Swine of the week ending 5/31/2009

Given the slow season after the Elections most of our country's leaders have quietened. However one party the DMK has chosen to put its foot forward in a series of aggressive moves aimed at organizational control.
For this I present your Swine of this week:

Stalin (like is name alike) removed all of his competition to control the DMK lead government in Tamil Nadu. He moved his brother Azhagiri and cousin Maran to the Cabinet. He also moved his sister Kanimozhi out of contention. The one person who by virtue of experience stood between him and the throne, veteran K. Anbazhagan was forced to step down. This alleged serial rapist and violent criminal should have been behind bars long time ago and escaped prison due to his father's good offices. Even recently when a corruption case was hoisted against him, one of his assistants "committed suicide". The media has been forced to give up its investigations against this criminal through illegal means.
Jackass of the week There were, not surprisingly, many contenders for this week's title. But the one who took the cake is Abhinav Chandrachud. His defense of the terrorist Kasab shows the levels NGO's stoop to given their agenda.
Thanks all for your suggestions. Looking forward to next week.

Is Indian Democracy an anagram for Nepotism?

Whenever elections are held in India there is a huge hullabaloo about how diverse the population is, the representation of all sections of society etc.
But if you look deeper within, the biggest common thread across parties from the mountains of Kashmir to the shores of Tamil Nadu, from the ghats of Maharashtra to the mines of Bihar is that democracy within parties is a farce. Most parties are family run organizations seeking primarily to enhance their family's control over areas of Government.
As my fellow blogger Hindu Fundamentalist pointed out here, when M.K. Stalin took control over the State Government of TN, Chindu just stood by and cautiously applauded the transition from Mu Ka to his son.
However in Sunday's Chindu Open Page, one Narasiah has the guts to question the political scene,

But, unfortunately, we have inherited a democracy that is no lesser than a monarchy, where the sons automatically become the next power in the event of the incumbent ceasing to be so due to natural causes!...Our politicians are seeking cabinet posts for their offspring in the name of democracy and want to establish a dynastic rule. So how can we call our election a true democratic affair?

He stops short of naming names, but I will name a few names here of people who got into (and stayed) positions of power using nepotism:

• Nehru family - Congress - Indira, Rajiv, Sanjay, Sonia and Rahul (Maneka and Varun are with the BJP and hence omitted).
• DMK- Stalin, Azhagiri, Kanimozhi using the letters M.K. in front of their names.
• Karnataka- Deve Gowda's son H.D. Kumaraswamy
• Friends of Rajiv and their sons - Rajesh Pilot, Sachin Pilot, the Scindias.
• Bihar - Lalu and Rabri Devi
• J&K - the Abdullahs and the Mufti families

Before we start asking for changes in democracy at the National level, isn't it prudent to ask for democracy within the parties?

Neither does chindu murmur a protest

N.Ram finds new respect for DMK bosses. They have been referred to as Mr. Karunanidhi and Mr. Stalin throughout the editorial, a luxury afforded to very few.
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Stalin in line

not even a murmur of protest is likely to be heard from within the DMK.

YSR leaves for pilgrimage to Israel

The Hindu News Update Service

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who took charge as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister for the second consecutive term last week, on Wednesday left for a pilgrimage to Israel along with his family members.
YSR, who became the first Congress Chief Minister to retain power in three decades, will visit Bethlehem and other holy places for Christians during the four-day visit. He will return to Hyderabad on May 31.
YSR, a Christian by faith, is accompanied by his wife Vijayalakshmi, his son and daughter and their family members.
His son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kadapa in the just-concluded polls while his son-in-law Anil Kumar is an evangelist.
The chief minister will offer thanks-giving prayers at the holy places for the victory of the Congress party, which won 156 seats in the 294-member State Assembly and 33 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats.
This is YSR's second pilgrimage to Israel. He first visited Bethlehem after coming to power in the State in 2004.

Fwd: India’s debt affordability poor: Moody’s

the legacy of the dream team of economists - india is in a financial mess. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/29/stories/2009052955171300.htm   NEW DELHI: Global rating agency Moody's on Thursday warned that India's financial strength has weakened due to its "poor debt affordability" and the country's fiscal policy predictability and credibility have also deteriorated.   Moody's said the country's poor fiscal fundamentals mainly result from "a deeply entrenched framework of subsidies and the government's relatively weak expenditure restraint."   Besides, the much-needed fiscal reforms such as rationalisation of subsidies and reduction of price controls, as well as disinvestment, have not materialised, although these could help improve the government's fiscal and debt positions.   "These have been impeded in the previous five years of the Congress-led governing alliance by the fractious nature of India's politics and a populist impulse in policy formulation," Moody's said in its annual report.

UPA rogues gallery aka Cabinet Ministry

Rediff has a list of ministers and their posts. Lets take a closer look at some of them.

• Vilasrao Deshmukh : Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises-This what happens when you are CM of Mumbai and fail to protect the city during its worst terror attack!
• Ghulam Nabi Azad: Minister of Health and Family Welfare- Kicked out of J&K, welcome back to Delhi. Prototype Congress retread.
• Veerappa Moily: Minister of Law and Justice - Cannot contribute to the Karnataka state Congress so promoted to the Center. Another retread.
• Farooq Abdullah: Minister of New and Renewable Energy-This one is a doozy, what experience does the buzzard have in this regards?
• Meira Kumar Minister of Water Resources - Another one of Congress list of undeserving scions of past leaders, this specimen being jagjivan ram's daughter.
• Dayanidhi Maran Minister of Textiles and A. Raja Minister of Communications and Information Technology- This allocation makes no sense. You would think Maran with knowledge about operating media would suit Communications and Raja with his incompetence suited for Textiles. But apparently Sonia and MMS think otherwise!
•  Ambika Soni Minister of Information and Broadcasting- For being Sonia's pet bitch.
• M.S. Gill Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports- Former CEC and senior citizen leads Youth Affairs. Smart choice, who else to motivate the Youth of the Nation than Gill a boring old former bureaucrat.
• G.K. Vasan Minister of Shipping - Another undeserving scion this case the Son of Moopanar former leader in TN.
• M.K. Azhagiri Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers- Mu Ka's eldest gets Chemicals. Lets hope Mr.crazy decides to sample some fertilizers and sacrifices for the nation.
• Shashi TharoorMinister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs- A well respected intellectual gets to serve under the windbag S.M. Krishna who has no expertise in External Affairs.
• Lastly Mamata Banerjee : Minister of Railways- Whats with the crazies and the Railways, first it was Lalu, now Mamata?
  

Why is a convicted killer given a furlough?

I'm not privy to the details of the case judgment, but from the outside it looks like a bad decision by the Indian penal system. The killer of Gulshan Kumar the T-series moghul was arrested and convicted. Some prison warden decided that killer Mr.Abdul Rauf Merchant, with ties to the Dawood Ibrahim group, should be given a furlough. Guess what happened next? The criminal decided to skip town to the friendly confines of Bangladesh. One more question, why didn't they execute Abdul in the first place?
As per Wikipedia,

A furlough (pronounced /ˈfɝːloʊ/; from Dutch: "verlof") is a temporary leave of absence from employment, duty in the armed services, or from a prison term. It may be voluntary or involuntary.

From Chindu,

Abdul Rauf Merchant, who was convicted of killing audio king Gulshan Kumar in 1997, was arrested in Bangladesh nearly a week after he escaped from a Mumbai jail following his release on furlough, officials said here on Thursday. Acting on an intelligence tip-off, a joint team of police and detectives arrested Merchant, who had been a sharpshooter of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, in a raid at Brahmanbaria on Wednesday.

New police commissioner of Chennai

Apparently a new Police Commissioner of Chennai has been appointed. (Picture below.) As per Chindu,

T. Rajendran, a 1983 batch IPS officer, has been posted as the new Commissioner of Chennai Police, replacing his batchmate K. Radhakrishnan, who has been transferred and posted as Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order).

Some highlights,

It was under the supervision of Mr. Rajendran that a special team gunned down the dreaded Imam Ali and his accomplices in Bangalore on September 29, 2002. He was then the Inspector-General of Police (South Zone).

This blog is not responsible for your mental agony, trauma, anger or any acts of violence which might occur after viewing the picture.

Socialism is immoral

Did anyone at chindu read this stuff or did it bypass the editorial process because it was addressed to Rahul Gandhi? The sentences are disjointed and the author is just rambling along.

There was a petition in Supreme Court saying that socialism should be removed from our constitution as it is not relevant anymore and no party swears by it. The petition was dismissed with the observation that socialism should not be taken in the strictest sense. So, we have socialist extremists like V.R.Krishna Iyer, who come along to talibanise India through socialist schemes with fancy socialist interpretations and ideas.
The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : An open letter to Rahul Gandhi

Dear Rahul Gandhi: Although I have not met you, I have heard of you as one who is compassionate to the poor and by implication a socialist by conviction. I hold the view that the Prime Minister of India should be a member of the Lok Sabha. You represent the youth of India and the aspirations of our socialist, secular democratic Republic. India’s heritage is not borrowing from President Bush or other tenants of the White House. It is dangerous: his goodwill is a grave risk since the international law of Washington is often the vanishing point of jurisprudence. However, the great and grand Obama continues to be friendly since he has compassion for the vast weaker sections of the world and for a new dynamic dialectic world order. Authentic true economic democracy is a socialist commitment.

Headline from barbarindians.

The NGO terror industry

barbarindians has a nice article elaborating on the role of activists.

The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Does terror justify torture?

Does terror justify torture?


Abhinav Chandrachud

The morality and constitutionality of the torture techniques used by the U.S. post-9/11 involve significant questions in the Indian context, especially in the light of Kasab’s allegations that his confession was obtained by means of torture.

this harvard law grad student doesn't even have a case. this  guy is trying to make a career in the NGO industry specializing in terror.

More on media behaviour in this elections

this guy, partha banerjee, is a jerk. but he makes the right noises here.
The Medium's Massage : outlookindia.com

The election results have proved once again that in today's globalised world, media propaganda works, issues don't. Our lives are now decided by what the media dictates. An influential editor admitted that it was an election of "non-issues"; to seasoned onlookers like me, it was nothing more than soapbox advertisement for Sonia Gandhi and her children. It worked!
...
...
If this election were about substantive issues—issues big-name journalists suppressed—we'd talk about the failure of the Manmohan government to protect Indians from terrorism and war. But it didn't happen. The media didn't challenge Rahul and Priyanka on these critical questions. Instead, it glorified their celebrity status and projected them as vote-getters without scrutinising them.

Some are comparing the rise of Rahul with that of Barack Obama. But here in the US, for nearly two years, media put Obama under the lens and examined him inside out to examine his competence to be president. When will we learn to do that? If not in election times, when?

Mumbai riots going on and on ...... and on

This is a pathetic piece of an article, hardly deserving to be on Opinion page and in the present context needs to be dealt with contempt. Sena has been out of power for quite some time. There has been no sudden reversal of trend from the state and parliament elections. The Mumbai riots are long gone and there have been several elections after that. If we are to trace the impact of the riots on the subsequent elections, I am sure it will be along the lines of the law of diminishing returns. And would anyone believe if told that Shiv Sena or the Congress or the NCP or MNS went about campaigning about the riots during this parliament elections. The dead horse has been beaten and buried and the grave has been relaid several times over.

The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : The disillusionment with the Sena

So
many people got homes but my wife’s house was burnt in the riots, she
lost her parents, why can’t she be given this flat?” he asks.

Meena Menon has based her entire "analysis" on one family's account of injustice. And the riot victim also says that many people got homes. Doesn't Meena's argument fall flat? The family is enlisted for a home. They are awaiting justice. If anything, it shows the Congress government's inability to deliver justice. By her argument, should not the Congress have fared miserably because this family did not get justice. Apart from one family's travails, what additional insight has Meena provided in her election analysis of Sena's performance.

There is something about the way the flow of the article is structured. Details about the family's sufferings clubbed along with the author blaming Sena for not alleviating the pain is alluding to a blatanly false proposition that Sena was directly responsible for inflicting the damage on the victim. Much like how the Mangalore pub beating incident got associated with BJP although Muthalik has nothing to do with the Parivar.

Chindu is now touching levels which even we here at this blog thought were not possible.

Support for the Chindu on the DMK ministers issue

This blog has always been proud of being a media watchdog. However there are occasions when the media is unfairly targeted by politicians for their conniving purposes. Recently Mu Ka and his henchmen targeted LiC and the Chindu for writing a series of articles on how the DMK was greedy enough to ask for more cabinet posts. Covered in our blog here.
Whether LiC was angry at the DMK is beside the point here. The Chindu as a responsible member of the media has to report the truth on how the UPA coalition bargains ministry posts among its parties. If it does expose the nepotism that runs deeply within the DMK what is wrong with that?
I for one have long predicted that LiC by jumping onto the Third Front bandwagon would be hammered sooner or later by the DMK. But Mu Ka's ridiculous statements about LiC's vendetta proves Chindu's argument.
Example:Who is the newest Cabinet minister? If you answered Azhagiri you are absolutely right. The DMK supports Azhagiri who has no logical right to be a Cabinet minister (let alone sit in the Parliament) over T.R. Baalu a veteran minister. Just because Azhagiri is the son of Mu Ka and Mu Ka wants Stalin to take over as CM! In fact Azhagiri was apparently chosen over the more deserving and another of Mu Ka's children Kanimozhi as per Indian Express here.
Therefore on this issue I hope Chindu and LiC do their damnedest to expose this deep rooted nepotism which is choking the life away from a vibrant state.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara ...

As rightly pointed by an anonymous reader, I've updated the title.
Chindu has an article - Against extremism

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (centre) joins hands with his counterparts from Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari (right) and Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, as they arrive in Tehran on Sunday for a summit on Islamic extremism and drug smuggling. They signed the Tehran Declaration under which they will work towards bringing security to the region.

Really, a Shia working with a Sindhi Sunni and a Pashtun sounds like a plan. Except that none of the three have the ultimate say in their country.
Ergo the moniker for them - The three stooges.

Reader's editor teaching english now

What a caricature this guy has been made into. After his comments repeatedly got snubbed by the standard "editorial judgment" response from N.Ram, the Reader's editor has restricted himself to culling readers' comments on errors and english grammar. Now his articles are turning out to be a good exercise on sentence correction, CAT/GMAT style. Someone with a modicum of self-respect would have quit the job long ago.
The Hindu : Opinion / Readers' Editor : Online : Catching the reader’s eye — and holding it

Media and elections

the media only picked up the frivolous issues and went into an overdrive. the 24x7 news channels are more influential and pervasive than we would like to believe. and it is fair to say that the media has been antagonistic towards bjp. it has successfully associated bjp with regressive politics.
around 40 percent of india is urbanized. the urban youth might or might not have a different moral compass. but the media projected bjp as diametrically opposite to the ambitions of these youth. this inspite of elements like muthalik not being associated with bjp. the media has considerable influence on this section of impressionable minds. these infulenced voters have voted against the bjp.
what is really hard to comprehend is the missing middle class consciousness. or is this another instance of the pathological inclination of the hindu society towards collective suicide.
is the urban middle class moving away from bjp? we have seen a similar trend in delhi assembly elections also. hard to comprehend, really. especially when the alternative congress has not provided any visible incentive.
on the whole, this election is quite a reversal of trend for the congress. it has ceded power in several states to the bjp. and suddenly it bucked the trend starting with rajasthan. what is really astonishing about the results is how the congress got almost everything right: it won a major share on its own; almost all its allies came out trumps; the allies won but not in a big enough way to threaten or dominate in any way; those who deserted congress lost in a big way. a perfect script. surreal but true.

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Three myths and an election

This year’s general election will be remembered for three myths that determined its amazing outcome, catapulting the Congress to an awesome 206 seats and reducing the BJP’s tally to a paltry 116. The first is about the BJP ‘failing’ to break free of its ‘Hindutva agenda’ and coming up with proposals that would appeal to the masses and be in tune with the aspirations of India’s young. This is entirely incorrect. None of the BJP leaders who campaigned across the length and breadth of the country talked about those issues which are identified with what is crudely referred to as the party’s ‘Hindutva agenda’. I don’t recall any leader promising to abrogate Article 370, introduce a Uniform Civil Code and build a ‘grand temple’ dedicated to Sri Ram in Ayodhya. So how did this perception gain ground? The answer to this question lies in the manner in which the media, especially 24x7 news channels, portrayed the thrust of the BJP’s election campaign, wilfully misleading readers and viewers by perpetuating falsehoods in the most brazen manner, beginning with the party’s election manifesto.

Till the day of its release, only the top leaders of the BJP (you can count them on your fingertips) were privy to the contents of the manifesto. To prevent motivated leaks, the manifesto was printed the night before it was released. Yet, for nearly a fortnight before that, newspapers and news channels ran jaundiced stories about how the manifesto would focus on the BJP’s ‘core Hindutva issues’, how the Ram temple would figure prominently in it, how it was meant to revive the ‘Hindu card’, and how all this had caused a rift in the party! I happened to run into one of the peddlers of this fiction a couple of days before the manifesto was released. How do you know all this, I asked him. “Someone who is involved with drafting the manifesto has told me,” he replied haughtily. Really? The poor, pathetic sod and his feckless editor obviously had no clue about who was drafting the manifesto, what were its contents, and yet they manufactured and published stories which they knew were patent lies. I should know because I drafted the manifesto.

And when the manifesto was released, journalists didn’t even bother to read the 48-page document. Instead, they picked up three lines on page 47, which said, “The BJP will explore all possibilities, including negotiations and judicial proceedings, to facilitate the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya,” to put out stories on how the party had returned its “old hardline Hindutva”. During prime time news that evening, anchors aggressively confronted BJP spokespersons with taunting questions like, “So, the BJP, bereft of any issue, has fallen back on Ayodhya? It’s communal politics once again?” They grinned as the party’s representatives, ill-prepared and inarticulate, mumbled inanities. A news service that prides itself on being ‘different’ ran a story that was all about the BJP’s previous manifestoes. Others followed suit. And that was it.

The manifesto talked about the economy, foreign policy, strategic affairs, climate change, education, agriculture, science and technology, gender equality, minority welfare. But all that was overlooked because for media those three lines on Page 47 were of overwhelming importance. Tragically, since media chose to ignore the substantive portions of the manifesto, which would have found a resonance with ‘young India’ had they been publicised, those leading the party’s election campaign also abandoned their own governance agenda. Instead, they talked about frivolous issues far removed from popular concerns — for example, setting up cyber cafés in impoverished villages.

And thus was the perception created that the BJP cares only about building a temple in Ayodhya and nothing else. The power of perception over reality was demonstrated when during a television debate actress Nandita Das, asked by a feisty member of the audience what exactly had Mr Varun Gandhi said in Pilibhit to merit her censure, stuttered and stammered, bit her lips, looked at her nails, tossed her head defiantly and said, “You know all those awful things he has said...” or words to that effect. Where did she read or hear about those ‘awful things’? “It’s all over the place... on TV, in newspapers. Look, we all know what he has said.” End of debate. Clearly she didn’t know what Mr Varun Gandhi had said, nor did those in media who painted him as a monster and thus sought to hobble the BJP.

The second myth that did the BJP in is the so-called ‘consciousness’ of India’s middle class whose concern about real life issues like terrorism, inflation, job loss, credit crunch and corruption, vocally articulated by those who claim to represent ‘civil society’, has turned out to be totally bogus. Nothing else explains why the middle class should have voted for the Congress and thus endorsed its poor record of governance over the past five years. We can only surmise from the voting preference of the middle class that people who are educated, well-informed, and alert to what’s happening around them, are least bothered about corruption in high places, the relentless loot of public money, the sagging physical infrastructure, the dire straits into which the previous Government has led the national economy, the repeated terrorist attacks and India’s diminishing stature. Indeed, middle class ‘morality’ and ‘consciousness’ have turned out to be figments of our collective imagination; the next time you hear somebody waxing eloquent on how Transparency International has rated India as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, or how our country has become the favourite destination of terrorists, kick that person in the face. There is no percentage in being polite.

For whom does Pak's nuclear weapons pose a direct challenge to?

Answer me this, for whom does Pak's nuclear weapons pose a direct challenge to? Not to China, not to an America so far away, not even Israel. If you were one of the smart people who somehow guessed India, then you have more intelligence than the bumbling idiots who run Chindu.
Read this article Pakistan’s nuclear challenge

Worse, the Obama administration seems oblivious to the fact that the $10 billion in extended civilian and military assistance it has lined up for Pakistan over the next few years will allow the country’s domestic financial resources to be diverted towards this nuclear build-up.

The entire article is filled with trite about how the US is responsible and how the Obama administration is not focused on containing Pak's nuclear capabilities. Blaming Obama's team for the Pakistan governments failure is asinine. Rather the exercise should be India's priority as its security is at stake. Hypothetically if India was in a war with say Canada which had WMD's, would the US wait for India to collect the WMD's?
Obviously no, it would disarm and capture them and not give a hoot for India's concerns. Chindu's analysis of waiting for the US to put the genie(Pak's nuclear arms) back into the bottle if followed is bound for failure.

Post-communal era?

Not yet. AUDF is a muslim party from Assam, headed by one 'industrialist' Badruddin Ajmal. Mr. Ajmal has a degree from the Wahabi madarsa Deoband, that the Talibanis come from.  He also sits on the advisory board of Darul Uloom Deoband. Outlining his party's strategy, Mr. Ajmal was categoric in his assertions.

"[Badruddin] Ajmal said that Congress leaders, Ahmed Patel and Gulam Nabi Azad, had sought the AUDF’s support to the UPA."

Further, he was clear that any support to Congress was dependent upon its commitment to the fight against 'communal' forces.

The ‘outside support’ to the UPA.....is an acknowledgement of the nationwide mandate for the Congress, for stability and against communal forces. The day we feel the UPA is not living up to our expectations, we will withdraw the support,” he said.

Chief among his demands:

...[are] critical issues like flood and erosion, NRC update, influx, reservation of third and fourth grade government jobs for local candidates and early completion....

These are codewords for abrogation of nuclear energy treaty with US, illegal Bangladeshis, and reservation for locals. The last one is errily similar to Raj Thakre's demands. Media busybodies have paid scant attention to this dangerous trend. I doubt he will invoke the same opprobrium that Raj Thakre did. I don't know why. :)

In today's news 5/22/09- DMK's greed, Jaitley's analysis, Bihar and more

As kids many of us had to chip in to pay for the common elements to play cricket. The kid who paid the most for the ball usually got to bowl first and often. The kid with the bat had his choice of batting and so on. The DMK has not learnt that lesson. Playing with contradictory logic it seems,

The DMK wanted five Cabinet berths to accommodate the two outgoing Union Ministers, A. Raja and Mr. Baalu, besides Mr. Karunanidhi’s two children, M.K. Azhagiri and Kanimozhi, and his grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran. Also, the DMK wanted four Ministers of State.

What is the DMK's contribution? 18 seats. But the alliance lost more than 25% of the seats in the state and with the Congress gaining 60 seats, Mu Ka's greed appears to look foolish.

Arun Jaitley has a theory about why the UPA won,

This desire was triggered by the pre-poll prospect of political instability thrown up by the Third Front trying to emerge as a balancing force with respect to the formation of a government at the Centre

In a shocking move, LiC follows the precedent setup by other media like IBN which awarded Nitish Kumar "Indian of the Year 2008 -Politics", by praising him in an editorial.
However despite the significant efforts by Mr.Kumar, Chindu still holds a candle for the old dog Lalu,

All this is not to belittle Mr. Prasad who was the torchbearer of Mandal politics in a State ruled for long by entrenched elite classes. He infused in the Other Backward Classes a sense of self-worth denied to them over centuries. He guaranteed life and liberty to Muslims.

What the heck! Does this mean other CM's don't guarantee life and liberty to minorities? How is that a distinguishing character?
Lastly I'm surprised at Dr.Subramanian Swamy's rationale for paying homage to Rajiv Gandhi. Apparently,

he fulfilled a vow made at the time of Rajiv Gandhi’s cremation that he would visit the memorial at Sriperumbudur only after those who masterminded the assassination of the former Prime Minister were punished.

To which I ask, but aren't Mu Ka, Sonia and others free? How is that punishment?

Triumph of the frill

Before May 16, the ruling classes were virtually unanimous in declaring the elections 'issue'less. Now, suddenly, every one's an expert on lessons to be drawn, courses to be corrected, and philosophies to be overhauled. Everyone has a list of their favorite issues that have triumphed. But the laurels for the most frivolous definitely rest with vocal votaries of pubthumpers. Even in the ground zero of pub brawls, where 'communalism' carried the day, undeterred pub-goers are claiming victory. With an electorate supposedly concerned with bread and butter issues alone, the furtive catapulting of liquor consumption as an 'issue' remains a mystery. Maybe once you're high, you cannot let your issue on the dry. Factually though, when it came to electoral excitation, pub chic was a non-starter; a non-issue. If religion is no longer an issue, as we're told, the massive mobilization of certain votes, from the pulpit no less, goes unexplained.  If cherubic faces are all that the masses seek, then the waterloo handed in the hinterland of Bharat demands class action. Uncomfortable questions can queer the pitch for any seeming explanation being furthered by the triumphalists.

With the irrational exhuberance among the chattering classes at its apogee, one can not help but conclude that we are in a secular bubble market.  The hyperinflated secular, dynasty stocks are at there peak, and one won't be surprised if cum next poll season there will be several pollsters doing the Jim Cramer dance. Alas, with our supine media, we can be sure that there won't be any Jon Stewart-style  smackdown. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. Issues du jour, secular, inclusive, are reputed to be one such. 

Swine of the week ending May 18th -Election special

Some recent developments have held me up from posting this regular section.
With the elections over, swines on all sides started their noise. The winners were gloating, the losers pouting, the "secular" media cribbing and so on.
Here are a few choice commens,
Amar Singh after being hammered,

the party would await a formal invitation from Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi before declaring its support to the UPA.

Leaders of the Left were also candidates for this honor.
Swine of the Week:
Mr. Mahesh Bhatt for his statement,

I think it is a verdict for anti-communalism and for moderation. The public has voted for modernisation, progress and inclusive growth. I believe that the new government will have the resolve and the capacity to take the country forward following the values of secularism entrenched in our constitution

Do you really think that 40% of people who cant get two square meals a day care about moderation and secularism? Ridiculous crap spouted by a crazy director who used to make boring trite for a decade.

Jackass of the week:
As pointed out by fellow blogger HF, Mr. Sidd Varadarajan takes the cake this time.
The Congress may have been a late and even reluctant convert; but what matters finally is that the party and the Left ended up on the same page.
Its like the person who comes last in the Olympics 100m medal race claiming that the difference between him and the winner is a few seconds.
There is a reason why you and your Left parties are a Loser Siddharth Varadarajan please stop being a baby and control the whining.

Chindu regurgitates communist propaganda

With around 25 seats, Left has been reduced to such insignificance that it can hardly be considered an opposition.
The Hindu : Front Page : Third Front lacked credibility: CPI(M)

Accepting the people’s verdict, it said the CPI(M) and the Left parties would work as a responsible opposition in Parliament.

But that has not kept it away from its regular propaganda.

In the Polit Bureau’s assessment, the Congress gained from some of the measures such as the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), the Forest Tribal Act and other social welfare measures pushed through under Left pressure. The party also got more support amongst the minorities and sections of secular-minded people who were keen to ensure that the BJP did not make a comeback. The BJP has been rejected by the people as it could not offer anything beyond its communal agenda combined with rightwing economic policies which the people had already spurned in 2004. The rabid communal rhetoric of the likes of Varun Gandhi and Narendra Modi dominated its election campaign.

So the Left came up with brilliant schemes like NREGA, Forest Tribal Act, etc due to which Congress gained 61 seats and Left lost 33 seats. What do you conclude of it?

Leftist terrorist exposes his red stripes

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Humility in victory, introspection in defeat

The Congress may have been a late and even reluctant convert; but what matters finally is that the party and the Left ended up on the same page.

Why does it matter that the Congress should be on the same side of the Left? Especially on NREGA, which was designed to be a leaky bucket and ended up that way - a drain on the economy. Siddharth Varadarajan drops all pretensions and exposes his red stripes. He gives the undue credit to the Left for this scheme. Btw, chindu carried an article each year updating us on the progress of NREGA and the considerable amount of success (sic) it has achieved. Congress was a late convert, huh!

... the issues on which the Left and the Congress had parted company last year made no sense at all to voters in 2009.

So the nuclear deal is senseless to the voters now. Good going, Sid. Leftist ideology is so overwhelming, it leaves little room for sensible thinking.

On most issues of consequence, domestic and foreign, the distance between centrist and leftist policy was getting eroded.

Shall we say the Congress is Leftist now? Get a life, Sid. It is fair to say that the Left parties have become irrelevant and are on the verge of being wiped out. Good riddance.

Bias towards deaths

Recently I read this article about the number of civilian casualties:

The United Nations (UN) now estimates that more than 6,500 civilians have died and 13,000 injured in the fighting in the north eastern region of Sri Lanka.

Remember this is the UN which counts two dead people as one just for accuracy sake. Beyond the fighting, this is a Government sponsored genocide by the Sinhalese. What is the Chindu doing? Writing paens about the need for secularism and bibles on appeasing minorities. The same Chindu which rakes up Godhra and bashes Israel for the Gaza incursions. Its patting Rajapakse the Pol Pot of Sri Lanka on a job well done. He'll probably invite LiC and his dogs for lunch sometime for an interview soon.
While the world is thankfully rid of one terrorist organization(LTTE), one shudders at the loss of civilian life which Indian politicians have stood back and allowed. Shame on you(media and politicians).

Outward ho!

If there ever was a time to resurrect a counterfactual, it is now. A classic 'What if?' scenario. If the election results were reversed what would the seculars do? Abandon ship, or build a new one but chart the same course? In their world that transforms to more of the same articles, but let's not digress. There were not so subtle murmurs after the splendid press conference of the crown prince suggesting, if not seeking, change of the ship captain-to-be. Of course, the minders have deftly performed another backflip, with a self-congratulatory I-told-you-so hitched with the message. This is along expected lines. Gratuitous advisories, sneering triumphalism etc., too, are only to be expected. That's part of the game. Worse, in the form of actual policy decisions, is yet to follow. After the votebank's good behavior, payback time is upon us.

But, this is no moment to simply close ranks and turn inward. The same people who certified the arrival of coalition era, will proclaim its systemic burial. And therein lies the opportunity. A tremendous one. Whenever the balance asserts itself, after the excesses that are inevitably to follow and the fatigue sets in, a tremendous void will be felt. There will be a longing for alternative. If there's a national consensus, there ought to be a nationalist alternative. And that's when the present opposition can step in. Whoever desires it, will have to work towards it. The split politics of coalition was too good to be true to last for long. But the change demands some long hard slog. Building intellectual avant-garde and institution building is a key to this fight. India cannot walk into the 21st century based on the pop-psychology of Amar Akbar Anthony variety. Ersatz Americana is incapable of handling the rigors of self-esteem and self-pride, essential for a confident charge into the brave new world staring upon us with the advent of China. This is not it. It's a blip.

Now Chindu is coming to your TV

Finally the minds of Prannoy Roy (a nick-name please) brother in law of Hon Karat, joins LiC to create the NDTV Hindu, a secular English news and entertainment channel.
As per Prannoy,

We firmly believe that the future of news is in going local. The Hindu Group, with its impeccable credentials, has been a household name for generations in Chennai, and this partnership will help NDTV HINDU capitalise on the brand strengths and journalistic values of both the media houses

And LiC explains his vision,

Chennai is fast evolving as a cosmopolitan city. Though there are a few Indian language channels that exist for local news, there is no English channel catering exclusively to this vibrant city,

Now let the propaganda begin.

Spot the real secularist

I'm sure moi is not the only one who sees the asymmetry inherent to secularism in here. Who is to say that the homely secular image being touted here won't be taken as another sign of a particular community's victimhood? I mean the real secular guy is still below. You don't see even the dynasty's leading lights patronizing as wantonly when they visit Kashmir. 

Counting down to May 16th

The elections hardly being over already all kinds of circus acts have started like,

• Congress building bridges with estranged allies
• Communists accusing the US of interference
• The Reader's Editor typing banal useless stuff
• LiC praising the electoral process
• The Fourth front saying they would jump into bed with anyone at the right price
• Karunanidhi praises his goons on well executed booth capturing
  

One school of thought leads to believe that the NDA or UPA would form power with outside support of the BSP+ADMK and some fringe players as the Third front is dependent on the 2 powerful ladies for their numbers and cannot rely on them based on past experience.
Next to the stock market, the Indian elections is probably one of the most unpredictable things.

Pic of the day: Amma and LiC meet

Apparently this was outside the polling booth in Chennai. Thanks to an Anonymous reader for posting the link.

What do you think the conversation was about?

Why India's Parliamentary democracy is a joke

Since the Bofors scandal, no single party has gotten the absolute majority needed to form the Government. Now Chindu in all its wisdom and foresight publishes an article about how the PM is appointed when there is a hung Parliament.
As discussed, there are a lot of conventions which make little sense given today's current political climate like,

if the party position is not clear, the President will have to decide in her or his ‘discretion’ whom to invite to become the Prime Minister.

or the fact that the PM does not have to be an MP if selected by the President! Anyone over a particular age and does not have a criminal case can become the PM. Like for example Shakti Kapoor or Goundamani can become the PM, though they might be better than some of the jokers who will be elected.

In the case reported in S.P. Anand vs H.D. Deve Gowda (1996) 6 SCC 734, the Supreme Court has held that the British convention that the Prime Minister should be a member of either House, preferably the House of Commons, is not in our constitutional scheme.

The problem is Option c noted by the columnist,

It is only when options A and B are ruled out that the President may invite the leader of a post-poll alliance. The President will make sure that the groups or parties agree to some common programme or policies. The post-poll alliance must elect its leader before the President invites it to form the government.

The main issue is that if the people of India in their collective stupidity(or genius?) did not decide a single party or alliance it leads to post poll horse trading to form the Government. Parties who traded barbs within the state like the CPI-M and Trinamool or the TDP and Congress or the LDF and UDF(in Kerala) could jump into the same boat to share power. Where does it leave the people? It makes them look like idiots. In all likelihood it leads to an alliance where there is little consensus other than robbing the public of taxpayer wealth which goes into Swiss banks and nothing really gets accomplished.
What is my recommendation:If there is a hung Parliament, the President should take the advice of Constitutional experts to change the Constitution to create 2 parties, say Conservative and Liberal. Then all the other parties should be forced into one of these 2. The only exceptions being Independents who can exist as is. The party with the majority forms the Government and only an elected member within that group should be the PM. Is that going to be a pipe-dream? In all likelyhood it will, but so was the concept of an Independent India.
Mera Bharat Mahan, par bahut politicians hain shaitan

Warp speed

When it comes to Gandhi dynasty space-time continuum, permittivity of secular free space is off the charts. Forgive my Trekkian language, but ever since the prince's failure to launch became apparent after his "magnificient" press conference, restless secularists have turned their eyes to the next Great Hope, Priyanka Vadra Gandhi (Nehru?).

Mr Karan Thapar, an "eminent, respected," and as "impartial" a journalist as they come--though not decorated with Padma, yet--has risked his reputation in making a "reckless prognostication." He has said what no one has, so far: predict yet another coming of yet another Gandhi.  The next secular messiah. And why? Because:

And now, why do I believe if Priyanka steps into politics she could end up as PM? Because she has a magical spark that makes her compelling. It’s a combination of charm, charisma, presence, appearance and intelligence.

This is of course a not so tacit admission that her brother, the hyped-up heir apparent, is a loser. A pappu, in vernacular slang, if you will.

It might be a while, 16th May to be precise, before paranoia engulfs the secular establishment, and a clamor sets in for a palace coup, dethroning the prince charming. Secular elders are increasingly nervous, depressed, sulking. Priyanka is their only Prozac.

A secular liability: Saurav Basu

Siddharth Varadarajan at Hindu: a secular liability

This is apropos of Siddharth Varadarajan Where silence prevails, justice will not [The Hindu ] The newspaper has long been known to be an impotent lapdog of degenerate commie propaganda. In a recent article, its editor N Ram was glorifying the annihilation of Tibetan culture, society and civilization by the Chinese on the pretext of saving them from serfdom while on a Chinese govt. sponsored trip to Tibet. The moral vacuity of a news editor who tomtoms obvious Chinese propaganda machinery as the paragon of objectivity reminds us of a similar starry eyed communist in USSR who glossed over Stalin"s Gulags even as he "eloquently" fought the fascists.

Mr Vadarajan uses the classic goebbesque subterfuge of repeating lies, and at best half truths and presenting them as accepted facts. The crux of his article is summarized below;

1. Modi or no Hindu leader has apologized for the Godhra riots
2. Sri Sri Ravishankar directed attention on Kashmiri Pandits but never on Godhra and Kandhamal victims
3. Muslim leaders issued fatwas against terrorism but Hindu leaders did not

There are other palpable lies which are employed by the classic subterfuge of putting words into the mouth of non existent witnesses. No man in the right mind would attribute post-godhra riots in the name of Kashmiri pundits when the immediate provocation was the burning of kar sevaks by 2000 Ghanchi muslims.

i. Nevertheless, Mr Vararajan sinful sophistry is explicit when he complains against Modi"s "unwillingness" to apologize for so called Gujarat massacre. Any apology is an open admission of guilt and subscription to the nefarious theories of "state sponsored genocide" when over 1/3rd of the victims in the riots were Hindus. No proof of Modi"s involvement in the riots has ever surfaced. Instead, secular mythmakers from "The Hindu" justified the train burning by suggesting a provocation of molestation of a non existent Muslim girl, Arundhati Roy"s invention of spicy rape stories of Ehsaan Jaffri"s daughters which she later retracted when it was revealed they were not even in Gujarat during the riot, all without battling an eye lid, Teesta Setelvad nailed in the SIT report for having invented victims who were dead months before the riot out of natural causes or cooked and spicy stories of a ripped off foetus were found to be fake. Indeed, communal riots are not new to India but these journalists created an atmosphere of permanent hate and paranoia of Muslim victimhood which was liberally exploited by Muslim terrorist groups. Now who has blood in his hands?

ii. The second accusation against Sri Sri Ravishankar also smacks of malice. Since 1989, more than 5 lakh Kashmiri pundits have been rendered refugees in their own lands. They have also lost over 5000 of their brethren. Yet, in that 20 yr period their case was conveniently shelved and their minority status in the valley was brushed aside even as Muslims in the valley were consistently appeased and imaginary cases of human right violations by the army concocted by the same "secular" mythographers. In fact, there has been no dearth of books which have demonized Kashmiri pundits and ignored their paramount cultural contribution to the state and their rightful place as the indigenous people of the valley. In contrast, there is a thriving cottage industry operating on fraudulent Godhra and Kandhamal studies in both national and international universities. Hence, the attempt to draw parallels between post Godhra, Kandhamal and Kashmiri Pandits by Varadarajan is criminal subversion of the pandit"s right to self determination who have become victims of a jihadi conspiracy. In case of Godhra and Kandhamal, there was a preceding communal conflict and grave provocation by agents acting on behalf of the minority community. The riots that ensued had victims from both sides. There were Hindu relief camps operating in Godhra and Kandhamal within days of the riots which was a mathematical impossibility in case of Kashmiri Muslims who had armed mercenaries on their side. Finally, the so called internal displacement in post-Godhra Gujarat and Kandhamal was restored to normal order within months. Can we say the same for the Hindu Kashmiri pundits who have no hope of returning to the valley? While the Orissa govt. made elaborate arrangements for voting by the Kandhamal refuges, Kashmiri pundits were brutally lathicharged at Anantnag for desiring to exercise their franchise.

iii. Islam is a centralized religion. Therefore, the entire social outlook of its followers is controlled by a reactionary ulema. But when Mr Varadrajan praises the same forces of obfuscation and bigotry for issuing so called "fatwas against terror", he is making a complete fool of himself. I ask Mr Varadrajan to point towards a specific unconditional apology issued by the ulema till date. Have they apologized for the destruction of over 300 temples in Kashmir between 1986-1989? Have they apologized for the intentional displacement of Kashmiri pundits and the abuse of their women in the heyday of the Kashmir crisis? Have they or even any secularist condemned the burning of innocent Hindus in the Godhra train carnage. Instead, fatwas which instantly degenerated into America and police bashing were the order of the day. "No Muslim can be a terrorist" and "all Muslims are innocent" was the base ingredient of the anti-terror fatwa. Conspiracy theories of the Urdu press which have recently been exposed in a new book point towards a systematic attempt at undermining the Indian state. Therefore, Ulema Council Chairman, Maulana Amir Rashadi in a typical conspiracy theory alleged that, "The UPA governments have been acting under pressure from Mossad, which has been acting in coordination with the Sangh Parivar and targeting the Muslim community. All the terror attacks in the country have been carried out by them. Karkare exposed them and brought out this naked truth. So they killed him." When Mr Antulay openly peddled these conspiracy theories in the national parliament he was only dancing to the tunes of his Muslim votebank. Similarly, Christian missionaries openly encourage confrontation by claiming it is their god-given duty to convert the Hindu infidels.

Finally, Mr Varadarajan also does not know the difference the organizational difference between Hinduism and Islam. The latter encroaches the public sphere and every Muslim is expected to don the ranks of a Ghazi to defend his religion. He is expected to mould himself through authoritative traditions of Hadith as close as possible into the man whose human rights record was controversial at best. Since Hinduism is more a way of life than belief, hence it provides automatic agency to the individual to make decisions which do justice to his conscience. The role of priestly intermediaries is exclusively restricted to the private sphere of ritual.

Swine of the week - Week ending 5/10/2008

In this segment we would like to honor those who have made insignificant contributions to the country in general by means of their comments which could be nonsensical, ignorant, biased or a combination of all.
This week's winner (as nominated by kuttychathan and an Anonymous reader) and the first Swine of the Week - Rahul Gandhi:

after a public divorce between his party and the Left, now sounding desparate with his party staring at defeat in the Elections:

Ideological differences between Congress and Left persist, but there is lot of meeting ground and reasonable amount of common space,

There were many asinine and biased Chindu's writers who keep the writers and readers of this blog entertained. Hasan Suroor, M.K. Bhadra Kumar and Sidd Varadarajan are some of the nominees this week.
But the Jackass of the Week would have to go to the Editorial Group for their their filth in the article demeaning the Indian culture From ‘India Shining’ to ‘India was Shining’
Thanks again to all our readers for your support. Please keep up your comments and suggestions!

Thanks, but No Thanks, Mr. Gupta

IE editor, Shekhar Gupta's "Hindu rate of BJP Growth" has an unsolicited advice for BJP. Proferring it is his business, so no complains about it as such. The article teems with 'secular' agitprop, and it's really futile to go in all its details but for this one:

..at least five parties — the Congress, the Left, the SP, the RJD and the NCP — can have nothing to do with them.

This is, at the least, factually incorrect. Sharad Pawar's NCP shares a municipal govt. in Pune with BJP and ShivSena. They've also had tieups in Northeastern states with BJP. But Pune is backyard of Sharad Pawar's Maratha-centric caste politics. Knowing this, it becomes difficult to be convinced of Mr Gupta's assertion. But again, that's not the point.

The universal dictum of politics is, and shall always remain, that, in politics, there are no permanent friends, nor allies, only permanent interests.

Before 1999, Mr. Gupta's list would have invariably included DMK, the self-proclaimed "rationalist," secular party with admittedly nasty anti-Brahminical roots. But the unkind history caught up with 'rationalists' too. I'm not aware if Mr Gupta had any such list then. 

The two Yadav parties, SP and RJD, may have to rethink their position in near future. With the flight of the much sought after secular vote into Congress kitty, self-preservation will force this duo to look for greener pastures. The Yadav votebank by itself doesn't provide even a shimmer of hope in the numbers game that could assuage their fears. Whence, where else would they go? Their fellow castemen will have very little issue with stepping into communal shoes if such a need arises.

  

If the nascent Muslim parties in WB and Assam gather any traction, even the Marxists of Bengal will start singing a "nationalist" tune. After the wholesale bankruptcy of Maoism, the only glue that props the Chinese dictatorship, ironically, is nationalism. And if history be our guide then what China does today, Bengali Marxists will do tomorrow. 

It can thus be reasonably said that Mr Gupta is too quick in writing off history. But then again, in current media monopoly, hyperbole is king. 

Shattered dreams under UPA

the economist prime minister has shattered the indian dream. the economic performance of the upa has been so pathetic that the editors sucking onto the mammaries of the state are afraid to do a fair appraisal. hence the stoic silence on the issue. on foreign policy, these eminent editors have always been anti-national.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/India-downgarded-in-US-strategic-calculations-Blackwill/articleshow/4487345.cms   NEW DELHI: A "substantial" change in the US policy toward India was visible under the Obama Administration which appears to have put China on a higher plane than its southern neighbour, former US Ambassador Robert Blackwill said on Tuesday.   With Obama administration devoting enormous thought to Pakistan, the former diplomat cautioned that India may encounter eventual US pressure on the issue of Kashmir.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:  arun

Hyundai to shift i20 production from Chennai to Europe
Hyundai Motors India Ltd-the second largest car manufacturer in the country- is planning to shift the production of its  premium hatchback i20 model for the export market from  Chennai  to Europe.
Read More

The black silence

The Swiss are shouting at the top of their voice and the BJP has turned it into an election issue. But there is hardly a whimper in the secular press. The fundamental issue of UPA government's inaction has not ruffled any feathers. Instead, the press is busily discussing and editorializing on the colour of black.

We have Karan Thapar who is more worried that the amount is just a guesstimate. Think about it: is it not logical to get a congress guy onto the show and grill him about what the govt has done to get the black money back. Instead, Karan "sudden removal" Thapar tries to prove that a guesstimate is not accurate. If it were accurate, it wouldnt be a guesstimate to begin with. How clueless this Thapar is.

Or, look at this editorial in ToI. These guys are more worried about Swiss economy that Indian economy.
EDITORIAL COMMENT | Money In The Bank - Editorial - Opinion - The Times of India

If Swiss banks agreed to full exposure, the Swiss currency, one of the hardest in the world, would slump. The Swiss economy, which leans heavily on financial services, would be jolted.

I guess, commonsense is not so common, after all.
 

India not keen on black money: Swiss govt INDIA NEWS MyNews.in:

The Swiss Justice Department on Friday said that the Government of India was dragging its feet on the black money issue.

In a Headlines Today exclusive, the department also said the Indian government had submitted forged documents to Swiss authorities in the $ 8-billion Hassan Ali money laundering case in January 2007. Stud farm owner Hassan Ali had illegally transferred $ 6 billion to UBS accounts and came under the Enforcement Directorate''s radar.

Swiss government spokesman Folco Galli told Headlines Today that the Indian government was informed about the fake documents by Swiss authorities in January 2007 itself. Further, the Swiss claimed to have submitted certain queries to the Indian government in April 2007 but New Delhi has not bothered to file a reply even 24 months later.

Since the black money issue became a major election plank for the Lok Sabha polls, the Centre claimed in the Supreme Court that it has been doing what it can to bring back the black money stashed in Swiss banks. The Centre's affidavit in the SC however fails to mention that the Swiss have questioned the authenticity of the documents.

In fact, the Swiss spokesman's answer seems to suggest there has been little or no action from the government's side for the last two years in seriously pursuing the probe against Hassan Ali Khan.

The last sentence in the response of the Swiss is telling. Galli says, "India makes only few requests per year to Switzerland for legal aid in tracking down black money."

Given the black economy is considered much bigger than the Indian economy, the UPA government has a lot to answer for.

In today's news - ragging, Brinda, Mulayam and more.

Please submit your selections for the Swine of the week who will be selected this weekend.

After solving all major problems facing India like national security, human rights violations, terrorism cases, law and order etc. the Supreme Court focused its attention on the most important issue of the day - ragging!
I'm surprised that Advani's surprised when Mulayam said he would dance if anyone dismissed Mayawati's government. Isn't that what Article 356 of the Constitution for?
In other news Brinda Karat said Trinamool is the most unnatural ally as it supported BJP during Godhra. To which I ask, then its quite similar to the Left Parties as they instigated the Nandigram violence.
Some times I'm suspicious of Chindu's motives. Case in point the over eager need of LiC and his cohorts to nudge India to talk to Pakistan. Why should we talk to a country riddled in civil war, which in the past has sponsored terror in a global scale?
Lastly Prakash Karat made another day dreaming statement,

Our assessment is that our combination is well-poised to form the government at the Centre. Mr. Naveen Patnaik will play an important role in the formation of a non-Congress secular government

It always goes back to Babri Masjid

Thank you. We are all convinced that Muslims will cry hoarse for eternity about they were victimized and traumatized by the demolition of Babri Masjid.

One question which all these liberal, marxist intellectual terrorists have failed to ask is this: what drove the Hindus to demolish a defunct mosque? Never mind; the insecurities of hindus don't matter.

The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : What made Shabana Azmi conscious of her Muslim identity

And, inevitably, she traced it to the demolition of Babri Masjid which she described as the most “traumatic” experience of her life; and the violence sparked by it.

Is Obama actually as ignorant in world affairs as Chindu paints him?

Chindu has taken to Obama in a very curious fashion. Unlike his predecessor who was rubbished in every turn, Obama has been given plaudits in various aspects but given much grief on his foreign policy. A lot of it has to do with Chindu's ideology of pseudo secularism and blindly following the opinions of Left parties.
One such example is Obama's strategy towards Afghanistan which is rubbished by M.K Bhadra Kumar a former diplomat. MKBK takes Obama to the cleaners.

Mr. Obama did not even converse with Mr. Karzai telephonically since he was sworn in U.S. President, though Afghanistan was the number one foreign policy priority of his presidency.

Do you think Obama did not know the upcoming elections in Afghanistan and how crucial it is to ensure that Karzai is not perceived as a US stooge? Or that the Taliban will be strengthened if a strong leader was not elected in Afghanistan?
Obama has proved to be quite effective in dealing with both Zardari and Karzai with his tactics of public admonishment which shuts up the Islamic hardliners and increases the perception locally that they are independent leaders while privately providing arms and money.
But then again MKBK is an Indian diplomat and his thinking proves why India has been so poor in its foreign relations in the last few decades.

In today's news- Sonia Mu Ka divorce imminent and more

In many family oriented Indian movies the child is often the fulcrum between its parents getting together or moving away. Apparently in Indian politics the same apply. Rahul's overtures to the Left parties about a post poll alliance (which exposes the secular parties stance) appears to have not gone well with the DMK which had decided not to canvass for the Congress candidates. Now Sonia has decided to avoid rallies in TN. The spin given to this is,

A few weeks ago, Central and State intelligence agencies had perceived a threat to the VVIP from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Laskhar-e-Taiba and some sympathisers of Tamil Eelam.

Zardari in another bombastic statement states,

Democracies have never gone to war. No Pakistani democratic government has gone to war with India. We’ve always wanted peace.

What about Kargil Mr. Zardari? Terrorism in Kashmir? All instances of war.
Elsewhere in the country, the accused killers of AP CM YSR were sentenced to life imprisonment. Not spit on the grave of Y.S.Raja Reddy, but as per people with the inside story the a-hole deserved what he got.
In the Editorials Psycho Sidd rants about India's intervention against the Maoist Nepal government. I can see his blind faith towards his ideology but some of his rationale is hilarious, for example,

He remained firmly opposed to the democratisation of the army and did his best to scuttle integration.

The primary view of the Nepal Army chief was to ensure qualified persons joined the army. But Left wing writers like Sidd would want every goon with the sickle and hammer logo to be automatically inducted.

Omissions by chindu

Chindu categorized this magnanimity as a non-event. No blaring front-page articles or thumping editorials.
The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> PM’s concert in ‘Q’ major

Despite all this evidence, Mr Singh’s Government unlocked Quattrocchi’s UK accounts and enabled him to lay his hands on this ill-gotten wealth. Thereafter, it deliberately goofed up the extradition process when he was arrested in Argentina and now, just before it demits office, it has got Interpol to withdraw the ‘Red Corner Notice’.

In today's news-Chindu laments Prachanda's exit, LiC vs. DMK, Omar Abdullah and sanity, Madrasas in Pak

The conflict between the Army Chief and the PM of Nepal Mr.Prachanda took an unexpected turn with Prachanda's resignation after the President decided keeping the Army Chief was in the nation's interests. You may ask why is this important?
Nepal is the world's only Hindu nation prevents the Chinese mongrels from knocking on India's northern borders.
LiC in his policy of sucking up to his Chinese masters denounces the actions of the Army Chief:

In defiance of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the army chief pushed ahead with inducting thousands of new recruits, unilaterally extended the tenure of eight senior generals, and withdrew the army from the National Games on account of the PLA’s participation. No democracy can tolerate such insubordination from its army chief. Worse, General Katawal lobbied for support with foreign countries and there was even talk of a coup d’etat.

How can the rag tag PLA a Maoist militia be integrated into a standing army fully is inexplicable.

LiC probably under pressure from his Commie masters has taken the sword against the DMK. After weeks of silence when the DMK flouted every rule under the Election rulebook (Including nominating Azhagiri the Frankenstein) Chindu decides to take the offensive shouting hoarse about the changes in bus fares, bribery in Madurai and other issues.

Madurai, where M.K. Azhagiri, son of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, is contesting on the DMK ticket, is witness to money power and muscle power undermining the democratic process. Ruling partymen have been distributing money to voters and attacking political opponents who objected to their ways.

If the DMK in some machination gets to be part of the next Central Government where the Left is absent, expect swift retribution on LiC.
Chindu often has interviews with odd politicians who have contributed little to the country. One such example is Omar Abdullah, a separatist by heart, a scoundrel by example. In the foreword to the interview Chindu writer Shujaat Bukhari wrote,

While campaigning for his candidates, the NC chief talks about his dreams of making Jammu and Kashmir a model State. Targeting the People’s Democratic Party, his arch rival, is the focal point of his campaign.

Nice! Problem is there is not one response which explains those dreams. Neither is the fight against the PDP explained. Ridiculous waste of newsreel is what I think.

Chindu finally gives the problem of Islamic terror madrasas some space in an article by Sabrina Tavernise 'For many Pakistani children, madrasas fill a void' This is the scary part as Amritsar is less than few hundred kilometers from Lahore and people like Mulayam Singh Yadav want to open up the borders.

Request from CBCNN team: There is new section called Swine of the Week where we target the most ridiculous quote of the week on the Chindu. Please feel free to post your thoughts on who should be this week's Swine. Also please nominate the writer of a 'secular' story for the Jackass of the week.

Full confidence in chindu

When SIT charged the fringe NGO brigade, which is a darling of chindu, of cooking up macabre tales of killings, N.Ram got a big slap on his face. He went dumb. He locked himself up in a dark room, crying insolently over the fate of his stormtroopers. He came out after a few days although he was not fully cured of his recurring foot-in-the mouth disease.
 
Setalvad in dock for 'cooking up killings'- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times

The Narendra Modi baiters among NGOs on Monday suffered a major setback when a Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) charged a leading activist, Teesta Setalvad, with adding morbidity into the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat by “cooking up macabre tales of killings”.

SIT headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan said “many incidents were cooked up, false witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents, and false charges levelled against the then Ahmedabad police chief P C Pandey”.

Sit report, which was submitted before a bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, said there was no truth in some of the major allegations levelled by NGOs. According to the report, the untruths included:
A pregnant Muslim woman Kausar Banu was gangraped by a mob, who then with sharp weapons gouged out the foetus;
Dumping of dead bodies into a well by rioters at Narora Patiya; and n Police botching up investigation into the killing of British nationals who were on a visit to Gujarat.

SIT also said the charge that Mr Pandey was helping mob that attacked the Gulbarga Society was untrue. “The truth was that he was helping hospitalisation of riot victims and making arrangement of police bandobast,” senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi said.

Mr Rohatgi also told the court that 22 witnesses, who had submitted identical affidavits before various courts relating to riot incidents, were questioned by SIT. “It was found that they were tutored. The affidavits were handed over to them by Ms Setalvad. They had not actually witnessed the riot,” the counsel said.

Now N.Ram comes out thundering that courts do not trust Modi. But we all trust N.Ram to selectively choose events and interpret them according his chosen prism.

The Liar-in-Chief thinks he could mislead the readers for ever. He has lost the confidence of the readers. It is only a matter of time before the readers make their displeasure known in the only language that he understands.
Meanwhile, the main culprti in the entire episode, whom N.Ram is so desparately trying to defend, is lecturing against muslim communalism.

Kerala online - News - Teesta Setalvad slams both fronts

The LDF had forfeited its moral authority to combat communalism by associating with the PDP, she said, adding that minority communalism was in no way less dangerous than majority communalism, because minority communalism would always add fuel to majority communalism.

Ironic that Teesta does not apply the above sound bites to the Godhra events.

The anonymous filth inspector at chindu gets to work

I found the tone of the article downright derogatory. If you were to attribute an objective for this article, what would it be? I can't find any positives coming out of this.
The Hindu : Magazine / Issues : From ‘India Shining’ to ‘India was Shining’

From ‘India Shining’ to ‘India was Shining’

The sad case of surrogate mothers in China

In many countries across the world, thanks to the miracles of modern science, couples who are incapable of bearing children often use surrogate mothers to have their babies. Apparently this is becoming common in China too with the rising affluence among its young rich. However unlike most countries China holds an iron fist when it comes to birth of children and I was surprised to read the draconian measures being taken to control their birth,

In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, three young surrogate first-time mothers were discovered by authorities hiding in a communal flat. Soon afterwards, district family planning and security officers broke into the flat, bundled them into a van and drove them to a district hospital where they were manhandled into a maternity ward, the mothers recounted to Reuters. "I was crying 'I don't want to do this'," said a young woman called Xiao Hong, who was pregnant with four-month-old twins. "But they still dragged me in and injected my belly with a needle," the 20-year-old told Reuters. ... Another of the surrogates, who said she'd come from a village in Sichuan province, recounted how officers made her take pills then surgically removed her three-month-old fetus while she was unconscious.

Again I don't have statistics currently about how widespread the crackdown on these cases, but hopefully will be able to provide some soon.
Very sad but I'm sure something like this will not be reported in the Chindu which publishes only the happy tales of the Chinese.

In today's news - PI quits China, Chindu bashes India again and more

Apparently Ms. Pallavi Aiyar, once a fave of LiC and CBCNN for diametrically opposite reasons, is leaving Beijing to head to Brussels.

These were people who had eaten bitterness and survived through dint of sheer will and endurance.

Apparently still she refuses to acknowledge the iron fist of communism ruling China after years of living there.

Denying India's history
Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi of the BJP lead a team to draft the BJP's manifesto where he quoted some facts about Indian history. Chindu in its eagerness to disprove that India had some civilized history asked for comments from "eminent historians" whose names were not mentioned. Here are some nuggets,
About India's agricultural prowess,

Famine was common and is mentioned in Indian texts. We do not have to go looking for certificates of merit from foreign visitors. References are made to anavrishti and ativrishti and locusts as the cause.

About India losing its pride after foreign (read Islamic) invasions

India lost its pride when it became a British colony and not before that. Colonial domination was more deeply destructive than any other had been before it.

Really could you please then explain why millions were slaughtered just to quench the anger of Islamic despots?

About Charaka and Susruta famed Indian physicians of yore,

India had no practice of plastic surgery until modern times. Nor did India know about vaccines.

About ancient India's health care system with hospitals built by kings,

This was probably the treatment given to sick monks in monasteries.

Do you really believe that Vikramaditya, Chandragupta, Akbar, RajaRaja Chola, KrishnaDeva Raya and the Rajputs did not build a single hospital?
Give me a break.

Another set of articles is Chindu's support of Mallika Sarabhai against L.K. Advani.
Ms. Sarabhai on Gujarat,

She lamented the silence and complicity that enabled the massacre, and spoke of her own sense of guilt. “For letting myself become part of that silence. For trusting incorrectly. For letting everyday inanities dull myself to the genocide being planned and executed”. This earned her a great amount of credibility and admiration, more so because she did not waver despite a battery of harassment mounted by the State government.

I'm sure the pinkos will be queuing up to vote for you.
And who's her main supporter? Another CBCNN fave Krisha Iyer the jackal himself,

For this reason, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, himself one of the most credible moral voices among living Indians, notes that since Mallika “waged a spirited and consistent struggle on various fronts — judicial, social, cultural, political — against the forces of communalism and majoritarian extremism in the State”, he feels confident that if elected she will “uphold the secular and democratic principles as enshrined in our Constitution”.

Lastly an article about a book fair in Abu Dhabi, which Chindu claims is progressive and

has been growing by leaps and bounds and now presents, for the interested publisher, a window to the world of books and reading in Arab countries.

They have not cared to elaborate which countries they mean? I'm sure its not Saudi Arabia, Iran or Iraq. Perhaps Syria or maybe the gigantic Dubai is the likely reference. While it is good to see some influx of modern literature and thoughts into the Arab world a lot of references to the fair itself exposes the control by the powers-be exerted on the fair like the absence of alcohol, women forced wear hijabs etc.

Political rhetoric explained

MIT/Harvard professor Steven Pinker explains Political rhetoric. According to him, the art of political rhetoric (empty slogans such as "change")constitutes conveying in keywords such as "secularism" "saffron" etc. that your audience can easily understand but which are seemingly benign; Kinsley's definition of gaffe; spindoctoring--"unsavory way to frame opponent's position" e.g., how if you talk of anti-terrorism laws it's meant at targeting minorities; and connotation, reducing certain words to swear words (Hindutva, rather Hindu). Pinker is Chomsky's student, so you can be confident that what you're watching/hearing is coming from secularists' highest authority. 

PS- If possible, please peruse Michael Kinsley's book: 'Please don't Remain Calm.' A collection of his columns. He's liberal, but reading quality writers like him is akin to consuming an apple a day: helps wean yourself of 'secular' media and saves your bp. 

Why is the bogey of Gujarat riots still being raised?

This blog has time and again pointed out the inconsistencies by the various writers of Chindu. They fall into several categories from the wacko insane (Krishna I) to hyper secular (Malini P) to the blind dogmatic(LiC) to the high school suck up(Khare and others). Siddharth Varadarajan belongs to a different category by himself. A very shrewd manipulator of facts without evidence and presenting them as opinions, Sidd knows fully well that Chindu will give him deniability in any case. His recent article, Where silence prevails, justice will not is a prime example.
His main motive is to tarnish all Hindus in general and Narendra Modi and the BJP in particular for the Gujarat riots and he will go to any extent to do that. For example he claims the Gujarat riots were created as a response for Kashmiri Pandits,

Sanjay Tickoo, a young Pandit from Srinagar, told me. “Riots were organised in Gujarat in our name. But tell me, what do the poor Muslims of Gujarat have to do with our plight?”,

Where exactly is the evidence to that? Siddarth provides no evidence just leaves the statement hanging as if it is fact. This is pathetic journalism. Moving on, another example is the statement of Sri Sri Ravishankar providing an analogy between the camps for the Kashmiri Pandits and the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
But Mr.Varadarajan ever the secular pinko apologist states,

But I must also confess to feeling bad that Sri Sri, who is one of India’s most influential godmen, missed an opportunity to prick our conscience by also remembering the callousness of the Indian authorities towards other internally displaced persons like the Muslims of Gujarat or the Christians in the Kandhamal district of Orissa.

Again this stretches the truth significantly, unlike the Pandits who were evicted in their entirety, the minorities in Orissa and Gujarat for the most part have returned back and the state Governments have given evidence supporting their return. There are certain cases where camps are created for the poorest or for people whose homes were totally destroyed.
That doesn't mean that everyone affected by the Gujarat and Kandhamal riots is out on the streets as Sidd would want us to believe.
The entire article is filled with such crap and pseudo secular bullshit that it makes reading it only raise any sane person's blood pressure.
Someone once mentioned that Siddarth Varadarajan scans this blog from time to time. If he is reading this, we here would like him to provide some real facts than just manipulating news and providing analysis to his convenience without any backing.