CRIBS complain again

The association of countries like Brazil, South Africa, China, India and Russia met in China to wine, dine and of course crib. For all the talk the association has done precious little other than bitch about why they were not consulted in worldly affairs and cribbed about the actions in the Middle East by NATO. The pompous leaders with nothing in common other than alienation in their regions and potential military rivalry between China and Russia and China and India, talked about things like the Fukushima incident providing little of useful content.

The plan schedules a string of high-level meetings on almost all issues — security, political and economic — to enable the five countries better coordinate their positions. They would initiate the plan with a meeting of National Security Advisers later this year in China.
Besides strongly pushing for a more equitable world economic order, the five nations frowned on the use of force by the West in Libya and supported the return of peace and stability in West Asia-North Africa according to the “legitimate aspirations of their peoples.”

The best tagline was from Hon. MMS who said,

I would say the best is yet to come

We are still waiting to see that from your UPA government and the only "best" we have seen has been in the same line as the word scam. The BRICS or CRIBS or SCRIB or CRISB is the start of a new NAM your regular bar flies.

Either SMKrishna is incredibly smart or ...

The claims made by Hussain Rana a key accused in the 26/11 mumbai attacks have literally proved that ISI not only knew about the attacks but was involved in planning and execution of the same.
External affairs Minister SM Krishna when asked about this said:

We will certainly take it up. We are in constant touch with the Pakistan government through our diplomatic channels.These are two different aspects. Peace talks will go on, cricket matches will go on and simultaneously our relentless efforts will continue to bring to justice all those responsible for the heinous crime.

If he is expecting the Paki Govt to put the ISI on the stand for 26/11 he is sorely mistaken. No politician with an ounce of self-preservation has challenged and won against the ISI (Read Bhutto, Sharif, Zia etc.).
Krishna's approach seems to be one to converse and bore the Pakis to death. Which should bear fruit in about 5551 years.

cHinduLeaks - Sonia supports Islamic terror for Kashmiri votes

The cHinduLeaks via India cables, expose the key differences between Sonia G and then President Abdul Kalam.
In was a clear evidence of one person's conviction for justice and integrity and the other person's corrupt nature. The Congress with Sonia and Ghulam Nabi Azad argued with Kalam on the behalf of Afzal asking him to provide clemency. This for a known terrorist who was involved in the planning and execution of the attack on the Parliament.

It quotes unnamed party sources as telling the Embassy that if “the UPA grants a pardon for Afzal or stalls his execution, the Congress Party will be portrayed by BJP leaders as weak on national security. If, however, the President lets him hang, some fear Congress may lose support from their traditional Muslim vote block on a national scale.”

Another traitor who was exposed is Yasin Malik who has been claimed as a peace broker by cHindu and its pet Arundhati Roy.

Kashmiri Muslims feel sympathy for Afzal” and that his only crime was “buying a car.” (Afzal Guru was not a member of the team that attacked Parliament but had bought the Ambassador car which breached Parliament's first line of security.) “How does this warrant a death sentence?”

So in what is clearly a planned lack of suo motu by the Government the usual rigmarole of keeping terrorists within the justice system without meting out the punishment given by the courts was enforced.

The cable suggests that the “easiest option for the Congress may be to delay Afzal's execution for years to consider his appeal for clemency.” This is exactly what has happened. In February 2011, Home Minister P. Chidambaram clarified in Parliament that Afzal Guru's mercy petition, filed on October 3, 2006, had not yet been forwarded to President Pratibha Patil.

It is to be seen if cHindu and LiC will pursue justice with the same zeal they have pursued cases like Godhra or the Orissa killings.

Manmohan's reputation is now down to personal financial integrity

The elaborate myth that the media manufactured about Manmohan Singh now lies in tatters. So N.Ram rushes to beat the dead snake. He asks tough questions on P.J.Thomas appointment. But he still can't help selling the same old snake oil. He claims that Manmohan has personal financial integrity, while quietly discarding the PM's integrity quotient in matters of morality, law and common sense. What good is personal financial integrity if the person could be compromised on all other matters? I can't quite understand why N.Ram has to keep repeating a falsehood in some form or other. I am fairly certain that once Manmohan Singh is discarded by the dynasty, N.Ram will rush to claim that Manmohan had a poor reputation for personal integrity.
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Yes, but what led to the ‘error'?

The proper course for a Prime Minister with a reputation for personal financial integrity would be to square with Parliament and the public on what it was that made him and his senior government colleague insist on, and rush through, the appointment of Mr. Thomas in defiance of morality, the law, and common sense.

Manmohan's nuclear sellout

Under the din of the Women's reservation bill, Manmohan Singh has tried to surreptitiously pass the nuclear-accident liability bill. You can tell there is something terribly wrong with our "honest" PM. Brahma Chellaney points out the failings of the nuclear deal (and our "honest" PM). Excellent article. Highly recommended.
India's nuclear-accident liability law: An anti-market bill that weakens safety

The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill is an unparalleled piece of legislation: It aims to make foreign builders of nuclear reactors in India immune from legal action, however culpable they may be for a catastrophic accident. And it caps their liability at a ridiculously low Rs500 crore ($109 million) despite the billions of dollars in profit they are set to make. Yet, the government set the parliamentary process for the Bill’s consideration in motion under unusual circumstances—it circulated it to members on 8 March when Parliament was in turmoil over the women’s reservation issue.

Manmohan, The prince of inequity

Udayan Namboodiri is another good columnist on Daily Pioneer to go along with the likes of Swapan Das Gupta, Kanchan Gupta, Sandhya Jain and Chandan Mitra.

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> The prince of inequity

“We cannot save people from inflation if we follow all along populist fiscal policies”. - Manmohan Singh

Singh had held every important economic office — Prime Minister’s economic adviser, RBI governor to Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission — before the denouement of 1991

Naturally, as the man who has shaped India’s economy for the major part of the past two decades Dr Singh must bear the cross. When the Arjun Sengupta Committee, which he formed under pressure from the Left in the early days of UPA-1, reported that over 394.9 million workers, who make up 85 per cent of the working population, live on incomes of less than Rs 20 a day and that 88 per cent of the SC-ST-OBC and 85 per cent of Muslims make do with not even that, one had hoped that Singh would chart a truly inclusive course. But ‘inclusivism’ is like the original Congress bad-joke: “Garibi Hatao”—it boiled down to Garib Hatao.

In 2009, the Indian Statistical Institute reported that that since 2004-05, Singh’s first year as Prime Minister, rural poverty has grown 20 per cent.

Congress historians will tell you that India's economic growth story started with Rajeev Gandhi and its architect is Manmohan Singh. But as Udayan points out, apart from that blip when he was acting under P.V.Narasimha Rao's instructions, his own contributions to Indian economy have been cruelly destructive.

"Populist" policies like NREGA and farm loan waiver, which he personally has pushed for, had disastrous effects:
- It created fiscal imbalance.
- It pumped enormous liquidity into the system.
- It also increased wage inflation at the rural level.
- It benefited the privileged class of Congress workers through an organized and corrupt form of cash transfer.

The net result is inflation and inequality

The government could control overall inflation by fiscal measures. But the populist schemes introduced a dramatic increase in rural wage inflation and this is now being reflected in food inflation, which still hovers around 18%. Our economist PM's fiscal measures are not having much impact on food inflation and this is more or less expected. He can only hope that eventually the market will stabilize at the new levels. In the meantime, a few hundred million more will be pushed into poverty and the income disparity will increase. He has already overseen the growth of rural poverty by 20% and I predict that by the end of his tenure, this number will triple.

So, if you look at Manmohan's overall record, it is dismal. He has inherited a vibrant economy and introduced large income disparities and pushed millions of people into poverty. Udayan rightly calls him the prince of inequality.

Manmohan's Saudi visit

B.Raman's article on PM's Saudi visit is quite interesting. Did chindu comment on this visit?
Raman's strategic analysis: INDIAN EGGS IN SAUDI BASKET
Manmohan Singh
- pushed India into becoming an American vassal by getting into the nuclear deal with US
- screwed our energy security by destroying our relationship with Iran
- is trying to woo Saudi Arabia for energy security and to reign in Pakistan but the two are joined at the hip
- is destroying our long-standing relationship with Israel, who has been our steady partner

It is a tough choice between this "Yes Prime Minister" and our "First Prime Minister" for the worst leader of our country.

How is it that Pakistan gets it equation right - then with Khalistan and now with Kashmir? Why does India end up getting the stick?

Swines of the week - mid week edition

Yes this is an early edition. Due to time constraints I was not able to get the right photos. But here goes,

• Swine #1: As pointed out by reader CodeNameV - a beloved Indian economist Amartya Sen who claimed,

  I am on Left and if Left want me I’m delighted.
  

Apparently the criticism of the Leftist intelligentsia (aka village idiots) has stung Amartya that he wants to rebuild those bridges.

• Swine #2: Is an old favorite of this blog, good old Sidd Varadarajan for his support Manmohan Singh's asinine actions and abject capitulation vis-a-vis Pakistan during the recent summit.

That is why Dr. Singh was careful to emphasise on Wednesday the need for India to make sincere efforts to live in peace with Pakistan, to reach “an honourable settlement of the problems between us,” to keep channels open. “Unless we want to go to war with Pakistan, dialogue is the only way out,” he asserted at the end of his speech, “but we should do so on the basis of ‘trust but verify’.”

Really Sidd, do you expect us to believe this bunch of BS? Let us say hypothetically there is another attack in Indian soil by Pak sponsored militants in the near future. Where does this leave the Indian Government? Are we again going to beat our breasts and complain that Pakistan govt. could not control the militants? Or are we going to continue the dialogue as you so smartly analyzed that without dialogue this problem cannot be solved? Lets face it Pakistan has no interest in controlling the militants from attacking India. The only reason why we have not seen more attacks is the pressure by the US government to handle certain groups within Pakistan which has forced the ISI and the Army to take action.
MMS has done precious little to bolster India's national security and his actions expose him for what he is.

The honest economist PM (trademark)

Kanchan Gupta wrote about this last week in Daily Pioneer where he talked of Manmohan Singh and his integrity. The duplicity and surreptitious manner in which Manmohan Singh is implementing major policy decisions gives the impression that he might end up beating the First Prime Minister in historic blunders. Considering that  Nehru has a long list of disastrous decisions in his kitty, it takes quite an effort from the honest economist PM^TM.

1. There was the secret pact that was "almost" reached on Kashmir during UPA season 1. No doubt by accident, as Carl Sagan would have said(0:29), the media channels like CNN-IBN were running polls during that time on whether India should give up Kashmir. Now in UPA season 2, we are seeing the plan being implemented more brazenly.

2. Then there is the nuclear deal. A lot has been written about it and the solemn promises made by Manmohan Singh in the parliament.

3. There is the small matter of NPT and CTBT. While Manmohan was still at the G8 venue, nuclear fuel supply was linked to NPT and CTBT.

Manmohan Singh is ostentatiously called for a meeting and snubbed. The pattern is just so predictably boring now. Even a politcal non-entity like Cambridge University implemented it. Manmohan praised the British Raj for ruling India. Cambridge dropped research studies in Sanskrit the same day. Manmohan went on to announce a $5 million grant to Cambridge to setup a Nehru chair. Sweet.

4. The major policy change on agriculture trade is to benefit the aam aadmi, the honest PM would vouch. Not to wory, he is also simultaneously working on the farmer suicide compensation package.

5. Another major policy change in terms of climate change. Trust the economist PM when signs this policy to enhance our competitive advantage even as the US dropped out of Kyoto protocol fearing economic fallout.

Who changed the tune?

Our consistent posture in the past has been that India can look to join any regime provided USA and the rest, who have been the major polluting culprits till now, take major steps in controlling their emissions. Indeed, USA has not even subscribed to the Kyoto declaration on climate change.

Yet the recent joint communication from Italy which makes no distinction between developed and developing countries comes as a total surprise. One has not seen any debate or recent discussions preceding this massive change in posture, in the Parliament or elsewhere.

Equally puzzling is the recent Cairo communique, tacitly dropping any prior condition relating to addressing the terror issue, before an all-encompassing bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan.

A mention also needs to be made of the new conditions imposed by the West on supply of nuclear fuel, linking it with international treaties on the subject. Clearly there is an apparent conflict between these new conditions and the interpretation of the Indo-US nuclear deal as rendered to Parliament by the Indian leadership.

Are we seeing the contours of a new road map on strategic and security issues, quietly being implemented by the government, surreptitiously, stealthily, without public debate, and finally to confront the nation with a fait accompli?

Hoopla on the Ajmal trial

Chindu is among the pack of media hounds giving significant visibility on the Ajmal aka Kasab trial.
Like a note from the judge Tahaliyani who said,

We have to see whether he [Ajmal Amir] is really pleading guilty to all the charges levelled against him. Accepting or rejecting his plea comes at a later stage

Or the lawyer for one of the accused who claimed,

If he has given any statement against my client, I would like to check the veracity of the statement, and in order to do that,” said Shahbaz Rajput, “he has to be produced before the court here for cross-examination.

Can the media really be this stupid and follow a puppet show played to the audience, while the Government decides to hold iftar parties with a Paki government which cannot control a kid vandalizing a police station.

Swine of the Week - Week ending July 17th 2009

This week's winner of the CBCNN's SOW contest (prize money - Nigerian oil money - email is on the way) - Karthik, Xinhua Ram and Sudhir as discussed in Pilid's post here's this week's Swine and Jackass. Without further ado:
The first person who should be kicked out of Parliament for treason is the present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Why is that? India has been a target of numerous attacks direct and indirect from its neighbor in the West - Pakistan. The most recent incident happening in Mumbai which was sponsored by LeT which owes its allegiance to the ISI Pak's intelligence agency. Of course now given Pakistan's internal struggles with the snakes it raised has given it some international sympathy. But shouldn't national security be MMS' main priority?
So MMS takes a trip to Sharm-el-Sheikh to pow-wow with Gilani. But rather than raising hell with Gilani about inaction in investigation of the Mumbai attacks for close to a year, MMS comes back making a composite statement which says India and Pakistan can continue their diplomatic relations while Pak will search for the killers. WTF!
Here's your swine of the week.

While most media outlets have raised their voice against the passive stance of the Indian diplomats, the Chindu expresses anger that people are demanding action from an Indian government which got nothing out of Pakistan.

There is nothing in the language of the latest India-Pakistan joint statement to warrant the ill-informed cries of ‘sell-out’ that have rung out at home.

Here's another joke from the LiC;

While Pakistan has taken more meaningful action in the aftermath of Mumbai than it has perhaps taken in the past three decades of cross-border terrorism...

Hence the Jackass of the week is LiC.
(I regret that I have not been consistent in the past, but hope to make this a more regular feature again).

Sharm-El-Sheikh Statement and the Way Forward

The Hindu editorial titled 'There must be no backsliding' insists that the joint statement of Manmohan Singh and Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani is a wonderful thing. You can read the joint statement on the Ministry of External Affairs website (unfortunately, it cannot be linked to directly). The primary flaw in this claim has been well laid out by Nitin Pai at Acorn and I have nothing more to add. I would recommend this to everyone interested in this issue.

Aftermath of the Bombings

Two days after the bombing, there does not seem to have been much progress in the investigations. A few folks have been arrested with one in TN being claimed to have stopped bombings on the independence day. As for the other two, one is a 'SIMI activist' wanted since 2002 whose connection to the bombings is not clear (but is only known to be a fundamentalist). The third is an American arrested in Mumbai because one of the emails of the 'Indian Mujahideen' purportedly had his IP address; in his defense, he claims that his computer was hacked by unknown people about a week ago, a story the police are still in the process of verifying. Apart from the arrest of one man in Varanasi yesterday, there has been no progress in the Jaipur blasts since the internet cafe from which the poorly worded email was sent was located. And finally, virtually no convictions in any of the recent bombings so far. Altogether, a terrible record of investigations let alone any progress towards prevention.

The Union government's stupid statements would have been hilarious were it not for the poignancy of the moment and the worrying impotence of the government in light of the emerging threat. As Retributions pointed out, the Minister of State for Home Affairs ridiculously said: "We are surprised and shocked. Yesterday, it was Banglore. Today it is Ahmedabad. This happened even after the government of India issued high alerts to all sensitive states." As Rohit at Retributions points out aptly, 'someone should tell the honorable minister that terrorists don’t go by government of India’s advisories'. To top this, the BJP has now ended up showing that it can do even better. Sushma Swaraj virtually accused the Manmohan Singh government of orchestrating the blasts in order to 'divert attention from cash-for-votes scam'. Sushmaji represents a lot of what is wrong with the BJP today. A gifted orator and a very dynamic leader, she has long suffered from an utter lack of vision, small-mindedness and a love for gutter politics, traits that render her completely unfit for high office. This latest instance only underlines her cheap mentality.

Advani has done somewhat better in endorsing the PM's call for a federal agency to investigate terrorist incidents of this nature. It was reported today that the PM has asked the Home Minister to 'go full steam ahead' to set up such a nodal agency against the backdrop of this challenge. Again, do not expect any of this to be a success right away - state governments have been dragging their feet over such a proposal and may well decide to deny their cooperation if it comes into existence notwithstanding their opposition. And of course, the BJP has not given up its mantra for 'tough' POTA/POTA-like legislation, a suggestion of dubious value.

On the whole, the going is not only disappointing but of great concern. Newspapers across the country including The Hindu have begun to ask hard questions but what effect any of this will have remains in the realm of hope and speculation. Meanwhile, it is virtually certain that the country is destined to witness more bombings in the same/different cities. Given the terrorists' excellent track record in evading the agencies' eyes so far, it also provides considerable motivation for the various other terrorist outfits in Kashmir, Assam, AP and other places to rework their strategy along similar lines. With great trepidation, the country must prepare for the bloody months ahead.

Why is the Government silent after the Ahmedabad blasts?

The blasts in Bangalore which killed 2 people and injured several was followed by serial blasts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat which killed at least 8 and injured several others. The act was perpetrated by the 'Indian Mujahideen' or some group which claimed ownership with this statement,

We the Indian Mujahideen have carried out attacks and will continue to do so. Stop us if you can.

Some pics from the brutal attacks:




The impotent government of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi pleads for peace while the perpetrators walk away free. Where is the accountability? Why is there no retaliation for these attacks? This impotence is going to cost our countrymen their lives while the so called principles of secularism have to be upheld. This is BULLSHIT.
When you cannot protect your people from attackers from the outside and inside you have lost the responsibility to rule. But the cowardly media will not question the government and the police about the lack of action. It is sad to see that our countrymen and women lack protection and freedom within their own country.
The police are being handicapped by the Government which does not provide the regulations, information and equipment to fight this war on terror.

A serving intelligence officer said in absence of laws like Prevention of Terrorism Act and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act, terrorists who have built a formidable network within India do not have any fears.

Update from Chindu:
Both the PM and the President have appealed for peace.
The CPM went a bit further stating,

unfortunate that despite a series of such attacks, the government and the intelligence agencies are unable to crack down on those responsible for these heinous crimes.

Beyond the trite statements, the Union minister Shakeel Ahmed the braniac decided to put the ball in the Gujarat's state govt.'s court stating,

adding that the State government should have been more alert and alive to the potential threat.

Mr. Ahmed surely you don't expect the Government and police to search every cycle in a public area? How about providing the law and order mechanism some teeth?

The Hindu's Editorial on the Nuclear Deal and Other Omissions

The Hindu which prides itself on having an international perspective has not published a single news item on the abuse of authority by the Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. A paper which has devoted space extensively to modest Chinese technical achievements did not obviously think it fit to mention Mugabe's murderous election campaign, his forcible eviction of his opponent from the electoral race and the utterly fraudulent nature of his victory. Why? Someone ought to write to the readers' editor asking for an answer. Maybe Mr. Ram, like with the Dalai Lama, will be forthright enough to admit the truth. Meanwhile, I suspect it has something to do with the close relations his government has enjoyed with the People's Republic for a while now ever since the West imposed sanctions on that country.

The paper, which previously took an unusual interest in the US Second Amendment and the problem of gun violence in America even editorializing upon the subject, failed to mention the recent decision of the US Supreme Court in D.C. v. Heller which handed a victory to gun-rights advocates. A case of sour grapes? So I would think. Let us see if Frontline will happen to have anything to say in the forthcoming issue.

Yesterday's editorial looks like it was copied straight from People's Democracy with an assortment of allegations being levelled at the Congress party at both State and Central levels.

...The government it heads has no answer to the spectre of double-digit inflation, which crept up to 11.42 per cent last week.

...The issue on which the ruling party has chosen to make a do-or-die stand is not anything connected with the problems of the people — but the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. Curiously, it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has no known electoral base and holds office by virtue of being a member of the Rajya Sabha, who has been allowed to pull the trigger on the political arrangement that sustains his minority government. He has done this by forcing his party, under threat of resignation, to go back on a commitment the UPA made, in writing on November 16, 2007, to the Left parties. It was that the government would not proceed with the operationalisation of the 123 agreement before the UPA-Left coordination committee arrived at its “findings.” Specifically, the understanding was that the “outcome” of the talks with the secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in other words the text of the India-specific safeguards agreement, would be presented to the committee “for its consideration before it finalises its findings.” By announcing that the UPA government will soon go to the IAEA Board of Governors for approval of the safeguards agreement, the Congress is recklessly short-circuiting this process.

1. If the paper has a better answer to tackle the inflation, it should come out and say so explicitly. If radical measures are taken to curb inflation, is the paper willing to accept the sharp decrease in growth that will concomitantly ensue?

2. The paper claims that the nuclear deal is 'not anything connected to the problems of the people'. Oh, really? What about the daily power cuts that the people have to bear with, the cost of using generators for industry, the inability to use pumps for irrigation for farmers, etc? Is The Hindu so oblivious to these daily travails of the people? If energy is not connected to the people, I do not know what is. No doubt that nuclear energy alone will not be sufficient but can anyone deny that it can make a valid and significant contribution towards solving our energy crisis? It seems clear that the goal here is solely to embarass the ruling dispensation, not to solve the problem.

Besides, what exactly is this distinction between things connected to the people and those that are not? All business of government is related to the people in one way or the other which is why the entire leadership of government is elected, not only a part of it. The assertion is an utterly spurious one especially because Communists are always the first to make a public issue of the government's diplomatic initiatives - witness the brouhaha over India's vote on Iran's nuclear program for example.

3. As the paper itself notes, the agreement between the Congress and the Left was to disclose the outcome of the talks. This may but not necessarily implies the text of the agreement. The government insists that all the answers given to the Left have been based on the text of the agreement. Moreover, The Hindu itself reported a few days ago the government's claim that the Left, notwithstanding its current public posture, had never made a formal request to the government for the text of the document. Only recently after Sibal declared that the document could not be released did the Left turn its rhetoric up fully to claim that failure to release the document had left it in the dark. It appears quite plain that the failure to publish the text is being used as a pretext by the Left to justify its predetermined stand to oppose the deal no matter what. So why does The Hindu choose to disbelieve the government's version and accept the Left's after previously declaring that the deal was indeed a 'sound and honorable one'? Indeed it goes so far as to accuse the PM of deception and breaking his word. What is the basis for such a one-sided conclusion? All I can see is that ever since that first editorial in support of the deal, it appears that the paper has been in backpedaling mode. If this latest piece is one more effort towards that end, it certainly fits in perfectly.

The Left's failure to provide any reasonable grounds for its unrelenting opposition compels me to conclude that its chief aim is simply to humiliate this government by frustrating its attempts to solve a pressing problem. Just as Lenin worked against the Russian government during World War I because of his belief that 'in defeat will spring revolution', our own homegrown Left aims to undermine progress and deny the masses the benefits of essential services particularly when it is made available by a different dispensation. By keeping the people in misery, they intend to feed on the resentment and anger that the government's failure engenders. The Hindu has joined and is now actively cheerleading this diabolical conspiracy and must be held to account fully for its words.