HAVE SOME COURAGE THE "BRAVE QUARTET"
First things first let me confess that I am strongly aginst unfettered freedom of any kind, although freedom is a wonderful thing but like each and every good thing excess of freedom is problematic to say the least.So if any body thinks I'm a supporter of state regulations,restrictions on each and everything then he is mistaken, I do not support such kind of regulations but at the same time I believe that people should be much more restrained and responsible in their public dealings.

I am totally shocked, rather amused by the lack of guts shown by the quartet of Hari Kunzru, Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar and Jeet thayil , who , i have learnt have left Jaipur to prevent being arrested. What amazes me most is the fact that these people were "hailed" by the so called liberal media, muslim bashers(like uma bharti), arm chair intellectuals(which are available two for every penny in india) and many pseudo-liberal muslims for their "courage", "bravery" and "show of solidarity" with the living satan who answers to the name of salman rushdie. would this stoking of fire by utterly irresponsible, provocative and uncalled for bravado and then running away uned cover while leaving others to face the music for their consequences be called bravery, perhaps to the pseudo-liberal media like TOI, Hindu etc it would but not for me. I would have had a semblance for their integrity although not their cheap gimmicks had they stayed back and faced arrest for their acts but with this act they have shown that they are as much of cowards and hypocrites like their guru salman rushdie, who incidentally also wrote a heap of bullshit just to become an instant celebrity and "master of words". unfortunately for the west anti muslim who abuses islam and its revered figures is a "champion" of liberty, "islamic renaissance", "progressive and what not the list is quiet long but just to remind you living satan salman rushdie, tasleema nasreen, ayaan ali hirsi are just some of the people who have found comfort in west's lap after provocating muslims in the worst possible manner. My advice for these people and their supporters is to stop being hypocritical and have the guts to face some trouble for your acts , after all gandhi did go underground when the British police was looking for him he readily surrendered and chose to spend time in prison rather then running away similarly mohammad ali(cassius clay) chose to be stripped of his heavyweight title rather then compromise on his stand.

P.S: GROW UP you arm chair itellectuals and pseudo-libertarians, your gimmicks and hypocrisy have only stripped you of any sympathy however unfounded you may have got.

Courts and their judgements

Rousseau has said very rightly that "law is like a spider's web while the rich and strong break it at will, the poor almost always get caught in it".

Indeed, the Supreme Court of India is faithfully following this philosophy, how else would you explain the recent "observations" of the Supreme Court in describing one of the worst act of terrorism as being  just another incident. I mean that unless their Lordship were in a joking mood or were trying to show that they live in the proverbial ivory towers, there cannot be any chance that they could be so naive to suggest that the demolition of Babri Masjid was just another incident.

However, then I remember the inglorious role played by the Apex Court in the demolition of Babri Masjid and realise the fact that perhaps for Supreme Court of India this "just another incident" is a memory which is best forgotten. After all it was a U.P. District judge who contrary to all the norms of justice, fairplay, reasoning etc. went on to describe how "Ramlala appeared at the Babri Masjid in 1949", how the Supreme Court itself facilitated the demolition of Babri Masjid by looking the other way round despite the grave warnings of Milon C. Bannerjee (Attorney General Of India from 1991-96 & 2004-09). Even more shameful was the reaction of Supreme Court in the aftermath of demolition of the Masjid when it made a laughing stock of itself by punishing Kalyan Singh for one day(yes its true) in imprisonment for this act of terrorism, it allowed the makeshift temple (which was a standing contempt of its order) to continue and even allwed the puja to be held there, even if that was not enough, it upheld the acquisition of the whole janambhoomi-masjid complex and area adjoining it in blatant disreagrd to principle of secularism and thereby favoured the right of majority community to worship at the disputed place while totally extinguishing the right of the minority community to worship at that place(incidentally the two judges who dissented in this case belonged to minority communities). Finally, last year the Allahabad High Court gave a long awaited decision in the Babri Masjid case which needs to be treated with dismay and disbelief in equal measure, perhaps in no other country of the world (not even in Pakistan) could we expect such a judgement which decide the case like a village panchayat and contrary to the claim of all the parties divided the property in three parts.
This "incident" incidentally has resulted in some of the worst riots of independent India and have blackened India's name and fame internationally, still the preparators of this heinous crimes are roaming scot free and are have even ruled India is another testimonial to the sorry state of affairs of Indian judiciary and legal system.

It therefore should hardly be surprising that the Supreme Court treats this case as just another incident, three cheers to their Lordships for such enlightening comments.

Why all the parties are wrong over fdi in retail

The last few days have witnessed what now has almost become a regular feature of Parliament. the otherwise disorganized opposition(which suffers from an identity crisis) is determined to score some brownie political points over the ruling coalition which is smarting from a series of high profile scandals,scams, controversies etc. and is battling hard to shed the tag of a government which has lost touch with the voters and the ultimate loser is the Indian democracy which is losing the sheen of being the 'world's largest democracy' by the day and is increasingly becoming an anarchist  state.
The saddest part of this logjam is that in between all the charges and counter charges the real issue has been lost somewhere which is the very important debate on FDI in retail sector which is the apparent(though not the real) cause of this aggression. Firstly, we should take up the stand of the opposition and analyze its legitimacy, the opposition parties are time and again reminding the Indian citizen that FDI in retail will deal a death blow to small kirana shop owners, petty tradesman,  farmers and competition , which leads us to ponder over the question that whether is FDI in retail is such a bright idea overall. But a closer look at the charges levelled against FDI will reveal that most of these charges are exaggerated if not totally unfounded, as far as the small kirana shop owners are concerned they have shown a remarkable adaptability and resilience against all odds to not only survive but surpass all expectations with regard to their functioning and can be compared to cockroaches as far as survival is concerned, yes they may face tough competition from retail giants but Indian public has a strong penchant for shopping with bargaining,credit,home delivery etc. which the retail giants can never ever match. Coming to the so called plight of farmers with the entrance of retail giants , it may actually raise the living standard of the farmer by increasing the purchase cost of the farm products which have only risen negligibly despite the food grain prices almost doubling in the last 4 years , now finally coming to the problems faced by petty traders or middlemen , agreed that many of them may face unemployment or reduction in profits but even then this loss can be compensated by the jobs which the retail players will generate, so we can safely say that the fears regarding the alleged catastrophic effect of retail corporations is over hyped to create a fear psychosis to say the least.So the opposition should have insisted on a discussion on this policy in a helthy manner rather then disrupting Parliament in this highly objectionable manner.
Now coming to the stand of the government, the UPA(or the Congress members of UPA) have taken great pains to explain that the opening up of retail to foreign investment will be an excellent step and will benefit each and every section of the society in long run. The reasons given by government is that it will give the farmer a higher price for its product, create 10 million jobs, reduce inflation,increase productivity and competition among retailers. Tall claims indeed but they need to be taken with a pinch(or perhaps two) of salt, as for the higher price given to farmer it can be safely said that most probably it will give them a better deal but at the same time it may harm food security of India by encouraging farmers to cultivate crops which though giving them a better monetary value may compromise the food production target of India's fragile agriculture.
 As for the 'claim' of providing 10 million jobs to Indians, one is forced to wonder that whether the government is naive,foolish, thinks of the public as foolish or has each of the earlier mentioned virtues, even the representatives of the retail giants have not claimed that the retail sector will cretae 10 million jobs and in fact has kept mum on the actual number of jobs to be created by them, then how is it that the officious  government  in its eagerness to push for this policy pulls a figure of 10 million out of thin air with very little data to back up this claim. Finally the issue of inflation which has become the Achilles heal of the government , eluding all the measures of government and instead of diminishing it has shown a sharp ascent , can it be checked through the entry of retail giants, I have serious doubts over the wisdom behind this argument, we all know that food inflation has become a big problem in last few years and India cannot remain totally immune from its effects, however, what the government can and must do is to streamline the process of food supply and ensure that black marketeers do not rule the roost. Sadly, the government has turned a blind eye to this factor and despite the strong protest of Left parties has allowed futures trading in commodities to continue unabashed which has created an artificial rise in the price of food commodities, in this way the prices of most commodities are artificially increased without any kind of shortage of these products. So the government also does not has clean hands with respect to this sensitive matter.
A much better way forward for government could have been to introduce this policy in parliament followed by a short discussion rather then announcing the policy, stubbornly supporting it and then having to eat the crow(in the process eroding whatever little credibility the government had) and losing the precious time which should have been spent on debating/discussing the major isses before the nation.

Alas! it has become an all to familiar story of Indian politics that the taxpayers hard earned money is squandered on creating a logjam in the Parliament with no accountability , and on this program the government and the opposition seem to have arrived at consensus.

Why the Lokpal Act will not reduce corruption in India

There is huge sense of euphoria, hype and celebration as the UPA government has finally eaten the humble pie and has given in to the demand of Anna Hazare for a strong lokpal act. This  moral victory for corruption free India has been hailed as a ‘watershed’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘landmark’ by jubilant supporters of Hazare and some commentator compared it with Satyagrah movement of Gandhiji, anti -emergency movement of  Jai Prakash Narayan (In the age of globalistion everything needs to be hyped up) without discrediting anna hazare and all those people who are fighting against corruption and wishing them all the best in their endeavours this celebration may very well be misplaced and means very little or practically nothing in India.

It is often said Corruption is like a cancer  which once spread cannot be contained without damaging the parts of human body although painful it might be,  merely treating it with medications will only lead to spread of the cancer instead of containing it. I might sound pessimistic, retrograde or even regressive  but taking all these risks in my stride I dare say that there seems to be no way that corruption in India will decline let alone removed by the establishment of Lokpal or for that matter any other institution but there are strong reasons for sharing such a gloomy scenario.
 Firstly, corruption in India has become such a common phenomenon that it is present in each and every state,region,city, village  and every other unit, we Indians may be divided on the basis of caste,class, religion, language, state and political ideology but ironically enough there is a very strong bond of corruption uniting each of us. We will pay the policeman 100 rupee note for traffic rule violation to escape the 500 rupee fine which we will have to pay in case we get the challan issued, we will pay bribe(called commission ) to touts hovering around government offices so that we don’t have to take the pains of standing in a queue or visiting government offices to get our work done, we will never buy a product with registered cash slip even if it means having to forego the warranty because that will result in payment of sale tax/Vat/service tax. All this is done round the year by an overwhelming majority of the people who will lose no time in crying hoarse about the enormous corruption present in the country and reviling the family background of the government officials.

The most frightening thing is the fact that we have accepted corruption as a normal facet of life in India which is permissible as long as it is to our convenience and should be opposed only where it hurts our interests. In my interaction with many of my friends whose parents are  government officials with ‘plump’ postings I have been shocked by the coolness(sometimes pride also) with which they declare how much their parents ‘earn’ in addition to their salary, before you could argue with them about the ills of this practice they are quick to remind you about some other colleague of their father/mother holding the same or even lower post who makes ten times the money made by their parents (morality come easy to us even when it comes to taking bribes). I personally know an official who proudly declares that he donates 50% of all his ‘additional’ earnings to the poor and needy and only keeps the rest for him and his family, most of the officials bribe the minister in charge of their concerned department to be transferred to places where they can make truckload of money, successful candidates in civil services etc. before joining their  departments  make a careful career plan about making money in 5, 10 and 15 year span(after all they have given all their lifes pleasure for this opportunity only) I can go on and on without exhausting the instances of corruption in India but that is not my purpose. I only want to underline the fact that no institution, no constitution, no authority or force can root out corruption until and unless the people themselves decide to shun corruption and the chances of that happening are as bright as  Rakhi sawant winning an Oscar. Till then we should celebrate anna’s triumph.