Political Unity against Anna is Amazing!

What a political unity we have seen in last few days. No party has yet come out and supported peoples movement against corruption. While government is playing its dirty game, opposition is busy fishing in troubled water. Surprisingly everyone including government accepts that the bill which is tabled is very weak. Even then it will not be withdrawn. In fact standing committee will try its best to make this bill effective. While data shows that 90% of the time government ignored standing committee's recommendation. And if standing committee was that important then why MP's salary bill not sent to it. In fact this bill was rejected by then president Dr. Abdul Kalam. Even then why was it passed in such a hurry.  And everyone is amazed to know the names of parliamentarians who are the member of Standing Committee. Most corrupt people of our generation like Lalu Yadav, Amar Singh, Ramvilas Paswan et.c will recommend of an anti corruption bill for our country. what a joke?

Prime Minister is not ready to take any responsibility. Last time when he was finance minister, one Harshad Mehta got created in dalal street of Bombay. And now when he is holding the kingship, thousands of Rajas, Kalmadis, Kanimozhis, Thomases, Chavans, Deshmukhs and Powers took birth. They openly looted this country. And surprisingly Prime Minister still maintains clean image. His arguments are that he was not made aware of the loot at the time of happening. Even if we take him on face value, this is so evident that he could not even keep track of his ministers doing forget about higher  and lower bureaucracy. This man can not be a leader. You have failed and that also miserably. But perhaps you are too deaf and blind even to hear your resignation call!

Finally she did win...

She won it…Finally there was a judge who had some courage to pronounce the judgment. Mrs Loraine Whyte won her case. Since last 8 years this case was on judgment point. Every time a judge took it up for pronouncement, he got transferred. Finally ignoring the threat Justice Sinha of Jamshedpur court took it upon himself to utter the final verdict. Although he could not avoid his transfer.

But it means glory for Mrs. Whyte and shame for builder Jitendra S Patel and many big names of Jamshedpur and Jharkhand who did everything in their capacity to capture this prime property which values in several crores. I had written about this case in 2007 here - http://dapolitics.blogspot.com/2007/10/living-in-hope-and-dying-in-despair.html

Mrs. Whyte has been fighting to regain her own house for last 25 years. Goons of builder attacked her with bullet and knife several times. She lost almost everything in the process – her job, her youth, her dreams and finally her husband. But she never lost hope…hope in this dying judiciary. It took 25 years of constant and solo fight for her to get judgment. I am sure the builder will take the case to high court and stretch it for another 25 years. But this first win will give her the courage to fight till death. Just wish had things been less painful, win would have been much sweeter.

neta-babu-lala-jhola-dada aur panch...

Corruption! It starts with Neta (Politician) and ends with Panch (Judiciary). Jhola, the Patrakar (Journalists) plays a vital role, a kind of lobbyist. Rest, babu (Bureaucrats), Lala (Corporates) and Dada (goons) survive remaining bad because they end up becoming lifeline for Neta and Panch. Jhola, the lobbyist want his/her cut in everything. Once someone refuses to hand over the cut, patrakar starts shouting bad things about him on air. In fact, among all of them Patrakar is a most dangerous specie as he knows the mood of aam aadmi (The common man) better than the rest. Aam Aadmi because of its proximity to Patrakar gets influence by him easily. And when Patrakar, the supposed to be an exposer merely start acting as a lobbyist, then that society is in a real crisis.

When Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, two larger than life patrakar of our country with millions of followers are exposed as mere lobbyists, you tend to believe that something is not right at all. Worse that Prime Time Media has decided to blackout this entire issue. Online media (blogs, prints and youtube) are the only source of information on this. Arnab, Rajdeep and Pranoy who love shouting on air and do not leave a single opportunity to repeat that they are the guardians of society have suddenly seem to gone in comma. I do not hear anything from them on journalists acting as lobbyists. Perhaps Vir and Barkha know too much about them...That's how it works in fact! They all are lobbyists and that's how they are there in the top. Neta and Panch need them. Pranoy and Rajdeep started as journalists some fifteen years ago. Today they are biggest media barons of our country. Where did the fund come from. Netas gave them so that they keep aam aadmi eluded.

We had cash throwing incident in parliament two years ago. Rajdeep Sardesai's IBN had done a sting opration on this. What happened to those tapes? They never came out? Why? I asked it several times to Rajdeep during online chats and he never chose to answer it. I mean journalists do a sting operation to expose corruption in the domain of common public, not to hand over the tapes to corrupt party. When you are handing over the tapes to the same guys whom you did your stings on, you so obviously are selling it. Le me say it in bold letters Rajdeep sold the sting operation tapes to the government...nothing else could be done with those tapes when you give it to government, the accused party. You are not a government agency. You are a free media who is there to expose wrongs. Your job is to report not to decide about the repercussions. Let the people do it. And when you decide to hand over the sting operations tape to culprits, you not only failed to do your job but you have chosen to be bought. And you must have bargained for a very good price...i am sure. Most shameful thing is that you decide to take a moral high ground after handing over the tape saying that you believe in responsible reporting. That shows what a fool you consider us, the aam aadmi! What a shame! You do not believe in reporting (moral or immoral) at all. Only thing you believe in is a paid news.

Let me dare you Mr. Rajdeep once again. If you are clean then come out and defend yourself in public domain. Your act hurts me most only because at some stage i had developed some amount of faith in you which i could never do for Barkha or Vir. I always knew that they are not a patrakar, but you too...huh...it does bloody hurt.

Anywhere else in the world had such allegation against any journalist with such a substantial proofs had come out, he would have been fired immediately. But, not in India. And who will fire them? They are not mere journalists. They are corrupt businessmen and women disguised in patrakar suit. They have stakes in their respective media houses. If they decide not to fire themselves, no one else can fire them. And forget firing, they are arrogant enough to ignore entire issue. They do not even bother to come up in front of camera at least once and clarify. If a politician or bureaucrat (who could not send commissions to patrakars...someone like kalmadi i will say) facing corruption cases decide to evade camera, these same people start shouting in such a high pitch on air that i have to put cartoon channel for my kids. Why camera become such a scary material when they face the same charges.

But again as i always say that in any democracy ultimately it comes to common people like me to decide about things. We the people (incidently Barkha's show) are the one who make these lobbyists a Patrakar. And we have the power to make them perish. I am sure that we will never watch them with same faith, but should we watch them at all? I am afraid, we do not have much choice unless we decide to watch only entertainment and sports channel.

Lets Catch The Big Fish...Can We?

Why Media is so silly I fail to understand. Commonwealth games in Delhi are over. It was quite a successful event contradictory to its scary projections by media. They are hell bent to blame Kalmadi and his men even for the stains in the village apartments. How can he be made responsible for something which is not under him? It was Delhi government and its municipality which was suppose to look after these things. And once infrastructure is ready it was supposed to handed over to organizing committee. Why no one dares to blame government and its official for irregularities or they are the ones who are sponsoring media coverage against Kalmadi and gangs.

Secondly, There is talk about financial irregularities. Where was government and its machinery when these irregularities were being committed. Is media saying that we do not have a system to see the right expenditure of money once it is release from government funds. In truth we have that system and that is where corruption starts. And if at all we are interested in eliminating corruption from system, it should start from fixing anti corruption units of government. They are the ones who are most corrupt. If Kalmadi is so bad why does he survive even a day after games completed. Reason is that Kalmadi is just a pawn in this corruption game. Politicians and government officials had bigger pie of this loot. Now poor Kalmadi is being made scapegoat. I am not saying that he is the most efficient man to do the Olympic committee’s chairman job. In fact he and his team is the most inefficient and they must go. Whenever they opened their mouth to say something, it brought lots of shame to country. They must be replaced with professional team who has no political connections and which is keen to develop Olympic games in the country. But that will be an ideal situation and unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world.

We had a very successful game. Organizing committee must be congratulated for that. In stead of all the glitches we did manage a turn around and that also in magnificent style. Lets credit ourselves for that and congratulate our athlete who made us proud with their exemplary showings. We should be proud of that fact.

While it is time to rejoice, we have to look back and find out what went wrong in the beginning which brought so much of shame to the country. And ministers like M S Gill and Mani Shankar Aiyar should be questioned tough and punished for delaying everything enormously. If we do not dare to punish our ministers and target only the small pawns like kalmadi and his men then do not expect miraculous changes in near future. Lets catch the big fish…enough of prawns we have eaten. May i request our media moguls to spend some money and get professional and efficient people to report please. Most of them what you have got are pathetic. Most of us get headache watching them...

The Last Nail in BJP's Coffin

I think BJP is the only party in India which refuges to learn from its mistake. When Jharkhand was separated and then Election happened BJP had a sweeping victory under the command of Babulal Marandi. Then Marandi was ousted and Arjun Munda was made Chief Minister of the state in stead. Since then It has been great decline of party there. It is in such a worse state that it has to forge a partnership with its arch rival Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. JMM is a party with whom even Lalu Yadav does not want an alliance. But BJP is so keen to come back in power that it can go to any extent.

I understand the moral bankruptcy of Indian political party, but really fail to make a sense from the decision to hand over the mantle to the same man who is responsible for great decline of BJP in Jharkhand state. If this simple fact party high command can not understand then they are not only morally bankrupt but mentally as well. And that proposition is quite dangerous for party. Yashwant Sinha is the only person in Jharkhand BJP who has some kind aura to become chief minister. None of others have any mass support. Specially Arjun Munda who calls himself an Adivasi leader is marred with corrupt behavior and practices. This is going to be the last nail in the BJP’s coffin in Jharkhand. Let me predict….in next election Babu Lal Marandi is going to have a sweeping victory with congress. BJP will never be able to make a come back then.

Modi, Tharoor and Woh...!

So Lalit Modi of IPL is done and dusted by the BCCI gangs. No matter how much Modi thunders with the threat of revealing secrets, he is a past now and sooner he realizes it better off he will be. After thrown out of party Amar Sing was issuing same threats to Samajwadi Party everyday on national TVs. Nothing happened…He must be sitting nostalgically somewhere in UP under the banyan tree waiting to get enlightened by the truth of life. Modi will follow him soon to that tree…

Sashank Manohar has got a face and mind of pot. He can be safely called pothead. When he opens his mouth it looks like piggybank to me. Anyway, with that piggybank mouth when he was making Modi mother of all crimes and claiming that Pawar and Praful were just some innocent kids whose names are being dragged into controversy to score some brawny points, I felt like hitting my tv screen with that newly bought hammer. My wife’s stern look stopped me from doing that.

Modi worked very hard to make IPL what it is today. India needed this kind of sports brand to go with its economy muscle image. IPL is a huge success all around the world. Problem started when everyone gave it’s credit to Lalit Modi. The biggies of BCCI felt dwarfed by Modi hype. They were looking for all the opportunities to cut Modi’s wings. They did it in Rajasthan Cricket Board Election. Modi went unperturbed. Then Modi could not handle Sunanda Pushkar going out with Sashi Tharoor. Some friends of mine who know Sunanda personally say that once upon a time she was seen going around with Modi. That was when Lalit Modi was Lalit Kumar and very few knew about him. So when he saw his old girlfriend ditching him for a minister, he simply could not take it. And gave that minister hard time with tharoory weapon called ‘Twitter’. Minister went down but before that he made enough arrangements to take Modi down along with him. Meanwhile, taking a quick guise of situation Sunanda gave away her sweat equity of millions to keep her marketing job in Dubai. Moral of the story is that it is again a woman behind this manly war. Just be careful next time guys...kidding!

Judicial Hypocrisy of India!

The Kudco murder case, in which Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren is an accused, has been transferred to another judge — two days before the ruling was to be made. Arguments and counter-arguments in the case, which took years to record evidence, will now begin afresh.
Giridih additional district and sessions judge N N Singh had fixed April 17 as the date for judgment in the Kudco murder case. But on April 13, he sent a letter to district and sessions judge Sanjay Prasad, seeking transfer of the case to some other court. “My submission is based on some reasons,” Singh stated in his letter.

Prasad accepted his plea and transferred the case to the court of Mohammed Kasim. Evidence and statements will now have to be placed in the court of Kasim where the prosecution and defence will begin arguments afresh.

More than 35 years ago two giridih residents namely Chundi Singh and Khirodhar Singh were killed by a mob for stealing goats. Allegedly one of the killers were Sibu Soren, who went on to become first chief minister of Jharkhan and then Union minister of India. Currently he is holding the chief minister’s post.

God knows how many times judges have been transferred just before pronouncing verdict in this case. And why only this case? There are thousand others who are facing the same doom. What is the use of this sort of judiciary? Aren’t the kangaroo courts of naxals or khap panchayat much better in the sense of delivering verdict. Why judges of this country not accountable to anyone? How can a judge request for a transfer just before pronouncing the verdict in such an important case? How can such a request get granted? If judges of this country are so coward then how can they ever deliver unbiased judgment? And why has never been a judge got fired from his post for his corrupt practices in India?

Half of the witnesses in this case are already dead. Other half are missing. But no one care a damn. Trial will start a fresh and run for another 35 years. Cycle will continue even after all the victims, culprits, witnesses, lawyers and judges are dead. Then file will get lost somewhere in the dark rooms of judicial hypocrisy.

Some days ago I had written about a similar case where a builder in Jamshedpur has forcefully occupied a widow Lauren Whyte’s house. She has been fighting this case in court for last 30 years now. Same thing has been happening. Whenever it reaches to judgment point, judge gets transferred and case starts afresh again.

Shame on this sham democracy. Shame on this corrupt judiciary.

we are world champ...in kabbadi!

India became world champion in kabaddi a day ago. I swear not many Indians know it. Had it been cricket or hockey we would have organized thousands of processions in celebration. But sadly it is kabbadi and even when we win world cup in this sport and that also by beating up arch rival Pakistan , no Indian channel finds it appropriate to run a story on it.

This is the same news channels who did 24x7 live coverage of Sania – Sohaib marrage. These are the same channels who are dedicating everyday at least one half of their total on air timing to IPl which is essentially a club cricket. And these are the same news channels who chose to ignore the news of india becoming kabbadi world champion. At least government was shameful enough to enounce some cash prize for players and give them a job. But news channels who calls themselves mouthpiece of common man would not care to run even a ulay of this common man game. Shame!

Megalomaniac Lady Mayavati!

Mayavati has been on megalomaniac rampage for quite some time now. She started this psychic showoff with statues and now gone on to a garland of crores of rupees. I just wonder where all this money comes from. My own salary is at least five times better than Mayavati’s, but I can not afford any of what she can even after working my entire life. Then where is the money coming from? Obviously black market and she seems to have tied herself nicely to that to convert black into white.

That is the lowest a politician can stoop to. She proclaims herself a messiah of dalits. But when same dalits get killed in stampede in ashram two weeks ago due to poor government's administrative arrangement, she says shamelessly that she has got no money to compensate them. After two weeks she spends billions on a party rally. That is why I call it kangaroo democracy. There is no rule of law it seems. There is no one to ask her that how can she spend taxpayer's hard earned money so lavishly on a party rally. Specially in a place like Uttar Pradesh which is full of poor, uneducated, unemployed people. These are the same people who get beaten up in Bombay trying to earn two meals.

So who is culprit? I won’t say Mayavati. She can not be a culprit. She is a mad woman. And mad in our country can not be pronounced culprit.

We have three culprits here. First is the centre which allows undemocratic elements like Mayavati, Raj Thakre and Shiv Sena flourish. In all these cases centre has acted impotent. Congress obviously gains from the erratic attitude of these psychopath politicians and therefore wants to take no action against them. Had it been Narendra Modi they would have recommended President Rule long ago.

Secondly it is Judiciary. This pillar of democracy has got immense power but remains sleepy all the time. Cases of Mayavati, Mulayam and Lalu’s disproportionate assets are going on in courts for god only knows how many years. But nothing happened. As I have said earlier dumb slow judiciary is the biggest stigma Indian democracy has. We will collapse soon if it goes unfixed. Politicians do not want to fix it for obvious reasons. But we have almost become a country without justice. Judiciary is being led by old, pathetic and corrupt people. We need to bring young and IT driven judiciary system as soon as possible. Simply our laws as well so that everyone know their rights.

Third culprit is people itself. Shame on them who votes in the name of cast even in twenty first century. And if you care for some false pride of your cast, then you deserve people like Mayavati, Mulayam and Lalu, who will keep no stone unturned to take you even further backward. Their survival depends on how ignorant you are. The day you became aware, they won’t survive. High time you do become aware…otherwise it will be difficult for you to survive!

A Country With Kangaroo Democracy!

How often do you see Lalu, Mulayam and Sharad speaking against reservation. In fact these are the people who came in politics with reservation agenda. My wife asks then what makes them so much against women reservations. I can not explain ‘why’, because they themselves have not explained ‘why’. As far as I understand their demand is that they want reservation within reservation. But I am not sure that is what they want. If this is what they want then who stops them to give tickets to sc, st, obc and backward muslim women? Or had they been serious to what they are asking for then till now how many sc, st or muslim women candidate they fielded in elections from their party ticket. Almost none…when they did get chance they preferred giving ticket either to Rabri Devi or to Dimple Yadav. Both Lalu and Mulayam were given power in their respective states for fair amount of time. What is one thing they did to enrich poor, backward schedule cast and tribe. Absolute nothing…They have been winning elections by generating fear among these poor people. They want to remain elite while speaking against elite. It really surprises me how can someone vote these jokers. But that is what India is all about. You are always in for surprise! What i told my wife though is that these are the people who always did identity politics, now they are having identity crisis. By opposing women reservation bill they are just trying to regain their lost identity...that's it! Only difference is that the last time they got some kind of identity was the beginning year of 1990s. They are trying same luck after 20 years which in my view is not going to work...because this new india has given those poor and backwards some power to think for themselves now.

Lok sabha or Rajya Sabha proceedings always frustrate me. Watching a bunch of idiots barking nonstop give me headache. I really wonder how can someone just be suspended for a session after attacking vice-president of India. And then again those pothead gets this offer from ruling party that apologies and come back. Can a common man attack vice-president of India and get away with a mere apology? Why two completely different sets of rules? Why there is no tough law for hooligans of parliament? Why no strict actions ever taken against them after crossing all limits? Sometimes I do get ashamed being called a person hailing from the largest democracy of world…knowing the fact that it is a country with kangaroo democracy.

Talking Silly This Weekend!

Tune to any Indian news channel and you will see plenty of bizarre arguments being propagated about Indo-Pak bilateral talk this weekend. Everybody is trying to be messiah of peace and advocating to give dreaded country another chance. But why? America did not give Afghanistan another chance after 09/11. Why should we give a country which sponsors terrorism against us so openly another chance after 26/11? And what in recent past Pakistan did to amend India’s way of thinking towards it? People are giving silly arguments like it is Afghanistan which is making India to bow down. How pathetic! Or it is international pressure India is succumbing to…rubbish! It is the Media and Business Community of our country who are losing great deal in their businesses are pressurizing government to initialize the talk so that they can start selling their products and make border porous again. Government tried to do that in Sharm-al-sheikh, but failed due to domestic protest. Now its trying again by putting sponsored propagandists on news channels.

Pakistan has always been instigating. Militant activities in Kashmir is on rise, infiltration bids are on all time high, Jihadies are on road of Lahor and Karachi openly chanting anti-india slogans, Pakistani foreign minister is giving blank cheque to China to mediate the bi-lateral talk ironically, Sikhs are being beheaded…do you call this a co-ordeal environment to initiate talk? If you do then either you are mad or someone is driving you mad? And it’s a shame that we are being governed by a bunch of mads.

Myopic BJP!

“Our yardstick of success is how much, and how fast, we move in the direction of making India achieve all-round progress and regain its glory and greatness.” That’s Mr. Nititn Gadkari , India’s main opposition party’s national president in his website. While he is trying to be the forward thinking man of this sinking party, his acts are mischievously obnoxious like his mentor Lal Krishna Advani. His vision again terribly myopic similar to his mentor. Otherwise how do you explain his tie up with all time corrupt Sibu Soren in Jharkhand, his continuation of coalition with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and asking minorities to give up their claim in Ayodhya. It is pure short sightedness…nothing else.

Gadkari has been trying his best to copy Rahul Gandhi. He spent even a night in Dalit’s house recently. But action wise he likes following the footprints of BJP’s iron man. And that’s lead me to believe that he is just the next one helping this party with grand vision of its ancestor to reach to its lowest counting (which was 2 MPs in 1984).

As I have said time and again that India’s voting population is literate now. They can very well distinguish good from bad. Times of fake promises are gone. Politicians are not voted for their ideologies anymore. While it is good to keep old and experience people as a think tank, its important to develop a system to include more youngsters into the working committee of party. I am not saying that Rahul Gandhi is exactly doing this but somehow he has developed a credibility of a man who walks his talk.

I was in Jharkhand last week and trying to know from the villagers that what made them vote for a corrupt party like JMM. All of them said they had got threatening letters from Maoists advising to vote for JMM. I was amazed to see almost no naxal attack during Jharkhand election. Now only I realize that they wanted a peaceful election to get Sibu Soren as chief minister. And BJP helped him to get there. Next time what should this party expect from Jharkhand? In fact Jharkhand was one of very few states which rallied behind BJP once. But in return what it got? Unfortunately this state has become a money laundering factory for all the party. With fewer parliamentary seats, it anyway does not play major power balance game in center. With JMM in power at least some portion of looted money will remain in state.

BJP needs to follow its ideology of clean politics. In stead it has chosen to go to any extent even for small power gain. That’s tragic for this party. Mr. Gadkari, you need to walk your talk matey! For the time being at least WALK...that will help lose some fat...hahaha!

Thank you Shahrukh...

...for not giving in as your friend and producer Karan Johar did. Karan Johar is a coward in simple term and so as Jaya Bachchan when she says that she fought her war alone and Shahrukh should do the same without expecting film fraternity to rally behind. Mr. and Mrs Bachchan, you never fought anything ever. You had said something for Hindi language and apologized to Raj Thakerey thousand times. You are among one of those who chose to ego massage fading Thakereys for your personal gain. Most recently Mr. Bachchan did it through his blog.

But there are people who rightly deserve applause and Shahrukh, Anupam Kher, Sachin Tendulkar, Rajdeep Sardesai, journalist Kumar Ketkar and most importantly the Mumbai Police Commissioner who said few months ago ‘Mumbai kisi ke baap ki jagir nahi hai’ are certainly among them. These are the people who worked for their self esteem, not Bachchans who were fanning Amar Singh’s political base in Mumbai.

This is the high time when ‘spade’ should be bluntly called ‘spade’. Stop fanning hipocracy. While Raj Thakrey wants poor of Maharashtra to educate their children in Marathi medium, he is sending his kids to ‘Scottish High School’, one of the most prestigious English school of Mumbai. While Sena advocates to promote Marathi, it is shutting down Marathi Schools under its municipality. Isn’t it hypocritical politics to instigate uneducated, unemployed and frustrated maharashtrian youths? Or is it scare tactics to get some lost political ground?

Shiv Sena or any party is no better than Taliban if they choose to attack individual or a group’s ideology. That is what Taliban is all about. Democracy means nothing if it’s citizen’s way of thinking is threatened. It started with attacking news channel and theatre. Tomorrow they will go on to attack women wearing short sleeves or bikini. It is dangerous trend and should be crushed immediately.

Today entire north India is against Thakereys. But where were we when they were spiraling venom against Muslims, South Indians and Gujraties. Same goes for South Indians and Gujraties now. Basically we in India act only when our own house in on fire. That mentality is the biggest hurdle in everything we do.

Political parties act as per their suitability. When MNS was beating up north Indian students and taxi drivers in Mumbai, congress chose to stay silent for obvious reasons. As Maharashtra Election was around the corner they wanted MNS and Shiv Sena to fight as badly as possible for marathi manoos vote. And they were the obvious gainer. But now with upcoming Bihar Election Rahul Gandhi got the perfect opportunity to dare Sena. Surprisingly in all these political fights BJP has been acting foolishly. Their alliance with Sena can only be called insane. Nitish is also going to lose heavily if he keeps hanging on with BJP in this circumstances. He should take some lessons from Jharkhand Election.

Anyway, among all these we the people should keep on voicing our concern and let our politicians know what we really want. After all they will be as good as we are.

Racism Down Under...In India!

I have a very good friend from Lebanon (migrated from Jerusalem). She definitely knows more about India than me. She has read hundreds of books about India and said till yesterday that it is the most fascinating land she has ever known. What happened yesterday you mean? Oh yesterday, she came back from her north India trip. Earlier she had visited Eastern (Darjiling, Sikkim et.c), Southern (Kerala mainly) and Western (Goa) part of India and was awed with everything there. Few days ago she planned to visit northern part of India. I suggested her to visit Varanasi, Agra and some more tourist places. For some reasons she chose to travel around in India this time by train…and that’s it. She came back shattered. Not about the place but people. Her summery was people in north of India are unimaginably bad behaved. They are far from human in treatment. I myself is from north and do not agree with her completely. But I do agree with her about north Indian treatment to tourists. Tourists in north are treated like commodities. You can do whatever you want and get away with it. And most surprisingly government goes on to spend in crores to promote it's state but does nothing to protect tourists from its bizarre popultion over there. My friend says experience at Mugal Sarai station was worse. Thanks god she was travelling in group.

No matter how much we criticize Australia or even our own Raj and Udhav for racism and regionalism, we in north has to change our behavior towards humans of another race and country. Stop treating them as free ATM open to be looted. Delhi is considered one of the rudest city in entire world. We need some introspection and improvisation desperately. It is already too late. I was horrified to see a news package from Delhi which showed how horribly some black students were treated in capital who had come to India for study. There are some serious race issues down under I am afraid.

One more incident my friend Sandip was telling in the morning. His friend Aakanksha who had come to Delhi from Mumbai to work for a TV channel got slapped in her lower back by a motorist. She took down the bike's licence number and went to police. Police traced and arrested the culprit. Within two hours there were 50 jats assembled in that chowki to get his release. Under the presser police had to release him immediately. Hypocratic isn't it? But what better do you expect?

It is inhuman behavior in a human city that i am worried about. Rude and intolerant behavior in the Indian capital makes me thinking specially when the commonwealth game is just around the corner. Then thousands of cameras from across the world will be looking for off beat stories. Delhites you better change this time.

And its not only the people, I think whole system is racist for that matter. Let me give you an example that something particularly irritating for a 'white man'. Wherever he goes in India, he has to pay a special rate. Whether he visits the Taj Mahal where the 'white' tourist has to cough up Rs 750 to see the mausoleum, or a national museum, or even hotels or airlines, there is a true racial discrimination.

Rates are often ten times higher for those who have a 'white' or 'yellow' (Japanese) skin. Those who have made these rules do not understand that this policy harms India's image.

The desire to make a quick buck from the so-called rich tourists leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the visitors who in any case would have spent their budget during the stay in India. To my knowledge, India must be the only nation in the world implementing these separate rates. And i am sure it is not going to change as in our country change only comes in actual term of votes and tourists can not vote anywhere in the world.

Indians are going global and they surely get looked down upon for their policies and behavior back home. Its time we get our act sorted before calling ourselves a superpower.

Talk for the sake of Talking!

Being Indian I bet you can not explain what compelled Indian Government to initiate composite dialogue with Pakistan. After all we are living in peace and doing quite well on all the frontier without war ravaged Pakistan. Why does one have to talk to a neighbor who is trying his best to bomb your house everyday? And most importantly why our esteemed prime minister is in such a hurry to initiate some sort of dialogue with Pakistan which he himself know is meaningless as Pakistan always is in whom to talk and what to talk situation? And what is the use of such a talk which depends on one terrorist attack from across the border and that was so openly being planned under the gaze of Pakistani authorities by JUD militants in POK while Indian government was trying to be Mr. Nice yesterday?

Going against my believe i believe that it is a talk to expect nothing. And that is the main point. And if it is so then it was a good diplomatic move by Indian government. It is mainly Afghanistan which is making Indian government to come with this move. What Pakistan is trying to project that because all his troops are busy guarding eastern frontier connecting with India, it can not deploy more troops in western frontier which is Taliban inflicted. Now entire world is asking India to initiate some sort of peace talks with Pakistan so that its army can be moved to the right places. Therefore i think India had to give in and start the dialogue process just for the sake of it.

Secondly, It is Indian businessmen who have been pressurizing government to start some kind of peace talks with Pakistan so that they can again start selling their products over their. Filmmakers can sell their films and music, Media can distribute channels, IT can sell software etc. And there is nothing wrong in it. But make sure you do not start giving free visas to terrorists. Terrorists have always been taking advantage of good trade relations. This gives them perfect opportunity to cross border and create havoc. And that makes me thinking seriously. Start business but at the same time be very careful. And if you think so much of vigilance can not be afforded, then lose trade. In fact, with no trade with Pakistan India has been most peaceful and secure in one and half years. Therefore, government has got no right to play with the life of innocent just for the sake of some filthy gains of business community. Although governments in India always obnoxiously do this.

Thirdly and may some good sense prevail with Sardar that this all drama of talks is to get some ground in Afghanistan. It will be quite useful for India to befriend Afghanistan. By doing that it can gherao Pakistan from western border as well. Now a days Pakistan is busy doing some peace talks with Taliban. Pakistan is trying to convince Americans to get Taliban back into the power. This is going to be the worse situation for India. Indian has not forgotten Air India abduction episode. That’s why while India has agreed to talk to Pakistan it would like Americans to carry on their operations there and give India more room to strengthen its ties with Afghanistan.

A gentle disclaimer before I finish. Above all I have hoped against hope. I believe in Sardar and think he would not do anything without a good reason behind it. And if none of the above is a reason for talk then it is just foolish as always from the part of Mr. Krishna who always seek attentions for all the wrong reasons. I can just hope as i used to do when Shivraj Patil was home minister that at least for once he will be wise.

Tragedy of 'Phir Mile Sur',,,

It seems Bollywood has become an alternative to showcase patriotism. That certainly I felt watching ‘Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ – the remake of original masterpiece ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’. Original was lead by maestro Bhimshen Joshi while the recent one opens with Magnificent Amitabh Bachchan. Anyway, point is not that. Point is that why should you remake something if you really can not do justice with the piece. Its like remaking ‘Sholey’ as ‘RGV Ki Aag’, a thorough stupidity.

First question come to my mind why to do a 16 min. remake of 6 min. original? I think the lengthyness of this new crap only reveals the confused mind of remaker. While in 2010 Indians are demanding everything quicker and faster, you have a remake which is triple in size of original. Who has got so much time to watch someone's impotent creativity? Perhaps the people like me who are bothering to watch entire 16 mins are looking for even for a trace of India this song might contain. I am just dispointed to find nothing Indian into it.

Secondly, are the Bachchan family is the only one who showcases family value in our society. No matter how much i respect son following father's footsteps (Junior Bachchan to Senior), there were definitely better way to show the family value system. The whole thing is mainly badly written and horribly directed.

Inclusion of Karan Johar with his silly trying to be actor type of effort has frustrated me the most. What Karan Johar has done for India? He has stolen scripts from others and paid them too much to keep mum. Recently he was kneeling before Raj Thakre for the release of his film. He was apologising to Raj Thakre for calling Mumbai for Bombay even when Hight court of Maharashtra calls itself Bombay High Court. Times group still have this famous daily called 'Bombay Times'. They never apologised. Or in other they care for self esteem, something what Karan Johar never had. Now he is part of this groce misadventure called 'Phir Mile Sur'...Shame!

Thirdly, where are the real India shiners - Our astronauts, scientists, metro creators, industrialists, farmers, politicians et.c? Only thing which unites India is cricket. I do not see any cricket either. The real heroes like Kalam, Manmohan, Narayan Murthi, Sachin, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani are forgotten into this crap. I mean how can you imagine even today’s India without these real heroes!

So what happens when you conveniently choose to replace real with reel. You end up seeing Salman, Dipika doing their favourite stunt and that is showing their figures and that also to deaf and dumb school children, Sahid and Ranbir seems to be shooting romantic songs in middle of mountains while lipping up Sonu Nigam's voice, Priyanka and Aamir comes from where and do what i still have to find out. I mean how bad it can go after all?

What this remake has done that it gave a little TRP hike to Zoom which was desperately needing it as it has got almost no audience. This song also gave some recognition to producer Kailash Surendranath (who is he?) whom nobody knew till yesterday. He seems to be taking it as his last chance of popularity and running from one news channel to another to creat some sort of controversy about it. Meaningless fellow...

So, what do you do with bad remakes? I regret not much in our country. What I did after watching ‘RGV Ki Aag’ is that I never watched any new release of Ram Gopal Verma again. And I am sure many people do the same. You can not make fool to audience with marketing gimmicks always. I can be fooled once. But if you succeeded to fool me twice then I am a real fool.

Zardari's Goat and Chatwal's Medal!

Do you know that Zardari slaughters a goat every day to ward off ‘evil spirit’. Where hundreds of men are being slaughtered everyday it will foolish for me to worry about goats. I am not worried about the goats infact. What i am worried about is the country itself. A country in the slaughterman's hand!

After being labeled as ‘middleman’ during his wife’s prime ministership, the only way he could make his way back to power is ‘great amount of sympathy’. There his slaughtering of goats worked it seems that his wife had to make sacrifice for his evil gain. With the help of sympathy vote he found his way back to power and since then just pushing Pakistan back to barbaric age. With the goats of Mr. Zardari there are people in hundreds and thousands making sacrifices and in stead of being warded off, evil spirits are inching closer to Pakistan everyday.

Pakistan is a country which most desperately needs intellectual revolution…a complete change of thinking process. Mullahs and clerics have brained washed people there to think adversely. Approach to a solution itself is wrong. Mullahs have twisted religious rules as per their convenience. They have their own propaganda behind brainwashing people. They want to remain relevant and powerful. They will do anything to stop people from positive thinking. Now it is on the intellectual class of Pakistan to come out from their cozy cocoon and speak out right things. Tell the reality…no matter how worse it is. Meanwhile I can just pray for Zardari’s goat!

Sant Singh Chatwal, an NRI hotelier gets the Padmashri Award during republic day ceremony in India. His contribution as per the government press release is that he has a chain of restaurant across the world. Of course press release does not mention about his bank fraud and other mischievous stuffs he has been involved with. Anyway, now I do not regret about my decision to open restaurant. Who knows someday I also might get the country’s highest award for selling food!

Currupt Judges of India!

It is collapsed. No matter how much we sought, it is not going to be on right track ever. I am talking about the Indian judicial system. It has becomes so corrupt and useless that often forcing people to take up gun and go for vigilante justice. It has become a rogue institution which has been stinking badly for last couple of decades. Renovation won’t work. It just needs to be shut down and instead put in place a complete new system based on IT drives, where people can lodge FIR by clicking the mouse of their computer and appear before the court through videocam sitting at home. Justice should not only be done, but it should seen to be done. Speedy justice is what we need to work on. We should not be giving culprit time to find out the way out. Speed itself will solve the most of the corruption issues.

Everyone is quite surprised to see the result of Jharkhand elections. Nobody had expected Sibu Soren to come back with so many seats. But he did…and there is very solid reason behind that. Most of the seats for him have come from Santhal Pargana , a tribal area…and home to naxalites. His entire campaign was based on single issue. He publicly denounced government drive against maoist. He gone on promising to stop government troops to enter into santhal pargana if he is given power. But his win is not an issue here at all. The issue is how could he manage to pursue tribals of Santhal Pargana to vote him unanimously and why tribals have more faith in moist institutions than in government one. The only reason behind all these is corrupt and collapsed Indian judicial system. Moist judges not only deliver speedy justice, they see to it that punishment is incurred by the culprit as soon as possible. The tribal and poor have lost faith in Indian judicial system and bringing the credibility back to the institution is going to require revolutionary changes. And we should go for it asap.

I must mention the story of a tribal girl from Jharkhand who was raped by a policeman a decade ago. She had been going to court almost everyday for last 10 years for the justice. As usual nothing happened. Finally frustrated she approached Maoist for the justice. Next day itself a court was called for. That policeman who was transferred by now forced to appear in the Maoist court. And once he accepted the charge made by the victim, judge immediately made the pronouncement. In this case girl was given offer to demand either policeman’s head or monetary compensations. Girl went for monetary compensations. That is the reason why Maoists are so popular among tribal and poor and no force of Mr. Chidambram is going to change that. Unless he first decides to change India’s judicial system.

In one of my previous blog I had mentioned that how Mrs. Whyte from Jamshedpur is waiting for justice for last 30 years. Hearings have finished 15 years ago but judge refuses to pronounce his judgment. TATA even after being such a big name in corporate world has cut off her electricity and water supply for last 20 years. She is still living in that dark house surviving on water given by some neighbors waiting for justice to happen. TATA itself has been involved in making her suffer like dead animals. And in this case i must mention that ironically her father was a chief of security in TISCO ( A TATA OWNED COMPANY).

Ruchika’s case is recent example. We might get solace in blaming politicians. But in fact it is judicial system and corrupt judges who are the real culprit. We are already running out of time. Lets change it or be ready to suffer forever.

Quattrocchi a free man...what a shame!

Quattrocchi is a free man eventually…and I am disgusted. Disgusted not because he is a free man but because how inefficient and helpless i feel being an indian. All of us know the truth of Bofors but still have no option but to vote the same guys in power again because opposition is more corrupt…a better chit. That’s what our mature democracy is all about…selecting best from the gangs of worst.

the Swedish government, the Swiss courts and investigative journalist Chitra Subramaniam had provided a wealth of documentary evidence agains Quattrocchi . In how many corruption cases can you actually succeed in finding out the number and name of the owner of the bank account into which the money was paid? All this evidence was sufficient for Interpol and the Swiss and British courts, but not the Indian authorities…a big shame. Although scam broke out in 1987 but FIR against Quattrocchi was registered only in 1990 when Chandrashekhar government came in power and that also under the extreme public pressure.

Quattrochhi has always been a man with lots of secrets for Gandhi family. And that’s why whenever congress bounced back in power they kept trying to close this case. CBI kept sitting on the case till 1993 without presenting a single evidence against Quattrochhi in court. And when Swiss Bank in the same year declared Quattrochhi as main beneficiary they helped him fly india. Only after 72 hrs CBI declared that Quattrochhi is on run. Why till date nobody from CBI made accountable for his inefficiency. Then in the same year then foreign minister Madhav Sinh Solanki wrote an aide memoir to the Swiss authorities urging that the case be closed and no documents sent to India. Solanki had to resign following the leak of the memoir. What a shame???

Then court was presented with photocopy of the documents sent by Swiss Bank. Court had no option but to declare the documents not authenticated. Then law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj writes to CBI not to appeal against court’s verdict. Why???

In 2006, the law ministry secretly dispatched an officer to UK to inform the Crown Prosecution that no case was made out against Quattrocchi and the two erroneous High Court orders were cited to establish this. The law ministry's move was to facilitate Quattrocchi to defreeze his bank accounts and withdraw the alleged Bofors bribe money. By the time the news leaked and the Supreme Court ordered that efforts be made to re-freeze Quattrocchi's bank accounts, the Rs 23 crore in bank account had been spirited away. Government had no shame in defending its decision once again.

In 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina because of an Interpol Red Corner Notice pending against him. The CBI flew to Argentina, brandishing the judgments of the High Court, which the government had declined to appeal against, to facilitate his release from prison. Incidentally, the automatic appeal was also withdrawn by the law ministry, without even the token formality of consulting the CBI.

What else you need to prove congress’s involvement into the scam? It has always gone out of the way to facilitate Quattrocchi and help him roam free. And how shamelessly congress’s spokespersons appear in media claiming that as case was running for twenty years and to keep it running, it was waste of time and resources. Lacs of cases are running in our courts for more than half centuries without any result. Suddenly why one case became waste of everything and specially when it was involving the government itself ? shame is the only word most frequently coming out of my mouth since I have started thinking about it…SHAME.

What are the options we have got. CBI has acted in the same fashion in many political cases. I do not remember a single major case CBI solving ever. It has become a gang run by bunch of extremely inefficient people who at the same time have become political dogs who love eating throwing of politicians. I can only think of a dissolving this agency completely and start trial against corrupt officials. And then later on forming another independent agency which is answerable only to chief justice of India.

Lets end this game of choosing best among worst. Let good people take the initiative and come into the politics without joining any of these rotten parties. Our country desperately need some good people in politics…it hardly has got any in last 60 years.

Wondering 2109...

How will be world in 2109…I keep wondering now a days. Perhaps lots of science fictions I have been watching recently. But still aren’t we sitting in completely different world from what it was in 1909? Had anybody imagined then that one person sitting in Doha can see and talk to another in Bombay as in early days they used to do in a living room? ‘Space’ have already ceased to matter. And I am waiting for the days when man conquers over ‘time’. I am sure it will happen in my lifetime though.

Question is will these achievements be good for human being considering many scientific milestones have proven curse for mankind (goes without saying how we live in a fear of nuclear war environment). I was reading recently Godfather famed picture editor Walter Murch’s ‘In a Blink of an Eye’ and he shared the same fear. His argument was that after film medium became digital many things became easier and faster to accomplish as far as cinema is concerned. But haven’t we stopped making classical movies? When was the last time when we made movies even closer to Godfather.

Mostly speed makes us ignore many things. It makes us more mechanical. In the old days of linear editing film editor used to go through the rushes several times to get a perfect shot. And many times which in beginning was considered not good shot used to turn up as classic take eventually. Now we do not require to visit NG shots at all. In fact cinematographer shooting in HD deletes NG before even it comes to editor's table. We have started relying on ‘considered good shot’. What is the result? We have been making movies much faster than ever before. But main goal is missing... We are missing good movies in theatre. Another example just to simplify things – Like I want to go home from office. Earlier it used to take two hours when I was using public transport. But now with good infrastructure and new car I can drive faster. But I am missing my friends who used to travel with me in public transport…humor, laughter, gossips which used to make me fresh before reaching home. Now I am reaching home faster but tired from office. I am not the same person anymore who used to come home fresh and then entertain the family. What I mean to say that technology has made human life very easier but it also has made him lonely. And do not forget ‘man is a social animal’.

I do not want to sound like ‘fear monger’. But what we need to do is find a solution. Solution is definitely not that we should stop making scientific progress or even embracing technological advantages. Solution is that we should never cease being human. Lots of things machine can do for us but still we should not completely rely on it as it is mechanical and only human mind can think logically. There is no harm in editing a film in digital environment but we should not stop revisiting NG takes time and again just because machine says so. Human being’s state of mind keep changing and a shot which was called NG in certain mood and requirement can become the most acclaimed shot at later stage of editing. Here I would like to give example of my good friend and famous bollywood editor Anand Subaya. When he made first cut of ‘Don’ (Sharukh Khan one), there was hardly anywhere he had included that dialogue ‘don ko pakadna muskil hi nahi namumkin hai’. But in later stage he made this a theme dialogue of movie and eventually almost everyone coming out of theatre after watching this movie was saying this dialogue. In the same way, there is no harm in watching movie on home theatre but for true cinematic experience we got to go to theatre. Only in theatre we can get six or six hundred strange people sitting in a dark room and emanating same vibes…and most importantly without a remote control. Without getting into man and machine debate what I want to say is that let machine do its mechanical thing but for logical stuff we must rely on ourselves…the humans.

By the way it will be nice to meet up again in 2109 and discuss once again about it.