Arjun Singh has really gone bonkers. After the recent gaffe in which he claimed that the Congress party was freer during the days of emergency, he has been desperate to placate the miffed chairperson by claiming his loyalty in ridiculous proportions. And during the function organized to commemorate the 17th death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, he said:
Rajiv Gandhi itne mahan vyakti the ki unhone apni ma ke hatyaron ko bhi rashtra ki mukhya dhaara mein shamil karne ka prayas kiya (Rajiv Gandhi was such a great man that he even tried to bring the killers of his mother into the mainstream). Link.
What killers was he talking about? Because if he was talking about Beant Singh and Satwant Singh (the bodyguards who assassinated Indira Gandhi) they were both hanged for the crime a long time back, and even the other conspirators were not spared. If he is not talking about them, does he mean that the entire Sikh community was to blame, and despite that Rajiv Gandhi helped the entire "murderous" community to come into the mainstream? Were the Sikhs an insolated, marginalized community before the blessing of RG fell upon it like a bolt?
Interestingly, the views of both Rajiv Gandhi and Arjun Singh cannot be disputed and if his recent statement repulses you you run the risk if negating the dastardly pogrom the party unleashed upon the community. Of course Rajiv Gandhi was so "mahan" (great) that he thought the entire community was blamable and that’s why the Congress party organized the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in which thousands of Sikhs were massacred by the Congress-instigated goons. Of course nobody was punished for the riots and in fact the ministers who actively instigated the crowds are occupying high posts in the current cabinet as a reward for their "loyalty" to the family (it sounds like the Godfather family).
Arjun’s attitude towards the Sikh community only gets re-affirmed with this statement. When I say he has gone bonkers I don’t mean he is going mad because he is making such statements, he is going mad because he is spilling the beans, he has given us a glimpse of the evil side of the party, he is showing the true nature of the party and if he is not expelled from the party for this gaffe, he really must have some strong hold over something in the party.
It’s stupid to wonder how the PM thinks of this thing.
Technorati Tags: 84 riots, anti sikh riots
A man named Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid has been arrested for posting vulgar tirades at an Orkut group called "I hate Sonia" against Sonia Gandhi, who is the Congress chairperson. The man was arrested with Google’s assistance, as the police needed to know his IP address etc.
As Michael Arrington of TechCrunch notes, what’s perfectly legal in America or Europe might be out and out illegal in other countries and since people on their own assume (without reading policies and terms and conditions etc.) that their data is safe with the social networking websites, they post whatever they feel like.
Now, I’m not comparing this to murderers and pedophiles, and I’m not even supporting posting vulgar messages against all and sundry, but I think information like "we will reveal your identity if the law of the land requires us to do so" should be boldly displayed on the home page.
Anonymity is bad and it is good too. For instance there are many blogs on the Internet run by anonymous writers who have plenty to say against the government. What if tomorrow the government begins a crackdown on these bloggers and starts tracking them with open support from blogging companies and server space providers? Such policies should be revealed, in bold, when one is about to sign up.
Since Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid was arrested at the behest of a political activist and since there is a very thin line that differentiates criminals and politicians, some human rights watch group must keep track of what happens with him.
More information:
A 14-year-old girl named Arushi was murdered day-before-yesterday and yesterday’s newspapers screamed that the Nepali servant, who had been employed 8 months ago by the family (both the parents are doctors), had murdered the girl.
A team of policemen was quickly dispatched to Nepal to locate the "absconding" servant.
Then a neighbor, a formal cop, who had come to pay his condolences, spotted blood stains going to the roof, and found the partially decomposed body of the servant, murdered in the same manner as the girl.
When the news reporters asked the senior police officer present at the scene of the crime why they didn’t check the roof even when the blood stains were so apparently visible on the stairs, he very innocently replied, "The door to the roof was locked and we didn’t have the keys."
most of its members are "loyal" to the Gandhi family and not to the party, or the country. Yesterday I was watching Arjun Singh’s (he is the HRD minister in the current cabinet) statement on TV where he said that back in 1960 or something he had pledged his loyalty to Jawaharlal Nehru and his family, the scion of the current Congress party, and the illustrious architect of most the economic woes India faces today.
What’s this business of being "loyal to the family"? Does he mean even if some Nehru-Gandhi family-member turns out to be a traitor, or joins the underworld, he will remain loyal to that person? If this is the psychology of an average congressman, then we can easily deduct what sort of people rule the country and formulate policies that define our lives.
For congressmen, it seems India is still ruled by a dynasty, and not by a democracy.
I’m sure I’d die of claustrophobia.
Dr. Venugopal
It is heartening to see Dr. Venugopal re-instated by the Supreme Court; he shouldn’t have been removed in the first place. There is still hope for India it seems and justice does exist, even if for a selected few.
The Pioneer has published a trenchant commentary on the utter lack of conscience in Ramadoss, the union (unhealthy) health minister. Ever since he joined the office all he has done is bother people with his nonsensical egotism. You won’t find even a single constructive step he has taken in the area of health.
This affair is also a statement on our public consciousness. Such an eminent cardiologist is harassed by an imbecile politician and no large-scale protests take place. It was a lone battle for the doctor, although high-profiled attorneys like Arun Jaitley fought for him. I wonder if there was even a PIL filed again the infamous ouster. Millions of people throng at the gates of AIIMS every year for treatment, and none of them spoke up for Dr. Venugopal.
Government hospitals like AIIMS and Safdarjung, although world-class, are known for their unhygienic conditions and shabby treatment to the patients. This was the right time for the patients to show that they could put up a joint front with the doctors.
Millions face death and starvation in Mayanmar
Repressive regimes never stop their games. For a long time Alka has been urging me to read "Reading Lolita in Tehran" in which the author has written how the government men used to surround the site where a bomb had dropped, during the Iran-Iraq war so that people couldn’t help each other and consequently, develop a bonding for each other and an opposition to the ongoing war.
The military junta in Mayanmar is not allowing foreign aid workers to come and help their own people. How diabolical can a government become? During natural calamities of such humongous proportions every single hour counts. The international aid that could have reached the flooded regions is being stopped by the authorities that are supposed to help their own people. These are the times when such countries should be taken over by an international agency. Just a thought, because I know realistically this is not possible.
In my previous post I talked about the food becoming scarce and dear. The thought of food became a catalyst to another thought that has been coming to my mind for a few weeks, and that thought is, why don’t we feed those who don’t have food? This is no social work, this is nation-building.
I’ll talk from India’s point of view; we desperately need a thinking revamp when it comes to feeding ourselves and the others. Yesterday Alka and I were sitting in the balcony observing kids going to their schools, followed by mothers-teachers (in our building most of the mothers are teachers because this building was constructed by the society of teachers from a particular school). The children seemed to have no spirits. It was morning, and ideally they should have been full of vigor and enthusiasm; where was that charm of greeting a new day? We attributed this to food.
In India we stuff our bellies (those who can) but never give a second thought to the kind of food we are eating. We equate eating lots of food with nourishment. This misconception must be changed. We don’t need to eat lots of food, we need to eat good food.
The other thing is, we must routinely feed poor families that cannot afford food. As I mentioned above, this is not social work. There are lots of disparities in our country and that is why we are not progressing the way we should have. The poor family you try to feed might turn out to be a pack of assholes but that’s not the point. Feeding poor families will achieve two things that our country desperately needs:
- To a tiny extent it will bridge the gap between the haves and the havenots. It will sensitize us towards each other. There is lots of animosity: the rich dislike the poor and the poor dislike the rich and I see this everywhere. Someday this feeling is going to explode and nobody will be able to control the ensuing catastrophe. Knowing the ratio of haves and havenots you can easily make out who will suffer the most at the hands of whom. Feeding will at least initiate a contact.
- It will improve the health of people around you. With better health they will be able to work more. Take for instance your sweeper, or your maid. If you feed them, even twice a week, it will significantly improve their health and they will do their jobs better. Gradually, may be in the next 5 to 10 years, a small portion (because we cannot reach every nook and corner of the country) of the population will be healthier, happier.
From unhealthy food, and the lack of basic food, stem most of the problems India faces today. I think good food gives rise to good thoughts and good principals.
Sharing food is not as difficult as it seems. Small lifestyle changes can enable you to give food to the poor. If you eat 3 pizzas every month, eat two. If you go to a restaurant 5 times in a month, go 3 times. Don’t throw away the food after parties and marriages: let the poor have it. Be innovative and reduce your electricity bill and use that money for the extra food you need to purchase. Similarly, there are many cost-cuttings you can carry out to arrange enough money to feed a poor family.
Bush says the price of food has increased because people in India as well as in China are eating more. What does he intend to say, that it was better when people in these countries were impoverished and stayed malnourished? Some studies have claimed that 73% of food in the United States is disposed of, uneaten (read this). People simply consign the food on their plates to the garbage can as soon as they don’t feel like consuming it; and they take big portions even when they don’t intend to eat the whole thing. So much for causing food shortage by eating more by people in other countries.
I’m not denying that food habits in India have changed. In fact even at our house we eat a lot better than what we used to eat when we were kids. We were not poor back then but there was not much awareness regarding food-eating options and to be frank, not much was available. Due to overall progress and globalization people have access to a variety of comestibles, irrespective of the escalating costs.
But you cannot blame people for eating better, especially when people in your own country moronically go on wasting food and fuel despite the galling shortage. The problem is not the shortage, it is a litany of bad decisions. Currently, almost 30% of corn produce in the USA is converted into ethanol and similar trends are being observed in the EU where different governments are setting up targets for producing more and more biofuel.
In India more food rots in the godowns than is eaten. Shady marketers horde food so that they can sell it at the times of scarcity and in the process lots of it is destroyed, and the government doesn’t do much about this, and this must be happening in many countries. In fact numerous countries are experiencing food riots already.
People in Cuba can use PCs at home now. If you think this is the news from the early 90s you are mistaken. The communist government in Cuba never allowed its citizens to use computers. The Internet is still banned there. Empowerment and access to information are the most scary things for such regimes. Sometimes I feel certain people deserve such Draconian governments; they are too lazy or laid-back to overthrow their governments.
A couple of days ago I was reading in a forum that countries like India, China, Saudi Arabia, etc. don’t allow their citizens to use VoIP services like Skype because this will give them unrestricted power to communicate. Actually, Skype has many wonderful subscription features that allow you to make unlimited calls to landline phones as well as cellphones all over the world for a fixed, nominal, monthly fee. Only recently having a telephone itself was a luxury in India.
I was going through Time’s The World’s Most Influential people of 2008 and among The Dalai Lama, Miley Cyrus, Vladimir Putin and Aung San Suu Kyi I noticed our very own Soniaji ebulliently smiling at number 16. Incidentally, Aung San Suu Kyi appears at number 37. Mercifully, The Dalai Lama appears at the first spot.
I was wondering what our own madam ji was doing in the list and what feat she has achieved but then I thought of Paris Hilton and said, "Well, why not?!" If she can become a celebrity without doing anything, why can’t Sonia Gandhi appear in the list of top hundred influential people of the world? After all she wields lots of influence among the army of sycophants she has gathered around her. By the way I don’t loath Paris Hilton so much that I’d compare her to Sonia Gandhi.
Due to work I don’t get to watch TV these days, not even news channels, but Alka was telling me that NDTV was hosting a debate on whether LK Advani has the ability to become the prime minister of the country. These "secular" (tedious sarcasm, I know) channels never hold debates on the capabilities of Sonia ji and Rahul baba and the inabilities of Man(?)mohan Singh. Even our lazy maid will do a better job than him.
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