter, a child of privilege."

Further more, in an email to Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, Devyani stated -

"Only my friends know how I live here in Manhattan, saving every penny."

However her own assets disclosure paints an entirely different picture than that of a simple, humble employee of the government.

While her Government salary may be a topic of dispute, Devyani Khobragade does not lack for funds, inheritance or influence.

According to a document submitted by Devyani, and available through the Ministry of External Affairs website, she owns about 35 acres of agricultural land, six non-agricultural plots of land totaling roughly 15,000 square feet and three flats of 500-1000 square feet each.



Her declared income from all of this is about Rs 2,30,000 per year, the majority of it comes from the flats.

Interestingly her listed income from 25 acres of land (Rs 25,000 annually) is nearly the same as the amount she listed in another 2-acre plot of land (Rs 20,000 annually.)

Her assets are also pan-Indian, as her various properties are spread across from Kerala to Uttar Pradesh to Maharastra.

In Maharastra alone, she owns property in five different villages, Pune and Mumbai.

Seven of her properties were either inherited or gifted to her by her father, who is a former IAS officer.

And as is already well known, one of her flats in within the infamous Adarsh Housing Society in Colaba.

Flats in that society, built on Defense land, were supposed to be given to the kin of those soldiers martyred in Kargil. However the flats have nearly almost completely been distributed amongst political bigwigs and those with connections in Mumbai.

The entire matter is currently under investigation for fraud, snaring quite a few big names in Maharastra politics.

The Adarsh Report, a report on the entire scam, was recently presented in the Maharastra Assembly, where the Government refused to accept it.

The opposition declared that the refusal was an attempt by the State Government to not take responsibility for the scandal.

The Richards' — parents of Philip — live in the house of a US diplomat at 5, Aurangzeb Lane in Lutyens' Delhi and the premises used to be the residence of the US embassy's political counselor.

Owned by the US government, in the past the house was occupied by Geoff Pyatt, Ted Osius and Uzra Beya. Philip's mother worked for the Pyatts as their cook, and the father was employed there as well.

The house is currently occupied by a senior US diplomat, and the Richards' continue to live there. There are now serious questions about the role played by US diplomats in getting the Richard family to the US by slapping a trafficking charge on an Indian diplomat.

Second, refuting the charge that the Richards were "persecuted" in India, government records say Philip and his son Jatin applied for fresh passports on September 17. Philip got his passport on October 4 and Jatin a couple of days later.

Officials here say the fact that they got their passports without a fuss is testimony that no such vengeful action had even been contemplated. "But they were clearly working to a plan, and were being advised on all their moves, including when to apply for a passport," sources said.

CRamS wrote:But sticking to topic, if one thinks India is a pushover when it comes to US, which no doubt it is

Dipanker wrote:Unfortunately for Devyani K. the judicial report on Adarsh Scam is out, does not bode well for her. Apparentally she lied and submitted false papers to get a flat in Adarsh complex.

krithivas wrote:Ms. Devyani will NEVER get a fair jury trial in the US because the common populace has been poisoned by a never ending stream of caste bias, oppression stories against Indians in general.

Patni wrote:To me it seems the real pro usa tilt under current administration of MMS is going to get neutralised and India will in coming few years be able to stay out of being grouped into pro USA camp and be a small pole in hopefully new multi polar international order we will see in coming decade.

Philip wrote:I am frankly amazed at the US's insensivity in this case.Over a decade,Indo-US ties have definitely improved to a degree never seen before,where we have mil. exercises together,buy US eqpt. in the billions upsetting our "old friend" Russia which has felt left out in the cold.

I have for aeons posted how the closer one gets to America,the greater the danger of being shafted[/b].For over a century now world leaders ,Uncle Sam's closest cronies like the Shah,Saddam,Marcos,Noriega,Thieu,just to name a few,were unceremoniously dumped into the dustbin by the yanquis.

habal wrote:For those who even think for a moment that IFS officers may abuse servants. I have this to say. In IFS hostel in dilli, not a single apartment would have an IFS officer wherein a help, would be treated any less than a member of their own family. IFS is a profession that centers around image and public image is of primary importance. And the officers are very self-conscious on what they portray to the public at large. If they are even remotely abusive to their servants, it will soon be news across the cadre in one way or another and their entire career would be in jeopardy due to this, because of the poor halo they have created around themselves. So great care is ensured in how the domestic help are hosted in the household. And that is one primary reason why IFS-Diplomat types are so popular amongst an upwardly mobile section of nanny/domestic types. No way can one look at them as a conventional 'full-time servant' (which is a very rare phenomenon these days anyway) in a middle-class household helping with all the family chores. There is absolutely no comparison here.

So that is why such a case is not even imaginable.

LokeshC wrote:^^Then you probably did not get the point. Point is, these brown sahibs were unceremoniously (and usually violently) dumped, in the other countries that are successful in uniting themselves into a power.

Ex: China had the brownsahib catonese unceremoniously and violently dumped into Taiwan. Japan had the brownsahib shoguns (fiercely patriotic, but feudal), dumped in Meijin restoration. USA had people like Paul Revere exposing traitors in the revolutionary war. French revolution the bourgeoisie got what they wanted to guillotining the nobes. All these countries are proud of who they are. They dont need external validation to stand up on their own ideas.

In India, intellectually bankrupt brownsahibs are the movers and shakers. Most of them are the morally sleazy slimeballs. Fine specimen is our Prufrock Tejpal.

Dipanker wrote:And yet Debyani's case is 3rd one in almost as many year. First it was Prabhu Dayal (?), then Mehrotra, and now Debyani. Got to be the maids?

KrishnaK wrote:You have no point to make. India has been united into a "power" for a while now, your angst notwithstanding.

A_Gupta wrote:Diplomat Devayani Khobragade was strip searched by the US Marshal Service. If you look up their policies and directives (from 2010), you will find that a strip search was legally allowed only if there was reasonable suspicion that the prisoner has contraband or weapons, or is a security, escape or suicide risk. If a strip search was conducted, the Marshals had to fill out paperwork with the justification.

But then the US Supreme Court, in 2012, ruled that strip searches could be conducted by the arresting authorities with no justification necessary. If you are stopped for jay walking (crossing the road disregarding the traffic signal) the officer can strip search you, and you have no legal recourse.

The US, instead of being the land of the free, has become a country where the government spies on its citizens' phones and email, and can examine their body orifices at will. Most Americans are taking all of this lying down - all it took was a 9/11 to knock the stuffing out their supposed love of freedom.

PS: You can find the US Marshal Service directives on body searches, etc., from 2010 here:
http://www.usmarshals.gov/foia/Directiv ... arches.pdf

PPS: Here is a news-story about aforementioned US Supreme Court decision allowing strip searches for anything:
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149866209 ... -offenders

Dipanker wrote:And yet Debyani's case is 3rd one in almost as many year. First it was Prabhu Dayal (?), then Mehrotra, and now Debyani. Got to be the maids?

ramana wrote:What US has done is legally bring Abu Ghraib practices inside US and there is no outrage in the community.